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BRAN’S GROWING POWERS AFTER his FINAL POV in ADwD


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1 hour ago, Wizz-The-Smith said:

Exactly, I am finding new stuff with every chapter I re-read at the moment.  Some cool stuff when I finish the RL's posts as well.  I agree we are on the right path, it's exciting.  And yes, I think we may be helping each other grow, which I am very proud of. :P

I'll check out the sister thread now, I have missed so much!  

I will read your Riverland thread - but I do not know much about the geography aspect of Martin's novels.

However, since you are a contributor, I am sure I will learn a great deal.

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THE OLD GODS IN THE RIVERLAND’S : A CLOSER LOOK AT HIGH HEART

Hi everyone :)  In this short essay series I will research Arya IV – VI and VIII ASOS.  These three chapters are where to find the only mentions of HH in the series.  I will attempt to show the powers of the old gods are still evident in the RL’s.  That Beric Dondarrion is/was almost a direct parallel of BR.  And that the cave under HH is a direct parallel to BR’s cave north of the Wall.

I will also of course include any of the text we have been posting about in the thread if I think it’s relevant.  I shall post the chapters sequentially. 

PART ONE: ARYA IV ASOS

Arya and the BWB are travelling through the RL’s looking for Beric and visiting various people for information.  In this passage they are seeking help from The Lady of the Leaves……………..

‘’You’ve not seen Lord Beric?’’ asked Tom Sevenstrings.

‘’He’s dead.’’  The woman sounded sick. ‘’The Mountain caught him, and drove a dagger through his eye.  A begging brother told us.  He had it from the lips of a man who saw it happen.’’

‘’That’s an old stale tale, and false,’’ said Lem. ‘’The lightening lord’s not so easy to kill.  Ser Gregor might have put his eye out, but a man don’t die o’ that.  Jack could tell you.’’

‘’Well, I never did,’’ said one-eyed Jack-be-Lucky…………

I already knew there was a BR parallel to be found with Beric as I have posted about it before.  But to be thorough I re-read all three chapters again, even though not all the action was at HH.  And I’m glad I did.  This is our first clue to a link between the two characters as of course BR suffered the same fate at the hands of Bittersteel. 

‘Drove a dagger through his eye’ and ‘put his eye out, but a man don’t die o’ that’ explains perfectly what happened to both characters.  

Soon afterwards, they arrive at HH for the first time…………………….

The next day, they rode to a place called High Heart, a hill so lofty that from atop it Arya felt as though she could see half the world.  Around its brow stood a ring of huge pale stumps, all that remained of a circle of once-mighty weirwoods.  Arya and Gendry walked around the hill to count them.  There were thirty-one, some so wide that she could have used them for a bed.

High Heart had been sacred to the children of the forest, Tom Sevenstrings told her, and some of their magic lingered here still. ‘’No harm can ever come to those who sleep here,’’ the singer said……

I bolded the text about the weirwoods not only to signify the obvious allusion to the old gods but also as I will refer back to these ‘thirty-one ww stumps’ in the Arya VI analysis. 

Then the line ‘HH had been sacred to the CotF’ gives us our first indication as to just how important this place was for the children, ‘sacred’ in fact.  Perhaps a central base of operation back in their day?  The central location of the RL’s would’ve been perfect for such a base, had they not been scattered by the Andals.

And then Tom tells us that ‘some of their magic lingers there still’.  With what we know this is a cool line and presents Bran/BR a potential avenue in to the RL’s.  It seems GRRM wanted us to take note of this first mention of old gods/CotF magic as we move forward.  The conversation continued………..

The smallfolk hereabouts shunned the place, Tom told her; it was said to be haunted by the ghosts of the children of the forest who had died here when the Andal King named Erreg the Kinslayer had cut down their grove.  Arya knew about the CotF, and about the Andals too, but ghosts did not frighten her.  She used to hide in the crypts of Winterfell when she was little, and play games of come-into-my-castle and monsters and maidens amongst the stone Kings on their thrones.

It’s said that the ‘place is haunted by the ghosts of the CotF who had died there’, and that ‘the smallfolk shun the place’.  This would insinuate they feel creeped out up there, maybe experiencing ghostly goings on?  Again perhaps a subtle clue to keep an eye out for such when ‘we’ visit HH?

Next Arya thinks ‘ghosts did not frighten her’ and that ‘she used to hide in the crypts’.  There is a couple of things going on here I think.  The play on the word ghost/Ghost for one, we are about to meet the ‘Ghost’ of HH who is later likened to Jon’s wolf Ghost.  Plus all the Haunted/haunting stuff, when the author tells us a place is haunted we should be on the lookout for some of this text.

But also it directly links the thought of ghosts with the WF crypts and the stone kings on their thrones.  I thought this interesting after all we have posted about regards the possible ghosts roaming Winterfell.  Very subtle and may mean nothing, but I think the first time we visit the crypts in Ned I AGOT the statues seem very ‘ghostly’:unsure:

This next bit of text is the first time the wind appears in these chapters………………………. 

 Yet even so, the hair on the back of her neck stood up that night.  She had been asleep, but the storm woke her.  The wind pulled the coverlet right off her and sent it ‘swirling’ into the bushes.  When she went after it she heard voices.

This example is slightly different to our normal findings, but very effective!  I think the wind sent the coverlet ‘swirling’ into the bushes so Arya would witness the conversation going on around the fire.  Perhaps the wind is showing a stronger ability than normal as we’re at HH?  And the word swirling is used a lot around the old gods text, usually the wind itself.  Although this is slightly different, it caught my eye.  Anyway, as Arya ‘watched and listened’…………………………………    

Besides the embers of their campfire, she saw Tom, Lem, and Greenbeard talking to a tiny little woman, a foot shorter than Arya and older than Old Nan, all stooped and wrinkled and leaning on a gnarled cane.  Her white hair was so long it came almost to the ground.  When the wind ‘gusted’ it blew about her head in a fine cloud.  Her flesh was whiter, the colour of milk, and it seemed to Arya that her eyes were red, though it was hard to tell from the bushes.  ‘’The old gods stir and will not let me sleep,’’ she heard the woman say……………….

Again the wind is ‘gusting’ as we have shown a lot, and made her hair ‘blow about in a fine cloud’.  The wind seemed interested in the GoHH and the way her hair blows in a fine cloud reminds me of the text when the wind creates plumes of snow crystals etc…………   :dunno:

Then when the GoHH says ‘the old gods stir and will not let me sleep’ this is our first textual evidence that the old gods are actually present.  It is left at that by the author, but we will come back to her relationship with the old gods in Arya VIII.  Continuing…………………………………..

The next morning, the little white haired woman was nowhere to be seen.  As they saddled their horses, Arya asked Tom Sevenstrings if the children of the forest still dwelled on High Heart.  The singer chuckled. ‘’Saw her, did you?’’

‘’Was she a ghost?’’

‘’Do ghosts complain of how their joints creak?  No, she’s only an old dwarf woman.  A queer one, though, and evil eyed.  But she knows things she has no business knowing, and sometimes she’ll tell you if she likes the look of you.’’

We have another play on the word ghost.  Unbeknownst to her, Arya is asking Tom if the Ghost was a ghost?  And the next line is I think another set up for us to ponder as Tom tells us ‘she knows things she has no business knowing’.  How does she know things?  Again I will revisit these thoughts in Arya VIII.

IN CONCLUSION

I think this chapter was setting some stuff up for our next visits to HH.  Namely……..

Beric having one eye/BR parallels and the thirty-one weirwood stumps atop the hill are tied in for the next chapter, Arya VI.

Tom telling us the GoHH knows things she shouldn’t, and I address this in the third chapter analysis Arya VIII.

But also, this chapter reveals that magic still lingers there – it’s considered haunted – the old gods are stirring – and the wind throwing Arya’s coverlet into the bushes as if to facilitate her hearing that conversation.  Plus some of my musing on the various text.

See you in part two. [Hopefully]  :D

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THE OLD GODS IN THE RIVERLAND’S: A CLOSER LOOK AT HIGH HEART

Hey everybody. :)  This is part two of three looking at the old gods in the RL’s.  I hope you enjoyed part one, in the first instalment I mention that there were two set ups I tie in to this chapter.  Those being Beric’s one eye/BR parallels and the thirty one weirwood stumps atop HH.

The latter is important as Arya and co were blindfolded on the journey to this cave, and we are not informed where it is.  However, I think there are big clues that this is a cave underneath HH.  The hill is huge and so perhaps the journey from the top to wherever the entrance to this cave is, is actually quite long?  They certainly didn’t want Arya or Gendry to know the route.  And anyway, where else in the RL’s would you find so many weirwood roots?  For the record I think this is definitely HH. 

 PART TWO: ARYA VI

We’ll jump right in as they enter the cave……………………

The walls were equal parts stone and soil, with huge white roots twisting through them like a thousand slow pale snakes.  People were emerging from between those roots as she watched; edging out from the shadows for a look at the captives, stepping from the mouths of pitch-black tunnels, popping out of crannies and crevices on all sides.  In one place on the far side of the fire, the roots formed a kind of stairway up to a hollow in the earth where a man sat almost lost in the tangle of weirwood.

Big as the fire was, the cave was bigger; it was hard to tell where it began and where it ended.  The tunnel mouths might have been two feet deep or gone on two miles.  Arya saw men and women and little children, all of them watching warily.

[A bit later the Hound is unimpressed with the BWB’s claim that they have bloodied many an army.]

‘’You lot?  Don’t make me laugh.  You look more swineherds than soldiers.’’

‘’Some of us was swineherds,’’ said a short man Arya didn’t know. ‘’And some was tanners or singers or masons.  But that was before the war come.’’

The similarities to BR’s cave are everywhere.  The weirwood roots like slow pale snakes – people in the tunnels stepping/looking out -- a man lost in the tangle of ww – tunnels that may go on for miles – references to ‘little children’ and ‘singers’. 

Bran thinks the weirwood roots are like a ‘nest of milk snakes or giant grave worms, soft and pale and squishy’, very similar to our ‘slow pale snakes’ here.  Then as Bran passes passages/chambers in his cave, ‘he saw eyes looking back at them’ much as Arya has people ‘popping out of crannies and crevices on all sides’. 

A man seemingly sitting a weirwood throne, ‘lost in the tangle of roots’ needs no explanation.  The tunnels are described as ‘possibly two miles long’ which as we know parallels BR’s cave as well.  Then we get the clever reference to the ‘little children’ and the ‘singers’.  I thought it odd there were children at this BWB hide out, and that of all the professions the short man could’ve listed I wouldn’t have thought singers should be so high on the list.  I suppose Tom ‘o’ Sevens is there.  Anyway, it works perfectly for what I think George is trying to achieve here, the direct parallel to the old gods cave. 

As we continue, suddenly someone starts to speak from across the cave……………….

The voice came from the man seated amongst the weirwood roots halfway up the wall.  ‘’Six score of us set out to bring the King’s justice to your brother.’’  The speaker was descending the tangle of steps toward the floor. ‘’Six score brave men and true, led by a fool in a starry cloak.’’  A scarecrow of a man, he wore a ragged black cloak speckled with stars and an iron breastplate dinted by a hundred battles. 

When he reached the floor, the outlaws moved aside to let him pass.  One of his eyes was gone, Arya saw, the flesh about the socket scarred and puckered, and he had a dark black ring all around his neck.  ‘’With their help, we fight on as best we can, for Robert and the realm.’’ 

Again we get the ‘man seated amongst the weirwood roots halfway up the wall’ which just screams BR.  And this is quickly followed by ‘a scarecrow of a man, he wore a ragged black cloak’ which again describes BR’s appearance.  Then to top it all off we get ‘one of his eyes was gone’ to fully complete the parallel. 

A one-eyed scarecrow of a man sitting a weirwood throne in a cave full of ww roots, tunnels, little children and singers.  :o

These next couple of examples are just things I thought of when reading again.  So why not put forward my thoughts?

As Beric removes his breastplate so as to fight on an equal footing with the Hound we get………

Lord Beric’s ribs were outlined starkly beneath his skin.  A puckered crater scarred his breast just above his left nipple………….

The ‘ribs outlined starkly beneath his skin’ again made me think of BR and his withered appearance.  But the choice to use the word starkly’ caught my eye as well.  Knowing that Beric is basically the mirror image of BR, it instantly made me think of Bran.  Was this another clever choice of words for us re-readers to catch later on?  Perhaps.

Also…………………..

Thoros brought the Hound his swordbelt. ‘’Does a dog have honour?’’ the priest asked. ‘’Lest you think to cut your way free of here, or seize some child for a hostage……..

With all the talk of an invasion of the cave in the sister thread this horrible possibility jumped out at me.  Could that be possible?  An abduction of one of the CotF?  I hope not, but again, thought I’d share that line as it made me think.  Too much probably!  :blink:  Moving on……………………..

Lit from below, his face was a death mask, his missing eye a red and angry wound. 

Arya gets another look at Dondarrion’s ‘death mask’ of a face and also ‘his missing eye is red’.  Both of which could be tied to BR of course.  Although George has played with the red eyes.  Beric’s red eye is missing, BR’s is not. 

Finally, after the Hound plunged his sword through Beric’s neck/shoulder, Arya looks as though she may attack.  But she is subdued before anything can happen.  She still let him have some stick though.  Then afterwards…………..………………..

‘’You go to hell, Hound,’’ she screamed at Sandor Clegane in helpless empty-handed rage. ‘’You just go to hell!’’

‘’He has,’’ said a voice scarce stronger than a ‘whisper’.

When Arya turned, Lord Beric Dondarrion was standing behind her, his bloody hand clutching Thoros by the shoulder.

Beric rises from the dead again to the shock of Sandor I’m sure.  And he speaks his last words of the chapter in ‘a voice scarce stronger than a ‘whisper.’  We have posted before about BR and the wind whispering in various guises.  BR in the darkness of the cave, and the wind whispering through trees etc.  And now we have BericRaven whispering as well.  ;)

IN CONCLUSION

In this chapter we get the tie in with all those weirwood stumps from Arya IV, and the one-eyed Beric that we were told about.  That was a cool set up by George to drip feed us the information so we could work out where this cave was.

To list everything we got in this chapter, there was: The entire cave parallel, including the roots, people looking/stepping out from tunnels, the tunnels being long, Beric in/on his weirwood throne, little children and singers – The text where Beric is a scarecrow of a man wearing a black cloak having one-eye – His missing eye being red – His voice being scarce a whisper.

This is very clever from Martin, he obviously had a vision of this cave for years before writing about it.  In fact I think he had something similar in mind since AGOT, with all we have found.  As we move on, I will try to answer Tom ‘o’ Sevens mention that ‘she knows things she no right knowing’.  And continue with the old gods search as normal.

I hope this has made sense and will help as I attempt to break down the final chapter in this short series, Arya VIII.  :D

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THE OLD GODS IN THE RIVERLAND’S: A CLOSER LOOK AT HIGH HEART

Hi people.  Hopefully I have been able to link together some text that confirms this is an old gods stronghold.  And potentially shown that the cave the BWB use is in fact underneath HH, and that Beric and his surroundings were a direct parallel to BR/old gods/CotF’s cave in the north.

In this edition, part three, I will attack Tom’s assumption that the GoHH ‘knows things she has no reason to know’.  And you may notice a more familiar tone to this chapter’s analysis.

PART THREE: ARYA VIII

Arya and the BWB approach HH, once they are at the top of the hill they build a camp fire.

From up here she could see a storm raging to the north, but High Heart stood above the rain.  It wasn’t above the wind, though; the gusts were blowing so strongly that it felt like someone was behind her, yanking on her cloak.  Only when she turned, no one was there.

Ghosts, she remembered.  High Heart is haunted.

This is a cool bit of text so I bolded almost all of it.  The ‘gusts’ of wind are really strong atop the hill and we get a familiar personification as it is ‘yanking’ on her cloak.  There doesn’t have to be a reason why the wind is this strong, but I think it’s the fact we are in old gods territory, even in the RL’s.  This is their place.  Some of the text touches on this as we move forward. 

There is Arya’s thought that it is ghosts as well.  She says the wind is a ghost here, we also meet the ‘Ghost’ of HH and as I had previously mentioned, Jon’s wolf Ghost is next.  And if you consider we think there is a presence in this wind, then it really is rather ‘ghostly’ to have your cloak ‘yanked’ or ‘tugged.’  Perhaps this falls in line with the ‘ghostly fingers’ phrase we see sometimes [Jon says the eyes of the ww’s in the grove beyond the wall have ‘eyes like Ghosts’ when it is probable both Bran and BR were watching through them.]

Also for Evita, another time ‘no one’ is used.  I think I have seen this quite a lot around the wind actually, but will have to keep an eye out for this reference in the future.

As the chapter continues, they sit and talk around the fire.  Beric mentions how fire consumes and that six times is too many etc………...  The wind then returns with familiar text………

That night the wind was howling almost like a wolf and there were some real wolves off to the west giving it lessons……………[then]  the others were fast asleep when Arya spied the small pale shape creeping behind the horses, thin white hair flying wild as she leaned upon a gnarled cane.  The woman could not have been more than three feet tall.  The firelight made her eyes gleam as red as the eyes of Jon’s wolf.  He was a ghost too.  Arya stole closer, and knelt to watch.

Having attempted to link the ‘howling wind’ with a wolf/BR/old gods in the prologue, this line seems to back that notion.  And in the same sentence as well, thanks George.  Not only that but ‘the wolves are giving the wind lessons’, ha awesome! :P  But most importantly [in my mind at least] they are working together.  Perhaps strengthening the idea that this link/relationship between wolf and wind/old gods is one to follow?  And that the ‘howling wind’ is our clue for an old gods presence in said element?

