Corvo the Crow Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 As the title says. Some of the tales seem to have been based on at least some half truths, while some are just full of shit like giants eating humans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alester Florent Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 A bit of both. Like all folk tales, I think Old Nan's tales contain some important elements that have been otherwise forgotten, but much of the detail has been distorted and sensationalised to the point that they aren't at all reliable as factual sources. LongRider and Adam Targaryen 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aejohn the Conqueroo Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 Just like every other history. Take it with a grain of salt and keep in mind who the teller is. Adam Targaryen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curled Finger Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 My mother was a storyteller. She left home very young. Too young to leave home at any rate. She made up stories to give her children history we didn't have. She told us the song Hey Jude was written for my Aunt and the song Everyone Knows It's Wendy was about my Mom because she was a very famous movie star before she had children? Old Nan is an affiliate Stark. She nurses the babes and cares for the children. She gives them their histories from family to household to culture to land. We don't know where Old Nan comes from. Maybe she's Dornish or Tyroshi or just a Northern lass with no family of her own assimilated into the love and lore of the Starks and their place. Her place. I think Old Nan is a student of Northern and Stark history and makes it her business to ensure that every child in her care understands the importance of their place in the landscape of the North. Just as my mom collected songs on the radio to relate to my young life and people, Old Nan relates legends and histories to the children on a personal level. She makes them understand that this is their story, responsibility and stewardship. She is their link to distant pasts that might otherwise be lost in time. Because Old Nan fuels these tales and keeps them alive Bran is able to open himself to the possibility of the The Children of the Forest. Jon can believe there was a Long Night. Rickon may have heard a tale or 2 about direwolves and unicorns. Arya can draw on Nan's tales about fierce warriors for her survival and Sansa no doubt heard her very first love story from her. Are the tales true? Certainly some are. Given the importance of the Starks in this story, more or are likely true than not. Embellished to entertain in the moment, with love and devotion to the meaning of being a Stark. Corvo the Crow, Adam Targaryen, Groo and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mourning Star Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 (edited) Her tales are tales, not factual accounts of history, but they are all full of truth and wisdom. Old Nan is a Targaryen, Aemon’s sister if I had to guess. "Dragons," she said, lifting her head and sniffing. She was near blind and could not see the comet, yet she claimed she could smell it. "It be dragons, boy," she insisted. Bran got no princes from Nan, no more than he ever had. Compare that to Aemon: "I see them in my dreams, Sam. I see a red star bleeding in the sky. I still remember red. I see their shadows on the snow, hear the crack of leathern wings, feel their hot breath. My brothers dreamed of dragons too, and the dreams killed them, every one. Sam, we tremble on the cusp of half-remembered prophecies, of wonders and terrors that no man now living could hope to comprehend . . . or . . ." Edited June 23, 2023 by Mourning Star Adam Targaryen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curled Finger Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 30 minutes ago, Mourning Star said: Her tales are tales, not factual accounts of history, but they are all full of truth and wisdom. But there are Others and COTF and Direwolves and Giants. Maybe I just don't understand? Do you mean like yes there are Others, but they didn't ride giant ice spiders? What am I not getting here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mourning Star Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 20 minutes ago, Curled Finger said: But there are Others and COTF and Direwolves and Giants. Maybe I just don't understand? Do you mean like yes there are Others, but they didn't ride giant ice spiders? What am I not getting here? We don’t know if there were really ice spiders or not. We do know Others and Children exist. Every detail of a story doesn’t need to be true for there to be truth behind the myth. Cleftjaw is a nice example, fearsome raider, big nasty scar, didn’t literally put his head back together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curled Finger Posted June 23, 2023 Share Posted June 23, 2023 51 minutes ago, Mourning Star said: We don’t know if there were really ice spiders or not. We do know Others and Children exist. Every detail of a story doesn’t need to be true for there to be truth behind the myth. Cleftjaw is a nice example, fearsome raider, big nasty scar, didn’t literally put his head back together. Ah, got it. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongRider Posted June 25, 2023 Share Posted June 25, 2023 Old Nan must have really scared Jon with the ice spiders bit as they appeared in the nightmare he had about fighting off the dead climbing up the Wall. They do sound pretty creepy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy Clegg Posted September 27, 2023 Share Posted September 27, 2023 On 6/25/2023 at 1:27 AM, LongRider said: Old Nan must have really scared Jon with the ice spiders bit as they appeared in the nightmare he had about fighting off the dead climbing up the Wall. They do sound pretty creepy. Has anyone else seen the art for the 2024 calendar with the Others having ice spider legs, rather than riding the spiders? I love this look, reminds me of Gremlins 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongRider Posted September 28, 2023 Share Posted September 28, 2023 1 hour ago, Sandy Clegg said: Has anyone else seen the art for the 2024 calendar with the Others having ice spider legs, rather than riding the spiders? I love this look, reminds me of Gremlins 2 I've seen them. Ice mutants! Aiyeeeee! Run! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Targaryen Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 Her story about them all living inside the eye of a blue-eyed giant named Macumber... "Maybe we do." It does, as anyone familiar with Norse mythology might certainly know, and I am Swedish and the North RemembersTM, resemble the tale of the giant Ymer, who was killed by the first god, Bore if I don't misremember, and then his head and/or body was made into the world, with his hairs being the trees, his blood becoming the sea and rivers and so forth... Also her stories of the Long Night certainly seem true when we find out about the Others and prophecies later in the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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