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The sphynx is the riddle, not the riddler!


FittleLinger

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I had this posted on another thread, but it never got any feedback, so I'm posting a new one.

My theory regarding the sphynx:

Daenerys is the sphynx!

Evidence: When he mentions it, he's talking about Dany - she should be sent a maester to council her, etc. That's the least compelling evidence.

Then, we get "a glass candle that could not be lit; eggs that would not hatch; the sphinx was the riddle, not the riddler" Now, we know Dany somehow managed to hatch her eggs, and then the candles were lit (as a result) - Xaro in Qarth tells her that the candle in some Nightwalker-named guy was lit for the first time for many years. The riddle itself - we know from GRRM himself that Dany's pyre and the hatching of the dragons was a one-time magical event, a miracle. Maybe the riddle is how did this happen, and why Dany?

Now, let's look at a summary of a Tyrion chapter in ADWD:

While travelling Tyrion and Illyrio Mopatis come across a huge Valyrian sphinx crouched beside the road. It has a dragon’s body and a woman’s face. However her king is missing, dragged off by the Dothraki back to Vaes Dothrak on wooden wheels. There is a smooth stone plinth where he once stood, grown over with moss and flowering vines. Tyrionconsiders the queen sphinx and pleasant omen and her missing king an omen too, but not as hopeful.

Valyrian sphynx with dragon body and a woman's head, without her husband, who's been taken to Vaes Dothrak? Ring any bells? The sphynx is clearly Dany. Sarella was a red herring who we see immediately after Sam appears. I'm not saying she is not important, I am saying she was not the sphynx Aemon is talking about.

The riddle itself is more open to interpretation. It could be how and why Dany hatched the dragons and lit the candles, it could be something else. Also, why she would be considered riddler before finding out she's the riddle, is also beyond me.

Let's discuss this, please.

PS: Feel free to tell me if it is painfully obvious, or if there is something wrong with it.

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I'm quite sure Alleras "The Sphinx" (who happens to be Sarella Sand in disguise, and can be considered a living riddle, with her/his inverted name and all that) is the sphynx.

I think she is a red herring. Why would Aemon be thinking about her? His train of thought is about Dany. Yes, I know she might turn out to be important and stuff, but I don't think Aemon was talking about her. And a book away from Tyrion's description of a Valyrian sphynx, I think was there to show us that we're not talking abut the sphynx that showed up in AFFC, but another one. OK, she is the riddle - she is not a boy, and she is one of the sand snakes. So?

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I think she is a red herring. Why would Aemon be thinking about her? His train of thought is about Dany. Yes, I know she might turn out to be important and stuff, but I don't think Aemon was talking about her. And a book away from Tyrion's description of a Valyrian sphynx, I think was there to show us that we're not talking abut the sphynx that showed up in AFFC, but another one. OK, she is the riddle - she is not a boy, and she is one of the sand snakes. So?

She may be key for Samwell to do what he has to do. I don't think Samwell part in the story has ended, and since he won't become a maester and be sent back to the Wall for years, he will have to do something at the Citadel, probably with Sarella's help.

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I don't have AFFC nearby, but didn't Aemon tell Sam that in the midst of his other musings, which included "the dragon has three heads".

One thought I had was what makes up a sphinx. A quick look up of information basically reveals that at minimum it consists of a hybrid of two things, but can be more. Often the body of a lion with the head of a man. One traditional sphinx of note was the body of a lion, the head of a woman and the wings of a great bird.

Combining the ideas, could the sphinx and more specifically, what makes up the sphinx, be the answer to the riddle "the dragon has three heads" which most assume to be the answer to the question of who will be the dragon riders...

The head of a woman = Danaerys

Body of a lion = Tyrion

Wings = ?

Of course, there was no description of a third animal on the sphinx Tyrion saw. Anyway, just a thought.

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This is something that has really intrigued me, as I have a real interest in the Sphinx at Giza too. This might be a bit crackpot for some peoples taste but…

In Greek mythology the Sphinx has the body of a lion, the wings of s great bird, and the head of a woman. She is famous for posing riddles to passers-by whom she killed if they failed to answer. Seems pretty clear, the sphinx is the riddler.

But there are other interpretations of the Sphinx. Some say the sphinx is the riddle. One astrological/astronomical interpretation says that the lion is the constellation Leo, the woman is Virgo, etc. And that the sphinx at Giza, which faces the rising sun everyday, marks a point in the great wheel of time which turns as the stars wheel around us through the ages, from our point of view at least. I could write for ages on this stuff, procession of the equinoxes, Plato’s Great Year, etc., and still not explain it well so back to the point.

I’m not 100% sure what the ASoIaF sphinx is made up of but I’m thinking GRRM would stay along similar lines to the Greek myths. We do know a few ASoIaF constellations. We don’t have a lion, but we do have a shadowcat. We have a couple of women in the Moonmaid and the Crone, iirc. As for wings of a great bird, well dragons have wings and we do have an ice dragon constellation.

