A Burning Brandon (Mythical Astronomy of Ice and Fire)

[LmL]

https://lucifermeanslightbringer.com/2017/02/20/weirwood-compendium-2-a-burning-brandon/

Greeting Westeros.org friends and family! I am back after recovering from my green zombie hangover, and it seems it's finally time to talk about Bran Stark in earnest. I've written a pretty good intro in the essay proper, so I won't belabor the introduction here. We're going to be talking about Brandon Stark as the primary possessor of the fire of the Gods. We're going to continue to develop the connections between greenseer magic and the moon meteors, between greenseers and Azor Ahai. We're going to talk about towers getting struck by lightning, and we're going to check out the scenes at Queen'sCrown, the Nightfort, and the broken tower at Winterfell. There's also a big healthy dose of Samwell Tarly symbolism, some of the best in the book. We are going to start digging into Odin and Yggdrasil, although that will really get underway next episode. In this one we're going to talk about Mimir's well and how that compares to the Nightfort scene and what it means for stealing the fire of the Gods. I'll also talk about the Night's King, and address the growing problem of how many different identities one ancient hero can wear, lol. 

This episode will act as a synthesis of the Green Zombie series, which is kind of a stand-alone series apart from my main ideas, and the rest of my main ideas. To read this one and enjoy it, it's probably a good idea to read Weirwood Compendium One, the Grey King and the Sea Dragon, as well as the Green Zombie series. I'm also building on some of the ideas in my the Viper vs. The Mountain and the Hammer of the Waters episode, in case you would like to be fresh on all that material.

Cheers everyone, and I hope you enjoy. As usual, you can listen to the podcast or read the essay as you prefer. The link to the podcast is on the essay linked above at lucifermeanslightbringer.com. 

[Pain killer Jane]

So @LmL 

Remember we were talking about the fertility/infertility of the burned men NW. The NW branches into the Rangers (hunters/warriors), the Builders, and the Steward. In a backhand way, the Tyrells with their creeping vines/creeping worms symbolism are the Stewards family branch of the Nightswatch. They were stewards of the last Greenhand king (and Littlefinger as the Master of Coin is the more sinister aspect of that family. I would probably add the Lannister and the Hightowers to this.) Save Littlefinger, the Lannisters, the Tyrells and the Hightowers seem to be the most ubiquitous especially currently. 

The Rangers are those hunters we spoke about. We do have a family House Hunter in the Vale of Arryn. But I would endveaor to say that this is better personified by the Daynes, the Targs, Tarlys.

The builders would be the Starks even though they do have that hellhound/warrior symbolism. I would lump the Tullys here as well with the Freys but the Freys also have that sinister steward symbolism. 

Besides this feeds into that 3 woman thing going on, 3 sisters, 3 daughters, 3 wives from the Royce/Stark marriage going to three families, 3 wives of Huzhor Amai, 3 forks of the trident. 

ETA: I just listened again and found that you refer to this towards the end of the podcast when you consider AA to be a family. 

[hiemal]

"Old Nan told him a story about a bad little boy who climbed too high and was struck down by lightning , and how afterward the crows came to peck out his eyes.  Bran was not impressed.  There were crows’ nests atop the broken tower, where no one ever went but him, and sometimes he filled his pockets with corn before he climbed up there and the crows ate it right out of his hand.  None of them had ever shown the slightest bit of interest in pecking out his eyes. 

This is an central aspect of Bran’s symbolic identity, because it connects the idea of challenging the heavens and stealing the fire of the gods – a bad little boy who climbs too high – with being struck by lightning.  Just as the fire of the gods was possessed for mankind by the Grey King when a thunderbolt set fire to a tree, Bran’s climbing too high and being struck down from the tower is what triggers the opening of his third eye.  Later in this episode, we’ll take a look at a couple of complementary Bran scenes which show an association between lightning and Bran using his greenseer abilities, such as the scene at Queenscrown with Hodor and the lightning."

 

I'm still near the start, but I wanted to pause here for some feedback.

First, as always, kudos for the diligence, insight, and wit. And for always having a new perspective for me to think about.

