The ancient crown of the Kings of Winter - nine iron spikes

[Seams]

spike / Pyke

I had a thought about the black iron spikes wrought in the shape of longswords and the possible wordplay with Pyke, the oldest castle of the Iron Islands, "a complex of towers and keeps scattered across half a dozen islets and sea stacks ... rope bridges connect the towers one to the other."

I know that pikes and swords are completely different weapons, so maybe the spike / Pyke word pair isn't a good fit for the sword-like spikes on the crown of the King of Winter. But I have been trying to puzzle out the symbolism of the Iron-born and their personification of swords, and I suspect that the crumbling keep and outbuildings could be part of that larger metaphor. The castle of Pyke is a sort of ruin that has been shored up and made habitable, so it might also fit with the ruin / rune pun that we've explored a bit on the Puns and Wordplay thread. The crown of the King of Winter has engraved runes; the islets and sea stacks of Pyke have ruins.

There is also the pike / Pyke pun. The Iron Born spend their lives close to the sea, and a pike is a fish. With all the signs in this chapter that Robb is a son of Riverrun (not of the North) maybe this spiked crown of his is supposed to allude to him being more of a pike than a wolf. (Just before the bedding at the Red Wedding, bawdy jokes are made about, "Edmure's one-eyed fish. 'And a mighty pike it is!'" Roose Bolton's wife, Walda, bets that it is more of a minnow.)

Alternatively, I see a possible match between Robb's crown and the encampment of the Golden Company of sellswords, where "The captain-general's tent was made of cloth-of-gold and surrounded by a ring of pikes topped with gilded skulls." The skulls are taken from the past leaders of the company, with the intent that they be carried by the company when they invade and conquer Westeros. The gold is unlike the northern crown, which is made of iron and bronze, and Robb and his bannermen want him to rule only the North, not all of Westeros. But maybe there is a "ring of spikes" leadership metaphor that varies slightly according to which leader is marching to battle for which purpose. There is a strong implication of Robb fighting on behalf of the old Kings of Winter, just as the Golden Company would be fighting on behalf of both fAegon and Bittersteel and other displaced men who felt they had a claim to something they were denied in Westeros.

As the "Lost Lord" chapter closes in ADwD, the setting of the pikes and skulls is described in a new light: "The sun was reddening the western sky and painting scarlet shadows on the golden skulls atop their spears ..." Perhaps the crown that Robb wears to show his opposition to the Lannisters is similar to the Lannister colored sunset of gold and red juxtaposed with the circle of skulls. We know what happens to Robb and his crown; I wonder whether this sunset shows that the sun may be setting on the Lannisters, but they will cast a bloody shadow on the Golden Company before they sink below the horizon.

Note: I searched on the word "pike" using the A Search of Ice and Fire website. The early references to pikes in ASOIAF are all about the weapon. In ACoK and ASoS, there is a mix of references to weapons and fish, including a pike (spear) being used to fish a body out of the water at Winterfell. In AFfC and early ADwD, the pikes are always fish, usually being served for a dinner. Then the Golden Company's pikes bring us back to the spear-like weapons again briefly before we return to pike on dinner tables at Castle Black and King's Landing. I had noticed GRRM employ a similar (although more complex) evolution with the word "nails" by doing a similar search with that word. It seems like there are patterns at work with some of these pun words - maybe pikes are weapons when people are alert and ready to fight, but pikes are fish when people have let their guards down and are about to be attacked or double-crossed?

I'm also looking at the word "spike" in the search site. The vast majority of the references seem to be heads on spikes, helmets with spikes (there is a moment when the rising sun "touches" the spiked helmets of the Unsullied, perhaps contrasting with the setting sun shadowing the skulls of the Golden Company), defensive walls or moats or gates or other fortifications with spikes, weapons with spikes. Exceptions are spikes used by the Wildlings to climb the Wall, Grazdan's spiked beard, Ghiscari hairstyles, and a couple spikes of pain (for instance, in Prince Doran's joints). There is a tower called Crow Spike Keep in the Iron Islands. I don't see the same evolving or alternating pattern that I saw with nails and pikes, maybe because those words have puns (fingernails and building nails), while spikes describe a shape without having the same pun potential.

