Visions in a Wolf-Dream: Bran Reaches Jon VII Chapter 53, A Clash of Kings

[evita mgfs]

• AN:  I apologize for the length of my ramblings.

  My first brave post on Westeros years ago was my effort to analyze Jon’s wolf dream visited by Bran as a demonstration of Bran’s growing greenseeing powers.  I theorized that Bran returns to Jon’s dream from a point after his last POV in A Dance with Dragons after the new greenseer discovers a means of communicating with his siblings.  Naturally, my ideas were refuted with a reasonable argument pertaining to the “timeline”:  Bran opens his third eye in the Winterfell crypts, after which he recalls seeing Ghost and Jon.  So, like a direwolf with a bone she is unwilling to leave go, so am I.  What follows is my attempts to deconstruct Jon’s wolf dream with a goal to present a persuasive argument with textual evidences that may convince others of the possibility of Bran’s powers revealing to him ways in which he can reach his sibling Jon and the turncloak Theon.

  Feel free to question my evidences and conclusions, to augment them with further analyses, or to share what you and/or others have come to believe. 

  The Sounds of Silence

  Celebrated fantasy author George R.R. Martin scatters clues among deeply symbolic layers of prose narratives in novels that he styles A Song of Ice and Fire Series much like an expert gardener sows metaphoric seeds that take root and prosper.  Just so, Bran’s escalating greenseeing powers are the seeds that flourish under Martin’s ministrations. The author seemingly tempts readers to dig deep and reach far if they endeavor to unearth the evidences that document the scope of Bran’s magic. Even in those novels preceding A Dance with Dragons, Martin buries treasures awaiting discovery that only comes from returning to the beginning with the knowledge needed for insightful rereading.

  Jon’s POVs throughout A Clash of Kings are noteworthy on many levels of analysis, but in regards to literary techniques, Martin favors engaging sensory elements to augment his descriptions of characters, of environments, and of “things” in general, conscientiously and artistically choosing words that he arranges into sentences, then paragraphs, to animate a fantasy world and its colorful populace. 

  Martin makes the intangible tangible, relating for his readers what they know as familiar in order to evocate the unfamiliar.  Martin summons his fans to feel the biting cold of the Wall and beyond, to taste the potent sweetness of summerwine, to see Valyrian steel spill hot red blood on clean white snow, and to smell moist earth, sour perspiration, and wet fur. 

  However, in Jon’s seventh ACoK narrative, while retaining particulars of the sensory perceptions associated with the tactile, the taste, the visual, and the olfactory, Martin showcases the auditory, employing distinctive sounds more acute when Martin places them strategically between silences.

  Illustrations of sound and silence are integral to Jon’s POVs in ACoK, and Martin attaches significance to the auditory during the rangers’ upward trek of the Skirling Pass, traveling on one of many steep, narrow paths lined with walls of rock.  Moving silently and in single file, the men hear the wind blowing through the mountain rock, causing the “skirling”, a shrill, mournful sound similar to bagpiping. Jon Snow observes, “The wind cut like a knife up here, and shrilled in the night like a mother mourning her slain children” (ACoK 739).

  Amid the sounds and the silences of nature and men, Jon’s direwolf Ghost remains silent, a point Martin reaffirms throughout Jon’s POVs.  However, at the zenith of the Skirling Pass and under a rock archway, Jon sleeps only to hear Ghost break his silence, finally finding his voice to sing to his pack. Consequently, the boy inside the wolf shares his acute feelings of loss for his littermates, five brothers and a sister.  So great is his longing for his family, the otherwise silent Ghost announces his mourning with a direwolf’s voice, howling into the night sky: “his [Ghost’s] cry echoed through the forest, a long lonely mournful sound” [ACoK  765].

  Martin fittingly chooses the Skirling Pass, known for its keening, as a setting for Ghost’s melancholy song.  The narrow pathway through which a warg is symbolically born serves as a metaphoric birth canal, and Bran the budding greenseer assists at the delivery of Jon’s warg spirit, which is marked by Ghost finding his voice. 

  Can a Howl be Silent?

  Neither Jon nor Ghost display “surprise” or amazement when Ghost exercises his voice for the first time.  The confusion of the dream platform may be a reason for the lack of reaction from boy and wolf.  Several other possibilities for Martin omitting what seems to be important include:

  1.)    Ghost issues a “phantom” howl which Jon dreams of hearing, in a way similar to Bran’s speech registering with Jon.

  2.)    Jon hears the wind in the rocky passages while he is in a dream state, and he mistakes it for Ghost’s keening.

  3.)    Ghost’s howl is a “non-event” in comparison to the other meritorious happenings in Jon’s wolf dream.

  4.)    Jon hears sounds in his wolf dream that he heard while awake, specifically wolves howling:  “A sound rose out of darkness, faint and distant, but unmistakable: the howling of wolves.  Their voices rise and fell in a chilly song, and lonely” [ACoK  515].

  Before Analysis

  Before analyzing Jon’s wolf dream, it is important to keep in mind the source of Jon’s mystical experiences.  Bran inspires Jon with his greenseeing powers that have advanced beyond Bran looking through the carved eyes in the heart trees, visual aids left by the singers to awaken the magic of new greenseers [ADwD].

  Since Martin vigorously describes the limited vegetation among the rock layers defining the Skirling Pass, the author establishes that a heart tree is not in the vicinity of the rangers’ camp where Jon dreams.  Instead of accessing the trees, Bran accesses Jon’s wolf dream. Moreover, the singers and their greenseers have endowed the ringfort built by the First Men atop the Skirling Pass  with powerful magic that assists in making Bran’s return to a past event a possibility.

  Bran may open his third eye in the Winterfell crypts as of his last POV in ACoK, but he has not yet sat his weirwood throne to learn how to see as the gods see and to know what the trees know.  Therefore, Bran returns to Jon’s wolf dream after he masters aspects of his magic so that he can inspire Jon to embrace his warg nature, to open his third eye, and not to fear death and darkness.

   

  Bloodraven cautions Bran that “the past remains the past.  We can learn from it, but we cannot change it” [ADwD 458].  Then the Last Greenseer draws from his personal experiences to convince Bran that his lord father Eddard Stark cannot and does not hear him. “You cannot speak to him, try as you might.  I know.  I have my own ghosts, Bran.  A brother I loved, a brother I hated, a woman I desired.  Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them” [ADwD 458]. 

   

  Bran tests for himself the perimeters of the rules of greensight imposed upon him by Bloodraven and Leaf, and Bloodraven suspects and Leaf knows that he will.  After all, Bran ignores warnings of his mother, father, and maester about climbing.  Bran challenges rules and authority, and when he knowingly decides to break rules, he may indeed garner some enlightenment, but often this is won at great cost and loss by way of dire consequences.  By far Bran’s biggest lesson is in determining whether the risks justify the means.  A boy already broken may feel he has nothing more to lose when he dares to tempt fate.

  Unlike Bloodraven’s efforts to speak with his ghosts through the trees, Bran reaches Jon through Ghost and through Jon’s wolf dream, and Bran uses mental telepathy, not speech, to establish communication.

   

  Bran manages to gift Jon a glimpse of his future, drawing from the shadows on Jon’s soul, hidden in the recesses of Jon’s mind. By accessing events from Jon’s “waking world”, Bran emphasizes his lessons in a dream.  For instance, Bran “inspires” – or facilitates - Jon’s first “warg” experience, employing his greenpowers to oversee a smooth transition for his bastard brother into the skin of his direwolf via the dream venue.  Martin implies that Bran’s powers are compelling and still in their infancy if readers measure acquisition of knowledge to physical growth.  Moreover, Bran communicates telepathically and empathetically with Jon via Ghost “from a future time” past the novel A Dance with Dragons. 