I just started my newest reread project and I was struck by the idea of Bran as a tree being struck by lightning atop a tower, highlighting his future as both tree and bird. I'll be paying special attention to your new angle for the rest of the readthrough. Glad you caught me early.

 

OK- one more and that's it for the night:

"Bran is a burning tree figure, in possession of the fire of the gods. "

Yes. Yes! YES! One important Bran reference that I didn't see and bears strongly on sacrificial symbolism and his possible fate is Bran the Blessed in the Mabinogian who sacrificed his life to destroy a magical cauldron that brought the dead back to life. Hero king and corn king.

 

[Luddagain]

LML

You post some great stuff and while I do not agree with all of it you have blown me away with the symbolism you have found.

There are a few ideas I want to throw in.

Bran certainly IS the dying/returning summer god - Balder, Osiris, Mithras,  Persephone and of course the wicker man (great catch). He is also Bran the Blessed, the hero of Welsh mythology. He must die but also be reborn to bring in the Summer. Not sure if that makes him lightbringer - I reserve judgement.

I would be careful about using too many names etc becuse I think GRRM uses them to throw us off the scent. Walder Frey is fertile but godlike!!!!!!

We seem to have a number of important mythical and ancient gods/spirits thrown into the mix and I rather think the main characters may represent different entities.

 

Thus if Bran is the return of summer, Jon may be king of Winter and destined to die as Bran returns.  BUT I am not sure they are the two key pairings. Somehow Bran/Arya seem to be a pair - life and death, each in balance and both essential. Although it is the house of Black AND white, so Arya may represent a go between ice and fire.

If we think of Arya and Bran as a pair, then Jon King of Winter (ice) is paired with Dany Queen of Fire. if Arya at the HoBW is in the middle then someone from the summer isles may be the King of Summer. Conceivably we could have a Summer isles KoS teamed with Dany and Jon teams with a Queen of Winter (Val ?).

 

The Sam whale symbols were also a great catch, but my idea is he is the return of Garth Greenhand (he is a reported descendent) and the next but one legitimate heir to the reach.  The other watery whale like people are of course the Manderlys.  I think we will find that Sam and the Manderlys are connected both with with fertlity of earth and sea.

[LmL]

17 minutes ago, hiemal said:

"Old Nan told him a story about a bad little boy who climbed too high and was struck down by lightning , and how afterward the crows came to peck out his eyes.  Bran was not impressed.  There were crows’ nests atop the broken tower, where no one ever went but him, and sometimes he filled his pockets with corn before he climbed up there and the crows ate it right out of his hand.  None of them had ever shown the slightest bit of interest in pecking out his eyes. 

This is an central aspect of Bran’s symbolic identity, because it connects the idea of challenging the heavens and stealing the fire of the gods – a bad little boy who climbs too high – with being struck by lightning.  Just as the fire of the gods was possessed for mankind by the Grey King when a thunderbolt set fire to a tree, Bran’s climbing too high and being struck down from the tower is what triggers the opening of his third eye.  Later in this episode, we’ll take a look at a couple of complementary Bran scenes which show an association between lightning and Bran using his greenseer abilities, such as the scene at Queenscrown with Hodor and the lightning."

 

I'm still near the start, but I wanted to pause here for some feedback.

First, as always, kudos for the diligence, insight, and wit. And for always having a new perspective for me to think about.

I just started my newest reread project and I was struck by the idea of Bran as a tree being struck by lightning atop a tower, highlighting his future as both tree and bird. I'll be paying special attention to your new angle for the rest of the readthrough. Glad you caught me early.

 

OK- one more and that's it for the night:

"Bran is a burning tree figure, in possession of the fire of the gods. "

Yes. Yes! YES! One important Bran reference that I didn't see and bears strongly on sacrificial symbolism and his possible fate is Bran the Blessed in the Mabinogian who sacrificed his life to destroy a magical cauldron that brought the dead back to life.

 

Yeah dawg we are totally going to talk about that cauldron and about Talking Heads, and The Whispers, And oh did I mention that I love the Talking Heads, one of the best bands ever? Sorry I can't say Talking Heads without talking about the genius of David Byrne. Anyway, yeah, we'll get to that, but not in this episode. 

