Cloaks, fabric and sewing symbolism

[Seams]

Cloaks seem to be important signals, not just among the people of Westeros, but as symbols to readers of the series. I think they are part of a larger motif of fabric and sewing - perhaps symbolizing the fabric of society or of the Seven Kingdoms. The nature of a cloak (color, material from which it is made, how it was acquired) seem to be important. They often have something to do with protection, hence the tradition of the groom giving a bride a cloak as part of the wedding ceremony. (Maybe that's it: if cloaks are entirely related to protection, however, then they must considered alongside armor.) There also seems to be a sexual element to the cloaks, however, especially if they are given by a man to a woman or a woman to a man. Mance Rayder wants to keep the black cloak mended by a wildling woman with a scrap of red satin, saying he wants a life where love wasn't forbidden when he decides to go over to the wildlings, rejecting the unmarried life of a man of the Night's Watch.

I thought it might help to list important cloaks here, and to discuss the fine distinctions among them.

> For instance, Renly's Kingsguard wear rainbow cloaks, but the traditional Kingsguard wear white cloaks.

> Tyrion presents Sansa with a Lannister cloak at their wedding, but it is the bloody cloak left behind by Sandor Clegane that she saves in the bottom of a trunk and thinks about during her confinement as Alayne. (Earlier, Tyrion had Sansa covered with his cloak when Joffrey had her stripped and beaten in front of the court.)

> When Ned's bones are laid out for Catelyn to view, they are displayed with his grey cloak (I believe).

> Mance Rayder leaves the Night's Watch when he is told that he cannot wear the cloak mended with red silk by the wildling woman who nursed him back to health after a shadowcat attack.

> Tyrion wins a shadowcat cloak gambling just before Catelyn captures him and takes him to the Eyrie.

> Lem Lemoncloak

I have only the audio versions of the books, so I'm not good at citing specific quotes from the text and I may have gotten some details wrong. Thanks for additional examples, details and thoughts you can provide. What do you think of the cloak/armor relationship, if any? Are cloaks all about protection, or do you see a sexual undertone as well? (Have we ever seen a child described as wearing a cloak?) Are cloaks part of a larger motif with fabric and needles?

[Fox fur cloak]

Nice. What about Lem Lemoncloak? Or Theon Turncloak?

And I'm pretty sure there are examples of Sansa sewing somewhere, to show how she conforms to society.

[aryagonnakill#2]

Tyrion didn't win the shadowcat cloak gambling before he met Catlyn, he got it on the High Road to the Eyrie, I think he took it off a corpse.

1 potentially interesting example. On the way from WF to CB Benjen Stark actually gives Tyrion his cloak to wear.

[Seams]

Nice. What about Lem Lemoncloak? Or Theon Turncloak?

And I'm pretty sure there are examples of Sansa sewing somewhere, to show how she conforms to society.

I forgot about Theon Turncloak. Good one.

I noted Lem Lemoncloak, but I haven't sorted out the meaning of his cloak yet. There is an interesting discussion elsewhere in this forum focused on fruit symbolism: my own feeling is that fruit tends to be reserved for the highborn, while root vegetables tend to be the symbol of the common man (e.g., Ser Davos, the Onion Knight). So the symbolism of Lem's lemoncloak may be that he takes from the rich and gives to the poor; the cloak showing the nature of the protection and support offered to the common folk by the Brotherhood Without Banners. (Of course, Lem right away asks whether there is some lemon available to flavor the fish caught for dinner - so maybe his lemon symbolism is more selfish.)

Tyrion didn't win the shadowcat cloak gambling before he met Catlyn, he got it on the High Road to the Eyrie, I think he took it off a corpse.

1 potentially interesting example. On the way from WF to CB Benjen Stark actually gives Tyrion his cloak to wear.

