Random Thoughts About ASOIAF

[EggBlue]

whoever were septons/septas in AegonIII's court must be honored by the faith. they brought up a septon-king , a septa-princess and a religious queen.

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

On 3/5/2022 at 4:27 PM, By Odin's Beard said:

More Reek stuff.

In gaelic riach means "cut the surface, to flay" --Theon is flayed

riochos means "king, rule"  (Greyking means "dawn" and gryja means "dawn" and Reek is grey and a Greyjoy)

Even more Reek stuff

In Welsh rhacio means "dawn" and "to rack, to torture"

rhacs means "rags, tatters"  --Reek is dressed in rags

rhactys means "outhouse"  --Reek smells like an outhouse

 

In the series Book of the New Sun, there is a character named Reechy (because he reeks) who is an apprentice jailer in the Torturers Guild, and he later becomes the Emperor Ymar.  (riochos means "king")

 

-----

Some Lannister etymologies

In gaelic Lann means "sword" and in Latin lanista means "trainer of gladiators" and "inciter"

tywin means "ray, beam, radiance" (I just got that Tywin had twins, is a play on words twyn~twin)  and tywyll means "to darken"

twyn means "hill" and tomen means "heap, hill" and cefnen (~Kevan) means "hill"

and in german hugel means "hill" and in Norse hugr means "mind" and Tyrion's alias is Hugor of the Hill  (a brain inside of a hill)

In Hindi circira (~circei) means "irritable, short-tempered, touchy" and in Gaelic saoirse means "freedom, independence" and "handicraft, work of a mason"

In Welsh gof means "blacksmith" and the Baratheons are the avatar of the Smith, with a huge hammer.

gofri means "wise, noble, excellent" and gofrwy means "bright"  --and it is all ironic, he is not a Baratheon and he is not wise or noble or bright.

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

Just flipping through the Welsh dictionary and saw that mir means "dish, portion" and "sea" (and the star Mira is in the neck of the constellation Cetus, the Sea-Monster)  and mer means "marrow"

Jojen-paste was served to Bran in a bowl, and Mir means dish, portion.  I think Bran ate Meera too.

Edited March 7, 2022 by By Odin's Beard

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

35 minutes ago, By Odin's Beard said:

Just flipping through the Welsh dictionary and saw that mir means "dish, portion" and "sea" (and the star Mira is in the neck of the constellation Cetus, the Sea-Monster)  and mer means "marrow"

Jojen-paste was served to Bran in a bowl, and Mir means dish, portion.  I think Bran ate Meera too.

They had to have, right?  Symbolism and linguistic clues aside, it's not like they could tell her that Jojen wanted it that way. She would be violently enraged (legitimately?) to find out that he'd been fed to Bran and would probably force the children to put her down before she took too many of them with her.

[The Bard of Banefort]

I bought the AGOT and ACOK graphic novels (gotta feed the addiction) and the illustrator for ACOK made Ygritte look suspiciously like Cat and Sansa. I find that hilarious, since there’s that joke that Jon’s attraction to redheads stems from his mommy issues with Catelyn 

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

3 minutes ago, Aejohn the Conqueroo said:

They had to have, right?  Symbolism and linguistic clues aside, it's not like they could tell her that Jojen wanted it that way. She would be violently enraged (legitimately?) to find out that he'd been fed to Bran and would probably force the children to put her down before she took too many of them with her.

And when he first meets the Reeds he brings up having to eat frogs, and Crannogmen are frogs.  And there is the phrase "choked with Reeds" and on the way to the cave he eats his friend, the Elk.  And Jojen is seen in a "bole" (bowl).

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

20 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

I bought the AGOT and ACOK graphic novels (gotta feed the addiction) and the illustrator for ACOK made Ygritte look suspiciously like Cat and Sansa. I find that hilarious, since there’s that joke that Jon’s attraction to redheads stems from his mommy issues with Catelyn 

After my first read I was really tempted to do this.  I don't remember what I was looking for at the time but I really wanted to see characters' colours and see if the artists were true to the author's schemes.  It would have been good to see how colors were interacting outside of the paragraph where they were assigned.  I found reading comics on my phone wasn't as enjoyable as I remember reading comics was in my youth and there's no way in all hell that I could have brought all of those home one day so I let it go, but I may go pick up the editions by book now that they've been collected and sold in that format.