[norwaywolf123]

 

On 16.4.2016 at 9:48 PM, Seams said:

I don't know about the nine regions - are you counting the nine from the table of contents in the World book? The North, The Wall and Beyond, The Riverlands, The Vale, The Iron Islands, The Westerlands, The Reach, The Stormlands and Dorne. That could work as an alternate explanation. I would expect the meaning to have a more specific connection to the North, though, since this crown was for the Kings of Winter.

1. King of Winter "North"

2. King of River "RIverlands, Western Crownlands"

3. King of Mountain and Vale "Vale"

4. King of the Iron Isles "Iron Isles"

5. King of the Reach "Reach

6. King of the Rock "Westerlands"

7. Storm King "Stormlands, Southern Crownlands"

8. Prince of Dorne? Princess of Dorne? If Yronwood were the top dog of all of Dorne it would be King Yronwood or King of Dorne but Martells follow dornish custom.

 

[LiveFirstDieLater]

I think the important detail here is that Rob had a crown made of Iron AND Bronze... Not just Iron...

Farther on she came upon a feast of corpses. Savagely slaughtered, the feasters lay strewn across overturned chairs and hacked trestle tables, asprawl in pools of congealing blood. Some had lost limbs, even heads. Severed hands clutched bloody cups, wooden spoons, roast fowl, heels of bread. In a throne above them sat a dead man with the head of a wolf. He wore an iron crown and held a leg of lamb in one hand as a king might hold a scepter, and his eyes followed Dany with mute appeal.

Iron crown... And "mute appeal", well it turns out one of the wolves we've met is notoriously silent... And it wasn't Grey Wind.

I would expect Jon's crown to be made of only iron

[Evolett]

A spontaneous association that comes to mind: the Ninepenny Kings, also known as the Band of Nine (Band - holding together, like a circlet). It's said they came together under the Tree of Crowns where they swore a vow to aid each other in their goals. Like Robb, their first campaigns were successful but in the end Maely's the Monstrous, last of the known Blackfyres was defeated by Barristan Selmy. Interestingly, this was during the time of Jaehaerys II who wore a crown similar to Robb's crown - a crown of black iron and gold, with sharp points. http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Crown. Maekar and Jaehaerys were the only Targ kings to wear this particular crown. Can't really make anything concrete of it but there might be a connection. 

According to to the wiki, the pike-fish is a carnivorous freshwater fish with a torpedo-like body that also engages in cannibalism. It's described as a hard fighting ambush predator. The Old English pic originally referred to a pickaxe. At least some of this fits the Ironborn Pyke/pike. 

One more for the beheaded list - Lady? Don't recall exactly if the text states she was beheaded.

 

[Maester of Valyria]

39 minutes ago, LiveFirstDieLater said:

I think the important detail here is that Rob had a crown made of Iron AND Bronze... Not just Iron...

Farther on she came upon a feast of corpses. Savagely slaughtered, the feasters lay strewn across overturned chairs and hacked trestle tables, asprawl in pools of congealing blood. Some had lost limbs, even heads. Severed hands clutched bloody cups, wooden spoons, roast fowl, heels of bread. In a throne above them sat a dead man with the head of a wolf. He wore an iron crown and held a leg of lamb in one hand as a king might hold a scepter, and his eyes followed Dany with mute appeal.

Iron crown... And "mute appeal", well it turns out one of the wolves we've met is notoriously silent... And it wasn't Grey Wind.

I would expect Jon's crown to be made of only iron

Ah, clever. Dead man, resurrected man, the connection's right there. Does Jon have any significant connections with sheep?

[Seams]

1 minute ago, Maester of Valyria said:

Ah, clever. Dead man, resurrected man, the connection's right there. Does Jon have any significant connections with sheep?

When he was with the wildlings, he wore the sheepskin cloak Mance Rayder gave him.

[Maester of Valyria]

1 minute ago, Seams said:

When he was with the wildlings, he wore the sheepskin cloak Mance Rayder gave him.

True, but that seems a bit too tenuous to base a prophecy on.

