northern_amnesia Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 "They say it grows so cold up here in winter that a man's laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death," Ned said evenly. "Perhaps that is why the Starks have so little humor." Eddard I - AGoT In the previous part, I compared Ned's dream with AGoT’s prologue and a few other quotes from that same novel to prove that this dream actually hides that Ned told 3 pretty terrible lies, that are hidden in three scenarios inside that dream. Three knights in white cloaks This dream that seems to be about Ned talking with 3 KG hides the fact that Ned found Ashara’s dead body in Dorne and brought her to Winterfell. It also proves that the crypt statues are a hoax. Brandon's statue is actually Lyanna's (and has her remains inside) and Lyanna's is actually Ashara's, and of course has Ashara's corpse. Here's a cool hint that I didn't add in the previous part: Quote "I gave them over to the silent sisters, to be sent north to Winterfell. Jory would want to lie beside his grandfather." It would have to be his grandfather, for Jory's father was buried far to the south.” According to Ned Lyanna wanted to go home, “to rest beside Brandon and Father” Considering that the statues are actually hiding two women, the ones in the crypt are two very silent “sisters”. A tower long fallen Ned dreams that he was the champion in Harrenhal, and after winning, he crowned Ashara “queen of beauty”, obviously with the crown of winter roses while she yells “Eddard!”. There is a small detail that I did not mention in the previous part, and that is very interesting. Quote “Yet when the jousting began, the day belonged to Rhaegar Targaryen. The crown prince wore the armor he would die in: gleaming black plate with the three-headed dragon of his House wrought in rubies on the breast” The hidden reality of this dream is that the night belonged to Robert with his blue eyes like winter roses, he dishonored Ashara, and was later crowned king. This was the beginning of Ned’s very long night. Lyanna in her bed of blood This is the worst dream, because Lyanna's death was not natural, Ned killed her. All Swords Seeing his father statue in the crypt when Robert arrives at WF, Ned thinks: “He sat with quiet dignity, stone fingers holding tight to the sword across his lap, but in life all swords had failed him.” Ned was very traumatized by his father’s death. This idea that all his children failed him is a very important ingredient of his dream. This is also clear in the 3 things that Waymar says during the fight with the Other: "come no farther", "dance with me", "for Robert!" which in turn are indicative of Ned's 3 major traumas: · 3 knights: Ned blames Brandon for not marrying Cat. This is the "come no farther" of the Trident. In order to continue the war, Ned was forced to marry. · The tower: corresponds to Harrenhal "dance with me" where he met Ashara and could only dance with her, incredibly, Ned doesn’t blame Robert for what happened, but Lyanna · Lyanna: Lyanna's death happened “For Robert” because Lyanna went against what her father wanted for her. Lyanna paid for both her ‘crimes’ and Brandon's. That's why she dies strangled (like Brandon) and takes his place in the crypt. Quote “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.” Ned's father was obviously, long dead by the time Ned killed Lyanna, so it was Jon who was forced to watch her die. That explains the nightmares he has about the crypt, because surely, Lyanna died there, in front of her father’s statue, and his dreams are about not remembering what he saw. Thankfully. Quote “"No," Jon Snow said quietly. "It was not courage. This one was dead of fear. You could see it in his eyes, Stark." Jon's eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see” Bran I – AgoT I already mentioned in the last part that Ned remembers specifically that Lyanna had ‘fear in her eyes’. That explains why Ned's dream ends at the moment he steps forward with a “shadow sword” that is, his own bare hands to strangle Lyanna. Clearly Lyanna didn’t deserve to die, and that is something that Ned knows, but refuses to assume, so he wakes up from the dream before he can see her face. Quote If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.” Bran I - AGoT This whole dream is an atonement for Ned's tremendous inferiority complex. And of course, was likely caused by Robert’s very toxic masculinity that Ned admires so much. Instead of accepting his shortcomings, Ned forced himself into a personality in which he stole pieces of other people lives. He said he killed all three guards, but it was Benjen (actually he only killed two of them). He spread the rumor that he had dishonored Ashara (and that Jon was possibly hers), knowing that Robert had surely already forgotten her. He said that he had fathered a bastard, believing