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Lord of the Rings and ASOIAF


Fun Guy from Yuggoth

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Little known fact: Elrond's father was Earendil who blasted off the surface of the Earth and into space on a magic white ship that became the Dawn star/the Flammifer (the Flame-Bringer, obvious parallel to Lucifer/Lightbringer).  Earendil was Aragorn's ancestor as well, as the line of the Dunedain was founded through Elrond's brother Elros.   

Eorendil is an Anglo-Saxon word that means “dayspring, dawn, ray of light, bright star” and is used to refer to Venus, (aka eosphorus—“light-bringer”)  (the Dunedain were descended from Dawn)

I will perhaps summarize the story in greater detail later, but the short version of Earendil's story is that in Middle Earth at the end of the First Age, humans and elves are losing the battle against the Dark Lord Morgoth aka Melkor.   (Melkor had caused two periods of Great Darkness previously, first when he destroyed the Two Lamps, and then when he and Ungoliant destroyed the Two Trees of Valinor and caused the Darkening of Valinor also known as the Long Night).  So, at this time at the end of the First Age, Morgoth's Shadow lies over the land.  The last hope for humanity is for Earendil to sail to the Undying Lands to seek the aid of the Valar (the gods).  Earendil builds a ship out of white wood and sails west to the Otherworld, but cannot reach Valinor until his wife Elwing comes to him as a bird and gives him the Silmaril to wear upon his brow, then he is allowed to find Valinor.  He succeeds in getting the help of the Valar but they do not let him return to the world of men, instead they build him a magical white ship Vingilot, and he gets launched into space and becomes the most beautiful star in the sky. 

Thereafter Earendil's fate was to forever herald the dawn, and at the climax of the War of Wrath he used his magic white ship to slay Morgoth's gigantic un-killable dragon Ancalagon the Black.  The dragon was so big his fall to earth brought down mountains and led to entire landmasses sinking below the sea.  Morgoth was then captured by the Valar and expelled from Earth (which I how I thought Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn was going to end, that Ineluki and Simon were both going to be shot into space in the White Tower), thus ended the War of Wrath and concluded the First Age of Middle Earth.

 

I have been arguing for years that a gigantic black dragon (of sorts) is what caused the Long Night in ASoIaF, and will cause it again in Winds.  There is a lot of foreshadowing in ASoIaF of black dragons blocking out the sun.  I think the black dragon is the Shadow--the Second Moon of Planetos (from which dragons were born), which is a totally black planet that can only be seen when it eclipses known celestial objects, which is currently hanging over and darkening Asshai and its gravitational pull is tilting the Earth and messing up the seasons.  This "moon" is variously known as the Lion of Night, the Stranger, the Great Stone Face, the Black Goat, etc, and it is the face of Death, for when it shows its face, the weirwood awake and the Others attack.  The eclipse is ended by the Red Comet knocking it out of eclipse formation, and bringing the Dawn.  (the weirwood comet can come from the Earth or from Mars, there is evidence supporting both)

So, you can imagine my surprise when I read LotR for the first time last month and a man whose name is synonymous with Dawn and Lightbringer gets shot off the surface of the Earth in a magic white ship, and brings down the Black Dragon, and brings the dawn.

Dawn = Lightbringer = Red Comet = Red Sword of Heroes.  He is or becomes a celestial body.  Lightbringer is what chases away the Shadow, and brings the Dawn.  The Red Dragon brings down the Black Dragon.

(see also, Jack Vance's Eyes of the Overworld which is one of George's favorite books and on page 126 we get this line:  "The elder pointed toward the sky. 'If you had the eyes of a nocturnal titvit you might note a dark moon which reels around the earth, and which cannot be seen except when it casts its shadow upon the sun.  The Winged Beings are denizens of this dark world and their ultimate nature is unknown.' " and the sequel Cugel's Saga features a magic silver tree (pg 155) which has anti-gravitational powers and can allow objects rubbed with its sab to float off into the sky.)  

 

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The Stories of Earendil

So, there are several tellings of the story of Earendil, and they don't all agree on the facts.   The first mention we get was when Aragon tells Frodo the story of Beren and Luthien, in which he mentions Earendil, “he that sailed his ship out of the mists of the world into the seas of heaven with the Silmaril upon his brow.  And of Earendil came the Kings of Numenor,”

 

Then at Rivendell Bilbo recites his poem (it is very long but deserves careful study):

Eärendil was a mariner
that tarried in Arvernien;
he built a boat of timber felled
in Nimbrethil to journey in;
her sails he wove of silver fair,
of silver were her lanterns made,
her prow was fashioned like a swan,
and light upon her banners laid.

In panoply of ancient kings,
in chainéd rings he armoured him;
his shining shield was scored with runes
to ward all wounds and harm from him;
his bow was made of dragon-horn,
his arrows shorn of ebony;
of silver was his habergeon,
his scabbard of chalcedony;
his sword of steel was valiant,
of adamant his helmet tall,
an eagle-plume upon his crest,
upon his breast an emerald.

Beneath the Moon and under star
he wandered far from northern strands,
bewildered on enchanted ways
beyond the days of mortal lands.
From gnashing of the Narrow Ice
where shadow lies on frozen hills,
from nether heats and burning waste
he turned in haste, and roving still
on starless waters far astray
at last he came to Night of Naught,
and passed, and never sight he saw
of shining shore nor light he sought.
The winds of wrath came driving him,
and blindly in the foam he fled
from west to east and errandless,
unheralded he homeward sped.

There flying Elwing came to him,
and flame was in the darkness lit;
more bright than light of diamond
the fire upon her carcanet.
The Silmaril she bound on him
and crowned him with the living light
and dauntless then with burning brow
he turned his prow; and in the night
from Otherworld beyond the Sea
there strong and free a storm arose,
a wind of power in Tarmenel;
by paths that seldom mortal goes
his boat it bore with biting breath
as might of death across the grey
and long forsaken seas distressed;
from east to west he passed away.

Through Evernight he back was borne
on black and roaring waves that ran
o'er leagues unlit and foundered shores
that drowned before the Days began,
until he heard on strands of pearl
where ends the world the music long,
where ever-foaming billows roll
the yellow gold and jewels wan.
He saw the Mountain silent rise
where twilight lies upon the knees
of Valinor, and Eldamar
beheld afar beyond the seas.
A wanderer escaped from night
to haven white he came at last,
to Elvenhome the green and fair
where keen the air, where pale as glass
beneath the Hill of Ilmarin
a-glimmer in a valley sheer
the lamplit towers of Tirion
are mirrored on the Shadowmere.

He tarried there from errantry,
and melodies they taught to him,
and sages old him marvels told,
and harps of gold they brought to him.
They clothed him then in elven-white,
and seven lights before him sent,
as through the Calacirian
to hidden land forlorn he went.
He came unto the timeless halls
where shining fall the countless years,
and endless reigns the Elder King
in Ilmarin on Mountain sheer;
and words unheard were spoken then
of folk of Men and Elven-kin,
beyond the world were visions showed
forbid to those that dwell therein.

