The Lemon Tree

[Nadden]

The lemon tree

In todays world we can explain the moons non-spherical dimension with science. We know that neither the Earth nor its moon are a perfect sphere. “It is known”, The Earth's slightly elliptical shape has been explained by its rotation and the gravitational pull of the moon. In conjunction, the moon’s, subtly misshapen, appearance was caused by tidal forces early in the moon's formational history. Today, the moon rotates too slow and is too far from Earth to have any influence over its shape. In fact, it was only during its formation, that while still very malleable; the closer, faster-spinning moon really took shape. The sculpting effects of distance and speed became frozen in time as the moon solidified and matured.  These factors explain the Moon's lemon-like or egg-shape formation. This is explained in a paper published online in the journal Nature on July 30, 2014 by scientists. The point here is that science agrees that the moon is a lemon in the sky. This makes for great science-fiction.

If the moon is a lemon than what about the tree? Yggdrasil or can we say Egg-drasil is a large cosmic ash tree from Norse mythology. From its’ branches hangs the nine worlds. Some scholars have proposed identifications for the nine. For example, Henry Adams Bellows (1923) says that the Nine Worlds consist of Ásgarðr, Vanaheimr, Álfheimr, Miðgarðr, Jötunheimr, Múspellsheimr, Svartálfaheimr, Niflheimr (sometimes Hel), and perhaps Niðavellir. Some editions of translations of the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda feature illustrations of what the author or artist suspects the Nine Worlds to be in part based on the Völuspá stanza. We know that Martin has drawn many ideas from Norse mythology. Do we think that the moon was one of the Nine Worlds? Scholars have left lots of room for authors, like Martin, to play with. Consider this, in classical antiquity, the seven moving astronomical objects in the sky visible to the naked eye are: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The Other two may come from the apparent change of direction of their orbits, called retrograde. Retrograde arises from the fact that we are observing rotating planets from a planet that is itself rotating about the Sun. Because of this planets are observed to have morning and evening star positions and rise and fall depending on the time of the year. Of the ones visible with the naked-eye Venus is most well known. In fact, many legends and myths identify the two aspects of Venus as two entities.

I think that “the moon” (le moon) with its’ pale-yellow color is hanging from Egg-drasil’s branches.

Textual evidence linking the egg, the moon, a lemon and dragons is here:

“He told me the moon was an egg, Khaleesi,” the Lysene girl said. “Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. That is why dragons breathe flame. One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return.” (AGOT)

And this,

“That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window.”(AGOT)

So, a childhood memory of a lemon in a tree seen through a windrasil. Hmmmmm.

Let’s understand that only a fraction of information is retained through the formation of a memory and that the emotional state of someone forming a memory has a large influence on how it is remembered. In short, the memory that Daenerys has may not actually be a lemon tree. But could foreshadow her as the “Mother of Dragons”. 

“Dragons”?, just like what the two guardsmen did to Gared before his beheading? (Bran, AGOT) They did have to drag-on him.

Consider this:

The low-hanging limb of the ironwood tree, where Waymar (AGOT, Prologue) securely ties his destrier and the ironwood stump, where Gared (AGOT, Bran1) was dragged to for his beheading (figuratively: the gallows) are actual metaphors for Yggdrasil. The generally accepted meaning of Old Norse Yggdrasill is "Odin's horse", meaning "gallows". This interpretation comes about because drasill means "horse" and Ygg(r) is one of Odin's many names. Later, in a Samwell chapter (18), ASOS, we see a horse ridden by an Other, “a pale rider”, with “hoarfrost” covering it like “a sheen of frozen sweat”, and “a nest of stiff black entrails” dragged, like Gared to the stump, “from its open belly.” Those entrails, like a low-hanging limb, can be seen as the roots of our stump and the horse Sleipnir eight-legs belonging to Odin. An eight-legged mount? Sounds like something from old Nans tales. The thick root that Gared’s head bounces off is covered by the snow that drank his blood. This is the same blood that is described as “red as summerwine”. Besides showing us his blood alcohol, it’s metaphor. In AGOT , Prologue Waymar’s blood (droplets) seem,“as red as fire”. Blood and fire are interchangeable metaphors all throughout ASOIAF. Thus, Gared’s blood, that “sprayed out”, is a metaphor for fiery meteors of a breaking moon. Later, his head will be mounted above a windowsill, I mean on I wall.

So, Yggdrasil can be symbolically connected to dragons through an egg, which is like a moon. A moon, symbolic of a lemon seen in the memory of Daenerys, “Mother of Dragons”. Simply, she’s probably not seeing a lemon tree in Bravos.

[Magnar, P.I.]

Sorry but it’s obvious the true answer here- the lemon tree Dany remembers outside of her room in “Bravos” is actually Lem Lemoncloak. Clearly Willem Darry and Viserys hired him as a guard to protect Dany, but she had dyslexia (just like her half-brother Jaime) and mistook “Lem” for “Elm”. Even though he wasn’t as tall back then, he was still taller than young Dany, so the nickname stuck, and it’s been a long time so now she just remembers him as a literal tree.

So no, she didn’t grow up in Dorme, but the Riverlands! It’s just a double fake-out that lemons don’t grow there either.