“Clic, clic, clic” A Rain of Needles

[northern_amnesia]

 

Hi everyone! This theory will prove, (hopefully), that Ned's dream is a riddle inside a riddle that’s guarded by a gargoyle. This is the first of a 3 part theory.

 

In Oedipus story, the hero (Oedipus) is a symbol of the self-fulfilling prophecy, a prophecy that includes incest, kinslaying, lies, betrayals, in short, several of the fun ingredients that makes ASOIAF a very tangled story. But what interests us most about that story is the sphinx, a monster that poses riddles to those who want to go across the path that that monster guards. If the traveler answers correctly, he can pass, otherwise he dies devoured.

That path, as we’ll see, is what Aemon called “the path of honor”, and guards one of the 3 main reasons why people lose their honor: love, power, and hate, represented of course by our three “heads”: Stark, Lannister, and Targaryen.

In the tower dream, if you pay attention to the guards, you’ll see that they look like a sphinx, that Ned gives riddles, and that answering those riddles takes us further down the road until we must fight a duel with Dayne. That’s the final test.

In other words, we're looking at a massive Doyle-esque crime scene that we can only solve if we find evidence, a body, and a motive.

To solve these riddles, we have to take into account the following:

 

The Map: Ned reached the tower, so, he clearly followed a path, then he finds himself in front of these 3 guards, that are actually three and one at the same time. The first thing that the dream hides is that we must follow 3 different paths to guess the 3 riddles. We’ll find ‘treasures’ by following the path that leads to the places mentioned in the dream:

1. The Trident

2. King's Landing

3. Storm's end and Dragonstone

We can’t go from one place to another if we don’t first find what’s hidden in the previous one. But we have a help, Waymar’s resurrection scene. In that scene in which the knight who looked like a Stark comes to life "changed", hides 2 indications that help us to uncover the main riddles:

a.     One of Waymar’s eye, the left one, ends up white (blind) and with a piece of sword pocking

b.     The other eye the right one, burns blue and “sees”

 

The gargoyle: a gargoyle is a monster that is set in stone during the day, but when night comes, it ‘wakes up’ and leaves the tower that guards. In other words, it’s a “watcher on the walls”. When dawn comes, the gargoyle has to return to the tower before the sun's rays touches its skin, because that’s what turns it back to stone, and the gargoyle is doomed to watch the tower. That’s exactly what the 3 guards that are guarding the dream tower represent.

• Arthur is “the light that brings the dawn” obviously. But in addition, he’s the only one of the three whose face is mentioned, or rather the "sad smile", Dayne helps us solve a bittersweet riddle that has to do with the Trident. Arthur's sword hilt is clearly seen poking over his right shoulder, so to find the treasure that Arthur keeps, we have to pay attention to Waymar's right eye, the one that "sees" and burns blue.

 

• Oswell is on one knee sharpening a sword, while the black bat on his helm looks like about to fly. To solve the riddle that Whent poses we are going to need to pay attention to Waymar's left eye and visit KL.

 

• Hightower is standing fierce in the middle, with no sword in sight. The LC saves the last path, which includes Storm's end and Dragonstone. To find the treasure that the LC hides, we are going to help ourselves from poor Waymar's ‘new life’, represented by his tattered clothes and ruined face.

 

Our guides: in the dream, Ned is accompanied by 6 friends that he vowed never to forget. Those men keep quiet during the entire dream. Those shadows are in fact our friends but using them to our advantage requires us to remember, because as Aemon said, “knowledge is a weapon”.

The 6 shadows are our weapon to find the truth. We are going to need 2 shadows for each riddle, which have nothing to do with the people that are mentioned by name in the dream, those people are dead. All we need from the shadows is to remember them.

The Sphinx: In order to solve the riddles, we must take into account something that Aemon said on his way to Old Town: the shpinx is the riddle, not the riddler. The riddler is Ned, the sphinx is part of our clues.

Our sphinx is hidden within the NW oath that I'm going to talk about in a moment, because it's key to solving the dream.

