The North Remembers - A Theory on Ned's dream

[northern_amnesia]

The North Remembers.

This theory comes from a simple premise, Ned's dream is not an exact account of the events, but neither is it a fever dream like Jaime's, because unlike that dream, Ned's, it’s an "old dream". In other words, it’s not the first time that he has dreamed it, therefore, it’s not a fantasy induced by the milk of the poppy or by the recent trauma he experienced. However, we should interpret and "translate" the dream to understand what it is really about, because it is MUCH more than what it seems.

Before we begin, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

At first sight, there are some huge red flags, which make one suspect about the accuracy of the dream. For example, Dustin arrives at the tower on a stallion, which is clearly not the right horse to ride in the mountains. One would think it was just the wrong horse, and that the guy just made a mistake, except that Theo Wull was also part of that group, and as we know, the Wulls are one of the mountain clans so, it's hard to believe that he didn’t told Dustin that he would likely kill himself if he went with that horse. I’ll talk about more red flags while we analyze the dream.

The next thing to keep in mind is the words of our first victim, Ser Waymar Royce, "We Remember", all the information we need to understand the dream, is in AGoT, in the chapters of Ned, Cat, Bran and the prologue.

 

So, let's start with the dream:

 

“He dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood.”

 

This is an old dream that he dreamt before, as I already mentioned, but what is interesting here in this paragraph, is how the scenario is presented, because, as I will try to prove, the dream it’s actually about three episodes, or rather, three different stories: the 3 knights, the tower, Lyanna's death, and those three episodes, join in this dream that is not only about Lyanna, but all the Starks.

 

Let's continue with the dream:

In the dream his friends rode with him, as they had in life. Proud Martyn Cassel, Jory’s father; faithful Theo Wull; Ethan Glover, who had been Brandon’s squire; Ser Mark Ryswell, soft of speech and gentle of heart; the crannogman, Howland Reed; Lord Dustin on his great red stallion. Ned had known their faces as well as he knew his own once, but the years leech at a man’s memories, even those he has vowed never to forget. In the dream they were only shadows, grey wraiths on horses made of mist.

 

In the dream, Ned is accompanied by six northerners, who ride with him "as they had in life" which doesn’t necessarily mean that they were dead while Lyanna was in her "bed of blood", and this, I believe, may be inferred in this thought that Ned has in the crypt:

"I was with her when she died," Ned reminded the king. "She wanted to come home, to rest beside Brandon and Father." He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes. Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his. Ned could recall none of it.”

 

Ned doesn’t remember his friends, because what this part of the dream recounts, (Ned riding with the 6 northerners), seems to have happened at a different time.

•       After that he remembered nothing. Ned forgot everything that happened after Lyanna's death, among other things, his friends faces.

•       “They had found him” Ned thinks, and clearly, although he only names Reed, it is understood that there’s someone else in that scene.

•       The wording here: "but the years leech at a man's memories, even those he has vowed never to forget" is very interesting, and we’ll see, is key to understanding why Ned doesn't remember.

 

The dream is a construct made by Ned's mind because he can't (doesn’t want to) “recall none of it.”

"Tell him that when you see him, milord, as it … as it please you. Tell him how beautiful she is."

"I will," Ned had promised her. That was his curse. Robert would swear undying love and forget them before evenfall, but Ned Stark kept his vows. He thought of the promises he'd made Lyanna as she lay dying, and the price he'd paid to keep them.”

In the dream, the friends are shadows, Ned can't put a face to them. This made me think of the moment when Ned takes Robert to the crypt and they are in front of Lyanna's statue.

“Their likenesses were carved into the stones that sealed the tombs. (…) Lord Rickard Stark, Ned’s father, had a long, stern face. The stonemason had known him well. He sat with quiet dignity, stone fingers holding tight to the sword across his lap, but in life all swords had failed him. In two smaller sepulchres on either side were his children. Brandon had been twenty when he died, strangled by order of the Mad King Aerys Targaryen only a few short days before he was to wed Catelyn Tully of Riverrun. His father had been forced to watch him die. He was the true heir, the eldest, born to rule. Lyanna had only been sixteen, a child-woman of surpassing loveliness. Ned had loved her with all his heart. Robert had loved her even more. She was to have been his bride.”

Each of the Winterfell statues should reflect the "likeness" of the lord, his appearance. When Ned and Robert are in front of the set of three statues, Ned notes, precisely, that the stonemason knew his father well, surely because the appearance represented is faithful to the appearance that Lord Rickard had in life, and apparently, that’s not the case for his brother and sister. This is relevant later.

There are more curiosities regarding the statues in the crypt and Ned's dream, as we will see shortly.

 

“They were seven, facing three. In the dream as it had been in life. Yet these were no ordinary three. They waited before the round tower, the red mountains of Dorne at their backs, their white cloaks blowing in the wind. And these were no shadows; their faces burned clear, even now.

 

This is where things get interesting. Ned promised not to forget the 6 men in the dream, but, clearly, they became the faceless gray shadows he dreams of. The faces of the three guards, on the other hand, burn clear “even now”.

So, let's assume that the faces that burn in Ned's memory are not exactly those of the three knights of the KG, but others.

The 3 men wait for Ned and his 6 companions in front of a “round tower”, here is the second red flag in the dream, since it makes no sense for the guards to be outside the towe. But let's leave that detail aside for the moment. Ned was attacked by the Lannisters in the streets of KL and the last thing he saw before losing his consciousness permanently (and having this dream), is the Red Keep:

“He remembered seeing the Red Keep looming ahead of him in the first grey light of dawn. The rain had darkened the pale pink stone of the massive walls to the color of blood.” Eddard IX AGoT

Ned sees those blood-colored massive walls “in the first gray light” and this is relevant later. Let us also remember that he came from a brothel where he had met one of Robert's bastards.