Also I bolded the descriptions of the GoHH to show that she is an albino.  The ‘small pale shape’ with ‘thin white hair’ and the ‘gleaming red eyes’.  She is also three feet tall and resembles a CotF, but she is not.  Just a prophetic albino living amongst weirwood stumps atop a cave that resembles BR’s cave far in the north. Hmmm. 

There are some other cool insinuations but we will get there.  For now, this being an old gods stronghold and pretty windy, here’s another thing she mentions……….

‘’Give me wine or I will go.  My bones are old.  My joints ache when the winds do blow, and up here the winds are always blowing.’’

Of course the winds are always blowing up there, this seems like an old gods portal into the Riverland’s.  Where their powers are stronger than elsewhere.  The GoHH tells us all of this in fact…………

She cackled again. ‘’Look in your fires, pink priest, and you will see.  Not now, though, not here, you’ll see nothing here.  This place belongs to the old gods still…they linger here as I do, shrunken and feeble but not yet dead.  Nor do they love the flames.  For the oak recalls the acorn, the acorn dreams the oak, the stump lives in them both.  And they remember when the First Men came with fire in their fists.’’

This is an evocative line.  Agreed that the ‘place belongs to the old gods still’, but the next bit sounds like Bran and BR.  The description ‘shrunken and feeble but not yet dead’ is what Bran thinks of himself and could certainly describe BR as well.  Anyway it confirms the old gods still ‘linger there’ if we believe the GoHH, as I do. 

The next bit I find interesting. ‘Nor do they love the flames’ and they ‘remember when the First Men came with fire in their fists’.  I have mentioned a couple of times that I see the wind paying particular attention to Mel at the Wall.  And there is this weird inter mingling of old gods and Red gods with Beric and LSH in the RL’s.  Beric seems to parallel BR and everything old gods in the cave, yet is animated by the power of the Red god and Thoros.  He has passed whatever this weird mix is onto LSH, who I think has this very cave at High Heart as a base for the BWB. [The same cave Brienne is potentially taking Jaime too by the way.]

This line is for Evita.

The dwarf woman vanished as suddenly as she had appeared……..

I know you have noted the word ‘vanished’ as a symbol of magic in the Direwolves, appearing and reappearing.  So thought perhaps a prophetic albino who seems an agent of the old gods ‘vanishing’ much the same as she seemed to appear may be of interest to you. 

To try and address the question of why Tom basically says ‘she knows stuff she shouldn’t know’ this last bit of text in the chapter is cool, and worth extra thought I feel.  Remember that whenever we see the GoHH she has had visions/dreams that she relays to the BWB.  And also she is one of the few that gets these visions right as the fandom has shown when breaking down her prophetic predictions………….

‘’Your brother may be gone,’’ said Thoros. ‘’Your mother as well.  I did not see them in the flames.  This wedding the old one spoke of, a wedding on the Twins…she has her own ways of knowing things, that one.  The weirwoods whisper in her ear when she sleeps.  If she says your mother is gone to the Twins…’’

Right, so we know the old gods can see the future as well as the past, yes?  And Thoros straight out tells us here that the ‘old one’ has the weirwoods whisper in her ear as she sleeps and that’s how she knows things.  So logic would suggest that it was the old gods that gave the GoHH all of this information.  I’m sure someone has pointed this out before, but I don’t see much talk of the old gods in the breakdown of her prophecies.    

Anyway, could this be proof of BR/old gods influencing events as far south as the RL’s?  Sending dreams/visions as the weirwoods whisper to the prophetic dwarf in her sleep?  Of course only to have her relay these messages to the BWB or relevant players in the area that could act on these prophecies.  I think it’s a definite possibility.    :dunno:  

IN CONCLUSION

In this chapter we get – The strong wind ‘yanking’ on Arya’s cloak – Arya thinking of the wind as a ‘ghost’The ‘howling wind’ being tied directly with the wolves again [the wolves given it lessons no less] – The prophetic albino surrounded by weirwood stumps atop a cave that resembles BR’s, ww throne and all – The strong winds always blowing there, this is the old gods place -- That the old gods linger, shrunken and feeble but not yet dead.  And they remember – The ww’s whispering into the GoHH’s ear as she sleeps, potentially influencing events south of the Wall, in the RL’s at that.

High Heart certainly seems like a hive of old gods activity, and a stronghold that Bran should now be able to access/influence as BR has.  This is awesome, and the possibilities are vast!  It’s very exciting.  There is a caveat though, when you realise that this cave is very likely where LSH is at the moment, in what is a BWB base/hideout.  And that Brienne is probably taking Jaime to that very cave.  Will Bran see what goes on?  This is a creepy thought, but perhaps a necessity to really master this ability to have a thousand eyes and two. [In Bran’s case]

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.  :D

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2 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said:

THE OLD GODS IN THE RIVERLAND’S : A CLOSER LOOK AT HIGH HEART

Hi everyone :)  In this short essay series I will research Arya IV – VI and VIII ASOS.  These three chapters are where to find the only mentions of HH in the series.  I will attempt to show the powers of the old gods are still evident in the RL’s.  That Beric Dondarrion is/was almost a direct parallel of BR.  And that the cave under HH is a direct parallel to BR’s cave north of the Wall.

I will also of course include any of the text we have been posting about in the thread if I think it’s relevant.  I shall post the chapters sequentially. 

PART ONE: ARYA IV ASOS

Arya and the BWB are travelling through the RL’s looking for Beric and visiting various people for information.  In this passage they are seeking help from The Lady of the Leaves……………..

‘’You’ve not seen Lord Beric?’’ asked Tom Sevenstrings.

‘’He’s dead.’’  The woman sounded sick. ‘’The Mountain caught him, and drove a dagger through his eye.  A begging brother told us.  He had it from the lips of a man who saw it happen.’’

‘’That’s an old stale tale, and false,’’ said Lem. ‘’The lightening lord’s not so easy to kill.  Ser Gregor might have put his eye out, but a man don’t die o’ that.  Jack could tell you.’’

‘’Well, I never did,’’ said one-eyed Jack-be-Lucky…………

I already knew there was a BR parallel to be found with Beric as I have posted about it before.  But to be thorough I re-read all three chapters again, even though not all the action was at HH.  And I’m glad I did.  This is our first clue to a link between the two characters as of course BR suffered the same fate at the hands of Bittersteel. 

‘Drove a dagger through his eye’ and ‘put his eye out, but a man don’t die o’ that’ explains perfectly what happened to both characters.  

Soon afterwards, they arrive at HH for the first time…………………….

The next day, they rode to a place called High Heart, a hill so lofty that from atop it Arya felt as though she could see half the world.  Around its brow stood a ring of huge pale stumps, all that remained of a circle of once-mighty weirwoods.  Arya and Gendry walked around the hill to count them.  There were thirty-one, some so wide that she could have used them for a bed.

High Heart had been sacred to the children of the forest, Tom Sevenstrings told her, and some of their magic lingered here still. ‘’No harm can ever come to those who sleep here,’’ the singer said……

I bolded the text about the weirwoods not only to signify the obvious allusion to the old gods but also as I will refer back to these ‘thirty-one ww stumps’ in the Arya VI analysis. 

Then the line ‘HH had been sacred to the CotF’ gives us our first indication as to just how important this place was for the children, ‘sacred’ in fact.  Perhaps a central base of operation back in their day?  The central location of the RL’s would’ve been perfect for such a base, had they not been scattered by the Andals.

And then Tom tells us that ‘some of their magic lingers there still’.  With what we know this is a cool line and presents Bran/BR a potential avenue in to the RL’s.  It seems GRRM wanted us to take note of this first mention of old gods/CotF magic as we move forward.  The conversation continued………..

The smallfolk hereabouts shunned the place, Tom told her; it was said to be haunted by the ghosts of the children of the forest who had died here when the Andal King named Erreg the Kinslayer had cut down their grove.  Arya knew about the CotF, and about the Andals too, but ghosts did not frighten her.  She used to hide in the crypts of Winterfell when she was little, and play games of come-into-my-castle and monsters and maidens amongst the stone Kings on their thrones.

It’s said that the ‘place is haunted by the ghosts of the CotF who had died there’, and that ‘the smallfolk shun the place’.  This would insinuate they feel creeped out up there, maybe experiencing ghostly goings on?  Again perhaps a subtle clue to keep an eye out for such when ‘we’ visit HH?

Next Arya thinks ‘ghosts did not frighten her’ and that ‘she used to hide in the crypts’.  There is a couple of things going on here I think.  The play on the word ghost/Ghost for one, we are about to meet the ‘Ghost’ of HH who is later likened to Jon’s wolf Ghost.  Plus all the Haunted/haunting stuff, when the author tells us a place is haunted we should be on the lookout for some of this text.

But also it directly links the thought of ghosts with the WF crypts and the stone kings on their thrones.  I thought this interesting after all we have posted about regards the possible ghosts roaming Winterfell.  Very subtle and may mean nothing, but I think the first time we visit the crypts in Ned I AGOT the statues seem very ‘ghostly’:unsure:

This next bit of text is the first time the wind appears in these chapters………………………. 

 Yet even so, the hair on the back of her neck stood up that night.  She had been asleep, but the storm woke her.  The wind pulled the coverlet right off her and sent it ‘swirling’ into the bushes.  When she went after it she heard voices.

This example is slightly different to our normal findings, but very effective!  I think the wind sent the coverlet ‘swirling’ into the bushes so Arya would witness the conversation going on around the fire.  Perhaps the wind is showing a stronger ability than normal as we’re at HH?  And the word swirling is used a lot around the old gods text, usually the wind itself.  Although this is slightly different, it caught my eye.  Anyway, as Arya ‘watched and listened’…………………………………    

Besides the embers of their campfire, she saw Tom, Lem, and Greenbeard talking to a tiny little woman, a foot shorter than Arya and older than Old Nan, all stooped and wrinkled and leaning on a gnarled cane.  Her white hair was so long it came almost to the ground.  When the wind ‘gusted’ it blew about her head in a fine cloud.  Her flesh was whiter, the colour of milk, and it seemed to Arya that her eyes were red, though it was hard to tell from the bushes.  ‘’The old gods stir and will not let me sleep,’’ she heard the woman say……………….

Again the wind is ‘gusting’ as we have shown a lot, and made her hair ‘blow about in a fine cloud’.  The wind seemed interested in the GoHH and the way her hair blows in a fine cloud reminds me of the text when the wind creates plumes of snow crystals etc…………   :dunno:

Then when the GoHH says ‘the old gods stir and will not let me sleep’ this is our first textual evidence that the old gods are actually present.  It is left at that by the author, but we will come back to her relationship with the old gods in Arya VIII.  Continuing…………………………………..

The next morning, the little white haired woman was nowhere to be seen.  As they saddled their horses, Arya asked Tom Sevenstrings if the children of the forest still dwelled on High Heart.  The singer chuckled. ‘’Saw her, did you?’’

‘’Was she a ghost?’’

‘’Do ghosts complain of how their joints creak?  No, she’s only an old dwarf woman.  A queer one, though, and evil eyed.  But she knows things she has no business knowing, and sometimes she’ll tell you if she likes the look of you.’’

We have another play on the word ghost.  Unbeknownst to her, Arya is asking Tom if the Ghost was a ghost?  And the next line is I think another set up for us to ponder as Tom tells us ‘she knows things she has no business knowing’.  How does she know things?  Again I will revisit these thoughts in Arya VIII.

IN CONCLUSION

I think this chapter was setting some stuff up for our next visits to HH.  Namely……..

Beric having one eye/BR parallels and the thirty-one weirwood stumps atop the hill are tied in for the next chapter, Arya VI.

Tom telling us the GoHH knows things she shouldn’t, and I address this in the third chapter analysis Arya VIII.

But also, this chapter reveals that magic still lingers there – it’s considered haunted – the old gods are stirring – and the wind throwing Arya’s coverlet into the bushes as if to facilitate her hearing that conversation.  Plus some of my musing on the various text.

See you in part two. [Hopefully]  :D

:cheers:BRILLIANT!  WIZZ - THESE ESSAYS ARE ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL - SOME OF YOUR BEST WRITING YET!!:wub:

The ghost parallels are on point with Theon's "A Ghost in Winterfell" and Arya's time in HarrenHell, where she says something about she is like a ghost - no one notices her.  She also says she is not afraid of the dead: it's the living she fears.

The wind and the godly force behind it is sound evidence and parallels many of our finds in ADwD.  I love that you connect Arya and the people she is traveling with - with the old gods.:love:

Beric as BR - MASTERFUL CONNECTION!  :thumbsup:Remember how I speculated that all the people Arya meets on her travels are guides inspired by the old gods - and they are somehow marked as such?  What you have done is make this very clear.  I glanced through the chapters, and I thought "Greenbeard" - greenseer; "Yellowcloak"- the singers have yellow eyes, etc.  [that was from a cursory look at the POVS you so brilliantly analyzed.  Even the "Hound" is a replacement for Nymeria - doesn't she she had a big dog at her side somewhere?  Words are wind - and sometimes the gods answer in a good way - not just to punish others.

I HAVE READ THE OTHERS,  BUT I HAD TO POST A REACTION FIRST BECAUSE YOU DID SUCH A GOOD JOB!:D

:bowdown:MIND BLOWN!

 

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10 hours ago, Ser Quork said:

Very enjoyable read.  Thanks.

Hi Ser Quork!  :)  Thank you for the compliment, it really means a lot.  And welcome to the thread.  :cheers:

18 hours ago, evita mgfs said:

:cheers:BRILLIANT!  WIZZ - THESE ESSAYS ARE ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL - SOME OF YOUR BEST WRITING YET!!:wub:

The ghost parallels are on point with Theon's "A Ghost in Winterfell" and Arya's time in HarrenHell, where she says something about she is like a ghost - no one notices her.  She also says she is not afraid of the dead: it's the living she fears.

The wind and the godly force behind it is sound evidence and parallels many of our finds in ADwD.  I love that you connect Arya and the people she is traveling with - with the old gods.:love:

Beric as BR - MASTERFUL CONNECTION!  :thumbsup:Remember how I speculated that all the people Arya meets on her travels are guides inspired by the old gods - and they are somehow marked as such?  What you have done is make this very clear.  I glanced through the chapters, and I thought "Greenbeard" - greenseer; "Yellowcloak"- the singers have yellow eyes, etc.  [that was from a cursory look at the POVS you so brilliantly analyzed.  Even the "Hound" is a replacement for Nymeria - doesn't she she had a big dog at her side somewhere?  Words are wind - and sometimes the gods answer in a good way - not just to punish others.

I HAVE READ THE OTHERS,  BUT I HAD TO POST A REACTION FIRST BECAUSE YOU DID SUCH A GOOD JOB!:D

:bowdown:MIND BLOWN!

 

Thank you so much.  Ninety percent of my analysis I can claim as my own, but the Beric as BR parallel has been posted about before on the forums.  It's very hard for me to know where I heard/read this as I soaked up the forum/podcasts for a year or so before posting myself. 

I know Lost Melnibonean has posted about the cave.  He mentions the weirwood throne, Beric's scarecrow appearance and the one-eyed thing.  So I think I have added quite a lot.  He didn't add much commentary though, just bolded the sentence's of the text next to bran's chapter.  I knew of the parallel, but he posted in Aug 2014, well before me.  I think maybe History of Westeros mentioned it in one of their podcasts?  :dunno:  

Either way, I re-read the chapters and broke them down with a fresh pair of eyes so to speak, and hopefully found a lot for people to ponder. :D   Thanks again.

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23 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said:

THE OLD GODS IN THE RIVERLAND’S : A CLOSER LOOK AT HIGH HEART

Hi everyone :)  In this short essay series I will research Arya IV – VI and VIII ASOS.  These three chapters are where to find the only mentions of HH in the series.  I will attempt to show the powers of the old gods are still evident in the RL’s.  That Beric Dondarrion is/was almost a direct parallel of BR.  And that the cave under HH is a direct parallel to BR’s cave north of the Wall.

I will also of course include any of the text we have been posting about in the thread if I think it’s relevant.  I shall post the chapters sequentially. 

PART ONE: ARYA IV ASOS

Arya and the BWB are travelling through the RL’s looking for Beric and visiting various people for information.  In this passage they are seeking help from The Lady of the Leaves……………..

‘’You’ve not seen Lord Beric?’’ asked Tom Sevenstrings.

‘’He’s dead.’’  The woman sounded sick. ‘’The Mountain caught him, and drove a dagger through his eye.  A begging brother told us.  He had it from the lips of a man who saw it happen.’’

‘’That’s an old stale tale, and false,’’ said Lem. ‘’The lightening lord’s not so easy to kill.  Ser Gregor might have put his eye out, but a man don’t die o’ that.  Jack could tell you.’’

‘’Well, I never did,’’ said one-eyed Jack-be-Lucky…………

I already knew there was a BR parallel to be found with Beric as I have posted about it before.  But to be thorough I re-read all three chapters again, even though not all the action was at HH.  And I’m glad I did.  This is our first clue to a link between the two characters as of course BR suffered the same fate at the hands of Bittersteel. 

‘Drove a dagger through his eye’ and ‘put his eye out, but a man don’t die o’ that’ explains perfectly what happened to both characters.  

Soon afterwards, they arrive at HH for the first time…………………….

The next day, they rode to a place called High Heart, a hill so lofty that from atop it Arya felt as though she could see half the world.  Around its brow stood a ring of huge pale stumps, all that remained of a circle of once-mighty weirwoods.  Arya and Gendry walked around the hill to count them.  There were thirty-one, some so wide that she could have used them for a bed.

High Heart had been sacred to the children of the forest, Tom Sevenstrings told her, and some of their magic lingered here still. ‘’No harm can ever come to those who sleep here,’’ the singer said……

I bolded the text about the weirwoods not only to signify the obvious allusion to the old gods but also as I will refer back to these ‘thirty-one ww stumps’ in the Arya VI analysis. 