 

The Riddles: We need to solve 3 riddles, one for each gargoyle on each path, and solving them requires us to sing 3 songs:

 

• Bael's song: the visible face of this sphinx is Arthur, and the secret we are looking for is to the right, to the west, from Bael’s point of view.

• The Dornishman's Wife: the face of this sphinx is Whent, and the secret we seek is to the east, from Lyanna’s point of view, coming from the north, as Bael.

• The song of Ice & fire: the face is Hightower, and the secret is in front of us, scattered like ‘a rain of needles’.

 

Before entering this hostile territory, filled with traps and monsters, we must arm ourselves with some knowledge, and keep in mind some things we know.

 

Our first riddle is Bael's song, that song is about something that is hidden in the crypt of Winterfell and finally comes to light. To understand this riddle made song, we need to pay attention to Jon's nightmares and as I said, Waymar's right eye that burns blue. Our visible face is Arthur. We already have 2 parts of the sphinx that makes the riddle, we’ll need to find our third.

This song begins the moment that Ned visits the crypt with Robert Baratheon and mentions how the 3 Starks died, which I'll talk about when we get there, but for now, let's keep in mind that Brandon Stark died without being able to grab his sword, that in Arthur you see the hilt sticking out, and that Waymar's sword breaks.

Therefore, our sphinx is made up of these three “watchers”: Brandon Stark – Waymar Royce – Arthur Dayne

 

The second riddle, “The Dornishman's wife”, is about a love triangle in which the husband kills his wife's lover, who dies laughing because his goal, "testing" the Dornishman's wife, has already been fulfilled. Keep in mind that it is Arthur who is smiling in this dream, which implies that this story is related to the previous one.

This song begins to be sung when Jon receives "the gift of a sword" which he feels does not belong to him because he is not a Mormont or Aemon Targaryen. That’s what seems to be our love triangle, is Jon Ned’s son or Rhaegar’s? Of course, we need to consider another Stark from the crypt, Lyanna, who is the vital ‘head’ we need to solve the riddle that is the bastard of Winterfell.

In the map that poor Waymar becomes, this song’s riddle is solved with the ranger's blind eye being pierced by a piece of sword, again, references to the love triangle Aemon (blind), Mormont (sword) and Jon (the woman).

This sphinx is made up by these three watchers: Lyanna Stark – Will – Oswell Whent

The last riddle, “The song of Ice & Fire” is the culmination of the previous two, and helps us find the treasure hidden in the tower. This song, which is the one we are 'hearing' is the song of the 'Last Hero', the last dragon and the last Stark of Winterfell.

Hightower, the visible face of this song is “standing fierce” like a hero, but with no sword in sight, so something is clearly missing.

By the time we get to sing this song, which occurs around the same time that in Ned's dream the duel begins, the bastard of Winterfell has been walking the path of honor with every choice he's made since his watch started. Until the time comes when he has to make one last choice, like in Dany’s fever dream when she awakens dragons. The “bastard letter” is Jon’s “fever” call, and we’ll find out what he chose once we sing this song.

The Pink Letter presents Jon with a choice, look back or move forward. That letter is Jon's "lightbringer," a blood-tempered "sword", will he clasp it? Or let it rust away to nothing?

The clues we need to solve this riddle, which is by far the most difficult, are scattered throughout all the novels, like a "rain of needles" and of course, we cannot solve it without first having found the pieces of the previous two because we need the weapons we find in the other songs. This is Bael’s and the Dornishman's Wife song coming to a conclusion.

The sphinx posed by this Riddle is made up of these three watchers: Hightower – Gared – Rickard Stark

 

The Sphinx is the riddle

 

There's a great scene in ACoK where Jon goes to find Sam who was reading, and Sam tells him “this vault is a treasure, Jon” which makes Jon doubtful, because he thinks that treasure “means gold, silver and jewels, not dust, spiders and rotting letter”. Of course, it all depends on what you are interested in finding.

Something similar happens with Ned's dream, it is a treasure, but one made of dust, spiders, and rotting leather, under the appearance of “gold, silver and jewels”.