that it proved his manhood, since Robert already had a bastard. The thing is that being sensitive, caring, loyal and faithful, which are all the things that Ned truly was, was something that had no place in his life. Now that we're done with Ned, let's head north to talk about the other Stark, Benjen. I already mentioned in the previous part that what happens to Benjen, what makes him look the way he does is a "curse". The first clue that this is actually his problem, is in the calls that the NW uses, which are a suggestion of the "Horn of Winter". The problem is that there is a misunderstanding about what the horn is and what it is for. Let's remember that the NW has 3 calls: 1 blast is for rangers, 2 blasts for wildlings, 3 blasts is for the Others. And keep in mind that Joramun, a wildling was the only known blower of said horn. Well, coincidentally, the NW calls matches the number of Ned's siblings: · Brandon going to KL never to return. He is the ranger · Lyanna was of course the wildling · Benjen is “The Other”, the one who mysteriously goes north Let's think about the 3 brothers, in terms of what those 3 calls mean in the north. 1. Brandon, the Night’s Watch. The only thing we know about Brandon Stark is that upon learning that Lyanna had been taken, he went to KL to yell "come out and die", which led to his arrested for threatening the prince's life and later execution. According to Ned, Brandon always knew what to do. The reality is that Brandon did a huge stupid thing. Robb, like Brandon, also seemed to always know what to do, and like his uncle, ended up doing the stupidest thing. 2. Lyanna Stark, the wildling princess It is more than clear that Lyanna was ‘different’. I'll talk more about her later. 3. Benjen, The Others What makes Benjen look the way we see him in the prologue? The Night’s Watch Oath. The oath, as we saw when Jon says his vows, are now sworn in a grove of 9 weirwoods, which I think, replaces the place where the vows were originally taken, the Nightfort. In that castle, as we know, is the Black Gate, (the white weirwood door), and to get to that door, you must go through a room, a kitchen, that is a stone octagon with a domed roof, that kitchen contains a stepped well that leads to the door. The kitchen itself represents gluttony, one of the deadly sins. From that sin comes the legend of the rat cook, because that legend, that speaks of the sacred law of hospitality, also speaks of excessive appetite. An excessive "appetite" takes many forms, and the most extreme was that of the Night’s King. The NW is a place where every man has the chance to "rise high", no matter their origin, anyone can become Lord Commander, but for the Night's King being Lord Commander wasn´t enough, so he declared himself king. The NW is unique, there’s no other place where equal opportunities are granted, except beyond the Wall of course. South of the Wall however, the older brother gets everything, while the youngest are doomed to watch. Let's go back to the door and Benjen. This is the entire NW vow, which as we know, is made up of two parts, and only the second opens the door. Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come. The second part of the vow are the words that a brother must say when the Black Gate asks: “Who are you?” then the brother answer, “I am…” and then the door open saying “Then pass” The question that the door asks is an existential question, the Night’s Watch vows are existential, but the Wall, that’s a magical place. And now his watch is ended Before I continue with what happened to Benjen when he took the vows, I'm going to try to explain what happened to him before he went to the Wall. Let's remember a couple of things that we talked about in the previous part when examining Ned's dream and the NW vows. In Ned's dream, Benjen is represented in the first part, (the one about Lyanna's death) as Oswell Whent. In that part, Oswell is on his knees and with a bat on his helm that looks about to fly. Benjen is swearing to join the NW and never tell Jon that he was his father. That's what the bat is about, the blind animal that flies. At what point does Ned finish losing his mind and killing Lyanna? When he arrives from Dorne, where he had gone to do a very simple task with 6 men and comes back claiming that five of them are dead. Obviously, questions are asked by his family, and Ned had all the wrong answers. In the last part I mentioned a part of the prologue that illustrates this perfectly: Quote “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. (…) Upon returning north, Ned tells the story of the confrontation with the guards and the tragic death of the northerners, and that story is the official story because the people who knew the truth was silenced. Later when Ashara’s name started being mentioned in WF, Ned had to put an end to it because questions