[Seams]

1 minute ago, Maester of Valyria said:

True, but that seems a bit too tenuous to base a prophecy on.

There is a motif of butchers and meat that runs through the books, with the Butcher King Cleon as one of the notable representatives. The Lamb Men in Essos are one of the groups representing the small folk who are constantly being slaughtered as others play out their power games around them. The wolf king in Dany's dream might still be her vision of the regime of the usurper and his lap dogs in Westeros. Maybe she sees iron without bronze in the crown and mutton as a scepter because she is projecting her anti-Baratheon / anti-Stark frame of mind onto the scene.

The fact that Jon wore a sheepskin cloak while he was undercover was both a joke about "a wolf in sheep's clothing" and a sign that he was experiencing what he meant to be one of the small folk. In his case, a wildling instead of a Lamb Man. In Tyrion's arc, the references are to pigs instead of sheep, but I think the symbolism is similar. This gives them empathy for the people who are victims of the violence inflicted on them.

So the mutton scepter either shows that the king in Dany's vision has switched sides or that the King is not Jon. Or that my reading of the meat symbolism is not complete.

[Maester of Valyria]

2 minutes ago, Seams said:

There is a motif of butchers and meat that runs through the books, with the Butcher King Cleon as one of the notable representatives. The Lamb Men in Essos are one of the groups representing the small folk who are constantly being slaughtered as others play out their power games around them. The wolf king in Dany's dream might still be her vision of the regime of the usurper and his lap dogs in Westeros. Maybe she sees iron without bronze in the crown and mutton as a scepter because she is projecting her anti-Baratheon / anti-Stark frame of mind onto the scene.

The fact that Jon wore a sheepskin cloak while he was undercover was both a joke about "a wolf in sheep's clothing" and a sign that he was experiencing what he meant to be one of the small folk. In his case, a wildling instead of a Lamb Man. In Tyrion's arc, the references are to pigs instead of sheep, but I think the symbolism is similar. This gives them empathy for the people who are victims of the violence inflicted on them.

So the mutton scepter either shows that the king in Dany's vision has switched sides or that the King is not Jon. Or that my reading of the meat symbolism is not complete.

Ah, that makes more sense. Symbolism's not really my specialism, but I always admire the connections that it's possible to make.

[Evolett]

10 minutes ago, Seams said:

There is a motif of butchers and meat that runs through the books, with the Butcher King Cleon as one of the notable representatives. The Lamb Men in Essos are one of the groups representing the small folk who are constantly being slaughtered as others play out their power games around them. The wolf king in Dany's dream might still be her vision of the regime of the usurper and his lap dogs in Westeros. Maybe she sees iron without bronze in the crown and mutton as a scepter because she is projecting her anti-Baratheon / anti-Stark frame of mind onto the scene.

There seems to be a resurrection theme attached to butchering and lambs - the Butcher King was resurrected (well, dug up) to lead the Astapori into battle and MMD the Lamb woman mediates Drogo's resurrection. I recall also Val who wears a bronze circle as the wildling princess. Perhaps this is the partner to the iron crown seen by Dany.  

[Seams]

1 minute ago, Evolett said:

There seems to be a resurrection theme attached to butchering and lambs - the Butcher King was resurrected (well, dug up) to lead the Astapori into battle and MMD the Lamb woman mediates Drogo's resurrection. I recall also Val who wears a bronze circle as the wildling princess. Perhaps this is the partner to the iron crown seen by Dany.  

Excellent points. The Val circlet is a significant connection for this thread. I gotta go back and read that! I've just been thinking that a big part of the plot resolution is going to be about balance - having the masculine and feminine qualities working together, the Gift and Beyond-the-Wall, fire and ice, blah blah blah. If the two crowns have to be united, that would be a great piece of the symbolism.

[Trigger Warning]

Maybe he thought it'd look silly with 20 spikes. 

[The Ned's Little Girl]

Wasn't Grey Wind beheaded too? Would he count?

