Warg: the final sphinx/strangler.

[Sandy Clegg]

This last part of the 'strangling sphinx' series looks at a final strangler, which nicely fits the 'many parts in one' motif we have already seen in the previous parts:

Wargs.

GRRM took the word warg from either Tolkien, who envisaged them as demonic wolf-like creatures, servants of Sauron. Or he went further back in history and drew from the same source as Tolkien, the 'Old English' word wearg  - along with some other influences:

J.R.R. Tolkien derived the word warg from Old English wearg-, Old High German warg-, and Old Norse varg-r., all of these terms literally translating to strangler, choker. While Norse vargr was a common synonym for wolf, Old English wearg was used only for an outlaw or hunted criminal 

tolkiengateway.net

The origins of the word can still be seen in the German word erwürgen  - to strangle.

This idea of the wolf, or wearg, as an outlaw is very old indeed. Outcasts who were shunned from society were believed to be capable of the foulest of deeds, such as murdering by choking or strangling. Thus the words came to be used synonymously.  A wolf or a warg was an outlaw, to be killed on sight. The wikipedia page explains the way in which Tolkien combined two senses of the old word:

The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey states that Tolkien's spelling "warg" is a cross of Old Norse vargr and Old English wearh. He notes that the words embody a shift in meaning from "wolf" to "outlaw": vargr carries both meanings, while wearh means "outcast" or "outlaw", but has lost the sense of "wolf" ... Shippey adds that there is also an Old English verb, awyrgan, meaning both "to condemn [an outcast]" and "to strangle [an outcast to death]"; he adds that a possible further sense is "to worry [a sheep], to bite to death".[5] 

He writes that Tolkien's word 'Warg' clearly splits the difference between Old Norse and Old English pronunciations, and his concept of them – wolves, but not just wolves, intelligent and malevolent wolves – combines the two ancient opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warg

The idea of wolves having names meaning 'stranglers' no doubt stems from their method of killing prey, which is to bite the throat. The focus on 'killing by attacking the throat' is the focus here, rather than the means used (hands or teeth). This broad idea of 'wargs' as 'stranglers' in fact goes all the way back to Norse mythology and Odin's gallows tree Yggdrasill, from where he is hung:

The generally accepted meaning of 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. The Poetic Edda poem Hávamál describes how Odin sacrificed himself by hanging from a tree, making this tree Odin's gallows. This tree may have been Yggdrasil. "The horse of the hanged" is a kenning for gallows and therefore Odin's gallows may have developed into the expression "Odin's horse", which then became the name of the tree. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil

Interestingly, this gallows tree may also be described as  ... a 'warg-tree'. And the strangulation motif is integral to its meaning:

The traditional method for disposing of outlaws was hanging, a punishment that is only a minor variation on strangulation. This was the prescribed way of sacrificing to Odin. As the poem Grimnismal says, 'Odin's hall is easy to recognise: a vargr hangs before the western door...' [11]. Odin is known as Hangaguth, 'God of the Hanged'; in Old English, Old Saxon, and Old Norse, the gallows is known as the 'warg-tree'. Strangulation is implied by a number of references to the ropes or snares of the death-goddess in Indo-European myth; and here the name Mengloth, 'necklace-glad', may be significant, especially as one of the walls that surround her Lyfjaberg is the clay wall called Gastropnir, 'Guest-Strangler'.

http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/edge/hellhnds.htm

So we have wargs as wolves and outlaws, both of which have connections to strangling. And a 'warg-tree' upon which Odin was hung. This warg or gallows tree has another sphinx connection as they both serve as symbolic entrances to the underworld. Sphinxes are found by doorways to tombs, and Yggdrasill, a warg-tree, is a border between the various realms including the underworld. So stranglers, as sphinxes, and hanging devices, such as gallows, may lead us to look at 'crossroads' imagery as they pertain to underworld boundaries. One such image in GRRM's world is the Inn at the Crossroads, which Hyle Hunt jokes should be renamed the Gallows Inn:

Quote

"They could call the place the Gallows Inn," Ser Hyle said.

By any name the inn was large, rising three stories above the muddy roads, its walls and turrets and chimneys made of fine white stone that glimmered pale and ghostly against the grey sky. - AFFC, Brienne VII

And what does this tall, white ghostly structure remind us of here? The Wall. Another boundary location ("one of the hinges of the world") where we can currently find two wargs, in Jon and Borroq. If we are to read wargs as symbolic stranglers, and hence sphinxes, then where better place to find one? 

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by Sandy Clegg

[Frey family reunion]

It's an interesting premise.  One of the first strangled victims we hear about is Brandon Stark.  And George goes out of his way to show that Brandon ultimately strangled himself.

