The Ruby Pattern

[Conmaicne Mara]

Sometimes a ruby is just a ruby....

[J. Stargaryen]

Oh, I guess the really abridged version is that the Lannisters envy the power the Targs had and tend to emulate them.

But just a note-- garnets tend to have the strongest blood references; it's what's associated with Ghost, and it's what's used to depict blood (the Bolton's finery is spattered with garnets representing blood). I realize that you're making a case for adjacencies, but it's really garnets rather than rubies (and garnets actually are bloodred; rubies are more fuchsia).

That just about sums up the Targ - Lann relationship. :)

I don't really agree that garnets have a stronger blood reference than rubies. All I can find is the three Bolton related passages in ADwD. Did I miss some? I wonder if the Bolton's using garnets as their "blood jewel" doesn't thematically tie into Roose's fears about the "bad blood" somehow. Thoughts?

As for Ghost, I wonder if the fact that his eyes are represented with garnets on the pommel doesn't tie into the Tywin - Tobho Mott exchange. It would add a different twist or layer than what I stated up thread, but it fits kind of nicely.

“...cherrywood for the scabbards, bound in red leather and ornamented with a row of lion’s-head studs in pure gold. Perhaps with garnets for the eyes...”

“Rubies,” Lord Tywin said. “Garnets lack the fire.”

As far as anyone at the Wall knows, Jon is not royalty by way of his Targaryen lineage. In which case, it should have been rubies for the eyes. So maybe this line, two books later, is a sort of nod to the pommel on Longclaw; i.e., you didn't quite get it right. Also, Jon states that Ghost's eyes are darker than garnets. "The direwolf’s red eyes were darker than garnets and wiser than men." - Jon VIII

Fwiw, all of the swords in question used to belong to someone else; Longclaw to the Mormonts, while Oathkeeper and Widow's Wail were reforged from Ice, the ancestral blade of the Starks'. So there's a pattern there.

I agree with this especially on color and gemstone symbolism in general, but as far as the adjacencies go notice that in the quotes above there are seven similes involving rubies. Of the seven, five are rubies&fire, two are rubies&blood, In addition there seems to be a strong "heart" association with rubies, with Mel's ruby consistently portrayed and pulsing or throbbing (like a weird tell-tale heart?) and Rhaegar's breastplate rubies positioned so nicely above his "black heart". I think it's fair to say that rubies= fire + blood, while as Lord Tywin so nicely said: "Garnets lack the fire" and are strongly associated with blood alone.

Yes! Something like that. Maybe you should look into that. I don't think I've read it since high school, and that was quite a ways down the river. ;)

Sometimes a ruby is just a ruby....

Insightful.

[Lady Arya's Song]

Really nice write up and work Yolkboy on the Ruby Code. I also like your other write up regarding Sapphires.

Recently I have looked at Moonstones and I think I have found the symbols associated with that gem. I am waiting to see if someone else posts a thread regarding them to see if my theory is confirmed by someone else.

[Lost Melnibonean]

Have you all already discussed that Longclaw has garnets instead of rubies for eyes in the wolf's head pommel?

[J. Stargaryen]

Have you all already discussed that Longclaw has garnets instead of rubies for eyes in the wolf's head pommel?

It starts in the second post.

[Lost Melnibonean]

It starts in the second post.

I see. Thanks.