Now, the round tower in the dream, is very interesting:

“That brought you up to the blind side of the First Keep, the oldest part of the castle, a squat round fortress that was taller than it looked. Only rats and spiders lived there now but the old stones still made for good climbing. You could go straight up to where the gargoyles leaned out blindly over empty space, and swing from gargoyle to gargoyle, hand over hand, around to the north side.” Bran II – AgoT

It turns out that the First Keep, the oldest tower in Winterfell, is a round tower, like the one that Ned dreams of, and at the foot of that tower is the access to the crypt, but the most interesting thing is not that, but what it is “beneath the shadow”:

“Beneath the shadow of the First Keep was an ancient lichyard, its headstones spotted with pale lichen, where the old Kings of Winter had laid their faithful servants.” Bran II - AGoT

 

Again, let's remember that the last thing Ned sees before losing consciousness is "the first gray light of dawn", and this helps to understand part of the dream. The First Keep, as we saw, is crowned by gargoyles. Gargoyles are not a common ornament in Westeros, in fact, they can only be found in two places, the First Keep of Winterfell and Dragonstone, a place that is mentioned in this dream and that is obviously related to these three knights.

But WF's gargoyles are different from Dragonstone's, as WF's have no face:

 

“Bran could perch for hours among the shapeless, rain-worn gargoyles that brooded over the First Keep, watching it all (…)” Bran II - AGoT

 

As I said above, at the foot of that tower crowned by the faceless gargoyles is the linchyard where the old Winter Kings buried their most faithful servants, and this is also quite curious.

Upon awakening from the dream, Ned remembers that he had to knock down the tower to bury the 8 people who died in the episode, that is, the 3 guards and 5 of the northerners who accompanied him.

“It would have to be his grandfather, for Jory's father was buried far to the south. Martyn Cassel had perished with the rest. Ned had pulled the tower down afterward and used its bloody stones to build eight cairns upon the ridge. It was said that Rhaegar had named that place the tower of joy, but for Ned it was a bitter memory. They had been seven against three, yet only two had lived to ride away; Eddard Stark himself and the little crannogman, Howland Reed. He did not think it omened well that he should dream that dream again after so many years.”

 

So Ned's faithful companions are buried at the foot of a round tower, such as the First Keep, just as the Winter Kings used to do in ancient times.

Lyanna is supposed to die in the same place those 8 people die, but while the others are buried right there, Ned’s travels with Lyanna's body (through the mountains), first to Starfall, where he returns Arthur’s sword (but not his bones), even though the episode supposedly takes place very close to Starfall.

Let's forget the 8 bodies in the tower, we also need to assume that in addition to carrying Lyanna's body to the end of the continent, on top of that, Ned did it while carrying a newborn baby to Starfall, (feeding him with what?) and then returned with that ‘load’ to Winterfell before Cat, (whom he seems to have totally forget about), made it north. I mean, imagine Ned arriving at Starfall with a corpse, that it wasn’t even Arthur’s, and a baby, to retrieve the sword of a man he just killed. Come on!

Something is not right. Actually, nothing is right.

 

Not to mention the logistics involved in pulling down a tower and burying eight people in mountainous terrain, and doing it alone, as Ned says he did: "Ned had pulled the tower down afterward." By the way, what was Howland supposedly doing?

As we've seen, Ned remembers that one of the promises he made to Lyanna was to take her home, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she was in Dorne, or that things happened as Ned dreams them.

The problem is that Ned is dreaming, and there are parts of the dream that he really doesn't remember because they didn't happen to him.

Now we are going to examine the description of the guards, and for that, we’ll need to examine another mystery that will help us understand Ned's tower dream.

Years ago, I realized that the two episodes are related and that one helps to understand the other, but unfortunately, I always misunderstood it. (and wrote, and posted! tons of wrong words about it), Sorry for that!

In the prologue, 3 brothers from the NW are tracking a group of 8 wildlings heading north and northwest, and that is the exact opposite direction to the one Ned had to take to reach the tower of joy. We’ve already seen that eight, precisely, is the number of men who die in Ned's dream (5 northerners and the 3 guards).

Now let's look at the scenario in the opposite way, from the tower of the dream, three 'brothers', Ned, Lyanna and Howland, depart leaving behind 8 corpses (like the 8 wildlings in the prologue), of which 5 were northerners, like the 5 “Others” who watch the duel between Waymar and The Other with the sword (which would be Jon). So:

 

• The prologue starts with 8 wildlings missing, the dream ends with 8 corpses,

• 3 men go north in the prologue, 3 people (Lyanna, Ned, Reed) go south (to Starfall)

• Waymar faces 6 “others”, Ned arrives with 6 men

 

This is the part that I always misunderstood, I always thought of the NW brothers as parallels to the guards, when they are actually opposite to each other, (which seems obvious now).

According to Ned's dream, Lyanna dies on the spot, as Waymar she is 'killed' (by childbirth); and Ned witnesses the victim's last words, as Will. When reading the fight between Waymar and the Other, the effort that Waymar makes, the screams, everything makes one think of labor.

In short, we have the exact same scenario, but seen from two opposite sides. What we see in the prologue, Waymar fighting "The Other" is the parallel to Lyanna giving birth, while her brother watches helplessly.

But things didn't exactly turn out the way Ned dreams them.

This is how Will, (the watcher who discovers the dead wildlings), describes the crime scene:

“The camp is two miles farther on, over that ridge, hard beside a stream,” Will said. “I got close as I dared. There’s eight of them, men and women both. No children I could see. They put up a lean-to against the rock. The snow’s pretty well covered it now, but I could still make it out. No fire burning, but the firepit was still plain as day. No one moving. I watched a long time. No living man ever lay so still.”