I'm surprised if there was no gambling involved in Tyrion's acquisition of the shadowcat cloak. I associate the cloak with the protection Tyrion gains from Bronn in the Trial by Combat at the Eyrie, and I had made the connection that Tyrion took a gamble for both the cloak and the Sellsword. Maybe I misremembered.

Nice example in the Benjen/Tyrion situation! I wonder whether that foreshadows something if/when Benjen returns to the stories. And that cloak was a bearskin, wasn't it? I'm also fascinated by the bear symbolism in the books: it strikes me as being more subtle and complex than the wolf or lion symbols, for instance. What will the Mormonts be doing that will make sense of all the bear allusions?

The bearskin also allows me to bring up a naked/nude motif that relates to cloaks and fabric: I think GRRM is playing with the puns around "Stark" and "Bear/bare" (all covered with hair). So far, these characters tend to be on the heroic side of the hero/bad guy spectrum. Is there something virtuous about being naked in ASOIAF? How does it relate to wearing a cloak, if a cloak symbolizes protection? (In one of the first Bran POV's in ASOS, Bran is warging through the direwolf Summer, and he remarks on the stark quality of the bare mountaintops - this is the clearest non-surname use of the word stark that I can recall, and I think it gives a hint at the meaning GRRM assigns to the word.)

On my "re-read" of the audiobooks, I've just passed the Jon POV in ASOS where he tries to reassure Mance Rayder that he is wearing the cloak that Mance gave him (as opposed to the Night's Watch cloak) and Ygritte comes to his defense saying that she and Jon have had sex under Jon's cloak many times. So there's the sex thing again, and maybe a hint about being bare under a cloak. I think Jon's wildling cloak is made of sheepskin.

[aryagonnakill#2]

I think its kind of alluded to that the Mormonts can warg bears, and I also just read a really nice/interesting theory that Tormund banged Maege Mormont. When I go on lunch in an hour I'm going to try and look up how Tyrion gets the cloak. Maybe there was gambling involved but I am pretty sure it would have been on the high road because that's where the shadowcats are.

[*ghosti-]

The Boltons have an interesting history with cloaks.

[ARYa_Nym]

It can also refer to killing.

“What will you give us?” asked Lucas Codd. “Knitting?” “Aye, Lucas. I’ll knit us all a kingdom.” She tossed her dirk from hand to hand.”

^Asha

You’ll be sewing all through winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers.

And her stitches being crooked are metaphorical to her crooked path and crooked morals in the future.

The bad part was, the road wound back and forth like a snake, tangling with even smaller trails and sometimes seeming to vanish entirely only to reappear half a league farther on when they had all but given up hope. Arya hated it….Even so, the path was so narrow and crooked that their pace had dropped to a crawl.

[KingofSothoryos]

Don't forget about the Tattered Prince and his cloaks of rags.

[The Ned's Little Girl]

Lady Gwynhyvfar had the idea (and Apple Martini posted the topic) that Lem Lemoncloak was actually Richard Lonmouth, one of Prince Rhaegar's squires. That would explain his longing for lemons and allude to him being a highborn individual.

Link: Crackpot Alert: Might Lem Be Richard Lonmouth?

Edited for formatting and to add:

What an interesting topic! I'm so glad you posted it.

[Seams]

The Boltons have an interesting history with cloaks.

Yes! I would love to hear people's thoughts about whether a flayed man is part of the fabric motif. Or did you mean something else? Is there a literal Bolton / cloak association? Before I got brave enough to start my own thread here, I posted a lengthy comment about fabric/sewing clothing/nakedness on another thread, including a half-baked idea about the Boltons and fabric being measured in "bolts". Not sure this is all worked out correctly, but I welcome feedback:

Like food, the clothing motifs seem to have a lot of layers of meaning - colors, fabrics, how much of the body is covered, how the clothing was obtained.

I would broaden the general title and call it a fabric code, though, with clothing a major subset of the larger motif (along with banners, bed linens, bandages; possibly even armor). Maybe this is a topic for another thread (Ha!) but I will share my newbie thoughts and people can direct me elsewhere if I have missed the proper location.