I see your first comment, yes - bran is absolutely the tree struck by lightning as well as the bad little boy struck by lightning. It's pretty much the same thing, and I try to illustrate that point as the essay goes along oh, so you're bound to like the rest of it.

[LmL]

8 minutes ago, Luddagain said:

LML

You post some great stuff and while I do not agree with all of it you have blown me away with the symbolism you have found.

There are a few ideas I want to throw in.

Bran certainly IS the dying/returning summer god - Balder, Osiris, Mithras,  Persephone and of course the wicker man (great catch). He is also Bran the Blessed, the hero of Welsh mythology. He must die but also be reborn to bring in the Summer. Not sure if that makes him lightbringer - I reserve judgement.

I would be careful about using too many names etc becuse I think GRRM uses them to throw us off the scent. Walder Frey is fertile but godlike!!!!!!

We seem to have a number of important mythical and ancient gods/spirits thrown into the mix and I rather think the main characters may represent different entities.

 

Thus if Bran is the return of summer, Jon may be king of Winter and destined to die as Bran returns.  BUT I am not sure they are the two key pairings. Somehow Bran/Arya seem to be a pair - life and death, each in balance and both essential. Although it is the house of Black AND white, so Arya may represent a go between ice and fire.

If we think of Arya and Bran as a pair, then Jon King of Winter (ice) is paired with Dany Queen of Fire. if Arya at the HoBW is in the middle then someone from the summer isles may be the King of Summer. Conceivably we could have a Summer isles KoS teamed with Dany and Jon teams with a Queen of Winter (Val ?).

 

The Sam whale symbols were also a great catch, but my idea is he is the return of Garth Greenhand (he is a reported descendent) and the next but one legitimate heir to the reach.  The other watery whale like people are of course the Manderlys.  I think we will find that Sam and the Manderlys are connected both with with fertlity of earth and sea.

Yes, the Manderlys are of course from the reach, and count themselves Knights of the green hand. 

As for the different pairings, I share your confusion, or at least, I don't think we are looking at neatly delineated pairings. Characters tend to change too much throughout their arcs, and have different relationships to different people. I tend to put the most stock in interpreting individual scenes - like, Dany can play a lot of roles, but what is she playing in this given scene? Usually it's easier to nail down something in a limited scope like that.  But I am agreeing with your observations for the most part - certainly I see Dany and John as a certain kind of pair. Sometimes I think about Dany and Jon and Bran as a trio, with Danny correlating to fire, Jon to ice, and Bran to the Green, but I think I have backed away from thinking in those kind of terms for the most part. I focus on identifying the original characters, archetypes, and relationships spelled out by the mythical astronomy template, because that's the only Universal thing. It seems like all the characters are essentially variations of the mythical astronomy archetypes. And Beyond a mythical astronomy ideas, Martin has simply created archetypal rolls in his universe, and many different characters act as permutations of those original archetypes. So we're bound to see the same relationship pop up in different places, with all manner of variations. 

 

What I did notice, is that there are two types of fertility gods, or at least two ways of organizing the relationship of summer and winter. Sometimes we have one fertility God who transforms from Summer to Winter, and that seems to be what Bran does.  John however seems to be only a king of winter, at least in terms of fertility gods. I'm not sure if that difference is important, or if it's just George using different fertility God myths for different characters as it makes sense to him. 

[LmL]

2 hours ago, Pain killer Jane said:

So @LmL 

Remember we were talking about the fertility/infertility of the burned men NW. The NW branches into the Rangers (hunters/warriors), the Builders, and the Steward. In a backhand way, the Tyrells with their creeping vines/creeping worms symbolism are the Stewards family branch of the Nightswatch. They were stewards of the last Greenhand king (and Littlefinger as the Master of Coin is the more sinister aspect of that family. I would probably add the Lannister and the Hightowers to this.) Save Littlefinger, the Lannisters, the Tyrells and the Hightowers seem to be the most ubiquitous especially currently. 

The Rangers are those hunters we spoke about. We do have a family House Hunter in the Vale of Arryn. But I would endveaor to say that this is better personified by the Daynes, the Targs, Tarlys.