In both scenarios, the prologue and Ned's dream, we have a ridge. The eight wildlings that the black brothers are looking for are supposed to be “over that ridge” and as we saw, Ned buries the bodies on a ridge.

Will sees “no children”, but a group of eight grown people, who in Ned's dream are the five Northerners and the three guards. The fundamental thing here is that in the scene there are 'women' but not children, which again, points to the fact that it was not there, in Dorne, where Jon was born.

“No fire burning, but the firepit was still plain as day” says Will, and that's what the dream looks like, because by the time Ned gets there, the Targaryens are either dead or on the run, but the presence of the three guards at the scene, (and Lyanna’s allegedely), makes you think of a "firepit" or in other words, that the guards are there because what’s in the tower is more important than the queen and Viserys. Unless, like I said, they're all separate events, and then things change. A lot.

In the prologue, the disappearance or death of the wildlings is a mystery related but independent of the attack on Waymar, Royce doesn’t die for something he did to the wildlings. The same thing happens in Ned's dream. Lyanna's death is clearly related to what happened to the eight, but as we will see, they are separate events that happened in different places.

In the prologue, the death of the 8 wildlings predates Waymar's duel and has nothing to do with him. In our story, I intend to prove, we have a similar scenario, Lyanna dies, allegedly, while having the baby, but the 8 were not there, not exactly.

Let's go back to Ned's dream and one of the most interesting parts, the position of the guards in front of the tower:

Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, had a sad smile on his lips. The hilt of the greatsword Dawn poked up over his right shoulder. Ser Oswell Whent was on one knee, sharpening his blade with a whetstone. Across his white-enameled helm, the black bat of his House spread its wings. Between them stood fierce old Ser Gerold Hightower, the White Bull, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

 

Let's examine what Ned remembers about each guard:

 

a.     Ser Arthur: sword of the morning/a sad smile/ the hilt of the sword

 

Keep in mind that Ned wakes up from this dream just as he is about to fight Arthur "the sword of the morning" by hearing the cry of "Eddard!" and that as I said, the last thing he sees before falling unconscious and dreaming his old dream, is the "first gray light of dawn"

b.     Ser Oswell: on one knee/ sharpening his blade/ the black bat spreading its wings.

 

Whent is in a rather strange position, and he is also the only one who seems to be anticipating a confrontation. But the strangest thing about Whent, is the helm he wears, which would be logical for a tournament, but not for the fight he seems to be expecting. In fact, Whent's helm is another of the red flags of the dream.

 

c.     Ser Gerold: between them/ standing fierce/ old Lord Commander

 

Hightower is in the middle of the other two and is the only one who doesn't seem to have a sword, at least there is no mention of one. Ned remembers him standing "fierce"

 

As we’ll see, each of the three guards are aligned with 2 vowes from the NW, according to the things that Ned notices in them:

1. Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, had a sad smile on his lips. The hilt of the greatsword Dawn poked up over his right shoulder.

·       I am the sword in the darkness “the sword of the morning”

·       “the light that brings the dawn” Dawn

 

At the end of the dream, when they are going to fight, Arthur says "and now it begins", to which Ned replies, "now it ends", that is the beginning of the end of the dream, the moment in which Arthur draws the "sword of the morning” is the time to wake up.

At that moment, when Ned says it's over, something interesting happens: “they came together in a rush of steel and shadow…”

We already saw that Ned's friends are shadows, but the curious thing is, that during the dream, there is only mention of two swords, Dayne's, which he draws when he’s about to fight Ned, and Whent's that sharpens his when the northerners reach the tower. But at the time of the confrontation, the only sword seems to be the Arthur’s:

“Ned’s wraiths moved up beside him, with shadow swords in hand. They were seven against three.

“And now it begins,” said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light.”

 

Unlike the other seven swords, Dayne's is "alive with light" which obviously makes one think of "the light the brings the dawn" and as we saw, that’s the light that Ned saw before fainting for the last time and having this dream, and that light was grey. That is the moment in the dream when baby Jon is born, pale and alive with (grey) light.

Let’s return to the prologue, because again, there are several coincidences. The Other’s sword also seems "alive", but with "moonlight".

While the Other has his duel with Royce, his 5 companions (and Will) watch faceless, silent, “all but invisible in the woods”, which is exactly the same scene we see in Ned's dream. The only sword is Arthur's, it's the only thing that matters, the rest is shadows, it's as if they weren't there. In the prologue, Will thinks that no metal had gone in the forging of the Other’s blade, which clearly, is a nice metaphor for the baby that´s being born.

In the dream, as the swords clash, Ned hears Lyanna scream and sees rose petals flying through the air.

“As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. “Eddard!” she called”. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.”

Something curious also happens when the swords clash in Waymar's duel:

“When the blades met, there was no ring of metal on metal; only a high, thin sound at the edge of hearing, like an animal screaming in pain.”

 

The ‘animal’ screaming in pain is obviously the ‘direwolf’ Lyanna giving birth.

In the prologue, the scene happens when night falls:

“Twilight deepened. The cloudless sky turned a deep purple, the color of an old bruise, then faded to black. The stars began to come out. A half-moon rose. Will was grateful for the light.”

 

In the dream, the blue sky is “blood-straked”, meaning, the sun is setting, it is twilight.

That brings to mind another part of the NW oath:

“Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death.”

 

Arthur says "and now it begins", as if at that moment, at nightfall, his "watch" began, which is completely consistent with the position of the guards at the beginning of the dream, with their backs to the tower, as if they were watchers on the Wall.

One last comment, for now, about Arthur. When Ned meets him in the dream, Arthur has a "sad smile", and that smile is extremely curious, because as we saw, when Ned reminds Robert that he was with Lyanna when he died, has this memory: “Ned remembered the way she had smiled then…”.

