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A cryptic examination of Davos II, ADWD (updated)


Sandy Clegg
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Cryptic dioramas in ADWD, Davos  II

Yup, unashamedly long post. It’s been a while since I contributed anything of decent length on the forum, so I guess this is me paying my dues. I hope all the fans of symbolism will get something out of this, and there’s a little something for the Puns & Wordplay thread people, too.

So … I’m finally nearing the end of my current re-read and I’m almost positive that I’m not completely imagining things. Having said that, I’m also convinced that I look like Keanu Reeves in sufficiently dim lighting - despite the common consensus that this is “patently not the case". I also spent a good few days in 2019 somehow convinced that Tyrion was in fact a small dog who thought he was human (have since cut down on my coffee intake). With that, consider yourselves forewarned. This is all slightly bonkers.

My re-read was, in part, intended to answer a question which would sometimes occur to me while I researched this or that theory, stumbling across passages that leapt out at me as being laden with secondary meaning, yet which stubbornly refused to give up their secrets.

That question was this: ‘How does George keep himself entertained when writing these books?”

And I’ve started to suspect that some of the games he plays with language and symbolism may largely be for his own benefit. A whetstone to keep his mind sharp while he slogs through the writing process, perhaps. We naturally assume that a lot of the complexity in the books is down to the story’s many, many moving parts. And this is clearly part of it. However, I think George has set out, since book one, to make sure he’s having as much fun as possible by including layers of symbolism where they frankly aren’t needed. Don’t get me started on the food descriptions - that’s a whole other post.

Attempting to explain this without sounding insane is the tricky part, but here goes. I’m going to examine a few pages from Davos’ second chapter in Dance, chosen because they contain several good examples of what I call “cryptic dioramas” - a needlessly fancy bullshit phrase I invented which basically means ‘a long passage comprised of images which represent other story elements’. They are chimera paragraphs that lead a double life. By day, they work in a diner. By night, a slightly less reputable diner. Think of those optical illusions which can be a jug and a pair of faces, or that one with the upside-down rabbit but it’s also a horse. Or possibly a duck.

Actually, no. Don’t think of optical illusions. I have a better metaphor. Some of you, I’m sure, will remember doing cryptic picture quizzes such as these: https://www.quizmasters.biz/DB/Pic/Cryptic_Canvas/Cryptic_Canvas.html 

They used to be really popular. See how two musical 'lyres' represent the Jim Carrey movie Liar Liar? Or the letters ‘C C C’ are 300? Or those happy feet are .. Happy Feet? Well, bear this image in mind as we move on.

Anyway. These essentially work on two levels, and you can find them throughout the books to a greater and lesser degree. If you’ve read any post on symbolism, you’ll be familiar with the way George weaves symbolic meanings into phrases, quotes and scenes. @LmL famously analyses the more mythological aspects, finding references to various legends or prophecies. The Mountain represents the moon, the Viper is Azor Ahai, and so on. But I’ve found that George actually uses them very liberally, and for purposes great and small. As the books progress, he becomes more and more ambitious with their length and detail - in some cases, as with Davos II, writing entire pages of prose that can be read in two widely different ways. What’s more, he seemingly does it just for the hell of it. That, and to raise a smile.

I am no expert in deciphering - far from it. Everything that I know was learned from standing on the shoulders of the great and good on this forum. But I do believe I have located a number of passages where George intends deciphering to be done, and I’m kind of getting a feel for the wavelength that he is on whenever he does it. My interpretations are bound to be wrong in places, so by all means offer your own. But that George intends them to be interpreted - of that I am now sure.

One surprising, yet important, thing I must stress is that there is a good deal of 'majestic cheesiness' used in building the symbolism, mixed in with the more abstract stuff. George uses a diverse arsenal of imagery and wordplay, from the sublime to the ridiculous. He’s lowbrow here, highbrow there. As I said before, I suspect he is having enormous fun writing these. And that’s really all the justification they need to exist. It’s been great fun re-reading the books in this way, too. So I guess, whether the authorial intention is there or not, I can attest to the fact that the enjoyment I personally got was real (if that counts for anything).

