#Bran is almost 9

[melrosing]

watch mojo top ten Lannister v children beef

10. Loras v Jaime: about as lighthearted as any of this gets

9. Tyrion v Robert Arryn: sometimes the kids do have bad vibes

8. Tywin v Robb: he got so mad he threw a tantrum and demolished Robb’s whole family (almost)

7. Jaime v Robb: he did try to kill him but also he respects him

6. Jaime & Cersei v Arya: oft forgotten latecomer. Arya doesn’t even know

5. Tyrion v Joffrey: sometimes the kids really, really do have bad vibes

4. Cersei v Sansa: a sure classic

3. Cersei v Margaery: like half the driving force of AFFC, some real beefing w a teenager going on here

2. Jaime v Bran: the original Lannister beef with a child, nobody doing it like them, etc

1. Jaime v Hermione Granger: need I say more

[kitnjon]

I would love if you could recommend some newer modern Jonsa fics!!!!

Hi anon, Sure! Some modern AU's I am reading/read this year

You tend the ash, and I’ll tend the pine by @eruherdiriel

“Are we really never gonna talk about it?” Arya snaps. “We’re all gonna pretend everything is normal and happy when Sansa just got divorced?” “Statistically, it is normal,” Bran says. “The divorce rate is something like—” “It’s not normal! Not for this family, and not for Sansa. True love, forever and always, that’s Sansa.” “Jon isn’t the person she married,” Catelyn chides. “Not anymore.” — Sansa and Jon get divorced, but fully untangling their lives is impossible.

2. all eyes on us by @theshipshipper

Sansa is one of the biggest popstars on the planet, Jon is among the top streamers in Westeros -- and the internet goes wild when their well-hidden connection is uncovered.

3. frozen pines by @cellsshapedlikestars

It hits Jon, then - the sharp smell of ozone. A scent that years ago, he’d become all too familiar with. The aftermath of a lightning strike, the burning of wires. Electricity heavy in the air. The hair on his arms still stands on end. The scar on his hand feels tight. His heart is still pounding. It’s just a storm coming, he tells himself. He’s in White Harbor, not Eastwatch. It’s just a storm. or, the Exclusion Zone spreads for the first time in almost fifty years, with Sansa trapped inside. Jon will do whatever it takes to get her out.

4. tell me, what's the perfect time? by @prclainivrysteel

"I'm Jon," he reaches out for a handshake, "I probably should've led with that." "Yeah, probably," she replies, fighting against the goofy-looking smile that threatens to take over her face, "I'm Sansa." She slips her hand into his. His fingers are calloused, but the way he touches her is gentle. The cold press of his rings sends a pleasant shudder down Sansa's body, making her toes tingle. Jon softly repeats her name. The tips of his ears are red, most likely from the chilly, September winds. He looks away for a brief moment, as if gathering his thoughts, before meeting her gaze once more. "That’s pretty."

5. how she died by @cellsshapedlikestars

She's buried on a cold, dreary day in late January. That’s all Jon can seem to think about at the funeral. It’s too cold, the sky is too grey. Bleak and barren; there isn’t even snow. It’s an inane, intrusive thought. It could rain, at least, he thinks. The sky should weep for her. The universe should mourn. It doesn’t make sense. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t understand why anyone would murder Sansa Stark.

6. i'm on fire by @cellsshapedlikestars

“Okay,” she says, voice shaking. “I’ll do it. I’ll order an escort.” “Are you sure?” Randa asks, eyes wide like she doesn’t think Sansa is. It only makes Sansa’s teeth grind together. “Yes, I’m sure,” she grits out. If Harry wants an open relationship, she’s going to give it to him.

7. trojan horse by @cellsshapedlikestars

He’s only known her for an hour, but he’s pretty sure he’s in love with her.

8. Attorney–Client Privilege by @kit-kat21

No one in her family had ever done this before. Her parents were true soulmates. Sansa hated to admit that she partially blamed them for giving her such high expectations of marriage and love. Her brother and his wife, Jeyne (Westerling), had just celebrated their twelfth wedding anniversary. None of her grandparents, aunts or uncles had ever been divorced. Sansa Stark was the first in her whole family to have this distinct honor. So there was no one she could ask for help or advice. When she told her parents that she wanted to file first, Ned and Catelyn did what they did with all of their children when one of them came to them. They dove right in and helped the best they could. Googling divorce lawyers seemed to be the only thing they could do and from there, they read reviews because just like restaurants and hair salons, divorce lawyers were online-reviewed, too.

9. snow angels by @kingsansa

He finds, as the hairs on the back of his neck rise, as his heart completely fucking nosedives, that her voice is lower than he remembers, but unmistakable all of the same. Sansa Stark stands in the hallway of his shitty, hole-in-the-wall, egregiously outdated bar; unmistakable.

10. Later Nights by @justadram

Her husband, Jon Snow, might be in his off-season--blessedly. But with the Summer Olympics around the corner, her late-night Olympic show producer, Tyrion Lannister, hasn't forgotten about the unlikely Team USA star and their recording-setting ratings in 2022. He has his sights set on a triumphant rematch between the newlyweds any way he can get it.

11. We Run the Gamut (Let's Run Away) by @hilarychuff

Boy and girl meet. Live parallel lives. And, one day, they start to come together. Scenes inspired by all the different types of love for the Jonsa Valentine's Day Event 2024.

12. Touch me, I’m going to scream by @eruherdiriel

He’s one building away when he sees her—auburn hair in two neat French braids, a grey peacoat on, and hands in green fleece gloves holding a shopping bag that looks heavy. Sansa Stark is walking up the steps of the triple-decker, leaving a sleek, black sedan idling by the curb. Flustered, Jon jogs the rest of the way and reaches the steps just as Sansa raises a hand to ring the buzzer. “Hey,” he says, and she stops her motion. When she turns to him, Sansa’s eyes go wide. “Are you all right?” — Jon and Sansa—how touch evolves between them over the years.

[jozor-johai]

Revisiting the Rat Cook, Part 1: The Best Pie, and Lord Lamprey

This is the first part of a series I've been sitting on for a while, where I'm going to examine the symbols and themes present in the "Rat Cook" story, as relayed by Bran in ASOS Bran IV, and search reappearances of those elements throughout the rest of ASOIAF.

This series is predicated on the understanding that these books are rich with intentional symbolism, metaphor, and allegory, and that the repetition of these symbols and themes adds to their meaning.

In general, the symbols that are present in ASOIAF are limited by their ability to be inserted into the plot of the story (i.e. if the symbol of a stag killing a direwolf is important, there must be a way in which the characters are able to encounter such a scene within the plot's context). However, the metadiegetic legends that exist in-world for the characters of ASOIAF are not beholden to the same restrictions, and because GRRM is able to invent these myths in their entirety without restrictions on any of the individual symbolic elements, we can trust that each separate element of these in-world myths was placed intentionally.