ETA: going down a rabbit hole here.  Is GRRM creating a parallel between the two Brandon Starks in the story?

The first Brandon Stark strangles himself to try to reach his sword.

The second Brandon Stark is in GRRM's version of the Yggdrasil, the tree from which Odin was hung.  So is there a parallel?  Bran the broken needs to metaphorically hang or strangle himself to reach his "sword".  My suspicion is that George's "magical swords" are actually characters in the series.  And one of the characters with the most sword imagery up North is Jon Snow.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Frey family reunion

[The Commentator]

It’s not going to be that deep. Although the notion of a murderous wolf strangling prey will fit Arya if she kills Cersei.  Arya comes in wearing Tyrion’s face and chokes Cersei.  

[SaffronLady]

3 hours ago, The Commentator said:

It’s not going to be that deep. 

Do you read GRRM?

[Sandy Clegg]

24 minutes ago, SaffronLady said:

Do you read GRRM?

I probably should have added this to the OP. Yeah, GRRM has studied Norse mythology in depth.

This blogger, Bluetiger, gives a pretty good account of GRRM's knowledge of Norse mythology:

Quote

I think it is a good moment to stress that George R.R. Martin himself knows Norse Myth very well, since – as he mentions in “Dreamsongs” – while studying he attended a course in History of Scandinavia, during which he has read both Eddas and some of the sagas, which he enjoyed, as they reminded him of Tolkien’s works. This might explain the depth of some of his allusions and the fact that they sometimes refer to lesser known details.

 https://theambercompendium.wordpress.com/tag/norse-mythology/

I have dipped into the Eddas - mainly to check out the Brunhild legend - but they are not really something I've studied much. It's definitely an area worth checking out, though, if we want to look deeper into some of the underlying themes of ASOIAF, and possibly more.

And if I can't convince, then don't forget that our very own @Ran takes his username from the sea goddess who features in these epic poems. 

[SaffronLady]

8 hours ago, Sandy Clegg said:

@Ran takes his username from the sea goddess

Interesting choice.

[sweetsunray]

16 hours ago, Frey family reunion said:

It's an interesting premise.  One of the first strangled victims we hear about is Brandon Stark.  And George goes out of his way to show that Brandon ultimately strangled himself.

ETA: going down a rabbit hole here.  Is GRRM creating a parallel between the two Brandon Starks in the story?

The first Brandon Stark strangles himself to try to reach his sword.

The second Brandon Stark is in GRRM's version of the Yggdrasil, the tree from which Odin was hung.  So is there a parallel?  Bran the broken needs to metaphorically hang or strangle himself to reach his "sword".  My suspicion is that George's "magical swords" are actually characters in the series.  And one of the characters with the most sword imagery up North is Jon Snow.

Yes, I think uncle Brandon Stark's manner of strangulation is a choice of the author to have him stand-in for Brandon the Greenseer, both the ancient founder as well as Bran now.

Beric has the hanged markings too, and the one-eye. First dying Beric was put on a horse by Green Gergen (and Gergen is a variation of the name George... we never see or hear about Gergen again). And when people talk about him being killed, they mention him being attacked through the eye (one-eye) or that he was hanged. And when Arya arrives in the hollow hill, he's a scary crow on a weirwood throne. Green, sleipnir, one-eyed and hanged Odin, and weirwood thrones.

Uncle Brandon's statue on a throne with a sword in its lap and a wolf is heavily featured in the crypt visit where Shaggy with "wildfire green eyes" attacks Luwin. And this is how the lords and kings have always been portrayed: in a hollow hill, on a throne with a wolf by their side and a magical sword in their lap. At the lowest levels, the oldest parts, there are imo no statues of thrones, but real weirwood thrones and bones, many many many bones. 

Edited October 17, 2023 by sweetsunray

[Sandy Clegg]

22 hours ago, Frey family reunion said:

One of the first strangled victims we hear about is Brandon Stark.  And George goes out of his way to show that Brandon ultimately strangled himself.

@sweetsunray and yourself have a good point. Going back to the Alby Stone article I referenced above:

   –  “It is suggested that the use of warg and its variants in Germanic legal codes, as a condemnation, 'originally was a magico-legal pronouncement which transformed the criminal into a werwolf worthy of strangulation'. The Indo-European antiquity of this notion is demonstrated in Hittite texts which include the phrase zi-ik-wa UR.BAR.RA ki-sa-at, 'thou art become a wolf'; and the name LU.MES hurkilas, denoting demon-like entities who are set to capture a wolf and strangle a serpent - hurkilas being derived from the same root as warg. The warg, in this analysis, is a strangler, but one who himself requires strangulation.

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by Sandy Clegg