Jon and the Nightingales

[Mithras]

House Caron of Nightsong is a noble house from the Dornish Marches, sworn to Storm's End. They hold the title "Lord of the Marches" suggesting that they have some kind of overlordship over other marcher lords (Dondarrion, Selmy, Swann).

Their blazon is a field of black nightingales on yellow. Their words do not appear in the books, but according to semi-canon correspondence it is «No Song so Sweet».

Bryce was born to Lord Bryen Caron. He became the head of the house, lord of Nightsong and Lord of the Marches, after his father, mother, brother, and all his sisters succumbed to a terrible chill in 289AL. His only known living relative of is his half-brother by his father, Rolland Storm, a bastard from Stormlands.

Tragedy at Summerhall took place 30 years before that terrible chill. Note that Summerhall is also at the Dornish Marches as the Nightsong, the seat of House Caron. As far as we know, Tragedy at Summerhall claimed the lives of the King, his heir and his LC of the KG. Fire and chill seperated by 30 years to claim kings, lords etc. There is a parallel here.

Bryce Caron first declared for Renly and after his death, he followed Stannis. At Blackwater, he was killed on single combat by Ser Philip Foote, a knight from Westerlands. His lands, titles and incomes are granted to Ser Philip by the Iron Throne, although his bastard half-brother Ser Rolland Storm lays claim to them under Stannis' banner.

Ser Rolland was among the King's Men, those Lord Davos Seaworth sought out who were still loyal to Stannis without being believers in the new faith. He was part of Davos' plot to send Edric Storm away from Dragonstone.

Once at the Wall King Stannis Baratheon sends word to Ser Rolland on Dragonstone to begin mining obsidian. This reminds me another bastard (Jon) finding that obsidian cache.

Ser Rolland commands the small garrison Stannis leaves to hold Dragonstone after he sails north. If the news are true, Dragonstone was taken by the Iron Throne. The fate of Ser Rolland Storm is unknown.

Other than Hosue Caron, I think there are more relations between Jon and nightingales.

“As it happens,” said Tom, “I passed seven many years ago. And fine boys they are too, with voices sweet as nightingales.”

Tom is a harpist and a singer like Rhaegar. He claims that his boys have voices sweet as nightingales. We know that the Dornishman's blade had a song of its own. Here is the theory that Jon is the Lightbringer which I agree. And we know this:

“He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.” He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany’s, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. “There must be one more,” he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. “The dragon has three heads.” He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.

Nightingales and their sweet songs really look like they have something to tell about Jon, the brothers of the NW and their vows.

Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all nights to come.

Nightingale sings at night. The vow of the NW reminds me of a nightingale.

To Sam she [Arya] said, “If they ask who is the most beautiful woman in the world, say the Nightingale or else they’ll challenge you.”

Arya warns Sam about the bravos who would challenge anyone who does not believe the Nightingale (a courtesan) being the most beautiful woman in the world.

“My father was the oarmaster on Nymeria. A bravo killed him for saying that my mother was more beautiful than the Nightingale.”

Elia was a descendant of Nymeria. Her marriage with Rhaegar was not clearly specified to us but we have enough to suspect that there was no love between them. So Rhaegar might be that oarmaster on Nymeria. This suggests that he and Elia had a professional relationship. There is a twist in this story because this story is a lie produced by Arya. In fact, that oarmaster (Rhaegar) declared that the Nightingale was more beautiful than his wife (Rhaegar crowned Lyanna over Elia) and as a result he was killed by the bravo (Robert, the betrothed of the Nightingale). This means nightingale can also be used to represent Lyanna.

In the apple tree beside the water, a nightingale began to sing. It was a sweet sound, a welcome respite from the harsh screams and endless quorking of the ravens he had tended all day long. The white ravens knew his name, and would mutter it to each other whenever they caught sight of him, “Pate, Pate, Pate,” until he wanted to scream. The big white birds were Archmaester Walgrave’s pride. He wanted them to eat him when he died, but Pate half suspected that they meant to eat him too.