With that in mind, I believe we can use stories like that of the Rat Cook as a sort of "road map" when looking at the reappearance of these same symbols and themes elsewhere in the story; I believe the "Rat Cook" story is the most distilled example of these elements. I don't mean to say that every instance of "rats" references the Rat Cook directly, but that the Rat Cook story provides a place where Martin is able to use these symbols in their most abstract form and describe their relationship to each other, so that when we see them appear again elsewhere in ASOIAF we might better understand what we are being shown.

So, among other things, the Rat Cook story is about a rat which eats rats, or a cook who serves kings; The Rat Cook story is about fathers and sons, about cannibalism, about trust, about vengeance, and about damning one's legacy.

This is likely going to be a 9-part series, but ideally almost all of these parts will be able to stand on their own. Each post will inform the next as I build my analysis, but hopefully each individual post is also interesting in its own right.

RtRC Part 1: "The Best Pie You Have Ever Tasted" and "Lord Lamprey"

This opening part, for better or worse, is going to retread some well-discussed ground: the clear parallels between the "Rat Cook" story and the incident in which Lord Manderly serves certain overlarge pies in ADWD The Prince of Winterfell, a scene lovingly dubbed "Frey Pie". However, as well-established as this comparison is, I want to begin here so I can begin to introduce how a closer analysis of the Rat Cook themes are present in this uncontroversially parallel scene, and how they might add more depth to interpreting that moment.

Not only does the scene evoke the same imagery, serving pie to the Lords amidst conspicuously missing sons, but the connection becomes even more direct when Wyman Manderly looks directly to the camera and says, “Hey reader, if you’re wondering where those Freys are, think back to any scary stories you know about pie”.

Okay, he doesn’t actually say that, but it’s close enough, and as much of a nudge we’re like to get from Martin (and which still went over my head on my first read through). Instead he does the next best thing, cueing Abel to sing while staggering past our POV:

"We should have a song about the Rat Cook," he was muttering, as he staggered past Theon, leaning on his knights. "Singer, give us a song about the Rat Cook."

Manderly seems to acknowledge the similarities himself, and most have noticed as well.

However, making the comparison between the story of the Rat Cook and Manderly’s actions is particularly interesting in their differences.

There are many ways in which Manderly’s pies, as a mirror, are appropriately an inversion of certain elements in the Rat Cook myth.

Returning to the scene as we see it in ADWD The Prince of Winterfell:

“Ramsay hacked off slices with his falchion and Wyman Manderly himself served, presenting the first steaming portions to Roose Bolton and his fat Frey wife, the next to Ser Hosteen and Ser Aenys, the sons of Walder Frey. "The best pie you have ever tasted, my lords," the fat lord declared. "Wash it down with Arbor gold and savor every bite. I know I shall." “True to his word, Manderly devoured six portions, two from each of the three pies, smacking his lips and slapping his belly and stuffing himself until the front of his tunic was half-brown with gravy stains and his beard was flecked with crumbs of crust.”

Manderly takes on only some of the roles of the Rat Cook here. Despite his status as lord, he plays the role of the humble cook, personally serving Roose Bolton, Walda Bolton (née Frey), Hosteen Frey, and Aenys Frey, all standing in for the “Andal King”. In this way, the role of “Andal King” as someone who has official power and the role of “Rat Cook” as effectively powerless dissident are played out straightforwardly. Bolton and his allies are backed by their army and the authority of the crown while Manderly has no official backing of his own.

Wyman even physically resembles the Rat Cook; Wyman’s blue eyes indicate he is presumably pale, and Wyman is prodigiously large, to mimic the descriptor of “white, and almost as huge as a sow”.

However, like the “Andal King” himself, who had a “second slice” of his own son, it is Wyman Manderly, and not Bolton nor the Freys, who devours two portions from each of the pies. In this way, the roles have elements which are interchangeable.

Wyman is acting out both roles, which is especially interesting because in this comparison is a single most definitive contrast: The Rat Cook, most notably, is not punished for serving the pie, as "a man has a right to vengeance". Instead, he is punished for violating guest right.

Now, Wyman—who lost his son to the Freys at the Red Wedding—certainly has a “right to vengeance”, but betraying guest right is something which Wyman Manderly takes great pains not to do. Manderly conspicuously notes that he gave the three dead Freys guest gifts upon their parting, marking them as no longer guests under his roof, and subsequently, theoretically, freeing him to kill them. Manderly introduces the idea while Davos marks the distinction for the reader’s sake in ADWD Davos IV:

“The Freys came here by sea. They have no horses with them, so I shall present each of them with a palfrey as a guest gift. Do hosts still give guest gifts in the south?" "Some do, my lord. On the day their guest departs.”

The Freys, on the other hand, as executors of the Red Wedding, are the most notable violators of guest right, while the Boltons contributed their part as well; both are being punished for that sin by Manderly-the-Rat-Cook here, marking the inversion of the story. In this iteration, the party serving the pie seems to warrant no judgment; instead, the pie itself is the judgment, served as retribution. With that connection in mind, it's worth remembering the other importance of the Rat Cook story, based on its placement in ASOS and which I think has often been overshadowed by Manderly’s “Frey Pies” incident.

In the Rat Cook story, after the Rat Cook's punishment, he spends an immortal future forever eating his own descendants, a scenario in which Bran describes the rats of the Nightfort as “children running from their father”. That eternal, kin- and legacy- devouring doom does not just come secondary to the punishment, it is a part of the punishment following the violation of guest right, and introduces the notion of an entire family being cursed for that violation... and, for good measure, is brought up in ASOS Bran IV, chapter that occurs only a few chapters after the Red Wedding itself.

In one respect, this is just another reinforcement for the reader of the sanctity of guest right and of the laws of the old gods. Coming so soon after the Red Wedding, the Rat Cook story hints at the fall of House Frey. Walder Frey, most culpable violator of guest right, has apparently doomed the rest of his dynasty to death, punished for his actions, the way that the Rat Cook, too, is a patriarch who creates not only his own ruin but also the ruin of his progeny. Although Walder himself is not literally tying the nooses, it is Walder who has metaphorically become the father "devouring his children" indirectly through his ruthlessness. Wyman Manderly, then, is merely an agent of that doom.

On the subject of the Freys being cursed by violating guest right, only one of the named consumers of the pie, Aenys Frey, is truly mirroring the Rat Cook legend by literally eating his own son, Rhaegar Frey. Both Aenys and Hosteen Frey, on the other hand, are specifically called out in the scene as being the “sons of Walder Frey”. It’s appropriate within the mirrored Rat Cook motif to invoke Walder’s name as patriarch as well as the promise of other “sons” that might succumb to their father’s insatiable appetite for status; this sentence invokes the dynasty of the Frey household. Indeed, Walder Frey himself also has shared motifs with the Rat Cook: like the immortal Rat Cook, Walder Frey has nearly innumerable children and grandchildren, and he too seems to refuse to die.

If a named heir in Westeros is like the ASOIAF version of Chekov’s gun, then the Late Walder Frey is sitting on Chekov’s arsenal; once he becomes the late Late Lord Frey, it’s going to explode. If that happens in an upcoming book, then the Rat Cook story might be setting up the idea of how an eventual succession crisis of House Frey might further this metaphorical connection, with this doomed family turning on itself, each running from the shadow of their father’s legacy like the Rat Cook's children run from him in the Nightfort.