The builders would be the Starks even though they do have that hellhound/warrior symbolism. I would lump the Tullys here as well with the Freys but the Freys also have that sinister steward symbolism. 

Besides this feeds into that 3 woman thing going on, 3 sisters, 3 daughters, 3 wives from the Royce/Stark marriage going to three families, 3 wives of Huzhor Amai, 3 forks of the trident. 

ETA: I just listened again and found that you refer to this towards the end of the podcast when you consider AA to be a family. 

Yes, this seemed to be the point where I had to start talking about Azor Ahai as being more than one person. Although I thought it was interesting to consider how someone like Daenerys might inspire different mythology in many different parts of the world, with the result being that in a few centuries, the myths might have similarities but also many differences. Still, the Deeds of "Azor Ahai" are getting to be a bit much for one person to have accomplished. You know that I like to focus on the mythical archetype of the fiery greenseer more than I do trying to worry about what the individual dude's name was, or how many brothers he had, so I tend to leave this open for debate. Ultimately, I don't think we will be able to know the truth of it - we just have this character, this type of fiery greenseer person who seems to have done some of the important deeds of the war for the dawn. There are so many different brother brother and father-son relationships in A Song of Ice and Fire which we could use as templates to map onto the AA / last hero story that it's hard to pin it down exactly. And it really should be, because we're talking about mythology from 8000 years ago.

Also, I'm kind of holding out one of my big secrets here. I think the "Azor Ahai people" are the same thing as the sacred order of green men. Elsewhere, they are known as the old ones I believe. That might be the next bomb dropping episode that I am looking forward to making, although I am several episodes away from it still.

[hiemal]

21 minutes ago, LmL said:

Yeah dawg we are totally going to talk about that cauldron and about Talking Heads, and The Whispers, And oh did I mention that I love the Talking Heads, one of the best bands ever? Sorry I can't say Talking Heads without talking about the genius of David Byrne. Anyway, yeah, we'll get to that, but not in this episode. 

I see your first comment, yes - bran is absolutely the tree struck by lightning as well as the bad little boy struck by lightning. It's pretty much the same thing, and I try to illustrate that point as the essay goes along oh, so you're bound to like the rest of it.

Excellent! Now I have to go listen to "Life in Wartime".

[Luddagain]

LML

 

I think GRRM had tried to bring in a very, very wide range of theology/myths. Even the Yin and Yang symbol in the HoBW.

My own gut feel is that GRRM started out with a Ragnarök  theme with the South Asgard, the North and first men families the Britannic/fertility myths and the Targs more or less representing the Romans/Christian and the Maesters modern science. These also represent the history of the British isles - First men eg Druids and similar, worshiping trees, Andals the Anglo-saxons, bringing Asgard, the Romans first bringing Christianity (Septons) and then after the fall of the Roman empire, some historical descendants in the form of the Norman conquers (Targs)However onto that framework he has added themes of dualism straight out of Zorastrianism and Abrahamic religions - the notion of god and the devil (I am not sure he supports the dualism, but recognises it is the cosmic view of many)

[Isobel Harper]

Does anyone else get confused by heimal and LmL's similar avatars, or is it just me?

On a more serious note, I find it odd that I've never seen mention of Icarus.  So I'll bring him up.

Icarus and his father, Daedalus, escaped from a labyrinth by wearing wings that Daedalus had constricted out of wax and feathers. Icarus flies too high, melting the wax, and he falls to his death. 

In AGoT Bran II (the same chapter in which Bran falls from the tower), when Bran surveys the Winterfell streets and hills, he describes Winterfell as "a labyrinth."  In Bran's coma dream, the 3EC tells Bran to fly, but in his fear, he says he is just falling.  Eventually, Bran does open his arms and fly.  

 Now, Bran, the crow urged. Choose. Fly or die.

Death reached for him, screaming.

Bran spread his arms and flew.