Then the line ‘HH had been sacred to the CotF’ gives us our first indication as to just how important this place was for the children, ‘sacred’ in fact.  Perhaps a central base of operation back in their day?  The central location of the RL’s would’ve been perfect for such a base, had they not been scattered by the Andals.

And then Tom tells us that ‘some of their magic lingers there still’.  With what we know this is a cool line and presents Bran/BR a potential avenue in to the RL’s.  It seems GRRM wanted us to take note of this first mention of old gods/CotF magic as we move forward.  The conversation continued………..

The smallfolk hereabouts shunned the place, Tom told her; it was said to be haunted by the ghosts of the children of the forest who had died here when the Andal King named Erreg the Kinslayer had cut down their grove.  Arya knew about the CotF, and about the Andals too, but ghosts did not frighten her.  She used to hide in the crypts of Winterfell when she was little, and play games of come-into-my-castle and monsters and maidens amongst the stone Kings on their thrones.

It’s said that the ‘place is haunted by the ghosts of the CotF who had died there’, and that ‘the smallfolk shun the place’.  This would insinuate they feel creeped out up there, maybe experiencing ghostly goings on?  Again perhaps a subtle clue to keep an eye out for such when ‘we’ visit HH?

Next Arya thinks ‘ghosts did not frighten her’ and that ‘she used to hide in the crypts’.  There is a couple of things going on here I think.  The play on the word ghost/Ghost for one, we are about to meet the ‘Ghost’ of HH who is later likened to Jon’s wolf Ghost.  Plus all the Haunted/haunting stuff, when the author tells us a place is haunted we should be on the lookout for some of this text.

But also it directly links the thought of ghosts with the WF crypts and the stone kings on their thrones.  I thought this interesting after all we have posted about regards the possible ghosts roaming Winterfell.  Very subtle and may mean nothing, but I think the first time we visit the crypts in Ned I AGOT the statues seem very ‘ghostly’:unsure:

This next bit of text is the first time the wind appears in these chapters………………………. 

 Yet even so, the hair on the back of her neck stood up that night.  She had been asleep, but the storm woke her.  The wind pulled the coverlet right off her and sent it ‘swirling’ into the bushes.  When she went after it she heard voices.

This example is slightly different to our normal findings, but very effective!  I think the wind sent the coverlet ‘swirling’ into the bushes so Arya would witness the conversation going on around the fire.  Perhaps the wind is showing a stronger ability than normal as we’re at HH?  And the word swirling is used a lot around the old gods text, usually the wind itself.  Although this is slightly different, it caught my eye.  Anyway, as Arya ‘watched and listened’…………………………………    

Besides the embers of their campfire, she saw Tom, Lem, and Greenbeard talking to a tiny little woman, a foot shorter than Arya and older than Old Nan, all stooped and wrinkled and leaning on a gnarled cane.  Her white hair was so long it came almost to the ground.  When the wind ‘gusted’ it blew about her head in a fine cloud.  Her flesh was whiter, the colour of milk, and it seemed to Arya that her eyes were red, though it was hard to tell from the bushes.  ‘’The old gods stir and will not let me sleep,’’ she heard the woman say……………….

Again the wind is ‘gusting’ as we have shown a lot, and made her hair ‘blow about in a fine cloud’.  The wind seemed interested in the GoHH and the way her hair blows in a fine cloud reminds me of the text when the wind creates plumes of snow crystals etc…………   :dunno:

Then when the GoHH says ‘the old gods stir and will not let me sleep’ this is our first textual evidence that the old gods are actually present.  It is left at that by the author, but we will come back to her relationship with the old gods in Arya VIII.  Continuing…………………………………..

The next morning, the little white haired woman was nowhere to be seen.  As they saddled their horses, Arya asked Tom Sevenstrings if the children of the forest still dwelled on High Heart.  The singer chuckled. ‘’Saw her, did you?’’

‘’Was she a ghost?’’

‘’Do ghosts complain of how their joints creak?  No, she’s only an old dwarf woman.  A queer one, though, and evil eyed.  But she knows things she has no business knowing, and sometimes she’ll tell you if she likes the look of you.’’

We have another play on the word ghost.  Unbeknownst to her, Arya is asking Tom if the Ghost was a ghost?  And the next line is I think another set up for us to ponder as Tom tells us ‘she knows things she has no business knowing’.  How does she know things?  Again I will revisit these thoughts in Arya VIII.

IN CONCLUSION

I think this chapter was setting some stuff up for our next visits to HH.  Namely……..

Beric having one eye/BR parallels and the thirty-one weirwood stumps atop the hill are tied in for the next chapter, Arya VI.

Tom telling us the GoHH knows things she shouldn’t, and I address this in the third chapter analysis Arya VIII.

But also, this chapter reveals that magic still lingers there – it’s considered haunted – the old gods are stirring – and the wind throwing Arya’s coverlet into the bushes as if to facilitate her hearing that conversation.  Plus some of my musing on the various text.

See you in part two. [Hopefully]  :D

 

2 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said:

Hi Ser Quork!  :)  Thank you for the compliment, it really means a lot.  And welcome to the thread.  :cheers:

Thank you so much.  Ninety percent of my analysis I can claim as my own, but the Beric as BR parallel has been posted about before on the forums.  It's very hard for me to know where I heard/read this as I soaked up the forum/podcasts for a year or so before posting myself. 

I know Lost Melnibonean has posted about the cave.  He mentions the weirwood throne, Beric's scarecrow appearance and the one-eyed thing.  So I think I have added quite a lot.  He didn't add much commentary though, just bolded the sentence's of the text next to bran's chapter.  I knew of the parallel, but he posted in Aug 2014, well before me.  I think maybe History of Westeros mentioned it in one of their podcasts?  :dunno:  

Either way, I re-read the chapters and broke them down with a fresh pair of eyes so to speak, and hopefully found a lot for people to ponder. :D   Thanks again.

:cheers:  WIZZ - I FORBID YOU TO UNDERMINE THIS WORK! :whip: THE ANALYTICAL COMMENTARY YOU HAVE SUPPLIED TAKES YOU BEYOND THE NORM!  ANYONE CAN CITE EVIDENCES.  THE HARDEST THING FOR STUDENTS WRITING COLLEGIATE ANALYSIS IS THE COMMENTARY!:thumbsup:  SO DON'T YOU DARE GIVE CREDIT TO ANOTHER FOR YOUR BRILLIANT WORK!:spank:

THIS IS MRS. EVITA THE SCHOOL TEACHER TALKING, YOU HEAR?????:love:

 

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2 hours ago, Wizz-The-Smith said:

I re-read the chapters and broke them down with a fresh pair of eyes so to speak, and hopefully found a lot for people to ponder. :D   Thanks again.

 

Nice essays Wizz!  I'm really behind in my responses and you guys are so prolific of late!  Accordingly, I apologize in advance if my post which follows is 'old' and off-topic, but hopefully something in my meandering (not-so-amusing) meta-musings will pique some interest!

 

PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

 I really like the 'hidden message' Cat receives from Lysa at Winterfell.  Is this George telling us to look closer as well?  The message being in a hidden compartment and in a secret language or code if you will seemed like a hint for us readers to look at the previous chapters a little closer.     

Totally agree  @Wizz-The-SmithLove the way you think 'out of the box'!  Isn't there also a special lens in the secret box prompting us to figuratively see through a different lens or see a little closer?  As far as secret boxes and boxed secrets go, I highly recommend  @sweetsunray's chthonic essays which give a fascinating mythological backdrop involving the Eleusinian mysteries, Pandora's box, and Set's box.  Her thoughts on the relationship of secrets (both keeping and disclosing them) and violation/violence is very insightful.

There are a lot of 'meta-'messages going on in the text at hand, some of which even GRRM may not be fully aware!  I shall introduce one such 'meta-'message, as follows. 

 

On ‎4‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 8:01 AM, evita mgfs said:

 

 

WILL LOSES HIS VOICE

 

“Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding through the wood. He turned his head, glimpsed a white shadow in the darkness. Then it was gone. Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers. Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and the words seemed to freeze in his throat. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps it had only been a bird, a reflection on the snow, some trick of the moonlight. What had he seen, after all?”

 

Recently, I looked at puns on @Seamsthread, particularly 'words/swords/wards'.  It's interesting to explore the idea of words used as swords or wards (i.e. though seemingly abstract and innocuous, words nevertheless become something tangible and empowering, akin to weapons and defenses to ward off or ward against the physical and magical elements confronting 'man'; in this vein, remember the 'quarrels' and Walder Frey's 'sharp tongue' we've previously discussed).

In the context of the prologue (thank you for bringing to our attention with your usual nuanced sensitivity, @Wizz-The-Smith !) and Bran's growing powers, 'words' are of relevance considering our task in general of attempting to deconstruct GRRM's intricately constructed self-conscious prose puzzles, and specifically in light of Will 'losing his voice' and being unable to call out, bearing in mind, as  @evita mgfs has previously pointed out, that the figure of 'Will' is a nod to that ultimate wordsmith William Shakespeare (as Gared is an anagram/syllabic transposition of another writer Edgar [Allan Poe]).  So, when 'Will' is reduced to wordlessness and swordlessness (when he carries his dagger between his teeth in order to climb with greater ease, he is unable to wield it; his arms are also occupied climbing the tree), that is indeed something of which we should take note! 

Will is disarmed (unable to use either his voice or his sword as weapons), while in contrast the branches are 'armed'!  (etymologically, 'branches' are related to arms, from Middle English: from Old French branche, from late Latin branca ‘paw'...so wolves and trees have paws with long claws!)  'Branches stirred [apart from the onomatopoeia and susurration, this verb evokes someone stirring a pot (using a 'weirwooden' spoon perhaps!) with the connotation of 'cooking up' trouble, interfering, meddling, etc]...scratching at one another with wooden fingers'... There's something vaguely disquieting and predatory about all this.  And then there's the connection to 'the old gods stirring' (trees and old gods are connected north of the Wall as well as in the Riverlands) highlighted by @Wizz-The-Smith , 'the old gods stir and will not let me sleep'...they disturb the 'ghost of high heart's' sleep, intrude on her psyche, bringing dreams and visions.  @The Fattest Leech 's observations on the wooden boy Pinocchio and dubious puppeteers also tie in here. 

Elsewhere GRRM directly refers to branches as 'limbs,' reinforcing this parallel.  In addition @evita mgfs has pointed out the clever 'broken Bran-ches' quote, a pun which alludes to branches as weapons (the children in the vision are practicing swordskills with broken branches) as well as Bran's broken limbs (he's also associated with the 'Broken tower,' which if one is sufficiently imaginative could refer to Bran's broken spinal column). 

It's worth mentioning that like the branches, Bran despite being 'broken' can still be a powerful weapon ('cripples, bastards, and broken things' all figure prominently in the series...).  In the weirwood, Bloodraven himself a famous bastard is united with Bran the cripple (whose brother is also a soon-to-be-famous bastard), together wielding the ultimate power, to move others with ones thoughts and without moving oneself.  Figuratively, a bastard can also be seen as an aberrant offshoot or broken branch of the 'family tree'! 

Quote

 the ground was damp and muddy, slick footing, with rocks and hidden roots to trip you up. Will made no sound as he climbed. Behind him, he heard the soft metalic slither of the lordling’s ringmail, the rustle of leaves, and muttered curses as reaching branches grabbed at his longsword and tugged on his splendid sable cloak.

As we've mentioned, trees are personified extending their roots like legs 'to trip you up,' and branches like arms 'reaching...tugging...and grabbing' the passersby.  Moreover, they are armed with other defenses such as the 'sticky sap' which heals the tree from cuts and scrapes and wards off predator attacks, as well as needles in which Will is said to 'lose' himself.  The needles are of course a further link between the old gods of the far north and Arya with her Winterfell-forged 'Needle.' 

From the perspective of the natural world, Royce is a predator in their midst ('sable' fur and snake imagery 'soft metallic slither of the lordling's ringmail') hacking off their limbs with his longsword (?his fang).  In reply, the trees try to defend themselves by reaching out to deflect his destructive path, grabbing at his longsword in an attempt to disarm him, and tugging on his cloak to waylay him.  Additionally, the way GRRM constructs the sentence 'he heard...the rustle of leaves, and muttered curses as reaching branches grabbed...,' the subject behind the muttered curses is left ambiguous, possibly referring either to Royce muttering curses at the trees which impede his progress or alternatively to the trees themselves which curse his unwelcome intrusion.  Immediately juxtaposed with 'the rustle of leaves' and the 'reaching branches' to either side of the phrase 'muttered curses,' it's hinted that the trees and/or the wind is doing the cursing! 

This topsy-turvy (in)version of power relations continues with the description of Will being voiceless (words have fled him and/or he is unable to wield them), while at the same time the words themselves have '[frozen] in his throat'...evoking the sense that the words are hard objects, having solidified into a physical presence vs. Will's physical presence which is increasingly threatened with dissolution.  Indeed, by freezing or sticking in his throat the words threaten not only to figuratively take his breath away but literally too, i.e. they threaten to choke him! (again, words have become sharp weapons; in a weird sense his words seem to have turned on/against him). The frozen words and cold choking foreshadows Will's fate.  In the end, Will has the life strangled out of him by the cold sticky hands of Royce-come-again before he can even say a silent prayer!  This means that Royce, who in life was also quite fond of 'shutting him up,' has the last word.

From a meta-perspective, does this imply that GRRM secretly wishes to silence Shakespeare, supplant him, or worse, make him impotent by symbolically disarming, dismembering or castrating him..(GRRM uses the word 'unman' with respect to Gared)?  It's ironic that of all the manifold attributes and myths surrounding Shakespeare, GRRM chose to portray 'Will' as a poacher caught red-handed, while on a meta-level GRRM is poaching from Shakespeare in plain sight.  (This also raises the question: if 'Will' is Shakespeare and 'Gared' is Poe, 'Who' is Ser Waymar Royce..?)

In as much as every author must take on the body of work of his artistic peers and predecessors, an author cannot avoid getting his teeth stuck into that 'body' (and taking up s/words against it), meaning that s/he must 'attack' it, digest and rework it to produce something new (echoing our 'cannibalism-communion' motif).  It's a battle for survival and artistic longevity, over the question regarding whose work will stand the test of time and the onslaughts of other writers, readers, critics, screenwriters and producers?!  Borrowing from and consuming each other's ideas (the pun in my avatar 'ravenous reader' playfully evokes just this), the whole question of 'originality' is necessarily raised. 

In other words, every author wishes in a way to 'freeze' the words of other authors, replacing them with his or her own instead ('in stead' means standing in place of, therefore the challenge is to ambitiously replace those who have gone before, while at the same time learning from and incorporating their work with a certain deference and reverence).  The literary critic Harold Bloom calls this literary and psychological phenomenon, whereby authors -- living and dead (oh, yes, the dead still partake actively in this conversation!)-- strive to subvert each other, 'the anxiety of influence.'  His conclusion is that many fail, often producing second-rate second-hand regurgitations, and that no-one has come close to conquering Shakespeare ever. 

So, in the prologue we have allusions to no less than two wordsmiths -- a greater (Will Shakespeare) and a lesser (Edgar Allan Poe)-- armed with their s/words (or pens!...to a writer, I'd suppose 'the pen is mightier than the sword') wandering in the wilderness, pitting themselves against that wilderness, penned by yet a third wordsmith GRRM who likewise 'takes on' the wilderness, in the same instant pitting himself against both of his progenitors.  Drawing from the tradition of the literary canon, he utilizes narrative strategies which he has borrowed from these two and others.  Notably, the poetic personification of nature we've been discussing is nothing new.  Take for example Shakespeare's famous speech (given by Prospero the magician, apropos of our topic), which is often considered on a 'meta-' level to be a farewell to his wordcraft, in as much as it is a celebration thereof:

Quote

 Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure, and, when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book.

From: The Tempest -- Act 5 Scene I

 

Reminiscent of GRRM's techniques (but so superior...Sorry George, Shakespeare is still the master wordsmith not to be outdone of all time!!), the whole of nature -- hills, brooks, 'standing' lakes, groves, sea, sands, sky, and trees, etc. -- is populated by many lively species of spirit.  In addition, there is a profusion of the sounds (the airy, windy, breath metaphors) of which we've been speaking -- namely the voices animating nature, e.g. 'called forth mutinous winds...roaring war...dread rattling thunder...made shake...airy charms...heavenly music'...  When he says he's 'given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak with his own bolt,' it's as if he's breathed fire into the tree, and the reader can almost hear and see the tree and lightning crack!  Via the description of that teeming space 'twixt the green sea and azure vault' in which he has 'set roaring war,' it's as if he's responsible for provoking a lively conversation between the sea and the sky. 

By implication, human beings find themselves in that liminal space (i.e. any humanly habitable earth is an island twixt sea and sky) in the midst of that otherworldly conversation, compelled to join the rambunctious intercourse whether by invitation or not.  From the outset the human realm is therefore a place of roaring war, 'full of sound and fury,' in which we struggle to make sense of the other, the Other, and ourselves. The poet must rise to this challenge!  Best of all, using language Shakespeare claims the power to open graves at his command and wake the sleepers (sound familiar...?!)  That line can be understood on so many levels, and GRRM is obviously reworking some of those ideas with Bran, Bloodraven, the White Walkers and the wights, Thoros and Melisandre, etc. 