A ship then new they built for him
of mithril and of elven-glass
with shining prow; no shaven oar
nor sail she bore on silver mast:
the Silmaril as lantern light
and banner bright with living flame
to gleam thereon by Elbereth
herself was set, who thither came
and wings immortal made for him,
and laid on him undying doom,
to sail the shoreless skies and come
behind the Sun and light of Moon.


From Evereven's lofty hills
where softly silver fountains fall
his wings him bore, a wandering light,
beyond the mighty Mountain Wall.
From World's End there he turned away,
and yearned again to find afar
his home through shadows journeying,
and burning as an island star
on high above the mists he came,
a distant flame before the Sun,
a wonder ere the waking dawn
where grey the Norland waters run.

And over Middle-earth he passed
and heard at last the weeping sore
of women and of elven-maids
in Elder Days, in years of yore.
But on him mighty doom was laid,
till Moon should fade, an orbéd star
to pass, and tarry never more
on Hither Shores where Mortals are;
for ever still a herald on
an errand that should never rest
to bear his shining lamp afar,
the Flammifer of Westernesse.

 

Of particular interest are the last few stanzas, in Evernight / Evereven / Night of Naught (= Ever evening = always night), he got a magical white ship, and he stood on a lofty hill, he grew wings and flew into space and became a star--a star that flamed and burned and heralded the Dawn.  Bilbo's poem in not very informative however, as it leaves out virtually all of the details about why Earendil was trying to reach Valinor, and what he succeeding in doing by reaching it.  Those details are only given in the Silmarillion.


 

In the version of Earendil's story from the Silmarillion:

 

Earendil builds his ship and sails to Valinor to seek the aid of the Valar . . .

“But they [the Valar] took Vingilot, and hallowed it, and bore it away through Valinor to the uttermost rim of the world; and there it passed through the Door of Night and was lifted up even into the oceans of heaven."

"Now fair and marvelous was that vessel made, and it was filled with a wavering flame, pure and bright; and Earendil the Mariner sat at the helm, glistening with dust of elven-gems, and the Silmaril was bound upon his brow.  Far he journeyed in that ship, even into the starless voids; but most often was he seen at morning or at evening, glimmering in sunrise or sunset, as he came back to Valinor from voyages beyond the confines of the world.”

The host of the Valar invades Middle-Earth, and defeats Morgoth’s army.  Morgoth last line of defense is a clutch of dragons, including the gigantic black dragon Ancalagon. 

“But Earendil came, shining with the white flame . . . Before the rising of the sun Earendil slew Ancalagon the Black, the mightiest of the dragon-host, and cast him from the sky; he fell upon the towers of Thangorodrim, and they were broken in his ruin.  Then the sun rose”

 

Earendil’s ship is illuminated by the light of a Silmaril—which is the distilled essence of the magical Two Trees of Valinor—Telperion the silver (moon) tree and Laurelin the golden (sun) tree.  (The White Tree of Gondor is descended from Telperion.)

As I mentioned above, Melkor and Ungoliant the spider killed the two trees, and darkened Valinor for 50 years, a period known as the Long Night.  The light of the Sillmaril—the light of Earendil (Frodo’s Phial of Galadriel contains some of the light of Earendil)—is all that remains of the light of the magical Two Trees.

Earendil (Dawn / the Morning Star / Flammifer), is launched off of the Earth in a magical white ship that is the distilled essence of a magical white tree, that shines with a white flame, and from space his flying ship comes to slay a gigantic black dragon, and brings the Dawn.

 

 

The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star (from the Book of Lost Tales part 2)

Éarendel arose where the shadow flows
at Ocean's silent brim;
through the mouth of night as a ray of light
where the shores are sheer and dim
he launched his bark like a silver spark
from the last and lonely sand;
then on sunlit breath of day's fiery death
he sailed from Westerland.

He threaded his path o'er the aftermath
of the splendour of the Sun,
and wandered far past many a star
in his gleaming galleon.
On the gathering tide of darkness ride
the argosies of the sky,
and spangle the night with their sails of light
as the streaming star goes by.

Unheeding he dips past these twinkling ships,
by his wayward spirit whirled
on an endless quest through the darkling West
o'er the margin of the world;
and he fares in haste o'er the jewelled waste
and the dusk from whence he came
with his heart afire with bright desire
and his face in silver flame.

The Ship of the Moon from the East comes soon
from the Haven of the Sun,
whose white gates gleam in the coming beam
of the mighty silver one.
Lo! with bellying clouds as his vessel's shrouds
he weighs anchor down the dark,
and on shimmering oars leaves the blazing shores
in his argent-timbered bark.

Then Éarendel fled from that Shipman dread
beyond the dark earth's pale,
back under the rim of the Ocean dim,
and behind the world set sail;
and he heard the mirth of the folk of earth
and the falling of their tears,
as the world dropped back in a cloudy wrack
on its journey down the years.

Then he glimmering passed to the starless vast
as an isléd lamp at sea,
and beyond the ken of mortal men
set his lonely errantry,
tracking the Sun in his galleon
through the pathless firmament,
till his light grew old in abysses cold
and his eager flame was spent.

 

Earendil’s ship is referred to as a “bark” / “argent-timbered bark” and he launched his bark like a silver spark, his rising was like a ray of light that arose where shadows flow.  And he was like a flaming heart.  A magic silver / white flying space tree that was launched in an explosion.

 

Etymologies

As I said above Eorendil is an Anglo-Saxon word that means “dayspring, dawn, ray of light, bright star” and is used to refer to Venus, (eosphorus—“light-bringer”)

ear = “sea” in anglo-saxon, but also “earth, ground, grave”

 

In the Oxford English Dictionary ear/eren/erynn/eire/eyre means "to throw up (an object)"

 

aerende = “errand, message, mission, embassy” in Anglo-Saxon and Earendil was “for ever still a herald on an errand that should never rest”

earen = “eagle, aerie” and “sea” in Tolkien’s Quenya language (the Arynn's sigil is a falcon, and they live in the Eyrie, and Robyn is a stand-in for a greenseer in a weirwood hill)

 

In Gaelic:

aire = “fishing weir” (uir = earth, grave)

eirge (eeryee) = “act of rising, arising, ascending”

earr = “a tail, the end, a conclusion, spike”

earrach = “falcon, sea-eagle”

earrach = “spring, spring-time”

deil = “a missile weapon (perhaps resembling the bolas)” “rod, wand”  “a separation, toe joint”  and “timber”

dil = “beloved”

dile = “sea, ocean, blast”

dealan = “a streak of brightness in the night sky, a spark, a flaming coal of fire, ember”

A weir that rises, that is a wooden missile that blasts out of the sea and becomes a streak of brightness in the night sky, a comet, with a tail, a flaming coal, and ember. 

 

In Hindi:

arun = “dawn, reddish glow, flush (of dawn), the sun, glowing red, early dawn, a ruby”

dil = "hillock" and  dil = "heart, soul, spirit"

A hillock that has a heart on it (and a ghost) that is associated with rubies and red, brings the dawn.

 

Earendil becomes a star, and in Hindi an astra is a projectile missile, brahmastra is a world-destroying missile of incredible power wielded by Brahma.  (Bran + astra?)

