The Amber Compendium of Norse Myth: Chapter I, Yggdrasil

[LmL]

Is there anything about black water or black oceans or black rivers in Norse myth?

 

[Bluetiger]

17 minutes ago, LmL said:

Is there anything about black water or black oceans or black rivers in Norse myth?

 

Hmmm.... I'll try to find something...

Btw, in seems that there is some kind of water spirit called 'Neck' in Norse & Germanic mythologies and folklore... Similar to COTF, who flooded the Neck of Westeros.

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neck_(water_spirit)

Edit: I don't recall anything from the Norse Mythology, but in Greek, River Styx in Hades was pitch-black and gods swore on those holy waters.

Edit: in some versions Mimir's Well is the same as Well of Urd, so I imagine it's white as well.

[Bluetiger]

6 hours ago, LmL said:

Oh, by the way, do you think George Martin might be a fan of Dune?  The hero draws his name from the shadow on the second moon, and the "weirding way" is a method of using sound to destroy things like stone and people's bodies. The idea of using a magical horn to break a wall or singing to cause an earthquake, a scream that cracks the moon - these are all the weirding way.  If Martin likes Dune then this would be an irresistible tie-in given the things I just pointed out.  The water of life is just another version of the fire of the gods potion, a universal mytheme which the weirwood paste shares in, but the water of life is specifically similar because it produces astral travel and the rapid gaining of knowledge. The main character has a younger sister who is also a killer, her name is Alia. Alia, Arya, mmm... perhaps. 

Hmmm.... I've never read Dune... Actually I've read only few fantasy books since ASOIAF... LOTR re-read, Silmarillion, The Stories of the Meekhan Marches, some stories... Hardly any book can match ASOIAF

 

[Bluetiger]

Since three weirwoods called Three Singers (Three Sisters = Norns, female deities of destiny) grow at Highgarden, above pool or pond, I think we can associate Highgarden and the Reach with Asgard - Garth Greenhand was the mythical High King of First Men and in a way we can call him 'Allfather' - numerous houses trace their descent to him.

Many other god-like figures lived in the Reach (Florys the Fox, Elyn Eversweet, Gilbert of the Vines etc.) so maybe Highgarden is Mount Olympus as well. Garth also has Dionysus elements:

Quote

There is disagreement even on his name. Garth Greenhand, we call him, but in the oldest tales he is named Garth Greenhair, or simply Garth the Green. Some stories say he had green hands, green hair, or green skin overall. (A few even give him antlers, like a stag.) Others tell us that he dressed in green from head to foot, and certainly this is how he is most commonly depicted in paintings, tapestries, and sculptures. More likely, his sobriquet derived from his gifts as a gardener and a tiller of the soil—the one trait on which all the tales agree. "Garth made the corn ripen, the trees fruit, and the flowers bloom," the singers tell us.

A few of the very oldest tales of Garth Greenhand present us with a considerably darker deity, one who demanded blood sacrifice from his worshippers to ensure a bountiful harvest. In some stories the green god dies every autumn when the trees lose their leaves, only to be reborn with the coming of spring. This version of Garth is largely forgotten.

Many of the more primitive peoples of the earth worship a fertility god or goddess, and Garth Greenhand has much and more in common with these deities. It was Garth who first taught men to farm, it is said. Before him, all men were hunters and gatherers, rootless wanderers forever in search of sustenance, until Garth gave them the gift of seed and showed them how to plant and sow, how to raise crops and reap the harvest. (In some tales, he tried to teach the elder races as well, but the giants roared at him and pelted him with boulders, whilst the children laughed and told him that the gods of the wood provided for all their needs). Where he walked, farms and villages and orchards sprouted up behind him. About his shoulders was slung a canvas bag, heavy with seed, which he scattered as he went along. As befits a god, his bag was inexhaustible; within were seeds for all the world's trees and grains and fruits and flowers.

Edit:

From Wikipedia:

Quote

According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Asgard is derived from Old Norse āss, god + garðr, enclosure; from Indo-European roots ansu-spirit, demon (see cognate ahura; also asura) + gher- grasp, enclose (see cognates gardenand yard), essentially meaning "garden of gods".

Alternatives Anglicisations: Ásgard, Ásegard, Ásgardr, Asgardr, Ásgarthr, Ásgarth, Asgarth, Esageard, Ásgardhr, Asgaard

So Asgard = Garden of the æsir (gods).

and 'garth' means 'cloister garden'.