were about to start again. Ned didn’t know how to lie, and that forced him to be honest or staying silent. And he chose silence. This is how Old Nan told the story of The Others: Quote “In that darkness, the Others came for the first time,” she said as her needles went click click click. “They were cold things, dead things, that hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun, and every creature with hot blood in its veins. They swept over holdfasts and cities and kingdoms, felled heroes and armies by the score, riding their pale dead horses and leading hosts of the slain. All the swords of men could not stay their advance, and even maidens and suckling babes found no pity in them. This is Ned's version of events. When Ned came back from the war, completely mad, completely broken, the darkness came to Winterfell, nothing of what was told is true. Ned was sent at age 7 to live in a really cold place, an ‘ice’ castle ‘floating’ on top of an inaccessible mountain. His only friend, Robert, slept with the woman Ned had fallen madly in love with, and apparently got her pregnant. His father was burned alive while his brother suffocated trying to save him. His sister was kidnapped and maybe raped. Ashara committed suicide in front of him. The one who returned from the war was not Ned, it was an ‘other', a cold man, dead inside, who hated "iron", because he was saturated of swords, who hated the south, lust and who hated the truth. Because the truth is that heroes dream of wars until they go to one, and women dream of princes until one rapes them, or ‘dishonor’ them and forget them. The legend of the Others, as told by Nan, is the Dornish fantasy told by Ned when he returned from the war: "They swept over holdfasts and cities and kingdoms, felled heroes and armies by the score, riding their pale dead horses and leading hosts of the slain.” Ned's version of how things turned out is the story of "the others" sweeping across the continent and reaching Dorne. The "felled heroes" is the story that Ned made, about how he killed the 3 Kingsguards, the "pale dead horse" is poor Ashara. The “hosts of the slain” are the northmen who fight in Dorne with him, because the reality is that by that time, they were already dead, Ned himself had killed them. Ned’s true talent was his imagination. Quote "If he could prove that the Lannisters were behind the attack on Bran, prove that they had murdered Jon Arryn, this man would listen. Then Cersei would fall, and the Kingslayer with her, and if Lord Tywin dared to rouse the west, Robert would smash him as he had smashed Rhaegar Targaryen on the Trident. He could see it all so clearly." Eddard VII - AGoT All the nights to come Now, let's talk about Benjen and his white shadows. Now that we know a lot about Ned's story, it's easier to explain it, Quote “You don’t know what you’re asking, Jon. The Night’s Watch is a sworn brotherhood. We have no families. None of us will ever father sons. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor.” “A bastard can have honor too,” Jon said. “I am ready to swear your oath.” “You are a boy of fourteen,” Benjen said. “Not a man, not yet. Until you have known a woman, you cannot understand what you would be giving up.” “I don’t care about that!” Jon said hotly. “You might, if you knew what it meant,” Benjen said. “If you knew what the oath would cost you, you might be less eager to pay the price, son.” Now let's examine the price that Benjen mentions to Jon because they are exactly what the statues in the crypt represent, and of course are the Tully words: · Family: Father, the likeness of the crypt. Represents the First Men or wildlings since apparently, they share the same blood. · Duty: Wife. The sword. Is there to "keep the vengeful spirits", represents the cold and implacable Others. · Honor: the mistress, the wolf in the crypt represents the Rangers, the ‘eyes’ beyond the wall. Now let's look at the Night's Watch vows as they’re divided in Ned's dream, in pairs, and we'll see that they are opposites: · The sword in the darkness/ The light that brings the dawn · The watcher on the Walls / The horn that wakes the sleepers · The fire that burns against the cold/ The shield that guards the realms I said before that the vows of the Night's Watch are existential, and this is clear when we see that the vows are even, when reciting the vows, one confesses being a grey person, with flaws and virtues, lights and shadows, love and hate, fire and ice. When Benjen made his oath, something curious happened, something that hadn't happened for thousands of years. Winterfell had fallen. In that moment, Benjen Stark became 3 different men at once, each with a different face: · The sword in the darkness: (The Wife, duty) The Other with his white shadows · The watcher on the walls: (The Father, family). Benjen Stark, the black · The fire that