Ned's dream poses a scenario: “3 Knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood”. It is understood that the tower of the dream is the "Tower of Joy", located in the mountains of Dorne, in the south.

The curious thing, and this is one of the clues to understand this dream, is that when Ned sets the stage, he talks about Lyanna and her 'bed of blood', which we assume is Jon being born, and yet she’s not part of the dream, except for the one word she yells: Eddard. This seemingly minimal detail is in fact the key to the riddle that’s Bael’s song.

Let's reexamine the scenario Ned presents us with: 3 knights in white cloaks, AND, a tower long fallen, AND Lyanna in her bed of blood.

Let us now examine the first part of the Night's Watch oath, the one that lays out the rules that must be followed by men who want to join such a noble brotherhood:

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“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.”

 

Let's start at the beginning, "Night gathers, and now my watch begins"

Ned is arriving accompanied by 6 shadows, clearly that is the night gathered, those are our brothers, the ones I mentioned before are the ones that are going to help us solve the puzzle that is hidden in the dream.

Then the vow says “my watch begins” which is exactly what we are going to do, watch. But we need to be very careful, because this story is told from personal point of views and therefore, what they see, many times will collide with reality, against the cold prove that the text provide and that’s what we are looking for, the "clics" like Old Nan needles. The “night gathered” is the cold and deadly black ink in the text.

Let's move on, "it shall not end until my death", what we are looking for is people that is alive at the beginning of the novels, not the people that the dream names, those are dead, what we are looking for are people that has no name or rather, ‘wears’ a different identity that cloaks them.

The following 3 promises are the scenario of this dream: take no wife (the sworn men), hold no lands (the long fallen tower), father no children (Lyanna in her bed of blood), and the promises that are behind our first two riddles.

The last two promises: “I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post” are part of the last song, (the song of ice and fire) that we know roughly what’s about since AGoT, because that’s what the legend of the ‘Night's King and his corpse queen” tells.

To understand Ned's dream, we must also consider the finding that Jon and Ghost made in the "Fist of the first man": a black cloak, a horn that apparently makes no sound, and dragonglass or 'frozen fire', all things that are obviously related to the NW but especially to the "Long Night", the very reason that explains the Night's Watch existence.

By the time Lyanna disappeared, Lord Rickard had 3 'knights': Brandon, Eddard and Benjen. At the end of the war, Ned is the "last man standing", Lord Brandon’s 'true heir', just like in Bael’s song. Upon death, each Stark is taken to the crypt that, curiously, like the tower of the dream, collapsed. No one to goes to the crypt’s lower levels because apparently, they “collapsed” so we don’t know the 'treasure' that’s below.

 

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"You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert," Ned told him. "You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath.” Eddard VII – AGoT

 

Of course, the 'treasure' are dead kings and vengeful spirits, like in the Night's King legend.

When Bran goes down to the crypt, after dreaming of Ned's death, he tells Osha that Brandon and Lyanna shouldn't have statues, which brings to mind the attack on Bran and what the killer repeats to Cat like an idiot, that she 'shouldn't be there'. Which is relevant to both Brandon and Lyanna, as we’ll see.

Regarding Lyanna’s disappearance, there is a detail that always caught my attention because unlike what happens in the real world, that every time a woman disappears, especially a rape victim, the first thing that everybody does is question the victim, asking questions like “what was she wearing” that curiously the dream seems to answer: a white cloak.

But in Lyanna's case, it seems that no one wondered what Lyanna was doing on the Trident. Of course, the only proof we have is Ned's word, (what this dream tells), but as we know, "words are wind", and that is precisely what we see, the guards’ cloaks that are "blowing in the wind”. Worse, Ned himself later confirms, that he forgot many things because words, and even promises, are often forgotten, even those “he has vowed never to forget”.

What this dream seems to relate to is the very image that Waymar offers us arriving at the ridge to do what needs to be done because he is clearly surrounded by cowards and useless fools that tell him a story that defies logic, and that’s exactly what “the song of the tower” seems to be, there’s no logic behind what Rhaegar and Lyanna allegedly did.