Lord Lamprey

Now, to push through a little more symbolic linking between the Frey Pie scene and Lord Manderly:

If we consider the “pie” element as a key part of the Rat Cook story, then seeing a “pie” specifically in the hands of Wyman Manderly prompts a connection with a noted favorite of Manderly’s: lamprey pie. As early as ACOK Bran II, we learn that:

“His own people mock him as Lord Lamprey”,

Interestingly, we see in that same chapter a telling metaphor considering Manderly and lampreys not in a pie:

“Lord Wyman attacked a steaming plate of lampreys as if they were an enemy host”.

Considering Wyman’s lampreys-as-enemy association makes for curious contrast later, in ADWD Davos IV, as Manderly is feigning allegiance with the hated Freys. Here, Manderly has just stepped away from the feast in order to secretly treat with Davos, and the food served may contain more meaning than at first appears:

“In the Merman's Court they are eating lamprey pie and venison with roasted chestnuts. Wynafryd is dancing with the Frey she is to marry. The other Freys are raising cups of wine to toast our friendship.”

The reappearance of this noted lamprey pie might take on more significance knowing that some of those eating it become a pie later on. The reminder of the association between Manderly and his lamprey pies seems even more intentional when the “Lord Lamprey” nickname conspicuously returns as Bolton’s men search for the missing Freys in ADWD Reek III:

"You did not find our missing Freys." The way Roose Bolton said it, it was more a statement than a question. "We rode back to where Lord Lamprey claims they parted ways, but the girls could not find a trail."

Invoking his nickname in this scene draws a connecting line between Manderly’s favorite pie, the “enemy host” of lampreys, the missing Freys, and “lamprey pie” being served as a symbol of the fake “friendship” between the Freys and Manderlys.

If that Frey-Manderly friendship is marked by mentions of lamprey pie, and Manderly loves to eat lamprey like he would eat an enemy, and we see in The Prince of Winterfell that Manderly apparently loves to eat his enemies, having two portions of each Frey pie, we might think that the Freys are being paralleled with Manderly’s favorite pie filling: lampreys. If that is the case, then comparing the punished Freys to lampreys is a scathingly fitting image, and I mean that literally.

Considering that carnivorous lampreys latch onto fishes to slowly eat the fish’s blood and flesh while the fish still swims, then looking at an image like this makes for some serious symbolic resonance if you consider the Tullys as fish (as they often are described) and the pie-filling Freys as pie-filling lampreys. It certainly provides a strong visual metaphor for the Frey’s “late” and half-hearted vassalage to Hoster Tully, how they dealt with Catelyn, and how they are now parasitically using Edmure—he sits in Riverrun at the end of ADWD, but with Freys latched onto him, bleeding him like they did his family.

This series is otherwise about pies and rats, not lampreys, but I will mention a few other interesting associations with lampreys that are worth looking into. The Stokeworths, when they are desperately trying to secure a match for Lollys, serve each of their prospective suitors lamprey pie, perhaps a signaling of the Stokeworth’s parasitic place at court, or the attitude towards their search for their daughter’s match. Note that in that context, Littlefinger remarks that he loves lamprey pie, perhaps fittingly for someone who has risen high by making use of his parasitic attachments to those more powerful. By contrast, when our intrepid advocate for truth and justice—Davos—is jailed after his return from the Battle of the Blackwater, he is served lamprey pie in the dungeons, but finds it “too rich” to eat. We have already seen that Davos has no stomach for the blind flattery that some of Stannis’ other lords have, and this scene describes that same character trait. I believe there are even further associations that are worth investigating, but for the sake of this essay, we must move on and end here for now.

In the next part, I'll focus on how it's relevant that the Rat Cook's pie and Manderly's pie were both allegedly "pork" pies, and where that reappears as well.

[teriwrites]

(3) pick a branching universe you would enjoy writing from the canon of your current WIP— a character makes a different choice, the dice roll a different number, etc. describe what it would look like and/or write 100+ words in this universe.

(9) who are your favorite characters from your current WIP? what do you want most from them as characters: to have them heal and be content/happy, or to run them under a cheese grater? how does this compare to what they undergo in the story?

(10) which characters do you personally dislike most from your current WIP? elaborate on why, bonus points for how impassioned your answer is.

- for the writing ask game!

Thanks for the ask!

(3) pick a branching universe you would enjoy writing from the canon of [project]— a character makes a different choice, the dice roll a different number, etc. describe what it would look like and/or write 100+ words in this universe.

Oooo okay

So a fun thing about BAC is that, as it is, the story more or less has to go exactly as it does for things to work. Like if the two main characters weren't the two main characters - if a different person from Winnie's town discovered the faerie ring, or a different fae extended a deal - things would almost certainly fall apart immediately.

But that's a boring answer, so I'm gonna pose the idea of the Warden kidnapping Winnie instead of Bran

If the Warden stole Winnie, but otherwise everything was the same back in town, it's unlikely anybody would go into the Beyond to search for her. So she would be stuck there by herself, probably mostly kept in a sort of trancelike state to keep her cooperative, knowing even less about the fae than she does in the actual story (which is very little)

But, if she still had her iron hatpin on her, there's a chance she could accidentally discover its habit of breaking through magical enchantment. And if she pieced that together while still at the Warden's estate, Winnie would 100% be both bold and crafty enough to use it to break out of her containment.

From there, if she escaped the Dusk Court, Taliesin would absolutely have been keeping tabs on tracking any human movement around that area, and he'd probably swoop in to help her get distance from the Warden. At which point he'd try to make a deal with her, and Winnie, being the stubborn and grudge-holding woman she is, would probably take it lol

They'd probably go about their whole vengeance quest differently than in BAC, but that's what'd get it all kicked off for sure

(9) who are your favorite characters from [project]? what do you want most from them as characters: to have them heal and be content/happy, or to run them under a cheese grater? how does this compare to what they undergo in the story?

Honestly, in all of BAC, my favorite character would probably be Bran. He doesn't feature in nearly enough of the book, but that lil kid is so precious - he's mischievous but can't keep a straight face to save his life, he's got that 9-year-old confidence, he's a nuisance to his sister but absolutely idolizes her, his favorite possession is a pretty red marble, he's perceptive but lets impulses and curiosity dominate his actions anyways, his greatest wish in life is to befriend a raven and have it give him shiny presents, his second greatest wish in life is to show off said raven bestie at school

What I want most for him as a character is for the writer to leave him tf alone!! Let the boy be!!

As one might guess, that is not how the story goes

(10) which characters do you personally dislike most from [project]? elaborate on why, bonus points for how impassioned your answer is.

I feel like the most obvious choice here would be the Warden of the Undernell - Bran's captor - but actually, even moreso than the Warden, I think I hold a lot of personal distaste for Herdithas, the Dusk scout that chases after Winnie and Taliesin. Because if you're gonna be a hunter and a POS, at least be a brave one!