[The Bard of Banefort]

2 hours ago, Aejohn the Conqueroo said:

After my first read I was really tempted to do this.  I don't remember what I was looking for at the time but I really wanted to see characters' colours and see if the artists were true to the author's schemes.  It would have been good to see how colors were interacting outside of the paragraph where they were assigned.  I found reading comics on my phone wasn't as enjoyable as I remember reading comics was in my youth and there's no way in all hell that I could have brought all of those home one day so I let it go, but I may go pick up the editions by book now that they've been collected and sold in that format.

They have different illustrators. ACOK is beautiful, but AGOT isn’t great. 

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

In Gaelic coin means "wolf" and Arya got a special coin.  In Latin Numeria is the goddess of counting, and right above Numeria are words like numerarius which means "accounting, keeping of accounts" and numeratio which mean "paying, paying out, accounting"  And Arya's thing is her shit list of accounts that need settling.  (And in Tolkien namarie means "good bye")

 

More about Jojen (and Meera) paste.

I just remembered that in the series Book of the New Sun, Severian participates in a ceremony in the woods where he eats part of the brain of a woman he loved named Thecla, her brains are mixed in with a psychedelic drug.  (And then she lives a second life inside Severian's brain.)

Meara means "claw, finger" in Gaelic.  And the weirwood paste is a psychedelic drug.

It just occurred to me that the stories Bran recalls at the Nightfort might be foreshadowing of what will happen at the weirwood cave.  The Rat Cook being a white weirwood and serving a human meat pie to his guest.  Which is paralleled in George's story, A Night at the Tarn House, where guests are trapped and killed and served in meat pies to other guests (the whole story is a metaphor for a weirwood cave and what happens to its "guests") Chimwazle finds a finger in his meat pie, and meara means "finger" in Gaelic.

The closest thing to Mad Axe I can find is a gaelic phrase madadh uchta which means "wolf" and "abnormal craving for flesh-meat"  and is on the same page as madmach (pretty sure this is where the name Mad Max came from) which means "victorious" and "defeat-inflicting"

The name Sherrit is mentioned by Bran at the Nightfort, and in A Night at the Tarn House, but I don't know what significance it is. 

[frenin]

21 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

I find that hilarious, since there’s that joke that Jon’s attraction to redheads stems from his mommy issues with Catelyn

It's known.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

Maybe this belongs more in the small questions thread, but what is the difference between squires and men-at-arms?

[EggBlue]

11 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Maybe this belongs more in the small questions thread, but what is the difference between squires and men-at-arms?

as far as I've realized , squires are in training to become knights and are in personal service to knights . men-at-arms are like hired fighters whose contracts, unlike sellswords , are permanent. 

[The Bard of Banefort]

Yeah, men-at-arms seem to be akin to something like a security force.

[The Bard of Banefort]

Is Dunk’s appearance ever described, beyond his height? I don’t think we’re ever told his hair or eye color.

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

Varys

In Gaelic spideoir / spiadair means "spy, eavesdropper, informant, betraying" (and webs, nets, weaving all go together)

eunach means "full of birds"

spideog means "little bird, robin, a frail creature" (and roban means "a little boy")

Brandubhan means "spider" and "spider's web"

In Finnish varis means "crow"

In Old Norse, ver means "weir"

In Anglo-Saxon grytta means "bran" and grytte means "spider"

 

In Latin verres means "male pig" and varius means "changeable, variegated, striped" and varus means "bent, crooked"

In Hindi varis means "heir, owner, master, lord, protector"

 

In Gaelic rugan / ruadan means "spider" and adjacent to rugan on the same page rudaidhe means a "bogus surname"

snuadh means "spider" and "appearance, face, color, aspect" and Varys is a master of disguise.

lorgair means "imitator" and "spy"

 

Also, the character of Varys is largely based on the Autarch from the series Book of the New Sun, he was a eunuch that was bald and wore perfume, and ran a brothel in his spare time, and wore disguises so no-one knew who he really was, and was also the Emperor.  When he dies Severian absorbs his mind.