As Icarus flew, he didn't realize that the feathers were falling away from his wings.  Eventually, he only had his arms.  He couldn't fly anymore, and despite flapping his arms,  he fell and died.  Bran, however, doesn't need wings to fly and only has to open his arms. An inverse is in play here.  Icarus falls and dies.  Bran falls (from the tower) and lives.  Icarus cannot fly without wings/with only his arms.  Bran (in his coma dream) can fly without wings/with only his arms. 

There is another connection.  The moral of the story of Icarus is to not reach too high.  Don't be too proud.  Don't be too ambitious.  Don't reach too close to the Gods.  Prometheus had the "audacity" to bring the fire of the Gods and give it to man.  Bran symbolically has taken the fire of the (Old) Gods by opening his third eye via his fall. 

[Pain killer Jane]

27 minutes ago, Isobel Harper said:

On a more serious note, I find it odd that I've never seen mention of Icarus.  So I'll bring him up.

Oh look @LmL, we were talking about him earlier on Patreon. 

@Isobel Harper I brought him up in relation to Vhagar being a clever way to hide Vega, the falling eagle star (I forgot to mention that Waqi comes from the phrase translated as falling/landing eagle) and the battle above the God's Eye with Aemond One-Eye. 

@LmL I wanted to ask, you expounded on the Black Gate with the face looking similar to the Grey King but 

Spoiler

did you consider that it might be Hodor per the TV show and Hold the Door? Which is often given as an example of chivalry in our modern times. 

 

[LmL]

17 minutes ago, Pain killer Jane said:

Oh look @LmL, we were talking about him earlier on Patreon. 

@Isobel Harper I brought him up in relation to Vhagar being a clever way to hide Vega, the falling eagle star (I forgot to mention that Waqi comes from the phrase translated as falling/landing eagle) and the battle above the God's Eye with Aemond One-Eye. 

Yes, great minds think alike! You two both thought of him in relation to Bran. Thats interesting he's connected with the labyrinth... the first thing you think of when someone says labyrinth is the Minotaur, but perhaps he's is referring to Icarus here. The Icarus story def fits with Bran, albeit with the inversions you mentioned.  I wonder if George might have hidden another Icarus clue during one of the many scenes with melting wax?

On a basic level, the Qarthine myth is similar to Icarus: one day a moon wandered too close to the sun and cracked form the heat. 

17 minutes ago, Pain killer Jane said:

@LmL I wanted to ask, you expounded on the Black Gate with the face looking similar to the Grey King but 

  Hide contents

did you consider that it might be Hodor per the TV show and Hold the Door? Which is often given as an example of chivalry in our modern times. 

 

Well like I said I wasn't suggesting the Grey King became that black gate. I don't really have any idea what Martin intends to show us with a talking underground weirwood face, it's strangely high-fantasy for ASOIAF, so it's hard to know what to make of it. 

so what exactly were you suggesting in relation to Hodor and the Black Gate?

[LmL]

49 minutes ago, Isobel Harper said:

 

Does anyone else get confused by heimal and LmL's similar avatars, or is it just me?

 

We are eclipse brothers. His is a regular moon eclipse; mine is a dragon moon eclipse. :devil:

Great work on spotting the specific Icarus parallels and inverse parallels! I would do a word search on "wax" and see if there any other allusions to the story. Perhaps around Euron, too, as he speaks of "how do we know if we can fly unless we leap from some tall tower?"

[Isobel Harper]

23 minutes ago, Pain killer Jane said:

Oh look @LmL, we were talking about him earlier on Patreon. 

@Isobel Harper I brought him up in relation to Vhagar being a clever way to hide Vega, the falling eagle star (I forgot to mention that Waqi comes from the phrase translated as falling/landing eagle) and the battle above the God's Eye with Aemond One-Eye. 

@LmL I wanted to ask, you expounded on the Black Gate with the face looking similar to the Grey King but 

  Reveal hidden contents

did you consider that it might be Hodor per the TV show and Hold the Door? Which is often given as an example of chivalry in our modern times. 

 

Ooh, I love discovering hidden meanings behind names, especially with regard to dragons. 

So Vhagar = Vega.  Interesting.  Speaking of Vega, I often wonder if the name Vaegon isn't a male, Targaryen variant of Vega.  (If Viserys in a make variant of Viserra...)  Vaegons tend to miss inheritance/die in childhood from what I recall.  I'll have to review the mythology behind Vega.