But noooooo every time they actually face confrontation they nope tf out of there. Coward.

Plus a couple other reasons but I can't get into them rn because of ~spoilers~

[novelmonger]

1-6, 9, 12, 16-19, and 23 for the Rocky Road asks, please?

A book you regretted reading

The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Hated it, hated it, hated it. I honestly see no literary merit in it, and I probably shouldn't have finished it because of the kinds of invasive thoughts it was giving me, but it was for school, so I read the whole thing. I really should have asked the teacher if I could do a different book, but instead I just tried to get through it as quickly as possible. My biggest regret in regards to this book is that I asked my mom if I could burn it (she said no), instead of taking it and burning it on my own. I needed the catharsis.

2. A book you couldn’t finish

Most recently, They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera. If I'd taken five seconds to look at the tags on Goodreads, I would have realized it wasn't going to be the book for me, but alas. Instead I got invested in the characters and read until I couldn't kid myself anymore about the budding romance I didn't want to read, at which point I put the book down.

3. A concept or plot that you thought was squandered in a story

The Dragon's Legacy by Deborah A. Wolf is...not a great book. I could wax eloquent about all the problems I have with her dumb matriarchal desert society, but the biggest shame in that huge waste of time was a really cool idea about these people who have a telepathic bond with big cats. It was a really cool idea, especially when (if I'm remembering right) usually it's only women who can bond with them, but one of the main characters is a boy who manages it. The whole story could have been about that, and it would probably have been much more interesting than the big nothing of a story I slogged through instead that was apparently just setting up the next book.

4. An underutilized setting or world

I am on what is probably a lifelong quest in search of a well-written fantasy based on some Middle Eastern culture. It has to be written well, avoid egregious stereotypes, and capture in some way that particular old-meets-new feeling, that warmth and vitality and history and darkness and light, of the Middle East. All of which is apparently hard to do, because I keep on running into stories written by Westerners who don't seem to have done much research beyond watching Disney's Aladdin. Or it's ruined by an explicit sex scene on like page 5, because that has happened with alarming frequency too :/

5. A character you want to rescue from the story they’re in

I think Kaladin Stormblessed would really benefit from taking a vacation from the Stormlight Archive and getting some intensive therapy :P

6. An author you want to rescue from the story they told

I want to rescue Jack London from The Call of the Wild, which is the one story he's known for. Let's have the world forget about that story for a while and pay attention to the far superior White Fang instead.

9. A character type, plot, or element that you normally don’t like but did like because of the execution

This is probably not what the question is getting at, but it's the one example that's coming to mind right now: The Wheel of Time. There were a lot of characters I couldn't stand as written by Robert Jordan. Like...almost the entire female cast, for one. But then in the last three books, when Brandon Sanderson took over...suddenly I liked them! I ended up crying at the death of one of the characters that annoyed me the most! And that was entirely down to Brandon Sanderson knowing how to write distinct characterization that makes sense and makes you care.

12. A book on hold that you do mean to finish

One day, I will finish The Idiot by Fydoor Dostoevsky. I will! Let's just...ignore how I've been working on it for like half my life at this point >_>

16. A book you hold a grudge against (read or unread)

Fifty Shades of Grey. 'Nuff said.

17. A book that you were spoiled for

I will forever resent Pinterest for spoiling the "Honor is dead, but I'll see what I can do" moment from Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson.

18. A book where you like the adaptation or an element therein better than the book itself

The Maze Runner movies are vastly superior to the books, surprisingly. The movies actually tell a coherent story, all the characters are more believable and proactive, and while there's still some eyebrow-raising things about the plot, it's much more satisfying and compelling. The books are weird, man.

19. A book you don’t really like but have kept for other reasons 

I don't really like any of the Ender's Game series other than the first book, but the series should stay together, and I want Ender's Game on my shelf, so the rest of the series is there too :/

23. A highly-hated or derided book you love

I don't know exactly how hated/derided the Jedi Apprentice books are, but just about the only thing I ever hear anyone talking about in relation to them is getting angry at Qui-Gon for leaving Obi-Wan on Melida/Daan during the arc where Obi-Wan leaves the Jedi. Sorry, everyone can die mad about it, because I love that series anyway. Both of their actions make sense in context, mistakes are acknowledged and apologized for and forgiven, and I'll always have a soft spot for those books.

Rocky Read Asks

[tryingdoesnthurt]

6 - 05/04/25

wieiad — 1.13

breakfast (5:20am): porridge with a banana and dark chocolate, one apple

post-breakfast (6:40am): skyr bowl with bran sticks, trail mix and a banana

morning snack (8:30am): three whole grain chocolate cookies; one coffee

lunch (12:30pm): whole wheat bun with two scrambled eggs and avocado

afternoon snack (4:00pm): rye bread with hazelnuts spread; one big cup of coffee

dinner (9:00pm): couscous with mixed vegetables with curry spice, some blueberries

[V - L - D - E] [cigarettes: 16] [vape: 60 drags]

random pics I was able to take

daily log [cw purging]

Morning started like yesterday but with the addiction of anxiety cus of that yogurt bowl argh :( But i didn't walk as much as usual in the morning, and since i really craved those cookies i shared a packet with my mum, so i didn't overeat and i got to eat them. I don't even know why i panicked for the yogurt bowl since it was well into the "limit" i have in mind, but yeah. Almost relapsed in sh and tried to purge, but i ate those cookies later, so i think it's oke? no clue

I went in Milan in the morning with my mum!! It was nice!! I bought two CDs and while lunch gave me a lot (A Whole Lot) of thoughts, i was able not to compensate it!! Happy about that (now, an hour after I ate. I was not happy before but that is the disorder talking)

Other than that all good. I'm pretty tired lol so good night everyone!!

song of the day

[visenyaism]

reading fire and blood and i'm increasingly convinced George has never actually met a child

it is very very consistent in ASOIAF that almost every child character acts about 2 years older than they are: Arya seems about 11 but is 9, Sansa seems 13 but is 11, Bran acts 8-9ish but is 6, etc. fire and blood is just completely worse in every way including realistic child behavior though lmao. I’ve worked with kids for many years when i was younger, I had to do so much developmental psych during college, and it’s just consistently way off in this series. You just have to turn that part of your brain off a little bit. 

[yaneznayunichego]

I think I'll be adding ~2.5 months (+ 21%) to every Asoiaf year in my mind from now on (maybe the months just have more days like 36, I don't know, but it adds up to 14.5 of our months per year).

So Sansa is 11 years old in the first book, but if you switch to our timeline, she's over 13. Better! Dany is about 16 when she weds, Bran is almost 9, Jaime is 37 yo, maester Aemon died at the age of 123 etc

It's not critical to the storyline and the experience of growing up, but it's a little less ridiculous

[dancing--lights]

7, 11, 29, and/or 30 for a rook of your choice!!!!

Thanks so much for asking! I had a blast doing these.