 

[Pixnik]

Arya considered herself sheep

Quote

By the time they marched, Arya knew she was no water dancer. Syrio Forel would never have let them knock him down and take his sword away, nor stood by when they killed Lommy Greenhands. Syrio would never have sat silent in that storehouse nor shuffled along meekly among the other captives. The direwolf was the sigil of the Starks, but Arya felt more a lamb, surrounded by a herd of other sheep. She hated the villagers for their sheepishness, almost as much as she hated herself.

 Jon notice this about Craster

Quote

"My lord," Jon said quietly as the wood closed in around them once more. "Craster has no sheep. Nor any sons."

 

 

[Victarion Stark]

I don't think this has some special meaning, although beheadings in Stark family are really important because of the tradititons of the First Men. By introducing something like this in the opening chapter of the first book, Martin taught us that there are many traditions going on, but there are some tha would play an important role for the behaviour of the characters in the books. The nine longswords may have some meaning but I don't think it would be that important, just some relation with the history or tales about the North and its kings.

[Seams]

I got sidetracked by some tangents and other threads, but I keep thinking about this crown. I have really come to the conclusion that Robb was doomed from the start - he was never intended to revive the King of Winter or the Kings in the North; he was always more of a Tully than a Stark. If that line of symbolism isn't convincing, he also married for love and broke a promised betrothal, like Prince Duncan who married Jenny of Oldstones. Duncan voluntarily gave up his crown for Jenny; Robb will not be given the option of a peaceful exit from his crown.

Speaking of Oldstones, In ASoS, Catelyn and Robb have a key conversation at Oldstones, the remains of the castle and disintegrating sepulcher of one of the last great kings of the First Men, Tristifer IV:

It was there that Catelyn found Robb, standing somber in the gathering dusk with only Grey Wind beside him. The rain had stopped for once, and he was bareheaded. "Does this castle have a name?" he asked quietly, when she came up to him.

This seems like foreshadowing. Robb will lose his crown by the time the song, The Rains of Castamere, stops playing at the Red Wedding. So his "reign" will stop when the rain stops, and his bare head symbolizes the absence of his crown (even though Catelyn's observation probably refers to wearing a hooded cloak to keep his head dry in the storm).

(This is a tangent from the crown topic, but I think the Jenny of Oldstones allusion might tell us that Jeyne Westerling, who plays the Jenny role in the present-day scenario, will be friends with a "woods witch" who will make a prediction about the Prince who was Promised. So look for Jeyne to interact with the Ghost of High Heart or for her witchy mother, Sybell Spicer, to play a prophetic role involving a royal heir.)

So Catelyn's description of the crown with the nine swords (back in AGoT, see the OP) is probably relevant for the reader because we will see those elements - bronze, iron, runes and nine longswords like spikes - come together for Jon. We don't know exactly what the legendary crown looked like, but Jon's crown won't be the guesswork of the nearest smith at a non-North location such as Riverrun. It will be the product of a series of symbolic things converging to make a literal or symbolic crown. We may also find that Jon chooses a design of his own and does not try to copy the old crown. In AWOIAF, a number of Targaryen crowns are described and the better kings tend to have the simplest crowns.

On 4/17/2016 at 9:05 PM, Rohed said:

 Something that stuck out to me is the display of criminals and traitors... Possibly there will be 9 key traitors to the storey ? 9 false kings ? ... Kinda fits with the beheading aspect ...

On 4/16/2016 at 2:46 PM, Maester of Valyria said:

I think it may be a reference to the nine regions of Westeros, and how they were once forged into one (from the Conquest) but are now splitting away by themselves.

I like both of these ideas more and more. Along with Evolett's association between the nine swords and the Tree of Crowns where the Ninepenny Kings hatched their plot, this has really grown on me. That group is also referred to as the Band of Nine, and the crown was described as a an "open circlet," which is another way of saying band. If it starts out as a group of nine criminals and traitors, of course, history is written by the victors. If the outcome is different this time, the nine "kings" will not be remembered as invaders but as victors and liberators. The earlier Ninepenny Kings included pirates, merchants and mercenaries (sellswords). Some were exiles. And they banded together, but they weren't trying to create one united kingdom: they each wanted their own kingdom. This seems consistent with what Jon would want - I really don't see him wanting to rule all of Westeros; he cares only about the North.