Cryptic Dioaramas in Davos II

So firstly, the obvious surface meaning of the chapter: in short, Davos arrives in White Harbour, discovers that the Freys have got there before him when he sees the ship Lionstar, takes note of the city’s main features, then heads to an unsavoury drinking hole - the Lazy Eel - where he can do a bit of reconnaissance before planning his next move. Not a whole lot of action in this chapter, I think most would agree, but we do learn a lot about the cogs turning in the Northern plot.

The second feature of the chapter is a sequence of cryptic dioramas. Alternative meanings start to come into focus, and we will start to uncover layers that describe events happening (or soon to happen) in other parts of the world, relating to other POV characters, and yes maybe even some foreshadowing.

None of which takes anything away from the surface reading of Davos II, which is still great, atmospheric world-building stuff. George’s philosophy where symbolism is concerned seems to be ‘do no harm to the main story’. References are all subtly folded into the language and background detail, safely tucked away where they will not be a distraction.

1) Setting the scene

Quote

White Harbor's scent was sharp and salty, and a little fishy too.

Here we are clued in early to the idea that something unusual, or ‘fishy’, is up with White Harbour. Essentially, the Onion Knight is about to take us on a whistle-stop tour of ASOIAF as it stands in Dance. Scenes of local life, as he walks through White Harbour, are revealed to echo people and places we know and love - all through a twisted lens of wordplay and imagery.

George has divided these scenes geographically, as we will see. I’ll try to whizz through most of the smaller references, then look at the Lazy Eel section in more detail.

2) Around Volantis & Slaver’s Bay (the fish market)

We come now to the heart of George’s premise: White Harbour has become the world writ small.

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He made his way along the wharf and through the fish market. The Brave Magister was taking on some mead. The casks stood four high along the pier. Behind one stack he glimpsed three sailors throwing dice. Farther on the fishwives were crying the day's catch, and a boy was beating time on a drum as a shabby old bear danced in a circle for a ring of river runners. Two spearmen had been posted at the Seal Gate, with the badge of House Manderly upon their breasts, but they were too intent on flirting with a dockside whore to pay Davos any mind.

Here we can find cryptic references to:

  • Magister Illyrio in Pentos (the former ‘bravo') funding the hiring of …
  • … The Golden Company (mead is made from honey) to support Aegon’s campaign. The stacks of casks represent their strength in numbers.
  • the 3 sailors throwing dice = Quentyn’s ill-fated trio, their venture essentially one big gamble.
  • the fishwives’ catch = the Iron Fleet and their trail of conquests as they reave and plunder their way across the Summer Sea.
  • ‘the shabby bear’  = poor old Jorah, roped into service as a slave/arena-fighter (in the ring).
  • the boy, ‘beating time’ on his drum  = Tyrion, presumably, indicating that despite the odds he is still managing to not only survive but influence events. Could also be a reference to the fact that his ‘time' should be up, but like a cat with nine lives he keeps ‘beating’ fate.
  • Finally, the ‘dockside whore’ = Daenerys in Slaver’s Bay, and we can assume that the spearmen represent her troubles with Yunkai and their allies - here, specifically, the sellsword company the Long Lances, some of whom not only flirt with joining her, but actually do (thanks to Daario).

A little unfair on Dany this last one, but it seems that George uses the word ‘whore’ with gleeful abandon - we shouldn’t always read too much into it. It’s just that his story happens to be populated by many ‘whores’, so … he puts them to good symbolic use. A lot. (They should raise their hourly rate.)

