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Heresy 241 A Winter Rose


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Lieve_Verschuier_-_Staartster_(komeet)_boven_Rotterdam_-_11028-A-B_-_Museum_Rotterdam.jpg (700×553) (wikimedia.org)

This one I really like for it's star in the hilt of the sword.  Also this painting depicts three stars which look similar to Orion's Belt.

M42+in+Orion.jpg (1024×1024) (bp.blogspot.com)

The constellation also features a sword:

Orion (constellation) Art - Orion (constellation) - Wikipedia

Orion the Hunter is associated with Sirius, the Dog Star, Canis Major, the Greater Dog.

Watch for Sirius, sky's brightest star | Sky Archive | EarthSky
 

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This morning two of us got up early. We found a pulsing star straight down the sky below Orion’s Belt. It was pulsing the colors of green, yellow, blue and red like a strobe light. I will search for it every morning as it was so enchanting

Sirius appears to flash different colors when it’s low in the sky. Really, all the stars are flashing different colors, because light is composed of all the colors of a rainbow, and the journey through our atmosphere breaks starlight into its component colors via refraction. But you don’t notice the colors of the other stars much, because they’re not as bright as Sirius, which is the brightest star visible from anywhere on Earth.

 

The sword of the morning with a diamond in it's hilt.

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A Storm of Swords - Jon IV

Ghost was gone when the wildings led their horses from the cave. Did he understand about Castle Black? Jon took a breath of the crisp morning air and allowed himself to hope. The eastern sky was pink near the horizon and pale grey higher up. The Sword of the Morning still hung in the south, the bright white star in its hilt blazing like a diamond in the dawn, but the blacks and greys of the darkling forest were turning once again to greens and golds, reds and russets. And above the soldier pines and oaks and ash and sentinels stood the Wall, the ice pale and glimmering beneath the dust and dirt that pocked its surface.

 

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We also have the story of grumkins who can give your sword a magic power-up:

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A Game of Thrones - Jon IX

"Good," Mormont said. "We've seen the dead come back, you and me, and it's not something I care to see again." He ate the egg in two bites and flicked a bit of shell out from between his teeth. "Your brother is in the field with all the power of the north behind him. Any one of his lords bannermen commands more swords than you'll find in all the Night's Watch. Why do you imagine that they need your help? Are you such a mighty warrior, or do you carry a grumkin in your pocket to magic up your sword?"

It turns out that our Mel is a "grumkin" and Stannis is her mighty warrior.

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A Dance with Dragons - Jon III

Stannis Baratheon drew Lightbringer.

The sword glowed red and yellow and orange, alive with light. Jon had seen the show before … but not like this, never before like this. Lightbringer was the sun made steel. When Stannis raised the blade above his head, men had to turn their heads or cover their eyes. Horses shied, and one threw his rider. The blaze in the fire pit seemed to shrink before this storm of light, like a small dog cowering before a larger one. The Wall itself turned red and pink and orange, as waves of color danced across the ice. Is this the power of king's blood?

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A Storm of Swords - Samwell V

"You want to see Lightbringer? A blind man?"

"Sam shall be my eyes."

The king frowned. "Everyone else has seen the thing, why not a blind man?" His swordbelt and scabbard hung from a peg near the hearth. He took the belt down and drew the longsword out. Steel scraped against wood and leather, and radiance filled the solar; shimmering, shifting, a dance of gold and orange and red light, all the bright colors of fire.

"Tell me, Samwell." Maester Aemon touched his arm

"It glows," said Sam, in a hushed voice. "As if it were on fire. There are no flames, but the steel is yellow and red and orange, all flashing and glimmering, like sunshine on water, but prettier. I wish you could see it, Maester."

"I see it now, Sam. A sword full of sunlight. So lovely to behold." The old man bowed stiffly. "Your Grace. My lady. This was most kind of you.

 

I wonder if there is a ruby in it's hilt.

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Orion "The Ghost of Shimmering Summer Dawn"

EarthSky | Orion the Hunter returns late July or early August

Ghost of the shimmering summer dawn

A poem by Sophia C. Prentice, published in the magazine Popular Astronomy in April 1924, memorialized Orion’s early morning return.