 

Earendil's ship was named Vingelot.  And in Gaelic finne = “fairness, whiteness, beauty”    fionn = “white, pale, fair, pure, true, sincere, blessed”  finne-geal = “fair, well-favoured”

geal / gile = “white, bright, silver, fair,   gealacht = “brightening”  gealan = “sudden brightness, lightning, blaze or flash of light”

So, the naming of the ship is that it was built of white wood, and produced a sudden flash of light and/or it brought the light.

 

 

Parallels between Bran and Earendil

The story of Earendil is essentially a retelling of the Celtic myth the Voyage of Bran.  Earendil is referred to as the Blessed, and the Mariner, Bran is called Bran the Blessed and Bran the Navigator.  They both use white wood to sail to the Otherworld and meet the Faery. 

A bird came to Earendil and then he got a magic jewel placed upon his forehead that allowed him to visit the Otherworld in his white ship.  A bird came to Bran and pecked a third eye on his forehead that allowed him to visit the Otherworld through the weirwood network. 

When Earendil was a child his home was sacked and destroyed and he was carried to safety on the shoulders of Hendor.   Bran was carried on Hodor’s shoulders out of the wreckage of his home,

Earendil is also called Ardamírë   In Gaelic aerda = “aerial”  mear / mire = “swift, sudden, lively, active, valiant” and also means “digit, finger, toe” 

So “aerial toe.” 

In Norse mythology Thor carries Aurvandill in a basket across a frozen river, Aurvandill’s big toe was hanging out of the basket and freezes, and Thor breaks it off and throws it into the sky and it becomes a star called Aurvandill’s Toe, which is also known as Earendil.  (recall that deil means "toe" in Gaelic)  Bran was carried in a basket on Hodor's back,

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Lord Browndodd said:

GRRM is no stranger to celestial objects in odd orbits that bring about regular apocalypses - check out the prologue to Tuf Voyaging.

I am very familiar with Tuf, and it is interesting to point out that the Ark in that story is a huge black spaceship that brings apocalypses, and that is a relic adrift from a long-collapsed interstellar empire.  And that the person who takes over the Black Ship essentially becomes god.

I actually have a whole theory that the God-on-Earth was someone very much like Tuf, who arrived to Earth on the Lion of Night / Shadow Moon spaceship (he was "the only begotten son of the Lion of Night"), which was capable of advanced genetic engineering and he commenced to build himself an empire on a planet he did not think harbored advanced life forms.  The Great Empire people were created from the Valyrian Lemurs.  However, he went afoul of a weirwood grove and its children--not realizing it was sentient--just like with the mudpots--he killed a grove and then the weirwoods went to war with him and his empire, just like in Guardians.  The weirwoods attacked them with everything they had, but it wasn't enough.  It was not until a chunk of burned weirwood fell from the sky and just happened to come into the possession of the Bloodstone Emperor that the weirwoods were able to get inside the walls, so to speak--and destroy the Empire from the inside.  The Weirwoods take over the Bloodstone Emperor's mind and he moves the Lion of Night into eclipse formation and parks it there and the demon army attacks and the Great Empire of the Dawn is destroyed. 

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In the annals of the Further East, it was the Blood Betrayal, as his usurpation is named, that ushered in the age of darkness called the Long Night. Despairing of the evil that had been unleashed on earth, the Maiden-Made-of-Light turned her back upon the world, and the Lion of Night came forth in all his wroth to punish the wickedness of men.
 
How long the darkness endured no man can say, but all agree that it was only when a great warrior—known variously as Hyrkoon the Hero, Azor Ahai, Yin Tar, Neferion, and Eldric Shadowchaser—arose to give courage to the race of men and lead the virtuous into battle with his blazing sword Lightbringer that the darkness was put to rout, and light and love returned once more to the world.

And later in Guardians the hive-minded mudpots bio-engineer tentacled creatures that can launch themselves into the air and bring down airships.  Which is exactly what I think the weirwoods can do. 

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White Trees and White Ships

So, in the Fellowship of the Ring, we hear about Earendil the half-elf flying into space on a white ship with a swan prow, then later we go to Lothlorien where the elves have white swan boats and they live in great white mallorn trees that have ship imagery and Galadriel gives Frodo a small portion of the Light of Earendil captured in a glass phial. 

Galadriel’s mallorn: “At a great height above the ground they came to a wide talan, like the deck of a great ship.”

The Lorien elves live on platforms in the mallorns called flets, in Anglo-Saxon flett means “floor, ground, dwelling, hall, mansion” and flet/ fleot/ fliet means “raft, ship”

Right after Galadriel gives Frodo the Phial which contains the Light of Earendil, we get the lines: “As they passed her they turned and their eyes watched her slowly floating away from them.  For so it seemed to them: Lorien was slipping backward, like a bright ship masted with enchanted trees, sailing on to forgotten shores, while they sat helpless upon the margin of the grey and leafless world.”

 

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[sidebar on the Phial of Galadriel]

‘In this phial,’ she said, ‘is caught the light of Earendil’s star, set amid the waters of my fountain. It will shine still brighter when night is about you.  May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.  Remember Galadriel and her Mirror!’

When all other lights go out, the light of Earendil will shine brighter.

When Frodo uses the Phial of Galadriel: “From sun and moon and star they had been safe underground, but now a star had descended into the very earth.”

When Sam uses it:   “the glass blazed suddenly like a white torch in his hand.  It flamed like a star that leaping from the firmament sears the dark air with intolerable light.  No such terror out of heaven had ever burned in Shelob’s face before.  The beams of it entered into her wounded head and spread from eye to eye.”

 

The light of Earendil is twice likened to a comet or a falling star.  And when Earendil sails into the sky he is like a comet shooting off of the Earth.

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The mallorns have smooth white bark and grow in ring formation (like weirwoods): “To the left stood a great mound . . . Upon it, as a double crown, grew two circles of trees: the outer had bark of snowy white, and were leafless but beautiful in their shapely nakedness; the inner were mallorn-trees of great height, still arrayed in gold.”

Description of mallorn trees: "its bark was silver and smooth, and its boughs somewhat upswept after the manner of the beech; but it never grew save with a single trunk.  Its leaves, like those of the beech but greater, were pale green above and beneath were silver, glistering in the sun; in the autumn they did not fall, but turned to pale gold."

 

Malus means “ship mast, pole” in Latin

Ornus means “mountain ash” in Latin, (Yggdrasil was a huge mountain ash tree)

oruin means “birch, beech tree” in Gaelic

mal means “prince, noble, champion” in Gaelic

 

The mallorn is the prince of trees, a tree that is a ship and maybe related to Yggdrasil, the World Tree.

Another name Fangorn gives for the mallorn is ornemalin which supports the etymology of malus + ornus

(and while I am on the subject Ent means "giant" in Anglo-Saxon, and Fangorn is called a tree-herder and fang means "sheep pen or fold" as well as "gold leaf, silver leaf" in Gaelic)

 

 

Recall that in the Earendil poem from the Book of Lost Tales, Earendil’s ship is referred to as a “bark” and it is called an “argent-timbered bark” 

Earendil built his white ship out of birchwood from Nimbrethil, which means “silver birches” or "white princess" in Sindarin. 