There are probably a ton of sceptics furrowing their brow at this so far. And I get it. All I can say is: try to think of these as impressionist paintings in prose form. They’re not blueprints or schematics. You have to squint a little. It’s like when Dany muses about Ser Barristan and his gift of pillows:

Quote

 

The old knight was a good man, but sometimes very literal. It was only a jape, ser, she thought, but she sat on one of the pillows just the same.

 

George is in full-on ‘jape mode’ here. We need to abandon our inner Barristans as we press on, if we want to make sense of these cryptic scenes.

3) Fishfoot Yard (Westeros)

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Inside was a cobbled square with a fountain at its center. A stone merman rose from its waters, twenty feet tall from tail to crown. His curly beard was green and white with lichen, and one of the prongs of his trident had broken off before Davos had been born, yet somehow he still managed to impress. Old Fishfoot was what the locals called him.

Fishfoot himself is a metaphorical Westeros. Take a look at a colour map of Westeros and you’ll see the forest beyond the wall, green and white, standing in for his green and white beard. The broken arm of Dorne is his trident, which long ago had a piece ‘broken off’. The use of the word cobbled is interesting  - it can also mean ‘assembled like a patchwork’, as in ‘cobbled together’. And we will soon see just what kind of patchwork puzzle George has constructed.

Here, we catch a glimpse of various story characters and locations throughout Westeros. You might like to have a go at doing the deciphering for yourself first, then read on and see if we match up anywhere, just to confirm that I’m not a raving lunatic. (Merely a lunatic will suffice). Relevant parts highlighted.

Quote

The Yard was teeming this afternoon. A woman was washing her smallclothes in Fishfoot's fountain and hanging them off his trident to dry. Beneath the arches of the peddler's colonnade the scribes and money changers had set up for business, along with a hedge wizard, an herb woman, and a very bad juggler. A man was selling apples from a barrow, and a woman was offering herring with chopped onions. Chickens and children were everywhere underfoot. The huge oak-and-iron doors of the Old Mint had always been closed when Davos had been in Fishfoot Yard before, but today they stood open. Inside he glimpsed hundreds of women, children, and old men, huddled on the floor on piles of furs. Some had little cookfires going.

Here are my thought processes on the passage as seen through our wonky, I mean magical, cryptic lens:

  • the washerwoman = Lady Stoneheart, hanging people near, or just ‘off’, the Trident (river).
  • ‘Arches’ = simple shortening of Archmaesters in Oldtown, where scribes ply their trade. The faceless man with his poisoned coin is our ‘money / changer’.
  • the hedge wizard  = Sam (a novice maester)
  • the herb woman = Gilly (as in Gillyweed)
  • the bad (evil) juggler = Euron? Possible reference to the finger dance played in the Iron Islands. He does seem to be juggling many plans at once, too, and as a metaphorical kraken he has enough arms to do so.
  • the apple and herring sellers are probably a reference to Littlefinger and Sansa, if only because she is our ‘little bird’ (as herrings are little fish) and what does chopping onions give us? Something that Sansa is famous for: crying. Why Littlefinger is the apple seller is more elusive, but he is paired with Sansa at the Eyrie, so it fits. I need to mull this one over.
  • children underfoot = the COTF under Bran’s weirwood tree.
  • chickens … clearly they are all Azor Ahai. Ok, this one has me beat.
  • The Old Mint is simply a really cute way of describing the Wall - it actually would kind of resemble a colossal breath mint. Cool, white, enormous and in this case really rather ‘old’ indeed. Majestic cheesiness. Again, one of the main aims of these devices is, I believe, to raise a chuckle now and then (or at least a groan).

This last one, for me, is confirmed by the mention of people (wildlings) huddling within on piles of furs, its doors having been newly opened (by Jon Snow). Also, the cook fires may be foreshadowing something that Melisandre has in mind.

Davos’ thoughts also provide some support for our premise:

Quote

 

Any boy stands five feet tall can find a place in his lordship's barracks, long as he can hold a spear."

He's raising men, then. That might be good … or bad, depending. The apple was dry and mealy, but Davos made himself take another bite.

