The Old Nan Chronicles

[Val the Wildling Princess]

It´s an Ice dragon with ice feathers.

:D nah, It's the eagle, but still, when Jon talks to Qhorin about the dream he says I was Ghost...something attacked me, a bird, an eagle I think but he wasn't sure.

[Lykos]

@Howland Reed´s Wrath

At least that´s what it sounded like to him and his companions. Doesn´t have to be could be a mission acomplished reset for next mission - rattle.

But in earnest, I think the Others have a form of intelligence.

[Cap Ou Pas Cap]

Anyone else recall any of Old Nan's stories that stick out but haven't really "happened" yet?

There are two, but about times already past, which need to come into place for me.

Others came riding, she used to say, dropping her voice lower and lower. Cold and dead they were, and they hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun.

Since when do the Others hate iron?

"There was a knight once who couldn’t see,” Bran said stubbornly, as Ser Rodrik went on below. “Old Nan told me about him. He had a long staff with blades at both ends and he could spin it in his hands and chop two men at once.”

“Symeon Star-Eyes,” Luwin said as he marked numbers in a book. “When he lost his eyes, he put star sapphires in the empty sockets, or so the singers claim."

And additionaly I am stuck with Old Nan's "Crows are all liars. I know a story about a crow". In the books the men of the Night's Watch are more commonly reffered as "crows" than actual birds. But that is only me camping at these quarters.

And just to be thorough, since this kind of music is nothing we heard of as of now: “Old Nan says the children knew the songs of the trees, that they could fly like birds and swim like fish and talk to the animals,” Bran said. “She says that they made music so beautiful that it made you cry like a little baby just to hear it.”

[Sevumar]

Others came riding, she used to say, dropping her voice lower and lower. Cold and dead they were, and they hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun.

Since when do the Others hate iron?

I thought that was odd too. What else is odd is that the War for the Dawn is supposed to take place before the arrival of the Andals, and the height of First Men technology was bronzeworking. Something isn't right here.

And just to be thorough, sycj music is nothing we heard of as of now: “Old Nan says the children knew the songs of the trees, that they could fly like birds and swim like fish and talk to the animals,” Bran said. “She says that they made music so beautiful that it made you cry like a little baby just to hear it.”

Well, the Children do call themselves the Singers.

[Lord Littlefinger's Lash]

There are two, but about times already past, which need to come into place for me.

Others came riding, she used to say, dropping her voice lower and lower. Cold and dead they were, and they hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun.

Since when do the Others hate iron?

"There was a knight once who couldn’t see,” Bran said stubbornly, as Ser Rodrik went on below. “Old Nan told me about him. He had a long staff with blades at both ends and he could spin it in his hands and chop two men at once.”

“Symeon Star-Eyes,” Luwin said as he marked numbers in a book. “When he lost his eyes, he put star sapphires in the empty sockets, or so the singers claim."

And additionaly I am stuck with Old Nan's "Crows are all liars. I know a story about a crow". In the books the men of the Night's Watch are more commonly reffered as "crows" than actual birds. But that is only me camping at these quarters.

And just to be thorough, since this kind of music is nothing we heard of as of now: “Old Nan says the children knew the songs of the trees, that they could fly like birds and swim like fish and talk to the animals,” Bran said. “She says that they made music so beautiful that it made you cry like a little baby just to hear it.”

What's wrong with the Symeon Star eyes story? He was an Other i'd thought.

[Lord Littlefinger's Lash]

There are two, but about times already past, which need to come into place for me.

Others came riding, she used to say, dropping her voice lower and lower. Cold and dead they were, and they hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun.

Since when do the Others hate iron?

"There was a knight once who couldn’t see,” Bran said stubbornly, as Ser Rodrik went on below. “Old Nan told me about him. He had a long staff with blades at both ends and he could spin it in his hands and chop two men at once.”

“Symeon Star-Eyes,” Luwin said as he marked numbers in a book. “When he lost his eyes, he put star sapphires in the empty sockets, or so the singers claim."

