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Wow, I Never Noticed That, v. 14


Isobel Harper

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Osha is Tormund's sister!

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"Let Maester Luwin ride beyond the Wall," Osha said. "He'll find giants then, or they'll find him. My brother killed one. Ten foot tall she was, and stunted at that.

GOT Bran VI

Though I guess she didn't hear the end of his story.

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Zollo is the Dothraki brute that lopped off Jaime's hand.

Ollo Lophand is the NW brother (also missing a hand) that is in on the plans to kill LC Mormont at the fist, and who we later see dead and Summer takes big bite or two out of him.

 

I wonder how Jaime will feel when an entire hoard of Dothraki screamers come storming in to Westeros with Danaerys?

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The Sphinx was always smiling, as if he knew some secret jape. It gave him a wicked look that went well with his pointed chin, widow's peak, and dense mat of close-cropped jet-black curls. (Prologue, AFFC 0)

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Princess Arianne strode to the litter on snakeskin sandals laced up to her thighs. Her hair was a mane of jet-black ringlets that fell to the small of her back, and around her brow was a band of copper suns. (The Captain of Guards, AFFC 2)

The only other people described as having "jet-black" hair are Renly and Edric, but their hair is not described as curly.

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The Sphinx studied Leo with his big black eyes. (Prologue, AFFC 0)

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She rolled onto one elbow to look up at him, her big black eyes shining in the candlelight. (The Soiled Knight, AFFC 13)

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The speaker was a slim, slight, comely youth, clad in doeskin breeches and a snug green brigandine with iron studs. He had skin the color of a light brown ale and a cap of tight black curls that came to a widow's peak above his big black eyes. (Samwell V, AFFC 45)

These are the only times the phrase "big black eyes" appears in the series.

Alleras doesn't just share traits with Oberyn and the Sand Snakes, but Arianne as well.

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15 minutes ago, Shmedricko said:

The only other people described as having "jet-black" hair are Renly and Edric, but their hair is not described as curly.

These are the only times the phrase "big black eyes" appears in the series.

Alleras doesn't just share traits with Oberyn and the Sand Snakes, but Arianne as well.

Well, they all come from come from similar stock, accept for Sarella's mum and Arianne’s mum. 

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Jaime's "No" when asked if he wished to answer cersei's letter in AFFC reflects the High Sparrow "No" when cersei wanted to leave, both men that cersei judged beneath her, and thought to control and manipulate, and both denied cersei, the High Sparrow denied cersei of her authority, and jaime denied her his love and loyalty.

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47 minutes ago, Shmedricko said:

No mention of 'jet', but there is also Jaqen

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His cheeks grew fuller, his eyes closer; his nose hooked, a scar appeared on his right cheek where no scar had been before. And when he shook his head, his long straight hair, half red and half white, dissolved away to reveal a cap of tight black curls. (ACoK, Ch.47 Arya IX)

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

From May 3...

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Ghost was gone when the wildlings led their horses from the cave. Did he understand about Castle Black? Jon took a breath of the crisp morning air and allowed himself to hope. The eastern sky was pink near the horizon and pale grey higher up. The Sword of the Morning still hung in the south, the bright white star in its hilt blazing like a diamond in the dawn, but the blacks and greys of the darkling forest were turning once again to greens and golds, reds and russets. And above the soldier pines and oaks and ash and sentinels stood the Wall, the ice pale and glimmering beneath the dust and dirt that pocked its surface.

Jon IV, Storm 30

The colors are just a description of the sunrise and a reminder that we are in autumn. The more interesting thing here is the Sword of the Morning constellation on the southern horizon, as seen north of the Wall. Forget for the moment that a 700-foot wall of ice should have blotted out the southern horizon from the view of a man (even if he is the special snowflake) standing on the ground just north of the Wall. Rather, concentrate on the shape of the constellation and the bright white star in its hilt blazing like a diamond in the dawn. It should be a cross with a very bright star at one end. Well, that is Crux, also known as the Southern Cross. The Southern Cross, of course, is a small, cross-shaped constellation, with a first-magnitude star (the brightest stars in the night sky), at its bottom end, called Alpha Crucis, also known as Acrux. The analogy is not perfect though. Acrux is at the end that would be the point of the sword, and in any event, it is a blue star. Gamma Crucis, also known as Gacrux is the star that would be the sword’s hilt, and Gacrux is red. The other problem is that the Southern Cross is not observable from north of the 26th parallel (South Florida).