                                                                                                                  

  Jon’s Dream of Direwolves

  “When he [Jon] closed his eyes, he dreamed of direwolves” [ACoK 515].

   

  ·        Since dreams are lessons, and vise-versa, Bran opts for the realm of dreams to reach his siblings, specifically his half-brother Jon Snow: “Dreams became lessons, lessons became dreams, things happened all at once or not at all” [ADwD 451].  Through Jon’s direwolf Ghost and within Jon’s wolf-dream, Bran makes his presence known.  Bran takes his older brother to school with lessons disguised as dreams and with dreams that rouse raw and instinctive emotions. 

  ·        The period is the “end mark” that concludes the above sentence [“When he [Jon] closed his eyes, he dreamed of direwolves”] which announces the beginning of Jon’s wolf dream, a sequence of pivotal events that continue until Jon wakes calling for Ghost. 

  ·        Martin sets this one sentence apart in a paragraph of its own to separate it from the paragraph that precedes it and that follows it in order to establish and sustain ambiguity in pronominal references especially in writing the dream narrative that will follow. 

  ·        The preceding paragraph includes the following sentence, “He [Ghost] wants to hunt, Jon thought”, which is the last time Martin identifies in printed text the name “Jon” until after the dream. Within the wolf dream narrative, Martin does not distinguish either Jon or Ghost as an antecedent for the masculine pronouns he uses.  Hence, grammatically speaking, the masculine pronouns are referents to Jon since he is the last noun clearly stated.  That simply doesn’t work for the following reason:

  ·        Many of Martin’s descriptors and action words are decisively canine-oriented.  By persistently not distinguishing either Jon or Ghost as an actor in the dream segments, Martin blurs the singular identities of boy and wolf, which is very likely his intention.

  ·        The clause “he dreamed of direwolves” showcases the alliteration of the consonant “D” which emphasizes a hard sound that Martin repeats in his frequent use of the words “darkness” and “death”.

  ·        Martin affirms that Jon is the dreamer, not his direwolf Ghost even though the narrative may confuse the thoughts of Ghost with Jon’s and vice versa.

  ·        It is Jon Snow who closes his eyes, it is Jon Snow who dreams of direwolves, but it is Martin who shifts perspectives.

  The Dream Begins

   

  Below, the initial wolf dream passage from ACoK describes Ghost’s instinctive connection with his pack whose scent he has lost.  Martin’s word choices are repeated when Bran’s wargs with Summer in his first POV in the novel A Storm of Swords.  It is worth considering that these feelings Bran and Summer experience at a later date on the timeline farther from Jon’s wolf dream are inspiration for Bran the greenseer when he returns to Jon’s dream, a profound way to unify the warg and wolf by evocating the shared emotions indicative to the direwolves and their wargs.

   

  The matching words and their meanings are color coded for easier consideration:

   

  “There were five of them [direwolf pups] when there should have been six, and they [direwolf pups]  were scattered, each [pup] apart from the others [direwolf pups].  He [Ghost/Warg] felt a deep ache of emptiness, a sense of incompleteness. The forest was vast and cold, and they [wolf pups] were so small, so lost. His [Ghost’s] brothers [wolf pups/warg siblings] were out there somewhere [in the world], and his [Ghost’s] sister, but he [Ghost] had lost their [wolf pups’] scent.  He [Ghost] sat on his haunches and lifted his [Ghost’s] head to the darkening sky, and his [Ghost’s] cry echoed through the forest, a long lonely mournful sound. As it died away, he pricked up his [Ghost’s] ears, listening for an answer, but the only sound was the sigh of blowing snow” [ACoK].

   

  Compare the language and meaning in Bran’s wolf dream, which occurs after Jon’s wolf dream.

   

   

  “He [Bran in Summer] had a pack as well, once.  Five they had been, and a sixth who stood aside . . . He remembered their scents, his brothers and his sisters.  They had smelled alike, had smelled of pack, but each was different too . . . The others were scattered, like leaves blown by the wild wind” [ASoS 123].

   

  The similarities between the dreams are marked, as both warg Bran and warg Ghost count living siblings, noting the pup who dies; both note the scent of pack; and both see the pack mates as “scattered”.  Bran experiences his dream far from Jon’s, in the next novel, and these are emotions Bran chooses to share with wolf and warg when he returns to revisit Jon’s wolf dream.

  ·        The dream setting is the forest, which is unlike the “wind-carved arch of grey stone [that] marked the highest point of the Skirling Pass” [ACoK  517] where Qhorin orders his rangers to rest until “shadows began to grow again” [ACoK  763].

  ·        Ghost’s location among the trees brings to mind the location where Ghost digs furiously from “behind a fallen tree” at the base of the hill that the “wildlings called . . . the Fist of the First Men” [ACoK  507].

  ·        Ghost leads Jon to a recently dug grave where “there was no smell, no sign of graveworms”, a contrast to what Ghost sniffs near the weirwood sapling.

  ·        Jon unearths the obsidian tucked within “the black cloak of a Sworn Brother of the Night’s Watch” [ACoK 518].

  ·        This signature outerwear designates a visual uniformity among the black brothers. 

  ·        The black cloak symbolizes the “skin”, or the outer covering that protects men.  Jon metaphorically slips his skin when he wargs Ghost in his wolf dream

  ·        The unclaimed black cloak also signifies Jon turning cloak to wear a wildling’s guise, but only to obey the orders of Qhorin Halfhand.  Nevertheless, Jon feigns a shift in loyalties to infiltrate the enemy where he hopes to learn their secrets.

  ·        The first part of Jon’s wolf dream limits the third-person point of view narration to Ghost’s perspective as perceived by the dreamer Jon Snow and inspired by the greenseer Bran.

  ·        Ghost telepathically and empathetically connects with his pack, those littermates with whom he at one time shared a womb.  They also share a past, and even though the pups are separated from each other by great distances, Ghost still feels his brother’ and sister’s collective presence even if he has lost their scent.

  ·        Only Ghost owns five littermates at this juncture on the timeline, and the sixth wolf that Ghost cannot account for is Sansa’s Lady, the direwolf who meets an early demise. 

  ·        Bran is at Winterfell when Lady’s corpse is returned for burial in the lichyard; therefore, if Bran inspires Jon’s wolf dream, he may also divulge this information to warg and wolf. 

  ·        On the other hand, Ghost’s telepathic and instinctive connection to his pack enables him to sense that one wolf from the six born in the litter is now dead.  Through meeting minds with Ghost, Jon learns of Ghost losing a sister.

  ·        Jon experiences Ghost’s “deep ache of emptiness, a sense of incompleteness”.  Likewise, Jon misses his siblings, which is evident on several occasions when Jon thinks of his siblings individually or collectively.  For example, when Jon climbs the Skirling Pass with the rangers, he remembers “cold nights long ago at Winterfell when he shared a bed with his brothers” [ACoK].

  ·        Martin’s language depicts the behaviors of Ghost, yet there is much that relates to Jon and his warg pack:  Jon’s siblings are “scattered, each apart from the others”, and Jon’s brothers “were out there somewhere”.

  ·        Ghost’s cry is a “long lonely mournful sound” which is similar to the mournful keening attributed to the Skirling Pass.  Perhaps this is the sound Jon hears in his wolf dream.  More likely, the wind causes the skirling, and Bran, as part of the godhood, has powers of communication related to the wind.

  ·        Ghost listens for an answer, one that takes a human voice that speaks after “the sigh of blowing snow” [ACoK].  Instead of a littermate’s wolf-song, another brother makes contact.

   

  Who Calls Jon?

   

  “Jon?

  “The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only...

  “A weirwood”.

