Daenerys Lemon Tree, The Red Door

[Nadden]

This post is a re-edit of an earlier post. It strives to better explain the points made in the earlier post.

 

What if the lemon tree is not a lemon tree? Wouldn’t it be reasonable for a long ago memory to be wrong? In fact, I’ve discovered that our author likes to play with ideas while describing events from a POV that has an altered state of mind, foggy memory, or visions that have been planted. It’s also been my experience that Martin, likes to use symbolism and wordplay to tell his stories. And so if the lemon tree was not a lemon tree what would it be? What could symbolize lemon tree? Why? Could it be the moon as a lemon? Could it be the celestial object which symbolized the coming of dragons? And if the moon were symbolized by a lemon than what about the tree? Could the tree be that cosmic world tree described in Norse Mythology, Yggdrasil? A celestial body hanging from the branches of Yggdrasil makes sense. Dany, laying at night in her bed, looking out a window into the nighttime sky, seeing a full pale moon. This certainly would foreshadow her story arc. A fact, I found, is the moon’s shape has been described by science as a lemon and an egg.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Quote

“He told me the moon was an egg, Khaleesi,” the Lysene girl said. “Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. That is why dragons breathe flame. One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return.” (AGOT, Daenerys chapter 23)

 

And this,

 

Quote

“That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window.”(AGOT, Daenerys chapter 3)

 

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

 

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

 

Looking at some interesting wordplay and symbolism…

 

In the story told by the Lysene girl, there was a moon close to the sun, the moon cracks, then baby dragons.

 

Consider this metaphorical interpretation of Gared’s‘s beheading (AGOT, Bran chapter 1)scene:

 

“Dragon”?……Using some wordplay…….Drag on is what the two guardsmen pulling on Gared did before his beheading. They were given order and they had to drag-on him. Next, “they forced his head down onto the hard black wood”; such that it might appear, if we looked down upon it from above it might look like a black sun with an egg wandering too close. With your imagination, picture a round black stump with roots coming out on all sides disappearing under the snowy ground as like the sun’s corona. The imagery could be said to create a symbol of a black sun and a pale moon. Gared’s head would then represent the moon or egg. It cracks(moon breaks) and blood or wine or fire sprays out…… (baby dragons).

 

That beheading scene, on the southron(wordplay 1.0) side of the Wall

parallels

the scene on the Other(wordplay 2.0) or Northous(wordplay 1.1) side of the Wall.

The parallel elements are as so:

Gared = ragged and greasy man

2 garrons = 2 guardsmen (Desmond and “Fat Tom”)

Black Destrier + gnarled ironwood = hard black ironwood stump

 

However; the parallels all seem to be inverted like our wordplay(1.0 and 1.1), Southron and Northous(Southron backwards)

 

—Gared spelled backwards is derag (a homophone for drag).

 

—Earlier he was Gared and now he is derag(His name backwards). True, one word is a noun and the other is a verb.(But that’s just wordplay)

 

—Earlier, he was ordered to guard the horses by the ironwood tree. But now, he’s being guarded by horsemen and they were ordered to “drag” him to the ironwood stump.

 

—“The black Destrier” and “the gnarled ironwood”(Both alive) are combined or “tied securely” to become “hard black ironwood stump”(Dead). (AGOT Prologue and Bran chapter 1)

 

—It’s not till later that we see a dead destrier.

Quote

(ASOS, Samwell chapter 18)“Sam felt a moment’s relief, until he saw the horse. Hoarfrost covered it like a sheen of frozen sweat, and a nest of stiff black entrails dragged from its open belly. On its back was a rider pale as ice.”

Here the (dead) destrier is “Hard” with frozen sweat and stiff entrails (looking like the roots of the ironwood stump).

 

—The ironwood planks used in making the bridge in the next or last scene(dead direwolf) are likely from the fallen tree of the ironwood stump.(It’s like the Ironwood gave birth to some baby planks). (AGOT Prologue and Bran chapter 1)

 

—“a rider pale as ice.”(ASOS, Samwell chapter 18) seems to be a nice parallel here for the sword “Ice”. (AGOT Bran chapter 1)

 

The point I’m making is that in my opinion these are two parallel scenes with what I believe are some inversions.

Now consider this:

Compare a hanging to a beheading. A hanging “ties securely” the head to the upper-limb of a  tree and a beheading separates the head allowing it to “bounce off a thick root” or lower-limb of a tree. (They are inversions here)

Bring you back to my main point:

The low-hanging limb of the ironwood tree, where Waymar (AGOT, Prologue) securely ties his destrier and the ironwood stump, where Gared (AGOT, Bran1) was dragged to for his beheading ,(figuratively an inversion of the gallows) are actual metaphors for Yggdrasil.

It’s not a coincidence that the generally accepted meaning of the Old Norse Yggdrasill is "Odin's horse", meaning "gallows". This interpretation comes about because drasill means "horse" and Ygg(r) is one of Odin's many names. Odin is an “Old God” from Norse mythology and the trees in our story are at minimum associated with the “Old Gods”. This beheading, south of the Wall, would seem to be a good inverted parallel to the “woman up an ironwood.”, north of the Wall. She’s described as a “far-eyes” by our POV, Will. This would seem to lend more evidence to our cosmic world tree.

More evidence:

Again, in a (ASOS, Samwell chapter 18), we see a horse ridden by an Other, a pale rider, with “hoarfrost” covering it like “a sheen of frozen sweat”, and “a nest of stiff black entrails” dragged, “from its open belly.” Those entrails, like a low-hanging limbs, can be seen as the roots of our stump and also the horse, Sleipnir, from Old Norse Mythology. Sleipnir, it should be noted, has eight legs.

Here, I’m suggesting that our huge black destrier with a nest of stiff entrails hanging out is symbolic of Sleipnir north of the Wall. Sleipnir is the horse ridden by Odin through the cosmos or Yggdrasil.

Additionally:

An icy hoarfrost eight-legged creature ridden by an Other….. Hmmmmm…..It might also be a great symbol for “an Ice Spider”. But you don’t need to agree with that to understand my point.

The thick root that Gared’s head bounces off is covered by the snow that drank his blood. This is the same blood that is described as “red as summerwine”. This is also set up as a metaphor. Besides showing us his blood alcohol level, Blood and fire are interchangeable metaphors all throughout ASOIAF. We see that in AGOT , Prologue Waymar’s blood (droplets) seem, “as red as fire”. Thus, Gared’s blood, that “sprayed out”, can a metaphor for fiery meteors of a breaking moon or baby dragons. Lastly, his head will be mounted above a windowsill, I mean on the Wall…a far-eyes, maybe?

 

In conclusion, are we seeing the memory in Daenery’s mind or her imagination, is it a planted thought? The red door, I believe, is a metaphor for the blood sacrifice needed to enter the cosmic tree, Yggdrasil. The blood covering the Ironwood stump is, at minimum, symbolic of the sacrifice needed to enter the next reality, weirwood net perhaps. Yggdrasil, a cosmic world tree, is connected to a celestial body, an egg or the moon(le moon). A moon, symbolic of a lemon seen in the memory or imagination of Daenerys, “Mother of Dragons”.