In Gaelic niam means “bright,  niam-brath means “shining mantle”  brath means “bark of trees” and neam means “sky, heavens”

He built his ship out of shining, bright, bark of trees from the heavens.  (oruin means "birch wood")

 

Earendil’s magic white ship was shaped like a swan and has a silver mast, and was called an “argent-timbered bark”  "he launched his bark with a silver spark" and Galadriel’s boat was a white swan boat and Lothlorien is described as a bright ship masted with enchanted trees.

I am going to go out on a limb (pun-intended) and say that someone could think that Earendil's ship is built out of mallorn wood.  Or rather that a mallorn tree itself was shot into space.  Recall that the Silmaril that Earendil bears is the distilled essence of the White Tree itself, which is what allowed him to visit the Otherworld, and his ship is made of white wood.  So either way we have a piece of the White Tree flying into space.  And Lothlorien itself is described as a bright ship, masted with enchanted trees, sailing to forgotten shores. 

 

When the Fellowship is leaving Lothlorien Galadriel sings the poem Namárië to them (sounds like Nymeria) that has the line, “Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind, long years numberless as the wings of trees!”  and talks about the goddess of the night sky Varda/Elbereth hiding Valinor from the elves and wondering how they will get to Valinor in the afterlife.  We later learn in the Silmarilion that Valinor is no longer on the Earth, it was separated from the planet (Avallone and Valinor were launched into space!) and that now the way elves get to the Undying Lands / Valinor is to take a ship that flies off the surface of the Earth and into space--they call it "taking the straight road" because the ship doesn't follow the curvature of the earth but continues straight into the sky).

That part was left out of the movies, that when Frodo, Bilbo, Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel take the ship the the Undying Lands, they actually fly into space.  Because Valinor in now in space.

That means that all of the elves who left for the Undying Lands flew off the planet.  In ASoIaF, the Children of the Forest all load into the weirwood network and every so often get lauched into the Undying Lands.  That is what the Hardhome disaster was, and the screams heard from the tunnels were the Children who were left behind.

 

Namárië / Nymeria

From a Feast for Crows:

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The sun was gone, and the sky was full of stars. . . Do you see the white one, Quentyn? That is Nymeria's star, burning bright, and that milky band behind her, those are ten thousand ships.

I think Nymeria's star is Canopus, the second brightest star in the night sky, it is near the Milky Way and part of the constellation Argo Navis (a huge stellar boat) and named after the navigator of Menelaus' ship from the Illiad

So Nymeria is associated with a cosmic stellar ship, sailing in the night sky to find a new home, and in LotR the poem

Namárië mentions trees having wings and flying into space to get to Valinor in the afterlife.  Namárië means "farewell" in Quenya.

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On Sauron, Rings, and Ring Wraiths

The original cover art for the Fellowship of the Ring depicts a Red Eye inside the Ring.

Sauron is described as being an Eye, a Red Eye, an Eye rimmed with fire, a Lidless Eye, the Evil Eye, and a red star that is a “watchful eye”

When Frodo looks into the Mirror of Galadriel:

“But suddenly the Mirror went altogether dark, as dark as if a hole had opened in the world of sight, and Frodo looked into emptiness.  In the black abyss there appeared a single Eye that slowly grew, until it filled nearly all the Mirror.  So terrible was it that Frodo stood rooted, unable to cry out or to withdraw his gaze.  The Eye was rimmed with fire, but itself was glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.

The waters that surround the Isle of Faces is a Mirror*. and The God’s Eye is a Lidless Eye of sorts.  An Eye that never blinks, and that is always watching.  Weirwoods have red leaves.  A Red Lidless Eye.  Weirwoods themselves have red eyes.  Under the weirwoods is a black abyss, where creatures with cats' eyes live. 

In ASoIaF, the green men on the Isle of Faces have "antlers" which refers to the weirwood trees above their heads when they are seated on their weirwood throne in their weirwood cave, they wear the ring of weirwoods like a crown.   And the Baratheons are a metaphor for these Antlered Green men, and barathrum means "abyss" in Latin.

*There is some word play going on with "Myrish lens" and "Myrish mirrors" in ASoIaF, as mere means "sea or lake" and sounds identical to myr so a "Mere-ish lens" is a lake that is an eye, and a "Mere-ish mirror" is a lake that is a mirror.

I learned the word "eyot" from LotR, an eyot is an island in a river.  (An eye surrounded by water.)

 

The Ring is called a “wheel of fire” and Sauron’s Eye is an Eye “rimmed with fire” --Weirwoods grow in a weirwood circles and "The red leaves of the weirwood were a blaze of flame among the green"--the weirwood circles are a wheel of fire.

The Ring gives great power to its wearer, it makes people invisible when they put it on—Bran and Bloodraven became invisible when they go into the past through the weirwood network.  (When you put on the ring you enter “wraith-world” and everything is misty—George’s story With Morning Comes Mistfall is based on this idea.)

One of the main themes of LotR is that many people would like to take possession of the Ring in order to use it for themselves, but the Ring only answers to Sauron, and would corrupt and destroy anyone who tried to use it.  It prolongs the life of the wearer, but at the same time drains the life-force from the wearer. 

Weirwoods drain the life-force of greenseers, that is their source of food.  When Bran enters Bloodraven's cave, they "came into an echoing cavern as large as the great hall of Winterfell, with stone teeth hanging from its ceiling and more poking up through its floor."  He is literally walking into the mouth of a cave, that is going to consume him.

And the only course of action is to destroy the Ring, the only course of action is to destroy the weirwoods.

 

The red star that is a watchful eye:

“The Hunter’s Moon waxed round in the night sky, and put to flight all the lesser stars.  But low in the South one star shone red.  Every night, as the Moon waned again, it shone brighter and brighter.  Frodo could see it form his window, deep in the heavens, burning like a watchful eye that glared above the trees on the brink of the valley.”

Jon Snow looks at Mars in the night sky and thinks that it is watching him (through the trees): "Jon glimpsed the red wanderer above, watching them through the leafless branches of great trees as they made their way beneath. The Thief, the free folk called it."

The Red Wanderer is a red eye watching Jon through the great trees--that is, using the great trees to watch Jon.  Nearly the same phrasing is used to describe Sauron's eye and Mars, a watching eye + trees.

 

The Nazgul

Sauron’s servants are the Ring-wraiths--the Nazgul (nasg means “ring” and “chained” and “wooden ring / wooden collar” and “sworn / oath” in Gaelic).  They were Great Kings of men who put on the rings, had their life-force drained from them, and they were enslaved by the One Ring. 

Weirwoods grow in rings, the White Walkers are a kind of wraith / ghost / shade--the White Walkers are literally Ring-Wraiths—shadows cast by the weirwood,  They are Shadow Swords. 

Pg. 237 of the Two Towers when the Nazgul flies over Frodo, Sam, and Gollum in the Dead Marshes, the air gets noticeably colder, suggesting that the Ring Wraiths bring the cold.

  

The Nazgul live in Minas Morgul, a spooky white city with a White Tower that has a face on it: “the topmost course of the tower revolved slowly, first this way and then another, a huge ghostly head leering into the night.” 