burns against the cold: (The Wolf, honor). A grey man (honor) Remember that the vows come in pairs, these are the remaining vows, I’ll talk about them later. · The light that brings the dawn - sword · The horn that wakes the sleepers - watcher · The shield that guards the realms - fire It’s nothing special Quote "It's nothing special," Jon said. He wanted to ride with Benjen Stark on his rangings, deep into the mysteries of the haunted forest, wanted to fight Mance Rayder's wildlings and ward the realm against the Others, but it was better not to speak of the things you wanted. "The rangers say it's just woods and mountains and frozen lakes, with lots of snow and ice." "And the grumkins and the snarks," Tyrion said. "Let us not forget them, Lord Snow, or else what's that big thing for?" Benjen the "black brother" has eyes of two different colors, grey and blue, the grey of the Starks and the blue of the Others. As he implies while talking to Jon, he suffers his vows, like most of the brothers of the Night's Watch. The "Other" is another ranger, Qhorin Halfhand, the grey-eyed ranger who is the embodiment of the NW's vows, but wears grey, and lives to pay for his guilt. Qhorin dies tragically fulfilling his mission to the bitter end, he is the one that carries the "curse" and on moonlit nights transforms into the "Other" with burning blue eyes, the eyes that Jon should have. Qhorin’s shadow is guilt made flesh, for being “the sword in the darkness”, (meaning Jon’s dad). The other shadows are the other five things he feels guilty about, Ned’s 'friends' the ones that died for absolutely no good reason on their way to Dorne. Qhorin’s guilt is so damn huge that it has a life of its own. The last one is obviously "Mance Rayder" the other ranger, the burnt king, , the "fire that burns against the cold", Jon's hope. He's the one that realized that he had already paid a much higher price than he deserved, the one who accepts that creepy or not, he loved Lyanna. The one who wants to tell his son who he is, but he promised not to, and the one who realized that being the oldest doesn't necessarily mean being the most qualified. Mance is the grey version, Benjen set free, his watch ended, that's why he looks like any other man and behaves like one. When Mance tells Jon that he saw him the night of Robert’s banquet, he is obviously telling the truth, Benjen was there, Ned himself invited him. They are all, like Benjen, the best ranger, the best swordsman, intelligent, charismatic, and loyal with their own. They are all wolves. Quote "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." "There are still direwolves beyond the Wall. We hear them on our rangings." Benjen Stark gave Jon a long look. The "long looks" are also characteristic of these three men every time they met Jon. If we are Taken When Will first sees the Others he describes them as "faceless, silent, all but invisible in the woods" which is very similar to the image of the gargoyles from the First Keep. This is what each of the 3 rangers who are all Jon's father represent, Mance is the faceless, Qhorin the silent, and Benjen the invisible. I said before that the Horn of Winter is a big misunderstanding in the story, here is the explanation. The 3 calls of the NW: rangers, wildlings and others, are the effect of the horn, the horn has already sounded, the giants have woken up. The 3 men are big, the three are 'direwolves', one white, one black and one grey, like the ones that came to Winterfell. When I talked about the place where Jon took his vow, I mentioned the grove of 9 weirwoods. Every weirwood, as we know has a face, and here are what the 9 weirwoods represent: Benjen and his three faces, Ned and his three lies, and the 3 statues in the crypt. The horn of Winter announces that winter already came and that’s related to a something that is repeated all the time in Winterfell: “there must always be a Stark in Winterfell”. I said before that the magic that happened to Benjen happened because Winterfell had fallen. Here’s why. One of Ned's horrible deeds, burying a body in the crypt that doesn't belong there, blew the horn. That is clear from the legend of the Night's King and his Corpse Queen. Why does the horn sound? Because in the crypt there’s buried a damsel in distress, not a Stark, and when there is a maiden locked in a tower, the heroes run to help her. That's the magic of the Wall, it's not just to protect the realm, it's to protect the realm from the Starks. The "Horn of Winter" is a cry for help from the crypt to a Stark hero, all the way to the Wall. This is the mission that Qhorin gives Jon shortly before he dies and that, like the horn, starts with an announcement: Quote "Then hear me. If we are taken, you will go over to them, as the wildling girl you captured once urged you. They may demand that you cut your cloak to ribbons, that