The white ravens knew and cry out Pate’s name just like the black ravens at the Wall cry “Snow, Snow, Snow,” upon seeing Jon. Sam taught the birds that word.

Perhaps it was the fearsomely strong cider—he had not come here to drink, but Alleras had been buying to celebrate his copper link, and guilt had made him thirsty—but it almost sounded as if the nightingale were trilling gold for iron, gold for iron, gold for iron. Which was passing strange, because that was what the stranger had said the night Rosey brought the two of them together. “Who are you?” Pate had demanded of him, and the man had replied, “An alchemist. I can change iron into gold.” And then the coin was in his hand, dancing across his knuckles, the soft yellow gold shining in the candlelight. On one side was a three-headed dragon, on the other the head of some dead king. Gold for iron, Pate remembered, you won’t do better. Do you want her? Do you love her? “I am no thief,” he had told the man who called himself the alchemist, “I am a novice of the Citadel.” The alchemist had bowed his head, and said, “If you should reconsider, I shall return here three days hence, with my dragon.”

Pate thought that the nightingale was saying gold for iron. Gold is associated with royalty and iron is far more common. There are some interesting themes here like magically changing from common birth to royalty, a dead Targaryen king, returning three days later with a dragon.

The crown of Stark kings was made from iron and bronze. So R+L=J is kind of a transformation from the iron crown of the Stark kings to the gold crown of the Targaryen kings.

When the first shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds to the east, morning bells began to peal from the Sailor’s Sept down by the harbor. The Lord’s Sept joined in a moment later, then the Seven Shrines from their gardens across the Honeywine, and finally the Starry Sept that had been the seat of the High Septon for a thousand years before Aegon landed at King’s Landing. They made a mighty music. Though not so sweet as one small nightingale.

When the dawn broke, bells from all the septs started ringing. Bells also ring to announce the death of the kings. They made a good music but not as sweet as the song of the nightingale.

When Cat slipped inside the brothel, though, she found Merry sitting in the common room with her eyes shut, listening to Dareon play his woodharp. Yna was there too, braiding Lanna’s fine long golden hair. Another stupid love song. Lanna was always begging the singer to play her stupid love songs. She was the youngest of the whores, only ten-and-four. Merry asked three times as much for her as for any of the other girls, Cat knew.

It made her angry to see Dareon sitting there so brazen, making eyes at Lanna as his fingers danced across the harp strings. The whores called him the black singer, but there was hardly any black about him now. With the coin his singing brought him, the crow had transformed himself into a peacock. Today he wore a plush purple cloak lined with vair, a striped white-and-lilac tunic, and the parti-colored breeches of a bravo, but he owned a silken cloak as well, and one made of burgundy velvet that was lined with cloth-of-gold. The only black about him was his boots. Cat had heard him tell Lanna that he’d thrown all the rest in a canal. “I am done with darkness,” he had announced.

He is a man of the Night’s Watch, she thought, as he sang about some stupid lady throwing herself off some stupid tower because her stupid prince was dead. The lady should go kill the ones who killed her prince. And the singer should be on the Wall. When Dareon had first appeared at the Happy Port, Arya had almost asked if he would take her with him back to Eastwatch, until she heard him telling Bethany that he was never going back. “Hard beds, salt cod, and endless watches, that’s the Wall,” he’d said. “Besides, there’s no one half as pretty as you at Eastwatch. How could I ever leave you?” He had said the same thing to Lanna, Cat had heard, and to one of the whores at the Cattery, and even to the Nightingale the night he played at the House of Seven Lamps.

Here we see Daeron as another version of Rhaegar. He was also a singer and a harpist like Rhaegar. He was fair to look upon. The purples and lilacs in his dress were typical Targaryen eye colors. They were not dark as Rhaegar’s eyes. We know from various Targaryens that the darker their eyes are, the cooler they become. The opposite makes them craven and unworthy.