That song, with Rhaegar evident victim of ‘some madness’, Lyanna completely speechless before, during, and after what happens, and 3 very exemplary Kingsguards, is a song that smells quite a lot like misogyny, and a lot like something Ned would make out of something he partially knows. We seen him doing it, twice.

But also, is a song that involves 5 ‘shadows’ who are dead, about people that cannot give their vision of things, unlike the prologue, where we are presented by different opinions.

Another detail that goes completely unnoticed, and this also goes hand in hand with what I mentioned about misogyny, is that in most cases, for everything that Ned mentions, the one that answers is Hightower, which clearly indicates that the Lord Commander 'speaks with the voice' of whoever is in the tower, who of course is not allowed to speak, although what the LC says doesn't make much sense.

Ned, for his part, speaks on behalf of the shadows that came with him, and that also maintain a very respectful silence, they don’t seem to have an opinion, like the NW brothers.

I already mentioned a few interesting details about the dream and of course, is the small details that will help us find the truth, because the story that hides inside the dream is not even remotely as white as the tower we find, to what is seen on the surface, but there are treasures hidden between a lot of rotten leather that in the end, will make that tower to collapse.

In the prologue, Waymar realizes that the scene is wrong, that what Will is telling doesn’t make sense because it defies logic, his logic, a logic that becomes evident when Waymar comes up with an alternative explanation using the exact same elements that Will used to arrive to a completely different conclusion. Waymar then, as I mentioned above, decides to go personally to examine the bodies, so we are looking for "ghosts", people we thought were dead or didn't even know existed, which is consistent considering that the NW "watches the night".

That obviously brings to mind the moment when Robert asked to go to the crypt. When the king sees Lyanna's statue, he defies the image he sees portrayed just as Waymar challenged Will's description of the wildlings' bodies. Whether or not Lyanna was in fact more beautiful than what her statue shows, is a completely subjective question, which of course depends on who is looking, but the statue doesn’t change because of that, reality will remain the same. We’ve seen a situation like this play out with the wildlings and the NW. While Jon sees them as “just people”, some of his brothers think of them as “monsters”, none of them can change reality, the wildlings are what they are.

 

A Tower Long Fallen

 

“The tower of Joy” is rounded, (like the First Keep in Winterfell), and behind the tower are the "red mountains" of Dorne. That the tower is rounded implies an idea that we saw in the prologue "we should start back" the tower has no end, like, apparently, the crypt of Winterfell that goes on beyond the point marked by the latest statues.

The outer part of the crypt is the one I mentioned, the FK, that's what you see on the surface, crowned by faceless creatures, but the "treasure", the most important thing about WF is kept underneath, and what is kept and cared for, is "the line of Starks".

That line, completely masculine and martial, rests against a wall, like all the watchers in this dream, no matter the color of the cloak. In the dream the tower leans to against the red mountains. Red of course makes us think of blood, and besides, the last thing Ned sees before losing consciousness and having this dream are the stones of the Red Keep that the rain turned blood red. Of course, "the line of the Starks" is ‘supported’ by the blood of those people who had the honor of being a 'watcher' since their lineage is the right one.

The First Keep is crowned by gargoyles, which is not a common ornament in Westeros, in fact, it is only found in 2 places, Winterfell and Dragonstone, a place that is mentioned in the dream and that obviously makes us think of opposite things, like ice and fire.

We know that the Others only attack at night (like a gargoyle), and that at dawn they “disappear”. We also know that The Others have only attacked or been seen on 2 occasions, during the Long Night, and during the reign of the NK. We have no idea what happened in the LN, but we do know that the NK's story includes a "corpse queen", a Stark, and the "Horn of Winter".

Those three things lead us back to the NW second promise: “I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children.”

•      No Wife: Corpse Queen

•      No lands: Winterfell

•      No children: the horn of winter / the blood

 

The culprit: ‘The King’, the unnamed hero or villain, depending on where you're standing.

The oath of the Night's Watch is an essential guide to understand not only this dream but several hidden gems, including Jon's death, because that oath hides the three reasons why people commit crimes: love, power, vengeance.