Across the winter sky by night
Orion proudly strides;
The rising moon in silver state
His splendor scarcely hides;
His jeweled belt, his glittering sword,
In brilliancy combine,
Great Sirius and Procyon,
His loyal followers shine,
The Book of books records his name,
Of him the poets write;
From nursery windows, children’s eyes
Greet him with gay delight.

The soft breeze stirs to greet the dawn,
The summer stars grow dim,
When lo, a mystic shape appears
Above the Ocean’s rim.
The form so faintly shining there
No royalty can boast,
Yet with a thrill my heart proclaims,
‘It is Orion’s ghost!”

Alone and pale he trembles there
A moment and is gone,
While radiant couriers of the sun
Announce the coming morn.

Orion, greatest of the tribe
That pace the starry heights.
Ghost of the shimmering summer dawn,
King of the winter nights!

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And with Orion it's a small step to the Gizeh pyramids and the Egyptian book of the dead.

I can imagine the prophecy obsessed Rhaegar preparing for the afterlife.

Maybe he learned that he should have died at Summerhall and chose to die at the Trident to catch up with the prophecy? And the missing ruby of his armor is needed for lightbringer?

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22 minutes ago, alienarea said:

And with Orion it's a small step to the Gizeh pyramids and the Egyptian book of the dead.

We definately have pyramids in this story and a figure who frees slaves from bondage.  Moses, a chosen one, who's birth is based on a prophecy.  Another Christian theme.

Orion is the King of Winter Nights and the Ghost of shimmering dawn.  :D  A hero who descends into the underworld.  This has Jon Snow written all over it.  Ned slew the season when Ser Arthur was killed and Jon was born.  I suspect the sword of the morning will then slay the sword of the evening for summer to return.

Joramund's Horn of Winter underpinned by another Judeo-Christian theme - the Horn of Jericho.

 

 

 

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41 minutes ago, LynnS said:

This is a good one too.  A dragon inside a comet exhaling dragon-breath  and a town with broken buildings and walls.  I don't see any fires.

H._J._Helden,_Ferrara_distrutta_dal_terremoto_del_1570.jpg (640×366) (wikimedia.org)

 

The image name roughly translates to: Ferrara destroyed by the 1570 earthquake.  Looking at wikipedia Ferrara was hit by 2000 tremors between 1570 and 1571:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1570_Ferrara_earthquake

Edit: this image from the Deep Impact mission's website shows a 1600's classification of comets and some look like swords:

https://deepimpact.astro.umd.edu/webdings/icons/Hevelius_Comet_Types.jpg

 

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44 minutes ago, alienarea said:

And the missing ruby of his armor is needed for lightbringer?

Aha!

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A Clash of Kings - Catelyn III

As he neared, she saw that Stannis wore a crown of red gold with points fashioned in the shape of flames. His belt was studded with garnets and yellow topaz, and a great square-cut ruby was set in the hilt of the sword he wore. Otherwise his dress was plain: studded leather jerkin over quilted doublet, worn boots, breeches of brown roughspun. The device on his sun-yellow banner showed a red heart surrounded by a blaze of orange fire. The crowned stag was there, yes . . . shrunken and enclosed within the heart. Even more curious was his standard bearer—a woman, garbed all in reds, face shadowed within the deep hood of her scarlet cloak. A red priestess, Catelyn thought, wondering. The sect was numerous and powerful in the Free Cities and the distant east, but there were few in the Seven Kingdoms.

 

Well we know Melisandre can uses rubies for magical purposes.  It appears she powered up Stannis' sword using that ruby.  

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A Dance with Dragons - Jon IV

In the King's Tower, Jon was stripped of his weapons and admitted to the royal presence. The solar was hot and crowded. Stannis and his captains were gathered over the map of the north. The wrong-way rangers were amongst them. Sigorn was there as well, the young Magnar of Thenn, clad in a leather hauberk sewn with bronze scales. Rattleshirt sat scratching at the manacle on his wrist with a cracked yellow fingernail. Brown stubble covered his sunken cheeks and receding chin, and strands of dirty hair hung across his eyes. "Here he comes," he said when he saw Jon, "the brave boy who slew Mance Rayder when he was caged and bound." The big square-cut gem that adorned his iron cuff glimmered redly. "Do you like my ruby, Snow? A token o' love from Lady Red."