That an ASOIAF constellation resembles one of our own should not be surprising since several celestial bodies described in ASOIAF mirror our own. The George had just given us a little more astronomy in Jon’s preceding chapter in Storm. . .

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So many stars, he thought as he trudged up the slope through pines and firs and ash. Maester Luwin had taught him his stars as a boy in Winterfell; he had learned the names of the twelve houses of heaven and the rulers of each; he could find the seven wanderers sacred to the Faith; he was old friends with the Ice Dragon, the Shadowcat, the Moonmaid, and the Sword of the Morning. All those he shared with Ygritte, but not some of the others. We look up at the same stars, and see such different things. The King's Crown was the Cradle, to hear her tell it; the Stallion was the Horned Lord; the red wanderer that septons preached was sacred to their Smith up here was called the Thief. And when the Thief was in the Moonmaid, that was a propitious time for a man to steal a woman, Ygritte insisted. "Like the night you stole me. The Thief was bright that night."

Jon III, Storm 26

The twelve houses of heaven correspond to the zodiac; the seven wanders correspond to the classical planets of antiquity (i.e., the Sun and Moon and the five planets visible to the naked eye, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), and the red wanderer corresponds to Mars. The Moonmaid most likely corresponds to Virgo since there is a whole bunch of astrology mumbo jumbo about when Mars is in Virgo.

The first mention of an “ice dragon” follows Bran’s realization that the old powers are real. He then asks Osha how to go north, and what he might find. Osha tells him to look for the Ice Dragon, and to chase the blue star in the rider's eye. (It should be noted that after this mention as the blue star in the rider’s eye, it is afterward referred to as the blue star in the dragon’s eye. Since Jon tells us later that the Wildings’s nomenclature for celestial bodies is slightly different than the nomenclature used south of the Wall, this is not necessarily an inconsistency.)

Thus, we learn that the Ice Dragon is a constellation, and that the blue star in the dragon’s eye is a pole star. Currently (more on that in a moment), the north pole star in our sky is Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Dipper. Thus, it appears that the star in the dragon’s eye that points north corresponds to Polaris. But there are differences here too. Polaris is more white than blue, and Ursa Minor is a little bear, not a dragon. However, Ursa Minor is bordered by Draco, which is a dragon, in the north sky, and one of the stars in Draco is Thuban, which is more blue than white.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting: The Southern Cross was visible from the British Isles, Canada, Alaska, and Russia 10,000 years ago, and it will be visible from those regions again after another 15,000 years. This is due to the motion of the Earth called axial precession. This is the motion you see in a wobbling top as it starts to slow. The Earth’s axial precession takes about 26,000 years to complete.

Due to this axial precession, the north star 6,000 years ago was Thuban, a blue star in Draco! And while you might not have been able to see Acrux from Scotland 6,000 years ago, you would have been able to see it from England.

 

ETA

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Arianne left them to their banter. Drey and Spotted Sylva were her dearest friends, aside from her cousin Tyene, and Garin had been teasing her since both of them were drinking from his mother's teats, but just now she was in no mood for japery. The sun was gone, and the sky was full of stars. So many. She leaned her back against a fluted pillar and wondered if her brother was looking at the same stars tonight, wherever he might be. Do you see the white one, Quentyn? That is Nymeria's star, burning bright, and that milky band behind her, those are ten thousand ships. She burned as bright as any man, and so shall I. You will not rob me of my birthright!

...

The moon had crowned the Moonmaid as they set out from the dust-dry ruins of Shandystone, striking south and west.

The Queenmaker, Feast 21

That milky band behind Nymerias star is clearly the Milky Way. That the moon “cowns” the Moonmaid, suggests that the constellation is along the elliptical orbit, making it one of the Twelve Houses of Heavan, which corresponds to our own Zodiac, and makes it even more likely that the Moonmaid corresponds to Virgo.

