Heresy 235 The Winter Snow

[alienarea]

The long shot:

The last hero and the Night's King are one and the same. His name was Brandon Stark, and he is the who gets sacrificed in Bran's dream. The sword tempered in his blood was the original Ice. Because the White Walkers hate all life, they cannot stand against a sword forged in human blood.

This is about Westeros, the CotF and the First Men. F*** the dragons :P

[LynnS]

31 minutes ago, alienarea said:

F*** the dragons

OK sure.  We don't need no stinkin' dragons. 

[Tucu]

6 hours ago, LynnS said:

Brienne aspires to be a perfect knight.  I'm not sure that was Ned's aspiration although he lives by a certain code of honor.  

Oathkeeper is a valyrian sword forged with magic; a magic that Tobho Mott can't quite bend to his will for all the spells he knows.  The swords have a will of their own.  Although I'm not sure that Ned's soul went into the sword (Bran and Rickon talk to Ned's Ghost); the sword was drenched in his blood.   There may still be a part of Ned captured in the sword.

Brienne senses that the sword makes her stronger, a better fighter.  It may be that the sword chooses her.

As to whether it could be made into a flaming sword or a sword with it's own heat;  I think we have to look at the original model in the story of AA.   The sword is only finished when it is bathed in holy blood,  that has been transformed by holy fire; the heart of Nissa Nissa.  Or even in the heart of a dragon itself or better, a dragon with a soul.

So I think that limits the number of potential Nissa Nissas to Melisandre and potentially Dany.  I'm not sure that any fiery servant will do.  We have Thoros, Lady Stoneheart  and Moqorro as alternatives.  But I think there is a difference in how they are each made and how they are used by R'hllor.  

I'm not sure that Melisandre is entirely dead or that she died before being raised like Beric.  I think her body has been transformed to make her into a fiery vessel.

The patterns traced on the skin represent a magic spell at work.  We also see this in the House of Undying:

And again in Qyburn's robe:

 So while I think Melisandre's flesh has been transformed; I'm not sure she is completely dead or a finished product.  She even hints at another transformation to complete this process.  I think she is setting herself up to be Nissa Nissa to Stannis' AA.  So unless Brienne meets up with her and exacts revenge for Renly;  the only other character with a sword and proximity is Jon.  Potentially a Lightbringer type sword could be made.  However, because it is Melisandre;  I'm not sure of the quality of her soul or the purity of love that I think is required to make a true Lightbringer.

I think Moqorro, like Melisandre is different from Thoros or Beric.  I think his flesh has also been transformed but in a much more horrific manner.  We don't really know what he looks like under his glamor but it's enough to make the Dusky Woman hiss and all the monkeys that have infested Victarion's ship, to jump into the sea. I suspect Moqorro looks something like Victarion's arm after he 'treats' it.

I'm not sure that Victarion's transformation is complete.  I also think that because Moqorro is male that he is ruled out as a Nissa Nissa archetype.  

That leaves, Beric, Thoros and LSH.   I'd like to know more of Thoros backstory and how he became a priest; but I suspect that he died and was raised in the same manner as Beric and LSH.   Potentially LSH could be made into a flaming sword.

This bit here is also interesting in the context of the fallen stars in the faith of the seven:

Melisandre is part of a Lot comprised of seven.  Rhaegar's rubies come to mind and of course, Meliandre's ruby.  So I wonder if the seven rubies of the Faith will be transformed by fire at some point.

Melisandre operates on blind faith.  But she is correct that we don't know R'hllor's will or who he will choose as an instrument.  She thinks giving the Seven to him will please him.  The question is who would the Lord of Light and Love find pleasing?  Keeping in mind that this is how GRRM characterizes the fiery god.

Catelyn's and Brienne's chapters are a mine for wandering stars references. I collected a few (some more funny than relevant to the Lighbringer question).

The Crone that lights the way:

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“Voices, raised in prayer.” Brienne knew the chant. They are beseeching the Warrior for protection, asking the Crone to light their way.

The wandering Stranger:

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And the seventh face … the Stranger was neither male nor female, yet both, ever the outcast, the wanderer from far places, less and more than human, unknown and unknowable. Here the face was a black oval, a shadow with stars for eyes. It made Catelyn uneasy. She would get scant comfort there.

