I honestly can't decide who wrote the Pink Letter

[unitron]

'Preciate the heads up.

[Aegon VII]

I would argue for Mance. The two objections I noticed reading through this thread were that he can't read and that it would require an elaborate or"ridiculous" scheme. If Mance can't read I'll eat my boot and Mance is already in an elaborate and ridiculous scheme, is it so far fetched that he has his own motives and is now carrying out his plan?

 

Also, "Black Crows" is purely wildling, so for those who argue against Mance I ask, whom has a motive to impersonate a wildlings speech for a couple words in the letter and why?

[aryagonnakill#2]

7 hours ago, unitron said:

As much as I hate show spoilers finding their way into the book threads, I'm going to ask about one, and would appreciate if whoever among those also following the show answers uses the spoiler function to hide the answer from any who don't want to see it.

Don't tell me anything about the Pink Letter in the show, especially if they reveal who wrote it, just tell me if it exists in the show.

I just want to know how careful I'm going to have to be to avoid accidentally finding out anything about it before that info appears in one of the books, assuming it ever does, and assuming the rest of the books ever get published.

Spoiler

Yes, it exists and we know who wrote it.

 

[aryagonnakill#2]

52 minutes ago, Aegon VII said:

I would argue for Mance. The two objections I noticed reading through this thread were that he can't read and that it would require an elaborate or"ridiculous" scheme. If Mance can't read I'll eat my boot and Mance is already in an elaborate and ridiculous scheme, is it so far fetched that he has his own motives and is now carrying out his plan?

 

Also, "Black Crows" is purely wildling, so for those who argue against Mance I ask, whom has a motive to impersonate a wildlings speech for a couple words in the letter and why?

You say you'll eat your boot, yet offer no explanation as to why a lowborn turned wildling would be able to do so.  Do you have a scenario that makes any kind of sense?

[Aegon VII]

1 hour ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

You say you'll eat your boot, yet offer no explanation as to why a lowborn turned wildling would be able to do so.  Do you have a scenario that makes any kind of sense?

It's definitely just my opinion, but given the nature of Mance, I cannot see him being illiterate. I guess it boils down to whether he was taught them at the wall growing up or not. I think everything we see about Mance shows that he was given an education at the wall. He is a master politician and shows he is a capable and intelligent leader. Why would someone intelligent not learn to read while growing up at the wall?

And then there's Tormund. He says something like, "If I had a nice goose quill and a pot o' Masters ink, I could write.." suggesting he is literate. And if the #2 in an organization is literate, the #1 probably is too. Even if he can't read, it shows he and the wildlings are familiar with goose quill's and ink, supporting the argument that their leader would be literate.

Mance being illiterate would go against the character I believe GRRM has portrayed so far. Mance is the man.

But as far as actual evidence, I would reference him choosing the name "Abel" an anagram of "Bael". An illiterate person can't come up with clever wordplay like that!

[aryagonnakill#2]

1 hour ago, Aegon VII said:

It's definitely just my opinion, but given the nature of Mance, I cannot see him being illiterate. I guess it boils down to whether he was taught them at the wall growing up or not. I think everything we see about Mance shows that he was given an education at the wall. He is a master politician and shows he is a capable and intelligent leader. Why would someone intelligent not learn to read while growing up at the wall?

And then there's Tormund. He says something like, "If I had a nice goose quill and a pot o' Masters ink, I could write.." suggesting he is literate. And if the #2 in an organization is literate, the #1 probably is too. Even if he can't read, it shows he and the wildlings are familiar with goose quill's and ink, supporting the argument that their leader would be literate.

Mance being illiterate would go against the character I believe GRRM has portrayed so far. Mance is the man.

But as far as actual evidence, I would reference him choosing the name "Abel" an anagram of "Bael". An illiterate person can't come up with clever wordplay like that!

Tormund is illiterate, he can't read the pink letter when Jon hands it to him, but your last point seems sound.

[Aegon VII]

36 minutes ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

Tormund is illiterate, he can't read the pink letter when Jon hands it to him, but your last point seems sound.

I thought about qualifying the Tormund statement, as he does proclaim to be illiterate. I didn't because I think he's lying so that the others won't be as guarded around written information. Jon hands him the Pink Letter immediately after he reads it, so if this was Tormunds plan, it worked well. And if my theory is right that Mance wrote it, part of the letter is meant to be read by Tormund, so he would be trying to take steps to read it.