The sigil of Minas Morgul depicts a moon with a skull of death on it, "a moon disfigured by a ghastly face of death"--suggests the face of a moon being the face of Death.

The Ring-Wraiths live in a White Tower with a face carved on it.  It used to be Minas Ithil (the Tower of the Moon) but it is now Minas Morgul (the Tower of Black Arts / Tower of Sorcery in Sindarin) 

In Gaelic morgad (pronounced "morgu") means "act of corrupting, decaying, putrefying" an alternate spelling is morgtha which is very close to Morgoth.

The Ring-wraiths essentially live inside a weirwood tree. 

In ASOIAF, I think the White Walkers are shades cast by the weirwood, which I did an extensive write-up on here.

 

When Frodo and Sam are at Minas Morgul, Mt Doom erupts and at Minas Morgul lightning shoots from the White Tower into the sky:

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"… At that moment the rock quivered and trembled beneath them. The great rumbling noise, louder than ever before, rolled in the ground and echoed in the mountains. Then with searing suddenness there came a great red flash. Far beyond the eastern mountains it leapt into the sky and splashed the lowering clouds with crimson. In that valley of shadow and cold deathly light it seemed unbearably violent and fierce. Peaks of stone and ridges like notched knives sprang out in staring black against the uprushing flame in Gorgoroth. Then came a great crack of thunder.

And Minas Morgul answered. There was a flare of livid lightnings: forks of blue flame springing up from the tower and from the encircling hills into the sullen clouds. The earth groaned; and out of the city there came a cry. Mingled with the harsh high voices as of birds of prey, and the shrill neighing of horses wild with rage and fear, there came a rending screech, shivering, rising swiftly to a piercing pitch beyond the range of hearing. The hobbits wheeled round towards it, and cast themselves down, holding their hands upon their ears

So, the White Tower with a face on it where the Ring-wraiths live can shoot things into the sky. (recall the tree struck by lightning, and set ablaze, from the Grey King myth)

The Dark Lord is defeated by destroying the Ring, in which his spirit was bound.  In ASOIAF the Great Other’s spirit is contained within the weirwood (when Mel sees a vision of the Great Other she sees a wooden face and Bran, the White Walkers are the Others and the weirwood/Bran is the Great Other) and the only way to destroy it is to destroy the weirwood ring. 

Sauron is a red eye in a tower, that blankets itself in Shadow, and wants to cover all the Earth in Shadow.  When the Ring is destroyed:  "Then rising swiftly up, far above the Towers of the Black Gate, high above the mountains, a vast soaring darkness sprang into the sky, flickering with fire."  The destruction of the Ring coincides with something shooting off into the sky.

 

Shattered swords

When the Hobbits are abducted by the Barrow-wight, Frodo chops its hand off and Frodo's sword shattered.

When Eowyn stabs the Witch King in the face: "The sword broke sparkling into many shards."

When Waymar fights the Others his sword splinters into shards.

 

The name of Sauron

Sauron means "abhorred" in Quenya, Tolkien suggests that it also means "stench, foul odor"

The most obvious etymology is sauros from Greek meaning "reptile" which would be a reference to the devil who was a snake in the garden of Eden, because Sauron is the deceiver.

sar in Anglo-Saxon means "soreness, wound, disease, pain, suffering, sorrow, affliction" and sargian means "to cause pain, afflict, wound"

In Hindi saran means "decay, rotting" and sarna means "to decay, rot, poison, and stifling heat"

In Gaelic soran means "louse, parasite, red and white worm"

and sorn means "kiln, furnace" and sornan means "hillock"

 

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Regarding the long night:

And beyond, where the Honeywine widened into Whispering Sound, rose the Hightower, its beacon fires bright against the dawn. From where it stood atop the bluffs of Battle Island, its shadow cut the city like a sword.

From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. . . . 

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Just now, Egged said:

And beyond, where the Honeywine widened into Whispering Sound, rose the Hightower, its beacon fires bright against the dawn. From where it stood atop the bluffs of Battle Island, its shadow cut the city like a sword.

I had that line in my last post, but cut it out for brevity.  But yes, the red and white tower (built by Bran) casts a Shadow Sword.

I actually think the Great Stone Beast is the Second Moon of Planetos / the Lion of Night.  There is a Cthulhu mythos story called "To Clear the Earth" where a guy named Stark goes to Antarctica and accidentally awakens a black sphere that shoots "shadow flame" which turns everything it touches into greasy black stone.  I actually think the sites all over the world with the greasy black stone were irradiated from orbit with "shadow flame" and that is why the stone is poisonous.  The ASoIaF story is that the black stone was melted by dragons, so that is not far off.  And Harrenhal was melted from the sky by a black dragon, also. 

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Addendum to the mallorn etymologies:

In Hindi:

mal means "fine, splendid, and garland" and orhna means "to put on, to wear" and urna means "to fly" and orna means "to ward off, to spread out arms, to shield"

A mallorn is a fine garland (a wreath) that you can put on and it makes you fly.

--------------

In Fellowship, at Bilbo’s party, Gandalf launches a rocket which turns into a Red Dragon and makes three passes over Hobbiton.  Three appearances of a Red Dragon/rocket that was launched by a wizard.  (three appearances of a Red Comet in Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, and I think there will be three appearances of the Red Comet in ASOIAF.)

 

Later on in Fellowship, Frodo sees strange lights leaping off the top of a hill in the distance:

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“As Frodo lay, tired but unable to close his eyes, it seemed to him that far away there came a light in the eastern sky: it flashed and faded many times.  It was not the dawn, for that was still some hours off.

‘What is that light?’ he said to Strider, who had risen, and was standing, gazing ahead into the night.

‘I do not know,’ Strider answered.  ‘It is too distant to make out.  It is like lightning that leaps up from the hill-tops.’

Frodo lay down again, but for a long while he could still see the white flashes, and against them the tall dark figure of Strider, standing silent and watchful.”

Flashes of lightning leaping up from a hill-top.

We latter learn that it was Gandalf fighting off the Nazgul on the high hill of Weathertop—which has a circle of ruins on its crown, and used to be a watchtower where one of the palantirs were kept.  (In Hindi palla means "distance, reach, range" and tir means "near to" so a palantir is something that brings distant things close)

A location very reminiscent of a weirwood hill, a wizard shoots lightning from atop the hill, before the dawn.

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One the one hand I think that comparisons between ASOIAF and LOTR can only be taken so far, on the other I think it is very fun!

I've always been intrigued by this line of Durin's song...