The Warriors:

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Flickering torchlight danced across the walls, making the faces seem half alive, twisting them, changing them. The statues in the great septs of the cities wore the faces the stonemasons had given them, but these charcoal scratchings were so crude they might be anyone. The Father’s face made her think of her own father, dying in his bed at Riverrun. The Warrior was Renly and Stannis, Robb and Robert, Jaime Lannister and Jon Snow. She even glimpsed Arya in those lines, just for an instant. Then a gust of wind through the door made the torch sputter, and the semblance was gone, washed away in orange glare.

The Mothers:

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When she looked up at the Mother again, it was her own mother she saw. Lady Minisa Tully had died in childbed, trying to give Lord Hoster a second son. The baby had perished with her, and afterward some of the life had gone out of father. She was always so calm, Catelyn thought, remembering her mother’s soft hands, her warm smile. If she had lived, how different our lives might have been. She wondered what Lady Minisa would make of her eldest daughter, kneeling here before her. I have come so many thousands of leagues, and for what? Who have I served? I have lost my daughters, Robb does not want me, and Bran and Rickon must surely think me a cold and unnatural mother. I was not even with Ned when he died …

<...>

Behind her the torch spit, and suddenly it seemed to her that it was her sister’s face on the wall, though the eyes were harder than she recalled, not Lysa’s eyes but Cersei’s. Cersei is a mother too. No matter who fathered those children, she felt them kick inside her, brought them forth with her pain and blood, nursed them at her breast. If they are truly Jaime’s …

“Does Cersei pray to you too, my lady?” Catelyn asked the Mother. She could see the proud, cold, lovely features of the Lannister queen etched upon the wall. The crack was still there; even Cersei could weep for her children. “Each of the Seven embodies all of the Seven,” Septon Osmynd had told her once. There was as much beauty in the Crone as in the Maiden, and the Mother could be fiercer than the Warrior when her children are in danger. Yes...

The wandering naughty septon:

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"The gods are good," Ser Hyle said in a dry voice, "but why trouble them, when you might just have kept your shoes?"

"Going barefoot was my penance. Even holy septons can be sinners, and my flesh was weak as weak could be. I was young and full of sap, and the girls . . . a septon can seem as gallant as a prince if he is the only man you know who has ever been more than a mile from your village. I would recite to them from The Seven-Pointed Star. The Maiden's Book worked best. Oh, I was a wicked man, before I threw away my shoes. It shames me to think of all the maidens I deflowered."

The 3 marsh women:

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They seemed a shy folk for the most part, but near midday the dog began to bark again, and three women emerged from the reeds to give Meribald a woven basket full of clams. He gave each of them an orange in return, though clams were as common as mud in this world, and oranges were rare and costly. One of the women was very old, one was heavy with child, and one was a girl as fresh and pretty as a flower in spring. When Meribald took them off to hear their sins, Ser Hyle chuckled, and said, "It would seem the gods walk with us . . . at least the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone." Podrick looked so astonished that Brienne had to tell him no, they were only three marsh women.

 

[LynnS]

Something I came across makes me revisit the notion that Marwyn is related to the Lannisters.

Cersei's description of Kevan, particularly the jaw (and general body shape)

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A Feast for Crows - Cersei II

Her uncle arrived promptly at sunset, wearing a quilted doublet of charcoal-colored wool as somber as his face. Like all the Lannisters, Ser Kevan was fair-skinned and blond, though at five-and-fifty he had lost most of his hair. No one would ever call him comely. Thick of waist, round of shoulder, with a square jutting chin that his close-cropped yellow beard did little to conceal, he reminded her of some old mastiff . . . but a faithful old mastiff was the very thing that she required.

Sam's description of Marwyn (also referred to as the Mastiff):

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A Feast for Crows - Samwell V

"Sam," said Alleras, "this is Archmaester Marwyn."

Marwyn wore a chain of many metals around his bull's neck. Save for that, he looked more like a dockside thug than a maester. His head was too big for his body, and the way it thrust forward from his shoulders, together with that slab of jaw, made him look as if he were about to tear off someone's head. Though short and squat, he was heavy in the chest and shoulders, with a round, rock-hard ale belly straining at the laces of the leather jerkin he wore in place of robes. Bristly white hair sprouted from his ears and nostrils. His brow beetled, his nose had been broken more than once, and sourleaf had stained his teeth a mottled red. He had the biggest hands that Sam had ever seen.