Hence: Highgarden = Asgard.

it's also where lamed Green Man Willas Tyrell resides, evoking Bran the Blessed & Fisher King legends.

Team #AsgardMeansHighgarden

Quote

The gods, both old and new, are well served in Highgarden. The splendor of the castle sept, with its rows of stained-glass windows celebrating the Seven and the ubiquitous Garth Greenhand, is rivaled only by that of the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing and the Starry Sept of Oldtown. And Highgarden's lush green godswood is almost as renowned, for in the place of a single heart tree it boasts three towering, graceful, ancient weirwoods whose limbs have grown so entangled over the centuries that they appear to be almost a single tree with three trunks, reaching for each other above a tranquil pool. Legend has it these trees, known in the Reach as the Three Singers, were planted by Garth Greenhand himself.

So, here we get three weirwoods that are one, few passages after Seven (Who Are One) are mentioned - this evokes Heaven and The Holy Trinity.

Highgarden is Asgard but also Olympus and Heaven... so we can expect that Winterfell is Hades, Norse Hel and Christianity's Hell.

I remember that Sweetsunray had nice essay about Winterfell as Underworld and Ned as Hades, but I admit I haven't read all of it.

[LmL]

3 hours ago, Blue Tiger said:

Since three weirwoods called Three Singers (Three Sisters = Norns, female deities of destiny) grow at Highgarden, above pool or pond, I think we can associate Highgarden and the Reach with Asgard - Garth Greenhand was the mythical High King of First Men and in a way we can call him 'Allfather' - numerous houses trace their descent to him.

Many other god-like figures lived in the Reach (Florys the Fox, Elyn Eversweet, Gilbert of the Vines etc.) so maybe Highgarden is Mount Olympus as well. Garth also has Dionysus elements:

Edit:

From Wikipedia:

So Asgard = Garden of the æsir (gods).

and 'garth' means 'cloister garden'.

Hence: Highgarden = Asgard.

it's also where lamed Green Man Willas Tyrell resides, evoking Bran the Blessed & Fisher King legends.

Team #AsgardMeansHighgarden

So, here we get three weirwoods that are one, few passages after Seven (Who Are One) are mentioned - this evokes Heaven and The Holy Trinity.

Highgarden is Asgard but also Olympus and Heaven... so we can expect that Winterfell is Hades, Norse Hel and Christianity's Hell.

I remember that Sweetsunray had nice essay about Winterfell as Underworld and Ned as Hades, but I admit I haven't read all of it.

Yeah you definitely need to go read that! It's not even that long of a read, it goes really quick. I definitely agree with your analysis here, and I'm pretty sure sweet Sunray would too. That lines up pretty well with the Summer King / Winter King framework - like I said, the hellish characters seem to be aligned with the king of winter.

Interesting that we have weirwoods in both places, is it not?

Weirwoods seem like death-associated trees, a good match for the king of winter and a good opposite for the oak tree. But maybe not - maybe the weirwoods are just outside of everything, the go-between between all things. They are kind of an ice and fire combination, symbolically - the bone white trunk tends to align with the others, but the blood and fire in the canopy aligns with the dragons.

[Bluetiger]

33 minutes ago, LmL said:

Yeah you definitely need to go read that! It's not even that long of a read, it goes really quick. I definitely agree with your analysis here, and I'm pretty sure sweet Sunray would too. That lines up pretty well with the Summer King / Winter King framework - like I said, the hellish characters seem to be aligned with the king of winter.

Interesting that we have weirwoods in both places, is it not?

Weirwoods seem like death-associated trees, a good match for the king of winter and a good opposite for the oak tree. But maybe not - maybe the weirwoods are just outside of everything, the go-between between all things. They are kind of an ice and fire combination, symbolically - the bone white trunk tends to align with the others, but the blood and fire in the canopy aligns with the dragons.

Well... Yggdrasil connects all worlds... Dorne and North, Stormlands and Iron Islands... Winterfell and Highgarden...

In a way The World Tree is outside time.. Just like the weirwoods...