So in summary, what the passage said to me was that Aemon’s worked out that the reason glass candles would not light and dragon eggs would not hatch is that the age of magic had not yet dawned. Maesters had no belief in magic because they saw no evidence for its existence as it had not been present in a long time. But now the candles are burning, dragons have been hatched, and the red comet’s position in the sky relative to the constellations represented by the sphinx, has marked the return of magic.

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The head of a woman = Danaerys

Body of a lion = Tyrion

Wings = ?

Wings = Sansa. If you're right she seems like the character that would fit, with her current connection to House Arryn and all of the bird/flight imagery. We really have no proof about what a westerosi sphinx is made up of, but it is an interesting theory/connection.

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While travelling Tyrion and Illyrio Mopatis come across a huge Valyrian sphinx crouched beside the road. It has a dragon’s body and a woman’s face. However her king is missing, dragged off by the Dothraki back to Vaes Dothrak on wooden wheels. There is a smooth stone plinth where he once stood, grown over with moss and flowering vines. Tyrionconsiders the queen sphinx and pleasant omen and her missing king an omen too, but not as hopeful.

Valyrian sphynx with dragon body and a woman's head, without her husband, who's been taken to Vaes Dothrak? Ring any bells?

Looking at some of the constellations on wiki:

Dragon's body - The Ice Dragon.

Woman's head - The Moonmaid.

Missing King - The King's Crown.

The Moonmaid is interesting becasue of the Dothraki legend that links the birth of dragons to a moon that shattered, iirc, so in some respects the moonmaid could be the dragonmaid

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I don't have AFFC nearby, but didn't Aemon tell Sam that in the midst of his other musings, which included "the dragon has three heads".

One thought I had was what makes up a sphinx. A quick look up of information basically reveals that at minimum it consists of a hybrid of two things, but can be more. Often the body of a lion with the head of a man. One traditional sphinx of note was the body of a lion, the head of a woman and the wings of a great bird.

Combining the ideas, could the sphinx and more specifically, what makes up the sphinx, be the answer to the riddle "the dragon has three heads" which most assume to be the answer to the question of who will be the dragon riders...

The head of a woman = Danaerys

Body of a lion = Tyrion

Wings = ?

Of course, there was no description of a third animal on the sphinx Tyrion saw. Anyway, just a thought.

I actually like this thing. But I have no idea who could be the wings.

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So many family crests of various animals from which to make a sphinx!

In this land of mascots.

For reals now: .......

The sphinx statues are a metaphor for how humans have bound magic to themselves by infusing their blood with the totem spirits of wolves, dragons, etc.

Long long ago, the art of unlocking magic within us was the highest form of learning the citadel had to offer its students. Sadly, that class is no longer taught there. The secret has been lost, or, rather, buried. Buried by maesters who wanted the Targs to forget how to awaken the dragons. (Which was the key to ending their dynasty). Ironically, now it's the maesters who are misplacing their own keys. They too are diminished now that they've weeded magic out of their garden, the world.

The riddle of the sphinx is how do we access the magic, that inner beast, so that we can become as powerful as those creatures of myth.

Deanerys managed to solve the riddle by acting on instincts fueled by fierce Targaryen pride. This brought her back to the core of what it meant to be Targaryen. She became attuned with the ancient blood magic that lingers in her family line. Her id was finally on the same page as her dragonlord ancestors. And, as they once did, she unlocked access to the inner dragon, and Bam! the eggs hatched. The magic she'd awoken leapt from her and was carried aloft by the fire which spread it to the eggs, but really the magic seems to have propagated outward into the whole world, huh?

Anyway, Aemon remembered at the end that his own higher learning institution had the sphynxes guarding its gate; he realized that the maesters themselves were the best ones to teach Daenerys how to manage her dragon power. Mismanaged dragons can lead to a worldfire calamity, after all, and Dany doesn't have a copy of the dragon owner's manual!

(This is part of the unified fire magic theory @ http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/72439-in-short-mels-a-dragon-why-targs-burst-into-flame-free-prize-inside/

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To put the quote in context:

He spoke of dreams and never named the dreamer, of a glass candle that could not be lit and eggs that would not hatch. He said the sphinx was the riddle, not the riddler, whatever that meant. He asked Sam to read for him from a book by Septon Barth, whose writings had been burned during the reign of Baelor the Blessed. Once he woke up weeping.

“The dragon must have three heads,” he wailed, “but I am too old and frail to be one of them. I should be with her, showing her the way, but my body has betrayed me.”

Some have theorised that Marwyn is intercepting his dreams using the glass candle, which is why he talks of dreams without naming the dreamer, glass candles, etc.

The Sphinx looks slight, but there’s strength in those slim arms, he reflected, as Alleras threw a leg across the bench and reached for his wine cup. “The dragon has three heads,” he announced in his soft Dornish drawl.

“Is this a riddle?” Roone wanted to know.

Aemon simply appears to be saying that the Sphinx is correct -- the dragon has three heads. The only riddle is the identity of the Sphinx, not his/her words.