Rook Codex Writing Prompts

7. Something Written By a Character From a Previous Game About Rook

A Letter En Route to Kirkwall

Hawke,

I hope this makes it to you. It'd better. I paid five extra gold for a "guaranteed safe delivery." Five! These gods are making things worse, and more expensive, for everyone. The Lords and I are doing our best to cause trouble for them and the Antaam. We've discovered they're working together, so it's really a two birds, one stone sort of thing. Convenient, isnt it? Whatever else happens, those gods, all of them, will pay for what they did to Varric, I can promise you that.

You remember that Warden he wrote to us about, the one he took under his wing? Rook? I finally met her, and he wasn't lying. She's good. I think her and her team might actually have a chance. Taash likes her. And I can see why Varric took to her the way he did. She's sweet, a bit of a flirt, and damn good at cards. She beat me just the other day, and I was cheating! She's not too bad with a blade either. Almost beat your record in the arena. You might have to defend your title soon if she keeps it up.

You know, it's strange. The way she laughs when she starts to tell a story, this crooked smile she gets when she's joking, how she can't seem to walk away from anyone that might need help... it's Varric all over. He definitely left his mark. Or maybe I just miss him. I know we all do. Damn it.

Anyway, enough of that. I won't ask if you're alright, because of course you are. The blight may have reached Kirkwall, but you can handle a few darkspawn. They would have to get through Aveline first, anyway, and that's no easy thing to do. Say hello to our new "Acting Viscount" for me, will you? Don't let her kill Bran.

I hope we can sort this out quick. The shoreline feels empty without you, the ocean bigger, somehow. And, my bed has been far too cold lately for my liking. Come home soon.

-Isabela

11. Report summarizing what is known about Rook by an allied or enemy faction.

(A crumpled report found in the Weisshaupt library.)

First Warden Glastrum,

You requested a dossier of any information the Order might have on Warden Elodie Thorne, now operating under the moniker “Rook,” as I understand it. I have combed the records, and have made several inquiries around the fortress; mainly among junior Wardens that might be considered her peers or comrades, but also received some illuminating remarks from her former trainers and superiors. I now put forth here a summary of what I have discovered:

Place of Birth: a small, unnamed village in the High Anderfels (As you know, there are many such places. It is quite possible the village Warden Rook is from is no longer inhabited; overrun by darkspawn, or fallen on hard times, its people forced to relocate elsewhere).

Age: around 30

Date of Conscription: 15 Wintermarch, 9:45 Dragon

Date of Joining: 22 Justinien, 9:47 Dragon

The circumstances surrounding Warden Rook’s conscription are murky, and accounts among her peers were varied. Rumors of a duel with a chevalier were presented. Others recounted her murdering said chevalier in cold blood. I’m inclined to believe the first as familial ties to Orlais were mentioned. Written accounts from the Warden who conscripted her mention a mother and sister, both succumbed to blight sickness. Library records provided little enlightenment on the subject. The Order’s disinclination to ask too many questions of its conscripts is sometimes as much burden as it is boon. Whatever she was before, Rook is now a Warden, and was afforded the respect of one at the time of her conscription.

One peer described her as “stupidly brave.” Another as “chatty,” and “a bit of a showoff.” Still another who served multiple missions alongside her recalled her as resourceful and generous. “Give her impossible odds, and she’ll beat them every time. She was always the first one in, and the last one out,” was this Warden’s account. She was known to spend much of her time with Warden Evka Ivo, and later, Warden Antoine, when their duties allowed. 

Some of her commanding officers painted a less than flattering picture. “Reckless.” “Stubborn.” “Prone to insubordination.” You were aware of her reputation before the town hall incident, so I won’t elaborate. But many of her teachers and trainers also spoke highly of her. Her combat trainer colorfully informed me, “she could show up to training hungover, after spending a night sleeping it off in the dungeons, and still beat everyone in the yard.” Charming. 

Coincidentally; number of nights spent in the dungeons (recorded): 17

I hope this has given you some measure of insight. If I might give my own opinion, you may do with it whatever you wish. I did not know Warden Rook well, but the times our paths did cross, she seemed to me, like many of us at Weisshaupt, a lost soul trying her best to be found. She would often come to the library asking for books on our history, for tales of the most storied and legendary heroes among our ranks. She told me once her father used to read them to her when she was young. I believe they brought her comfort. I believe that she believed in what they stood for. Yes, she had the tendency to talk too much, and too loudly, while in the library, and a penchant for finding humor in the most baffling of places, at the most inappropriate times, but I don't believe her loyalty to the Order should be in question. I implore you to listen to what she has to say.

-Chamberlain of the Grey

29. Something written to Rook post-game.

A Letter From the Lighthouse

Rook,

I hope you and Lace are enjoying your time in Ferelden. I know you, and I know you’re probably spending a lot of that time working. The blight did a number there, so I’m sure the relief efforts are keeping you busy, but please take a moment to breathe every now and then. I know. Rich coming from me. I’m working on it. If I am, you can, too. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help.

Things in Minrathous are going about as expected. Which is to say, there’s something new to deal with every day. But it’s a good problem to have. There’s a Minrathous left to help. It’s more than I could have asked for. Hope? Well, that’s something else I’m working on, isn’t it? I told you, you’re a bad influence.

Lucanis says hello. I think he misses you. I know he misses Harding. The others miss you both, as well. Me? Well, I’m the one writing this, aren’t I? 

This place really isn’t the same without you.

-Neve

30. A note/letter that Rook never sent.

Things To Remember When It's Too Late

(a folded piece of parchment; the edges are frayed, as if unfolded, read, and added to often)

Your name is Elodie Thorne Rook

You are a Grey Warden

This is your Calling

You will take down as many darkspawn as you can before you can’t anymore

You will leave this world a little bit better, a little bit brighter

You had a father, a mother, a sister

They loved you

You love them

Now, you have Weisshaupt the Lighthouse

Remember Evka

Remember Antione

Remember Varric (this has recently been underlined multiple times)

Remember Davrin

Remember Assan

Remember Neve

Remember Lucanis

Remember Bellara

Remember Taash

Remember Emmerich

Remember Manfred

Remember Lace

She loves you

You love her

You are a Grey Warden

This is your Calling

Your name is Rook

[ai-megurine]

Lady dreamfyre 1: What inspired you to write the fic this way? 2: Which scene did you put on first? 3: What is your favorite plot? 4: What's your favorite line of dialogue? 5: Which part was hardest to write? 6: What is your fic special or different from all your other fics? 7: Where did the title come from? 8: Did any real person or event inspire any part of this? 9: Was there an alternate version of this fic? 10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story? 11: What do you like most about this fic? 12: What do you like least about this fic? 13: What song did you hear that made you want to write this story? Or if you haven't heard anything yet, what do you think readers should hear to keep us reading? 14: Is there anything you would like readers to learn from reading this fic? 15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

Hello!!!! I'm so sorry for being late 😥

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I was thinking about how the characters of Hotd are bad at the game. Like, any character from GOT would have obliterated EVERYONE. Can you imagine if Cersei had been in Alicent's place? And Tywin in Otto's? The Dance wouldn't have happened cuz Viserys, Daemon and Rhaenyra would have died Red Wedding style. We're talking about Tywin "Reynes/Rains of Castamere" Lannister.

