The Pink Letter: All Glitz and No Glamour

[VaramyrSixchins]

One of many puzzlers regarding the pink letter is the revelation that the letter's author knows Mance=Abel, yet doesn't allude to the glamour that Abel presumably used to disguise himself. I say presumably because I don't think Theon gives us a detailed physical description of Abel. I don't think there's any more to this lack of description than GRRM wanting to maintain the element of surprise when Mane=Abel is revealed, (for readers like me anyway, who missed the Bael thing and didn't catch on that they were spearwives until one of them used "kneelers") but it still makes me wonder if Mance went around WF looking like the Lord of Bones, his own face, or a different look entirely.

The glamour's omission in the pink letter is important because it's not the only screwy thing in the letter with regards Mance's rescue attempt.

Your false king lied, and so did you. You told the world you burned the King-beyond-the-Wall. Instead you sent him to Winterfell to steal my bride from me.

This is inaccurate on a couple of things. 1) Stannis presumably knows nothing of the deception. 2) John recruited the spearwives and went along with sending Mance out, but he certainly wasn't behind the attempt. 3) Who made it known Mance was burned? I don't recall it being heralded far and wide, seemed more like a Wall thing.

What's unknown is if the author has the whole story about Mance and is spinning it in the pink letter or if the spearwives have only told the author half the story.

So what's the deal? Why wasn't the glamour alluded to in the pink letter?

[Watcher_inthe_Woods]

I remember that Mel removed the glamour and Jon recognised Mance as Mance....unless somthing happened that we arent privy to I'm assuming that he went to WF with his own face

[Ser Ash the Red]

The speawives know that Abel is Mance and would reveal it under torture. The Bolton's would not know that Stannis did not know of the deception and would think he commanded

everything.

[unRobert]

Yea, Mel had control over Mance/the Glamour with her necklace ruby or herself. Don't think that power would extend to someone so far away.

[The Red Hand]

I think the letter was from Ramsay, idk where all these theories come from. Who else would say I want my Reek? Nobody.

[Quentyn the Blazed]

This is the second time he's been a bard at Winterfell, last time when Robert visited.

No need for a glamor if anyone recognized him it would be as Abel the bard

[fassreiter]

That stupid letter again. I hope it's not true, but who knows... About the glamour: Theon describes Abel as having long brown hair that has mostly gone to grey. That's GRRM's usual description of Mance, so I guess he went to WF without a glamour. At least Rattleshirt looks different.

It's true that the info in the letter is inaccurate. Don't know what to make of that.

[Sword Of Mid Afternoon]

Ramsay could acquire most if not all of the knowledge included in the letter from Mance and/or a spearwife...

Anything else could come from any of Stannis's men... presumably captured after a skirmish w/ the Umbers just outside of Winterfell, OR if there actually was a battle of some sort.

When I read the letter, I concluded that it was indeed written by Ramsay Bolton... and that it was written in extremis.

2nd Order Projection... The Manderly troops went out with the Freys... perhaps the White Harbor men sprung their trap & turned on the Frey's... in an ironic reproduction of what Ramsay did in the previous battle of Winterfell.

Alot of folks disagree with me... they say Ramsay didn't write it... but having gone back and read all of Ramsay's dialogue... that letter matches his personality & lingquistic idiosyncracies to a T. Im confident that Ramsay wrote it.... I'm equally confident that most of Ramsay's 'boasts' are baseless.

[WTFSalami]

Ramsay obviously wrote the letter. It makes no sense coming from anyone else, it's just that he's BS'ing Jon and trying to intimidate him.

He more than likely got a confession out of Mance or one of the spearwives as to what their plan was and believes that Theon and Jeyne are heading to the Wall since that was the plan the whole time.

Theon and Jeyne are with Stannis, which Ramsay would know had he really killed him, and wouldn't think they were at the Wall.

[Budj]

If Ramsey did write it I think Solstice is dead on. We know he is bluffing about Stannis...otherwise he would know that Jeyne and Theon are not going to the wall....what I'm also not sure on is that he actually has Mance...he only needed one spearwife to get the information he said in the letter...I think Mance is way more resourceful than to just stand around and get caught while they got Jeyne out....my guess is he is in the crypts and will just happen to find something in the tombs ;)

[Crown]

If Ramsey did write it I think Solstice is dead on. We know he is bluffing about Stannis...otherwise he would know that Jeyne and Theon are not going to the wall....what I'm also not sure on is that he actually has Mance...he only needed one spearwife to get the information he said in the letter...I think Mance is way more resourceful than to just stand around and get caught while they got Jeyne out....my guess is he is in the crypts and will just happen to find something in the tombs ;)

The Horn of Joramun.

[bemused]

There's nothing that says point blank that Stannis doesn't know about the Mance / Rattleshirt glamour.

[Trinket2]

There's nothing that says point blank that Stannis doesn't know about the Mance / Rattleshirt glamour.

This. Why wouldn't Stannis know? I'd say it's unlikely that Melisandre did the switch without Stannis being in on it.

[Blackthorn]

I have convinced myself the author of the pink letter in Mance.

I kept wondering why the big deal about Jon reading the letter to Tormund, why tell us in great detail that Tormund cannot read? Because then we have to think how would someone send a message to someone who cannot read, assuming they don't have a spare person to bring the message? They send a coded letter to someone else that will get read aloud.

So i think basically Mance is telling Tormund to bring the wildling army to claim Winterfell.

[redriver]

I have convinced myself the author of the pink letter in Mance.

I kept wondering why the big deal about Jon reading the letter to Tormund, why tell us in great detail that Tormund cannot read? Because then we have to think how would someone send a message to someone who cannot read, assuming they don't have a spare person to bring the message? They send a coded letter to someone else that will get read aloud.

So i think basically Mance is telling Tormund to bring the wildling army to claim Winterfell.

Not to "claim" Winterfell as such,but to help rescue it.A detracting idea from this motive is that Mance didn't know about Jon's mass transfer of Wildlings through the Wall.

But he doesn't have to.He is aware that were at least 300 wildlings at CB when he left on the "Arya" mission.

Mance tells Jon,in their first meeting that there is more information trafficking between the NW and the Wildlings than he would suspect.That's how he learned of King Bob's visit.

Therefore,I would suspect that Mance would have calculated that writing such a provocative letter would guarantee that the news that their king is not dead,but in trouble would have reached the key Wildlings,whether, beyond the Wall or not.

[Angalin]

I'm going to redirect discussion to this thread, to keep it all in one place.