 

Bael's song, which is the first song that we are going to examine to understand what Jon's mystery is about, clearly has to do with love.

As told by Ygritte, from Bael's point of view, the song says that in battle the father cannot kill the son and wants us to believe that he allowed the kid to kill him instead, while he was attacking the kid for no reason at all.

What his actions, not his words, prove instead is that he completely forgot about the maiden and any consequences of his actions. Fatherhood is a choice as Robert can confirm.

This story is also told entirely from a male point of view, in fact the first two songs are told by man, and the women don't even have names.

That male vision of things makes us lose sight of the other choices, first those of the maiden, who is taken as a captive to a place full of swords, which seems to indicate that she is there of her own free will. The same can be said of the NW, they stay at the Wall by choice, because "the world ends" at the Wall and all castles have a gate that crosses to the other side. You can go to that side and be completely free, you can choose to stay and serve, or you can choose to run away and maybe die, but the choices are there.

This is perfectly illustrated in what Mormont says to Jon as they leave Craster's Keep, while Craster sleeps drunk, there's a sharp axe on his board, those women have options. One of those women actually, has the initiative to run away, which brings us to the next topic.

The second choice that the song seems to overlook, is that the maiden chooses to lie down to sleep in her own bed with her baby, clearly, she is not ashamed of her situation or that of her son. This flatly rules out the possibility that, as Jon believes, his origin is a "dark" story, it might not be white as snow, but clearly isn’t black either. The maiden enjoys her motherhood in plain sight, she neither hides nor does anything to hide the baby.

That brings us to the third choice, the one Lord Brandon makes, which is to skip the mother and name that baby Lord Stark, as if the mother didn't exist. Which of course makes him no better than Bael.

All the characters had choices, Bael chose to run away and come back with a sword in hand, the maiden chose to hide Bael and to be a mother, and Lord Brandon chose to obliterate the mother from the story.

This is the story of the “corpse queen” and the things we do for love.

 

Who Are You?

 

The second part of the Night's Watch vows are the ones that turn each and every one of the brothers into a single blade.

A ‘brotherhood’ requires at least two people, and that's exactly what the NW votes show. Two things: lights and shadows against a wall.

 

a. I am the sword in the darkness – the light that brings the dawn

Waymar Royce – Arthur Dayne – Brandon Stark

 

To solve this sphinx riddle, we are going to sing Bael’s song, so we’ll need to visit Winterfell’s crypt as seen by Jon (in nightmares) and Ned (in dreams).

 

b. I am the watcher on the walls – the horn that wakes the sleepers

Will – Oswell Whent – Lyanna

 

To find the ‘naked steel’ or better put, the identity of Jon's father and why he completely disappeared, we’ll need to use the "Horn of Winter".

Here, we're going to sing the "Dornishman's wife" song, to find out if she's the 'whore' that Ned's silences seem to imply, or the kind-eyed woman that Jon stubbornly dreams of. The motive here is power, the power to "wake giants."

To find out who our ‘bastard sword’ really is, we must pay attention to Waymar's left eye, the one that’s white (blind) and has a sword sticking out.

 

c. I am the fire that burns against the cold – the shield that guards the realms of men

Gared – Gerold Hightower – Rickard Stark

 

This is “The Song of Ice & Fire”, and we’ll need “frozen fire” to sing it correctly. This is the song that has it all: love, power and revenge.

I am going to make a couple of comments about this second part of the NW oath that’s so filled by identities, 12 obviously, because we are looking for the “last men standing” the King, the 13th LC and his corpse queen.

The second part of the oath, the one that answers the existential question 'who are you?' is symbolized in two of my favorite parts of the novels, the first, is the moment in which Cat tells us what a strange people these northerners are.