And additionaly I am stuck with Old Nan's "Crows are all liars. I know a story about a crow". In the books the men of the Night's Watch are more commonly reffered as "crows" than actual birds. But that is only me camping at these quarters.

And just to be thorough, since this kind of music is nothing we heard of as of now: “Old Nan says the children knew the songs of the trees, that they could fly like birds and swim like fish and talk to the animals,” Bran said. “She says that they made music so beautiful that it made you cry like a little baby just to hear it.”

What's wrong with the Symeon Star eyes story? He was an Other i'd thought.

[Petyr Middlefinger Baelish]

Nan's tale about the blue in the sky being a giant's eye just furthers my theory that Lannisters, Starks, et al. are sandkings in a terrarium. It also explains the faces carved into tthe trees, if you've read the story.

[Ivy Snow]

An ice dragon would be the coolest thing ever B) have you read The ice dragon? It's a nice reading and even though the story takes place in a different world, I think it's interesting that Martin mentions the ice dragon as one of the Old Nan tales. As I said in another thread, as of now, I think that Jon is the ice dragon, a northerner with Targaryen blood so I'm not sure if we'll get real ice dragons. While re-reading ACOK I caught something that could foreshadow a real ice dragon, is on the chapter when Jon/Ghost via wolf dream talks to treeBran:

And this is in The ice dragon:

What do you guys think? i think this happens after Bran tells Jon to open his third eye.

I haven't read the Ice Dragon story. T_T

Yep, I saw that one too and started a thread about it.I forgot about that thread and most people doesn't seem to buy that there could be an ice dragon. It could be that Jon is the ice dragon like you said.

[Hoya Karsa Orlong]

Is there a place where Old Nan's stories are collected? I tend to agree that her stories (setting aside GRRM's meta-confirmation) should be given more weight than the stream of serious sounding "prophecy" from everyone in red or essos legends about westeros.

[Teal'c]

Yep, that's the Rat Cook. The gods didn't curse him for murder or cannibalism, they cursed him for violating guest rights. He committed his atrocity because he thought an Andal king had slighted him. And he was forced to fill the Nightfort with oodles of his evil little children. Sounds a lot like ol' Walder, no?

Here's another analogy between them: The Twins guards the crossing on the Green Fork, and the Nightfort guards the Black Gate under the Wall.

[Black Crow]

Is there a place where Old Nan's stories are collected? I tend to agree that her stories (setting aside GRRM's meta-confirmation) should be given more weight than the stream of serious sounding "prophecy" from everyone in red or essos legends about westeros.

http://asoiaf.wester...61905-heresy-6/

Starts with post 15

[Hoya Karsa Orlong]

http://asoiaf.wester...61905-heresy-6/ Starts with post 15

danke schoen... err just danke

[Aetta]

I'm starting a reread before the second season of the show starts and just cracked open A Game of Thrones. It's been a while since I read it, and forgot this bit in Bran's opening chapter:

This is what Old Nan has told Bran about the wildlings. The crazy thing is, so much of it ended up being true. They do associate with giants and the, uh, dead (unwillingly, perhaps ...). They have stolen girls (Mors Umber sends his regards). The blood-from-a-horn thing is a stretch, but there are horns. So what if the half-human demon hellspawn thing ends up being true, too?

I think Martin has said something to the effect of Nan's "history" stories being the only accurate ones (does this mean the Last Hero interpretation is real but not the Azor Ahai interpretation?), but it never really occurred to me before now just what, as an aggregate, she's said and what the implications are if it does end up being true. There's that bit about the wildlings, which sounds like a children's horror story until you look back and see some truth to it. There are the Nightfort stories, which creep the bejesus out of me but yet also seem to be "coming around again," notably with Walder Frey starring in the role of the guest-right-abusing Rat Cook, and the possibility of Jon or Stannis as contenders for a new Night's King (I say Stannis, some say Jon).

Bran says that Old Nan is always getting him confused with one of the other Brandons, and Catelyn tells Bran that she's so old that all the Brandons just run together. I know there's an idea — I don't subscribe to it, but it's interesting — that Bran is a reincarnation of Brandon the Builder and that the history in ASOIAF is circular.