you swear them an oath on your father's grave, that you curse your brothers and your Lord Commander. You must not balk, whatever is asked of you. Do as they bid you . . . but in your heart, remember who and what you are. Ride with them, eat with them, fight with them, for as long as it takes. And watch." What Qhorin is telling him explains how Benjen ended up in the NW, when Jon was "taken" by Ned. Benjen took the oath, but he never forgot. Qhorin is Benjen’s more suffering side, the guilty one, the one who tries to spend as much time as he can with his child while he silently watches him and tries to get to know him but remains silent in anticipation of his rejection. He is also the one who feels the most guilt for having fathered a bastard, while what Benjen regrets is not that, but leaving him. Mance, on the other side, is trying to make amends instead of getting stuck in the things he did and can't change. Mance is Benjen’s healthier side. When Jon met Mance, the King told him something curious about Benjen: Quote “I wanted to see this Robert with my own eyes, king to king, and get the measure of your uncle Benjen as well. He was First Ranger by then, and the bane of all my people." The wording when he mentions Robert and how he wanted to see him with his “own eyes” is great, because being one and three men at the same time must be very confusing. But what he says about Benjen, is less amusing, because what’s happening north of the Wall is the Starks responsibility. This is nothing I can do alone Quote "I will need horses. Half a dozen good ones. And this is nothing I can do alone. Some of the spearwives penned up at Mole's Town should serve. Women would be best for this. The girl's more like to trust them, and they will help me carry off a certain ploy I have in mind." Melisandre I ADwD It's clear that Jon ended up in the NW thanks to Benjen's “certain ploy”. First, he told Ned that the rangers were dying like flies lately, then he approached Jon and told him that the NW was a great place for someone with his talents, and finally he went to Luwin and told him that Jon wanted to join the NW. Quote “His uncle was sharp-featured and gaunt as a mountain crag, but there was always a hint of laughter in his blue-grey eyes.” Jon I – AgoT I bet he laughed. In the same scene where Melisandre 'discovers' Mance in front of Jon, the King makes a declaration of intent: Quote “The wildling began to scrape the dirt out from beneath his nails with the point of his dagger. "I've sung my songs, fought my battles, drunk summer wine, tasted the Dornishman's wife. A man should die the way he's lived. For me that's steel in hand." Everything he mentions that he already did has to do with Jon: • I've sung my songs: Jon heard Bael's song, which is nothing more than the version of events told by the other side. I’ll talk of the song later. • Fought My Battles: Qhorin died like Bael, killed by his own son because he thinks it's what he deserved for what happened to Lyanna and Jon, since he couldn't protect them. • Drunk summer wine: Benjen successfully stole the “Winter rose”, planting him the idea of going to the NW while he was drunk. But there’s more summer wine around, as we’ll see. • Tasted the Dornishman's wife: this is what we are going to talk about now. Before talking about the sword, I want to mention something that Mance says "a man should die the way he's lived", as we know that Jon dies 'for the watch'. As you may know, the song "the Dornishman's wife" tells the story of a man that’s caught sleeping with another man’s wife and is killed by the husband (the Dornishman). When he dies, he does so smiling, and singing. I already mentioned that Jon mention that Benjen always has a "hint of laughter in his blue-grey eyes." Now, this is Melisandre's description of Mance: Quote “Grey fingers crept through long brown hair. Laugh lines appeared at the corners of his mouth. All at once he was bigger than before, broader in the chest and shoulders, long-legged and lean, his face clean-shaved and windburnt.” You see, Benjen always has a “hint”, but Mance has “lines” at the corners of his mouth, which of course means that le laughs a lot. Back to the important thing, the testing. Mance is going to use Ned's lies against him. Let us briefly recall what those lies are: · The 2 fake statues on the crypt · That Jon was his son · That he killed the Kingsguards In those lies, more specifically, in the crypt, lays the possibility, like in Bael’s song, of getting a true Stark. And vengeance. Quote “The Starks were made for the cold, he would tell her, and she would laugh and tell him in that case they had certainly built their castle in the wrong place.” Cat II - AGoT The Dornishman's song ends with the unnamed singer laughing as he dies, surely, he was a Stark. You see, the Starks were made for the cold, but that's something