   

  ·        Martin does not enclose Jon in quotation marks, yet he distinguishes Jon with italics, which separates dialogue from a character’s inner thoughts and feelings.  Bran sends his call for Jon to the minds of both Jon and Ghost. 

  ·        Bran’s green magic appoints him as a telepathist who communicates directly from his mind to another’s, an extrasensory exercise Bran achieves by utilizing Ghost as the conduit and a dream as the platform to meet and to share with his brother Jon as a warg.

  ·        Martin selects words with care, employing singular masculine pronouns as references that have no clearly printed antecedents separating wolf from boy. Martin demonstrates that wolf and warg are truly of one mind, one spirit, instinct and intellect married by a shared past with mystical influences at work.  Together they endure both emotional and physical pain.

  “The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent?”

   

  ·        Ghost responds to the call name for Jon? as if the call name is his own, which is Ghost.   Regardless of hearing “Jon”, Ghost expects to see his own grey brother, as in his grey direwolf brother, even though Ghost surely knows that any one of his pack does not speak with words, does not call out names, does not whisper secrets, and does not shout into the silence. 

  ·        Martin pens a brilliant moment of suspense as a transition that provokes anticipation among Ghost, the warg Jon, and the readers who literally and/or figuratively “turn” with or AS Ghost, eagerly awaiting a lean grey direwolf. 

  ·        Alas, for a heartbeat, Martin fools those in the moment with shared disappointment that he colors with unflattering commentary:  “nothing” and “only” are not winning words by way of an introduction to the greenseer behind the weirwood. 

   

  “Can a shout be silent?”

   

  ·        The silent shout emphasizes Bran’s telepathy. 

  ·        Martin does not mention that the tree has a mouth, and through omission, the author makes clear that Bran does not need a carved mouth to speak words when he can use thoughts; therefore, Jon and Ghost hear Bran’s voice not with their ears.

  The Weirwood

   

  “It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother’s face. Had his brother always had three eyes?”  [ACoK  766].

   

  ·        When Bran first meaningfully connects with Jon, he inhabits a weirwood sapling.

  ·        Jon observes the tree maturing rapidly, a visual metaphor of Bran’s accelerated “intake” of greenseeing knowledge compared to the physical growth of a weirwood from a sapling and beyond.  The expanding tree limbs that extend toward the sky are the greenseer’s arms spreading wide and shooting upward as if stretching far beyond other trees to grasp the greatest enlightenment.

  ·        The visibly growing weirwood Jon sees resembles the rapidly moving visions that Bran experiences through the eyes of Winterfell’s heart tree.  Bran watches trees dwindle and vanish through the “mists of centuries” [ADwD 460].

  ·        Bran’s learning takes place on a field of time according to a weirwood:  “a thousand human years” equal “a moment to a weirwood”’ [ADwD 458].

  ·        Bran’s red weirwood eyes mirror Ghost’s, “When the direwolf raised his head, his eyes glowed red and baleful, and water streamed from his jaws like slaver.  There was something fierce and terrible about him” [ACoK 516].

  ·        Their ferocity is symptomatic of visionaries, prophets, priests, and priestesses.  And, after experiencing visions, these mystics may have a loss of consciousness, physical weakness, intense thirst, temporary confusion, memory loss, and difficulty speaking.

  ·        Martin gives readers a glimpse of how a weirwood ages from the surface of Planetos, but Martin mentions very little as to the labyrinthine roots that embrace Bran in his weirwood throne.

  ·        The weirwood, at varying stages of growth, is and will be the symbolic representation of Bran the greenseer when he visits the dreams of his siblings through their direwolves.  Lord Brynden reaches Bran through dreams during which he wears the skin of a three-eyed crow, the bird that commands Bran to choose:  fly or die! The crow wakes Bran, kissing his forehead with a peck – a “dream” pain that Bran feels still upon waking.  The Three-Eyed Crow wants Bran to open his third eye, and an intense moment of physical discomfort in a dream may serve as a waking memory later.

  ·        The parallels between Bran’s first three-eyed crow dream and Jon’s wolf-dream are many, but both tree and crow impress the importance of opening the third eye.

   

  Bran Answers What Jon Thinks

   

  Had his [Jon’s] brother [Bran] always had three eyes?

  “’Not always’, came the silent shout.  ‘Not before the crow’” [ACoK  766].

   

  Martin demonstrates Bran’s telepathic powers because after Jon Snow thinks:  “Had his brother always had three eyes?”  Bran answers, “’Not always’, came the silent shout.  ‘Not before the crow’”.  For the second time, Martin refers to the silent shout pertaining to Bran’s thoughts, which Martin conveniently italicizes.

  The Smell of Death and Darkness

   “He  [Ghost] sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew. He was smelling death. He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs” [ACoK  766].

  “Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark” [ACoK 766].

  Ghost alerts to the smell of death when he sniffs the weirwood sapling, a scent that appears to originate with Bran and his residence either in the Winterfell crypts or in the Cave of Skulls.  Death surrounds Bran, literally and figuratively.

  1.)    Beneath the snow and earth concealing the entrance to the Cave of Skulls, Bran sits his own weirwood throne, his Uncle Brandon Stark’s iron sword at hand and  his direwolf Summer nearby.  Bran’s posture is   like those dead Stark lords and Kings of Winter in Winterfell’s crypts who sit upon their own rock-carved thrones, their iron swords across their laps and stone direwolves at their feet.  The Cave of Skulls represents a symbolic crypt for Bran.  Moreover, the stone Starks frozen on their stone thrones are as crippled as Bran the broken whose useless legs take him nowhere.

  2.)    Bran the “crippled boy” travels with a simple-minded giant and two crannogmen far from the Neck, a suspicious crew who are deliberately perpetuating the myth that the Prince of Winterfell is dead.  Jojen says, “So long as Bran remains dead, he is safe.  Alive, he becomes prey for those who want him dead for good and true” [ASoS 129].

  3.)    Bran thinks of himself as dead because he is broken.  When Jojen dreams Bran dead , Bran thinks:  “he dreamed me dead, and I’m not.  Only he was, in a way . . .” [ASoS 129].

  4.)    Bran’s teacher is a talking corpse and not the three-eyed crow from his dreams.

  5.)    The interior of the cave features assorted skulls, and they rest upon the floor and line the walls.

  6.)    Outside the cave the dead with black hands walk but cannot enter.

  ·        Ghost instinctively recoils from death, displaying very physical, canine-inspired reactions that include sniffing, cringing, bristling, and snarling.  Martin discloses that Ghost associates death with “something terrible”, from another occasion:  “When the dead came walking, Ghost knew.  He woke me, warned me” [ACoK 515]. So, Bran comforts Jon’s direwolf Ghost with “Don’t be afraid”, words to assure the unsettled Ghost.

  ·        Ghost smells “wolf and tree and boy” before he senses “something else, something terrible.  Death, he knew”.

  ·        Ghost recaptures the scent of his pack when he smells wolf. Upon recognizing the encroaching smell of death, Ghost reacts protectively:  “He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs”. 

  ·        Furthermore, Ghost’s signature reaction is baring his fangs because he has no voice to signal a warning, to express fear, or even to attract Jon’s attention.

  ·        In these words are prophesy well-hidden.  Bran hopes to assure Jon that he has nothing to fear from death and darkness when Jon encounters both at some point in the future.  Moreover, Bran insinuates that he will be there when the time comes to ease Jon’s transition to the netherworld.

  ·        Jojen hints at Bran’s potential for wizardry in A Storm of Swords when he says: “To me the gods gave greendreams, and to you . . . you could be more than me, Bran.  You are the winged wolf, and there is no saying how far and how high you might fly . . .  if you had someone to teach you” [ASoS 131].