 

In short, it is not about Arthur that Ned dreams of, but Lyanna. She is the one with the "sad smile", who wields "the sword of the morning" when giving birth to Jon who "brings the light".

We'll get back to Lyanna and Dawn later.

2. Ser Oswell Whent was on one knee, sharpening his blade with a whetstone. Across his white-enameled helm, the black bat of his House spread its wings.

 

·       I am the watcher on the walls the black bat

·       The horn that wakes the sleepers was on one knee

 

For Whent, I’m going to start with the horn. A horn is, as we know, an instrument that is used to announce or warn something. The NW, for example, uses three different calls depending on who’s approaching, one for returning rangers, two for wildlings, and three for when “The Others” arrive.

The horn in the dream is the position in which Whent is, on his knees.

 

This is a thought that Ned has in the crypt during Robert's visit:

“He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes.”

 

In the dream, Whent is one knee, as if he has lost his strength, in Ned's memory, Lyanna has no strength, the fever "had taken her strength".

In the prologue, Will is also powerless and voiceless, watching the scene in panic and as he does so, he holds a knife in his mouth, finding that the “cold taste of iron” gave him comfort. That's exactly what seems to be happening with Whent, who mechanically sharpens the sword.

The most famous horn in the series is, of course, is the "Horn of Winter" the mysterious horn that "wake giants" and clearly, a person (Ned) who claims to have brought down a tower must be a giant. But obviously, what wakes up Ned is his own name, when at the start of 'the fight' Lyanna shouts "Eddard" and that shout, is in itself a huge SHOUT, for us.

Let's see once again what happens in Ned's memory:

“…but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes”

 

The fear leaves Lyanna's eyes when he gave his word, and that's obvious in Whent's position, on his knees, because he's making a promise.

When Ned gives her his word, he remembers that "the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes." Oswell wears a helm adorned with a bat, a blind animal that is the definition of a "watcher on the walls."

While in the crypt with Robert, Ned thinks this:

 

“The Lords of Winterfell watched them pass. Their likenesses were carved into the stones that sealed the tombs. In long rows they sat, blind eyes staring out into eternal darkness, while great stone direwolves curled round their feet. The shifting shadows made the stone figures seem to stir as the living passed by.”

 

Like bats, the Winterfell statues have "blind eyes" and of course, their natural environment is the "eternal darkess".

In short, Whent is going to help us understand Ned's promises and their link with the crypt and Jon's father. We will see more details of this later.

 

3. Between them stood fierce old Ser Gerold Hightower, the White Bull, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

 

 

·       I am the fire that burns against the cold stood fierce (the white)

·       The shield that guards the realms of men between them

 

 

To talk about Gerold, we must obviously talk about Lyanna, this whole part of the dream is about her, it's “Lyanna in her bed of blood”, but first, let's go back beyond the wall for a minute, when Waymar orders Will to climb the tree:

“Ser Waymar looked him over with open disapproval. “I am not going back to Castle Black a failure on my first ranging. We will find these men.” I have glanced around. “Up the tree. Be quick about it. Look for a fire.”

Now yes, let's see what Ned thought of his sister:

“Ned remembered (…) how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black.” 

 

I said a while ago that the burning faces in Ned's memories aren’t the guards faces, but the faces of his family, and that is more than clear in Gerold’s image in Ned's dream. The LC is between the two guards, standing "fierce" but with no sword in sight. In Ned's memory of his sister, Lyanna’s fingers “clutched his” as she dies.

 

Let's examine the central figure of the WF crypt:

“Lord Rickard Stark, Ned’s father, had a long, stern face. (…) He sat with quiet dignity, stone fingers holding tight to the sword across his lap, but in life all swords had failed him.”

 

In Ned's memory of his father, all swords failed him, hence, he thinks the statue is holding the sword tightly. But as he mentioned earlier, Lyanna’s, "fingers had clutched his" as if she were clutching a sword, and that is, metaphorically, exactly what she is doing, clutching her sword tight.

Gerold's first vow is "the fire that burns against the cold", which is logical, the Hightower sigil shows a tower with fire on top and in Ned's dream, the LC is standing "fierce" as a watchtower. Rickard, as we know, was burned to death while his son Brandon was trying to reach for a sword. In the dream, moreover, Gerold is in the same position as Rickard in the crypt, in the middle.

Lord Commander Hightower was called the “White Bull”, but as I said, his sigil is a tower with fire on top, and that image of Hightower standing fierce, and with fire on top, is the image of a weirwood tree, with the white trunk and the red-blood leaves.

Hightower is the oldest of the group and is also the leader, so he is Brandon's parallel, the first son, "the true heir, the eldest, born to rule" according to what Ned thinks.

In the prologue, Gared is the older 'brother' therefore, he is both Lord Rickard, burning to death (Gared wanting to make a fire) and Lord Brandon, Gared running to die.

But when the black brothers are heading to the ridge (which corresponds to the moment in the other scenario when the 3 come out of the tower) Gared is Lord Eddard. Gared was an old ranger who spent almost his entire life in the NW and tells Waymar about the effects of the cold because he experienced them firsthand:

“I’ve had the cold in me too, lordling.” Gared pulled back his hood, giving Ser Waymar a good long look at the stumps where his ears had been. “Two ears, three toes, and the little finger off my left hand. I got off light. We found my brother frozen at his watch, with a smile on his face.”

 

The interesting thing, for now, is the number of members that Gared lost due to the cold: 2 ears, 3 toes, and the little finger, that is, 6 in total. That is the number of shadows that go with Ned to the tower, and those are not friends, those are Cat and her children.

About the brother, “frozen at his watch” I will talk later.

 

Let's continue with the vows, the "shield that guards the realms of men", or in the case of the dream, the rose petals.

 

The greatest shield of Westeros, of course, is the Ice Wall, and that is exactly what the roses that Lyanna drops on her deathbed represent here.