And then it occured to me that Sansa would have 100% gotten along with Alicent and/or Helaena.

At first, I considered teleporting Sansa in that era, then I found the idea silly so I went for reincarnation. I just need to pick in whom!

2: Which scene did you put on first?

Helaena riding Lady Dreamfyre and Bran talking to Sansalaena

3: What is your favorite plot?

From the ones who have been published, I have two. Aegon deciding he wants to be King and working for it, and Helaena plotting to help him

4: What's your favorite line of dialogue?

From the published one it's : « You could lose a leg and I would still love you the same. It isn't the state of your body that determines your value. It's your heart. And I love your heart. I love you. » by Helaena in Chapter 27.

I also love this exchange: « "And one more thing. Have the watchtower repaired before the lords arrive, and light a beacon in it." "A beacon, my lord?" 'Lord Larys, why does Her Grace always wear green? It isn't the colours of House Hightower.' 'The beacon on the Hightower, do you know what colour it glows when Oldtown calls its banners to war?' "Aye. And make it green." » by Cregan in Chapter 24

I have other planned that I like more than this one, but I won't spoil you 😉

5: Which part was hardest to write?

Rhaenyra in general. She's incredibly difficult to write in my opinion because I don't want her to be cartoonish but at the same time she's genuinely entitled and dumb

6: What is your fic special or different from all your other fics?

I planned the ending before posting anything

7: Where did the title come from?

My love for magical bonds between dragon/direwolf and their human. Also I love Dreamfyre and Lady

8: Did any real person or event inspire any part of this?

Reading isekai manwha definitely helped 😆

9: Was there an alternate version of this fic?

Yup! Sansa was almost reincarnated into Alicent

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

Helaegon brainrot got to me. At first Helaegon was mostly due to the arranged marriage being logical for the time, but it got to me!!

11: What do you like most about this fic?

The blending of Sansa and Helaena!!

12: What do you like least about this fic?

Maybe rushing Sansalaena acceptance of her fate? I don't know. I'm pretty happy with my work 😊

13: What song did you hear that made you want to write this story? Or if you haven't heard anything yet, what do you think readers should hear to keep us reading?

No song made me write the story per say but I have several songs that remind of the characters.

• God of War by Peyton Parrish → Lyarra Umber

• Warrior Song by TheFatRat → Daeron

• Raise your banners by Within Temptation → The Greens

• Worthless by Bullet for my Valentine → Aemond

• Sound of War by Timothee Profitt → Aegon

• Close to the Sun by TheFatRat → Helaena

And many others!!

14: Is there anything you would like readers to learn from reading this fic?

Magic isn't good or bad. It just exists. Same with dragons, direwolves, etc.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

That I love writing court intrigue!!!! I'm already planning other Dance AU.

[dragoneyes613]

The only problem with Tudor food was getting enough of it. If you were wealthy you could eat very well indeed, but most people were not and frequently had to endure shortages. Even in the great households the best stuff - the roast meat and imported almonds, currants, sugar and spices - was kept for the lord, his immediate family and guests. The kitchen accounts at Ingatestone Hall, for example, talk of cattle being butchered into half a dozen 'roasting pieces' and forty 'boiling pieces,' and the volumes of imported ingredients purchased are very much smaller than you might imagine if you simply looked at the recipe books of the era. Late spring was the hardest time for most people. After months living off salted, dried and smoked foods prepared in the autumn, and grain from the harvest, stores were running low across the country and prices at market low. Despite the green flush of growth, very little was yet ready to eat. Hard decisions often had to be made.

If you had a few animals, did you slaughter them now when they were at their smallest and thinnest, or could you wait till they had grown and fattened? If the harvest last year had been poor, you may have been forced to eat some of your seed corn, so you knew that this year's yields were going to be small too. With the countryside fully settled and all of the natural resources owned by someone, there was very little opportunity to supplement food stocks from the wild. All wild animals and plants belonged in law to the person who owned the land they were on - not the person who rented it, but the freehold owner. This excluded most small-scale and even fairly substantial farmers from the rights to fish from the streams, or take pigeons or even rabbits from their fields. Even hedgerows were owned, with different individuals having the rights to the trimmings, the timber from trees that stood within them and the herbs that grew at their feet. And since those who owned these rights were frequently reliant on these resources themselves, they guarded them fiercely. When the weather turned bad and crops suffered, the whole country looked on with a worried eye. Severe food shortages struck several times during the sixteenth century. The years 1527-9 were particularly bad, as were 1549-51, and almost immediately the harvests were disastrous again in 1554-6 and there was another longer bout of hardship in 1594-7. At such times those who were accustomed to eating wheat bread ate barley, and the humbler people had to move to coarser fare, mixing pea flour and brand and even ground acorns to fill their bellies. Everyone felt it, but the poorest could be in real trouble. The local governments within port towns and cities tried to buy in grain from abroad and offer subsidized bread, the wealthy were urged to open their granaries and sell their stored surpluses, and everyone was instructed from the pulpit to give food to the poor, but still some people starved. Very many more faced severe malnutrition, getting by on one meal a day of bread full of nutritionally poor bran and acorn flour. the bones of several of the crew of the Mary Rose show evidence of healed childhood incidents of disease linked with malnutrition: rickets, scurvy and anaemia. Since the ship sank in 1545, these men would have been young children during the bad years of 1527-9. It's likely, therefore, that they were among those who suffered the pangs of hunger. Those pangs have to be severe indeed to leave a trace upon your bones.

- How To Be A Tudor, Ruth Goodman, pages 148-149

[astoriacolumnstaircase]

tag 9 people you want to get to know better

tagged by @overnighttosunflowers

favorite color: yellow. All hues, but there's a very sunny maybe almost obnoxious yellow I painted my hallway and stairwell that is maybe my favorite

currently reading: This Is How You Lose the Time War, but only in fits and starts. It's not the fault of the novella, it's really good, i'm just having a hard time holding attention with reading right now so it's probably time to seek out short stories again.

last song: Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring. I don't remember which movement, it was on the radio when I was turning on something to dance to.

last series: Summer Camp Island. I love that show it's so good.

last movie: Probably My Neighbor Totoro? Or Rescuers Down Under? I don't remember. Edit: holy shit death on the nile i watched it on a plane and my memory Sucks. French and Saunders were in it! I love them

sweet/savory/spicy: All of these options are so good. Probably savory, but I have been craving a good bran muffin lately, which is like, savory sweet when made correctly.

currently working on: tailoring a dress so the sleeves fit where I like to wear them. And a long story about a woman building ancillary bodies out of the things she's killed in the forest.