If a new group starts to coalesce, it will probably be marginalized people - exiles, traitors, sellswords, people with nothing to lose. Jon has called himself a traitor (along with Ghost and Sam Tarly). I could see Lord Manderly, Ser Davos Seaworth, Brienne of Tarth - all outsiders in some sense - being part of Jon's group. And it may not be Jon's group per se, although he would strike me as having the strongest tie to the crown of the Kings of Winter.

Maybe this group of nine will be the vehicle for Jon and Dany to team up. After all, the last Stark king gave the crown to Aegon the Conqueror. If you list of participants in the Ninepenny Kings, there is a guy known as The Last Valyrian. Dany could play that role in the modern scenario. If she is part of the group, that could mean that Ser Jorah is also one of the nine. And the fact that Ser Barristan Selmy joined Dany could be symbolic of the reversal of the outcome of the earlier defeat of the group of nine. Ser Barristan slayed the Blackfyre pretender in that attempted invasion; this time he has supported the invader (who is not a Blackfyre anyway, as far as we know).

Tyrion also seems a likely participant. That makes seven, so two more slots available. Or tell me who you would leave out or add in. Arianne Martell? fAegon? Darkstar? Ben Plumm? Theon? Not all these people are ambitious for territory of their own, I think. And it seems like a stretch to imagine them all sitting under a tree and pledging to cooperate to create a kingdom for each member of the group. It might be that they "make common cause" without literally pledging oaths to each other.

[Seams]

I'm just coming up on the end of a re-read of A Feast for Crows. On my last re-read, I had noticed that Ser Ryman Frey, the new heir to Lord Walder, had apparently given Robb's unique crown to a prostitute. This seemed to fit with the coarse sense of humor we have seen in the Frey clan, and also seemed like the kind of thing that would happen with the spoils of war if they were not made out of precious metals:

Ser Ryman came stomping up the gallows steps in company with a straw-haired slattern as drunk as he was. Her gown laced up the front, but someone had undone the laces to the navel, so her breasts were spilling out. They were large and heavy, with big brown nipples. On her head a circlet of hammered bronze sat askew, graven with runes and ringed with small black swords. When she saw Jaime, she laughed. “Who in seven hells is this one?”

“The Lord Commander of the Kingsguard,” Jaime returned with cold courtesy. “I might ask the same of you, my lady.”

“Lady? I’m no lady. I’m the queen.”

“My sister will be surprised to hear that.”

“Lord Ryman crowned me his very self.” She gave a shake of her ample hips. “I’m the queen o’ whores.”

No, Jaime thought, my sweet sister holds that title too.

Ser Ryman found his tongue. “Shut your mouth, slut, Lord Jaime doesn’t want to hear some harlot’s nonsense.” This Frey was a thickset man with a broad face, small eyes, and a soft fleshy set of chins. His breath stank of wine and onions.

“Making queens, Ser Ryman?” Jaime asked softly. “Stupid. As stupid as this business with Lord Edmure.”

…

Ryman Frey went to his knees. “I have done nothing ...”

“ ... but drink and whore. I know.”

“I am heir to the Crossing. You can’t ...”

“I warned you about talking.” Jaime watched the man turn white. A sot, a fool, and a craven.

Lord Walder had best outlive this one, or the Freys are done. “You are dismissed, ser.”

“Dismissed?”

“You heard me. Go away.”

“But... where should I go?”

“To hell or home, as you prefer. See that you are not in camp when the sun comes up. You may take your queen of whores, but not that crown of hers.” Jaime turned from Ser Ryman to his son.

“Edwyn, I am giving you your father’s command. Try not to be so stupid as your sire.”