“Ned remembered (…) how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black”

At the end of the dream, as I mentioned before, when Lyanna screams, the petals that Ned sees are not black, but blue, like the sky:

“A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.”

 

It is understood that they are blue petals of winter roses, Lyanna's favorites. So, in the fight that Ned dreams of, the petals are blue, but when Lyanna dies, the flowers are "dead and black" as if to show that things happened at two different times. The petals are supposed to prove that her death is Rhaegar's responsibility, but they prove a very different thing that has nothing to do with Rhaegar.

 

Back to the dream, once the roses fall, dead and black, Ned's amnesia begins:

“Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing.”

 

The problem, as I said, is that the events that Ned dreams of are more than one and they are messy and mixed. This dream has a high ‘appropriation component’ on Ned's part, that's why there are so many things that don't make any sense.

Let's find out the truth.

The scream that Ned hears, "Eddard!" and the blue flowers flying, didn’t happen in any tower in Dorne, but is part of his dream of Harrenhal.

Ned is not fighting against any kingsguard, but he is, with the identity of the KoLT, defending the honor of his friend Howland Reed, and the one who shouts Eddard, of course, is not Lyanna, who like all his family and friends called him Ned, but Ashara, who in Ned's dream is the one who gets the laurel of "queen of love and beauty" and shouts the name of the champion, of the dream.

That is the dream of the "three knights in white cloaks" because apparently, like Bran, Ned dreamed of being a kingsguard.

Of course, Ned wasn't the KoLT, it was Howland. This dream is similar to Dany’s dreaming that she fights on the Trident and wins. Pure fantasy.

By the way, do you know who sent the cutthroat to end Bran's suffering? It was Ned. The killer told Cat that It was “a mercy”, and the most merciful guy in the series, is Ned. Ned knew exactly what's like to dream with things you'll never get, and how much pain it causes.

 

“He had a grim cast to his grey eyes this day, and he seemed not at all the man who would sit before the fire in the evening and talk softly of the age of heroes and the children of the forest. He had taken off Father's face, Bran thought, and donned the face of Lord Stark of Winterfell.” Bran I – AgoT

 

Ned has many more faces than Bran knows, in fact, he has seven, his, and the six that in his dream, he wants to put on his friends and can't:

“Proud Martyn Cassel, Jory’s father; faithful Theo Wull; Ethan Glover, who had been Brandon’s squire; Ser Mark Ryswell, soft of speech and gentle of heart; the crannogman, Howland Reed; Lord Dustin on his great red stallion.”.

 

During the day, Ned is a proud father, a faithful husband, Brandon´s squire (meaning he’s taking his place), a gentle of heart man, a brave man, and a “great stallion”. During the night though…

The three faces that burn him, burn him because they are related to THREE HUGE lies that he told and Ned above all wants to be honest. He's not Jon's father, he didn't kill any Kingsguard, and he killed Lyanna when he found out who Jon’s father was.

Lyanna's death in her bed of blood, as we saw, happened, in part, as Ned dreams of it, except he killed her.

The only thing Ned really did in Dorne is take Arthur's sword to Starfall, and we’ll see how he got the sword, because Ned wasn't there when Arthur died.

We already talked, in part, about the three scenarios of Ned's dream, now we are going to see how the three come together.

Let's first take a look at all the places that are mentioned in the dream, and the responses of the guards:

“I looked for you on the Trident,” Ned said to them.

“We were not there,” Ser Gerold answered.

“Woe to the Usurper if we had been,” said Ser Oswell.

 

“When King’s Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were.”

“Far away,” Ser Gerold said, “or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells.”

“I came down on Storm’s End to lift the siege,” Ned told them, “and the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne dipped their banners, and all their knights bent the knee to pledge us fealty. I was certain you would be among them.”

“Our knees do not bend easily,” said Ser Arthur Dayne.

“Ser Willem Darry is fled to Dragonstone, with your queen and Prince Viserys. I thought you might have sailed with him.”

“Ser Willem is a good man and true,” said Ser Oswell.

“But not of the Kingsguard,” Ser Gerold pointed out. “The Kingsguard does not flee.”

“Then or now,” said Ser Arthur. He donned his helm.

“We swore a vow,” explained old Ser Gerold.

 

Let's start with the simplest, in this dialogue four places are mentioned that are very relevant in Ned's story:

•       The Trident: the place where Ned marries Cat instead of his brother and where Lyanna disappears

•       King's Landing; Rickard and Brandon die there

•       Storm's End: the place that should have been Lyanna's home if she married Robert

•       Dragonstone: We'll see how relevant it is to the dream later.

 

The most obvious thing about all this dialogue is that, at all times, and this is another huge red flag of the dream, Ned seems more concerned with knowing the whereabouts of the guards than with the sister who is supposed to be held in the tower. Let's then finish solving the three mysteries, the knights, the tower and Lyanna.

Like Waymar demanded: we will find these men!

Let's start by examining the very strange dialogue that Ned has with the guards, because interestingly, it matches perfectly with what happens in the prologue. Let's take into account the order that Waymar gives to Will when he sends him to climb the tree from which he was supposed to locate the eight lost wildlings: “look for a fire”.

That is what we are going to try to do now, find our fires. The moment Ned reaches the tower and begins to speak, is the moment that Waymar stands alone on the ridge.

This is how Waymar arrives on the scene:

“Down below, the lordling called out suddenly, “Who goes there?” Will heard uncertainty in the challenge.”

While this happens in Ned’s dream

“I looked for you on the Trident,” Ned said to them.
“We were not there,” Ser Gerold answered.
“Woe to the Usurper if we had been,” said Ser Oswell.

Arthur Dayne makes no sound.