  ·        Jon as warg shares sensory experiences with Ghost while wearing his skin. Not only may Jon share what Ghost smells, he identifies the smell as if he is a wolf himself.

  ·        On the other hand, Jon Snow recognizes death’s smell.  While at the Fist of the First Men, Hake says, “There’s no smell to cold”.  Jon silently disagrees, recalling his own experience with this smell: “There is, thought Jon remembering the night in the Lord Commander’s chambers.  It smells like death” [514].

   

  “[You] Don’t be afraid” of WHAT? Unclear.

   

  Analyzing the grammatical elements of the sentence offers little clarity. 

   

  The full sentence reads “Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark”. 

   

  ·        The nominative case pronoun “You” is an implied “subject” of the predicate “do not be afraid”.  The implied subject “You”  may refer to either Jon or to Ghost since the pronoun’s spelling “Y – o – u”  remains the same in the plural form, nominative case. 

  ·        A comma joins these two short, simple sentences, and it is a weak punctuation choice for this occasion.  Although a period is the “preferred” end mark to conclude and to separate two complete thoughts linked without a coordinating conjunction or a conjunctive adverb, there are several options for revision to clarify meaning.  Quick editorial fixes are  1.) employ a coordinator:  “Don’t be afraid, and I like it in the dark”;  2.)  replace the comma with a semicolon “Don’t be afraid; I like it in the dark”; 3.) use a subordinator with an optional comma:  “Don’t be afraid because I like it in the dark”, or “Don’t be afraid, because I like it in the dark”. 

  ·        Each clause has its own subject and its own verb, and Martin presents each clause from a different point-of-view:  “[You] Don’t be afraid” is second person, but “I like it in the dark” is first person.

  ·        These grammatical inconsistencies are an exercise in determining Martin’s deliberate language choices.  In Bran’s telecommunications, Martin seemingly wants his readers to confuse Ghost with Jon and vice versa because the warg bond between boy and wolf is strong.  They think and feel as one.

  ·        Furthermore, these word groupings disclose that Bran perceives the fears of “both” Jon and Ghost, which makes him an empath as well as a telepathist,  and both warg and wolf share fears of the smell of death.

  ·        Or, Bran’s words may inform to the “general”, as in “Don’t be afraid of the smells, or of the weirwood and the boy inside it, or of anything you may see or hear as a warg in this wolf-dream”.

  ·        Detracting from these happy conclusions is “Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark”. Bran is a child who has had great responsibility placed upon him, and his words are childlike with childlike logic:  “Don’t be afraid of the dark because I like it in the dark”.  That is, if Martin wishes for the readers to find meaning in skewed logic.

  ·        Perhaps Martin unveils the mystery shrouded in ambiguity upon Jon’s waking when Jon himself considers the manner of the fear: “and what about the weirwood with his brother’s face that smelled of death and darkness?” [ACoK  768].

  ·        Actually, the words are as weighty as they are few.  Bran prophesizes that Jon need not fear the smell of death or the smell of the darkness in the times “to come”.

  ·        Bran asserts, “Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark”, words that are part of Lord Brynden’s lessons to Bran in ADwD, when the Last Greenseer lectures “Never fear the darkness” [ADwD  450].

  ·        In the novel A Clash of Kings, Arya’s POVs parallel Jon’s and Bran’s lessons.  Note in the following sentences how Syrio’s instruction mirrors Bloodraven’s:  “Syrio had told her [Arya] once that darkness could be her friend, and he was right” (ACoK  684). 

   

  Martin has made clear Jon’s fear of darkness and death as evidenced in Jon’s dream of Winterfell’s crypts.  Even though Ghost dislikes the smell of death, Ghost has never behaved in a manner that demonstrates that he fears darkness.

  “No one can see you, but you can see them”.

   

  ·        The above words are as potent as their forbearers:

  ·        These words are imperative in arguing that Bran reaches Jon Snow from a point in the future, after Bran learns to “see” and to “hear” others who cannot see him nor hear him from the heart tree – and more.

   

  For example, Bran revisits his lord father through Winterfell’s heart tree, only on this occasion, Bran does not sit his weirwood throne and he does not have an eager audience curious about his visions.  Alone in his bedchamber, Bran fails again: “He [Eddard] cannot see me, Bran realized, despairing.  He wanted to reach out and touch him, but all he could do was watch and listen.  I am in the tree.  I am inside the heart tree, looking out of its red eyes, but the weirwood cannot talk, so I can’t” [ADwD 459]. 

   

  What follows is a breakdown of Bran’s thoughts professing his failed attempts to reach his father.  After each segment, textual evidence is presented that proves Bran achieves all that he fails to do by the end of his last POV in ADwD.

   

  “He [Eddard] cannot see me, Bran realized, despairing . . . but all he could do was watch and listen”.

   

  Bran  watches unseen and unheard by his father. Bran’s frustrations and despair are replaced with a gleeful revelation of his talents to Jon,  “No one can see you, but you can see them”. 

   

  In Jon’s wolf dream and in Theon’s godswood interactions, Bran moves beyond these restrictions.  Bran’s sorcery allows him ways to let those he blesses recognize him with visual, tactile, olfactory, and/or auditory cues.

   

  “I am in the tree.  I am inside the heart tree, looking out of its red  eyes”,

   

  Bran transforms the expression on Winterfell’s heart tree to resemble his own and endows the weirwood sapling with his likeness.  Consequently, Bran’s sorcery is so convincing that Jon, Theon, and Ghost recognize Bran’s visage in the white bark marked with red sap.

   

  Theon reveals, “And for one strange moment it seemed as if it were Bran’s face carved into the pale trunk of the weirwood, staring down at him with eyes red and wise and sad.  Bran’s ghost, he thought, but that was madness” [ADwD 616].

   

  “He wanted to reach out and touch him”

   

  Even though Bran has no means to reach out and touch his dead father, Bran meets with success when he leans over to touch Ghost between the eyes in Jon’s wolf dream.  Furthermore, Bran touches Theon’s forehead using a red, five-fingered weirwood leaf. 

   

  Both with Jon and with Theon, Bran’s greenseeing powers move beyond their limitations in his last POV in ADwD.  The symbolic gesture of touch is Bran’s attempts  to awaken Jon and Theon’s third-eyes.  He wants them to see beyond the “darkness” and look to enlightenment.

   

   

  Theon reveals, “A leaf drifted down from above, brushed his brow, and landed in the pool.  It floated on the water, red,  five-fingered, like a bloody hand” [ADwD 616]. 

   

   

  “but the weirwood cannot talk, so I can’t”

   

  Bran communicates with Jon telepathically and empathetically, as he does with Theon in lesser degrees.  Bran speaks to Theon with rustling leaves as well as the weirwood’s mouth.

   

  Theon reveals, “The night was windless, the snow drifting . . . yet the leaves of the heart tree were rustling his name, ‘Theon,’ they seemed to whisper, ‘Theon’.

  “The old gods, he thought.  They know me.  They know my name.  I was Theon of House Greyjoy.  I was a ward of Eddard Stark, a friend and brother to his children” [ADwD 616].

   

   ‘. . . Bran,’ the tree murmured”.

  “They know.  The gods know.  They saw what I did” [ADwD 616].

   

  ·        After Bran’s final POV in A Dance with Dragons, Bran secures a mental bond with Theon that evolves into a mystical, even spiritual, communion with the heart tree in Winterfell’s godswood.  With Bran wearing the guise of an ancient weirwood thousands of years old, Bran relates to the Turncloak in the present time of the novel’s action. 

  ·        Evidently, the rules for engaging another in the past and for engaging another in the present time are different, each with its own restrictions and limitations, for humans and for greenseers. Each sees in time through eyes uniquely his own:  Jon is trapped in the river of time, Bran has the weirwood’s eyes: “seasons pass in the flutter of a moth’s wing, and past, present, and future are one” [ADwD 458].

