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Bears, Direwolves, other things, and Lightbringer


northern_amnesia

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13 minutes ago, Megorova said:

Yes, Egg's and Aemon's mother was Dyanna Dayne. Though, while it looks like Rhaegar and Lyanna were third cousins (thru Betha and Melantha, who were partial dragonseeds thru their maternal grandfather - Aegon IV), Rhaegar and the Daynes were something like fourth or fifth cousins, more distantly related to him than Lyanna, or the Baratheons.

If Betha and Melantha really were sisters, then Edwyle Stark was a first cousin to King Jaehaerys and Shaera, Rickard was a second cousin to Aerys and Queen Rhaella, so Rhaegar and Lyanna were third cousins, and Rhaegar and Robert to each other were second cousins, Ned and Robert were something like fourth cousins, same as the Daynes to Rhaegar (thru the Dayne-line).

What matters for the prophecy is not the blood of the Daynes, but the blood of the Targaryens. Rhaegar needed a bride with the blood of the dragons, and the Daynes had a Targaryen ancestor too far in the past -> (not a fact, also just a theory) it is known that the half-sister of Viserys II and Aegon III - Princess Rhaena Targaryen, had married with Garmund Hightower and had with him six daughters. And I think that those daughters married with the members of House Dayne, Dondarrion, Hightower, Arryn, Tully, and Tyrell. That's why all four sons of Daeron II married with women from those Houses - Dyanna Dayne, Jenna Dondarrion, Alys Arryn; also Egg wanted to marry one of his sons with Celia Tully, and Princess Shaera was supposed to marry with Lyonell Tyrell.

So Dyanna Dayne and her siblings, those that continued House Dayne, were descendants of Rhaena Targaryen, and that's thru whom Rhaegar was blood-related to Ashara, Arthur and Allirya.

Rhaena <- half-siblings -> Viserys II

Rhaena's daughter that married with a Dayne <- first cousins -> Aegon IV

Rhaena's grandchildren (including Dyanna Dayne) <- second cousins -> Daeron II

Dyanna Dayne and her siblings <- second cousins once removed -> Maekar

Dyanna's nephews and nieces <- third cousins once removed thru Targaryen-line and first cousins thru Dayne-line -> Egg

Jaehaerys and Shaera ->

Aerys and Rhaella ->

Rhaegar <- something like sixth cousins once removed thru Targ-line and fourth cousins thru the Dayne-line (or maybe third cousins once removed, or second cousins twice removed) -> the Daynes (Ashara).

GRRM wrote some of the family-lines in such a way that he used a shift in generations to hide the fact that certain people were contemporaries of other certain people. What I mean is that Viserys II, Jaehaerys II, and Aerys II - all three of them married and had children when they were very young, no older than 15. Because of that shift the readers have an incorrect impression about which characters lived in which time-periods and with whom could have been married. For example - Princess Rhaena got married way later than her half-brother Viserys II, so by the time when was born Aegon IV, she was still unwed and childless. So out of her six daughters three were close in age to Aegon's son - Daeron II, those girls that married with a Dayne, Dondarrion and Arryn, while the older three married with Hightower-cousin, with a Tully, and a Tyrell. So Dyanna Dayne, Jenna Dondarrion and Alys Arryn were second cousins of King Daeron II, and thus to his sons (who were the husbands of those girls) they were second cousins once removed. This "once removed" is that shift in generations that created muddy waters around when who lived. Probably additional shift in the family trees of the Targs and the Daynes could have occured when Jaehaerys married aged 15, and when Aerys did the same. So Rhaegar and Ashara could be either fourth cousins, or fourth cousins once removed, or fifth cousins, or fifth cousins once removed, or even fourth cousins twice removed, which is equal by blood to sixth cousins.

Thus Ashara was not Targaryen-enough. Lyanna's dragonblood was purer, and thus Rhaegar had chosen her to become the mother of his third child, to fulfill the requirements of the prophecy, and Lyanna had agreed to this. Considering that she was a partial dragonseed, it's likely that she had a gift of foresight, same as Rhaegar (who had prophetic dreams whenever he visited the ruins of Summerhall, and about which he wrote his sad sad songs). They both knew that they will die, and still they did what they had to, for the Promised Prince to be born, and to save humanity from extinction.

But why would Rheagar go all the way up his family tree looking for dragonseed when he had his mother Rhaella who was part of the prophecy? If he needed a woman to had a kid and dragonseed as you claim, then Rhaella was by far his best option.

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Something related to this is the very real possibility that Jon is the son of Brandon and Lyanna Stark.  Ned kept it secret because the siblings married in front of a weirwood.  Jon is debatably the heir to Winterfell.  We may yet learn that Lord Ned was not as saintly as we have been led to believe.  Consider why Ned buried the remains of his brother and sister in the vaults when it was a place of honor for the lords of Winterfell.  Because Brandon Stark was the lord of Winterfell, Lyanna was his sister-lady-wife.  

Waymar is not significant to the overall story.  He was the intro to what threat lies in the north.  Aside from showing the value of experience over breeding, it is merely a way to begin the tale.  

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  • 6 months later...

At the beginning of our story a recently anointed Knight and newly sworn Brother of the Night’s Watch Ser Waymar Royce journeys north into the haunted forest where he appears to face off one on one in a duel to the death. He’s wounded then seemly butchered. I believe his broken sword tells us more.

There’s an old childhood saying that goes like this, “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye”. The saying is a pledge by a person swearing the oath that they are indeed telling the truth. And should they be lying than they hope to die and that their death would be verified by a needle in the eye.

Long ago the idea of sticking “a needle in the eye” was done on corpses. It was a custom to make sure that someone wasn’t still alive before they were buried. Children simply took the idea and used it as part of a pledge to tell the truth. Leave it to kids to take something so morbid and attach it to a noble pledge to ensure honor.

In our story there’s a moment just before  Waymar is seemly butchered that he, figuratively, gets “a needle in his eye”. I’ll explain…

Martin must have had this pledge in mind while writing the AGOT, Prologue.

After Waymar appears to be butchered, Will eventually finds his courage. He climbs down from the tree. He sees Waymar lying facedown dead and the end of his sword a few feet away. Warily looking around, Will knelt to snatch up the broken sword and when he rose as did Waymar. It’s at this point that we see the figurative needle in his eye. Here’s the quote,

Quote

“His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin. A shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye.” (AGOT, Prologue)

From this passage it’s not immediately obvious that the shard is, figuratively, a needle. Our author obscures this detail in a bygone passage. Here it is,

Quote

“A scream echoed through the forest night, and the longsword shivered into a hundred brittle pieces, the shards scattering like a rain of needles. Royce went to his knees, shrieking, and covered his eyes. Blood welled between his fingers.” (AGOT, Prologue)

The phrase “like a rain of needles”, a simile, directly compares the scattering “shards” of Waymar’s sword to “a rain of needles”. One of the shards from that sword finds its’ way into Waymar’s eye. That shard is from the “rain of needles”. Thus, figuratively, a needle in his eye.

Martin’s deliberate separation of the literal object from its figurative counterpart seems to give weight to the idea that this is an important connection being made.

The simile, “like a rain of needles” comes while Waymar’s longsword is shattering or being destroyed but the lone needle is not reveal until Waymar’s apparent resurrection. The placement of the two aspects of this idea may be telling as it parallels Waymar’s death and resurrection. In fact, it’s Waymar‘s death pose which may give us the “Cross my heart,…” moment, the first part of the that old childhood pledge of honor.

But what seems certain at this point is that Waymar broke his promise.

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