“That ought not pose much difficulty, my lord.” (AFfC, Jaime VI)

Jaime sees the person who is wearing Robb's crown as a parody of Cersei. Jaime's treatment of Ser Ryman, however, is yet another replay of Aegon the Conqueror taking the original crown of the King of Winter from Thorrhen Stark. The "making queens" remark also becomes significant when we compare this Jaime POV to the next one in AFfC, where Jaime deals with the widow of Robb Stark, Jeyne Westerling, who was made a queen through her marriage to Robb:

She did not look dangerous. Jeyne was a willowy girl, no more than fifteen or sixteen, more awkward than graceful. She had narrow hips, breasts the size of apples, a mop of chestnut curls, and the soft brown eyes of a doe. Pretty enough for a child, Jaime decided, but not a girl to lose a kingdom for. Her face was puffy, and there was a scab on her forehead, half-hidden by a lock of brown hair. "What happened there?" he asked her.

The girl turned her head away. "It is nothing," insisted her mother, a stern-faced woman in a gown of green velvet. A necklace of golden seashells looped about her long, thin neck. "She would not give up the little crown the rebel gave her, and when I tried to take it from her head the willful child fought me."

"It was mine." Jeyne sobbed. "You had no right. Robb had it made for me. I loved him." (AFfC, Jaime VII)

This demure and grieving young woman is the opposite of the confrontational and saucy woman who had been "crowned" by Ryman Frey. Note that Jaime takes the crown from Frey and his companion, but does not insist on taking the crown from Jeyne and her mother. It is also interesting to note that Jeyne has an injury on her forehead, presumably caused by her resistance to surrendering her crown. The forehead is indicated as the location of the "third eye" in Bran's POVs. Does Jeyne Westerling's wound indicate that she has had an awakening of consciousness as a result of her crowning?

But the thing that I had not noticed until this reread of AFfC is that Lady Stoneheart also seems to have Robb's crown in her hands. Although the descriptions seem to clearly refer to the distinctive crown made for Robb Stark, given the timing and location of Jaime and Brienne's POVs, it is impossible that the crown Jaime takes from Ryman Frey is the same crown Lady Stoneheart handles in the scenes with Brienne:

A trestle table had been set up across the cave, in a cleft in the rock. Behind it sat a woman all in grey, cloaked and hooded. In her hands was a crown, a bronze circlet ringed by iron swords. She was studying it, her fingers stroking the blades as if to test their sharpness. Her eyes glimmered under her hood.

Grey was the color of the silent sisters, the handmaidens of the Stranger. Brienne felt a shiver climb her spine. Stoneheart. (AFfC, Brienne VIII)

 

The woman in grey gave no answer. She studied the sword, the parchment, the bronze-and-iron crown. Finally she reached up under her jaw and grasped her neck, as if she meant to throttle herself. Instead she spoke . . . Her voice was halting, broken, tortured. The sound seemed to come from her throat, part croak, part wheeze, part death rattle. The language of the damned, thought Brienne. "I don't understand. What did she say?"

"She asked the name of this blade of yours," said the young northman in the sheepskin jerkin. (AFfC, Brienne VIII)

So here's my theory. While her dead body was in the river, Catelyn came across the real, original crown of the Kings of Winter, thrown into the river three hundred years ago by Aegon the Conqueror. When she washed up onto the river bank, the crown was tangled up - probably in her hair (heir) but maybe in her hand. When she was brought back to life by Beric Dondarrion, she kept the crown as a souvenir of her trip to the afterlife and a symbol of her mission of revenge for the Starks.

I suspect the crown that Sybell Spicer took from her daughter will have significance, too. The inn at the crossroads was originally known as The Two Crowns, and the tower known as the Queenscrown (located near the ruins of another notable inn) has been surrounded by significant action and foreshadowing in the Bran and Jon POVs. Jeyne Westerling is described as "willowy," and we have seen Willow and Jeyne Heddle as tough, competent proprietors of the inn at the crossroads. I suspect something important and gutsy is coming for Robb's widow, Jeyne. Unlike Ser Ryman, Jeyne Westerling has not bent the knee and did not willingly give up her crown. You go, girl.

[Tucu]

20 minutes ago, Seams said:

But the thing that I had not noticed until this reread of AFfC is that Lady Stoneheart also seems to have Robb's crown in her hands. Although the descriptions seem to clearly refer to the distinctive crown made for Robb Stark, given the timing and location of Jaime and Brienne's POVs, it is impossible that the crown Jaime takes from Ryman Frey is the same crown Lady Stoneheart handles in the scenes with Brienne:

I think that the most likely explanation is that the Queen of whores stole the crown before leaving with Ryman and Lady Stoneheart then took it from them. Jamie never thinks of the crown again and he leaves the tent to meet with Edmure.

