Waymar’s eyes

[Nadden]

If we analyze Waymar’s eyes from a literary perspective we can see that our author has figuratively created, both “Fire and Ice” with imagery and similes.

One eye, the left, is indirectly and figuratively described as with fire; while the other metaphorical eye, the right, is figuratively described like ice, pun intended.

Using your mind’s eye, picture Waymar’s left eye transfixed with a shard; blood “red as fire”, running like tears down his ruined face. And his right eye, open, burning with a blue, deeper and bluer than any human eye, like a sapphire, a blue that burns like ice.

“red as fire” and “burns like ice” are the two similes that create this symbolic image. I’ll try to explain how Martin creates them and why.

Martin masks his idea by separating the description he uses to characterize and illustrate each eye. In the left eye he leaves out any mention of blood, symbolically “red as fire”, and in the right eye he allows for only an indirect comparison of the metaphorical eye to the Other’s “figurative” eyes which is characterized with a simile illustrating the eyes, “like ice”. Here’s the quote showing what Will sees after picking up the broken sword hilt and seeing Waymar’s face:

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Will rose. Ser Waymar Royce stood over him.

  His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin. A shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye.

  The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw. (AGOT, Prologue)

 

Martin has said that he was inspired by Robert Frost‘a poem, “Fire and Ice”. And while this can be seen from our title itself, there is more to see from the content of the books. The popular poem discusses the end of the world, likening the elemental force of fire with the emotion of desire, and ice with hate. I think we can see this as probably the most single overarching theme of the series. 

Beginning with the left eye; we assume it’s bleeding because after Will sees Waymar’s sword shatter and destroyed; he sees him go to his knees, shrieking, covering his eyes, while blood wells between his fingers.

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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. (AGOT, Prologue)

But it isn’t until later that Will sees Waymar’s injury…

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A shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye. (AGOT, Prologue)

Notice how Martin conveniently leaves out the fact that the eye, figuratively with blood “red as fire”, is bleeding by simple stating it seven paragraphs earlier when the injury initially occurs. And then, earlier still, the figurative language describing his blood “red as fire” comes during Waymar’s first injury when he is bit by the pale sword. This is one way Martin veils his clues.

During his first injury, where the blood wells between the rings. Martin has Will thinking Waymar’s blood is figuratively “red as fire”.

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The pale sword bit through the ringmail beneath his arm. The young lord cried out in pain. Blood welled between the rings. It steamed in the cold, and the droplets seemed red as fire where they touched the snow. (AGOT, Prologue)

Blood droplets, “red as fire”, where they touch the snow is another figurative “Fire and Ice” symbol when we consider the definition of snow as precipitation in the form of ice crystals. But regardless, this is the same blood in Waymar’s left eye making it also “red as fire”.

According to one of Frost's biographers, "Fire and Ice" was inspired by a passage in Canto 32 of Dante’s Inferno. And Harlow Shapley, a prominent astronomer claims to have inspired "Fire and Ice" when he said the sun will explode and incinerate the Earth, or the Earth will somehow escape this fate only to end up slowly freezing in deep space.

The right eye or the other eye is even more interesting to breakdown. Immediately, most all readers, connect the eye that Will sees standing over him with the eyes of the Other standing in front of Waymar earlier. Will sees the contrast. The right eye has a burning blue pupil in contrast to the blind white pupil of the left eye.

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Will rose. Ser Waymar Royce stood over him...

…The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw. (AGOT, Prologue)

Then here’s the Other’s eyes, figuratively described like ice.

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Will saw its eyes; blue, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice. (AGOT, Prologue)

And I think it’s very reasonable to associate Waymar’s one eye with the Others eyes. However,…interestingly,…the very next line following “like ice” says the Others eyes are “fixed” on Waymar’s longsword.

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The Other halted. Will saw its eyes; blue, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice. They fixed on the longsword trembling on high, watched the moonlight running cold along the metal. For a heartbeat he dared to hope. (AGOT, Prologue)

“Fixed” on Waymar’s longsword is interesting because I believe the Jewels actually “fixed” on Waymar’s longsword are blue sapphires. And a description of blue sapphires can easily mimic a description of the Other’s eyes if we think about it.

But in true Martin form, we don’t get a description of the jewels when Will sees Waymar pull his longsword from it’s sheath.

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…and drew his longsword from its sheath. Jewels glittered in its hilt, and the moonlight ran down the shining steel. It was a splendid weapon, castle-forged, and new-made from the look of it. Will doubted it had ever been swung in anger.(AGOT, Prologue)

However, many have made the connection with the broken sword hilt from the end of our chapter when Will momentarily finds the broken sword hilt and the one the Wildlings bring through the Wall.