that, while Manderly clearly grasped, Ned totally misunderstood, is not about the weather, is about very cold vengeance. Fire consumes, but cold preserves. Let’s head back to the cold, beyond the Wall. Waymar, our first victim, was born south of the Neck, so likely, he was a follower of The Seven, Waymar was the one that looked like a Stark and had the pretty sword with sapphires in the hilt. Will on the other hand, prayed to the old gods while seeing the duel. When Waymar dies, Will stays a very long time in the tree where he was watching, and all the while, Waymar stayed dead. Until Will stood next to him. When Will bent down to grab the broken sword, Waymar raised and chocked him. While Waymar, like Lyanna’s fake statue, looked like a Stark, he wasn’t. and the moment that Will, the one that prayed to the old gods, went for his pretty sword, Waymar chocked him. This is our first clue that a southern lady is pivotal in this story. This lady is clearly Cat, the one with sapphires eyes, she convinced Ned to leave WF. Huge mistake. And of course she can't talk now. Our third and fourth known victims were Othor and Flowers. When they were found, they seemed different, their eyes were wrong. We don’t know where Othor came from, but Flowers was clearly a southerner. Othor died when Jon set him on fire, while Flowers was cut to pieces. Othor was hiding in the shadows of Mormont’s tower when Jon found him and fought him, Othor tried to suffocate Jon. Here are our other two ladies, the one that allegedly died “on fire”, but actually died suffocated, the Lady Lyanna. Note that Othor never gets to Mormont, he’s intercepted by Jon and Ghost, it was Othor’s hand the one that Ghost ripped off when the rangers were found. So, Ghost took his hand (as Lyanna held Jon’s hand while dying) and Jon set him on fire, as Ned let all the blame on Rhaegar. In the fight with Othor, Jon loses his sword, Brandon’s statue as I said is actually Lyanna’s, and he lost his sword, because Bran took it. Finally, Brandon died suffocated while his father was set on fire. As for Flowers, he represents Ashara (Lyanna’s Statue), and as you might recall, Ned used to bring her flowers. During the fight at the Fist, the wights attack and later follow Mormont’s trail up to Craster’s Keep, where there are no more attacks. Now, think about this, at Craster’s, there are no defenses and there are zero attacks. Why? What makes Craster special? He was born when a crow stole a woman from Whitetree, and immediately abandoned her, and he never met his father because the crows runed his mother off. So, like Jon, is a bastard that never saw his father’s face. But there must be hundreds of people just like Craster north of the Wall, nothing special there. Except when you think how he lives now, and what does he have that the crows don’t. Craster is “king of his own keep” and he has lots of wives. Like our Ned. What does Craster have to do with Jon and what’s happening on Winterfell? Well, Ygritte knows. Ygritte told Jon that “Craster's blood is black, and he bears a heavy curse." But of course, the curse is not about being a bastard, is about marrying his daughters, and that’s exactly what poor Rickard seems to be doing with Lyanna on one side, and Ashara to the other. Rickard looks just like Aegon the conqueror with Visenya and Rhaenys on either side. The thing is that those two women, plus Cat, are there because of Ned. There’re three “queens” on Winterfell, 2 dead ones on the crypt, plus the kind of alive Cat. So, the Craster here, is Ned. But what how could that be related to the curse, you may ask. Well, again, Ygritte knows the answer: Quote "I never knew my mother. Or any such song." "Bael the Bard made it," said Ygritte.” Jon VI - ACoK The ploy that Mance intends to use, is none other than Bael’s, so let’s remember how that one played out. Lord Stark called Bael a coward, so the wildling sworn revenge, and went to WF to prove his courage, there, he sang until midnight for the lord. Mance went to Winterfell, to rescue Jon’s little sister (allegedly) and claimed to be a singer. Just a funny detail, in the song, the Bard sings ‘until midnight’, which makes you think in wolves but also in fairy tales, like Cinderella. But before Mance, Benjen, the one that was sent to the watch and could do nothing, went to WF and in the middle of the night, singed for the bastard about how great the watch would be for him. Back to Bael. Impressed by his skills as a singer, Lord Stark asked Bael what he wanted as a reward, and he asked for the most beautiful flower from the gardens. So, Lord Stark gave him a Winter Rose. We know that the lord from the song totally misunderstood Bael, and that misunderstanding is in the way of naming things, or rather the way you look at things. While Mance is in WF with the spearwives, they clearly seem to be far more interested