 

At the Wall (the old mint) someone is raising men. Davos wonders whether this is good or bad, hinting at the double meaning of ‘raising’ men. If they are being raised from the dead, maybe not so good …

So far I haven’t even touched on the ‘surface reading’ of the passage. That’s because it doesn’t really have much bearing on the diorama here. Not to say that George doesn’t also weave things together thematically. He generally does, I think - and one day I’ll have to go back and put together some analyses of these. But in this case, what we’re getting is a ‘symbolic roundup’ of people and events sprinkled throughout the books around/after the time Davos is in White Harbour. It’s a neat little overview, with a light seasoning of foreshadowing.

On with our tour.

4) Past Fishfoot  (Heading East again, but with a darker tone)

As Davos moves past the statue of Fishfoot, so do we move beyond Westeros. Next stop: Braavos

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He made his way around Old Fishfoot, past where a young girl was selling cups of fresh milk from her nanny goat. He was remembering more of the city now that he was here. Down past where Old Fishfoot's trident pointed was an alley where they sold fried cod, crisp and golden brown outside and flaky white within. Over there was a brothel, cleaner than most, where a sailor could enjoy a woman without fear of being robbed or killed. Off the other way, in one of those houses that clung to the walls of the Wolf's Den like barnacles to an old hull, there used to be a brewhouse where they made a black beer so thick and tasty that a cask of it could fetch as much as Arbor gold in Braavos and the Port of Ibben, provided the locals left the brewer any to sell.

 

This next one is weird, but stick with me. The young girl can only be Arya, off in her own separate story, serving the Faceless Men. The nanny goat (of Qohor?) is one avatar of the God of Many Faces - the milk his ‘gift’ of death. Goats/horned animals are frequently symbolic of malicious, god-like entities; the cuteness of the nanny goat juxtaposes nicely with the more sinister reality. Arya has also gone by the name Nan in the past.

“Down past” the trident (with broken prong) = south, then past the broken Arm of Dorne. Take a look at the map and you’ll notice the tip has a distinct trident-like shape. So, heading further east:

  • alley where they ‘sell fried cod’ could be Dorne, although the geography doesn’t really match up well so I may be wrong. Summer Isles perhaps?
  • the ‘clean’ brothel’ is no doubt Lys, with its pleasure houses.
  • the ‘barnacle brewhouse’  - off in the other direction - must be Valyria, clinging to the south coast, the ‘hull’ of Essos, with the ‘black beer’ a reference to their involvement in slavery (black market, dark magic). Or at least it ‘used to’ be involved, before the Doom. The locals (slaves) did eventually rise up against the owners (brewers), eventually founding the city of Braavos and leaving their masters with little to sell. Phew.

It’s probably worth mentioning here that the western end of Essos looks (to me at least) like a crouching wolf, facing west. Which makes its codename here (the Wolf’s Den) all the more appropriate. All this geographical pinpointing serves mainly to help us see where we’re headed. South, east, then further east. Wow, we’re really speeding along. In fact, we’re at the limits of the map as Davos enters the dingy gloom of the Lazy Eel. Here be dragons.

5) The Lazy Eel / Asshai

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It was wine he wanted, though—sour, dark, and dismal. He strolled across the yard and down a flight of steps, to a winesink called the Lazy Eel, underneath a warehouse full of sheepskins. Back in his smuggling days, the Eel had been renowned for offering the oldest whores and vilest wine in White Harbor, along with meat pies full of lard and gristle that were inedible on their best days and poisonous on their worst. With fare like that, most locals shunned the place, leaving it for sailors who did not know any better. You never saw a city guardsman down in the Lazy Eel, or a customs officer.