The world was young, the mountains green
No stain yet on the Moon was seen
No words were laid on stream or stone
When Durin woke and walked alone
He named the nameless hills and dells
He drank from yet untasted wells
He stooped and looked in Mirrormere
And saw a crown of stars appear
As gems upon a silver thread
Above the shadow of his head
The world was fair, the mountains tall
In Elder Days before the fall
Of mighty Kings in Nargothrond
And Gondolin, who now beyond
The Western Seas have passed away
The world was fair in Durin's Day
A king he was on carven throne
In many-pillared halls of stone
With golden roof and silver floor
And runes of power upon the door
The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade of night
There shown forever far and bright
There hammer on the anvil smote
There chisel clove, and graver wrote
There forged was bladed and bound was hilt
The delver mined the mason built
There beryl, pearl, and opal pale
And metel wrought like fishes' mail
Buckler and corslet, axe and sword
And shining spears were laid in horde
Unwearied then were Durin's folk
Beneath the mountains music woke
The harpers harped, the minstrels sang
And at the gates the trumpets rang
The world is grey, the mountains old
The forge's fire is ashen-cold
No harp is wrung, no hammer falls
The darkness dwells in Durin's halls
The shadow lies upon his tomb
In Moria, in Khazad-dûm
But still the sunken stars appear
In dark and windless Mirrormere
There lies his crown in water deep
'Till Durin wakes again from sleep

The cold pool in the Winterfell Godswood always reminded me of Mirrormere. The Stars in a daylight sky remind me of Dany's wake the dragon dream also.

Anyway, fun read!

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Some background on the Otherworld

So in Tolkien's mythology, in the ancient past before humans and elves existed, the Valar dwelt at Almaren, an island in the middle of a lake in the center of Middle-Earth (parallels the gods living in the Gods Eye).  Then Melkor came into the world from the Void of Night and destroyed the Two Lamps and their collapse destroyed Almaren and changed the landmasses, and the Valar fled to an island in the far western ocean called Valinor or Aman, at the rim of the world.  (at this time the world was flat, and it was surrounded by the Walls of Night).   There is an island east of Valinor called Avallone or Tol Eressea, that has a huge White Tower, the Tower of Avallone, where the master palantir was kept (parallels an all-seeing weirwood grove at the Gods Eye).

In Arthurian legend Avalon is the magical island where Morgan Le Fey lives, or Merlin.  I have posted previously about the parallels between the God’s Eye / Isle of Faces and Avalon, (and the eye-shaped island Tar Valon from the Wheel of Time, which is where the White Tower and the Aes Sedai are located)

 

Numenor

Recall that the end of the First Age resulted in the defeat of Morgoth but also the sinking of Beleriand.  Earendil was the father of Elrond and Elros.  Elrond chose to be an Elf, and Elros chose to be a human.  Elros’ descendants—called the Edain—now refuges from the sinking of Beleriand followed the Star of Earendil into the west and discovered a star-shaped island which had only just emerged from the ocean depths, which they colonized and named Numenor.  The Valar had raised this island as a gift to the Edain to be their new homeland.

The Edains followed the Dawn-star and where it took them they founded their new homeland, which is also star-shaped.  This closely parallels the story of the Daynes following a falling star and founding Starfall where it landed.

(I don't know where else to put this but the region north of Hobbiton is called Arthedain and the Dunedain protect this region)

So any way the Numenoreans / Dunedain build a great empire in Numenor that lasts for thousands of years, but eventually Sauron comes to be chief advisor to the king of Numenor Al Pharazon.  Sauron convinces him to mount an invasion to Valinor, where the humans are forbidden to go.

They attempt to invade Valinor which sets off a chain-reaction in which Iluvatar completely changes Middle-Earth, transforming the flat Earth into a round Earth, sinking Numenor, and ejecting Valinor and Avallone from the Earth:

 

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But the land of Aman and Eressëa of the Eldar were taken away and removed beyond the reach of Men for ever. And Andor, the Land of Gift , Númenor of the Kings, Elenna of the Star of Eärendil, was utterly destroyed. For it was nigh to the east of the great rift, and its foundations were overturned, and it fell and went down into darkness, and is no more. And there is not now upon Earth any place abiding where the memory of a time without evil is preserved. For Ilúvatar cast back the Great Seas west of Middle-earth, and the Empty Lands east of it, and new lands and new seas were made; and the world was diminished, for Valinor and Eressëa were taken from it into the realm of hidden things.”

“Among the Exiles many believed that the summit of the Meneltarma, the Pillar of Heaven, was not drowned for ever, but rose again above the waves, a lonely island lost in the great waters; for it had been a hallowed place, and even in the days of Sauron none had defiled it And some there were of the seed of Earendil that afterwards sought for it, because it was said among loremasters that the far-sighted men of old could see from the Meneltarma a glimmer of the Deathless Land. For even after the ruin the hearts of the Dunedain were still set westwards; and though they knew indeed that the world was changed, they said: 'Avallone is vanished from the Earth and the Land of Aman is taken away, and in the world of this present darkness they cannot be found. Yet once they were, and therefore they still are, in true being and in the whole shape of the world as at first it was devised.'

For the Dunedain held that even mortal Men, if so blessed, might look upon other times than those of their bodies' life; and they longed ever to escape from the shadows of their exile and to see in some fashion fee light that dies not; for the sorrow of the thought of death had pursued them over the deeps of the sea. Thus it was that great mariners among them would still search the empty seas, hoping to come upon the Isle of Meneltarma, and there to see a vision of things that were. But they found it not. And those that sailed far came only to the new lands, and found them like to the old lands, and subject to death. And those that sailed furthest set but a girdle about the Earth and returned weary at last to the place of their beginning; and they said: 'All roads are now bent.'

Thus in after days, what by the voyages of ships, what by lore and star-craft, the kings of Men knew that the world was indeed made round, and yet the Eldar were permitted still to depart and to come to the Ancient West and to Avallone, if they would. Therefore the loremasters of Men said that a Straight Road must still be, for those that were permitted to find it. And they taught that, while the new world fell away, the old road and the path of the memory of the West still went on, as it were a mighty bridge invisible that passed through the air of breath and of flight (which were bent now as the world was bent), and traversed Ilmen which flesh unaided cannot endure, until it came to Tol Eressea, the Lonely Isle, and maybe even beyond, to Valinor, where the Valar still dwell and watch the unfolding of the story of the world. And tales and rumours arose along the shores of the sea concerning mariners and men forlorn upon the water who, by some fate or grace or favour of the Valar, had entered in upon the Straight Way and seen the face of the world sink below them, and so had come to the lamplit quays of Avallone, or verily to the last beaches on the margin of Aman, and there had looked upon the White Mountain, dreadful and beautiful, before they died.

Avallone was literally detached from the Earth and sent into space.  To reach it now you have to leave the surface of the Earth and go into outer space. 

And the sinking of Numenor parallels the destruction of Valyria.  And it is interesting that the sinking of Numenor coincides with Avallone being launched into space, as I have argued that what destroyed Valyria was a massive collective weirwood launch.  And that is why magic declined after the event, because the weirwoods are the source of all magic and they departed.

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11 minutes ago, Mourning Star said:

. . .

He stooped and looked in Mirrormere
And saw a crown of stars appear
As gems upon a silver thread
Above the shadow of his head
. . .
The shadow lies upon his tomb
In Moria, in Khazad-dûm
But still the sunken stars appear
In dark and windless Mirrormere
There lies his crown in water deep
'Till Durin wakes again from sleep

 

@Narsil4 pointed out the Durin's crown story to me a while back, which is what prompted me to read the series. 