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On 12/1/2016 at 1:13 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:

The other problem is that the Southern Cross is not observable from north of the 26th parallel (South Florida).

I wonder, if you can see the Sword of the Morning from (just north of) the Wall on the southern horizon, then it might be that this constellation is just on Starfall's zenith? I mean, at which latitude is the Wall, 65°-70°?

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This...

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When she opened the door to the garden, it was so lovely that she held her breath, unwilling to disturb such perfect beauty. The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. All color had fled the world outside. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here.

Yet she stepped out all the same. Her boots tore ankle-deep holes into the smooth white surface of the snow, yet made no sound. Sansa drifted past frosted shrubs and thin dark trees, and wondered if she were still dreaming. Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks. At the center of the garden, beside the statue of the weeping woman that lay broken and half-buried on the ground, she turned her face up to the sky and closed her eyes. She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.

 

Sansa VII, Storm 80

Recalls this...

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The Eyrie's plump septon escorted him to the statue in the center of the garden, a weeping woman carved in veined white marble, no doubt meant to be Alyssa.

...

They knelt in the grass beneath the weeping woman, facing each other, with Lannister between them.

...

The brief flurry of fighting ended as swiftly as it had begun when Bronn sidestepped and slid behind the statue of the weeping woman. Ser Vardis lunged at where he had been, striking a spark off the pale marble of Alyssa's thigh.

...

The knight crashed into the weeping woman, rocking her on her plinth.

...

Almost, almost, Bronn lost his feet . . . he staggered back, tripped over a rock, and caught hold of the weeping woman to keep his balance. Throwing aside his shield, Ser Vardis lurched after him, using both hands to raise his sword. His right arm was blood from elbow to fingers now, yet his last desperate blow would have opened Bronn from neck to navel . . . if the sellsword had stood to receive it.

But Bronn jerked back. Jon Arryn's beautiful engraved silver sword glanced off the marble elbow of the weeping woman and snapped clean a third of the way up the blade. Bronn put his shoulder into the statue's back. The weathered likeness of Alyssa Arryn tottered and fell with a great crash, and Ser Vardis Egen went down beneath her.

Bronn was on him in a heartbeat, kicking what was left of his shattered rondel aside to expose the weak spot between arm and breastplate. Ser Vardis was lying on his side, pinned beneath the broken torso of the weeping woman.

 

Catelyn VII, Game 40

Catelyn assumed, with apparently good reason, that the weeping woman represented Allyssa...

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The eastern sky was rose and gold as the sun broke over the Vale of Arryn. Catelyn Stark watched the light spread, her hands resting on the delicate carved stone of the balustrade outside her window. Below her the world turned from black to indigo to green as dawn crept across fields and forests. Pale white mists rose off Alyssa's Tears, where the ghost waters plunged over the shoulder of the mountain to begin their long tumble down the face of the Giant's Lance. Catelyn could feel the faint touch of spray on her face.

Alyssa Arryn had seen her husband, her brothers, and all her children slain, and yet in life she had never shed a tear. So in death, the gods had decreed that she would know no rest until her weeping watered the black earth of the Vale, where the men she had loved were buried. Alyssa had been dead six thousand years now, and still no drop of the torrent had ever reached the valley floor far below. Catelyn wondered how large a waterfall her own tears would make when she died.

 

Catelyn VII, Game 40

And the legend of Alyssa’s Tears, of course, appeared to be a foreshadowing of Lady Stoneheart.

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29 minutes ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

This...

Sansa VII, Storm 80

Recalls this...

Catelyn VII, Game 40

Catelyn assumed, with apparently good reason, that the weeping woman represented Allyssa...

Catelyn VII, Game 40

And the legend of Alyssa’s Tears, of course, appeared to be a foreshadowing of Lady Stoneheart.

What do you think the connection is in these three quotes? 

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On 12/1/2016 at 0:13 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:

From May 3...