Since antique times, humans have been awed by the power of nature which implicitly and explicitly always threatens to destroy us, therefore there is an irresistible urge to anthropomorphize those forces in an attempt to understand and tame them (e.g. Shakespeare even mentions a couple of the early Greek gods of nature Zeus/Jove and Poseidon/Neptune, the gods of the sky and sea respectively).  Modern science can be seen as a more statistically quantifiable extension of that primary urge to take hold of a nature which holds us in its grip.  Likewise, the poet is similarly motivated.  Consider the origin of the word 'poetry' (according to Wikipedia):

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Poïesis (Ancient Greek: ποίησις) is etymologically derived from the ancient term ποιέω, which means "to make". This word, the root of our modern "poetry", was first a verb, an action that transforms and continues the world.

 

Similarly, in the Bible we are told 'in the beginning there was the word,' which triggered all creation.  In Prospero's speech, nature comes alive as a result of the influence of a higher power or prime-mover, with the assistance of his little helpers (the 'elves,' 'demi-puppets,' those of 'printless foot,' and other 'weak masters').  The way I read this passage, the first master, the original 'verb and action that transforms and continues the world' is none other than Shakespeare himself (his rival Kit Marlowe, for whom by the way Kit Harington was named,... and the rest up until and including GRRM and the others henceforth that would vie with him for ascendance are the 'weak masters'), the ultimate power being the power to move ones audience via the power of words, 'my so potent art...rough magic...to work mine end upon their sense that this airy charm is for..'. 

In the conclusion of the speech, Shakespeare contradicts himself when he vows to bury his words, break his staff, and drown his book.  Several centuries later, however, this text is still standing, its art still potent as the day it was written, despite the purported roughness of its magic, this airy charm breathing life from beyond the grave and retaining its ability to work upon the senses of the living -- quite remarkable when you think about it!' 

Words, writing, singing etc. is a form of telepathy and time travel as much as historical record that may alter our lives both quantitatively and qualitatively (in Bloodraven's cave as much is expressed).  Therefore, in thinking about these powers in reference to GRRM who also concerns himself with these themes, we should keep an eye (or a thousand and one eyes!) open for figures embodying bards, poets, singers, writers, readers, mental telepathists, magicians, prime movers and shakers, the liars and the lyres, and purveyors and purloiners of knowledge in general (Bran, Bloodraven, 'the singers,' the children of the forest, the Weirwood network, the ravens, the wargs, Sam, Tyrion, Ilyrio, Varys, Littlefinger, Melisandre and the other fire priestesses would all fall into this category; I'm sure you can all think of others, and I invite you to complete my list!). 

Shakespeare himself has been affectionately called 'The Bard,' indicating that he is The Poet of all time, at least for the English language, if not for all.  In this respect, I find his last sentence particularly ironic and resonant:  'And deeper than did ever plummet sound I'll drown my book' in which the line is split at the word 'sound,' leaving us with that word -- 'sound' -- hanging in the air (words are wind...), despite his insistence that his life's work, his book, his magic, and by implication all his words and sounds will be submerged!  Even as he ostensibly 'banishes' it, Shakespeare makes us acutely aware of words and sounds, further using alliteration of the letter 'd-' to drum in his message, 'And deeper than did ever plummet sound I'll drown my book,' as well as the assonance of 'sound' and 'drown' which echo with one another to round it off.  At the very end we're left with one final word -- 'book' -- to contemplate, which in its very irrefutable presence contradicts its purported destruction!  Words, sounds, books, and voices stand defiant against the erosion of time.  In spite of  talking of 'burying' 'drowning' and 'plummeting,' Shakespeare himself rises with his 'book,' fending off time for posterity.  This is one way words act as swords and wards.

 

 

On ‎4‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 8:01 AM, evita mgfs said:

·       Notice that after the “Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers”, Will opens his mouth but cannot speak.  Now, might this mean that the force moving the branches might also silence Will?

 

 

·       The white shadow Will glimpses in the darkness is “ghostlike” – or like Jon Snow’s direwolf Ghost.

 

@evita mgfs I love your pick-up of Ghost the white shadow, who from a certain perspective is literally 'a white walker' himself!

Yes, there is an intelligent presence which wishes to silence Will!  Moreover, this presence has a voice (stirring and scratching, rustling, cursing, giving answer, etc.) vs. Will who loses his.  I've given a preliminary textual and meta-textual interpretation above.  However, perhaps one should also consider an alternative interpretation.  Initially I had assumed a one-to-one mapping of word, swords, and wards to power, and conversely the absence thereof to powerlessness, but, after further thought, perhaps this is too simplistic.  GRRM typically deconstructs such dichotomies, and this is no exception.  

Firstly, it's equivocal whether the 'intelligent presence' moving through the woods is malevolently or benevolently inclined towards Will.  Complicating the picture, it's certainly within the realm of possibility that multiple competing intelligent presences exist, some of whom may be malevolent (e.g.?the White Walkers) or potentially benevolent (e.g. ?Bloodraven/old gods).  Furthermore, the text demonstrates that there are occasions when the usual words, swords, and wards are liabilities, and other more appropriate though perhaps less orthodox weapons are indicated.  For example, Royce is ill-equipped for ranging.  He brings all the wrong weapons -- his noisy voice, his longsword, his horse, etc. -- all drawing unwanted attention, and refuses all the right ones -- most notably scoffing at the notion of employing fire as a weapon, which we know in retrospect might have saved his (human) life.  Critically, Royce refuses to heed the sound counsel of his more experienced companions, in the same way he disregards the importance of listening to nature, which ultimately costs him, and them. 

In contrast, Will's principal weapon, having kept him alive thus far, is not (s)words but silence!  Will feels, listens, and sees; he pauses before acting; he thinks before he speaks.  These precautions save his life, at least initially.  Counterintuitively, silence is a virtue.  Silence, i.e. wordlessness, can be a sword in the darkness! (like Ghost the mute wolf)

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They emerged silently from the shadows, twins to the first. Three of them . . . four . . . five . . . Ser Waymar may have felt the cold that came with them, but he never saw them, never heard them. Will had to call out. It was his duty. And his death, if he did. He shivered, and hugged the tree, and kept the silence.

The pale sword came shivering through the air.

 

When we are first introduced to Will, his ability to move stealthily unseen in his environment is an asset lauded by the Night's Watch.  Incidentally, this is also considered to be one of Shakespeare's outstanding qualities, namely the ability to imagine a rich diversity of first-person character perspectives without however imposing his own personality too visibly on the text.  In this respect,  it's difficult to identify Shakespeare's personal preferences, hang-ups and blindspots -- his own voice over the many voices he's created.  Like Will, Shakespeare treads lightly and threads his way silently through his own text!  In comparison, GRRM's footprint is heavier, though not necessarily more indelible than Shakespeare's.  For example, it's patently obvious to me and many others that GRRM identifies above all with the physically ungainly yet irresistibly brilliant Tyrion, and that the glamorous yet misguided Daenerys is the girl he fantasized about in high school..!  This is a relative weakness of the text.

 

 On ‎4‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 8:01 AM, evita mgfs said:

Will is One with the Environment While Royce Disrupts the Natural Order

 

Martin establishes Will’s competence as a tracker and scout for the Night’s Watch. Will moves silently through the haunted forest:

 

“No one could move through the woods as silent as Will, and it had not taken the black brothers long to discover his talent”.

 

If Will  = Shakespeare = ('one with') the environment = natural order = the hierarchy of authors;

and if Ser Waymar desires to disrupt the natural order;

assuming my thesis that Martin surreptitiously desires to silence or subvert Shakespeare;

Then the upstart lordling = GRRM!

Considering his penchant of constructing things in threes, why would GRRM make playful allusions to two writers, without doing the same for the third ranger?

Assuming this symmetry holds true, this suggests that 'Ser Waymar' is also 'way more' than we think he is!

I've tried playing with various permutations of GRRM's full name, 'George Raymond Richard Martin' but this is the best I can come up with:

Way-mar = Mar-tin

Ray-mond = Way-mar...!  (granted, maybe I am overreaching here!)

Do any of you have some more convincing ideas about the meta-significance of this ('minor') character?

 

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Will rose. Ser Waymar Royce stood over him.

His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin. A shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye.

The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw.

The broken sword fell from nerveless fingers. Will closed his eyes to pray. Long, elegant hands brushed his cheek, then tightened around his throat. They were gloved in the finest moleskin and sticky with blood, yet the touch was icy cold

 

After reading  @Wizz-The-Smithlatest Riverland contributions (great reading!), I was struck at the similarity of the risen Ser Waymar to both Bloodraven and Beric (who have also both been resurrected).  The same elements are repeated: 

-- the 'scarecrow/ruin' of a man...'clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin'

--the 'one eye' as seer motif...

--moreover, the sword/dagger through the eye!...'a shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil'

--'blind white pupil' evokes special powers, including warging...the word 'pupil' can also refer to a master-apprentice situation as we have with Bloodraven-Bran or the Faceless Men-Arya

--although his eye is blue not red, it is described like Bloodraven's as 'burning' ('The only thing that looked alive in the pale ruin that was his face was his one red eye, burning like the last coal in a dead fire...')  Beric is the Lightning lord with a flaming sword so he is associated with fire too, and his missing eye is described as 'a red and angry wound'; there's also the allusion to 'the God's Eye' in the Riverlands where Beric met his 'first death' (the burning eye is of course an obvious reference to the omniscient omnipresent evil eye of Sauron the main antagonist in the Lord of the Rings)

--the snake imagery associated with Royce (earlier he's described as 'slithering' his chainmail like scales) as well as Bloodraven (the winged serpent = dragon), and of course all the weirwood wormy, serpentine imagery in Bloodraven's cave and Beric's hollow

--forbidden knowledge...'s/he knows things s/he has no business knowing' ...It's clear Bloodraven and Beric's sorcery has taken its toll on them.  Bran began his journey as seer after having been thrown down from the tower for having gazed on the forbidden, effectively in order to silence him so that he might not disclose what he had witnessed further; he was punished for climbing too high literally and figuratively.  Royce kills Will because he's come down off the tree to collect the sword as proof so that he may disclose the secrets of the (un)dead to the Night's Watch...he was safe as long as he was silent; however, contemplating breaking his silence was his undoing

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He found what was left of the sword a few feet away, the end splintered and twisted like a tree struck by lightning. Will knelt, looked around warily, and snatched it up. The broken sword would be his proof.

--here again a fire motif, lightning, flaming sword (Beric's flaming sword, 'lightbringer' = 'Lucifer', fire-breathing dragon is Lord Brynden's sigil) broken sword, broken branches, Bran crippled ('splintered and twisted like a tree struck by lightning'), cf:

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Old Nan told him a story about a bad little boy who climbed too high and was struck down by lightning, and how afterward the crows came to peck out his eyes. Bran was not impressed.

-- the risen Royce is compared to a tree (previously he had hacked at their limbs, now he's become one of them!)...  He 'stands over' Will like a sentinel, 'long elegant hands brushed his cheek' in a reverse mirroring of the personification of the branches as limbs which we've examined.  His hands are 'sticky with blood' against Will's cheek in an eerie echo of the earlier image of Will pressing himself to the tree and feeling the 'sweet, sticky sap' against his cheek, while he 'whispered a prayer to the nameless gods of the wood'

--tunnels, underground caverns...Ser Waymar's hands are 'gloved in the finest moleskin'..a mole is a tunneling underground animal. as well as a secret double-agent.  Likewise, it's difficult to differentiate if these forces, Ser Waymar (?'cold hands'/'Coldhands'), Beric, Bloodraven, etc. are malevolent or benevolent, and exactly who they're working for, and to what end...

'Moleskine' is also a famous make of notebook, popular among writers...which would fit with my fanciful hypothesis regarding the author!

 

 @Tijgy  Thanks for your thoughtful responses, I have not forgotten you! 

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On 4/19/2016 at 5:15 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

THE OLD GODS IN THE RIVERLAND’S : A CLOSER LOOK AT HIGH HEART

Hi everyone :)  In this short essay series I will research Arya IV – VI and VIII ASOS.  These three chapters are where to find the only mentions of HH in the series.  I will attempt to show the powers of the old gods are still evident in the RL’s.  That Beric Dondarrion is/was almost a direct parallel of BR.  And that the cave under HH is a direct parallel to BR’s cave north of the Wall.

I will also of course include any of the text we have been posting about in the thread if I think it’s relevant.  I shall post the chapters sequentially. 

PART ONE: ARYA IV ASOS

Arya and the BWB are travelling through the RL’s looking for Beric and visiting various people for information.  In this passage they are seeking help from The Lady of the Leaves……………..

‘’You’ve not seen Lord Beric?’’ asked Tom Sevenstrings.

‘’He’s dead.’’  The woman sounded sick. ‘’The Mountain caught him, and drove a dagger through his eye.  A begging brother told us.  He had it from the lips of a man who saw it happen.’’

‘’That’s an old stale tale, and false,’’ said Lem. ‘’The lightening lord’s not so easy to kill.  Ser Gregor might have put his eye out, but a man don’t die o’ that.  Jack could tell you.’’

‘’Well, I never did,’’ said one-eyed Jack-be-Lucky…………

I already knew there was a BR parallel to be found with Beric as I have posted about it before.  But to be thorough I re-read all three chapters again, even though not all the action was at HH.  And I’m glad I did.  This is our first clue to a link between the two characters as of course BR suffered the same fate at the hands of Bittersteel. 

‘Drove a dagger through his eye’ and ‘put his eye out, but a man don’t die o’ that’ explains perfectly what happened to both characters.  

Soon afterwards, they arrive at HH for the first time…………………….

The next day, they rode to a place called High Heart, a hill so lofty that from atop it Arya felt as though she could see half the world.  Around its brow stood a ring of huge pale stumps, all that remained of a circle of once-mighty weirwoods.  Arya and Gendry walked around the hill to count them.  There were thirty-one, some so wide that she could have used them for a bed.

High Heart had been sacred to the children of the forest, Tom Sevenstrings told her, and some of their magic lingered here still. ‘’No harm can ever come to those who sleep here,’’ the singer said……

I bolded the text about the weirwoods not only to signify the obvious allusion to the old gods but also as I will refer back to these ‘thirty-one ww stumps’ in the Arya VI analysis. 

Then the line ‘HH had been sacred to the CotF’ gives us our first indication as to just how important this place was for the children, ‘sacred’ in fact.  Perhaps a central base of operation back in their day?  The central location of the RL’s would’ve been perfect for such a base, had they not been scattered by the Andals.

And then Tom tells us that ‘some of their magic lingers there still’.  With what we know this is a cool line and presents Bran/BR a potential avenue in to the RL’s.  It seems GRRM wanted us to take note of this first mention of old gods/CotF magic as we move forward.  The conversation continued………..

The smallfolk hereabouts shunned the place, Tom told her; it was said to be haunted by the ghosts of the children of the forest who had died here when the Andal King named Erreg the Kinslayer had cut down their grove.  Arya knew about the CotF, and about the Andals too, but ghosts did not frighten her.  She used to hide in the crypts of Winterfell when she was little, and play games of come-into-my-castle and monsters and maidens amongst the stone Kings on their thrones.

It’s said that the ‘place is haunted by the ghosts of the CotF who had died there’, and that ‘the smallfolk shun the place’.  This would insinuate they feel creeped out up there, maybe experiencing ghostly goings on?  Again perhaps a subtle clue to keep an eye out for such when ‘we’ visit HH?

Next Arya thinks ‘ghosts did not frighten her’ and that ‘she used to hide in the crypts’.  There is a couple of things going on here I think.  The play on the word ghost/Ghost for one, we are about to meet the ‘Ghost’ of HH who is later likened to Jon’s wolf Ghost.  Plus all the Haunted/haunting stuff, when the author tells us a place is haunted we should be on the lookout for some of this text.

But also it directly links the thought of ghosts with the WF crypts and the stone kings on their thrones.  I thought this interesting after all we have posted about regards the possible ghosts roaming Winterfell.  Very subtle and may mean nothing, but I think the first time we visit the crypts in Ned I AGOT the statues seem very ‘ghostly’:unsure:

This next bit of text is the first time the wind appears in these chapters………………………. 

 Yet even so, the hair on the back of her neck stood up that night.  She had been asleep, but the storm woke her.  The wind pulled the coverlet right off her and sent it ‘swirling’ into the bushes.  When she went after it she heard voices.

This example is slightly different to our normal findings, but very effective!  I think the wind sent the coverlet ‘swirling’ into the bushes so Arya would witness the conversation going on around the fire.  Perhaps the wind is showing a stronger ability than normal as we’re at HH?  And the word swirling is used a lot around the old gods text, usually the wind itself.  Although this is slightly different, it caught my eye.  Anyway, as Arya ‘watched and listened’…………………………………    

Besides the embers of their campfire, she saw Tom, Lem, and Greenbeard talking to a tiny little woman, a foot shorter than Arya and older than Old Nan, all stooped and wrinkled and leaning on a gnarled cane.  Her white hair was so long it came almost to the ground.  When the wind ‘gusted’ it blew about her head in a fine cloud.  Her flesh was whiter, the colour of milk, and it seemed to Arya that her eyes were red, though it was hard to tell from the bushes.  ‘’The old gods stir and will not let me sleep,’’ she heard the woman say……………….

Again the wind is ‘gusting’ as we have shown a lot, and made her hair ‘blow about in a fine cloud’.  The wind seemed interested in the GoHH and the way her hair blows in a fine cloud reminds me of the text when the wind creates plumes of snow crystals etc…………   :dunno:

Then when the GoHH says ‘the old gods stir and will not let me sleep’ this is our first textual evidence that the old gods are actually present.  It is left at that by the author, but we will come back to her relationship with the old gods in Arya VIII.  Continuing…………………………………..

The next morning, the little white haired woman was nowhere to be seen.  As they saddled their horses, Arya asked Tom Sevenstrings if the children of the forest still dwelled on High Heart.  The singer chuckled. ‘’Saw her, did you?’’

‘’Was she a ghost?’’