While this happens in the prologue in response to Waymar’s question:

“The Others made no sound.
Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding through the wood. He turned his head, glimpsed a white shadow in the darkness. (…) Perhaps it had only been a bird, a reflection on the snow, some trick of the moonlight. What had he seen, after all?”

In the dream, the guards are wearing white, and that’s exactly what Will sees, a white figure. When he wants to warn Waymar, “the words seemed to freeze” which is apparently what happens to Arthur since he doesn’t reply to Ned.

But the most interesting thing is that Will thinks he saw a "bird", because that's exactly what he saw. In this scene there are 3 birds, one white, one black and one gray, one for each color of the armor of the "Other" who fights with Waymar, and one for each parallel, a KG, a brother of the NW, a dead Stark.

This is when the dream must be splitted into three parts, because we must remember that there are two people on the ridge, Waymar and Will, while a third, Gerold, awaits with the horses.

Let's start with the gray bird, Ned on the Trident. Let us remember that Arthur’s sister, of whom we know absolutely nothing, committed suicide by jumping from a tower.

 “Eddard Stark had married her in Brandon’s place, as custom decreed, but the shadow of his dead brother still lay between them, as did the other, the shadow of the woman he would not name, the woman who had borne him his bastard son.” Cat II- AGoT

Cat believes that Ashara Dayne is Jon's mother, so she thinks of her as a "shadow" who stands between her and Ned.

In the dream, Gerold, who as I said in the previous part represents Brandon, says that he wasn't on the Trident, which of course is true, that's why Ned ends up marrying Cat.

Now let us consider what Oswell says, "woe to the usurper" to find the other two little birds. The first usurper is Ned, who takes Brandon's place in every way, even if it's not something he wanted. But Ned not only usurped Brandon, but he also usurped the "other".

It is curious that, at least for me, every time I think about this part of the history of the Starks, I always forget about Benjen. Probably, it is because he was very young, he was barely 14 years old, but the truth is that they were all very young, Lyanna was 16, Ned 18 and Brandon 20. But, in addition, the age that Benjen was, is the age that Jon was when he wanted to escape from the Wall upon learning that Ned had been arrested. Imagine what Jon would have done if, being in WF and being a trueborn Stark, someone kidnapped Arya.

The reality is that Ned usurped Benjen’s story, because the one who rescued Lyanna was him. Benjen became First Ranger when he was very young, likely because he was a great hunter or tracker or both, and "hunting" the 3 guards was exactly what he did.

The prologue makes it clear that the first to die was Dayne, and that's how Benjen got the sword that Ned later returned to Dorne.

This part of Ned's dream makes it clear that Dayne died on the Trident, which is why Arthur doesn't respond.

Let's remember the vows we used to analyze Dayne: I am the sword in the darkness, and the light that brings the dawn. Benjen is the hidden sword, no one knows that he was the hero who rescued Lyanna while Lyanna is “the light that brings the dawn”.

As for Dawn, I believe that the 6 northerners were supposed to deliver the sword and Ned joined them. And do you know how they died? One by one, like in the Last Hero’s legend, you know the one of the lone hero that tryes to fix his broken sword? Of course, it was Ned who killed them, but not because of the sword, but because of Ashara. She was his ‘magic’.  Funny detail, if you add Ned’s 7 faces plus the 6 northerners you get 13, the number of men in the legend.

Let's get on with the dream.

In the dream, Ned wonders:

“When King’s Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were.”
“Far away,” Ser Gerold said, “or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells.”

In the prologue, Waymar also wonders:

“Will, where are you?” Ser Waymar called up. “Can you see anything?” He was turning in a slow circle, suddenly wary, his sword in hand. He must have felt them, as Will felt them. There was nothing to see.”

I said in the previous part that when Ned finds the guards, Whent is wearing a helm with a black bat, a blind animal. When Ned mentions KL in the dream, the words he uses are interesting “I wondered” he says, which is basically what Waymar says in the prologue, that he can't see anything.

 

When we analyzed Whent, we saw that the vows that corresponded to him were “watcher on the walls” which both Benjen and Lyanna, sadly are, and “the horn that wakes the sleepers”, which I said had to do with two things, the scream “Eddard!” (the horn of winter) and Whent's position on his knees (a promise), which of course translates to “winter is coming”

 

 

Note that now there’s more than one shadow, Will says “he must have felt them”

 

Let's go back for a minute to the scene of the disappearance of the wildlings in the prologue, because it is essential to understand what follows and what really happened in the war.

 

“Tell me again what you saw, Will. All the details. Leave nothing out.”

Will had been a hunter before he joined the Night’s Watch. Well, a poacher in truth.

(…) No one could move through the woods as silent as Will, and it had not taken the black brothers long to discover his talent. (…)

“Did you see any blood?”

“Well, no,” Will admitted.

“Did you see any weapons?”

“Some swords, a few bows. One man had an axe. Heavy-looking, double-bladed, a cruel piece of iron. It was on the ground beside him, right by his hand.”

“Did you make note of the position of the bodies?”

Will shrugged. “A couple are sitting up against the rock. Most of them on the ground. Fallen, like.”

“Or sleeping,” Royce suggested.

 

Will has a talent, which he recognizes himself, of being a hunter, a very silent one, like Benjen. Brandon, at least according to Ned, was supposed to "always know what to do", but I think, or rather affirm, that Benjen was (is) cold, while Brandon was more like Jaime.

 

We saw before that when Ned passes out after Jaime's attack, the last thing he thinks of is a “grey light of dawn” and blood. That last thought is about Brandon. The attack that Ned suffers is because Jaime is defending his younger brother, which is something that Brandon would surely do, in fact, he dies trying to defend Lyanna.

 

Jaime himself tells Cat that Brandon was more like him and I think he was partly right.