Another option is that Tom O'Sevens stole the crown from the tent while singing to Edmure.

[Seams]

Here's an interesting "nine" involving Jon Snow and a king's tower:

Whatever you called them, the straw soldiers had been Maester Aemon’s notion. They had more breeches and jerkins and tunics in the storerooms than they’d had men to fill them, so why not stuff some with straw, drape a cloak around their shoulders, and set them to standing watches? Noye had placed them on every tower and in half the windows. Some were even clutching spears, or had crossbows cocked under their arms. The hope was that the Thenns would see them from afar and decide that Castle Black was too well defended to attack.

Jon had six scarecrows sharing the roof of the King’s Tower with him, along with two actual breathing brothers. (ASoS)

Jon is often associated with towers, and towers seem to be paired with inns. I am currently going over ACoK with a fine-toothed comb for a re-read, and have noticed a theme with straw and hay warriors - Bran has a bodyguard called Hayhead and Tommen jousts with a straw dummy that knocks him off his horse. If we looked carefully, I wonder whether we would see a series of scenes where Jon progresses from the six scarecrows and three real men (including himself) seen here to a growing number of real men until there are nine real heroes fighting together for control of the north?

I suspect it's significant that Donal Noye, a smith, is responsible for placing the straw men and that the idea came from Maester Aemon. The involvement of the smith strengthens the notion that the straw men represent swords and Maester Aemon brings his Targaryen background as well as his role as a kingmaker.

 

[Pain killer Jane]

On 5/23/2016 at 2:49 PM, Seams said:

There is a motif of butchers and meat that runs through the books, with the Butcher King Cleon as one of the notable representatives. The Lamb Men in Essos are one of the groups representing the small folk who are constantly being slaughtered as others play out their power games around them. The wolf king in Dany's dream might still be her vision of the regime of the usurper and his lap dogs in Westeros. Maybe she sees iron without bronze in the crown and mutton as a scepter because she is projecting her anti-Baratheon / anti-Stark frame of mind onto the scene.

The fact that Jon wore a sheepskin cloak while he was undercover was both a joke about "a wolf in sheep's clothing" and a sign that he was experiencing what he meant to be one of the small folk. In his case, a wildling instead of a Lamb Man. In Tyrion's arc, the references are to pigs instead of sheep, but I think the symbolism is similar. This gives them empathy for the people who are victims of the violence inflicted on them.

So the mutton scepter either shows that the king in Dany's vision has switched sides or that the King is not Jon. Or that my reading of the meat symbolism is not complete.

I think it has a lot to do with prey becoming a predator and the identification of carnivores evolving from herbivores (Thlacine/Marsupial Lion)and the allegory of the Lion and the Lamb in the bible plus the references to the Lion of God/Lamb of God  that runs through the book. 

Take for example:
The Valyrian's were originally sheep herders and then became dragons. 
The Dothraki are closely identified with horses but are considered predators but the people of Essos. (Fun Fact Stallions actually have canines in our real world)
The Baratheon's stag is now a mask for lions. 
The Lothston's are not necessarily Lothston and could possibly be Targaryen/Stokeworth (whose sigil is a lamb holding a golden cup) under the mantle of the Lothstones (bats -which i do not think is fruit bat especially when it came to Danelle Lothstone and the Lothstone/Whent connection). This is a tin foil suspicion but House Lothston's sigil is a single large bat or megabat or Yinterochiroptera and the Whent family's sigil of 9 smaller bats termed microbats or Yangochiropter. Not to mention that Catelyn Tully is a Whent through her mother Minisa plus there is a classification of Fish eaters in the Yangochiroptera of bats.)
 

On a different note on the 9. Here is a number joke. 
Why is six afraid of seven?
Because seven ate(8) 9.

The spread of the religion of 7 versus the old gods of 9.