Some things never change. Inside the Eel, time stood still. The barrel-vaulted ceiling was stained black with soot, the floor was hard-packed earth, the air smelled of smoke and spoiled meat and stale vomit. The fat tallow candles on the tables gave off more smoke than light, and the wine that Davos ordered looked more brown than red in the gloom. Four whores were seated near the door, drinking. One gave him a hopeful smile as he entered. When Davos shook his head, the woman said something that made her companions laugh. After that none of them paid him any mind.

Aside from the whores and the proprietor, Davos had the Eel to himself. The cellar was large, full of nooks and shadowed alcoves where a man could be alone. He took his wine to one of them and sat with his back to a wall to wait.

 

Although I toyed with the idea that this might be Old Ghis (as its lies near the Worm river), none of the other imagery seemed to fit, so I went with my first instinct which was: a symbolic Asshai, where dragons are said to have originated. Eels / dragons. You could say there’s a similarity of sorts. I mean, George could have called it the Lazy Badger or the Lazy Oyster but he went with something more serpentine.

Here’s a breakdown of the Eel / Asshai symbolism. Situated beneath a sheepskin warehouse could be a colour reference - to the ghost-grass plains near Asshai. Or perhaps that we have moved east beyond the land of the Lhazarene (lamb men). Again, a debatable one.

- Inside the Eel, time stood still.

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“ … the ancient port of Asshai stands at the end of a long wedge of land, on the point where the Jade Sea meets the Saffron Straits. Its origins are lost in the mists of time. Even the Asshai'i do not claim to know who built their city; they will say only that a city has stood here since the world began and will stand here until it ends.”

- World of Ice and Fire

 

- The barrel-vaulted ceiling was stained black with soot, the floor was hard-packed earth, the air smelled of smoke and spoiled meat and stale vomit

Quote

 

“ … the city is built entirely of black stone: halls, hovels, temples, palaces, streets, walls, bazaars, all. Some say as well that the stone of Asshai has a greasy, unpleasant feel to it, that it seems to drink the light, dimming tapers and torches and hearth fires alike. The nights are very black in Asshai, all agree, and even the brightest days of summer are somehow grey and gloomy.”

- World of Ice and Fire

 

- … and vilest wines / meat pies full of lard and gristle that were inedible on their best days and poisonous on their worst

Quote

 

“There are no horses in Asshai, no elephants, no mules, no donkeys, no zorses, no camels, no dogs. Such beasts, when brought there by ship, soon die. The malign influence of the Ash and its polluted waters have been implicated, as it is well understood from Harmon's On Miasmas that animals are more sensitive to the foulness exuded by such waters, even without drinking them.”

- World of Ice and Fire

 

In the Eel: “You never saw a city guardsman … or a customs officer.” And in Asshai ..

Quote

 

“ … all find welcome in Asshai-by-the-Shadow, where nothing is forbidden. Here they are free to practice their spells without restraint or censure, conduct their obscene rites, and fornicate with demons if that is their desire.”

- World of Ice and Fire

 

That last part about the demons is interesting. Who is there to fornicate with in the Lazy Eel?

Quote

 

Four whores were seated near the door, drinking. One gave him a hopeful smile as he entered.

 

Sex workers get such a bad rep in these books. I do hope they get some kind of restitution by the end! So, even though George has stated that we will probably never get to see Asshai in the books, he’s managed to take us there anyway - in his own inimitable way. There are probably many other things to unpack in this scene, but this post was really just designed to draw attention to the patterns in this passage, and hopefully to open symbolism discussion up to readers who may have been sceptical in the past.

That almost concludes our miniaturised tour of the world of ASOIAF. The chapter then moves on in traditional style, as Davos engages with the denizens of the Eel on various topics.

As he leaves the Eel, however, he ponders whether he should seek out any of the other delights White Harbour has to offer. Some optional excursions on our tour, it seems:

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There were other places he might get his ears filled: an inn famous for its lamprey pies, the alehouse where the wool factors and the customs men did their drinking, a mummer's hall where bawdy entertainments could be had for a few pennies.

Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted that so far we have visited, if fleetingly, most of the locations for our POV characters in Dance (plus some extra special guests - Valyria & Asshai). But not all. There are three very notable absences in particular - all in Westeros (there’s a clue).

Here’s a final end-of-post test for you all. So far, we can tick off:

  • Volantis
  • Slaver’s Bay
  • Valyria
  • Asshai
  • Braavos
  • Lys
  • The Wall
  • Beyond the Wall
  • The Eyrie
  • Oldtown
  • Dorne/Summer Isles (?)
  • The Riverlands

What well-known locations, then, do you suppose Davos has 'smuggled into the chapter' here? (EDIT: posted the solutions on page two of this thread)

  1. The inn famous for lamprey pies.
  2. The alehouse where wool factors and customs men do their drinking.
  3. The mummer’s hall, where bawdy entertainment can be had (for a few pennies).

I know my guesses. I’ll post them here at a later date. They may not be right, but do we doubt any longer that this is clearly something that George does? The internal logic of this passage, moving along geographically, all seems pretty clear to me. Where I’ve noticed symbolism in previous books, it was nowhere near this comprehensive or on this scale.

To what purpose, though? We haven’t learned who Jon’s mother is, who will wield Lightbringer, the identity of the Valonqar, yada yada yadda. Some little bits of foreshadowing that the reader would get to know by the end of the book anyway. A few breadcrumbs. Well, as I said at the beginning, George is entitled to have his fun. And I’ve personally been having a blast on my re-read (especially AFFC - wow).

But more than that, I think this passage, with its logical structure helping us along, is a teachable moment from our author.

So the question we might prefer to ask is this: If George is prepared to put in this much effort just to create a brain-tickling cryptic roundup - a ‘snapshot’ of the story’s main locations and players as they stand - then how much more effort has he put into the really big stuff?

 

Edited by Sandy Clegg
It’s the west end of Essos which looks like a wolf, not the east. Oops
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I can’t say I “see” all of the dioramas, but this is probably more on me than you. And regardless, that didn’t take away any of the enjoyment I got from reading the OP. 
Well done! :thumbsup:
 

ps: still thinking of the question at the end. I think I have one figured out but still thinking. :read:

Edited by kissdbyfire
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Really nice weaving you point out! :thumbsup:

I think you're correct on most, or see why you come to that conclusion.

I'm not with you on the Wolf's Den, though I get why you think it's Volantis. I actually think it points to those still being loyal to the wolves of the story, still clinging to a return for the Starks, despite the House and castle (WF) crumbling to ruins. Brewing relates to temperaments but equally plans, or plotting. Barnacles cause drag to hulls, like Stannis' march on WF takes way longer than he planned, and the mountain men getting more and more a say on how things will go. The mention of Arbor Gold implies deception. It's not outright Arbor Gold, but dark black beer, which could sell to Braavos and Ibben (hairy men), but is mostly drunk by the locals. So, for me this is more an allusion to the Northern Conspiracy idea.

I think the "four whores" are 4 "queens": Dany, Cersei, Melisandre (of Asshai) - who has proposed to bed him and is trying to gain his trust, tries to convert him - and Margaery. 

As for the three places he doesn't visit. The lamprey pies are featured mostly in a few POVs: Davos's (in aSoS as well, he names one of his ghoalers Lamprey), Bran' also associated with Manderly (in aCoK for the harvest feast), Tyrion's (in aCoK, with the unrest growing within the city), Areo Hotah (the feast in aDwD). It's also listed of course in Braavos. Hotah and Davos both consider lamprey dishes too "rich" to hold down or stomach. And pies of course bring Frey pies to mind. Freys being served their commeupance?

Customs men and wool factors remind me of trade, and I keep thinking of Gulltown. 

Mummer's Hall is the Red Keep for me: the bawdy plotting by Cersei.