 

When Ned mentions KL, Gerold says that Jaime is a 'false brother' and that's obviously related to Aerys's murder, (because Ned thinks that all his children failed to Rickard), but more importantly, it's related to something else that the Lannisters aren't original about.

Benjen also had an incestuous relationship with his sister and is in fact Jon's father. That’s why he tells Jon:

“Jon felt anger rise inside him. "I'm not your son!"

Benjen Stark stood up. "More's the pity." He put a hand on Jon's shoulder. "Come back to me after you've fathered a few bastards of your own, and we'll see how you feel."

There are several clues in the text that point to his paternity (I’ll leave the best for later), but one very suggestive I think, is that we found out about the Lannister sibling’s incest in the First Keep, while Benjen was in WF hunting with Ned and the King. Of course, it's very interesting that when Ned talks to Cersei about her bastards, and the queen tells him that she is sleeping with her brother, (the watcher), because Robert is still in love with Lyanna, Ned feels like crying. And so do I.

The point is that the only one who answers here is Gerold, which indicates that Whent died in KL and that this is where Benjen found Lyanna, on the incest capital of the world, no less.

Let's remember that Whent is sharpening the sword, meaning the “bats” where conceiving Jon.

The idea that it was KL and not Dorne where Lyanna was taken makes a lot more sense, because it also explains Brandon going there directly. That doesn't imply, in any way, that she was being held at the Red Keep, just that she was in the city. It also explains Ned's mental link between the walls of the Red Keep and the mountains of Dorne behind the tower he dreams of (the first keep), as if the tower were somewhere in KL with the Red Keep behind it, which likely was.

As for Gerold and his "far away" location, I think he was one of the loyalists who escaped to Essos.

As I said, in the prologue, at this point Will notices that there’s more than one shadow, which is correct, there is also the “shadow of Jon's mother” that Cat feels, Lyanna.

Next stop, the cold:

“I came down on Storm’s End to lift the siege,” Ned told them, “and the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne dipped their banners, and all their knights bent the knee to pledge us fealty. I was certain you would be among them.”

“Our knees do not bend easily,” said Ser Arthur Dayne.

 

This time, the only one that answers, and very coldly, is Ser Arthur. 

In the prologue, Waymar is starting to feel very cold.

“Answer me! Why is it so cold?”
It was cold. Shivering, Will clung more tightly to his perch”.

Let's remember that the Tyrell's sigil is a rose, and the Redwyne's a grape and this explains what actually happened in Harrenhal with Ashara Dayne.

Before, I want to highlight the detail that Waymar yells “Answer me! Why is it so cold? which is a very clear reference to Ned’s dream when he hears the cry “Eddard!” while winter rose petals fly.

At Robert's welcome banquet, Benjen tells Jon that around his age it was the first time he got "truly and sincerely drunk", so we can assume it was at Harrenhall’s and well away from Rickard's stern look, which is basically what Jon did at the WF banquet.

According to Selmy, 'a Stark' dishonored poor Ashara during the tournament, but Ned's dream suggests otherwise.

Ned's dream makes it clear that it was Robert, the perpetual drunkard, who dishonored Ashara, Ned's 'rose' and that he did so, surely, in what Rhaegar called the "tower of joy", which was surely a tower in Harrenhal where Elia's companions were, so Ned thinks that, for Rhaegar, it would be a place of joy, but for him, the tower of joy was nothing more than a “bitter memory”. This also explains the "tower long fallen", the towers of Harrenhal fell a long time ago.

Who told Selmy that “Stark” had dishonored Ashara? Surely Robert, who was always confused with which women he had slept with and with which Ned had.

Why does Rhaegar crown Lyanna? Actually, it wasn't him, but Benjen, who is undoubtedly a Warg. I'll talk more about him later, but for now, I think the most obvious evidence is that the First Keep is always full of crows, like Raventree Hall, and crows seem to be in abundance where a warg lived. Which also explains Mormont's raven. The thing is that it was likely just a nice gesture because she clearly found out about Robert and Ashara.

Another evidence that it wasn't Rhaegar who intentionally crowned Lyanna, but Benjen’s joke, is Ned's memory. According to Ned, when the prince urged his horse and placed Lyanna's crown on her lap (where the Lords of Winterfell have their swords), “all smiles died”.

When Robert visits the crypt and reproaches Ned for being humorless, Ned tells him "they say it grows so cold up here in winter that a man's laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death," Hence a crown of winter roses on queen’s Lyanna’s lap.

Ashara and Robert ‘thing’ is also clear in the prologue, Waymar says "Dance with me then" when the duel begins and while he is defending himself well, it is clear that "dance" is the only thing that Ned and Ashara did. When Waymar yells “For Robert!” he brutally falls to his knees, which is basically a metaphor that Ashara had sex with Robert.

Let us remember the vows "the fire that burns against the cold", Ashara, one of the faces that burns Ned and "the shield that guards the realms of men", our good king Robert, first of his name, drunkard and horrible friend.

This is the final exchange:

“Ser Willem Darry is fled to Dragonstone, with your queen and Prince Viserys. I thought you might have sailed with him.”

“Ser Willem is a good man and true,” said Ser Oswell.

“But not of the Kingsguard,” Ser Gerold pointed out. “The Kingsguard does not flee.”

“Then or now,” said Ser Arthur. He donned his helm.

“We swore a vow,” explained old Ser Gerold.

Let’s start with Willem, because “good man and true” are literally the words Ned used to refer to Robert when Lyanna told him that he would never be faithful.

“…but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his heart. Lyanna had only smiled. "Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man's nature."

By the way, the “sad smile” on Arthur’s face comes from this memory

Oswell claims that the one who fled, “Willem” is a "good man and true", which is not exactly truth. Willem is no Ser, but “Willa” Jon’s alleged mother, ‘Cat’s shadow’, Ashara Dayne.