Tagging @batwingsandblackcats, @soudeorabisk, @antlereed, @jupitersson, @masterqwertster, @picturesofthegoneworlds, @distant--shadow, and @bolo-from-aeor

[sixohsixoheightfourtwo]

tag game: 9 questions for 9 people

tagged by @phneltwrites one million years ago (december 2023)

last song: Tell You (Today) (original 12'' vocal) - Loose Joints . this is a disco deep cut that I heard for the first time the other day on twitter. anyway . really really good. i invite you to check it out if you enjoy a bop. go here for an absolutely wild 16-minute version described by the uploadeder as 'super wigged out and funky'.

currently watching: cooking crush. pit babe. the sign. (not up to date on any of these . Sigh.) khun chai (almost finished. love ittt). ossan's love 2018 (listen .... it's good actually). 1670 netflix. Treme (super underrated series about new orleans recovering in the wake of hurricane katria)

three ships: restricting this to the thai bl context 1. I gotta say both jiutian and tinncharn made me absolutely wild in the last few months so i think i have to include filmjam/jamfilm, tho I don't really have any thoughts on them themselves, haven't really engaged with any extra content, i juuuuust think they made good shows. 2. earthmix is probably the ship that I've ended up thinking about the most .. . the lore.....the lore ... !!! i simply cannot comment on this. 3. again i am transfixed by the LORE for OFFGUN....... they've prevailed they've traversed they've grown so much. hopefully they can continue working together for years to come. also you know what sneaky extra one. 4. forcebook. they just have a nice vibe!!! i like it when they hug after doing an emotional scene!!!!!!!!! i liked it when they yelled about their love for each other on top of that bungee jumping tower so sue me!!!!!!!

favorite color: green green green of the sludgy / earthy / olivey tones. I am getting big into earthy orange / terracotta as well.

currently consuming: turkish tea & halva

first ship: ok . how deep we gonna go. stuff I was reading in my early teens. martin / rose from the redwall books. (redwall was the first thing i Ever read fanfic for.) will / bran from the dark is rising. There's a surprising amount of fanfic for them! marcus / esca the eagle of the ninth. tbh several of those rosemary sutcliff books have these VERY intense masculine warrior bonds and it was uhh a Lot to process.

relationship status: n/a

last movie: leos carax, mauvais sang / the night is young

currently working on: wine qualifications!!!!!! honestly not that hard you just have to learn a bunch of stuff & also learn a particular framework to apply it. but also. like anything where you take an exam. you CAN mess up. & also applying for jobs that will work around this.

tagging the last 9 people in my notifs who didn't already get tagged in the last meme @waltermeadows @sirtomksy @luckshiptoshore @toranj @errantpixxi @heathyr @officialhagfish @annmariethrush @smashlampjaw

[jozor-johai]

Revisiting the Rat Cook, Part 2: Prince-and-Bacon Pie, and Pork Crackling

This is the second part of a series where I'm examining the symbols and themes present in the "Rat Cook" story, as relayed by Bran in ASOS Bran IV, and search reappearances of those elements throughout the rest of ASOIAF.

This is the first part, as well as the long version of my introduction.

"Revisiting the Rat Cook" is predicated on the understanding that GRRM's use of metadiegetic legends provide a "road map" of symbols and meaning, used in their abstract form, which we, as readers, can use to better understand the relationships between symbols, motifs, and themes as they reoccur throughout ASOAIF as a whole.

Among other things, the Rat Cook story is about a rat which eats rats, or a cook who serves kings; The Rat Cook story is about fathers and sons, about cannibalism, about trust, about vengeance, and about damning one's legacy.

This is likely going to be a 9-part series, but ideally almost all of these parts will be able to stand on their own. Each post will inform the next as I build my analysis, but hopefully each individual post is also interesting in its own right.

"Prince-and-Bacon Pie"

Last time, we talked about Wyman Manderly's wedding pies, and his favorite, lamprey pies.

In the original Rat Cook story, though, the Andal King is allegedly served a bacon pie. “Prince-and-bacon pie”, Bran calls it, and he repeats later that a “rasher of bacon” was cooked into the prince pie. The idea of pork served alongside human flesh is given repeat attention in regard to the pie, but it extends elsewhere into the story as well:

When the Rat Cook is punished, in turn, and becomes a cannibal rat eating his own kind, he is transformed into an insatiable rat “as huge as a sow”. Unusually large for a rat, but he is certainly no longer a man, although perhaps close enough, if you trust the moniker “long pork”.

This connection remains true for Lord Manderly’s Frey pies. When they are served in ADWD The Prince of Winterfell, they are introduced as being pork pies:

“…three great wedding pies, as wide across as wagon wheels, their flaky crusts stuffed to bursting with carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips, mushrooms, and chunks of seasoned pork swimming in a savory brown gravy.

Manderly’s pie is nearly identical to the one served by the Rat Cook, with carrots, onions, mushrooms, and, most importantly, down to pork as the main meat—which is to be expected, as Manderly has all but admitted to his influences.

In fact, though, the association of cannibalism, pork, and even pies comes as early as AGOT Jon IV, when the readers are introduced to the notion offhand while the Night’s Watch recruits mock Samwell Tarly:

“I saw him eat a pork pie," Toad said, smirking. "Do you think it was a brother?"

Three-Finger Hobb is certainly not serving Dickon to Samwell, but it contains all the same connections that the Rat Cook story relies on: between cannibalism and one’s own family, children baked into pork pies. The phrase “rasher of bacon” from the Rat Cook story appears in this same interaction about Sam, doubling down on the associations:

"You girls do as you please," Rast said, "but if Thorne sends me against Lady Piggy, I'm going to slice me off a rasher of bacon."

Again, this early instance of bullying, which might instead be framed as the brutal hierarchy of interpersonal domination—or we might say, brothers turning against brothers—is depicted using the same motifs as literal cannibalism. Is it Sam’s blood brother who is a pork pie, or is it Sam, called pork by the men who would become his black brothers? These are brothers turning against their own, and it is the imagined transformation of a man into a pig.

The recruits are joking here, but the comparison between slicing up a human and slicing up pork was brought up with a much darker tone only three chapters earlier, in AGOT Arya II:

Jeyne Poole had told Arya that he'd cut him up in so many pieces that they'd given him back to the butcher in a bag, and at first the poor man had thought it was a pig they'd slaughtered.

It’s dark irony for Micah, the butcher’s boy, to be returned to his father butchered like a pig. It also evokes our Rat Cook story again, with a dead son delivered to his father; like the Andal king, Micah’s father thinks—for a moment—that he’s being given pork. Also present again is the nature of transformation that this death creates: the prince becomes a pork pie, and the Rat Cook becomes as big as a “sow”, just as much as Micah becomes a slaughtered pig.

When the Night’s Watch arrives at Craster’s Keep in ACOK Jon III, Jon finds the similarity again, noting that a pig about to be slaughtered sounds eerily human:

Nearby, a small girl pulled carrots from a garden, naked in the rain, while two women tied a pig for slaughter. The animal's squeals were high and horrible, almost human in their distress.

Immediately later in the same chapter, Dolorous Edd makes a wry joke about cannibalism:

Best leave the wolf outside, he looks hungry enough to eat one of Craster's children. Well, truth be told, I'm hungry enough to eat one of Craster's children, so long as he was served hot.