Edited by sweetsunray
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8 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

As for the three places he doesn't visit. The lamprey pies are featured mostly in a few POVs: Davos's (in aSoS as well, he names one of his ghoalers Lamprey), Bran' also associated with Manderly (in aCoK for the harvest feast), Tyrion's (in aCoK, with the unrest growing within the city), Areo Hotah (the feast in aDwD). It's also listed of course in Braavos. Hotah and Davos both consider lamprey dishes too "rich" to hold down or stomach. And pies of course bring Frey pies to mind. Freys being served their commeupance?

I was thinking the lamprey pies meant the Twins…

8 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

Customs men and wool factors remind me of trade, and I keep thinking of Gulltown. 
 

Nice, I was stuck on this one but can see it being Gulltown.

8 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

Mummer's Hall is the Red Keep for me: the bawdy plotting by Cersei.

Edited 5 minutes ago by sweetsunray

Same, I thought King’s Landing in general. 

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16 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

I was thinking the lamprey pies meant the Twins…

I thought someone would mention the Frey pie connection!
 

Pies do connect with the Freys, but

a) ADWD doesn’t visit The Twins. Try to focus on ADWD locations.
 

and

b) lampreys are - to me - the key element of this riddle.  What do lampreys do, which is not common to most aquatic animals?

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31 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

Customs men and wool factors remind me of trade, and I keep thinking of Gulltown. 

Again, Gulltown is a great guess but it’s not a major location, nor is it featured in ADWD.

Here’s a tip I’ve found useful. Try saying ‘wool factors’ out loud :)

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15 minutes ago, Sandy Clegg said:

I thought someone would mention the Frey pie connection!
 

Pies do connect with the Freys, but

a) ADWD doesn’t visit The Twins. Try to focus on ADWD locations.
 

and

b) lampreys are - to me - the key element of this riddle.  What do lampreys do, which is not common to most aquatic animals?

Hmmmm. And both are Westeros?

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19 minutes ago, Sandy Clegg said:

b) lampreys are - to me - the key element of this riddle.  What do lampreys do, which is not common to most aquatic animals?

I don’t know the first thing about lampreys… or maybe the second b/c I do know some species feed on other fishes’ blood. :eek:

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Just now, kissdbyfire said:

I don’t know the first thing about lampreys… or maybe the second b/c I do know some species feed on other fishes’ blood. :eek:

Exactly. They belong to the bloodsucker group of animals. You’re getting close. Just think of a few other examples.

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9 minutes ago, Sandy Clegg said:

That’s it, though, I think. Where would we find people acting on behalf of ‘wolves’? Or maybe even ‘claiming’ to be wolves?

Spoiler

Winterfell? Thinking fArya…

 

Edited by kissdbyfire
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4 minutes ago, Sandy Clegg said:

Exactly. They belong to the bloodsucker group of animals. You’re getting close. Just think of a few other examples.

So as to not spoil for others

Spoiler

Harrenhal 

 

Edited by kissdbyfire
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20 minutes ago, Sandy Clegg said:

 Your lampreys are still a little rotten though ;)

Spoiler

The Dreadfort? All those leeches… which could be seen as a. double-whammy w/  Harrenhal since you have the bat and Roose’s leeches! :D
Although we think we don’t see Harrenhal in ADwD, so there’s that. 

 

 

Edited by kissdbyfire
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15 hours ago, Sandy Clegg said:

Again, Gulltown is a great guess but it’s not a major location, nor is it featured in ADWD.

Here’s a tip I’ve found useful. Try saying ‘wool factors’ out loud :)

Okay I can see that. So more barnacles ;-)

But the first argument is meh, because Asshai isn't featured in aDwD, and aDwD partially is timeline wise a parallel to aFfC... after all, you're talking about a chapter that takes place before Cersei receives the news in aFfC that Manderly chopped Davos' head off.

Gulltown is a relevant location in aFfC, for Sansa's arc, who's a wolf, and needs some men to act on her behalf.

Edited by sweetsunray
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