‘’Do ghosts complain of how their joints creak?  No, she’s only an old dwarf woman.  A queer one, though, and evil eyed.  But she knows things she has no business knowing, and sometimes she’ll tell you if she likes the look of you.’’

We have another play on the word ghost.  Unbeknownst to her, Arya is asking Tom if the Ghost was a ghost?  And the next line is I think another set up for us to ponder as Tom tells us ‘she knows things she has no business knowing’.  How does she know things?  Again I will revisit these thoughts in Arya VIII.

IN CONCLUSION

I think this chapter was setting some stuff up for our next visits to HH.  Namely……..

Beric having one eye/BR parallels and the thirty-one weirwood stumps atop the hill are tied in for the next chapter, Arya VI.

Tom telling us the GoHH knows things she shouldn’t, and I address this in the third chapter analysis Arya VIII.

But also, this chapter reveals that magic still lingers there – it’s considered haunted – the old gods are stirring – and the wind throwing Arya’s coverlet into the bushes as if to facilitate her hearing that conversation.  Plus some of my musing on the various text.

See you in part two. [Hopefully]  :D

 

45 minutes ago, ravenous reader said:

 

Nice essays Wizz!  I'm really behind in my responses and you guys are so prolific of late!  Accordingly, I apologize in advance if my post which follows is 'old' and off-topic, but hopefully something in my meandering (not-so-amusing) meta-musings will pique some interest!

 

PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

 I really like the 'hidden message' Cat receives from Lysa at Winterfell.  Is this George telling us to look closer as well?  The message being in a hidden compartment and in a secret language or code if you will seemed like a hint for us readers to look at the previous chapters a little closer.     

Totally agree  @Wizz-The-SmithLove the way you think 'out of the box'!  Isn't there also a special lens in the secret box prompting us to figuratively see through a different lens or see a little closer?  As far as secret boxes and boxed secrets go, I highly recommend  @sweetsunray's chthonic essays which give a fascinating mythological backdrop involving the Eleusinian mysteries, Pandora's box, and Set's box.  Her thoughts on the relationship of secrets (both keeping and disclosing them) and violation/violence is very insightful.

There are a lot of 'meta-'messages going on in the text at hand, some of which even GRRM may not be fully aware!  I shall introduce one such 'meta-'message, as follows. 

 

On ‎4‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 8:01 AM, evita mgfs said:

 

 

WILL LOSES HIS VOICE

 

“Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding through the wood. He turned his head, glimpsed a white shadow in the darkness. Then it was gone. Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers. Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and the words seemed to freeze in his throat. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps it had only been a bird, a reflection on the snow, some trick of the moonlight. What had he seen, after all?”

 

Recently, I looked at puns on @Seamsthread, particularly 'words/swords/wards'.  It's interesting to explore the idea of words used as swords or wards (i.e. though seemingly abstract and innocuous, words nevertheless become something tangible and empowering, akin to weapons and defenses to ward off or ward against the physical and magical elements confronting 'man'; in this vein, remember the 'quarrels' and Walder Frey's 'sharp tongue' we've previously discussed).

In the context of the prologue (thank you for bringing to our attention with your usual nuanced sensitivity, @Wizz-The-Smith !) and Bran's growing powers, 'words' are of relevance considering our task in general of attempting to deconstruct GRRM's intricately constructed self-conscious prose puzzles, and specifically in light of Will 'losing his voice' and being unable to call out, bearing in mind, as  @evita mgfs has previously pointed out, that the figure of 'Will' is a nod to that ultimate wordsmith William Shakespeare (as Gared is an anagram/syllabic transposition of another writer Edgar [Allan Poe]).  So, when 'Will' is reduced to wordlessness and swordlessness (when he carries his dagger between his teeth in order to climb with greater ease, he is unable to wield it; his arms are also occupied climbing the tree), that is indeed something of which we should take note! 

Will is disarmed (unable to use either his voice or his sword as weapons), while in contrast the branches are 'armed'!  (etymologically, 'branches' are related to arms, from Middle English: from Old French branche, from late Latin branca ‘paw'...so wolves and trees have paws with long claws!)  'Branches stirred [apart from the onomatopoeia and susurration, this verb evokes someone stirring a pot (using a 'weirwooden' spoon perhaps!) with the connotation of 'cooking up' trouble, interfering, meddling, etc]...scratching at one another with wooden fingers'... There's something vaguely disquieting and predatory about all this.  And then there's the connection to 'the old gods stirring' (trees and old gods are connected north of the Wall as well as in the Riverlands) highlighted by @Wizz-The-Smith , 'the old gods stir and will not let me sleep'...they disturb the 'ghost of high heart's' sleep, intrude on her psyche, bringing dreams and visions.  @The Fattest Leech 's observations on the wooden boy Pinocchio and dubious puppeteers also tie in here. 

Elsewhere GRRM directly refers to branches as 'limbs,' reinforcing this parallel.  In addition @evita mgfs has pointed out the clever 'broken Bran-ches' quote, a pun which alludes to branches as weapons (the children in the vision are practicing swordskills with broken branches) as well as Bran's broken limbs (he's also associated with the 'Broken tower,' which if one is sufficiently imaginative could refer to Bran's broken spinal column). 

It's worth mentioning that like the branches, Bran despite being 'broken' can still be a powerful weapon ('cripples, bastards, and broken things' all figure prominently in the series...).  In the weirwood, Bloodraven himself a famous bastard is united with Bran the cripple (whose brother is also a soon-to-be-famous bastard), together wielding the ultimate power, to move others with ones thoughts and without moving oneself.  Figuratively, a bastard can also be seen as an aberrant offshoot or broken branch of the 'family tree'! 

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 the ground was damp and muddy, slick footing, with rocks and hidden roots to trip you up. Will made no sound as he climbed. Behind him, he heard the soft metalic slither of the lordling’s ringmail, the rustle of leaves, and muttered curses as reaching branches grabbed at his longsword and tugged on his splendid sable cloak.

As we've mentioned, trees are personified extending their roots like legs 'to trip you up,' and branches like arms 'reaching...tugging...and grabbing' the passersby.  Moreover, they are armed with other defenses such as the 'sticky sap' which heals the tree from cuts and scrapes and wards off predator attacks, as well as needles in which Will is said to 'lose' himself.  The needles are of course a further link between the old gods of the far north and Arya with her Winterfell-forged 'Needle.' 

From the perspective of the natural world, Royce is a predator in their midst ('sable' fur and snake imagery 'soft metallic slither of the lordling's ringmail') hacking off their limbs with his longsword (?his fang).  In reply, the trees try to defend themselves by reaching out to deflect his destructive path, grabbing at his longsword in an attempt to disarm him, and tugging on his cloak to waylay him.  Additionally, the way GRRM constructs the sentence 'he heard...the rustle of leaves, and muttered curses as reaching branches grabbed...,' the subject behind the muttered curses is left ambiguous, possibly referring either to Royce muttering curses at the trees which impede his progress or alternatively to the trees themselves which curse his unwelcome intrusion.  Immediately juxtaposed with 'the rustle of leaves' and the 'reaching branches' to either side of the phrase 'muttered curses,' it's hinted that the trees and/or the wind is doing the cursing! 

This topsy-turvy (in)version of power relations continues with the description of Will being voiceless (words have fled him and/or he is unable to wield them), while at the same time the words themselves have '[frozen] in his throat'...evoking the sense that the words are hard objects, having solidified into a physical presence vs. Will's physical presence which is increasingly threatened with dissolution.  Indeed, by freezing or sticking in his throat the words threaten not only to figuratively take his breath away but literally too, i.e. they threaten to choke him! (again, words have become sharp weapons; in a weird sense his words seem to have turned on/against him). The frozen words and cold choking foreshadows Will's fate.  In the end, Will has the life strangled out of him by the cold sticky hands of Royce-come-again before he can even say a silent prayer!  This means that Royce, who in life was also quite fond of 'shutting him up,' has the last word.

From a meta-perspective, does this imply that GRRM secretly wishes to silence Shakespeare, supplant him, or worse, make him impotent by symbolically disarming, dismembering or castrating him..(GRRM uses the word 'unman' with respect to Gared)?  It's ironic that of all the manifold attributes and myths surrounding Shakespeare, GRRM chose to portray 'Will' as a poacher caught red-handed, while on a meta-level GRRM is poaching from Shakespeare in plain sight.  (This also raises the question: if 'Will' is Shakespeare and 'Gared' is Poe, 'Who' is Ser Waymar Royce..?)

In as much as every author must take on the body of work of his artistic peers and predecessors, an author cannot avoid getting his teeth stuck into that 'body' (and taking up s/words against it), meaning that s/he must 'attack' it, digest and rework it to produce something new (echoing our 'cannibalism-communion' motif).  It's a battle for survival and artistic longevity, over the question regarding whose work will stand the test of time and the onslaughts of other writers, readers, critics, screenwriters and producers?!  Borrowing from and consuming each other's ideas (the pun in my avatar 'ravenous reader' playfully evokes just this), the whole question of 'originality' is necessarily raised. 

In other words, every author wishes in a way to 'freeze' the words of other authors, replacing them with his or her own instead ('in stead' means standing in place of, therefore the challenge is to ambitiously replace those who have gone before, while at the same time learning from and incorporating their work with a certain deference and reverence).  The literary critic Harold Bloom calls this literary and psychological phenomenon, whereby authors -- living and dead (oh, yes, the dead still partake actively in this conversation!)-- strive to subvert each other, 'the anxiety of influence.'  His conclusion is that many fail, often producing second-rate second-hand regurgitations, and that no-one has come close to conquering Shakespeare ever. 

So, in the prologue we have allusions to no less than two wordsmiths -- a greater (Will Shakespeare) and a lesser (Edgar Allan Poe)-- armed with their s/words (or pens!...to a writer, I'd suppose 'the pen is mightier than the sword') wandering in the wilderness, pitting themselves against that wilderness, penned by yet a third wordsmith GRRM who likewise 'takes on' the wilderness, in the same instant pitting himself against both of his progenitors.  Drawing from the tradition of the literary canon, he utilizes narrative strategies which he has borrowed from these two and others.  Notably, the poetic personification of nature we've been discussing is nothing new.  Take for example Shakespeare's famous speech (given by Prospero the magician, apropos of our topic), which is often considered on a 'meta-' level to be a farewell to his wordcraft, in as much as it is a celebration thereof:

Quote

 Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites, and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm'd
The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure, and, when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book.

From: The Tempest -- Act 5 Scene I

 

Reminiscent of GRRM's techniques (but so superior...Sorry George, Shakespeare is still the master wordsmith not to be outdone of all time!!), the whole of nature -- hills, brooks, 'standing' lakes, groves, sea, sands, sky, and trees, etc. -- is populated by many lively species of spirit.  In addition, there is a profusion of the sounds (the airy, windy, breath metaphors) of which we've been speaking -- namely the voices animating nature, e.g. 'called forth mutinous winds...roaring war...dread rattling thunder...made shake...airy charms...heavenly music'...  When he says he's 'given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak with his own bolt,' it's as if he's breathed fire into the tree, and the reader can almost hear and see the tree and lightning crack!  Via the description of that teeming space 'twixt the green sea and azure vault' in which he has 'set roaring war,' it's as if he's responsible for provoking a lively conversation between the sea and the sky. 

By implication, human beings find themselves in that liminal space (i.e. any humanly habitable earth is an island twixt sea and sky) in the midst of that otherworldly conversation, compelled to join the rambunctious intercourse whether by invitation or not.  From the outset the human realm is therefore a place of roaring war, 'full of sound and fury,' in which we struggle to make sense of the other, the Other, and ourselves. The poet must rise to this challenge!  Best of all, using language Shakespeare claims the power to open graves at his command and wake the sleepers (sound familiar...?!)  That line can be understood on so many levels, and GRRM is obviously reworking some of those ideas with Bran, Bloodraven, the White Walkers and the wights, Thoros and Melisandre, etc. 

Since antique times, humans have been awed by the power of nature which implicitly and explicitly always threatens to destroy us, therefore there is an irresistible urge to anthropomorphize those forces in an attempt to understand and tame them (e.g. Shakespeare even mentions a couple of the early Greek gods of nature Zeus/Jove and Poseidon/Neptune, the gods of the sky and sea respectively).  Modern science can be seen as a more statistically quantifiable extension of that primary urge to take hold of a nature which holds us in its grip.  Likewise, the poet is similarly motivated.  Consider the origin of the word 'poetry' (according to Wikipedia):

Quote

Poïesis (Ancient Greek: ποίησις) is etymologically derived from the ancient term ποιέω, which means "to make". This word, the root of our modern "poetry", was first a verb, an action that transforms and continues the world.

 

Similarly, in the Bible we are told 'in the beginning there was the word,' which triggered all creation.  In Prospero's speech, nature comes alive as a result of the influence of a higher power or prime-mover, with the assistance of his little helpers (the 'elves,' 'demi-puppets,' those of 'printless foot,' and other 'weak masters').  The way I read this passage, the first master, the original 'verb and action that transforms and continues the world' is none other than Shakespeare himself (his rival Kit Marlowe, for whom by the way Kit Harington was named,... and the rest up until and including GRRM and the others henceforth that would vie with him for ascendance are the 'weak masters'), the ultimate power being the power to move ones audience via the power of words, 'my so potent art...rough magic...to work mine end upon their sense that this airy charm is for..'. 

In the conclusion of the speech, Shakespeare contradicts himself when he vows to bury his words, break his staff, and drown his book.  Several centuries later, however, this text is still standing, its art still potent as the day it was written, despite the purported roughness of its magic, this airy charm breathing life from beyond the grave and retaining its ability to work upon the senses of the living -- quite remarkable when you think about it!' 

Words, writing, singing etc. is a form of telepathy and time travel as much as historical record that may alter our lives both quantitatively and qualitatively (in Bloodraven's cave as much is expressed).  Therefore, in thinking about these powers in reference to GRRM who also concerns himself with these themes, we should keep an eye (or a thousand and one eyes!) open for figures embodying bards, poets, singers, writers, readers, mental telepathists, magicians, prime movers and shakers, the liars and the lyres, and purveyors and purloiners of knowledge in general (Bran, Bloodraven, 'the singers,' the children of the forest, the Weirwood network, the ravens, the wargs, Sam, Tyrion, Ilyrio, Varys, Littlefinger, Melisandre and the other fire priestesses would all fall into this category; I'm sure you can all think of others, and I invite you to complete my list!). 

Shakespeare himself has been affectionately called 'The Bard,' indicating that he is The Poet of all time, at least for the English language, if not for all.  In this respect, I find his last sentence particularly ironic and resonant:  'And deeper than did ever plummet sound I'll drown my book' in which the line is split at the word 'sound,' leaving us with that word -- 'sound' -- hanging in the air (words are wind...), despite his insistence that his life's work, his book, his magic, and by implication all his words and sounds will be submerged!  Even as he ostensibly 'banishes' it, Shakespeare makes us acutely aware of words and sounds, further using alliteration of the letter 'd-' to drum in his message, 'And deeper than did ever plummet sound I'll drown my book,' as well as the assonance of 'sound' and 'drown' which echo with one another to round it off.  At the very end we're left with one final word -- 'book' -- to contemplate, which in its very irrefutable presence contradicts its purported destruction!  Words, sounds, books, and voices stand defiant against the erosion of time.  In spite of  talking of 'burying' 'drowning' and 'plummeting,' Shakespeare himself rises with his 'book,' fending off time for posterity.  This is one way words act as swords and wards.

 

 

On ‎4‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 8:01 AM, evita mgfs said:

·       Notice that after the “Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers”, Will opens his mouth but cannot speak.  Now, might this mean that the force moving the branches might also silence Will?

 

 

·       The white shadow Will glimpses in the darkness is “ghostlike” – or like Jon Snow’s direwolf Ghost.

 

@evita mgfs I love your pick-up of Ghost the white shadow, who from a certain perspective is literally 'a white walker' himself!

Yes, there is an intelligent presence which wishes to silence Will!  Moreover, this presence has a voice (stirring and scratching, rustling, cursing, giving answer, etc.) vs. Will who loses his.  I've given a preliminary textual and meta-textual interpretation above.  However, perhaps one should also consider an alternative interpretation.  Initially I had assumed a one-to-one mapping of word, swords, and wards to power, and conversely the absence thereof to powerlessness, but, after further thought, perhaps this is too simplistic.  GRRM typically deconstructs such dichotomies, and this is no exception.  

Firstly, it's equivocal whether the 'intelligent presence' moving through the woods is malevolently or benevolently inclined towards Will.  Complicating the picture, it's certainly within the realm of possibility that multiple competing intelligent presences exist, some of whom may be malevolent (e.g.?the White Walkers) or potentially benevolent (e.g. ?Bloodraven/old gods).  Furthermore, the text demonstrates that there are occasions when the usual words, swords, and wards are liabilities, and other more appropriate though perhaps less orthodox weapons are indicated.  For example, Royce is ill-equipped for ranging.  He brings all the wrong weapons -- his noisy voice, his longsword, his horse, etc. -- all drawing unwanted attention, and refuses all the right ones -- most notably scoffing at the notion of employing fire as a weapon, which we know in retrospect might have saved his (human) life.  Critically, Royce refuses to heed the sound counsel of his more experienced companions, in the same way he disregards the importance of listening to nature, which ultimately costs him, and them. 

In contrast, Will's principal weapon, having kept him alive thus far, is not (s)words but silence!  Will feels, listens, and sees; he pauses before acting; he thinks before he speaks.  These precautions save his life, at least initially.  Counterintuitively, silence is a virtue.  Silence, i.e. wordlessness, can be a sword in the darkness! (like Ghost the mute wolf)

Quote

They emerged silently from the shadows, twins to the first. Three of them . . . four . . . five . . . Ser Waymar may have felt the cold that came with them, but he never saw them, never heard them. Will had to call out. It was his duty. And his death, if he did. He shivered, and hugged the tree, and kept the silence.