Korax is the Greek word for raven.  All Targaryen dragons whose names end in -rax or -raxes fought for the Blacks during the Dance of the Dragons.  I looked up korax in Merriam-Webster dictionary and found "-corax" which means "about if pertaining to a raven" (or something there about).  -corax can be pronounced "core ax" or "cuh rax."  The latter sounds like Carax(es), yes?  

[Pain killer Jane]

9 hours ago, Isobel Harper said:

Ooh, I love discovering hidden meanings behind names, especially with regard to dragons. 

So Vhagar = Vega.  Interesting.  Speaking of Vega, I often wonder if the name Vaegon isn't a male, Targaryen variant of Vega.  (If Viserys in a make variant of Viserra...)  Vaegons tend to miss inheritance/die in childhood from what I recall.  I'll have to review the mythology behind Vega.

Korax is the Greek word for raven.  All Targaryen dragons whose names end in -rax or -raxes fought for the Blacks during the Dance of the Dragons.  I looked up korax in Merriam-Webster dictionary and found "-corax" which means "about if pertaining to a raven" (or something there about).  -corax can be pronounced "core ax" or "cuh rax."  The latter sounds like Carax(es), yes?  

I did an exploration of Meraxes a while ago on the Seams thread. And basically I came up with Myr (myrrh) and Axis, and with the abundant of wheel, wagon, broken wane/wayne ( oh I don't know if anyone connected that wane or wain I don't remember how to spell it, is a Scottish colloquialism for babe or child).

In Asian mythology, Vega is connected to Altair. While Vega is the falling eagle star and the brightest star in Lyra, Altair is the flying eagle star and the brightest star in Aquila (eagle). Anyway in Asian mythologies Vega is the Weaver Girl and Altair is the Cowherd. If I remember correctly, their love was forbidden because it distracted them from their purposes, and it had to do with the loss of immortality for the gods. So anyway they were banished to the other side of the Silver River (the Milky Way) and only on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month are they allowed to see each other. They are able to do this only because magpies fly up and create a bridge for them. I like the fact that we got thieving birds, forbidden love between two celestial deities, one of which falls and the other soars. 

I maybe mixing myths because there is also the myth about the Chinese moon goddess, who had a forbidden love and was banished to the moon because she stopped making the elixir of immortality for the gods. She has a rabbit attendant or sometimes the rabbit is the one that pounds the elixir of immortality. Its that feature I was talking about in The Puns thread. And I know the GRRM is using rabbits in this way by connecting them to fertility and the adage that procreation is nature's form of immortality. And then combines it with brutal loss of those symbols. Starting with Ghost jumping into rabbit pen that belonged to the pregnant Rabbit keeper, Gilly which in context echoes the Others taking Craster's sons away and parallels Varamyr warging his wolf to eat babies (which the feature of wolves eating babies was a result of the practice of exposing babies and why we have myths of children being raised by wolves and Good People taking the exposed children to their land to in live in happiness while the changeling dies in ours. There is even scientific research that the evolution of dogs was a result of eating those children and scavenging from our garbage.) 

[Pain killer Jane]

10 hours ago, LmL said:

Great work on spotting the specific Icarus parallels and inverse parallels! I would do a word search on "wax" and see if there any other allusions to the story. Perhaps around Euron, too, as he speaks of "how do we know if we can fly unless we leap from some tall tower?"

Wax is probably beeswax, so we may have to look at Elyn ever sweet and Beric did die from Amory Lorch at Rushing Falls because he went to save a beekeeper and his wife. Amory decided they belonged to Beric, which is an interesting turn of phrase. 

And probably House Waxley. 

Oh I answered the Hodor question on Pateron last night when the servers were down. 

[Bluetiger]

54 minutes ago, Pain killer Jane said:

Wax is probably beeswax, so we may have to look at Elyn ever sweet and Beric did die from Amory Lorch at Rushing Falls because he went to save a beekeeper and his wife. Amory decided they belonged to Beric, which is an interesting turn of phrase. 

And probably House Waxley. 