  ·        Bran gains Jon’s attention in Jon’s wolf dream, which Bran likely revisits from a point in the future. 

   

  Bran Opens Jon’s Third Eye

   

  “Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him”.

   

  ·        Because Bran influences and inspires Jon’s wolf dream, the greenseer in the tree leans over to touch Ghost between the eyes, a symbolic gesture that compels the warg to open his third eye, after which the forest setting suddenly vanishes.

   

   

  Bran deftly executes opening Jon’s third-eye in a wolf dream, which is unlike Bran’s own painful experience when the three-eyed crow forces open Bran’s third-eye in a dream, ordering Bran again to “Fly or die!” [ACoK 260].

   

  After Bran prays to the Old Gods to send him dreamless sleep, Bran receives an answer by way of a “nightmare” not a dream, and Bran thinks, “they [the Old Gods] mocked his hopes, for the nightmare they sent was worse than any wolf dream” [260].  The pitiless three-eyed crow attacks a pleading Bran with his “terrible sharp beak,” blinding both Bran’s eyes.  Then, the three-eyed crow pecks at Bran’s brow”, finally wrenching out “slimy . . . bits of bone and brain” [260].  This sorcery allows Bran to see again, through all his eyes. 

   

  What materializes in the vision with which the three-eyed crow blesses Bran is pure terror: Bran relives his crippling fall, and even more frightening, Bran sees “the golden man” who saves Bran, then drops him, excusing his murderous act with these words: “The things I do for love” [260].

   

  In actuality, Bran’s nightmare has inspiration from real events that he experienced recently in his daily life, and what Bran “hears” has such an impact on Bran that he becomes physically ill, unable to breathe, his blood roaring in is ears

   

  Visiting guests Cley Cerwin and his knights are joking about Stannis making his claim to the throne based upon Joffrey’s bastardy.

   

  Several key sentences bandied about by the bannermen evocate a visible reaction from Bran:

   

  1.       “Queen Cersei bedded her brother” [259].

  2.      “Small wonder he’s [Joffrey] faithless, with the Kingslayer for a Father” [259].

  3.      “the gods hate incest.  Look how they brought down the Targaryens” [260].

   

  Sadly, in three lines, Martin sums up what Bran witnesses from outside the window of the gargoyle guarded tower:  Bran’s vision, sent via the wizardry of the three-eyed crow deliberately after Cley and his knights jolt Bran’s waking memory, is evidence of incest, proof that the Queen and the Kingslayer are guilty as charged, but more importantly, the three-eyed crow imparts to Bran undeniable verification of the identity of the golden knight who causes Bran to fall.

   

  A greenseer must learn to see and to acknowledge what is true, no matter how painful the truth may be.  Bran buries his most unpleasant memory deep in his subconscious, disguising it in darkness, choosing not to acknowledge to himself what he now knows for sure to be true. 

   

  Even after the agony of his nightmare,  Bran is not keen on acceptance; however, Bran denies many truths about himself, something that Jojen Reed learns while educating a reluctant Bran on his powers.  Bran gets angry at Jojen’s talk of Bran as a warg in Summer, and he doesn’t understand how to open his third-eye.  Nor does he share with the Reeds, or anyone else, that the Kingslayer caused his fall.

   

  Bran Changes the Setting

   

  “And suddenly he was back in the mountains, his paws sunk deep in a drift of snow as he stood upon the edge of a great precipice. Before him the Skirling Pass opened up into airy emptiness, and a long vee-shaped valley lay spread beneath him like a quilt, awash in all the colors of an autumn afternoon”.

   

  ·        Bran replaces the forest with a prime location from a vantage point atop the Skirling Pass that overlooks the valley and the Milkwater where the wildlings are massing.  Bran gifts the warg in Ghost a “bird’s eye view”, which suggests Bran’s flying lessons in which he sees through a raven’s eyes from high in the sky over the Cave of Skulls.  Therefore, Martin evidences Bran’s greensight to reveal the status of his powers as of ADwD and beyond.

  ·        Ghost’s paws sunk deep into the snow assures that he is well-grounded and balanced on his perch, all of which safeguards him from the eagle’s surprise attack and prevents the bird of prey from forcing him to fall from the precipice to his death.

  ·        Bran transports wolf and warg from the forest to a location on the Skirling Pass closer to the camp where Jon dreams.  Bran’s magic comports them through time as the trees and their greenseers experience it.

   

  Mirroring Castle Black

   

  “A vast blue-white wall plugged one end of the vale, squeezing between the mountains as if it had shouldered them aside, and for a moment he thought he had dreamed himself back to Castle Black. Then he realized he was looking at a river of ice several thousand feet high. Under that glittering cold cliff was a great lake, its deep cobalt waters reflecting the snowcapped peaks that ringed it”.

                                                                                                                                        

  ·        Jon’s view from above makes him think of Castle Black and the Wall, especially the details of the blue colors.  Although the Wall turns many colors, the shades of blue are apt because of Ygritte’s story on Bael the Bard claiming a perfect blue winter rose from the Winterfell’s ice gardens.

  ·        Martin associates Lyanna Stark with blue winter roses when Prince Rhaegar chooses her as the queen of love and beauty.

  ·        Khaleesi has a vision while in the House of Dust of a blue flower lodged in a chink of ice believed to be the Wall.

   

  A Host of Thousands

   

  “There were men down in the valley, he saw now; many men, thousands, a huge host. Some were tearing great holes in the half-frozen ground, while others trained for war. He watched as a swarming mass of riders charged a shield wall, astride horses no larger than ants”.

   

  ·        The thousands that comprise a huge host prove that the spear wife Ygritte did not lie to Jon Snow when she says, “Hundreds and thousands, more than you ever saw, crow” [ACoK 744].

   

   

  Sights, Sounds, and Smells

   

  “The sound of their mock battle was a rustling of steel leaves, drifting faintly on the wind. Their encampment had no plan to it; he saw no ditches, no sharpened stakes, no neat rows of horse lines. Everywhere crude earthen shelters and hide tents sprouted haphazardly, like a pox on the face of the earth. He spied untidy mounds of hay, smelled goats and sheep, horses and pigs, dogs in great profusion. Tendrils of dark smoke rose from a thousand cookfires”.

   

  ·        Jon witnesses the free folk through Ghost’s sensory perceptions, seeing, hearing, and smelling through a direwolf’s eyes, ears, and nose, respectively.

  ·        Jon observes disorganization:  “Their encampment had no plan to it”.  However, Jon hears Qhorin’s observations that may influence Jon even in a dream.  The Halfhand says, “they have no discipline” [ACoK 764].

   

  The Call of the Wildlings

   

  “This is no army, no more than it is a town. This is a whole people come together”.

   

  The vision Bran sends to Jon is the massing of wildlings, a motley assortment of a people and all they own amid disorganized leadership.   Families gather kith and kin, risking all to cross the Wall and to take on the Night’s Watch to do so.

  As Jon scrutinizes the “godless savages” whose “treachery is renowned” [ADwD 713], according to Septon Cellador,   Jon perceives that these savages’ lack of discipline cripples them.  Bran might want Jon to see beyond the myths – beyond the darkness that blinds most men – and recognize that these warriors have families, “There are children in that camp, hundreds of them thousands, women as well . . . mothers and grandmothers, widows and maids . . .” [ADwD  712].

  The mournful cry Ghost sings at the beginning of Jon’s dream is the preface Bran uses to evocate in Jon “ a deep ache of emptiness, a sense of incompleteness”, feelings of losing those he loves, his siblings, his parents, his Sworn Brothers.