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He found what was left of the sword a few feet away, the end splintered and twisted like a tree struck by lightning. Will knelt, looked around warily, and snatched it up. The broken sword would be his proof.(AGOT, Prologue)

Four books later, while watching the Wildlings pass through the wall, John spots a broken hilt with jewels. It has three sapphires in it. I have to wonder if there are more clues for the Prologue coming.

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Another produced a broken sword with three sapphires in the hilt. (ADWD, Jon XII)

In short, I believe the Jewels are actually what Will is seeing when he looks at both the Other and then Waymar’s ruined face. The one jewel, in front of Waymar’s face, is the jewel on the pommel of the hilt. The other two, seen in front the Other’s face, adorn the guard. But that’s a discussion for another post.

The one metaphorical right eye, a sapphire, fixed on the pommel of the sword’s hilt described like ice and the other left eye transfixed by a figurative “needle” from the blade of the same sword with blood as red as fire.

Figurative needle!?

But looking again at Waymar’s left eye Will sees a shard, figuratively called a needle, seven paragraphs earlier.

 

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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)

A needle in the eye brings to mind an old childhood saying, “Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.” It is used it to ensure the truth is being told by another.

Martin’s purposeful separation of the simile and the moment of reveal for the lone shard is a worthwhile note. The simile is presented when the longsword shatters or is destroyed while the shard is revealed during Waymar’s apparent resurrection. Destruction and rebirth are another major theme in our story.

His intentional separation of the literal object from its figurative counterpart, in order to obscure the fact, seems to give weight to the idea that this is another important connection being made.

The saying decrees that a needle be stuck in an eye to ensure death if one should break their word or oath.

A little research reveals that 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 making it part of a pledge to tell to truth is also something interesting. I believe this will feeds into part of the narrative involving the Children of the Forest. But again that’s for another post.

The logical next question becomes, did Waymar make a promise or swear an oath and then break it? Is that why he got a figurative needle in the eye? Did he “hope to die”? Did he fall on his own sword? When was the moment he “crossed his heart”? Should we assume it was when he swore his vows? But again that should be for another post talking about shivering timbers and crossing fingers.

To further support the idea of eyes as gems;  there’s another example of eyes that Will sees that are described like symbolic jewels. Will thinkly describes Gared’s eyes after hearing him being called a fool, and told not to build a fire by Waymar.

 

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Gared's hood shadowed his face, but Will could see the hard glitter in his eyes as he stared at the knight. For a moment he was afraid the older man would go for his sword. It was a short, ugly thing, its grip discolored by sweat, its edge nicked from hard use, but Will would not have given an iron bob for the lordling's life if Gared pulled it from its scabbard (AGOT, Prologue)

And just like the Other set of eyes, we get a description of a sword immediately following a written illustration of the eyes. And here’s some an important quotes to consider if we’re continuing to analyze the eyes in the Prologue.In the Bran I chapter of AGOT Ned is talking to Bran about Gared’s beheading and tells him that before taking someone’s life you owe it to them to look them in the eyes. In fact Bran had been thinking of the ragged man’s eye after Robb and Jon commented on them and race off to the bridge.

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"He does," his father admitted. "As did the Targaryen kings before him. Yet our way is the older way. The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.(AGOT, Bran I)

  

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"The deserter died bravely," Robb said. He was big and broad and growing every day, with his mother's coloring, the fair skin, red-brown hair, and blue eyes of the Tullys of Riverrun. "He had courage, at the least."

"No," Jon Snow said quietly. "It was not courage. This one was dead of fear. You could see it in his eyes, Stark." Jon's eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see. He was of an age with Robb, but they did not look alike. Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast.(AGOT, Bran I)

 

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He had seen the ragged man's eyes, and he was thinking of them now.(AGOT, Bran I)

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"Or been driven away," their father said, looking at the sixth pup. His fur was white, where the rest of the litter was grey. His eyes were as red as the blood of the ragged man who had died that morning. Bran thought it curious that this pup alone would have opened his eyes while the others were still blind.(AGOT, Bran I)

This analysis can continue if we consider that Ghosts’s eyes are figuratively compared to Gared’s blood which is figuratively described as red as summerwine.

And I believe that Ghost, with his eye already open, is a bastard pup carried in the mouth of the mother direwolf.

And like you I realize that there’s lot more but now this post has gotten too long:)