Quote

"A man must know how to look before he can hope to see," said Lord Brynden. "Those were shadows of days past that you saw, Bran. You were looking through the eyes of the heart tree in your godswood. Time is different for a tree than for a man. Sun and soil and water, these are the things a weirwood understands, not days and years and centuries. For men, time is a river. We are trapped in its flow, hurtling from past to present, always in the same direction. The lives of trees are different. They root and grow and die in one place, and that river does not move them. The oak is the acorn, the acorn is the oak. And the weirwood … a thousand human years are a moment to a weirwood, and through such gates you and I may gaze into the past."

 

[Pain killer Jane]

8 hours ago, LmL said:

Good call, that seems right to me. 

Oh, by the way, do you think George Martin might be a fan of Dune?  The hero draws his name from the shadow on the second moon, and the "weirding way" is a method of using sound to destroy things like stone and people's bodies. The idea of using a magical horn to break a wall or singing to cause an earthquake, a scream that cracks the moon - these are all the weirding way.  If Martin likes Dune then this would be an irresistible tie-in given the things I just pointed out.  The water of life is just another version of the fire of the gods potion, a universal mytheme which the weirwood paste shares in, but the water of life is specifically similar because it produces astral travel and the rapid gaining of knowledge. The main character has a younger sister who is also a killer, her name is Alia. Alia, Arya, mmm... perhaps. 

Alia was possessed by grandfather, though.

Arya seems more like the girl (I forget her name) Leto manipulated into creating to be outside of his ability of prophecy because he wanted her to kill him. She seems to be outside of everyone's preview and she is a "face dancer". On the fact that GRRM's assassin is named faceless men combined with Arya's dancing and Dune has face dancers, I would say he is at least familiar with Dune. The spice, Water of life, Jojen paste, and shade of the evening do seem to share similarities. 

Unless the fire wyrms are supposed to be the giant worms of Dune. 

[Frey family reunion]

9 hours ago, Blue Tiger said:

Hmmm.... I'll try to find something...

Btw, in seems that there is some kind of water spirit called 'Neck' in Norse & Germanic mythologies and folklore... Similar to COTF, who flooded the Neck of Westeros.

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neck_(water_spirit)

Edit: I don't recall anything from the Norse Mythology, but in Greek, River Styx in Hades was pitch-black and gods swore on those holy waters.

Edit: in some versions Mimir's Well is the same as Well of Urd, so I imagine it's white as well.

Not to go off topic, but in Dante's inferno the middle level of hell was a swampland, named after the river Styx.  And of course our Neck lies right in the middle of Westeros.

[Bluetiger]

57 minutes ago, LmL said:

Yeah you definitely need to go read that! It's not even that long of a read, it goes really quick. I definitely agree with your analysis here, and I'm pretty sure sweet Sunray would too. That lines up pretty well with the Summer King / Winter King framework - like I said, the hellish characters seem to be aligned with the king of winter.

Actually, I read whole Mythical Wave today... Awesome job @sweetsunray!

The bear hunt stuff, Chthonic Cycle, red stallion... And lexicon (which I saw before, but only took a quick look at that Death vs Middle vs Life table)

Now I know why that planet from Thrawn Trilogy was called Wayland.

Turns out there is entire section about Norse Stuff: Sweetsunray's Chthonic Lexicon

Quote

Yggdrasil	World tree in Norse myth. It is an evergreen ash tree, whitened by the daily whitewash applied from the Urdarbrunnr	Weirnet, weirwood trees
Valhalla	One of Odin’s halls where the selected slain feast and prepare for Ragnarok.The slain are those picked by Valkyries in battle.	Winterfell’s hall and crypts per Theon’s nigthmare
Urdarbrunnr	The well/pool/lake of 3 main Norns – past, present and future – determining the fate of men. One Yggdrasil roots ends at Urdarbrunnr. Otherwise known as the weird/wyrd sisters in English tradition. Pour water and lime from the well each day over the world tree – whitewash. Two different sources locate it either in Midgard or Asgard. A hall where the gods gather is built nearby.	Cold, black pool in Winterfell’s godswood, beside the weirwood, in which Ned Stark cleans his greatsword Ice. The pool beside the Three Singers (three tangled weirwood trees) in Highgarden’s godswood.
Jötunheimr	Realm of the frost giants	Land North of the Wall, where the giants still live
Ginnungagap	The ‘yawning void’ or ‘gaping abyss’; primordial void from which Norse cosmos was born and located in Jötunheimr	The ‘yawning chasm’ in Bloodraven’s cave where the underground river runs through in the darkness.
Mimisbrunnr	Well of knowledge, beneath one Yggdrasil root; seeker must make a sacrifice to drink from it. Located in Jötunheimr.	Weirnet connected to weirwood grove at Bloodraven’s cave.