 Slab - a large, thick, flat piece of stone, concrete, or wood, typically rectangular. 

Jutting - extend out, over, or beyond the main body or line of something,, cause (something, such as one's chin) to protrude.

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Genetics are also responsible when it comes to the shape of your jaw. This can create crowded teeth, an overbite, or an underbite that could warrant braces. That's right, folks, your parents are who to blame for your metal mouth in middle school.

There is another example of inherited jaw shape with the Baratheons:

Gendry:

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Eddard VII

That the armorer's sullen apprentice was the king's son, Ned had no doubt. The Baratheon look was stamped on his face, in his jaw, his eyes, that black hair. Renly was too young to have fathered a boy of that age, Stannis too cold and proud in his honor. Gendry had to be Robert's.

  

[alienarea]

9 hours ago, LynnS said:

Something I came across makes me revisit the notion that Marwyn is related to the Lannisters.

Cersei's description of Kevan, particularly the jaw (and general body shape)

Sam's description of Marwyn (also referred to as the Mastiff):

 Slab - a large, thick, flat piece of stone, concrete, or wood, typically rectangular. 

Jutting - extend out, over, or beyond the main body or line of something,, cause (something, such as one's chin) to protrude.

There is another example of inherited jaw shape with the Baratheons:

Gendry:

  

Maybe an illegitime son of Tywin, one he isn't aware of? Hope he meets Tyrion at some point in time.

[Black Crow]

1 hour ago, alienarea said:

Maybe an illegitime son of Tywin, one he isn't aware of? Hope he meets Tyrion at some point in time.

But I thought the whole point of this story was to identify secret Targaryens...

[Black Crow]

16 hours ago, alienarea said:

The long shot:

The last hero and the Night's King are one and the same. His name was Brandon Stark, and he is the who gets sacrificed in Bran's dream. The sword tempered in his blood was the original Ice. Because the White Walkers hate all life, they cannot stand against a sword forged in human blood.

This is about Westeros, the CotF and the First Men. F*** the dragons

Anent the final line, absolutely.

I'm certainly open to the Last Hero and the Night's King being one and the sa.me. After all Celtic lore and GRRM appear to be at one in the concept of the king requiring to be put into the ground to bring about renewal.Spring.

I don't see his blood being used to temper Ice though. Its because it goes into the trees as part of the renewal that Bran Tastes it.. On the other hand I'm open, in line with what we've discussed earlier, about the Nights King becoming a walker, and then going forward to Jon Snow, the same. We had the Varamyr prologue to the book in which Jon is "slain" for a reason

[Tucu]

12 hours ago, LynnS said:

Something I came across makes me revisit the notion that Marwyn is related to the Lannisters.

Cersei's description of Kevan, particularly the jaw (and general body shape)

Sam's description of Marwyn (also referred to as the Mastiff):

 Slab - a large, thick, flat piece of stone, concrete, or wood, typically rectangular. 

Jutting - extend out, over, or beyond the main body or line of something,, cause (something, such as one's chin) to protrude.

There is another example of inherited jaw shape with the Baratheons:

Gendry:

  

For me the slab reinforces the idea that Marwyn is Stoneborn.

[LynnS]

5 hours ago, alienarea said:

Maybe an illegitime son of Tywin, one he isn't aware of? Hope he meets Tyrion at some point in time.

Possibly, since we know now that he secretly used prostitutes.  Or maybe a bastard son of Tytos Lannister since he had two mistresses.  His wife died and I don't think we were told how.  Childbirth maybe, as happens to many women in this story.

That would make Marwyn, Tywin's 'little brother'.  This may be why Jaimie's Aunt Genna tells him that Tyrion is definately Tywin's son and laughs about it.  Because not only does Marwyn have the slab jaw similar to Kevan Lannister;  Samwell's description of him has characteristics of dwarfism.  The joke being that however much Tywin wants to deny that he fathered a dwarf, it runs in the family. 

This might also be why Maggie the Frog cackles after giving Her prophecy.  Things will not turn out as Cersei thinks.  Maggie's inside joke, the thing she finds most amusing concerns the valonqar.

It would be an eye-opener if Tyrion did meet up with him at some point.  That's what the show runners of GoT call a two-hander if you listen to the commentaries. 

 

[LynnS]

1 hour ago, Tucu said:

For me the slab reinforces the idea that Marwyn is Stoneborn.