Jon IV, Storm 30

The colors are just a description of the sunrise and a reminder that we are in autumn. The more interesting thing here is the Sword of the Morning constellation on the southern horizon, as seen north of the Wall. Forget for the moment that a 700-foot wall of ice should have blotted out the southern horizon from the view of a man (even if he is the special snowflake) standing on the ground just north of the Wall. Rather, concentrate on the shape of the constellation and the bright white star in its hilt blazing like a diamond in the dawn. It should be a cross with a very bright star at one end. Well, that is Crux, also known as the Southern Cross. The Southern Cross, of course, is a small, cross-shaped constellation, with a first-magnitude star (the brightest stars in the night sky), at its bottom end, called Alpha Crucis, also known as Acrux. The analogy is not perfect though. Acrux is at the end that would be the point of the sword, and in any event, it is a blue star. Gamma Crucis, also known as Gacrux is the star that would be the sword’s hilt, and Gacrux is red. The other problem is that the Southern Cross is not observable from north of the 26th parallel (South Florida).

That an ASOIAF constellation resembles one of our own should not be surprising since several celestial bodies described in ASOIAF mirror our own. The George had just given us a little more astronomy in Jon’s preceding chapter in Storm. . .

Jon III, Storm 26

The twelve houses of heaven correspond to the zodiac; the seven wanders correspond to the classical planets of antiquity (i.e., the Sun and Moon and the five planets visible to the naked eye, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), and the red wanderer corresponds to Mars. The Moonmaid most likely corresponds to Virgo since there is a whole bunch of astrology mumbo jumbo about when Mars is in Virgo.

The first mention of an “ice dragon” follows Bran’s realization that the old powers are real. He then asks Osha how to go north, and what he might find. Osha tells him to look for the Ice Dragon, and to chase the blue star in the rider's eye. (It should be noted that after this mention as the blue star in the rider’s eye, it is afterward referred to as the blue star in the dragon’s eye. Since Jon tells us later that the Wildings’s nomenclature for celestial bodies is slightly different than the nomenclature used south of the Wall, this is not necessarily an inconsistency.)

Thus, we learn that the Ice Dragon is a constellation, and that the blue star in the dragon’s eye is a pole star. Currently (more on that in a moment), the north pole star in our sky is Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Dipper. Thus, it appears that the star in the dragon’s eye that points north corresponds to Polaris. But there are differences here too. Polaris is more white than blue, and Ursa Minor is a little bear, not a dragon. However, Ursa Minor is bordered by Draco, which is a dragon, in the north sky, and one of the stars in Draco is Thuban, which is more blue than white.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting: The Southern Cross was visible from the British Isles, Canada, Alaska, and Russia 10,000 years ago, and it will be visible from those regions again after another 15,000 years. This is due to the motion of the Earth called axial precession. This is the motion you see in a wobbling top as it starts to slow. The Earth’s axial precession takes about 26,000 years to complete.

Due to this axial precession, the north star 6,000 years ago was Thuban, a blue star in Draco! And while you might not have been able to see Acrux from Scotland 6,000 years ago, you would have been able to see it from England.

 

ETA

The Queenmaker, Feast 21

That milky band behind Nymerias star is clearly the Milky Way. That the moon “cowns” the Moonmaid, suggests that the constellation is along the elliptical orbit, making it one of the Twelve Houses of Heavan, which corresponds to our own Zodiac, and makes it even more likely that the Moonmaid corresponds to Virgo.

I have a recent astrological discovery of my own.  The Big Dipper is part of Ursa Major - the big bear.  In some cultures, the Big Dipper is/was also called The Wain (an old word for wheel) or the Ploughman.  Reminiscent of House Wainwood and House Darry, no? 

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15 hours ago, Isobel Harper said:

What do you think the connection is in these three quotes? 

 

I have a feeling that Sansa's character is tragic. The lemons, to me, suggest that her arc will end in bitterness and disappointment. This passage is written just before she rebuilds Winterfell, with Petyr's help, from ice, and she seems to find new purpose. But at the center of that scene, the author purposefully includes an object to recall Catelyn's folly in taking Tyrion to the Eyrie, and the tragedy that engulfed House Stark afterward. 

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