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my own very quick ponderings ... regarding the forging of lightbringer, which has 3 stages of sacrifice

The sphynx=

Wings - Ice dragon - water for blood , 1st stage of forging

Body - Tyrion - lions blood, 2nd stage of forging

Head - Dany - blood of the dragon (fire)* , final stage of forging, blade set on fire with Danys 'fire' blood

*(fire - dragons are fire made flesh. I dont mean Dany literally has fire- blood, but her blood becomes fire on Lightbringer.)

and so the sphynx is sacrificed, and not the killer this time. Where as the sphynx was the riddler killing people, now the sypynx is to be killed, all 3 parts being sacrificed to forge the flaming sword..

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I agree with FittleLinger, all of Aemon's ranting applied to Targaryens, Daenerys and the prophecy. We only connect Aemon's Sphinx to Sarella in the Citadel because Sam moves directly from Aemon to meeting Sarella.

If you which to accept that Alleras is Aemon's Sphinx then how did he know (about) Sarella at all? She arrived many years after he had left Old town, only a year back in fact.Aemon has not left the Wall in much longer than that. And furthermore, Alleras is one of many many novices. she is a gifted student, true. And do the Maesters also call her by her quite informal nickname?

To know Alleras, Either Aemon has the prophetic sight (as several of his Targaryen ancestors have had), or he is in regular written contact with someone at the Citadel who also knows Alleras and knows Alleras well enough to know her nickname.

Is there any indication of prophetic sight in Aemon? I don't recall any. If Aemon has a citadel correspondant it is probably Marwyn since they have a common interest in the arcane. Is there any further indication of contact?

Yet still, Alleras doesn't connect with anything else Aemon is talking about. So I agree, Daenerys is the stronger candidate.

Also,

Suppose Alleras is the riddle and Sam solves her identity. What of critical importance (in Aemon's view) does that accomplish? However, if the riddle of Daenerys is solved (how she did what she "did"), then that is of supreme importance to the future of Westeros, the future&present of Magick, of the Targaryen bloodline and the prophecy of the Prince that Was Promised/Azor Ahai and the coming dragon-enveigled battle against teh mighty White Walkers. And its all these latter things that Aemons was also raving about.

So yes, my vote is for Daenerys as the sphinx and riddle.

-----

P.S.

As an aside, I think physical statues of Sphinxes in whatever form are signs of Valyrian influence/presence. The Sphinx is a Valyrian thing (consider the contrast to the Harpy of their Neighbours, the Ghiscari). We see the sphinxes at the entrance of the Citadel because (I believe) that the Valyrians were a strong inlfuence on the Citadel in Ancient times. This was natural since Valyria was the center of learning, magical and otherwise, in the very ancient times when the Citadel was founded. Even today, many of the remaining ancient Valyrian scrolls survived the Doom in the vaults beneath the Citadel.

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Snip

As I said in my post, some have theorised that Marwyn has been communicating with him/intercepting his dreams through the glass candle. He would therefore know about the Sphinx.

"The Sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler" he says just before saying "the dragon has three heads". The Sphinx's "riddle" was that the dragon has three heads. That's the connection.

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GRRM puts sphinx's in the story everywhere you look but never really goes into detail describing them until the Citadel. When Sam goes to Oldtown he comes accross two Sphinx's at the Gates of the Citadel, one female, one male. They have the bodies of lions(Lannister?), the wings of eagles(Arryn?) and the tails of serpents(Martell?).

I think the fact that they have a male and a female sphinx only points to the fact that, as Aemon realised, a sphinx can be of either sex. The fact that they have the three body parts links in nicely with the "the dragon must have three heads" statement. Danny is the Princess that was Promised and her three heads must be the riddle(Tyrion, Sansa & Sarella?).

The sphinx that Tyrion comes accross on the road near the Velvet Hills has the body of a dragon and a woman's face. I think that if that sphinx represents Danny, the statue that was wheeled off by the Dothraki could represent her future husband.....maybe it had a face of a man but the body of a direwolf!? ;)

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Not quite on topic, but I don't see why Maester Aemon connected sphinxes with riddles. A sphinx is a non-existent creature, as are dragons and griffins, but its only connection with riddles surely is in one specific Greek myth, the Oedipus one. There are no other actual myths/legends from our reality in ASOIAF, are there? How did this one get through?

"Pedant" is my middle name.

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  • 3 weeks later...

my own very quick ponderings ... regarding the forging of lightbringer, which has 3 stages of sacrifice

The sphynx=

Wings - Ice dragon - water for blood , 1st stage of forging

Body - Tyrion - lions blood, 2nd stage of forging

Head - Dany - blood of the dragon (fire)* , final stage of forging, blade set on fire with Danys 'fire' blood

*(fire - dragons are fire made flesh. I dont mean Dany literally has fire- blood, but her blood becomes fire on Lightbringer.)

and so the sphynx is sacrificed, and not the killer this time. Where as the sphynx was the riddler killing people, now the sypynx is to be killed, all 3 parts being sacrificed to forge the flaming sword..

Well, basically a sphinx is a griffin with a woman's face. And also we do have two characters named Griffin, both Jon Con and Aegon, the young Griffin.

You have to take into account that in the ASOIAF universe sphinxs usually have a dragon's body and a woman's head (so no lion or eagle parts).

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