That's an interesting association because Tyrion recalls that a dwarf maester once served at the Fingers.  I'm guessing that this is the maester who cared for Littlefinger after he returned from Riverrun with the wound Brandon gave him.  One that runs from the groin to the sternum.  Marwyn is the most studied in opening bodies (autopsies).   Seems to me that he would be the best Maester to send under the circumstances. 

With bastardy, Mya Stone is one of Robert's bastards and isn't named Storm after her bloodline.  She is called after the place she is born which ties her to her mother rather than her father.  If Jon Snow was born at the ToJ; he should be called Jon Sand rather than Snow.  Instead he is called Snow after his mother's bloodline.  

[Tucu]

1 hour ago, LynnS said:

That's an interesting association because Tyrion recalls that a dwarf maester once served at the Fingers.  I'm guessing that this is the maester who cared for Littlefinger after he returned from Riverrun with the wound Brandon gave him.  One that runs from the groin to the sternum.  Marwyn is the most studied in opening bodies (autopsies).   Seems to me that he would be the best Maester to send under the circumstances. 

We get other references pointing towards the Stoneborn of Skagos being dwarf-related.

-House Crowl of Deepdown with crowl meaning dwarf (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crowl)

-House Stane with stane meaning stone. In Scotland there is a megalithic tomb called Dwarfie Stane.

-The maesters think that the Stoneborn are related to the Ibbenese. Marwyn speaks Ibbenese

-Torghen Flint although not from Skagos has links to stones and has physical similarities to Marwyn:

Quote

Torghen Flint was half a head shorter but must weigh twice as much—a stout gruff man with gnarled, red-knuckled hands as big as hams, leaning heavily on a blackthorn cane as he limped across the ice.

Regarding The Fingers, it is a stony place and we get a few references to this:

Quote

Petyr pointed to where an old flint tower stood outlined against a bleak grey sky, the breakers crashing on the rocks beneath it. “Cheerful, is it not? I fear there’s no safe anchorage here. We’ll put ashore in a boat.” “Here?” She did not want to go ashore here. The Fingers were a dismal place, she’d heard, and there was something forlorn and desolate about the little tower.

<...>

The Fingers are a lovely place, if you happen to be a stone

Quote

Dywen Shell and Jon Brightstone, both of whom claimed the title King of the Fingers, went so far as to pay Andal warlords to cross the sea, each thinking to use their swords against the other. Instead the warlords turned upon their hosts. Within a year Brightstone had been taken, tortured, and beheaded, and Shell roasted alive inside his wooden longhall. An Andal knight named Corwyn Corbray took the daughter of the former for his bride and the wife of the latter for his bedwarmer, and claimed the Fingers for his own (though Corbray, unlike many of his fellows, never named himself a king, preferring the more modest style of Lord of the Five Fingers).

 

[Frey family reunion]

6 hours ago, alienarea said:

Maybe an illegitime son of Tywin, one he isn't aware of? Hope he meets Tyrion at some point in time.

or perhaps an illegitimate son of Tywin’s father.  Maybe the mistress that Tywin ran out of Casterly Rock.

ETA: on second glance, Marwyn’s probably too old to be born from that affair.  Although Tywin’s father was known to have at least one other mistress before her.

[LynnS]

3 hours ago, Tucu said:

-The maesters think that the Stoneborn are related to the Ibbenese. Marwyn speaks Ibbenese

Marwyn also speaks high valyrian and he is well travelled.  This might account for his facility with language, possibly he studied languages at the Citadel or with the sailors on ships he travelled. 

I don't think dwarfism is a genetic characteristic of a particular population.  A slab of jaw like stone or wood isn't necessarily a pointer to his bastard name.  Martin does make a point of comparing the look of both Kevan and Marwyn to a mastiff; particularly the chin and he makes another point about the Baratheon look stamped on Gendry's face which includes the chin.  Seems like a more concrete connection to me. LOL.  A mix of rock and something else. 

This suggests more to me about Marwyn's parentage than the possibility that he is from Skagos or Ibbiness.  That he seems to be a dwarf like Tyrion and the potential volanqar/little brother makes it the kind of twist I would expect from Martin.  

Ironically, Marwyn also talks about the nature of prophecy:

Quote

A Feast for Crows - Samwell V

He was not a man to be refused. Sam hesitated a moment, then told his tale again as Marywn, Alleras, and the other novice listened. "Maester Aemon believed that Daenerys Targaryen was the fulfillment of a prophecy . . . her, not Stannis, nor Prince Rhaegar, nor the princeling whose head was dashed against the wall."