  Bran emphasizes mortality, represented by humanity, giants, and mythical beasts, otherwise the despised foes of the Night’s Watch preparing to battle and preparing to risk their lives for a purpose.  Bran imparts to Jon that these free folk are as vulnerable as any people who face a “seemingly” undefeatable, supernatural force.

  Jon needs to remember the “ache” for his family he shares with Ghost when Jon faces opposition in his efforts to save the wildlings from the White Walkers and their army of wights in the later novel A Dance with Dragons. 

  Jon reasons with his brothers, appealing to their sympathy for the helpless.  Jon reminds his Night’s Watch brothers of their vows:  “I am the shield that guards the realms of men. . . what are these wildlings, if not men?” [ADwD 715].

  Bowen Marsh declares, “For eight thousand years the men of the Night’s Watch have stood upon the Wall and fought these wildlings.  Now you mean to let them pass, to shelter them in our castles, to feed them and clothe them and teach them to fight.  Lord Snow, must I remind you?  You swore an oath” [ADwD 715].

  Jon’s assertion that the wildlings “love their children” falls on deaf ears.

  Jon can hardly know at this time that his efforts to save these wildlings will result in his death by those Night’s Watch men he calls his brothers.

  But does the greenseer Bran know the fate awaiting Jon?  Bran’s thoughts soothe his brother Jon Snow who dislikes the smells of death and darkness, and both may be planning to cut his life short far too soon. 

  Jon must die.  Only then can Jon Snow be reborn with the knowledge Bran has to guide him to leading the realms of men in defeating the Others and their minions.

  Just as Jon infiltrates the wildling ranks, Jon will die and rise to face the dead army as one of them, albeit transformed.

   

  Giants and Mammoths

   

  “Across the long lake, one of the mounds moved. He watched it more closely and saw that it was not dirt at all, but alive, a shaggy lumbering beast with a snake for a nose and tusks larger than those of the greatest boar that had ever lived. And the thing riding it was huge as well, and his shape was wrong, too thick in the leg and hips to be a man”.

   

  ·        To Jon’s amazement, he sees for the first time mythical beings featured in Old Nan’s stories. The mythical giants are riding the mythical mammoths.  Consequently, Jon’s wolf dream confirms their existence.

  ·        Bran likely enjoys imparting this vision to Jon, especially since they share memories of a past. 

  ·        Bran conveys a sense of wonder, which he hopes will instigate Jon’s feelings of appreciation for these living men and creatures, and Jon will see value in preserving these entities that Bran knows are doomed to extinction.

   

  The Eagle Attacks

   

  “Then a sudden gust of cold made his fur stand up, and the air thrilled to the sound of wings. As he lifted his eyes to the ice-white mountain heights above, a shadow plummeted out of the sky. A shrill scream split the air. He glimpsed blue-grey pinions spread wide, shutting out the sun...

  “Ghost!” Jon shouted, sitting up. He could still feel the talons, the pain. “Ghost, to me!”

   

  Even though Bran sets Ghost firmly on a precipice that overlooks the wildlings gathering, the greenseer places Ghost in a vulnerable position where the direwolf is a visible target that can be easily spotted by the sharp eyes of a predatory eagle warged by a wildling. Bran is unable to divert the eagle’s attack of Ghost, which may divulge the limitations visited upon the greenseer while connecting through a wolf dream. 

   

  Furthermore, Bran cannot alter the past, for if he could, he would surely spare Ghost from suffering injury from the eagle’s attack.  However, Bloodraven cannot prevent Bran’s fall from the Tower, yet Bran acknowledges when he witnesses the shattered gargoyles strewn across the yard and broken into so many pieces that “it made him wonder how he was alive at all” [ACoK 964].

   

   Bran’s observation suggests that even though the three-eyed crow cannot intervene to stop the inevitable, the last greenseer manages to lessen the impact on Bran’s body, sparing him from certain death.  In such a way, Bran lessens the damage the eagle’s talons have on Ghost’s body, sparing Ghost the fatality of a broken neck.

   

  ·        Jon’s wolf dream ends abruptly and painfully when “a sudden gust of cold made his fur stand up, and the air thrilled to the sound of wings”.

  ·        Qhorin’s interest in Jon’s dream is keen, and he presses for more details:  “Tell me all that you remember, from first to last” [ACoK  768].

  ·        Jon is unsettled by Qhorin’s intense interrogation over what Jon believes is “just a dream”.

  ·        It is Qhorin who gives a name to Jon’s experience:  “A wolf dream”.

  ·        Jon is reassured when none of the rangers laugh at him, but Jon dislikes Ebben wondering if Jon is, in fact, a “skinchanger”.  Jon’s memories of skinchangers and wargs belong in “Old Nan’s stories, not in the world he had lived in all his life.  Yet here, in this strange bleak wilderness of rock and ice, it was not hard to believe” [ACoK 768].

  ·        Qhorin supposes that Jon’s dream may reveal what Jon and the rangers already suspected about the gathering wildlings thanks to informative sources. But Qhorin also states prophetically, “Or it may be that you saw what waits for us a few hours farther on.  Tell me” [768].

  ·        Qhorin latches onto a detail from Jon’s dream that confuses the dreamer:  “There was a weirwood with my brother’s face” [768].  From this Qhorin determines, “The cold winds are rising.  Mormont feared as much.  Benjen Stark felt it as well.  Dead men walk and the trees have eyes again”.

  ·        Qhorin’s observation links two profound and supernatural events, and because the dead are walking, the old gods of the north and their greenseers are manning the trees, watching through the eyes carved by the singers.

   

  As the rangers continue their sojourn, Jon silently frets for his direwolf Ghost who has not returned to his side after the eagle attacks him in Jon’s wolf dream.  Jon stifles his urges to call out for his wolf, knowing that the men must travel quietly so that they do not attract unwanted attention.

   

  Upon starting their descent of the Skirling Pass, Squire Dahlbridge spies the “eagle perched on a spine of rock above them”, studying their movements from a safe distance.  Even though the eagle warged by a wildling knows the rangers’ location, Qhorin continues, not revealing to them his reason for not turning back for Castle Black.

   

  None of the rangers question the Halfhand’s orders or suspect his motives, least of all Jon Snow, on whose behalf the Halfhand acts.  Qhorin anticipates they will come upon an injured Ghost. 

   

  Jon is the first to glimpse his direwolf safely blending into the snow and concealed between and beneath two boulders.  Martin demonstrates Qhorin has a vested interest in the Stark bastard and his direwolf when he barks orders at Jon and the others in his ministering to Ghost’s wounds. 

   

  After, Qhorin commands the ranging party to abandon the mission and return to Castle Black, which surprises Jon who never realizes why Qhorin delays their retreat.  Alas, Jon snow proves that he knows nothing because he never perceives the generous actions of his commander who delays orders for the sake of a boy and his wolf.

   

  Qhorin Halfhand’s Interest in Jon Snow and his Direwolf Ghost

  Qhorin Halfhand reveals a pointed interest in Jon and his direwolf Ghost from their first meeting.

   

  “Jon knew Qhorin the instant he saw him though they had never met”, and the Halfhand’s observations of Mormont’s steward:  “You are Jon Snow.  You have your father’s look . . . It is s said a direwolf runs with you” [627].

   Martin gradually informs readers of the Halfhand’s knowledge of beyond the Wall, of the wildlings, of the children of the forest, of sorcery, and of much more.   He is cognizant of Jon and Ghost’s importance on this ranging mission. Moreover, Martin insinuates that the Halfhand suspects Jon’s Stark heritage partners him with his direwolf Ghost who are, together literally and figuratively, an answer to the survival of the realms of men if only Jon realizes his warging gift. 