One possibility is that fabric represents Westeros or, more generically, civil society. The nasty Frey family (What ruins fabric that is worn out? It becomes frayed) has been breeding and is suddenly kind of unleashed on the empire just as the peace (piece of fabric?) is unraveling.

Arya is not good at sewing, but her sword is called Needle (the name Needle maybe also be derived from Ned + Lyanna) and she uses it to try to punish evil and/or sew the fabric of her life back the way it was. Just before Jaqen H'ghar kills Weese, Arya's mean supervisor at Harrenhal, the hem of Arya's dress is torn and Weese orders her to repair it. So Arya is truly using a real needle (instead of a sword) while Jaqen H'ghar is causing Weese's death.

Sansa is passive (so far), wearing beautiful dresses given to her by others, or because Joffrey likes the color; and being helpless as her dress is torn from her in front of the court until someone wraps her in a cloak at Tyrion's order. She may be a symbol of Westeros, and her dresses will reflect the state of the kingdom throughout the series, if this theory holds.

Hands and fabric - One possible detail that brings the fabric motif back to the all-important Hand and wounded hand motif: Recall the grisly detail of Lady Hornwood eating her own fingers after she is locked in a tower to starve to death. Just after Jaqen H'ghar, Biter and Rorge have killed the dungeon guards at Harrenhal, Biter sits on one of the corpses and starts to eat its fingers. What is the name of the foremost prisoner liberated in the jailbreak? Robett Glover - Glover/gloves, get it? Gloves protect hands? In fact, gloves are made of fabric (or skins or mail, I suppose) for the purpose of protecting hands. Fittingly, Glover is one of Robb Stark's most loyal followers. It would be great if Glover became the castellan for Harrenhal, once it is taken by forces loyal to Robb Stark. But Robb doesn't yet know of the true nature of the Bolton family, and he sends in Roose Bolton to take charge. So Arya's effort to restore the good fabric of the realm by freeing Glover is undermined once again.

How do these Boltons fit into the fabric motif? Obviously, fabric is made into bolts of cloth - Bolton/bolt, right? GRRM may be conveying that the Stark fabric has been "freyed" and the Boltons are spreading out a new fabric over the north. Roose Bolton has just taken a new young wife who is of the Frey family. The Bolton sigil is the flayed man, so there may be a nasty message about human skin and the kind of fabric they use to weave their empire.

One thought about the old vs. new fabric theory, though: When it comes to fabric, the name Stark implies, in my mind, stark naked - no fabric at all. Maybe there is a kind of honesty, an Adam-and-Eve-before-the-fall quality in the Stark rule of the north, and the fabric that arrives with the Bolton and Frey acsendency represents sin and a fall from innocence. We see Daenerys going bare-breasted in certain cultures or making love out in the open among the Dothraki. Are there other situations where nudity might be significant? Is honesty the interpretation of nude symbolism? Lack of guile? But how does Arya Stark and her needle fit this interpretation? Maybe her "sewing" duties begin when she stops using the name Stark?

Torn fabric - When Sansa gets her first period, knowing that this could hasten her marriage to Joffrey, she tries to hide the evidence by using a knife to cut the stained area out of her bed sheet and burn it in the fireplace. So this combines torn fabric with a weapon (knife), blood and fire. The Sansa chapter is closely juxtaposed with a Jon Snow chapter in which he dreams of being attacked by an eagle (yet another long claw). When he awakes from his dream, Jon's direwolf then returns to the camp and it has been wounded on its neck by the claws of a bird. After the wolf's wound is washed with wine, Jon tears a piece of fabric from his cloak to cover the wolf's injury. Jon's dream and the wolf injury seem to be related to Sansa's bleeding because of their close placement in the book. When Jon took Ygritte prisoner, he held a dagger to her throat and she bled. We know he is about to "become" a wildling, so the eagle wounding his wolf's throat might be a way of showing that the tables are about to turn. The torn cloak may be a sign that he has to give up some of his power or maybe it means that he is willing to sacrifice some of the fabric of his being to help heal his wolf. Although Sansa is trying to protect herself by burning the sheet, maybe it is comparable to - a woman's version of? - Jon's effort to protect his wolf.