The song he was singing to Lanna has a familiar theme with Ashara’s generally accepted fate. If we follow Arya’s words, the singer (Rhaegar) should be on the Wall but it turned out to be his son is on the Wall in his stead. Dareon said that same compliment to Lanna and every other whore he sang. Rhaegar played his harp and sang his song to make Cersei weep at the tourney at Lannisport and Lyanna at tourney at Harrenhal. Dareon played to the Nightingale at the House of Seven Lamps (an inn) and Rhagar played to Lyanna at the Hall of the Hundred Hearths.

[Mithras]

Don’t know how I remembered making such a thread back then. I reread the OP and it looks like a little, err, so what. Still it deserves a bump.

[KING-OF-WINTERFELL]

Couple of months old and no other posts?

Good theory by the way, but Im the type of person to believe any theory withn reason so...don't read too much into that

[Leonardo]

It starts off well, and slowly just starts talking about symbolism that just doesn't seem to be there. It picks back up again with Arya mentioning the Nightingale in Braavos; so do we know who the nightingale is?

[Mithras]

I think GRRM likes to replicate his characters and story arcs for a number of different cases. But there does not have to be a direct in-text connection between those characters. These connections are for the readers and they should project one character onto the other and make their predictions to fill in the blanks.

To illustrate, take Mance/Rhaegar parallels.

Yes, there are a lot of them which led to some people to think that Mance=Rhaegar.

He is not.

This was only written so to force us project Aemon Steelstong’s story onto Jon’s. I don't think there was a higher purpose to depict Mance like Rhaegar.

Similarly, both Jon and Stannis have elements from the story of the Night’s King. I don’t think any of them will be the new Night’s King but the parallels are there and they should both pay attention to how the Night’s King fell and what doomed him.

In the OP, there might be some connections between nightingales and Jon's story, which I tried to explore.

[willofDorne]

I absolutely love this post! I was just looking at my map yesterday because I wanted to know where Dunk and Egg would have gone next after Hedge Knight. They left Ashford Meadow headed for Dorne, which was directly south. But Nightsong is also directly south. It's almost certain they may have shown up there, I would think, if for no other reason than the proximity of towns, to resupply.

It's worth noting that House Caron is now extinct, according to the wiki.

[Slender Aimry Hill]

I like any thread about the Carons, and I was interested by your comparison of Bryce/Robb and Rolland/Jon.

The Tower of Joy was not so very far from Nightsong. No, I can't make anything of that yet either, but perhaps worth noting.

Another possible Caron heiress, incidentally, is the unfaithful wife of Petyr 'Pimple' Frey, the lover of Black Walder, Mylenda.

[moneyspills]

The first thing you have to do if you want to learn how to sing louder is check out your breathing. You must be able to breather using the whole diaphragm. Ever wonder why children can cry so loudly even if they have those really small lungs? It's because unlike us, they breathe correctly, utilizing the full power of their lungs. With more practice on your part, it's possible to sing out in the voice decibel that you want to with perhaps a bit more control.

Here's a video to help you sing better:

[Mithras]

^ Of all the threads in the forum, why this one :(

[Lost Melnibonean]

I'm always trying to relate The Faceless Man who paid Arya's debt to the Lord of Light to Petyr Baelish. I'm rereading the Pate prologue to Feast, and I see they're drinking in the inn surrounded by mist with the beacon of the Hightower loiking like a hazy orange moon. Mysterious moons and mist and things appearing to be other than they are have me thinking about what the George is signaling to the reader. Then we have a nightengale "trilling gold for iron, gold for iron, gold for iron. Which was passing strange, because that was what the stranger had said the night Rosey brought the two of them together. 'Who are you?' Pate had demanded of him, and the man had replied, 'An alchemist. I can change iron into gold.'"