Those Tapestries Littlefinger Asked For

[Scipio Africanus]

I do think that Robert was not the kind of person to care about the history of things (either through drunkenness or apathy). Still, if they WERE commissioned for the throne room then it's quite possible that they were commissioned via Littlefinger (small counsellor - "You'd like some tapestries your grace? I know just the person for it!!") and he had the opportunity to weave (sorry for the pun) something into their construction.

Still...rank speculation!

~Faded

Indeed. For didn't Bob remove the skulls out of the throne room when he installed himself? Then those tapestries must be quite old then. LF wasn't a member of the small council at the start of Bob's reign.

But if anyone knows how old the tapestries are maybe we can get a step closer to, well, more speculation.

[julyleo]

I always just assumed it was Targaryen tapestries and Littlefinger was preparing for Dany's arrival.Especially when he makes mention of three queens one of which i'd imagine was Dany.

[Booknerd2]

I still can't decide if LF wanted them for informative reasons or symbolic reasons.

God, he' s good....LOL!

When I first saw this I was amazed. But really, should I even be surprised anymore at the stuff people picked up on that I didn't when I first read the series.

The only thing that did pop into my mind was Harry Potter and the Black family tree. It is literally a tapestry of a family tree with images. Somebody actually did a gorgeous one of the Targaryens that I found online. I couldn't live without it if I need to go back and reference something.

But anyway...In the book and the movie version both the family tree is present. Now if there is a tapestry literally like this, and not just scenery, recording events, etc. than that would explain why the hell LF wants them.

The next step would be to ask a medievalist/ art history specialist/enthusiast if tapestries, which were common for practical usage and art at the time, well, was it common to have literal family tree designs too?

[Booknerd2]

I checked around and I specifically looked for tapestries and subject matter during the medieval period.

Among there many functions, depicting family trees and lines of nobility are possible types.

So I guess it is a possibility?

[Spinebreaker]

Not necessarily. They could simply be a way of gauging his standing with Cersei's court, or his agents could be using them to smuggle something else.

^This^ Using some completely mundane tapestries that wouldn't be questioned or looked at to hide something would right up LF's alley.

I don't know. I think we're long past the point where proof would convince anybody powerful about the incest.

Unless... (Crackpot alert!) Cersei's pregnant. And a child looking exactly like her other children is the result. Would that be enough to 'prove' Robert's not the father of The Baratheon brood? Admittedly, very crackpot, based purely on Cersei throwing up a couple of times, and feeling she's getting fatter...

[Lord Freypie]

A side question, do you think Petyr already recieved the tapestries, when he meets the lord declarant ?

Alayne 1 :

The guards atop the stairs raised the portcullis at their coming. "This way, if it please my lords." Alayne led them down the arcade past a dozen splendid tapestries. Ser Lothor Brune stood outside the solar.

I don't think tapestries in the Erye were mentionned before.

Now it may be judged unlikely that the tapestries arrived to the Erye while the lord declarants were in open revolt (but it may have happened just before they started the siege, and we don't have a precise timeline of how long after their declaration it started).

[Castellan]

I thought Tommen gave it to Loras before the latter went out to Dragonstone?

But I could be totally wrong, sorry about that then.

There is an idea circulating on the boards that he did, but I think its a mistake, I got pulled up about it myself. At some point in a Cersei POV I think there is a short list of stuff given to the Tyrells by the Lannister's and it includes a sword with a jewelled hilt, but there is no way that the Lannisters would give away that fantastic sword. More likely to be the one Joff has before he got the one made from Ice, if anything.

[Scipio Africanus]

There is an idea circulating on the boards that he did, but I think its a mistake, I got pulled up about it myself. At some point in a Cersei POV I think there is a short list of stuff given to the Tyrells by the Lannister's and it includes a sword with a jewelled hilt, but there is no way that the Lannisters would give away that fantastic sword. More likely to be the one Joff has before he got the one made from Ice, if anything.

Yeah I know since that time I reread the books again and Tommen just gives him a fancy sword but not Widowmaker (or whatever lame name Joff came up with). I don't know exactly where it is but its in the armory of the Red Keep likely.

[Not Dead Just Broken]

I'm more convinced that the tapestries themselves are what LF wants. Two possibilities. One, there's something hidden in the tapestries or two, he wants to use the tapestries to influence someone.

Here are a couple crackpot theories since we don't have much in the way of hard evidence.

On the first option, apart from what has been suggested above, I would argue that there's a possibility that LF was using the tapestries to record something about his almost magical (and almost certainly nefarious) ability to make money appear during his time as Master of Coin. Isn't there a scene in AGOT where Ned finds LF hanging out in the throne room alone? Then Tyrion who is established as one of the smartest people in Westeros can't make head or tail of how LF managed the books. Clearly, there was more to how he ran the treasury than he wrote down in the official books. Maybe the tapestries hold the key. We know all the tax collectors, customs agents etc. in the country are loyal to him, maybe he needs the tapestries to continue his "bankrupt the crown, then swoop in as a hero with a pile of gold" plan. I think people downplay the Iron Bank of Braavos subplot and LF is almost certainly involved with that. Maybe this is the way GRRM introduces LF's secret banking scheme.

The other option that I see is more straightforward. He wants to use the tapestries to get SweetRobin into hunting so that he can have an "accident" and let Harry the Heir inherit. That would clear the path for the Sansa-Harry wedding that LF is so keen on.

Either that or he knew winter was coming and figured the Eyrie would be warmer if they had some tapestries. Tapestries were used as insulation after all.

[Avlonnic]

Robert's most famous battle scene was his killing of Rhaegar on the Trident. A depiction of that scene could have implications in addition to demonstrating the resemblance of Dany to Rhaegar.

My initial thought was that LF was smuggling more of his ill-gotten gains from KL but it would be sweet to think he could possibly smuggle the other half of Ice out. Unlikely, of course, but this is a fantasy.

[Sword of the Morgan]

Not the same as Darrys's, I agree, but if Littlefinger wants them, there must be something important about them. Initially, I thought they might even be part of the collection taken from the Iron Islands and Littlefinger might want to use them as a bargaining chip with the Greyjoys or other Ironmen, but the "hunting scenes" don't tend to support that idea. I haven't figured it out yet, but it's one of those little details that keeps nagging at my brain and I'd bet is more important when we get further into the story. Just a hunch.

I feel similarly. It seems like an odd thing to mention if they don't have some significance. They are not the same as the Darrys's, but I did like that little bit of info that showed there are still Targ loyalists out there. I'm curious to see why LF wants the ones he asked for.

[Roose on the Loose]

When last we see LF he's just back from Gulltown, where he hooked up with the Merling King, AND he's got a bunch of fresh gossip from KL. This makes me suspect that The Merling King called on the capitol and that the tapestries are now in the Vale. (Only what was it's business in Braavos?)

Gulltown was also where Robert killed Marq Grafton for being a Targaryen loyalist. If the tapestries were taken as war booty, their original owners may want them back, and LF is always looking to make lordly friends.

If nothing else, it shows Cersei's lack of persective. She's happy to be rid of the things as she associates them with her dim brutish ex. But at a time when the treasury is struggling, she doesn't think about their value as collectibles. Imagine what she could get for the dragon skulls.