The pale sword came shivering through the air.

 

 

When we are first introduced to Will, his ability to move stealthily unseen in his environment is an asset lauded by the Night's Watch.  Incidentally, this is also considered to be one of Shakespeare's outstanding qualities, namely the ability to imagine a rich diversity of first-person character perspectives without however imposing his own personality too visibly on the text.  In this respect,  it's difficult to identify Shakespeare's personal preferences, hang-ups and blindspots -- his own voice over the many voices he's created.  Like Will, Shakespeare treads lightly and threads his way silently through his own text!  In comparison, GRRM's footprint is heavier, though not necessarily more indelible than Shakespeare's.  For example, it's patently obvious to me and many others that GRRM identifies above all with the physically ungainly yet irresistibly brilliant Tyrion, and that the glamorous yet misguided Daenerys is the girl he fantasized about in high school..!  This is a relative weakness of the text.

 

 On ‎4‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 8:01 AM, evita mgfs said:

Will is One with the Environment While Royce Disrupts the Natural Order

 

Martin establishes Will’s competence as a tracker and scout for the Night’s Watch. Will moves silently through the haunted forest:

 

“No one could move through the woods as silent as Will, and it had not taken the black brothers long to discover his talent”.

 

If Will  = Shakespeare = ('one with') the environment = natural order = the hierarchy of authors;

and if Ser Waymar desires to disrupt the natural order;

assuming my thesis that Martin surreptitiously desires to silence or subvert Shakespeare;

Then the upstart lordling = GRRM!

Considering his penchant of constructing things in threes, why would GRRM make playful allusions to two writers, without doing the same for the third ranger?

Assuming this symmetry holds true, this suggests that 'Ser Waymar' is also 'way more' than we think he is!

I've tried playing with various permutations of GRRM's full name, 'George Raymond Richard Martin' but this is the best I can come up with:

Way-mar = Mar-tin

Ray-mond = Way-mar...!  (granted, maybe I am overreaching here!)

Do any of you have some more convincing ideas about the meta-significance of this ('minor') character?

 

Quote

Will rose. Ser Waymar Royce stood over him.

His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin. A shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye.

The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw.

The broken sword fell from nerveless fingers. Will closed his eyes to pray. Long, elegant hands brushed his cheek, then tightened around his throat. They were gloved in the finest moleskin and sticky with blood, yet the touch was icy cold

 

 

After reading  @Wizz-The-Smithlatest Riverland contributions (great reading!), I was struck at the similarity of the risen Ser Waymar to both Bloodraven and Beric (who have also both been resurrected).  The same elements are repeated: 

-- the 'scarecrow/ruin' of a man...'clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin'

--the 'one eye' as seer motif...

--moreover, the sword/dagger through the eye!...'a shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil'

--'blind white pupil' evokes special powers, including warging...the word 'pupil' can also refer to a master-apprentice situation as we have with Bloodraven-Bran or the Faceless Men-Arya

--although his eye is blue not red, it is described like Bloodraven's as 'burning' ('The only thing that looked alive in the pale ruin that was his face was his one red eye, burning like the last coal in a dead fire...')  Beric is the Lightning lord with a flaming sword so he is associated with fire too, and his missing eye is described as 'a red and angry wound'; there's also the allusion to 'the God's Eye' in the Riverlands where Beric met his 'first death' (the burning eye is of course an obvious reference to the omniscient omnipresent evil eye of Sauron the main antagonist in the Lord of the Rings)

--the snake imagery associated with Royce (earlier he's described as 'slithering' his chainmail like scales) as well as Bloodraven (the winged serpent = dragon), and of course all the weirwood wormy, serpentine imagery in Bloodraven's cave and Beric's hollow

--forbidden knowledge...'s/he knows things s/he has no business knowing' ...It's clear Bloodraven and Beric's sorcery has taken its toll on them.  Bran began his journey as seer after having been thrown down from the tower for having gazed on the forbidden, effectively in order to silence him so that he might not disclose what he had witnessed further; he was punished for climbing too high literally and figuratively.  Royce kills Will because he's come down off the tree to collect the sword as proof so that he may disclose the secrets of the (un)dead to the Night's Watch...he was safe as long as he was silent; however, contemplating breaking his silence was his undoing

Quote

He found what was left of the sword a few feet away, the end splintered and twisted like a tree struck by lightning. Will knelt, looked around warily, and snatched it up. The broken sword would be his proof.

 

--here again a fire motif, lightning, flaming sword (Beric's flaming sword, 'lightbringer' = 'Lucifer', fire-breathing dragon is Lord Brynden's sigil) broken sword, broken branches, Bran crippled ('splintered and twisted like a tree struck by lightning'), cf:

Quote

Old Nan told him a story about a bad little boy who climbed too high and was struck down by lightning, and how afterward the crows came to peck out his eyes. Bran was not impressed.

 

-- the risen Royce is compared to a tree (previously he had hacked at their limbs, now he's become one of them!)...  He 'stands over' Will like a sentinel, 'long elegant hands brushed his cheek' in a reverse mirroring of the personification of the branches as limbs which we've examined.  His hands are 'sticky with blood' against Will's cheek in an eerie echo of the earlier image of Will pressing himself to the tree and feeling the 'sweet, sticky sap' against his cheek, while he 'whispered a prayer to the nameless gods of the wood'

--tunnels, underground caverns...Ser Waymar's hands are 'gloved in the finest moleskin'..a mole is a tunneling underground animal. as well as a secret double-agent.  Likewise, it's difficult to differentiate if these forces, Ser Waymar (?'cold hands'/'Coldhands'), Beric, Bloodraven, etc. are malevolent or benevolent, and exactly who they're working for, and to what end...

'Moleskine' is also a famous make of notebook, popular among writers...which would fit with my fanciful hypothesis regarding the author!

 

 @Tijgy  Thanks for your thoughtful responses, I have not forgotten you! 

:bowdown:MIND BLOWN! AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!! :cheers:

 I LOVE THE MAR-TIN THING, AND IF I MAY ADD, Royce's cloak is made of fur from  MARTEN !  HAR HAR HAR!!!!

I THINK IT IS TRUE - MARTIN/MARTEN AND YOUR WORD PLAY - Martin aligns himself with the two writers he pays homage to, doesn't he?  We must look out for a homage to William Golding!

SO YOU BEST HIE TO SEAMS WITH YOUR AWESOME PUNNING!!!:wub:

More later!  I am still working on the amazing post in the other reread thread where you really delve deep into the Catholic Mass.

I have read the mythology thread you mention - and posted there as well.

  see below

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MIND BLOWN! AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!

 I LOVE THE MAR-TIN THING, AND IF I MAY ADD, Royce's cloak is made of fur from  MARTEN !  HAR HAR HAR!!!!

I THINK IT IS TRUE - MARTIN/MARTEN AND YOUR WORD PLAY - Martin aligns himself with the two writers he pays homage to, doesn't he?  We must look out for a homage to William Golding!

SO YOU BEST HIE TO SEAMS WITH YOUR AWESOME PUNNING!!!

More later!  I am still working on the amazing post in the other reread thread where you really delve deep into the Catholic Mass.

I have read the mythology thread you mention - and posted there as well.

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I am catching up a little on this thread (damned work!) but I can say that without a doubt, I am in constant awe of the details drawn up here. I hope one day GRRM stumbles on this thread and gives it a read. 

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6 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

I am catching up a little on this thread (damned work!) but I can say that without a doubt, I am in constant awe of the details drawn up here. I hope one day GRRM stumbles on this thread and gives it a read. 

Well, you have made some pretty awesome contributions as well! :thumbsup: Don't you dare sell yourself short :spank:- That WIZZ-THE-SMITH does that enough for everyone in our pack.:grouphug:  He has really refined his prose and style, and I am so proud of him - and you!  [For reading all of this with only a cup of tea to wash it down!]

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ALERT:  MY MOM SENT ME THIS ARTICLE ON BRAN:  GOOD STUFF!

 

http://tvline.com/2016/04/20/game-of-thrones-season-6-bran-warg-standing/

 

Men of 'Game of Thrones' EXCLUSIVE Interview

Good Morning America:

 

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/exclusive-cast-interview-men-game-thrones-38528059

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6 hours ago, evita mgfs said:

MIND BLOWN! AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!

 

 I LOVE THE MAR-TIN THING, AND IF I MAY ADD, Royce's cloak is made of fur from  MARTEN !  HAR HAR HAR!!!!

 

I THINK IT IS TRUE - MARTIN/MARTEN AND YOUR WORD PLAY - Martin aligns himself with the two writers he pays homage to, doesn't he?  We must look out for a homage to William Golding!

 

SO YOU BEST HIE TO SEAMS WITH YOUR AWESOME PUNNING!!!

 

More later!  I am still working on the amazing post in the other reread thread where you really delve deep into the Catholic Mass.

 

I have read the mythology thread you mention - and posted there as well.

 

Brilliant!  I hadn't even realized that -- a sable (Martes zibellina) is a marten (especially in America)!  ha ha.  From Wikipedia:

Quote

Sables inhabit dense forests dominated by spruce, pine, larch, cedar, and birch in both lowland and mountainous terrain...Sables live in burrows near riverbanks and in the thickest parts of woods. These burrows are commonly made more secure by being dug among tree roots

P.S. looking forward to more on the Catholic mass...loved your thoughts on 'Summerwine'...

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Bran IV, ACOK – Wrong answers to an unsolved questions

 

Introduction

 

Hey, everyone!! I am here with another analysis of another chapter. Like the other chapters of Bran I analyzed, the old gods are not really standing in the background. The old gods, their agents and their powers are again the main element of this chapter. In this chapter Bran actually seeks the answer to a certain, very important question which was asked already in a earlier chapter: what is the meaning of his dreams?

 

Like in my other analyses, I try to keep the quotes and my own interpretation seperate. While I tried to include any possible reference to the old gods, Bran’s powers, … in this chapter, there was some personal input in choosing which quotes fitted which part of analysis. For the complete and completely objective text I refer of course to the chapter in the book. (The beginning is actually really sweet. Bran is wrestling with his wolf. So I suggest a reread. Plus you might find some things I might have missed.)

 

Some author notes:

 

  • During my text I sometimes underline some words. This only means that in the books the words are cursive, because they are parts of the story that are the thoughts of the POV Character.

     

  • I also refer here just to the "Old Gods". This can of course how being interpreted according to your opinion: Bloodraven, seers of the Children, ...).

     

  • The problem I have is that the children are not really the “masters” of their direwolves. They are friends, companions, … And as a result to that problem I always feel it necessary to call the direwolves the four-legged friends of the Little Starks and the Little Starks the two-legged friends of the direwolves … I should start to make a whole dictionary for my writings. And Little XX just mean the children of house XX. And Raven is of course Mormont’s raven.
  • Due length, I put the quotes in the spoiler tag. So there are not really spoilers in there. 

Enjoy, my dears!

 

A Summary

 

In the beginning of this chapter Bran and the Little Reeds are in the godswood playing with Summer. At one moment they start to talk about Jojen’s prophetic dreams. Jojen changes the subject of the conservation to the dreams of Bran, Bran’s connection with the three-eyed crow and Bran’s powers. Because Bran is very reluctant to talk about his dreams and Jojen keeps asking questions, Summer gets angry and wants to attack Jojen with the aid of his brother Shaggy. Luckily Hodor is able to chase the direwolves away. The Little Reeds leave the godswood and Bran goes to Luwin’s turret and talks with Luwin about magic. Afterwards Meera tells Bran about one of Jojen’s prophecy which Bran believes to be unfulfilled. This makes Bran believe magic doesn’t exist.

 

B What does his dreams mean? – Version 2

 

1 Introduction

 

In my analysis of Bran I mentioned Bran was during this chapter fulfilling several actions of a greenseer. One of those actions was finding the truth about some things by asking questions to people. One of the truths he was seeking was the meaning of his dreams.  According to Osha the old gods were using his dreams to talk to him (You should not fight so hard, boy. I see you talking to the heart tree. Might be the gods are trying to talk back. – Bran I, ACOK)

 

In this chapter Bran tries (albeit reluctantly) to discover further the truth of the meaning behind his dreams. He has three people, or I might even call them mentors, to help him with this quest: Jojen, Luwin and Meera.

 

2 Mentor 1: Jojen

 

a description

 

i quotes

 

Spoiler

 

- “Sitting cross-legged under the weirwood, Jojen Reed regarded him solemnly. “It would be good if you left Winterfell, Bran. And sooner rather than later.”

 

- “I will,” said Jojen, “if you’ll tell me about your dreams.

 

The godswood grew quiet. Bran could hear leaves rustling, and Hodor’s distant splashing from the hot pools. He thought of the golden man and the three-eyed crow, remembered the crunch of bones between his jaws and the coppery taste of blood.

 

My brother has the greensight,” said Meera. “He dreams things that haven’t happened, but sometimes they do.” “There is no sometimes, Meera.” A look passed between them; him sad, her defiant.

 

- Jojen’s eyes were the color of moss, and sometimes when he looked at you he seemed to be seeing something else. Like now.

 

- When I was little I almost died of greywater fever. That was when the crow came to me.

 

“He came to me after I fell,” Bran blurted. “I as asleep for a long time. He said I had to fly or die, and I woke up, only I was broken and I couldn’t fly after all.

 

- The crow sent us here to break your chains.” Meera and Jojen say then the crow is beyond the wall. “When Jojen told our lord father what he’d dreamed, he sent us to Winterfell.

 

- He had a soft way of speaking.

 

- There’s no need. Today is not the day I die.” “Do it!”  she screamed

 

 

 

ii discussion

 

During the talk between Bran and Jojen, Jojen is sitting under the weirwood while Bran is sitting against a tall ash with Summer’s head on his lap (Sitting cross-legged under the weirwood). It is very symbolic that Jojen as agent of the Old Gods sits under the weirwood while Bran is told for the first time what his powers really are.

 

Further at the moment Jojen asks Bran about his dreams, “the godswood grew quiet. Bran could hear leaves rustling, and Hodor’s distant splashing from the hot pools.” The rustling leaves gives an indication that the old gods themselves are there at this very special moment. Personally I am also intrigued by that splashing and again a mentioning of the pools? In Bran I ACOK we had several children splashing in the pools, in Bran II ACOK Osha splashed out of the pools, Hodor likes to bath in the pools, …

 

Further we learn Jojen himself has the greensight: he has dreams that come true (He dreams things that haven’t happened, but sometimes they do” “There is no sometimes, Meera.” )

 

His eyes are the color of moss (green). The seers of the CotF have either green or red eyes (“Those you call the children of the forest have eyes as golden as the sun, but once in a great while one is born amongst them with eyes as red as blood, or green as the moss on a tree in the heart of the forest”, ADWD, Bran III) And Bran says it looks like Jojen is able to see something else, something more than everyone else sees (sometimes when he looked at you he seemed to be seeing something else. Like now).

 

Just like Bran, Jojen was visited by the crow after a lifethreatening health circumstances (When I was little I almost died of greywater fever. That was when the crow came to me). While Meera told in public in last chapter they came to Winterfell to renew their oath, we discover now the Little Reeds came to Winterfell for another reason. Howland sent them to Winterfell when he heard Jojen had dreamed he had to break the chains of the winged wolf (which is Bran) (The crow sent us here to break your chains.”; “When Jojen told our lord father what he’d dreamed, he sent us to Winterfell.”). The Reeds are really there as agents of the crow/the old gods to teach Bran about his powers. We learn also that the crow lives beyond the Wall (note: hello, Brynden).

 

In this chapter we have already for the second time Jojen mentioning “today is not the day I die.” More interesting is following interaction between Meera and Jojen: . “He dreams things that haven’t happened, but sometimes they do.” “There is no sometimes, Meera.” A look passed between them; him sad, her defiant.” The constant repeating of Jojen makes it clear he dreamt the moment he would die. He also probably told Meera about this dream with as consequence Meera’s hopeful insistence Jojen’s dreams doesn’t always come out.  

 

b Jojen’s answer

 

i quotes

 

Spoiler

 

I dreamed of a winged wolf bound to earth with grey stone chains,” he said. “It was a green dream, so I knew it was true. A crow was trying to peck through the chains, but the stone was too hard and his beak could only chip at them.”

 

“Did the crow have three eyes”? (…) “When I was little I almost died of greywater fever. That was when the crow came to me.

 

“He came to me after I fell,” Bran blurted. “I as asleep for a long time. He said I had to fly or die, and I woke up, only I was broken and I couldn’t fly after all.

 

“You can if you want to” (…) “You are the winged wolf, Bran.”, said Jojen. “I wasn’t sure when we first came, but now I am. The crow sent us here to break your chains.”

 

“How would I break the chains, Jojen?”, Bran asked. “Open your eyes.” “They are open? Can’t you see.” “Two are open.” Jojen pointed. “One, two.” “I only have  two.”

 

“You will have three. The crow gave you the third, you will not open it.” He had a soft way of speaking. “With two eyes you see my face. With three you could see my heart. With two you can see that oak tree there. With three you could see the acorn the oak grew from and the stump that it will one day become. With two you see no farther than your walls. With three you would gaze south to the Summer Sea and north beyond the Wall.

 

 

 

 ii discussion

 

Jojen mentions here Bran is the “winged wolf bound to earth with grey stone chains”.  The crow is trying to free Bran from his chains but he is failing to do this (A crow was trying to peck through the chains, but the stone was too hard and his beak could only chip at them.”). To break finally Bran’s chains, the crow sent Jojen and Meera to help Bran do this (The crow sent us here to break your chains”).

