Theories you picked up on all by your lonesome.

[Salafi Stannis]

What popular theories did you pick up on just by reading the series, before seeing it anywhere else first?

[Lost Melnibonean]

I wouldna say any are popular but they're mine...

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/89914-littlefinger-hired-a-faceless-man-to-kill-ned/

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/112008-arya-not-sansa-is-the-the-maid-that-will-slay-littlefinger-the-savage-giant/

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/115959-the-power-of-beric-and-catelyn-comes-from-the-old-gods-not-the-lord-of-light-and-jaime-will-be-next/

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/90950-the-last-hero-tale-by-old-nan-foreshadows-the-deaths-of/

[TheDrunkenDornishman]

R+L=J, although clearly so did a lot of people :p

Frey pies

I can't think of any more theories off the top of my head, but I also wanted to add that I saw Dany betraying the masters in Astapor from like a mile off :D

[The Dragons Hand]

I never had the chance to pick up R+L=J, I was only a few-hundred pages in when I was told about it.

Frey pies though, Frey pies I got.

I got "Mance is glamored" the moment "Rattleshirt" called Bowen Marsh the old pomegranate.

Griff was JonCon. He was mentioned so much in AFFC I guess I was on alert for something. Tyrion almost says it flat-out when they met. "Flying-Lions....."

Three-eyed Crow was Bloodraven, although that is stupidly obvious.

Things answered within the books already are things I seem to get, somewhat unfortunately.

[Connor Stone]

Benjen is Coldhands. Though this now seems highly unlikely.

[RGBeyondAsshai]

R+L=J, although clearly so did a lot of people :P

Frey pies

I can't think of any more theories off the top of my head, but I also wanted to add that I saw Dany betraying the masters in Astapor from like a mile off :D

These two.

I also knew Sansa was going to be in for bad times when Lady died, that Joffrey was going to die (but that could've been wishful thinking) and that no good would come from dealing with the Freys.

The rest of my theories are a little out there and subject to change from one reading to the next :)

[Winter Blues]

That Ned is not Jon's father

That the Coldhands character is a Stark, but not Benjen

That there is a tunnel that leads from North of the wall into the crypts of Winterfell

That Tyrion has a daughter named Marei and she works at Chataya's

My biggest theory is that GRRM is having a difficult time completing the Victorian, Arianne, and the Lady Stoneheart characters. Same as he had with Quentin character, which lead him to kill him prematurely. Probably the reason they're not in the show...

ETA: not popular, but hey, a gal can read too much into things as she pleases... 😌

[Lord_Pepsi_Cupps]

R+L=J, and I remember when exactly: first read of the house of the undying scene, the blue rose / chink of ice thing. It clicked and I just thought "Oh. My. God. People need to know about this!!" but then I googled it and was like "aww they already do :("

[Team_Rob]

R+L=J. I thought the same thing only to realize that I had discovered land that people were already living on. But that didn't ruin the satisfaction that I figured it out on my own without being told by anyone else.

[Lord_Pepsi_Cupps]

R+L=J. I thought the same thing only to realize that I had discovered land that people were already living on. But that didn't ruin the satisfaction that I figured it out on my own without being told by anyone else.

For sure.

My favourite bit about my discovery is that I made it in 2010 (latecomer) - so for a second there I had legitimately assumed that no one would have figured this out since 1996...

[imaginepageant]

That the Faceless Man breaking into the Citadel is after the book on dragons.

[Winds of Winter blow cold]

Ashara=Septa Lemore. "Popular" is a relative term.

[Taenqyrhae]

Jon is the child of Ned and Lyanna Stark.

Barbrey Dustin has Ned's bones and has learned the secret of the Tower of Joy by communing with Ned's spirit.

Time flows at different rates at different places and times on Planetos.

The Moon is not a Moon because it always rises at the same time.

[Woofless]

Got the R + L = J

But missed the Frey pies.

Have a theory that the people of Skagos put around the cannibal rumours themselves to keep people away from the island and their unicorns, which they treasure and don't want to see hunted.

But it's kind of an "OK, so what" theory that doesn't change anything.

[The Dragons Hand]

Jon is the child of Ned and Lyanna Stark.

Barbrey Dustin has Ned's bones and has learned the secret of the Tower of Joy by communing with Ned's spirit.

Time flows at different rates at different places and times on Planetos.

The Moon is not a Moon because it always rises at the same time.

Could explain some wonky time-frames

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I wish I could say R+L=J, but that wouldn't be true. It did occur to me that the true nature of R+L probably isn't what the official story says it is (yet to be confirmed).

[Roose on the Loose]

It's hard to say what counts as an original theory. Somewhere in this forum I read that red Herrings come from Craster, England. So I came up with a theory that Craster is just a crazy old bastard who throws his sons into the snow so he doesn't have to compete with them sexually. But you see how that's not entirely my idea.

Sometimes you read something and months later it falls out of your head and you don't remember where it's from so you think it was you. That happened to Don Draper. Sometimes little pieces fit themselves together deep in your unconscious and you don't know how you worked it out. Really!

[Victarion Chainbreaker]

I knew the king (Robert) was going to die from the moment I saw the title. Halfway though AGOT I figured either Ned or Robb had to die, but I didn't realize it would be both.

I figured out Lyanna was Jon's mother, but I wasn't sure if Rhaegar or Robert were the father.

[Sullen]

RLJ, as did plenty.

Aegon being a Blackfyre as well, on a reread of ADwD, but that's because Illyrio outright states it.

Balon being assassinated by a Faceless man sent by Euron as well...

And I'm pretty sure most people thought about Gregor the very moment Robert Strong was introduced.

[The Dragons Hand]

Victarion riding Rhaegal has yet to be actually confirmed, but it's almost guaranteed.