Hmm.... I failed to notice that Asgard and Valhalla actually are land of the dead...

Probably because I've used 'top of the mountain' = Asgard where the 'King of Summer' & Odin figure resides and its bottom as Hel & where 'King of Winter' resides (actually the same dude, but has different symbolism when lives in different castles - 'the Holly & Oak King as one' concept)

The einherjar, Valhalla, valkyries (in ASOIAF = Shieldhall of Castle Black, Wall before Watch became nothing more than penal colony, Barrowhall of Barrowton)... A death figures indeed... But it seens that GRRM uses Asgard as heaven and Land of Summer and Life....although I might be wrong.

[Bluetiger]

Sweetsunray actually refers to (and possibly solves) the problem we've encountered yesterday:

Quote

Basically Yggdrasil is treated daily with a whitewash – a technique where wet lime is spread across house walls made of wattle mats to help isolate the dwelling. The three Norns throwing a mix of white water and clay across Yggdrasil’s stem refers to this technique of protection.

“Hold on a minute!” I hear you think. “The water of Winterfell’s pool is described as BLACK, not white.” Correct. The pool has the opposite color. But what is Ned doing under the wierwood tree, near the pool? He is washing the greatsword Ice with and in the water of the pool.

Catelyn found her husband beneath the weirwood, seated on a moss-covered stone. The greatsword Ice was across his lap, and he was cleaning the blade in those waters black as night. A thousand years of humus lay thick upon the godswood floor, swallowing the sound of her feet, but the red eyes of the weirwood seemed to follow her as she came. “Ned,” she called softly. (aGoT, Catelyn I)

So, why would George not make the pool white colored? After all, the color white belongs to the chthonic lexicon as the color of bone and snow. The issue though would have been the double meaning of whitewashing: suppressing negative information or impression to make an act, person or group of people appear better than they are. By having Ned wash Ice in black water George avoids the visual metaphor of that meaning of whitewashing.

(Winterfell and the North as Underworld

[sweetsunray]

1 minute ago, Blue Tiger said:

Actually, I read whole Mythical Wave today... Awesome job @sweetsunray!

The bear hunt stuff, Chthonic Cycle, red stallion... And lexicon (which I saw before, but only took a quick look at that Death vs Middle vs Life table)

Now I know why that planet from Thrawn Trilogy was called Wayland.

Turns out there is entire section about Norse Stuff: Sweetsunray's Chthonic Lexicon

Hmm.... I failed to notice that Asgard and Valhalla actually are land of the dead...

Probably because I've used 'top of the mountain' = Asgard where the 'King of Summer' & Odin figure resides and its bottom as Hel & where 'King of Winter' resides (actually the same dude, but has different symbolism when lives in different castles - 'the Holly & Oak King as one' concept)

The einherjar, Valhalla, valkyries (in ASOIAF = Shieldhall of Castle Black, Wall before Watch became nothing more than penal colony, Barrowhall of Barrowton)... A death figures indeed... But it seens that GRRM uses Asgard as heaven and Land of Summer and Life....although I might be wrong.

Thanks @Blue Tiger

Well, we tend to think of Asgard and Valhalla as a type of heaven, regarding the world tree as a "up in the air" down to "the bottom" axis. But that's not entirely true, since the 3 roots of the world tree end up in 3 different locations of 3 different world, one wich is in Asgard with Walhalla (Valhalla) near. A "root" of a tree we can understand to symbolize a way into an "underworld". So, somehow the root is not somewhere down there, but winds its way into Asgard. One of the roots is at the well of the 3 Norns (Past, present, future). Now the two sources (poetic and proze) disagree about the location of the well. One says that Odin's palace is near (aka Valhalla) and thus says it's in Asgard, while the other just says Midgard.

Valhalla (and Freyja's palace) serve as a type of "underworld" as well, since dead warriors slain in battel go to these places. Theon's dream of the dead feast in WF hall has the Norn well references of the past, present and future and pretty much pictures a feast in Valhalla of the dead "warriors" (those in the crypts with swords in their laps). However, I would expect similar references for Highgarden with the 3 sister weirwood trees at a well and the name itself (Highgarden) reflects the name Garden of the Asen. There I think he would use more of the Land of Summer and Life symbolism.