   

  Qhorin selects Jon to join his personal ranging party, justifying his option to the Lord Commander, “The old gods are still strong beyond the Wall, the gods of the First Men . . . and the Starks” [633].

   

   The sooner Jon discovers his powers, the better service he will be to the Night’s Watch at large. 

   

  As a matter of fact, Qhorin even orders Jon to sleep on the eve of Jon’s wolf dream: “But enough talk. You ought be sleeping. We have leagues to go, and dangers to face. You will need your strength.”

   

  Even though “Jon did not think sleep would come easily” he concedes “the Halfhand was right” [[ACoK 771].

   

  Qhorin Halfhand knows Jon is a warg even if Jon does not.

  Jon’s Ebon Night’s Watch Cloak and Ghost’s White Fur Coat

  Martin definitely uses Jon’s cloak in symbolic ways.  For instance, on the Skirling Pass, “He [Jon] found a place out of the wind, beneath an overhang of rock, and took off his cloak to use it for a blanket. ‘Ghost,’ he called. ‘Here. To me.’  He [Jon] always slept better with the great white wolf beside him; there was comfort in the smell of him, and welcome warmth in that shaggy pale fur” [[ACoK 771].

   

  Jon’s cloak suffices for warmth, but Jon prefers “the great white wolf” whose smell, whose warmth, and whose touch comforts Jon, helping Jon to sleep better.

  On the Fist of the First Men, Jon hears the howling of wolves, and the sound evocates a physical response from Jon Snow:  “It made the hairs rise along the back of his neck” [515].  Coincidentally, Ghost reacts in a like manner when “He was smelling death.  He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs” [].

   

  During Jon’s wolf dream, the Stark bastard shares his direwolf Ghost’s skin to enable him to see, to feel, and to hear as wolves do. Just so, turnabout is fair play.  After the eagle injures Ghost in the wolf-dream, Jon tears a strip of black cloth from his own cloak to bandage his Ghost’s wounds, thereby symbolically sharing his own skin with Ghost as Ghost permits Jon to share his wolf-skin, or white fur:

  “Qhorin poured wine into the ragged gashes the eagle had left him [Ghost], but Jon wrapped his arms around him and murmured soothing words, and soon enough, the wolf quieted.  By the time they’d ripped a strip from Jon’s cloak to wrap the wounds, full dark had settled” [ACoK 771]. 

  Furthermore, Martin repeats the verb “wrap” in past tense as “Jon wrapped his arms around him [Ghost]”.  When a skin of one form or another is not easily available, the loving arms of the warg Jon Snow makes a welcome substitute to quiet Ghost.  After all, Jon Snow prefers sleeping close to his “great white wolf” as there is “comfort in the smell of him” and warmth from his shaggy white fur.

  In these few of many examples, Martin demonstrates the bond that Jon and Ghost share on a plane of consciousness that has nothing to do with warging or slipping skins.  They exist as one, and Ghost’s fur is Jon’s cloak just as Jon’s cloak is Ghost’s fur.

   

  Bran as a Wizard-in-Training

  Readers may anticipate how Bran will perform as a wizard-in-training by recalling Bran’s behavior as a student under Maester Luwin. A precocious pupil, Bran is not afraid to ask questions and express doubts if the answers he receives are illogical, misinformed, and/or unpopular.

  Bran seeks out others more capable of providing insight that will clarify for his child’s mind the nature of his confusing dreams and unexplainable yearnings that cause him to fear the unknown rather than embrace what knowledge his fears disguise.  Old Nan, Osha, Meera, and Jojen are sources that contradict Maester Luwin’s teachings, and eventually Bran determines that his maester, despite all his Citadel education, forged chain links, personal experiences, and good intentions, is only “human”, ill-equipped to minister to a greenseeing prodigy.

  Bran’s Lessons and the Night’s Watch Vows

  Bran’s lessons with BR and Leaf echo the vows of the Night’s Watch, an insight that may speak to the influences contributing to their origination and composition.  Although a simple explanation for the similarities in the three-eyed crow’s phrasing of his lessons to Bran may be that Lord Brynden was once a brother and a Lord Commander  of the Night’s Watch himself; consequently, the Last Greenseer knows the vows well, and these memories imprinted on his conscious naturally rely on his accessing these sentence constructions. 

  Or, the magic that is woven into the ice that built the Wall comes from the old gods, the children, and the greenseers, all of whom may have had and still do have a vested interest in those whose responsibilities are to man the Wall. 

  The Watchers on the Wall have much in common with the “watchers in the trees”, or as Qhorin Halfhand phrases these things,  “. . . the trees have eyes again” [ACoK], a condition that is the result of the dead walking.

  The Night’s Watch Vows and the Greenseers’ Vows

  Night’s Watch:  Night gathers, and now my watch begins.

  Greenseer:  The dead walk, the Long Night gathers, and now my greensight begins.

  “The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use . . . but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves” [ADwD 458-459 ].

  Night’s Watch:  It shall not end until my death.

  Greenseer:  It shall not end until my death.

  “One day I will be like him [Lord Brynden, half corpse, half tree].  The thought filled Bran with dread” [ADwD 455].

  Night’s Watch:  I shall have no wife, hold no lands, father no children.

  Greenseer:  I shall have no wife, hold no lands, father no children.

  Bran:  “What was he now? Only Bran the broken, Brandon of House Stark, prince of a lost kingdom, lord of a burned castle, heir to ruins” [ADwD 455].

  Night’s Watch:  I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.

  Greenseer:  I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.

  “I was going to be a knight, Bran remembered. I used to run and climb and fight” [ADwD].

  “Bran,” he said sullenly.  Bran the Broken.  ‘Brandon Stark’.  The  cripple boy.  ‘The Prince of Winterfell.’  Of Winterfell burned and tumbled, its people scattered and slain” [ASoS 126].

  Night’s Watch:  I shall live and die at my post.

  Greenseer:  I shall live and die on my weirwood throne.

    Leaf to Bran: “Most of him has gone into the tree . . .” [ ADwD  449].

  Night’s Watch:  I am the sword in the darkness.

  Greenseer:  I am enlightenment amid ignorance.

  Jojen tells Bran that greenseers can “see the truth that lies beneath the world” [ASoS 131].

  Night’s Watch:  I am the watcher on the walls.

  Greenseer:  I am the eyes in the trees.

  “Dead men walk and the trees have eyes again” [ACoK].

  Night’s Watch:  I am the fire that burns against the cold,

  Greenseer:  I am the force against the dead,

  Leaf to Bran:  “Do not seek to call him [Eddard Stark] back from death” [ADwD 458].

  Night’s Watch:  The light that brings the dawn,

  Greenseer:  The knowledge to return the dawn.

  Jojen says to Bran, “You are the winged wolf, and there is no saying how far and how high you might fly . . .” [ASoS].

  Night’s Watch:  The horn that wakes the sleepers,

  Greenseer:  The voice that informs the unknowing,

  Jojen says to Bran,  “. . . the trees remembered all their songs and spells, their histories and prayers, everything they knew about this world.  Maesters will tell you that the weirwoods are sacred to the old gods.  The singers believe they are the old gods” [ADwD 450].

  Night’s Watch:  The shield that guards the realms of men.

  Greenseer:  The greenseer born to save the realms of men

  “Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother’s milk” [ADwD 450].

  Night’s Watch:  I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all nights to come.

  Greenseer:  I pledge my life and honor to the Long Night, for this night and all those to come.

  Leaf to Bran on the sacrifice made by the last greenseer: “For us, for you, for the realms of men” [ADwD  449].

  Jon Remains in Darkness despite Bran’s Vision in a Wolf-Dream

  “No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes”.