[Trinity Tyrell]

There is an amusing Sansa/Alayne analysis on tumblr about this.

It focus on the colours and fabric of dresses worn by her , ( as well as Daenerys or Jeyne Poole) and up to the point I've read, links the colours to Sandor's usual rough green-and-brown attire and Stark-colored greys. It also goes into the symbolism in acessories such as moonstone jewelry or silver necklace, sewn pearls and such.

: )

[Seams]

I think its kind of alluded to that the Mormonts can warg bears, and I also just read a really nice/interesting theory that Tormund banged Maege Mormont.

Thanks for referring to this discussion: http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/80928-tormund-husband-to-bears/ Very enjoyable thread, and some good possible insights to the characters who have sex under animal skins, I think. I just listened to the scene in the audiobook of ASOS where Jon and Ygritte go into a cave and strip naked for each other for the first time. Are the wildlings the only ones with a strong association between animal skins and sex? And that further leads me to wonder whether warging and wearing a cloak are in any way related in ASOIAF. Jon's POV definitely conveys the enhanced intimacy and sexiness that comes from seeing Ygritte naked, instead of hidden under a cloak (although clearly he enjoys that as well).

Lady Gwynhyvfar had the idea (and Apple Martini posted the topic) that Lem Lemoncloak was actually Richard Lonmouth, one of Prince Rhaegar's squires. That would explain his longing for lemons and allude to him being a highborn individual.

Link: Crackpot Alert: Might Lem Be Richard Lonmouth?

Thanks for the tip about this thread! Excellent theory. If the theory is true, this quote about his cloak seems like an very good clue about the importance of the "real" color of a cloak (but also the way that a cloak can be used to hide something):

I just remembered this quote, where Lem's cloak is said to be the color of piss. It's said by the buxom red-haired inkeep in Stoney Sept (not sure her name).

Lem, is that you? Still wearing the same ratty cloak, are you? I know why you never wash it, I do. Youre afraid all the piss will wash out and well see youre really a knight o the Kingsguard!

It's just talk, but there is that deliberate connection GRRM made with the KG and thus the royal family.

Don't forget about the Tattered Prince and his cloaks of rags.

More good stuff! Thank you. The notion of a cloak made of battle trophies (strips of cloth from men slain by the Prince) may fit with other characters who seem to take on qualities of people they have had a part in killing - Dany seems to become wiser and more magical after burning Mirri Maz Duur, for instance. Maybe the faces of the dead saved and reused by the Faceless Men are also similar to the strips of surcoats saved and reused by the Tattered Prince. Or maybe his coat of many colors is intended to show a man who is entirely mercenary, with hundreds of banners - all from dead foes - and therefore no loyalties. Lots of possibilities for interpretation still at this point.

There is an amusing Sansa/Alayne analysis on tumblr about this.

It focus on the colours and fabric of dresses worn by her , ( as well as Daenerys or Jeyne Poole) and up to the point I've read, links the colours to Sandor's usual rough green-and-brown attire and Stark-colored greys. It also goes into the symbolism in acessories such as moonstone jewelry or silver necklace, sewn pearls and such.: )

I would love to read this, if you can provide a link or a title that might work to narrow it down. I tried to find it, but there are a lot of GoT costume and fashion discussions on tumblr. I don't think I found the one to which you refer.