Let's just say that GRRM sues the "chthonic" symbolism about Valhalla for WF and its godswood and crypts.

Anyhow, Norse world tree thinking was not exactly straightfoward high-up versus beneath the earth. That's a rather simplified Christian axis imposed on their mythological world thinking.

[Bluetiger]

36 minutes ago, Frey family reunion said:

Not to go off topic, but in Dante's inferno the middle level of hell was a swampland, named after the river Styx.  And of course our Neck lies right in the middle of Westeros.

Don't worry about that

Another thing I've noticed: when GOT begins, Ned is 35, just like Dante in Inferno. 

Maybe Ned's trip (Execution-Winterfell-Neck-Darry-King's Landing - Great Sept) pararells that of Dante - it begins in Hell, Darry'd be purgatory (Sansa & Arya are 'punished there'), and it ends in Heaven (Great Sept).

Quote

Inferno: Canto I
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.
But after I had reached a mountain's foot,
At that point where the valley terminated,
Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
Vested already with that planet's rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.
Then was the fear a little quieted
That in my heart's lake had endured throughout
The night, which I had passed so piteously.
And even as he, who, with distressful breath,
Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,
Turns to the water perilous and gazes;
So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,
Turn itself back to re-behold the pass
Which never yet a living person left.
After my weary body I had rested,
The way resumed I on the desert slope,
So that the firm foot ever was the lower.
And lo! almost where the ascent began,
A panther light and swift exceedingly,
Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er!
And never moved she from before my face,
Nay, rather did impede so much my way,
That many times I to return had turned.
The time was the beginning of the morning,
And up the sun was mounting with those stars
That with him were, what time the Love Divine
At first in motion set those beauteous things;
So were to me occasion of good hope,
The variegated skin of that wild beast,
The hour of time, and the delicious season;
But not so much, that did not give me fear

A lion's aspect which appeared to me

He seemed as if against me he were coming
With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,
So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;
And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings
Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,
And many folk has caused to live forlorn!
She brought upon me so much heaviness,
With the affright that from her aspect came,
That I the hope relinquished of the height.
And as he is who willingly acquires,
And the time comes that causes him to lose,
Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent,
E'en such made me that beast withouten peace,
Which, coming on against me by degrees
Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent.
While I was rushing downward to the lowland,
Before mine eyes did one present himself,
Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.

'Midway upon the journey of our life' = 35, as back then it was assumed that humans usually live up to 70.

[Pain killer Jane]

40 minutes ago, Blue Tiger said:

Sweetsunray actually refers to (and possibly solves) the problem we've encountered yesterday:

(Winterfell and the North as Underworld

At least the whitewashing isn't as original as I thought it was. Good to know 

[sweetsunray]

Brienne's trip is an adaptation of Inferno and Purgatory of Dante. It all starts with her meeting a she-wolf and a wasting lion. Maidenpool with the judges is like the scene with Midas as judge in the castle. Shagwell and the other two fit in one of the circles. Then there's Meribald like Vergil, onto the QI of men who are in purgatory with their sins they ahve to atone for, eventually to the 9th circle where she meets "Satan" who chews on the heads of the worst sinners - oathbreakers, kinslayers, kingslayers, breakers of guest right. Where Dante is merely a witness, Brienne herself gets half her cheek eaten by the devil. 

[Bluetiger]

3 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

Brienne's trip is an adaptation of Inferno and Purgatory of Dante. It all starts with her meeting a she-wolf and a wasting lion. Maidenpool with the judges is like the scene with Midas as judge in the castle. Shagwell and the other two fit in one of the circles. Then there's Meribald like Vergil, onto the QI of men who are in purgatory with their sins they ahve to atone for, eventually to the 9th circle where she meets "Satan" who chews on the heads of the worst sinners - oathbreakers, kinslayers, kingslayers, breakers of guest right. Where Dante is merely a witness, Brienne herself gets half her cheek eaten by the devil. 

I saw this analysis mentioned on many occasions, but I never actually read that thread/essay...

If such thread exists, could you/anybody else send me link to it? Thanks.