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“The Stark words. Every noble house had its words. Family mottoes, touchstones, prayers of sorts, they boasted of honor and glory, promised loyalty and truth, swore faith and courage. All but the Starks. Winter is coming, said the Stark words” Catelyn I - AGoT

 

Of course, Cat, like most of us I think, didn't exactly grasped what the Starks' words were about until Ned explains it to Arya:

 

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“Let me tell you something about wolves, child. When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Summer is the time for squabbles. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths. So if you must hate, Arya, hate those who would truly do us harm.” Arya II - AGoT

 

The Stark banner displays a lone wolf running on the ice which, as Ned points out, translates to the idea that "the lone wolf dies." Ned’s mistake was to believe that the "pack" is made up of Starks only. No one can survive alone. That is why the legendary hero goes out with 12 people, and a horse and a dog. The sword breaks the moment he is left all alone. So, when Ned says on his visit to the crypt that the Starks ‘had sworn allegiance to no men’ he was dangerously wrong.

The Starks survived because of their alliances, not despite them, that's what he is telling Arya (likely because someone told him) that "in winter" you have to protect others and share your strengths. In the north, winter means death, “winter” is the time they go to war, because as we’ve seen since we’ve known them, the north is always cold.

But the Stark words illustrate something else, that explains why the wolf has one eye, and that’s something that Ned explained to Bran, "Winter is coming", that’s a promise, at some point you are going to die, what matters is what you do before winter comes for you.

You can close your eyes to reality and die without facing it, like Robert, or you can open them and face the things that are not as you expected, like Viserys and his golden crown. But you need to choose. Of course, there’s always a third option, but that option requires that you accept the other's point of view, even, or specially, if you don't like it.

The second place where we can see what winter really means and what it’s like to face a war being completely alone as the Last Hero, is when Jon is trying to rescue the wildlings trapped at Hardhome:

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As they walked through the armory, Ghost sniffed at them, his tail upraised and bristling. My brothers. The Night's Watch needed leaders with the wisdom of Maester Aemon, the learning of Samwell Tarly, the courage of Qhorin Halfhand, the stubborn strength of the Old Bear, the compassion of Donal Noye. What it had instead was them.” Jon XIII – AdwD

 

It is extremely curious how Jon never realizes that those things he mentions are precisely his virtues, all of them ‘tempered’ by the men he mentions, those are the shadows that ‘walk’ with Jon, the sixth of course is Ghost. Those are his “white walkers”. His absolute blindness is of course related to Jon's own ‘black’ image of himself, symbolized in the most questionable act he had to do, asking Gilly to left her baby in order to save Mance's baby's life.

Here, I want to bring up another point that has to do with his request to Gilly, Jon is never completely sure if Gilly took the right baby or the wrong one, because he had never paid any attention to them. The underlying issue here is again the issue of choices, Gilly could choose. Jon explained the situation to her and told her what needed to be done, but he clearly left it up to her to decide and that is something he learned from Qhorin.

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"I did not command it. I told you to do what needed to be done, and left you to decide what that would be." Qhorin stood and slid his longsword back into its scabbard. "When I want a mountain scaled, I call on Stonesnake. Should I need to put an arrow through the eye of some foe across a windy battlefield, I summon Squire Dalbridge. Ebben can make any man give up his secrets. To lead men you must know them, Jon Snow. I know more of you now than I did this morning."

Wheather he realized or not, Jon chose Gilly for the exact same reason that Qhorin chose him for the mission they faced, of Craster's 19 wives, Gilly was the only one who realized that there was a third option, she didn't have to settle for living a horrible life or kill Craster, there was another way. When she realized, she decided to act, and to achieve her goal she accepted help, even from dead people.

 

That is what the statues of the crypt symbolize, the dark and cold place symbolizes winter, the king is sitting against a wall because he has something to lean on, he is protected while he protects. This is the hero's horse leading him to war.

The wolf at his feet that keeps him warm is the family that watches over the land and its people like a faithful dog.

The sword is the strength. Eventually those swords "rust away" and comes a time when another 'hero' must take its place.

If any of those 3 things fail, the tower collapses, as Ned's family so colorfully proved.

The lord is vigilant, 'naked steel in hand' with the wolf at his feet. That is a promise. Winter is coming. Whoever visits the crypt and faces those Lords must understand that even if the statue remains seated, with its knees bending, it is only a matter of time until it rises.