Nan's stories about the Others also seem eerily prescient. The story she tells is almost like a nasty fairy tale, but it's true. She talks about them taking down newborn children and new mothers and feeding children to their wights. Sounds sort of like Craster and his sons, no?

Anyone else recall any of Old Nan's stories that stick out but haven't really "happened" yet? I know there was a bit about sea monsters. Might that mean ... *Dr. Evil pinkie gesture* ... a kraken? And I'd love to know if these half-Other, half-human things exist.

Literally just did the same thing and immediately came to search this site to see if anyone else was picking up on Ole' Nan from that first chapter. Over on the Heresy thread there is a lot related to Norse mythology that I think carries over to Old Nan and the Ice stories heavily. The idea of drinking from horns relates directly, to me, to the tales of the einherjar, Odin's warriors that feast in Valhalla. Coincidentally, a cook figures into that tale as well.

GRRM can go his own way, of course, so I don't fully expect to trace ASOIAF back to Norse tales story for story. But, some things, I think may be gleaned from there.

The biggest curiosity for me is also the half-humans. I wonder if we have already met one, or if one is to come. Are there those that claim to symbolically have the blood of the Others, as the Targaryens claim to have the blood of the dragon? Seems Nan has painted a more literal picture of actual intercourse, though.

I also believe Nan's tales are those to be believed, of all the prophesy we read.

[J. Stargaryen]

Yet here and there in the fastness of the woods the children still lived in their wooden cities and hollow hills, and the faces in the trees kept watch. So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost. He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched, until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities. One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally even his dog, and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped when he tried to use it. And the Others smelled the hot blood in him, and came silent on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders big as hounds—”

I was recently rereading one of Cersei's chapters from AFfC, and I came across something that reminded me of this LH story:

You stupid girl, the queen thought, angry even now. Jaime does not even know you are alive. Back then her brother lived only for swords and dogs and horses... and for her, his twin.

- AFfC, Cersei VIII

I'm not sure if it means anything, but there you have it.

[Mithras]

Jojen was so solemn that Old Nan called him “little grandfather,”

What if Old Nan really had a solemn grandfather who was some kind of greendreamer and passed his lore to Old Nan?

[Jak Scaletongue]

I thought that was odd too. What else is odd is that the War for the Dawn is supposed to take place before the arrival of the Andals, and the height of First Men technology was bronzeworking. Something isn't right here.

The Andals had *steel* which is IRON+CARBON+other stuff (nickel, phosphorous, whatever impurities were in the iron or carbon)

Iron on it's own is rather soft. The First Men probably had iron (probably from the Iron Islands), but without knowing how to turn it into steel the raw iron was probably used for ploughs, horseshoes, cooking pots, and other household/farm implement type uses. Because raw iron doesn't make very good weapons, they would have kept using their bronze swords/daggers/shields, because bronze was a better weapon-making material, while iron would have been for more household uses (nails, hinges, doorknobs, latches, etc). It wouldn't be until the Andals invaded that the First Men were introduced to mixing iron with carbon to create steel - which is a much better weapon material than iron or bronze and would then have replaced their bronze weapons, eventually - after they stopped fighting each other...

It's quite similar to Earth's history - the "Iron Age" should, for technicalities sake, be called the "Steel Age" because no one used iron for weapons until steel was created. Bronze weapons were the norm until steel overtook it - but even during the "Bronze Age" iron was being used, just not for weapons.

As for Others not liking iron - I think that's a bit of a nod to Celtic mythology; the fairy folk in Ireland and Scotland (maybe Wales?) don't like iron either. That's why it was common to hang an iron horseshoe above a doorway, because it would prevent any fairies from entering. Didn't GRRM tell someone (an artist or something) that they should think of frozen bean-sidhe when drawing the Others? The bean-sidhe wouldn't have liked iron! So it may or may not come into play within the story itself, but there's some sort of precedent for the Others to not like iron.

TL;DR - Iron and Steel are 2 different things - Andals had STEEL (iron + carbon = steel); First Men had IRON (re: Iron Islands), but no STEEL, so stuck with BRONZE for weapons.