 

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A Dance with Dragons - The Lost Lord

"They will do well enough, I suppose," he told Haldon. "The camp is only three miles south." The Shy Maid would have gotten them there more quickly, but he preferred to keep Harry Strickland ignorant of where he and the prince had been. Nor did he relish the prospect of splashing through the shallows to climb some muddy riverbank. That sort of entrance might serve for a sellsword and his son, but not for a great lord and his prince.

When the lad emerged from the cabin with Lemore by his side, Griff looked him over carefully from head to heel. The prince wore sword and dagger, black boots polished to a high sheen, a black cloak lined with blood-red silk. With his hair washed and cut and freshly dyed a deep, dark blue, his eyes looked blue as well. At his throat he wore three huge square-cut rubies on a chain of black iron, a gift from Magister Illyrio. Red and black. Dragon colors. That was good. "You look a proper prince," he told the boy. "Your father would be proud if he could see you."

Young Griff ran his fingers through his hair. "I am sick of this blue dye. We should have washed it out."

 

And the last one... what the hell?

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On 1/2/2022 at 8:04 AM, LynnS said:

Lieve_Verschuier_-_Staartster_(komeet)_boven_Rotterdam_-_11028-A-B_-_Museum_Rotterdam.jpg (700×553) (wikimedia.org)

This one I really like for it's star in the hilt of the sword.  Also this painting depicts three stars which look similar to Orion's Belt.

M42+in+Orion.jpg (1024×1024) (bp.blogspot.com)

The constellation also features a sword:

Orion (constellation) Art - Orion (constellation) - Wikipedia

Orion the Hunter is associated with Sirius, the Dog Star, Canis Major, the Greater Dog.

Watch for Sirius, sky's brightest star | Sky Archive | EarthSky
 

The sword of the morning with a diamond in it's hilt.

 

I was wondering if this constellation would be mentioned. Another name for the three stars in Orion's Belt is the Three Kings, and the constellation can be seen pointing directly towards the rising sun in the east during the winter months.

 

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11 minutes ago, Melifeather said:

I was wondering if this constellation would be mentioned. Another name for the three stars in Orion's Belt is the Three Kings, and the constellation can be seen pointing directly towards the rising sun in the east during the winter months.

 

Interesting - the three kings is another allusion to the three magi and the nativity story.

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1 minute ago, LynnS said:

Interesting - the three kings is another allusion to the three magi and the nativity story.

Yes, and I am wondering if GRRM inserted three kings as following the comet as well? He does like threes! How many claim the comet as theirs? Joffrey, Daenerys, and Stannis? Any others?

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25 minutes ago, Melifeather said:

Yes, and I am wondering if GRRM inserted three kings as following the comet as well? He does like threes! How many claim the comet as theirs? Joffrey, Daenerys, and Stannis? Any others?

He's layered this stuff over, piling stuff on top of stuff.  I was thinking less of three kings and more of three newborn gods.

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“The bleeding star bespoke the end,” he said to Aeron. “These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits.” Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him. “Kneel, brother,” the Crow’s Eye commanded. “I am your king, I am your god. Worship me, and I will raise you up to be my priest.”  TWOW- the Forsaken

Charnel pits are bone pits and we know that Bran is being born a new god in Bloodraven's cave full of bones.

Jon Snow may be another.  From Mel's vision of Jon Snow surrounded by skulls:

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A Dance with Dragons - Melisandre I

Death, thought Melisandre. The skulls are death.

The flames crackled softly, and in their crackling she heard the whispered name Jon Snow. His long face floated before her, limned in tongues of red and orange, appearing and disappearing again, a shadow half-seen behind a fluttering curtain. Now he was a man, now a wolf, now a man again. But the skulls were here as well, the skulls were all around him. Melisandre had seen his danger before, had tried to warn the boy of it. Enemies all around him, daggers in the dark. He would not listen.

 

We've talked about the crypts of Winterfell and what Jon would find in the lower levels.  Perhaps they are filled with skulls.

Of course Euron means to make himself into a new god and I think he will succeed to some degree..  

 

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1 hour ago, Melifeather said:

Yes, and I am wondering if GRRM inserted three kings as following the comet as well? He does like threes! How many claim the comet as theirs? Joffrey, Daenerys, and Stannis? Any others?