Oh I answered the Hodor question on Pateron last night when the servers were down. 

Waxleys of WICKenden.

[DarkSister1001]

@LmL - As always, great stuff!  I'm only partially through and haven't started reading the thread replies so someone may have mentioned this already but I wanted to chime in before I lost my train of thought. 

Quote

Hoary is kind of an antiquated word, so for anyone who does not know what it means, it means “ancient, grey, white, silvery, or snowy looking.”  Thus Grey King’s beard being as grey as a winter sea may well be an Odin reference, which is exactly what we should see if the Grey King is a greenseer.  And now we think back to the oft-repeated phrase “green boys and grey-beards” which is frequently applied to the Night’s Watch, and we can see that both of these terms relate to greenseers, with grey beards implying old, undead greenseers as a counterpoint to green men or children of the forest.  Odin is also a type of death / resurrection god, and three of his other names are “Father of the Slain,” “The Slain God,” and “Chooser of the Slain.”

Hoarfrost.  It describes wights, Qhorin, Bran, food in the stores of Castle Black, WF after the sack and subsequent "rebuilding", Hoarfrost Hill (abandoned castle along the wall), House Hoare, Hoarfrost Umber and Victarion was "flecked with hoarfrost". 

[Bluetiger]

8 minutes ago, DarkSister1001 said:

@LmL - As always, great stuff!  I'm only partially through and haven't started reading the thread replies so someone may have mentioned this already but I wanted to chime in before I lost my train of thought. 

Hoarfrost.  It describes wights, Qhorin, Bran, food in the stores of Castle Black, WF after the sack and subsequent "rebuilding", Hoarfrost Hill (abandoned castle along the wall), House Hoare, Hoarfrost Umber and Victarion was "flecked with hoarfrost". 

And one of NW's castles is called Hoarfrost Hill:

From the Wiki:

• Westwatch-by-the-Bridge
• Shadow Tower, the most western castle still currently in use. By 298 AC, it is garrisoned by two hundred men.^[9]
• Sentinel Stand
• Greyguard
• Stonedoor
• Hoarfrost Hill
• Icemark
• Nightfort, the oldest and largest castle of the Night's Watch, which was abandoned during the reign of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen due to the high costs needed to maintain it.^[14] It houses the Black Gate, a secret way through the Wall sealed by a magical ancient door fashioned from weirwood, which only opens to a sworn brother of the Night's Watch.
• Deep Lake, located seven miles east of the Nightfort. Originally meant as a replacement to the Nightfort. It was paid for by Queen Alysanne Targaryen, and built by men sent to the Wall by King Jaehaerys I Targaryen.^[14]
• Queensgate, originally called Snowgate. The castle was renamed after Queen Alysanne Targaryen visited.^[25]
• Castle Black, one of the three castles currently still in use. Castle Black is the largest maintained castle,^{[citation needed]} and is located at the northern end of the kingsroad.^[22][26] By 298 AC, it is held by six hundred brothers.^[9]
• Oakenshield
• Woodswatch-by-the-Pool
• Sable Hall
• Rimegate
• Long Barrow
• Torches
• Greenguard
• Eastwatch-by-the-Sea,

 

Long Barrow... Shadow Tower... Greyguard & Greenguard... Who'd live in such places? The Undead obviously...

[Pain killer Jane]

1 hour ago, DarkSister1001 said:

@LmL - As always, great stuff!  I'm only partially through and haven't started reading the thread replies so someone may have mentioned this already but I wanted to chime in before I lost my train of thought. 

Hoarfrost.  It describes wights, Qhorin, Bran, food in the stores of Castle Black, WF after the sack and subsequent "rebuilding", Hoarfrost Hill (abandoned castle along the wall), House Hoare, Hoarfrost Umber and Victarion was "flecked with hoarfrost". 

And hoar sounds like whore and whores are significant. I mean Jaime keeps referring to Cersei as Queen of Whores and The Sept of Baelor was built on the spot where the House of Kisses existed (and we can't ignore the events of the House Kisses and the moon of the three kings). 

 

1 hour ago, Blue Tiger said:

Waxleys of WICKenden.

Wick Whittlestick