 

 Jojen explains Bran he can break his chains by opening his third eye (“You will have three. The crow gave you the third, you will not open it”). This resonates some of Bran’s dreams where the crow was pecking him beteen his eyes/skull which can be seen as way of the crow to open Bran’s third eye (f.e. It was looking at him with its deep red eyes, calling to him with its twisted wooden mouth, and from its pale branches the three-eyed crow came flapping, pecking at his face and crying his name in a voice as sharp as swords. Bran II, ACOK).

 

What will Bran be able to do with his third eye: “With two eyes you see my face. With three you could see my heart. With two you can see that oak tree there. With three you could see the acorn the oak grew from and the stump that it will one day become. With two you see no farther than your walls. With three you would gaze south to the Summer Sea and north beyond the Wall”. To paraphrase, Bran will be able to see the past and the future, the entire world and the heart of people hidden by their faces when he finally opens his third eye.

 

Somewhere in the thread some people were wondering if it was possible Bran would be in Braavos. And I think this quote answers that question? So, yes, Bran and BR can hang around in Braavos and do their mist things.

 

Bran however refuses to see the truth and tries to divert conversation. After the direwolves got angry at Jojen’s insistence to talk about Bran’s dreams, the Reeds leave the godswood. And Bran goes to Maester Luwin to see what his mentor has to say about his dreams and what Jojen told.

 

2 Mentor 2: Luwin

 

a description

 

i quotes

 

Spoiler

 

The maester’s turret below the rookery was one of Bran’s favorite places. Luwin was hopelessly untidy” (note: Cool, I am Luwin)but his clutter of books and scrolls and bottles was as familiar and comforting to Bran as his bad spot and the flapping sleeves of his loose grey robes. He liked the ravens too.

 

He found Luwin perched on a high stool, writing.

 

 

 

ii discussion

 

In Bran II, ACOK, follow description was already given to Luwin: Sleeves flapping, he turned on his heels, stalked off a few paces, and glanced back”. Now GRRM mentions the maester lives “below the rookery”, the maester’s “flapping sleeves of his loose grey robes” and Bran found him “perched on a high stool. Luwin is given the resemblance to a bird.

 

This would the two main mentors of Bran, the 3EC and Luwin, who have a contrasting opinion regarding magic,  are given the resemblance of a bird.

 

b Luwin’s answer

 

i quotes

 

Spoiler

 

Meera says her brother has the greensight.”  (…) “Does she now?”

 

He nodded. “You told me that the children of the forest had the greensight. I remember.”

 

“Some claimed to have that power. Their wise men were called greenseers.

 

“Was it magic?”

 

“Call it that for want of better word, if you must. At heart it was only a different sort of knowledge.”

 

“What was it?” (…)No one truly knows, Bran. The children are gone from the world, and their wisdom with them. It had to do with the faces in trees, we think. The First Men believed that the greenseers could see through the eyes of the weirwoods. That was why they cut down the trees whenever they warred upon the children. Supposedly the greenseers also had power over the beasts of the wood and the birds in the trees. Even fish. Does the Reed boy claim such powers?”

 

No, I don’t think. But he has dreams that come true sometimes, Meera says.”

 

“All of us have dreams that come true sometimes.” (note: Luwin, do you want to tell us  something? Do you also have certain dreams? Or maybe he is referring to dêja vu?) You dreamed of your lord father in the crypts before we knew he was dead, remember?”

 

“Rickon did too. We dreamed the same dream.”

 

“Call it greensight, if you wish … but remember as well as those tens of thousands dreams you and Rickon have dreamed that did not come true.”

 

Bran and Luwin start then to talk about the fact Luwin studied the higher mysteries at the Citadel and realized “Sad to say, magic does not work.” Bran protests “Sometimes it does. I had that dream, and Rickon did too. And there are mages and warlocks in the east …”

 

“There are men who call themselves mages and warlocks” (…) “Oh, to be sure, there is much we do not understand. The years pass in their hundreds and their thousands, and what does any man see of life but a few summers, a few winters? We look at mountains and call them eternal, and so they seem … but in the course of time, mountains rise and fall, rivers change their courses, stars fall from the sky and great cities sink beneath the sea. Even gods die, we think. Everything changes.  

 

“Perhaps magic was once a might force in the world, but no longer. What little remains is no more than the wisp of smoke that lingers in the air after a great fire has burned out, and even that is fading. Valyria was the last ember, and Valyria is gone. The dragons are no more, the giants are dead, the children of the forest forgotten with all their lore.

 

“No, my prince. Jojen Reeds may have had a dream or two that he believes came true, but he does not have greensight. No living man has that power.”

 

 

 

ii discussion

 

This discussion shows actually why Bran is such a briljant kid. He leaves the discussion between him and the Little Reeds with a reluctance to believe Jojen. He does however goes directly to someone else or more especially with his maester and he discusses with him the whole problem from actually Jojen’s point of view. He is a real truth seeker which makes him for me a great greenseer.

 

We learn from Luwin more about greenseers. They were the wise man of the CotF who had greensight which is according to Luwin “a different sort of knowledge.”  This knowledge consisted of a wisdom with which they might have looked through the eyes of the weirwood and with they had “power over the beasts of the wood and the birds in the trees. Even fish.” I believe it is interesting Luwin calls it a knowledge or a wisdom. In Bran, ADWD Lord Brynden says “A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees. Greenseers” (ADWD, Bran III).

 

They discuss further if Jojen is really able to see the future in the dreams. According to Luwin “All of us have dreams that come true sometimes.” He used Bran’s and Rickon’s dream as an example and says further “remember as well as those tens of thousands dreams you and Rickon have dreamed that did not come true.” It is actually rather ironic Luwin says that Bran’s dream can be called greensight (Call it greensight, if you wish) and uses it to prove prophetic dreams doesn’t exist and there are no greenseers anymore. Just saying.

 

Further it is interesting he says “Oh, to be sure, there is much we do not understand. The years pass in their hundreds and their thousands, and what does any man see of life but a few summers, a few winters?”. As a greenseer Bran will actually be able to see “mountains rise and fall, rivers change their courses, stars fall from the sky and great cities sink beneath the sea.”. Bran will see more than a few summer and few winters. He will be able to see hunderd and thousands year pass and will be able to understand a lot.

 

Luwin claims further that if magic ever was a might force, it has burned out and is fading. We however know that this isn’t true. We know better than that “The dragons are no more, the giants are dead, the children of the forest forgotten with all their lore”. Or at least some dragons have returned, the giants are not (yet) dead and there are some people (crannogmen) who still know the lore of the children and there is someone trying to ensure a certain child will also remember this lore.

 

Luwin concludes with the fact Jojen doesn’t have greensight and no living man has that power (“No, my prince. Jojen Reeds may have had a dream or two that he believes came true, but he does not have greensight. No living man has that power). That last thing is partly right? Maybe no living man but I do know at least two children and one tree-man?      

 

3 Mentor 3: Meera

 

a quotes

 

Spoiler

 

Bran said as much to Meera Reed when she came to him at dusk as he sat in his window seat watching the lights flicker to light. I’m sorry for what happened with the wolves. Summer shouldn’t have tried to hurt Jojen, but Jojen shouldn’t have said all that about my dreams. The crow lied when he said I could fly, and your broher lied too.”

 

“Or perhaps your maester is wrong. (note: in this chapter it is mentioned there are no maester at Greywater Watch)

 

He isn’t. Even my father relied on his counsel.

 

Your father listened, I have no doubt. But in the end, he decided for himself. Bran, will you let me tell you about a dream Jojen dreamed of you and your fosterling brothers.” Meera tells Bran the dream about the fact both Bran and the Freys will be served a meal by Luwin. Bran would not like this meal while the Freys do.

 

“I don’t understand.”

 

“You will, my brother says. When you do, we’ll talk again.”

 

 

 

b discussion

 

After his talk with Luwin, Bran believes like Luwin magic doesn’t exist, Jojen doesn’t have the greensight and he will never fly. (note: in my opinion the whole fly thing is just a metaphor for the powers of the greenseer and should not be interpreted literally like for example flying a dragon. But this is of course my opinion) Meera comes here with a good point (Your father listened, I have no doubt. But in the end, he decided for himself). It is very important to ask advice if you seek an answer to a problem, question, ... However in the end you must decide for yourself. Bran actually already showed in other instances he is able to do this, like for example in Bran I, AGOT (was the deserter brave?) and Bran I, ACOK (why do wolves howl?).

 

Meera tells him then a dream of Jojen and gives him the possibility to see (empirical) if Jojen really is able to dream the future and to give him certain proof to make the decision about Jojen’s and his powers himself.

 

In this thread we wondered somewhere what the symbolism was of a window. One of those symbolisms were that “people looking through windows show that they have a narrow view” (with thanks to Evita). Not a long ago I questioned this symbolism regarding Bran because I believed he is broader view than anyone else (or something like that). In this situation you can see this symbolism does apply. Bran is here looking through the window and is refusing to open up to what Jojen told him (Bran said as much to Meera Reed when she came to him at dusk as he sat in his window seat watching the lights flicker to light).

 

4 Bran’s answer

 

a quotes

 

Spoiler

 

At supper Bran sees nothing wrong with the meal and believes the dream of Jojen did not come true. “Maester Luwin has the truth of it, he told himself. Nothing bad was coming to Winterfell, no matter what Jojen said. Bran was relieved …, but disappointed too. So long as there was magic, anything could happen. Ghosts could walk, trees could talk, and broken boys could grow to be knights. “But there isn’t ,” he said aloud in the darkness of his bed. There’s no magic, and the stories are just stories.”

 

And he would never walk, nor fly, nor be a knight.’

 

 

 

b discussion

 

At the end of Bran’s chapter we see Bran answering the question what his dream mean. We have him seen talking to Jojen, Luwin and Meera. Meera gave him a certain test to see if Jojen told or did not told the truth. According to Bran Jojen’s dream failed this test and believes like Maester Luwin magic doesn’t exist (Maester Luwin has the truth of it, he told himself. Nothing bad was coming to Winterfell, no matter what Jojen said).

 

It is interesting Bran feels conflicted about this. At one hand he doesn’t want to have a third eye (Bran was relieved). At the other hand he is disappointed because magic would give him the possibility to “walk”, “fly” and “be a knight”.

 

According to Bran, magic would be able to do the following: “Ghosts could walk, trees could talk, and broken boys could grow to be knights”. We have later a walking Ghost in Winterfell, we have a talking tree and you can see Theon, a broken man, turn into a knight when he saves Jeyne.

 

In the next chapter we will see Bran has actually chosen the wrong answer.

 

C Does Summer ever grow angry?

 

1 Introduction

 

While the meaning of Bran’s dreams is the most important subject of this chapter, this chapters also answers another question which was asked by Meera at the beginning of the chapter: “Does” Summer “never grow angry?”  This question is later answered by the direwolves themselves during the conversation between Bran and Jojen who also attempt to help Bran with the answer to this question.

 

2 Bran’s first answer

 

a quotes

 

Spoiler

 

Meera shook her head. “Does he never grow angry?”

 

“Not with me.” Bran grabbed the wolf by his ears and Summer snapped fiercely, but it was all in play.  “Sometimes he tears my grab but he’s never drawn blood.

 

Your blood, you mean. If he’d gotten past my net…”

 

“He wouldn’t hurt. He knows I like you.”

 

 

 

b discussion

 

According to Bran Summer never grows angry with him. Even when they are wrestling with each other and Bran is grabbing his ear. This is actually really a family thing. Bran is not the only one who wrestles with his wolf. Jon does it too (“When he reached Jon he leapt, and they wrestled amidst brown grass and long shadows as the stars came out above them. "Gods, wolf, where have you been?" Jon said when Ghost stopped worrying at his forearm. "I thought you'd died on me, like Robb and Ygritte and all the rest. I've had no sense of you, not since I climbed the Wall, not even in dreams." The direwolf had no answer, but he licked Jon's face with a tongue like a wet rasp, and his eyes caught the last light and shone like two great red suns.”, ASOS, Jon XII)

 

Bran also believes Summer will never hurt Meera or other people he likes just because he likes them.

 

3 Bran’s reluctance to talk about his dreams

 

 a quotes

 

Spoiler

 

“Tell me what’s going to happen,” Bran said.

 

“I will,” said Jojen, “if you’ll tell me about your dreams.

 

The godswood grew quiet. Bran could hear leaves rustling, and Hodor’s distant splashing from the hot pools. He thought of the golden man and the three-eyed crow, remembered the crunch of bones between his jaws and the coppery taste of blood.

 

I don’t have dreams. Maester Luwin gives me sleeping draughts.” – “Do they help.” “ Sometimes.”

 

Meera said, “All of Winterfell knows you wake at night shouting and sweating, Bran. The women talk of it at the well, and the guards in their hall.

 

Tell us what frightens you so much,” said Jojen.

 

“I don’t want to. Anyway, it’s only dreams. Maester Luwin says dreams might mean anything or nothing.

 

(…) (Jojen told Bran what his third eye means)

 

Summer got to his feet. “I don’t need to see so far.” Bran made a nervous smile. “I’m tired of talking about crows.” Bran tries to divert the conversation and (sweet) Meera follows him. However … “Did you dream of a lizard-lion?” “No,” said Bran. “I told you, I don’t want-

 

Did you dream of a wolf?”

 

He was making Bran angry. “I don’t have to tell you my dreams. I’m the prince. I’m the Stark in Winterfell.”

 

“Was it Summer?”

 

“You be quiet.”

 

“The night of the harvest feast, you dreamed you were Summer in the godswood, didn’t you?”

 

“Stop it!” Bran shouted. Summer slid toward the weirwood, his white teeth bared.

 

Jojen Reed took no mind. “When I touched Summer, I felt you in him. Just as you are in him now.”

 

“You couldn’t have. I was in bed. I was sleeping.”

 

“You were in the godswood, all in grey.

 

“It was only a bad dream…”

 

Jojen stood. “I felt you. I felt you fall. Is that what scares you the falling?”

 

The falling, Bran thought, and the gold man, the queen’s brother, he scares me too, but mostly the falling. He did not say it, though. How could he? He had not been able to tell Ser Rodrik or maester Luwin, and he could not tell the Reeds either. If he didn’t talk about it, maybe he would forget. He had never wanted to remember. It might not even be a true remembering.

 

Do you fall every night, Bran?” Jojen asked quietly.

 

A low rumbling growl rose from Summer’s throat, and there was no play in it. He stalked forward, all teeth and hot eyes. Meera steps between her brother and Summer. “Keep him back, Bran.”

 

“Jojen is making him angry.” (…) “It’s your anger, Bran. (…) “Your fear.”

 

“It isn’t. I’m not wolf.” Yet he’d howled with them in the night, and tasted blood in his wolf dreams.

 

Part of you is Summer, and part of Summer is you. You know that, Bran.

 

 

 

 b discussion

 

From the moment Jojen asks Bran about his dreams, Bran refuses to talk about it (“I don’t want to”). We learn from Meera his dreams are really unpleasant. According to some people in the castle he wakes “at night shouting and sweating”. He is apparently very frightened by them (Tell us what frightens you so much).

 

After Jojen tells him about his third eye, Bran tried to divert the conversation. While Meera goes along with him to change the subject of the conversation, Jojen insists to keep the conversation on Bran’s dreams (“Did you dream of a lizard-lion?”; “Did you dream of a wolf?”Was it Summer?”). How more Jojen insists, how more angry Bran grows (He was making Bran angry; “You be quiet.”; “Stop it!” ). And how more angry Bran grows, how much more violent behaviour Summer starts to show (“Summer got to his feet; Summer slid toward the weirwood, his white teeth bared; A low rumbling growl rose from Summer’s throat, and there was no play in it. He stalked forward, all teeth and hot eyes”).

 

While according to Bran “Jojen is making” Summer “angry”, Jojen explains Summer is reacting to Bran’s fears and anger (“It’s your anger, Bran. (…) “Your fear”). Bran denies this by claiming he isn’t a wolf. Jojen tells him “Part of you is Summer, and part of Summer is you” which of course refers to the result skinchanging has on the human and the animal. Skinchanging has a prize: both personalities are influenced by this connection. IMO the human will leave a part of himself behind in the animal, and the animal in the human. And this can in the end be very dangerous. Just like Dalla told us “sorcery is like a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it” (Jon X, ASOS). 

 

Jojen tells also Bran he was able to feel Bran in Summer and he felt Bran fell, when he touched Summer during his visit to the wolves in the godswood at the harvest feast. He asks if it is the falling that scares Bran that much. While Bran doesn’t answer Jojen, he thinks “The falling, Bran thought, and the gold man, the queen’s brother, he scares me too, but mostly the falling. And the reason why he doesn’t tell anyone is he wants to forget it and he doesn’t want to remember it.

 

In last chapter it looked like Jojen touching Summer brought Bran out of his wolf dream. However it might actually Bran remembering his trauma that was actually the catalyst and that brought him out of his dream? I do think it is actually very symbolic his reluctance to remember and the end of his wolf dream are brought together. One of the duties or abilities of a greenseer is to remember. And how can he be a greenseer/skinchanger if he is reluctant to remember his own traumas?*

 

* Like some other members of his families, Bran does it actually lot. In ASOS it looks like he actually dreamt the RW. He however never speaks about his brothers’s death to the Reeds and, if I recall correctly, he actually thinks either his brother is alive or he completely never thinks about him if he recalls his death family members.

 

4 Summer and Shaggy attack

 

 a quotes

 

Spoiler

 

Summer rushed forward (…) The wolf twisted aside, circling, stalking. Meera is preventing him from attacking Jojen. “Call him back, Bran.” “Summer! “To me, Summer!” (…) The direwolf lunged again (…) The bushes rustled, and a lean black shape came padding behind the weirwood, teeth bared. The scent was strong; his brother had smelled his rage. Bran felt hairs rise on the back of his neck. Meera and Jojen climb in tree. Jojen protests first: “There’s no need. Today is not the day I die.” “Do it!”  she screamed, and her brother scrambled up the trunk of the weirwood, using his face for his handholds. The direwolves come closer. Bran remembers then Hodor is near and asks him to chase the wolves off.