The comet first shows up in Bran VII that is the chapter just after Ned's death in Arya V. I like these two references to the comet:

Vengeance for Ned

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The Greatjon told Robb that the old gods have unfurled a red flag of vengeance for Ned

The Father's scourge to end the Rotten Summer and mark the death of the Whoremonger King

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Corruption! There is the warning! Behold the Father's scourge! We have become swollen, bloated, foul. Brother couples with sister in the bed of kings, and the fruit of their incest capers in his palace to the piping of a twisted little monkey demon. Highborn ladies fornicate with fools and give birth to monsters! Even the High Septon has forgotten the gods! He bathes in scented waters and grows fat on lark and lamprey while his people starve! Pride comes before prayer, maggots rule our castles, and gold is all ... but no more! The Rotten Summer is at an end, and the Whoremonger King is brought low! When the boar did open him, a great stench rose to heaven and a thousand snakes slid forth from his belly, hissing and biting! There comes the Harbinger! Cleanse yourselves, the gods cry out, lest ye be cleansed! Bathe in the wine of righteousness, or you shall be bathed in fire! Fire!

A thousand snakes from Bob's belly and the Harbinger arrives...reminding me of this prophecy from F&B

 

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“When the hammer shall fall upon the dragon, a new king shall arise, and none shall stand before him.”

 

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1 hour ago, LynnS said:

He's layered this stuff over, piling stuff on top of stuff.  I was thinking less of three kings and more of three newborn gods.

Charnel pits are bone pits and we know that Bran is being born a new god in Bloodraven's cave full of bones.

Jon Snow may be another.  From Mel's vision of Jon Snow surrounded by skulls:

We've talked about the crypts of Winterfell and what Jon would find in the lower levels.  Perhaps they are filled with skulls.

Of course Euron means to make himself into a new god and I think he will succeed to some degree..  

 

The Three Kings point to the rising sun (god). Daenerys is a sun-god messiah figure. She's rising in the east like the sun, but Mirri said the sun would rise in the west this time, so then it could be a prophecy for Bran rising.

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2 hours ago, Melifeather said:

Yes, and I am wondering if GRRM inserted three kings as following the comet as well? He does like threes! How many claim the comet as theirs? Joffrey, Daenerys, and Stannis? Any others?

While not kings, there were three prominent people from the East who traveled to view Dany's dragons after they were born.

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Interview: GAME OF THRONES creator George R.R. Martin on the future of the franchise - Part 2 Assignment X

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Martin adds that the battle of Good and Evil is fundamental to much of fiction, though his take is slightly different.

“It is certainly a genuine, legitimate topic as the core of fantasy, but I think the battle between Good and Evil is waged within the individual human hearts,” says Martin. “We all have good in us and we all have evil in us, and we may do a wonderful good act on Tuesday and a horrible, selfish, bad act on Wednesday, and to me, that’s the great human drama of fiction. I believe in gray characters, as I’ve said before. We all have good and evil in us and there are very few pure paragons and there are very few orcs. A villain is a hero of the other side, as someone said once, and I think there’s a great deal of truth to that, and that’s the interesting thing. In the case of war, that kind of situation, so I think some of that is definitely what I’m aiming at.”

 

 

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19 hours ago, Frey family reunion said:

While not kings, there were three prominent people from the East who traveled to view Dany's dragons after they were born.

As a follow up, the original three wise men may not have initially been depicted as kings, but as magi:

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The biblical Magi[a] (/ˈm/ or /ˈmæ/;[1] singular: magus), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men or (Three) Kings, also the Three Magi were distinguished foreigners in the Gospel of Matthew and Christian tradition. They are said to have visited Jesus after his birth, bearing gifts of gold, frankincenseand myrrh. They are regular figures in traditional accounts of the nativitycelebrations of Christmas and are an important part of Christian tradition.

The Gospel of Matthew is the only one of the four canonical gospels to mention the Magi. Matthew reports that they came "from the east" to worship the "king of the Jews".[2] The gospel never mentions the number of Magi. Still, most western Christian denominations have traditionally assumed them to have been three in number, based on the statement that they brought three gifts.[3] In Eastern Christianity, especially the Syriac churches, the Magi often number twelve.[4]Their identification as kings in later Christian writings is probably linked to Isaiah60:1–6, which refers to "kings [coming] to the brightness of your dawn" bearing "gold and frankincense".[5] Further identification of the magi with kings may be due to Psalm 72:11, "May all kings fall down before him"

So two out of the three visitors Dany received to view the dragons certainly fit the bill as “magi” or wise men (and women).

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