It parallels this passage from Tyrion:

"The Father reached his hand into the heavens and pulled down seven stars," Tyrion recited from memory, "and one by one he set them on the brow of Hugor of the Hill to make a glowing crown." (hugel means "hill" in german)

A celestial ring/crown of stars, descending from heaven and landing upon the crown of a hill.  This is a telling of where the weirwoods came from.  Both tellings involve a dwarf and a crown of stars.

The crown of stars is the King's Crown, corona borealis, which is also part of Aragorn's heraldry: The White Tree and Seven Stars in a Crown.  Also suggests the White Tree is of celestial origin. 

The constellation of the King's Crown was known as Arianrhod--the Silver Wheel--in celtic astronomy, and the story behind it was that there was a beautiful silver castle that was launched into space by a wizard.  And Tyrion's story is the reverse of that.

 

When Frodo and Sam are going to Minas Morgul they find an old statue of a king of Gondor and it has a crown of stars:

"Look!  The king has got a crown again!"  . . . about the high stern forehead there was a coronal of silver and gold.  A trailing plant with flowers like small white stars had bound itself across the brows as if in reverence for the fallen king"

 

Also, in Khazad-dum, the Second Hall "Down the centre stalked a double line of towering pillars.  They were carved like boles of mighty trees whose boughs upheld the roof with a branching tracery of stone."

Huge subterranean trees in a cave, beneath the place where the crown of stars appeared.  And a dwarf waiting to come back from the dead.

 

 

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I was just brainstorming about Avalon and realized that the spaceship from Bitterblooms was called "Morgen Le Fay" and was a ship from Avalon, so George has already connected Avalon with spaceships in his work.

A magical building from Avalon, that is actually a spaceship, that the Fay / faery inhabits, that uses deception and trickery to lure people in and entrap them.

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Jon Snow / Aragorn parallels

Aragorn is a king "hidden in the wastes of the North"

Aragorn has grey eyes and black hair and he is the captain of the Rangers from the north, Jon has grey eyes and dark brown hair, and he becomes captain/commander of the the Rangers of the north. (in Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth there is a boat called the Ranger snow)

The phrase “grey-eyed” is a poetic phrase to describe the dawn. that is used by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet, and others.  (Grey-King refers to the dawn as well). 

In the Oxford English Dictionary there is a note about Shakespeare's usage of the phrase grey eyed :  "By a grey eye was meant what we now call a blue eye

Jon's "eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black"  Eddard's eyes: "dark grey" 

So the Starks have dark grey eyes, and Jon's are so dark they are almost black.  But grey eyes = blue eyes, so they actually have blue eyes that are so dark they almost appear black.  Very similar to Dayne and Targaryen eyes, as Edric Dayne and Egg's eyes are described in very similar terms--a shade of purple so dark it is almost black.  (save this for later, that sloe-eyed means "dark blue / purple eyes)

 

[I was just researching "grey eyes" and found an old english story the Tale of Melusine about a man who marries a faery named Melusine (Melisandre?) who is from Avalon and has a magical son name Uriens (who has one red eye and one grey eye).    Euron has one black/red eye and one blue eye]

 

Very similar to the tale of King Arthur, Aragorn is orphaned at a young age and is fostered by Elrond and the Elves at Rivendell, and his true identity is hidden from him.  Elrond reveals the truth to Aragorn when he is 21, and gives Aragorn his family heirlooms, Narsil and the ring of Barahir. 

According to R+L=J, Jon is orphaned at a young age and is fostered by Ned, who was going to tell Jon his true identity when he came of age, Jon has dreams about getting his inheritance and about wielding a flaming sword:

"Jon was armored in black ice, but his blade burned red in his fist. . . .'I am the Lord of Winterfell,' Jon screamed"

"he used to dream that one day Winterfell might be his" 

Like Narsil, the Stark family sword Ice was broken.

 

In gaelic aire /airig = “nobleman” and gorn means “firebrand, fire, torch” 

Sindarin ara  means "noble, kingly"  aryan means “noble, kingly” in Hindi

eirghe = arisen [eirghe + gorn = a rising firebrand?]

 

Narsil is a sword that was broken and is reforged.  Narsil means “red and white flame” in Quenya

When Narsil is remade it is named Anduril, the Flame of the West, and it is regularly described as a flaming sword.

King Arthur's Excalibur is described as a flaming bright sword. 

So the King (aryan) has a Flaming Sword (a gorn). 

 

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“Very bright was that sword when it was made whole again; the light of the sun shone redly in it, and the light of the moon shone cold, its edge was hard and keen.”

“the bright blade of Anduril shone like a sudden flame as he swept it out”

“the light of Anduril must be uncovered” 

“Anduril rose and fell, gleaming with white fire. . . The Blade that was broken shines again!”

“Anduril came down upon his helm.  There was a flash like flame and the helm burst asunder.”

“But before all went Aragorn with the Flame of the West, Anduril like a new fire kindled, Narsil re-forged as deadly as of old, and upon his brow was the Star of Elendil.”

 

Raising the Dead

One of Aragorn’s other names is Ellesar, and eolasair means “necromancer” in Gaelic, and Aragorn raises an army of the undead from Dunharrow for the fight against Sauron (redemption arc for the undead).   "From the North he shall come" the “King of the Dead” who blows a horn to awaken the Dead.  I think George was just as disappointed as I was about how small a role the undead played in the final battle (the movies gave them a much bigger role). 

Above Dunharrow where the undead dwell is the Starkhorn, out of which flows the Snowbourn.

Jon finds a magic horn at the Fist, and I think Jon Snow will lead the Others and the undead army of wights.  The 13th Lord Commander was a Stark, after all, and the Jon Snow is an "evil name."  And there is foreshadowing of him waking the dead.

In LotR, Aragorn the Ellesar blows a horn and wakes the dead and summons them to his cause.  They are associated with a Black Stone, and Black Ships.

Also, in Norse mythology and in The Wheel of Time, the undead army is summoned to fight for the good guys.

 

eolgairseoir means “a guide, one who shows the way”

eolas means “knowledge” and Jon Snow famously “knows nothing”

 

Gondorians are called "Tarks" --> Starks / sTarks / Tarks (also phonetically close to Targs)

In LotR, the Dunedain refugees who escaped the sinking of Numenor founded a kingdom in the North--led by Anarion, and a kingdom in the South, led by Isildor.  (Anarion and Isildor--arian means "silver" and sildor is very close to "silver" and silver is grey)

Aragorn is one of the last descendants of this lost Numenorean Kingdom of Dunedain in the North, and he guards the area north of the Shire, the region directly north of Hobbiton is called Arthedain.  This is suggestive of Arthur Dayne being in the Nights Watch, and I think Mance Rayder is Arthur Dayne. 

In Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Camaris’ magic meteor black sword is called black Thorn. Camaris has a dragon helmet, camaoir means "dawn" in Gaelic, and "mance rayder" is an anagram of "dayne camerr"  (recall his is singing the Dornishman's Wife the first time we meet him)

So Dayne and Camaris have names that mean "Dawn" and have magic meteor swords--(swords that fell from the sky as flaming swords).  Aragorn is a Dunedain and has a flaming sword.