  Alas, for all Bran’s impressive wizardry, Jon is not ready to open his ey

  Martin makes clear just how little impact Jon’s wolf-dream and Bran’s efforts have on him.  Although Jon wonders about Bran’s face in the weirwood sapling, about his embodiment of Ghost, and about what he sees and feels while sharing Ghost’s skin, Jon refuses to acknowledge that he is a warg, skinchanger, or beastling.

  When Ebben draws such a conclusion, Jon assumes the ranger is referencing the eagle that Jon says attacked Ghost.  Bran may have magically opened Jon’s third eye, but he has no desire to explore this mystique.  Mastering his warg powers and achieving enlightenment are not priorities at this time.

  “You know nothing, Jon Snow” is the affirmation that Jon opts for and finds comfort in.  Some risks are too costly, and Jon prefers the bliss of ignorance, the protection of darkness.

   

   

   

   

   

[Raisin' Bran]

You seem to have presented a very credible case for the idea that Bran was speaking to Ghost/Jon while Bran was in the cave and not in the crypt below Winterfell.

However, I still will lean toward the idea that Bran was speaking from the crypt during that episode for a few reasons.

1) Dance was yet to be written, and would not be released for another 11 years. I do not believe Martin had fully conceived the cave when he was writing Clash, hence he would not know if "death" was present in the cave. But, death was an absolute presence in the crypt.

1.1) Since Dance had yet to be written, I also do not believed Martin had fully fleshed out the capabilities of the greenseers, i.e. seeing and communicating into the past

2) The weirwood in the dream is referred to as a sapling. Based on my understanding of saplings, they are the equivalent of a growing child: still frail in its resilience to outside conditions. By the time Bran reaches the cave, he has gained much more insight to how to work with than just Summer and can slip his skin without much effort, a much more resilient skinchanger. However, I have nothing to say as to why Bran was projected as a weirwood in the first place.

3) As you said yourself in the essay, the greenseers cannot change the past. So how can Bran open Jon's third eye from the future.

[evita mgfs]

On 1/5/2016 at 3:13 PM, Raisin' Bran said:

You seem to have presented a very credible case for the idea that Bran was speaking to Ghost/Jon while Bran was in the cave and not in the crypt below Winterfell.

However, I still will lean toward the idea that Bran was speaking from the crypt during that episode for a few reasons.

1) Dance was yet to be written, and would not be released for another 11 years. I do not believe Martin had fully conceived the cave when he was writing Clash, hence he would not know if "death" was present in the cave. But, death was an absolute presence in the crypt.

1.1) Since Dance had yet to be written, I also do not believed Martin had fully fleshed out the capabilities of the greenseers, i.e. seeing and communicating into the past

2) The weirwood in the dream is referred to as a sapling. Based on my understanding of saplings, they are the equivalent of a growing child: still frail in its resilience to outside conditions. By the time Bran reaches the cave, he has gained much more insight to how to work with than just Summer and can slip his skin without much effort, a much more resilient skinchanger. However, I have nothing to say as to why Bran was projected as a weirwood in the first place.

3) As you said yourself in the essay, the greenseers cannot change the past. So how can Bran open Jon's third eye from the future.

Raisin' Bran:  EXCELLENT RESPONSE!  Thank you very much for taking the time to reply in such a thoughtful and reasonably argued manner!  Great Job!

 

I apologize for taking so long to give answer to your most sound and brilliant observations.  I have been following you on the Forum as you have been posting in a few of my own favorite threads.  So, it is good to make your acquaintance, and I look forward to meeting you and discussing further theories with you in the future.

I will attempt to address each of your points, but keep in mind that I can conceive either interpretation concerning Bran reaching Jon from the crypts or the cave.

1].  I wish I was prolific in the study of So Spake Martin wherein he reveals a great deal about his writing process and such.  Nevertheless, I tend to believe that Martin’s vision regarding the journeys of the Stark kiddoes especially was conscientiously organized and planned by the author in advance.  Martin’s scheme for Bran has always been a path beyond the Wall, which is evident in Bran’s 3EC dream in AGoT.  Moreover, Martin builds on Bran’s association with death through the crypts early on – as with his unique magic that allows him to be literally and metaphorically “the Stark in Winterfell”, as in Bran becomes one with the living magic of the grey stones that built the structures comprising the castle proper, including the crypts and those statues within it.

Because Bran’s POVs are strategically diminished over the novels in the series – even absent completely from AFfC – I assumed, maybe wrongly, that Martin ardently attended to details in his charting of Bran’s character arc.

Additionally, since Bran “sees” as the trees do – as the gods do – he perceives the past, present, and future simultaneously, even when he reaches out via the dream platform.  That Bran communicates with Jon telepathically and emphatically, these skills Bran acquires and only manages at some point in time after Bran’s last POV in ADwD and evidenced in those POVs attributed to Theon/Reek, wherein Bran inspires Theon in a variety of ways.

 

To understand completely what I am talking about here, you may wish to visit my thread in the ReRead Forum entitled  BRAN’S GROWING POWERS AFTER his FINAL POV in ADwD http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/132143-bran%E2%80%99s-growing-powers-after-his-final-pov-in-adwd/

We would welcome your input in this thread as we are documenting Bran’s powers manifested in elements of nature, etc. in POVs narrated by other characters. 

What I was trying to make clear in my analysis was that Bran fails in his attempts to influence Jon’s awakening his warg spirit when he revisits the wolf dream from his cave.  Bran succeeds in making his presence known, but in the end, Bran’s efforts have no impact on Jon; hence, Bran realizes that even within the dream platform, he cannot impact past events.

Does that make sense?

2].  As far as Bran appearing as a weirwood sapling, I had assumed that Bran employs the tree as his avatar or symbol in the same way that Lord Brynden reaches his dreams as a 3EC.  What serves as a sticking point is that Bran only achieves reaching his siblings when they are dreaming in a state of warging their direwolves.

3].  In my other essays posted in the thread I mentioned above, I propose that Bran succeeds in opening Theon’s third eye – if even for a moment – during his mystical communion with Theon in WF’s godswood.  Albeit, the platform in which Bran uses to inspire Theon is completely separate and apart from a wolf dream/warging platform.

Anyways, your interpretations are just as sound as any I have presented.  You have a good handle on the novels and on Martin’s perspectives as an author.  I would gladly read any of your work in confidence that you know the material that you are writing about.

Thanks again for sharing!

[Weirwood Ghost]

I read you entire presentation and found it incredibly readable, concise and backed up with evidence. Really enjoyed it.

When I read Jon's warg dream contact with Bran, I too concluded Bran was unsuccessful in altering Jon's view of his warging/other abilities. I consider this this Jon's introduction 1-0-1 lesson to his warging potential and Jon isn't awake yet, literally or metaphorically. He seems to ignore his warging experiences (he doesn't revisit his warg experiences along his journey except directly after waking from them). It remains to be seen if Bran uses this method again in WoW. Surely every warg/skin changer must have these existential hiccups when first learning their special gift.

He's been left for dead in aDwD. If anything is going to convince him of his warging gift it will be if we get a PoV of him in death, existing in conciousness as Ghost. As backwards as that sounds I hope it happens.

 

[Wolfgirly]

I wonder if the Stark family are werewolves or even weirwolves? They become (dire)wolves when they dream. Bran dreamt he was walking through the grounds of Winterfell (in "A Clash of Kings") and then both the Reed brother and sister saw him, knowing he was a wolf. Then after Bran woke up from this, the Reed brother and sister confirmed that the dream was real enough, except Bran was his own direwolf.

When Robb was at war, voices of the folk reached the Kings Landing via spreaded rumours that he was a wolf as well as a young king. I could be wrong. Arya made a friend in Hot Pie, who made her cakes with the image of a direwolf.