"Born amidst salt and smoke, beneath a bleeding star. I know the prophecy. " Marwyn turned his head and spat a gob of red phlegm onto the floor. "Not that I would trust it." Gorghan of Old Ghis once wrote that a prophecy is like a treacherous woman. She takes your member in her mouth, and you moan with the pleasure of it and think, how sweet, how fine, how good this is . . . and then her teeth snap shut and your moans turn to screams. That is the nature of prophecy, said Gorghan. Prophecy will bite your prick off every time." He chewed a bit. "Still . . ."

So I don't think we can trust Cersei's interpretation or that the valonqar is Cersei's little brother.  

 

 

 

[alienarea]

5 hours ago, LynnS said:

Possibly, since we know now that he secretly used prostitutes.  Or maybe a bastard son of Tytos Lannister since he had two mistresses.  His wife died and I don't think we were told how.  Childbirth maybe, as happens to many women in this story.

That would make Marwyn, Tywin's 'little brother'.  This may be why Jaimie's Aunt Genna tells him that Tyrion is definately Tywin's son and laughs about it.  Because not only does Marwyn have the slab jaw similar to Kevan Lannister;  Samwell's description of him has characteristics of dwarfism.  The joke being that however much Tywin wants to deny that he fathered a dwarf, it runs in the family. 

This might also be why Maggie the Frog cackles after giving Her prophecy.  Things will not turn out as Cersei thinks.  Maggie's inside joke, the thing she finds most amusing concerns the valonqar.

It would be an eye-opener if Tyrion did meet up with him at some point.  That's what the show runners of GoT call a two-hander if you listen to the commentaries. 

 

Tyrion, Tywin, Tytos and Marwyn alle have an y.

Cersei and Jaime are secret Targaryens (see above  )

[LynnS]

4 hours ago, LynnS said:

"Born amidst salt and smoke, beneath a bleeding star. I know the prophecy. " Marwyn turned his head and spat a gob of red phlegm onto the floor. "Not that I would trust it." 

This and this:

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A Feast for Crows - Brienne VI

That interested Ser Hyle. "Rhaegar's rubies?"

"It may be. Who can say? The battle was long leagues from here, but the river is tireless and patient. Six have been found. We are all waiting for the seventh."

Could it be that the brothers are waiting on The Warrior to appear?  That he will be re-born or born again under the Faith, beneath the banner of the bleeding star?  Born amidst salt and smoke; the salt pans and the smoking beehives the brothers use to make mead?  Does this really have anything to do with salt tears or was Aemon stretching the meaning in order to make Summerhall fit the prophecy?  Does this mean that someone has to die and be resurrected or do they have to be reborn in the Faith of the Seven?

[Tucu]

5 hours ago, LynnS said:

Marwyn also speaks high valyrian and he is well travelled.  This might account for his facility with language, possibly he studied languages at the Citadel or with the sailors on ships he travelled. 

I don't think dwarfism is a genetic characteristic of a particular population.  A slab of jaw like stone or wood isn't necessarily a pointer to his bastard name.  Martin does make a point of comparing the look of both Kevan and Marwyn to a mastiff; particularly the chin and he makes another point about the Baratheon look stamped on Gendry's face which includes the chin.  Seems like a more concrete connection to me. LOL.  A mix of rock and something else. 

This suggests more to me about Marwyn's parentage than the possibility that he is from Skagos or Ibbiness.  That he seems to be a dwarf like Tyrion and the potential volanqar/little brother makes it the kind of twist I would expect from Martin.  

Ironically, Marwyn also talks about the nature of prophecy:

So I don't think we can trust Cersei's interpretation or that the valonqar is Cersei's little brother. 