[Lost Melnibonean]

28 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

Brienne's trip is an adaptation of Inferno and Purgatory of Dante. It all starts with her meeting a she-wolf and a wasting lion. Maidenpool with the judges is like the scene with Midas as judge in the castle. Shagwell and the other two fit in one of the circles. Then there's Meribald like Vergil, onto the QI of men who are in purgatory with their sins they ahve to atone for, eventually to the 9th circle where she meets "Satan" who chews on the heads of the worst sinners - oathbreakers, kinslayers, kingslayers, breakers of guest right. Where Dante is merely a witness, Brienne herself gets half her cheek eaten by the devil. 

That's pretty good. 

[sweetsunray]

54 minutes ago, Blue Tiger said:

I saw this analysis mentioned on many occasions, but I never actually read that thread/essay...

If such thread exists, could you/anybody else send me link to it? Thanks.

I did a rough elaborate analysis once in one of Sly Wren's sandbox threads, but it got lost with the forum swtich in november 2015. And I haven't yet written it out as an essay. I did mention it to some level in the reference thread. I plan to write it when I get to the Riverlands having been turned into an underworld: there's Hel (Hollow Hill) with Hel leading it (LS) on the one hand, and then Inferno and Purgatory in Brienne's trip. But you can definitely follow the trip from the outer circles to the inner 9th. And Brienne's head being eaten pretty much seals it for me.

Here's where I mention it in the reference thread:

 

But it's certainly not more elaborate than what I said in here.

[Bluetiger]

15 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

I did a rough elaborate analysis once in one of Sly Wren's sandbox threads, but it got lost with the forum swtich in november 2015. And I haven't yet written it out as an essay. I did mention it to some level in the reference thread. I plan to write it when I get to the Riverlands having been turned into an underworld: there's Hel (Hollow Hill) with Hel leading it (LS) on the one hand, and then Inferno and Purgatory in Brienne's trip. But you can definitely follow the trip from the outer circles to the inner 9th. And Brienne's head being eaten pretty much seals it for me.

Here's where I mention it in the reference thread:

 

But it's certainly not more elaborate than what I said in here.

Thanks

[Pain killer Jane]

On 1/18/2017 at 11:36 PM, Blue Tiger said:

Highgarden is full of 'white slender towers' (=white trees?) and has a briar maze which is also a trap... Just like the wierwoods are.

You know on this theme of thorny bushes. We have Nettles the tamer of Sheepstealer, mistress of Damon Targaryen and possibly the Fire Witch that turned a portion of the Painted Dogs into the Burned Men. 

And we have House Broom with their motely black and green and a knight with a sprig of Broom and the only known Broom is Benedict Broom who is the Castellan of Casterly Rock. Broom's etymology means bramble patch. And I found something interesting that bramble patches is specifically meant for Blackberry bushes. @LmL didn't you mention that blackberries were almost always paired up with cream? 

I found them in interesting places

Quote

Across the terrace, Lysa laughed gaily at some jest of Lord Hunter's, and nibbled a blackberry from the point of Ser Lyn Corbray's dagger. 

-Catelyn VII, aGoT

Lyn that guy with Lady Forlorn and her heart shape pommel and the sigil of the crows stealing hearts. 

Quote

The evening's rain had woken a hundred sleeping smells and made them ripe and strong again. Grass and thorns, blackberries broken on the ground, mud, worms, rotting leaves, a rat creeping through the bush. He caught the shaggy black scent of his brother's coat and the sharp coppery tang of blood from the squirrel he'd killed. Other squirrels moved through the branches above, smelling of wet fur and fear, their little claws scratching at the bark. The noise had sounded something like that.

-Bran VI, aCoK

Quote

Swiftly, swiftly, he whirled and bounded back into the trees, wet leaves rustling beneath his paws, branches whipping at him as he rushed past. He could hear his brother following close. They plunged under the heart tree and around the cold pool, through the blackberry bushes, under a tangle of oaks and ash and hawthorn scrub, to the far side of the wood . . . and there it was, the shadow he'd glimpsed without seeing, the slanting tree pointing at the rooftops. Sentinel, came the thought.

-Bran VI, aCoK

 

Quote

Merrett glanced about, and saw nothing but gorse, bracken, thistle, sedge, and blackberry bushes between the pines and grey-green sentinels. Elsewhere skeletal elm and ash and scrub oaks choked the ground like weeds.