in the crypt than on the girl they’re supposed to rescue. I think that what Mance really wanted, or rather needed was for someone else to go there, someone that you would expect that knew the crypt. It just couldn’t be him. Theon refuses to take the spearwives there, and all the while, the poor girl with the wrong eyes is still locked in the tower. But then, something very curious happens, because out of nowhere, Lady Dustin asks Theon to take her there, to see Brandon’s statue. While she is in the crypts, the Lady tells the story of how much she hated Ned because when the war ended, instead of her husband’s bones he brought her his horse. That story is weird, until you consider that Brandon statue has “a horse” instead of Brandon’s bones. If you remember, when I mentioned the Long Night story, I mentioned that the ‘pale dead horse’ was Ashara, so in this case Lyanna is also a ‘horse’. Lady Dustin notes that Brandon’s sword was gone, that a lot of swords were gone, and she concludes that someone had been stealing the swords. In the song, Lord Brandon sent the Night's Watch looking for Bael and the maiden beyond the Wall, but they never found them. The Stark line was on the verge of extinction, when one day the girl was back in her room, holding a baby in her arms. She was hidden with Bael in the Crypts. Here’s the point where Craster’s ‘curse’ and our story crosses paths. Because, you see, it’s easy to believe that a wilding like Craster could be a monster that practiced incest and sacrificed his boys, but it’s much harder to think of the Starks doing those same things. Bael’s song never identifies the baby’s father, but the child grew up to be Lord of Winterfell, which of course, it’s supposed to be just because his mother was an only child, and that's entirely possible. Except that the song vaguely states that Lord Brandon “had no other children” which could mean that both the father and mother were his children. The Bard was also a Stark, a brother of the NW that later became king beyond the wall. Like Mance. That is also hinted in the song, because Bael is a singer, and wolves of course sing, but the crows also sing, in fact they do it to alert their peers of imminent danger, like a horn. Or the fact that Lady Dustin had noted that there are missing swords on the crypt, because someone was hidden there. Here the song crosses paths with Craster once again, because as we know, Craster sacrifices his male children and it’s not clear why, but Bael’s song clarifies that. When the kid grows, and becomes Lord of Winterfell, his father, for unknown reasons, comes with a band of wildlings to Winterfell, the son, that had never met his father, is then faced with him in battle, and the father can’t kill the son, so the son kills him instead. This is exactly what happened with Robb, he wasn't faced with Ned, but with one of his lies, that he was Jon's father. And of course, Jon killed Qhorin. Take into account that the black brothers are ‘legally dead’ so Craster’s sacrifices are a way of doing what Lord Brandon (metaphorically) did with his son, except that Craster’s results are more permanent, because crows can fly. It also explain why he refuses to send the boys to the watch. The song ends when the kid, now Lord, comes riding to Winterfell with his dad’s head on a spike, which makes his mother throw herself from a tower in her grief. I’ll talk about this in the next part, where I’ll discuss Jon and the bastard letter. The wildlings knew all along that Bael was a Stark, and that incest is cursed, because it goes back to the legend of the Night’s King and the Horn of Joramun. Joramun was a wildling, and he was the one that helped the Lord of Winterfell to defeat the NK. The NK name was erased from history, so nobody, at least south of the Wall, knows who he was or what he did exactly. But the north remembers. So, the curse explains why Craster kills his boys, so they won’t kill him. And the song explains why Craster marries his daughters, and why he has 19 of them. It was incest what saved the Starks from extinction. Craster, and all the wildlings, consider that stealing a woman means you married her, so that’s why he tells Mormont that there would be no attacks as long as they stay in his keep because he’s a godly man, and then advise them: “you best get right to the gods” Now, while marrying your own daughters and killing your boys might work north of the Wall to avoid wights, clearly that’s not something that can be pulled off south of the Wall. But again, Bael’s song has the answer to Mance’s prayers. What do you need to sing Bael’s song? Lord Brandon, a stolen maiden, and a baby. And that’s exactly what Mance has. I’ll talk about Mance’s song and Jon’s death in the next part. Thanks for reading! Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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