This is the description we get for the Ibbenese:

Quote

The Ibbenese stand apart from the other races of mankind. They are a heavy people, broad about
the chest and shoulders, but seldom standing more than five and a half feet in height, with thick, short
legs and long arms. Though short and squat, they are ferociously strong; at wrestling, their favorite
sport, no man of the Seven Kingdoms can hope to equal them.
Their faces, characterized by sloping brows with heavy ridges, small sunken eyes, great square
teeth, and massive jaws, seem brutish and ugly to Westerosi eyes, an impression heightened by their
guttural, grunting tongue;

And this is Marwyn:

Quote

he looked more like a dockside thug than a maester. His head was too big for his body, and the way it thrust forward from his shoulders, together with that slab of jaw, made him look as if he were about to tear off someone's head. Though short and squat, he was heavy in the chest and shoulders, with a round, rock-hard ale belly straining at the laces of the leather jerkin he wore in place of robes. Bristly white hair sprouted from his ears and nostrils. His brow beetled, his nose had been broken more than once, and sourleaf had stained his teeth a mottled red. He had the biggest hands that Sam had ever seen.

The description are quite close. Closer than to a human "dwarf" like Tyrion.

 

38 minutes ago, LynnS said:

This and this:

Could it be that the brothers are waiting on The Warrior to appear?  That he will be re-born or born again under the Faith, beneath the banner of the bleeding star?  Born amidst salt and smoke; the salt pans and the smoking beehives the brothers use to make mead?  Does this really have anything to do with salt tears or was Aemon stretching the meaning in order to make Summerhall fit the prophecy?  Does this mean that someone has to die and be resurrected or do they have to be reborn in the Faith of the Seven?

For the place of salt and smoke, I still think that the store rooms beneath the Wall (one of the hinges of the world) would make a funny and great place for a hero to be reborn.

[LynnS]

3 minutes ago, Tucu said:

The description are quite close. Closer than to a human "dwarf" like Tyrion.

I concede the point.

3 minutes ago, Tucu said:

For the place of salt and smoke, I still think that the store rooms beneath the Wall (one of the hinges of the world) would make a funny and great place for a hero to be reborn.

Well they do have a smoke house and plenty of salt.

[LynnS]

15 minutes ago, Tucu said:

The Ibbenese stand apart from the other races of mankind. They are a heavy people, broad about
the chest and shoulders, but seldom standing more than five and a half feet in height, with thick, short
legs and long arms. Though short and squat, they are ferociously strong; at wrestling, their favorite
sport, no man of the Seven Kingdoms can hope to equal them.
Their faces, characterized by sloping brows with heavy ridges, small sunken eyes, great square
teeth, and massive jaws, seem brutish and ugly to Westerosi eyes, an impression heightened by their
guttural, grunting tongue;

They are also described as hairy:

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Daenerys I

They stepped past the eunuch into a pillared courtyard overgrown in pale ivy. Moonlight painted the leaves in shades of bone and silver as the guests drifted among them. Many were Dothraki horselords, big men with red-brown skin, their drooping mustachios bound in metal rings, their black hair oiled and braided and hung with bells. Yet among them moved bravos and sellswords from Pentos and Myr and Tyrosh, a red priest even fatter than Illyrio, hairy men from the Port of Ibben, and lords from the Summer Isles with skin as black as ebony. Daenerys looked at them all in wonder … and realized, with a sudden start of fear, that she was the only woman there.

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A Storm of Swords - Jaime III

These were not the outlaws who had killed Ser Cleos, Jaime realized suddenly. The scum of the earth surrounded them: swarthy Dornishmen and blond Lyseni, Dothraki with bells in their braids, hairy Ibbenese, coal-black Summer Islanders in feathered cloaks. He knew them. The Brave Companions.

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A Feast for Crows - Prologue

Leo yawned. "The sea is wet, the sun is warm, and the menagerie hates the mastiff."

He has a mocking name for everyone, thought Pate, but he could not deny that Marwyn looked more a mastiff than a maester. As if he wants to bite you. The Mage was not like other maesters. People said that he kept company with whores and hedge wizards, talked with hairy Ibbenese and pitch-black Summer Islanders in their own tongues, and sacrificed to queer gods at the little sailors' temples down by the wharves. Men spoke of seeing him down in the undercity, in rat pits and black brothels, consorting with mummers, singers, sellswords, even beggars. Some even whispered that once he had killed a man with his fists.

 

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A Feast for Crows - The Iron Captain

The men upon the shore had spied their sails. Shouts echoed across the bay as friends and kin called out greetings. But not from Silence. On her decks a motley crew of mutes and mongrels spoke no word as the Iron Victory drew nigh. Men black as tar stared out at him, and others squat and hairy as the apes of Sothoros. Monsters, Victarion thought.