The sword is in charge of keeping the "vengeful spirits" calm and seated, but spirits in the plural, it is not about keeping the peace or justice of the Stark, but of the north, even when the problem is a Stark, that is exactly what the Wall exists for, so justice can reach those who deserve it, no matter who they are.

 

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“Tell me, my lord … if the kinslayer is accursed, what is a father to do when one son slays another?" Reek III – ADwD

 

Now, we are ready to sing, in the next part :)

[Groo]

21 hours ago, northern_amnesia said:

 

Our first riddle is Bael's song, that song is about something that is hidden in the crypt of Winterfell and finally comes to light.

A riddle is a question. Is the question "what is hidden in the crypt of Winterfell"? I assume you meant Bael's song is a key to the riddle and not the riddle itself. The song itself is a story and doesn't ask any questions.

21 hours ago, northern_amnesia said:

 

Bael's song, which is the first song that we are going to examine to understand what Jon's mystery is about, clearly has to do with love.

So, the riddle isn't about what is hidden in the crypt of Winterfell? It's about Jon?

[Nadden]

Here’s a clue about the needles,

Our newly anointed Knight and freshly 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 gets wounded and seemly butchered. But his sword tells a different story.

 

Did Ser Waymar Royce break his oath? Did he hope to die? Was he suicidal or just willing to sacrifice himself?

 

There’s an old childhood saying that goes like this, “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye”. The saying decrees that a needle be stuck in an eye of someone to ensure that they are indeed dead should that person break their word.

 

In our story there’s a moment just before  Waymar is seemly butchered that he, figuratively, gets a needle in his eye. If this is true what does it mean? Was Waymar lying? Why?

 

Did Martin have this pledge in mind while writing the AGOT, Prologue?

 

Somewhere I read that long ago the idea of sticking “a needle in the eye” was done by adults on corpses. It was a custom to make sure that someone wasn’t still alive before they were buried. Children 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.

 

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 so did Waymar. It’s at this point that we see the figurative needle in his eye. Here’s the quote,

 

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“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” to “needles”. The shard in Waymar’s eye is from his sword and the same set of shards that, just moments before, were figuratively described as “needles”. Thus a figurative 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 during the death of Ser Waymar Royce’s longsword but is not reveal until Waymar’s apparent resurrection. The placement of the two aspects of this idea may be telling. In fact, it’s Waymar‘s death pose which gives us the “Cross my heart,…” moment, the first part of the that old childhood pledge of honor.

 

Here again our author brings together a facet of death and the idea of a child.

 

Waymar’s death pose is a variation of Child’s pose, a basic yoga position. I know the Child pose, seems a bit of a stretch for Martin, pun intended, so I’ll explain. In the actual pose one rests on their knees, resting their buttocks against their heels. They bow forward lowering their upper body onto their thighs and their forehead to the mat with both arms extended out. The variation brings one arm under (“threads”) across one’s chest, crossing their heart. This is, figuratively, the “Cross my heart,…” moment.

 

Let’s compare this to the description of Waymar’s death pose,

Quote

 

“When the blades touched, the steel shattered. 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.

 

  …(and three paragraphs later)…

 

  Royce’s body lay facedown in the snow, one arm out-flung. The thick sable cloak had been slashed in a dozen places. Lying dead like that, you saw how young he was. A boy.”(AGOT, Prologue)

 

 

The description is vague. So let’s ask a question. Why would Will think Waymar looks young? Waymar is facedown in the snow, his cloak splayed out over him displaying slashes in a dozen places.

 

The answer, because Will is considering his body position. Like any good crime scene investigator worth their weight knows, the position of the body is important. And true to Martin’s pattern of revealing his clues he divides the information up. First Waymar drops to his knees shrieking still alive. Then Will sees him dead several paragraphs later facedown with one arm out-flung.

 

The fact that Martin is deliberately making it difficult for the reader to fully conceptualize Waymar’s death pose by spreading out the details is reason again to feel confident that this is an important connection being made.

 

According to the old pledge of honor and based on the discoveries to this point Waymar  “…hoped to die…“. But Why? And why does the “…stick a needle in my eye.” moment and the “Cross my heart,…” moment appear out of order?