[Seams]

Cloaks seem to be important ... They are part of a larger motif of fabric and sewing - perhaps symbolizing the fabric of society or of the Seven Kingdoms. The nature of a cloak (color, material from which it is made, how it was acquired) seem to be important. They often have something to do with protection, hence the tradition of the groom giving a bride a cloak as part of the wedding ceremony.... There also seems to be a sexual element to the cloaks, however, especially if they are given by a man to a woman or a woman to a man. Mance Rayder wants to keep the black cloak mended by a wildling woman with a scrap of red satin, saying he wants a life where love wasn't forbidden when he decides to go over to the wildlings, rejecting the unmarried life of a man of the Night's Watch.

When Jon escapes from the wildlings and returns to the Wall to warn of the wildling invasion, a new man has joined the Night's Watch: Satin. I don't know if this character is intended as a direct comparison to the satin used to mend Mance Rayder's cloak, but it seems likely to me. Satin was born and raised in the brothel at Molestown, so he is strongly linked to the sexual side of human nature that was missing from Jon's life before he hooked up with Ygritte. Satin turns out to be instrumental in defending the Wall, so GRRM seems to be telling us that this person is an important addition to Jon's world at this point.

I had a 'Well, duh" thought about the sheepskin cloak Jon wears while he is undercover with the wildlings: GRRM is clearly showing that Jon is a wolf in sheep's clothing during his mission. The cloak as disguise.

Tyrion presents Sansa with a Lannister cloak at their wedding, but it is the bloody cloak left behind by Sandor Clegane that she saves in the bottom of a trunk and thinks about during her confinement as Alayne. (Earlier, Tyrion had Sansa covered with his cloak when Joffrey had her stripped and beaten in front of the court.)

When Arya and Sandor Clegane are on the road together after the Red Wedding, The Hound tightly wraps Arya in a cloak each night to prevent her from escaping during the night. Could this be a way of telling us that The Hound is protecting both Sansa and Arya? Or is GRRM telling us that there is no difference between the protecting cloak and the entrapping cloak?

To bandage The Hound's wounds after the fight at the inn, Arya uses strips torn from the cloak of a squire she has just stabbed in the heart (at the Hound's direction). [side note: Arya is like a squire to The Hound, although he hates it when people call him Ser and he is teaching her to kill and lie, not to be noble and subservient and warrior-like.] Arya thinks about the irony of helping to heal the Hound after she has had him on her vengeance list for so long.

Maybe the torn fabric represents a character changing his/her mind? The previous notes in this thread about fabrics that were deliberately torn were when Sansa cut her bedsheet and put it in the fire (to forestall her marriage to Joffrey) and when Jon tore his cloak to bind up Ghost's wounds after the attack by an eagle. Jon has had mixed feelings about his vow to the Night's Watch - maybe the use of his cloak to heal his wolf represents the unity of his Stark/Old Gods aspect with his relatively new Night's Watch aspect. Is Arya reconciling her desire for vengeance with her appreciation for the things the Hound has taught her? Or is she just leaving him to die a slow death, believing that he doesn't deserve the merciful, quick death he showed her how to deliver? This isn't quite clear to me yet, if the same interpretation is intended to apply to all of these incidents. I welcome input.

It [sewing] can also refer to killing.

When Lysa Arryn is about to push Alayne/Sansa out the moon door, she asks Marillion to play a specific song. Here's where the audio version of the book is letting me down, because I can't find the specific lyrics to quote them, but I'm pretty sure that one of the lines in the song is about a lady sewing in her garden. So I think your point applies to this scene: Lysa knows she is about to kill her niece, and wants the appropriate sewing reference playing in the background as she executes her plan.

The Boltons have an interesting history with cloaks.

You're right! ASOS (as well as the new World of Ice and Fire book) contains the specifics about the Boltons making horrific cloaks. When Jaime is clumsily trying to comfort Brienne as she learns that Lady Catelyn and Rob Stark have been killed, he tells her that ruling houses in the north have come and gone over the centuries, and that the Boltons used to make cloaks out of flayed Stark skins. So I guess we can confirm that the Bolton's flayed man and the cloak motif are connected in the most violent way.