-Epilogue, aSoS

Gorse- evergreen thorny bush 
Bracken- a type of fern whose typical habitat is moorland. We thought House Bracken were an animal house. I think that their sigil is because bracken the plant is usually found in moorland and there is a distinct type of horse named the Exmoor Pony.
Thistle - a thorny flowering plant. And we have Thistle turning into a wight with 10 knives of blood. 
Sedge - are not thorny but they are like all of these are plants that thrive in poor and acidic soil or in wetlands (The Neck). They have three very interesting types: Water Chestnuts, Papyrus Sedge (this being the actual plant that was used to make Papyrus paper) and White Star Sedge. 

Quote

It's too dangerous. Those stones looked loose to me, and that red ivy's poisonous. There has to be a postern gate."

They found it on the north side of the castle, half-hidden behind a huge blackberry bramble. The berries had all been picked, and half the bush had been hacked down to cut a path to the door. The sight of the broken branches filled Brienne with disquiet. "Someone's been through here, and recently."

"Your fool and those girls," said Crabb. "I told you."

..................

She shouldered through the blackberries and pulled at a rusted iron ring. The postern door resisted for a moment, then jerked open, its hinges screaming protest. The sound made the hairs on the back of Brienne's neck stand up. She drew her sword. Even in mail and boiled leather, she felt naked.

-Brienne IV, aFfC

 

The Castle is of course the Whispers. 

 

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"Ser Eustace . You would have lied to him."

"Aye, and why not? Who's to tell him any different? The flies?" Bennis grinned a wet red grin. "Ser Useless never leaves the tower, except to see the boys down in the blackberries."

"A sworn sword owes his lord the truth."

.............................

The boys were Eustace Osgrey's sons: Edwyn, Harrold, Addam. Edwyn and Harrold had been knights, Addam a young squire. They had died on the Redgrass Field fifteen years ago, at the end of the Blackfyre Rebellion. "They died good deaths, fighting bravely for the king," Ser Eustace told Dunk, "and I brought them home and buried them among the blackberries." His wife was buried there as well.

............................

"Why would Ser Eustace rise against King Daeron? He was a good king, everybody says so. He brought Dorne into the realm and made the Dornishmen our friends."

"You would have to ask Ser Eustace, Egg." Dunk thought he knew the answer, but it was not one the boy would want to hear. He wanted a castle with a lion on the gatehouse, but all he got were graves among the blackberries.

...............................

"His father put him in the blackberries, with his brothers," Dunk said. "He was fond of blackberries."

"I remember. He used to pick them for me, and we'd eat them in a bowl of cream."

................................................

"Wedding feast?" Dunk did not understand.

"You would not know, of course. Coldmoat and Standfast were reconciled after your battle. Lady Rohanne begged leave of old Ser Eustace to cross his land and visit Addam's grave, and he granted her that right. She knelt before the blackberries and began to weep, and he was so moved that he went to comfort her. They spent the whole night talking of young Addam and my lady's noble father. Lord Wyman and Ser Eustace were fast friends, until the Blackfyre Rebellion. His lordship and my lady were wed this morning, by our good Septon Sefton. Eustace Osgrey is the lord of Coldmoat, and his chequy lion flies beside the Webber spider on every tower and wall."

- The Sworn Sword

And there is a type of blackberry named crowberry.

 

 

And there is a Alfred Broome and he did betray the Castellan of Dragonstone and the Blacks. And with him we find Tom Tangletongue and Tom Tanglebeard. 

[Bluetiger]

I'm looking at various appearances of blackberry in myths, and this one is quite funny:

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(From Wikipedia: Cornish Mythology)

Old Michaelmas Day falls on 11 October (10 October according to some sources). According to an old legend, blackberries should not be picked after this date. This is because, so British folklore goes, Satan was banished from Heaven on this day, fell into a blackberry bush and cursed the brambles as he fell into them. In Cornwall, a similar legend prevails, according to which the devil urinated on them.

(...)

According to some traditions, blackberry's deep purple color represents Christ's blood and the crown of thorns was made of brambles, although other thorny plants, such as Crataegus (hawthorn species) and Euphorbia milii (crown of thorns plant), have been proposed as the material for the crown.

Sounds a bit like 'black stone that fell from the heaven'...