 

Shaggydog was the first to flee, slinking back to the foliage with a final snarl. When Summer had enough, he came back to Bran and lay down beside him.

 

No sooner did Meera touch the ground than she snatched up her spear and net again. Jojen never took his eyes off Summer. “We will talk again,” he promised Bran.

 

 

 

b discussion

 

At one moment Summer attacks and he does not stop even when Bran tries to stop him by calling to him. He is however not alone. Shaggy does also appear.

 

Shaggy really likes to play hide-and-seek and he really likes to come behind undergrowth and trees such, f.e.

 

-       No sooner had Hodor entered the godswood than Summer emerged from under an oak, almost as if he had known they were coming. Bran glimpsed a lean black shape watching from the undergrowth as well. "Shaggy," he called. "Here, Shaggydog. To me." But Rickon's wolf vanished as swiftly as he'd appeared. (Bran II, ACOK)

 

-       “The rattle of iron made his ears prick up. His brother heard it too. They raced through the undergrowth toward the sound. Bounding across the still water at the foot of the old white one he caught the scent of a stranger, the man-smell well mixed with leather and earth and iron.” (Bran III, ACOK)

 

-       “The bushes rustled, and a lean black shape came padding behind the weirwood, teeth bared. Shaggydog was the first to flee, slinking back to the foliage with a final snarl.”

 

We also see Bran suddenly going over to the thoughts of his wolf: “The scent was strong; his brother had smelled his rage.” We are seeing here actually a real example that “a part of Summer is Bran and a part of Bran is Summer.”

 

It is also very interesting to read “Jojen never took his eyes off Summer” if you recall Jojen is described as seeing something else. Might he be seeing Bran instead of Summer?

 

 5 Bran’s second answer

 

 a quotes

 

It was the wolves, it wasn’t me He did not understand why they’d gotten so wild. Maybe Maester Lywin was right to lock them in the godswood.”

 

b discussion

 

Just like with his answer to the question of the meaning of his dreams, Bran also denies the truth. He denies the truth given by Jojen that it was actually because of him the wolves reacted in that way. And just like with the other question, he thinks wrongly that Luwin is right.

 

D Bran IV and the allegory of the cave

 

Earlier in this thread, I alluded to that there are several references to Plato’s allegory of the cave in (especially) Bran’s chapters. This is clearly apparent in this chapter.

 

First, it is possible to say they have a similar them. Both Plato’s allegory and Bran’s chapter (or even storyline) is about the way to search the truth. Bran is searching (again) in this chapter for the truth behind the meaning of his ideas.

 

Just like how the prisoner of Plato’s allegory is chained in cave, Bran is described as the a winged wolf bound to earth with grey stone chains.” The wolves themselves are also called as being locked up in the godswood (Maybe Maester Lywin was right to lock them in the godswood.”). And Summer described Winterfell earlier as the great-caves of man-rock (The world had tightened around them, but beyond the walled wood still stood the great grey caves of man-rock. Winterfell, he remembered, the sound coming to him suddenly. Beyond its sky-tall man-cliffs the true world was calling, and he knew he must answer or die.)”.

 

Just like the prisoner in the allegory who is being forced to see the light by an instructor, the crow is trying to break Bran’s chains by doing it first by himself (the dreams) and then by sending Jojen and Meera (A crow was trying to peck through the chains, but the stone was too hard and his beak could only chip at them (…) The crow sent us here to break your chains; Bran said as much to Meera Reed when she came to him at dusk as he sat in his window seat watching the lights flicker to light). And just like it hurts the prisoner to look towards the lights, Bran is really being traumatized and frightened by those dreams (Tell us what frightens you so much,” said Jojen).

 

Just like there is another prisoner in the allegory who tells the prisoner what he is seeing is an illusion, Luwin explains Bran there isn’t something like magic (Maester Luwin has the truth of it). Further it is even told that Maester Luwin locked the wolves in the godswood (while actually in Bran I it was Ser Rodrik made the decision to contain them?). Maester Luwin actually keeps Bran in two ways chained.

Edit: I actually even forgot that Maester Luwin himself does wear literally a chain:  Do you perchance recall what I taught you about the chain collar that every maester wears?"- Bran thought for a moment, trying to remember. "A maester forges his chain in the Citadel of Oldtown. It's a chain because you swear to serve, and it's made of different metals because you serve the realm and the realm has different sorts of people. Every time you learn something you get another link. Black iron is for ravenry, silver for healing, gold for sums and numbers. I don't remember them all." 

And just like the prisoner has to finally ascend, Bran must finally to able to fly and spread his wings. However now he is still being chained in the cave of Winterfell.

 

E Conclusion

 

In this chapter Bran search the answer to two very important question: the meaning of his dreams and the reason of the reaction of his wolves. The answer of those questions would actually lead to two imporant elements of his character and storyline: they would actually make him learn he is a greenseer and a skinchanger.

 

However until now he decided to chose stand by the answer of his maester and there is not a thing like magic.

 

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First, I want to say that all of you, evita, ravenous reader, Wizz,  did again amazing work! Always a pleasure to read all those amazing posts. 

On 19-4-2016 at 11:38 PM, Wizz-The-Smith said:

The next bit I find interesting. ‘Nor do they love the flames’ and they ‘remember when the First Men came with fire in their fists’.  I have mentioned a couple of times that I see the wind paying particular attention to Mel at the Wall.  And there is this weird inter mingling of old gods and Red gods with Beric and LSH in the RL’s.  Beric seems to parallel BR and everything old gods in the cave, yet is animated by the power of the Red god and Thoros.  He has passed whatever this weird mix is onto LSH, who I think has this very cave at High Heart as a base for the BWB. [The same cave Brienne is potentially taking Jaime too by the way.]

I think the resemblance between BR and Beric is very interesting especially if at the same time Red Rahloo (I refuse to see him as my god) and the old gods are put against his other by their followers several times. We have the wildlings vs. Red Rahloo, we have the northerners vs. Red Rahloo, Mel sees BR as the Great Other or as his servant?, the aversion of CotF against fire, ... Both religions are seriously put in opposition of each other. 

And then you have BericRaven and the fact BwB is aided by Thoros and the Ghost of HH. I think the parallel between Beric and Bloodraven doesn't directly point to an inter mingling? Because there might also other reasons why GRRM might have made that parallel? In my analyses I point several times that there is also a parallel between Luwin and BR (because Luwin gets some birdlike adjectives, both are Bran's mentors, ...) however both mentors have actually a completely opposite goal? BR wants Bran to lead to magic/fly while Luwin actually completely wants to prevent that. 

At the other side you have still the fact the BwB is aided by the follower of the old gods and by the follower of the red god. So I am not really sure what GRRM intends to symbolize with this parallel. 

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Right, so we know the old gods can see the future as well as the past, yes?  And Thoros straight out tells us here that the ‘old one’ has the weirwoods whisper in her ear as she sleeps and that’s how she knows things.  So logic would suggest that it was the old gods that gave the GoHH all of this information.  I’m sure someone has pointed this out before, but I don’t see much talk of the old gods in the breakdown of her prophecies.    

Anyway, could this be proof of BR/old gods influencing events as far south as the RL’s?  Sending dreams/visions as the weirwoods whisper to the prophetic dwarf in her sleep?  Of course only to have her relay these messages to the BWB or relevant players in the area that could act on these prophecies.  I think it’s a definite possibility.   

I think to answer that question it might be interesting to compare her with Jojen? 

CotF who are said to be greenseers, have either red eyes or eyes like moss. The Ghost has red eyes. Jojen has eyes like moss. 
Their dreams are actually also very similar. Jojen gets also prophetic dreams. His dreams are sort of similar to the dreams of the Ghost. He doesn't dream directly what is going to happen but they include dishes (while it actually is about some information from the war), the sea attacking Winterfell (while it are the Ironborn), ... Jojen gets his dreams for the crow/the old gods? And I think with the whole weirwood whispering, the whole wind business, ... it is very certain it are the old gods who are giving her those dreams. 

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On 4/22/2016 at 8:07 AM, Tijgy said:

First, I want to say that all of you, evita, ravenous reader, Wizz,  did again amazing work! Always a pleasure to read all those amazing posts. 

I think the resemblance between BR and Beric is very interesting especially if at the same time Red Rahloo (I refuse to see him as my god) and the old gods are put against his other by their followers several times. We have the wildlings vs. Red Rahloo, we have the northerners vs. Red Rahloo, Mel sees BR as the Great Other or as his servant?, the aversion of CotF against fire, ... Both religions are seriously put in opposition of each other. 

And then you have BericRaven and the fact BwB is aided by Thoros and the Ghost of HH. I think the parallel between Beric and Bloodraven doesn't directly point to an inter mingling? Because there might also other reasons why GRRM might have made that parallel? In my analyses I point several times that there is also a parallel between Luwin and BR (because Luwin gets some birdlike adjectives, both are Bran's mentors, ...) however both mentors have actually a completely opposite goal? BR wants Bran to lead to magic/fly while Luwin actually completely wants to prevent that. 

At the other side you have still the fact the BwB is aided by the follower of the old gods and by the follower of the red god. So I am not really sure what GRRM intends to symbolize with this parallel. 

I think to answer that question it might be interesting to compare her with Jojen? 

CotF who are said to be greenseers, have either red eyes or eyes like moss. The Ghost has red eyes. Jojen has eyes like moss. 
Their dreams are actually also very similar. Jojen gets also prophetic dreams. His dreams are sort of similar to the dreams of the Ghost. He doesn't dream directly what is going to happen but they include dishes (while it actually is about some information from the war), the sea attacking Winterfell (while it are the Ironborn), ... Jojen gets his dreams for the crow/the old gods? And I think with the whole weirwood whispering, the whole wind business, ... it is very certain it are the old gods who are giving her those dreams. 

:wub:EXCELLENT FORENSIC ANALYSIS.:cheers:  You make relevant points based upon Martin’s text, and I sing your praises.  I will mention several key observations among the many you share:

v Bran the truth seeker conflicts with Bran the “blind”.  While Bran desires to learn the truth behind Jojen’s greendreams and his own awakening powers, Bran also fears learning something that he does not fully understand. 

v Conveniently, Maester Luwin’s misinformation gives Bran a sort of peace; however, Bran quickly doubts his maester’s command of the unexplainable magic Bran later cannot deny.

v In this way, Martin’s WINDOW MYTHOLOGY holds true.  At first, Bran’s view of events is narrow, especially when readers compare the early Bran to the later Bran in ADwD.

The assertion that Jojen knows the day he will die because of his greendreams that have allowed him to see this day in advance is ON POINT!  CONGRATULATIONS!  I did not fully realize this fact until you explained it so eloquently.

v Jojen seeks the 3EC for HIMSELF as well as for Bran.  Jojen hopes the wizard will be able to assist him in circumventing his fate revealed in his dreams that do not lie.

That Howland Reed sends forth his only son to meet with certain death in Jojen’s efforts to free the winged wolf, or Fallen Bran, is on par with elements of the Catholic Mass and Biblical influences.

v The Lord God sends his only son Jesus Christ to meet with certain death in order to free Fallen Man from original sin.

Hodor’s innate ability to call off the angry direwolves hints at the gentle giant’s own “wargish” connections with the wolves, especially with Bran and Summer.

v The breakdown of Martin’s text is executed so well that many insinuations became clear, among them Hodor’s relationship with the Starks in general and the kiddoes specifically.

v Could Hodor also have the blood of the First Men flowing in his veins?  Perhaps Stark blood?

v If this is the case, then Hodor as a vessel for Bran when he skinchanges makes a perfect sense.  Hodor may serve a higher purpose in this way, just as Jojen does.

Bran as a truth seeker who prefers to remain blind when the truth applies to him personally is paradoxical.  However, in this way, Martin demonstrates Bran’s character growth over the span of the novels as Bran bravely faces the truth and resigns himself to his role as a greenseer, even if it means marrying a tree.

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I have been developing an essay exploring possible origins of the Others and how the greenseers may figure in the return of these creatures of ice.

Here is a small part of my work in progress, and I appreciate any feedback or guidance on the ideas I present:

Anticipating the extinction of their race, the singers take action to protect the thousand thousand years of accumulated knowledge that has become part of their sacred trees, their godhood.  To the singers, knowledge and its pursuit is the supreme power for their race and other races as well.  WISDOM is the metaphoric nameless, faceless old gods the singers worship.

However, since misinformed men who have no appreciation for knowledge or the pursuit of such cut down, destroy and/or discard the houses of knowledge sacred to the children, the singers look to the magic of ice as a means of safely preserving their centuries of arduous, tedious, and combined efforts.

As part of the Pact, the singers endow select representatives with magic powers that allow them to access the knowledge in order to share it with wider audiences to better humanity.  In turn, those appointed with responsibility promise to safeguard the singers and their lands from further encroachment by their enemies.

The exact terms of the Pact between the singers and the First Men 10,000 years past are not entirely known, other than the distribution of lands between the two warring parties endeavoring to make peace.

It is likely that the singers bargained with gifts of powerful magic which they bestowed conditionally upon those First Men most deserving of executing these blessings responsibly without abusing them.

The mastery and effective use of warging, skinchanging, and greendreams qualified members of families the eventual attainment of greensight and the role of becoming custodians of the vast enriching knowledge stored in the trees and earth.

Those men who commanded magic irresponsibly subsequently lost favor with those overseeing the maintenance of the powers; hence, the singers rightfully and understandably revoked the gifts under the preset terms of the Pact.

Houses Stark, Reed, and Mormont proved themselves worthy in managing the gifts, so in return, these special Houses became allies of the singers serving as their protectors and discouraged encroachment upon those lands designated for the singers and the singers alone.

In spite of the Pact, the singers wanted to guarantee the preservation of their vast stores of wisdom, and they may have found a way to secure a portion of their learning in caves of ice far from the grasp of men who could not be trusted with these potentially dangerous spells.

Among these enchantments are animating the dead of any species, controlling the nature and aggression of the cold, and deploying other assorted charms of transformation, glamors, and bewitchments. Safeguarding these bountiful treasures held in ice are appointed singers and their greenseers.  However, the singers did not account for another humanoid race equally tempted by the possibilities of extending their line to avoid sure extinction.

The possibilities of raising the dead and advancing a dangerous cold would allow these Others to expand, grow, and prosper.

The White Walkers acquire the magic by nefarious means, and their hearts of ice forbid them from feeling emotions innate to men and singers.

Consequently, with the intelligence of spells and histories, the WW became experts on the shortcomings of the races, and the realms of men proved the weakest and the easiest to target.

Assessing the juvenility of men, yet observing how men covet power, land, wealth., violence, sex, and more, the White Walkers articulated a plan to overtake these realms of men, collectively an undeserving lot who permitted their selfish desires to dictate their thoughts and actions.

Men’s innate compunction for evil, their inhumanity to one another, and their contentment to manipulate or to be manipulated, make them ideal puppets to serve under the White Walkers who will take men’s wits and their voices and pull their strings to make cold corpses perform the dance of dead men.

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It's a wonderful post!!

How to begin with...

All you mentioned about the singers reminded me of Smallville/Superman a lot!!!! Here are the analogies:

Krypton is a planet in which its population have enormous knowledgge, recollected from centuries ago, from several other planets, but they haven't conquered other cultures, for some reason their land is very important for them and they enjoy don't like to conquer others, because they are generally "good-hearted". Well, more intelligent than good, but definitely not evil.

Their race also faces an immininent extinction and Kal-El (Superman) and Kara-Zor El (Supergirl) are the only good members who will survive. Zod and his companions are the worst from they race, but they survive too.

Kal-EL (Clark on Earth) can access the Fortress of The solitude that her father gave to him as a gift to preserve their knowledge, and also because he has faith in his son that he will use it properly (Clark is like a greenseer: although biologically from Krypton, he will always describe himself as half kryptonian, half human).

In Smallville Universe: At first, Clark is like Bran, they don't have access to the Fortress. They just have some powers: Clark can benefit from the Earth's sun and begins to develop some of his powers, but he doesn't know if what he is doing is morally wrong or not. His biological father challenges him a lot to prove his worth of accessing to the Fortress.

It's not until S5 that he is revealed all the secrets. Like when Bran enters the Cave. 

Then there are others from Earth (Lex Luthor) who want to access this Fortress to use these powers for their own purposes (and evil ones). Luthor is like The Others....However, Luthor is from Earth, not from Krypton.

Now I have some questions:

when you say

Quote

As part of the Pact, the singers endow select representatives with magic powers that allow them to access the knowledge in order to share it with wider audiences to better humanity.

do you mean that greenseers have the obligation to share it with wider audiences to better the humanity? I mean, it's actually what you think BR and Bran are supposed to do?

I come back to my analogy with Smallville Universe. Clark not only doesn't have all the knowledge from Krypton, in fact, he only learns some parts of it. He has to demonstrate he is worth to access to it first, to later  learn more about Kryptonian powers. He does it in the first seasons, but once in the Fortress (like Bran inside the cave) his father will show him only some things, and when it's necessary. He knows what his place on Earth is and how he can become a hero, a humble one. But he has to struggle a lot with himself and what he is (the dichotomy of being half man half alien).

Bran will not be a full-greenseer, he will use what he believes is necessary and use it for the greater good, which will be something tangible and important  for the very first time (The Second Long Night?), but first he will have to accept and acknowledge what he wants. Not before. SO Bran's approach to this magic world will be something in between what he is supposed to be and do and what he actually has to do to be a "grown-man" (who decides with his own psychological tools).

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