She ‘fled’, meaning she died, and of course, that’s the corpse that Ned brought back from Dorne. Ashara’s corpse was never found after she jumped from the tower because Ned found her dead body when he went to return Arthur’s sword. He brought her corpse north with him, not Lyanna’s and of course, no baby.

Remember the “fever” that took Lyanna? Ned believes that what killed Ashara was the hot, just as Will believed that what killed the wildlings was the cold. He took her north to ‘heal her’.

That’s exactly what the prologue says when Will describes the missing wildlings, there's eight of them, men and women both, that is, ‘the seven Neds’ and Ashara’s corpse.

Then Will adds "no living man ever lay so still", in fact, "no living woman". Remember the eight-sided kitchen in the Nightfort? Here it is, Ned’s seven faces plus Ashara’s.

You see, that’s the thing with poor Ned, nothing is what it seems here. Brandon’s statue is actually Lyanna’s, since she wasn’t allowed to wield a sword when she was alive, Ned, who understood better than anybody what it was to be denied, buried her with one, buried her like a ‘true’ Stark. Like a queen. Brandon has no statue because he was never the Lord of WF, he died before his father (at least according to Ned’s memories). The most convincing proof here is that Ned tells Robert about Lyanna “you saw her beauty but not the iron”, meaning that when in front of the 3 statues, he didn’t recognize her dressed as Brandon.

Lyanna’s statue, on the other hand, is Ashara’s. People see what they want to see, and no one noticed that the statues are wrong, and that is why, as I mentioned earlier, Ned only thinks that his father statue looks like him. What wakes Ned from the dream is Ashara yelling Eddard, because he dreams that he won the tournament and married her, making her the ‘other’ queen in the crypt.

“By ancient custom an iron longsword had been laid across the lap of each who had been Lord of Winterfell, to keep the vengeful spirits in their crypts. The oldest had long ago rusted away to nothing, leaving only a few red stains where the metal had rested on stone. Ned wondered if that meant those ghosts were free to roam the castle now. He hoped not.”

Ned's fear is not of any Stark, his fear is that Ashara's ghost might be loose in the castle. Ashara is the maiden trapped in the tower, in a completely twisted version.

“But not of the Kingsguard,” Ser Gerold pointed out. “The Kingsguard does not flee.”

“Then or now,” said Ser Arthur. He donned his helm.

“We swore a vow,” explained old Ser Gerold.

When Gerold (Lord Stark) and Dayne say "we swore a vow" at the mention of Dragonstone, Ned’s fantasy finally makes a LOT of sense.

The dream of “three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood” is Ned's dream of being the “King of Winter” and having his two wives, Lyanna and Ashara, that’s why he dreams of the First Keep, the one with the gargoyles.

Remember that Gerold looks like a weirwood tree when Ned meets him in the dream. That encounter is actually Ned dreaming to be in front of a wierwood where on either side, one of his two wives awaits him, Lyanna, the protective wife, and Ashara, the beautiful wife.

Ned named Jon his bastard because he is convinced that Jon is his.

“The thought of Jon filled Ned with a sense of shame, and a sorrow too deep for words. If only he could see the boy again, sit and talk with him … pain shot through his broken leg, beneath the filthy grey plaster of his cast. He winced, his fingers opening and closing helplessly.”

This quote is great. Do you remember that in Lyanna’s death scene Ned remembers how she hold his fingers real tight? As we can see in the above quote the funny (tragic) thing is, that when Ned feels helpless, he opens and closes his fingers, which is the exact same thing that Jon does after he burns his right hand, and that’s the exact same gesture that Ned dreams Lyanna did while dying, “nothing burns like the cold”.

Ned’s shame is not about fathering Jon, is about killing her mother. Because deep, deep down he remembers.

But that’s not why Ned is so protective towards Jon, on daylight, he is convinced that Jon’s the son he had with the love of his life, Ashara.

Jon is Ned’s “song” of ice and fire, but the song, as all songs is wrong.

The faces that “burn” Ned are Ashara’s (Arthur), Benjen’s (Whent), and Lyanna’s (Gerold).

Let’s please talk about Benjen.

This is the moment when Waymar meets his enemy, The Other:

“A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.

Will heard the breath go out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss. “Come no farther,” the lordling warned. His voice cracked like a boy’s. He threw the long sable cloak back over his shoulders, to free his arms for battle, and took his sword in both hands. The wind had stopped. It was very cold.”

The “shadow” that Waymar sees is described as tall, and gaunt, and hard, with a skin pale as “milk” because Benjen is the youngest, the “pup”. Of course, the armor changes color, as Benjen has changed his cloak. When The Other, (Benjen), saw Waymar's sword he "halted" because Waymar's sword has sapphires, which are blue like the Winter roses, which clearly, for a moment, took him home.

This is how Jon describes his uncle (and father):

“His uncle was sharp-featured and gaunt as a mountain crag, but there was always a hint of laughter in his blue-grey eyes. (…) Benjen watched Ghost with amusement as he ate his onion. “A very quiet wolf,” he observed. “He’s not like the others,” Jon said. “He never makes a sound. That’s why I named him Ghost. That, and because he’s white. The others are all dark, grey or black.”

Benjen is one of the “others” one of the shadows in the woods and is easy to guess where he got the other five, the shadows from the prologue.

Benjen Stark stood up. "More's the pity." He put a hand on Jon's shoulder. "Come back to me after you've fathered a few bastards of your own, and we'll see how you feel."

 

 

How did he end up like that? A curse.

 

"I will," Ned had promised her. That was his curse. Robert would swear undying love and forget them before evenfall, but Ned Stark kept his vows.

 

Ned’s curse was to keep his vows, but Benjen's far more complicated.

 

I'll talk about Benjen some other time.

Thanks for reading!