[EggBlue]

I just read George's last Not a Blog post . does anyone else feel like he has forgotten that after Winds there is yet another book he needs to work on if he ever wishes to "tell the story" ?

 

Current Mood:  down

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

9 minutes ago, EggBlue said:

I just read George's last Not a Blog post . does anyone else feel like he has forgotten that after Winds there is yet another book he needs to work on if he ever wishes to "tell the story" ?

He has said many times that he wouldn't do other projects until TWoW is finished, but I guess he couldn't help himself. 

[EggBlue]

3 hours ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

He has said many times that he wouldn't do other projects until TWoW is finished, but I guess he couldn't help himself. 

well , he certainly is working on other projects... I'm gonna lean towards a more optimist view by thinking he means he won't publish any more books before WoW and conclude that he is close to the end of WoW! however , I'm pretty sure that I'm just fooling myself

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

Valeria means "eagle" in Latin so I was looking up eagle words and found out about eagle stones (aetites), which were geodes that were believed to aid fertility and childbirth.  And I think that plays in to the dragon eggs/fertility stuff. 

In Welsh eryrai means "eagle stone" eryr / eryron  means "eagle, heroes" and eryri means "violent eruption"

(aer means "sky" and "wandering" in Gaelic and aer means "madness" in Old Norse-- Aerys))

 

The Wanderer

In Gaelic danair means "stranger" and danar means "peregrine" (i.e., wanderer, stranger" in Latin) and danar means "foreigner, savage or cruel person" and Dana means "the Evil One"

deora / deoraidh / deoiridhe (Doreah) means "alien, stranger, wanderer" and ierri / earraidh (Irri) means "wanderer" and geocha (Jhiqui?) means "wanderer"

ruagaire (Rhaegar) means "wanderer" and vegar / vega (Vhagar) means "wanderer" and rianaighe (Rhaenys) means "wanderer" and eagan / uigean / aighean / aoighean (Aegon) means "abyss, fugitive, lonely wanderer" 

Several words beginning with arract mean "wanderer" and "huge, spectral monster"

radaireacht (Raydar) means "wanderer" and he is associated with a Val (-ryian?) at the Wall, and weall means "stranger" and val mean "wall"

And badh (sounds like "bay") means "crow" and badhal (sounds like "Bael") means "wanderer"

 

The Seven

Seach means "wanderer" and seachd means "seven" and there are Seven Wanderers in the night sky.  The Seventh is the Stranger, the Wanderer from far places. 

Several words beginning with seabh ("sev")  mean "wanderer, stranger" and "hawk" 

In Hindi, rahi means "traveler, wayfarer" and rahu is a demon that swallows the sun

dubh-loingeas means "black exile" or "black ship" and is right below "Dane" and "black-flame"

The Stranger is the Black Ship, the Black Exile, the Shadow.

luin means "moon" and "wanderer" and he was an astronomer who made "shadow maps"

 

[Fun Guy from Yuggoth]

I was just flipping through the french dictionary and Gendre means "son-in-law" and he was Cersei's son-in-law.  So as soon as we heard Gendry's name, if we knew french, could have known it was Robert's bastard.

("Gendre" is right next to "genealogy" and "gene" and Ned uses a genealogy book and dominant/recessive genes to solve the mystery)

gendrure means "engendering begetting" in French, and he engendered the Baratheon features.

and geannaire / geangaire means "hammer" in gaelic. 

And I only just realized that Gof means "blacksmith" but Joffrey was not a blacksmith, but Robert's true son is a blacksmith.

 

I recently learned that in Celtic society the Smith was one of the most venerated figures.  Mythological Smiths work in an underground smithy, in a volcano, and Gendry worked in Tobho Mott's cave-like smithy that blasted Ned like a furnace.  And Barathrum means "abyss" and in LoTR, Grond was the Hammer of the Underworld--Morgoth's hammer.  Smiths in the Underworld.  And Sauron was a smith that worked in a volcano. 

But then there is a weird connection with Bran, because Hephaestus was a lame Smith,--he was lame because he was thrown off Mount Olympus as a child, and Weland /Bolcan the Northern Smith god was a lame because the tendons in his knees were cut, and he was invisible.