Quote

A Feast for Crows - Cat Of The Canals

Only Braavosi were permitted use of the Purple Harbor, from the Drowned Town and the Sealord's Palace; ships from her sister cities and the rest of the wide world had to use the Ragman's Harbor, a poorer, rougher, dirtier port than the Purple. It was noisier as well, as sailors and traders from half a hundred lands crowded its wharves and alleys, mingling with those who served and preyed on them. Cat liked it best of any place in Braavos. She liked the noise and the strange smells, and seeing what ships had come in on the evening tide and what ships had departed. She liked the sailors too; the boisterous Tyroshi with their booming voices and dyed whiskers; the fair-haired Lyseni, always trying to niggle down her prices; the squat, hairy sailors from the Port of Ibben, growling curses in low, raspy voices. Her favorites were the Summer Islanders, with their skins as smooth and dark as teak. They wore feathered cloaks of red and green and yellow, and the tall masts and white sails of their swan ships were magnificent.

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A Dance with Dragons - Tyrion II

"This is Andalos, my friend. The land your Andals came from. They took it from the hairy men who were here before them, cousins to the hairy men of Ib. The heart of Hugor's ancient realm lies north of us, but we are passing through its southern marches. In Pentos, these are called the Flatlands. Farther east stand the Velvet Hills, whence we are bound."

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A Dance with Dragons - The Merchant&#39;s Man

Four stories tall, the Merchant's House dominated the docks and wharves and storehouses that surrounded it. Here traders from Oldtown and King's Landing mingled with their counterparts from Braavos and Pentos and Myr, with hairy Ibbenese, pale-skinned voyagers from Qarth, coal-black Summer Islanders in feathered cloaks, even masked shadow-binders from Asshai by the Shadow.

Cersei's Dream:

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A Feast for Crows - Cersei IX

It proved a waste of breath; as ever, the gods were deaf. Cersei dreamt that she was down in the black cells once again, only this time it was her chained to the wall in place of the singer. She was naked, and blood dripped from the tips of her breasts where the Imp had torn off her nipples with his teeth. "Please," she begged, "please, not my children, do not harm my children." Tyrion only leered at her. He was naked too, covered with coarse hair that made him look more like a monkey than a man. "You shall see them crowned," he said, "and you shall see them die." Then he took her bleeding breast into his mouth and began to suck, and pain sawed through her like a hot knife.

 

 

[Tucu]

33 minutes ago, LynnS said:

A Feast for Crows - Cersei IX

It proved a waste of breath; as ever, the gods were deaf. Cersei dreamt that she was down in the black cells once again, only this time it was her chained to the wall in place of the singer. She was naked, and blood dripped from the tips of her breasts where the Imp had torn off her nipples with his teeth. "Please," she begged, "please, not my children, do not harm my children." Tyrion only leered at her. He was naked too, covered with coarse hair that made him look more like a monkey than a man. "You shall see them crowned," he said, "and you shall see them die." Then he took her bleeding breast into his mouth and began to suck, and pain sawed through her like a hot knife.

This conversation between Oberyn and Tyrion is related(and quite funny):

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Your skies were too grey, your wines too sweet, your women too chaste, your food too bland . . . and you yourself were the greatest disappointment of all.”

“I had just been born. What did you expect of me?”

“Enormity,” the black-haired prince replied. “You were small, but far-famed. We were in Oldtown at your birth, and all the city talked of was the monster that had been born to the King’s Hand, and what such an omen might foretell for the realm.”

“Famine, plague, and war, no doubt.” Tyrion gave a sour smile. “It’s always famine, plague, and war. Oh, and winter, and the long night that never ends.”

<...>

“And well you might, since you were said to have one, a stiff curly tail like a swine’s. Your head was monstrous huge, we heard, half again the size of your body, and you had been born with thick black hair and a beard besides, an evil eye, and lion’s claws. Your teeth were so long you could not close your mouth, and between your legs were a girl’s privates as well as a boy’s.”

<...>

“You did have one evil eye, and some black fuzz on your scalp. Perhaps your head was larger than most . . . but there was no tail, no beard, neither teeth nor claws, and nothing between your legs but a tiny pink cock. After all the wonderful whispers, Lord Tywin’s Doom turned out to be just a hideous red infant with stunted legs.

Tyrion was Tywin's Doom after all. Was this a self-fulfilling prophecy?

 

[LynnS]

Why I Could Never Be On Game of Thrones - YouTube