Aragorn is the son of Arathorn.  Aragorn is close to the word dragon, in gaelic draigean means “blackthorn, sloe tree”--dragons and blackthorns go together.  (dorn means "thorn" in german)  Arathorn ~ Arthur

Blackthorns produce sloes and white flowers, I think Ashara is the Sloe-eyed Maid, and is Jon’s real mother.  (One of the meanings of snow is "white bloom or blossom")

 

Jon the Snow

The sword Dawn is the ASoIaF equivalent of Excalibur, and it needs to come to Jon, and only a Dayne can wield it.  Jon has to be a Dayne in order to become the new Sword of the Morning.  In Arthurian Legend, only the True King can draw the sword from the stone and wield Excalibur.  I think Jon's real name is Arthur, and that he is half Dayne.

In the Annotated Lovecraft there is a note about the boat called the Ranger snow: "A snow (pronounced "snoo") or snaw was a small three-masted sailing vessel similar to a brig, used as a merchant ship and as a warship."  Here is the entry from the OED.

So Jon could be named after a boat, he could be named "Snow" in commemoration of the boat that Ned and Ashara took across the Bite that sank.  Ashara also has a boat named after her. 

The Sloe-Eyed Maid, Borrell mentions taking the precious cargo of saffron off of a sloe-eyed maid: saffron is the most valuable spice in all the world, is the product of the Crocus--a purple and white flowerThe color sloe is dark, purple-blue (plum), and it refers to a plant with white flowers and fruit like small plums.  Ashara had white skin and purple/violet eyes, the Dayne house colors are purple and white, she is the sloe-eyed maid/crocus, the precious cargo taken off her was her baby, the crow. 

Cro means "saffron" in Gaelic, and crohha means "saffron" in Anglo-Saxon, and Jon is King Crow. 

Borrell suggested that the name "Jon" came from Jon Arryn, so in the region between White Harbor and the Vale, Jon's conception and birth, perhaps a snow boat, (and Jon Stark of the Greystarks built the Wolf's Den).  All the details are there, just scrambled up.

 

The King's Crown

Aragorn’s heraldry depicts seven stars and a crown, seven stars in a crown is the King’s Crown, the Valacirca (Sickle of the Valar, in hindi vala means "high" and circa means circle so the "high circle / high crown") is the constellation of seven stars in a crown that was a warning to Morgoth of his Doom. 

When Aragorn reveals Anduril to the Rohirrim: "For a moment it seems to the eyes of Legolas that a white flame flickered on the brows of Aragorn like a shining crown."

At the battle of Pelenor Fields Aragorn arives at dawn with a crown of stars and a flaming sword, and the Star of Eledil on his brow.

Jon mentions the constellation of the King’s Crown / Craddle, which is Corona Borealis—the Northern Crown, which is seven stars.  More King from the North imagery.

Jon describes the Sword of the Morning constellation in the sky, which is a Flaming Sword of sorts. 

Jon is associated with the Sword of the Morning, and the King's Crown.

 

White Tree Sapling

The sprouting of a new White Tree of Gondor signifies the re-establishment of the line of the Dunedain Kings at the end of Return of the King.

Jon has a dream where Bran appears to him as a white weirwood sapling.

 

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Not particularly interesting, but here are the possible etymologies for the word Dunedain:

duine means “man” in Gaelic,

duin means “fortress, castle”

dunad means “enclosure, fortress” and “close of a poem”

dunaideach means “fortress-holder”

daoine is means “the people, everybody, the public” “men”

daoineach means “populous, numerous”

duinn means “unwillingness, hesitation”

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As I said in the last post the word Greyking means "to dawn" and comes from the Old Norse word gryja which also means "to dawn" --I think the name Greyjoy comes from gryja, as they are descendants of the Grey King, (and krieken is mentioned in that entry as well)

So I think I figured out the significance of there being a Greyjoy being fostered at Winterfell--there was a young man whose name means "Dawn" being raised at Winterfell, this would parallel Jon being a Dayne being raised at Winterfell.

And Theon's sister is named Asha Greyjoy ~ asha gryja ~ Asha Dawn ~ Ashara Dayne. 

 

Asha twice calls herself a "shy maid" which is the name of Lemore's boat.

I just happened across a Clark Ashton Smith story the other day called Ascharia, and the first line is "Told by Hespire, Lemurian space-voyager"  So hesperus is phosphorus is the Dawn Star, and this story links the Dawn Star with Ascharia and Lemuria in the first sentence. 

(ashari means "bodiless, disembodied" in Hindi, and in Gaelic acharrad means "sprite" [which is a kind of ghost] and lemuria means "ghost" in Latin, and Jon's spirit animal is Ghost)

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I was just looking up words that mean "dawn"

mane / manescere in Latin means "dawn" and manes means "ghost, corpse, shades of the dead" in Latin

If Mance is really Arthur whose death was faked and Ned allowed him to take the black and go to the wall, then it fits.

 

In one story of the Arthurian Mythos, Lancelot captures a tower called the Dolorous Gard, and renames it the Joyous Gard (the Tower of Joy) and Lancelot brings Guinevere to the Joyous Gard.  When Lancelot takes over the Tower he discovers a graveyard of dead knights there, but the graves are false and the knights are actually still alive imprisoned at the Dolorous Prison.

Dolorous Edd is at the Wall.  The Wall is a kind of prison where convicts are sent.  The Wall is the Dolorous Prison.  This leads me to believe that someone or several of the Kingsguard knights from the Tower of Joy who are believed to be dead are at the Wall, and that their graves at the Tower of Joy were false graves.  Lancelot frees these not-dead knights from the Dolorous Prison.

 

 

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Ok, I can't help myself...

 

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

...

Gemstones glittered on every finger, and his man had oiled his forked yellow beard until it shone like real gold.

Yet now that the last day was at hand, suddenly Bran felt lost. Winterfell had been the only home he had ever known. His father had told him that he ought to say his farewells today, and he had tried. After the hunt had ridden out, he wandered through the castle with his wolf at his side, intending to visit the ones who would be left behind

The old man laid a withered, spotted hand on his shoulder. "It hurts, boy," he said softly. "Oh, yes. Choosing … it has always hurt. And always will. I know."

Below, the world had turned to ice. Fingers of frost crept slowly up the weirwood, reaching out for each other

When the fire died at last and the ground became cool enough to walk upon, Ser Jorah Mormont found her amidst the ashes, surrounded by blackened logs and bits of glowing ember and the burnt bones of man and woman and stallion. She was naked, covered with soot, her clothes turned to ash, her beautiful hair all crisped away … yet she was unhurt.

Huge stones had been set into the curving walls as steps, circling down and down, dark as the steps to hell that Old Nan used to tell them of. And something was coming up out of the darkness, out of the bowels of the earth … Arya peered over the edge and felt the cold black breath on her face. Far below, she saw the light of a single torch, small as the flame of a candle. Two men, she made out. Their shadows writhed against the sides of the well, tall as giants

From there Aegon the Dragon ruled his realm, holding court from a great metal seat made from the melted, twisted, beaten, and broken blades of all his fallen foes, a perilous seat that would soon be known through all the world as the Iron Throne of Westeros.

He had no crown nor scepter, no robes of silk and velvet, but it was plain to Jon that Mance Rayder was a king in more than name.

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