Just like with the Night’s Watch recruits, this is a joke, but Edd’s line about eating one of Craster’s children transforms the earlier scene into a more chilling image: we were presented with the human-sounding tied pig appearing side-by-side in the same sentence with one of Craster’s small, naked children. With the addition of Edd’s words, both motifs appear alongside a story of eating children—just as in the Rat Cook story, where the Andal king eats his child-as-pork, and the Rat Cook-as-sow eats his own children as well.

Even more can be made of Edd’s jape, if we notice another minute detail: it’s also loaded that Edd uses “he” here to refer to Craster’s child… when Craster only keeps his daughters. Because Edd evokes sons here, Edd’s joke about eating a child calls special attention to the conspicuously missing sons from the scene. Might we expect, in the context of all this imagery, that these sons have been 'eaten' as well, even if not literally? We learn that these missing sons were sacrificed to the old gods later in the same chapter:

But the wildlings serve crueler gods than you or I. These boys are Craster's offerings. His prayers, if you will.

This is the clear meaning of the earlier association between the vulnerable child and the “almost human” pig, which is about to be slaughtered—or sacrificed—so that the keep could live, by way of eating it. It’s the same thing with Craster’s children, who are also, from his perspective, sacrificed so that his keep can live on, untroubled by the old gods.

Note here how all these motifs occur in tandem with each other: pigs as sacrifice to become food, eating children, sacrificed sons, deference (or lack thereof) to the old gods (and, importantly, their laws). The Rat Cook, in retribution, is forced to eat his children, for he forced the Andal King to do the same.

In both scenarios, the gods seemingly ‘demand’ that a father sacrifice his children; the fact that these are sons for Craster deepens the symbolic meaning, as it did with Walder Frey and the Freys in the last part: it is the death of one’s legacy by way of one’s lineage. Only sons bear the family name.

This is the paradox, the 'doom' that Craster, like the doomed characters in "The Rat Cook", is living out. From his perspective, he sacrifices his sons for the same reason he slaughters the pigs: to ensure his keep's survival. They need to eat, and they need to be untroubled by curses. But that sacrifice is Craster's curse, for even as he ensures his short-term survival, he damns his legacy. Craster may have children, but his keep has no future. Every one of his daughters, rather than become their own generation, perversely returns to reenact the role of their mother’s generation as Craster weds her; his keep, as its own patriarchal entity, is stagnant, and will die with him.

"Pork Crackling"

Regarding the equivalence of eating one’s family as an extension of eating one’s legacy, agency, or even one’s self, bear with me into an interesting digression about Victarion:

In ADWD The Iron Suitor, Victarion understands that his role as captain is both inextricably tied to his physical person, and yet is also an idea, separate from him as a mortal man. Referring to his rotting hand, he thinks to himself:

This was not something that his crew could see. They were half a world away from home, too far to let them see that their iron captain had begun to rust.

His mortality—the mortification of his injured hand—would ruin the effect of his role as captain, a higher status which the Ironborn consider to be a “king aboard his own ship”. Victarion may not be socially permitted to be so incapacitated while captain, but he also understands that if he keeps his captain identity separate from his mortal form—that is, if he can lie about the severity of his injury, keeping the state of his body hidden while playing the role of captain—he can maintain his identity as “the iron captain”.

The role of 'captain', and even more so, the arm that is required to be a warrior, is so intricately tied to Victarion’s warrior identity, and therefore to his sense of self, that Victarion refurses to allow the maester to cut off his arm to save the rest of his body. Again, his identity is greater than his mortality.

Yet, when Moqorro suddenly arrives, and Victarion is faced with an alternative, he is willing to sacrifice all else: to stray from the Drowned God towards R'hllor, to put his body into the hands of a “sorcerer” that he just met—all to pursue the ideal of his legacy as captain, divested from his person. And so Victarion, by beginning to sacrificing so much cultural baggage which he believed was part of himself, gets to keep his arm and his captainhood—and what does this arm look like?

Victarion offers this sickening description in ADWD Victarion I:

The arm the priest had healed was hideous to look upon, pork crackling from elbow to fingertips.

It’s a rare case where someone is able to look at their own body and make the gruesome comparison between their own flesh and pork as food, and this moment is Victarion’s reward. Like the Rat Cook who became a rat "huge as a sow", like Micah the butcher's boy who became a butchered pig, Victarion's arm—which was so much his legacy, his identity, that he would not let the maester remove it, so much a symbol of his personhood and his power that he would stray from the Drowned God to get it back—has become pork crackling.

- - -

Speaking of pork crackling, and returning to Craster's Keep...

When they burn the body of a fallen Night’s Watchman in ASOS Samwell II, Sam finds that it smells so much like pork that he is involuntarily hungry:

The worst thing was the smell, though. If it had been a foul unpleasant smell he might have stood it, but his burning brother smelled so much like roast pork that Sam's mouth began to water, and that was so horrible that as soon as the bird squawked "Ended" he ran behind the hall to throw up in the ditch.

Yet again, Dolorous Edd appears immediately afterward to bring the cannibalistic overtones to the forefront. Again, Edd makes the comparison between eating pork and eating human flesh, like in the Rat Cook story, and with eating one’s family, as with his own jape a book earlier, as with Rast mocking Sam in AGOT, as with the Freys eating their kin in ADWD. They may not be tied by blood, but Edd jokes about eating his brothers all the same:

"Never knew Bannen could smell so good." Edd's tone was as morose as ever. "I had half a mind to carve a slice off him. If we had some applesauce, I might have done it. Pork's always best with applesauce, I find." … "You best not die, Sam, or I fear I might succumb. There's bound to be more crackling on you than Bannen ever had, and I never could resist a bit of crackling.”

If Sam were to die, Edd suggests, he too would become pork crackling. I wonder if that says anything about Victarion's own fate... but I'm talking about Sam for now.

The even more important part of Sam’s experience here is Sam's knowledge that it is wrong, sickening, to eat human flesh—or, perhaps, to turn against his family, even his adopted family, as the two issues are conflated in these instances. Edd jokes about how delicious Bannen smells to make light of a dark, cruel truth: in these starving conditions, that might be true. Despite that suspicion, it is still firmly the wrong thing to do. Sam vomits even considering the thought.

When it comes to the Rat Cook story, though, that knowledge does not spare the Andal King any more than the Rat Cook; both, ultimately, are forced into the position of cannibalism, which makes it all the more tragic: to know the difference between right and wrong, but perhaps not to know which you are choosing. Did Victarion make the right choice turning his arm to pork to stay the "Iron Captain" he wanted to be? Did Craster make the right choice leaving his sons to die so that he could live untroubled? Do they even know?

As for the Andal King, he didn't even understand the choice in front of him; he was placed into that position by the Rat Cook—because of the violation of guest right, that significant law of the Old Gods.

Guest right is a social contract, the type that is necessary to maintain social stability. To keep interpersonal relationships, to build a community—or a kingdom—a person must be able to trust their neighbor. Practically, a guest must be able to trust that they will not be poisoned with food, in the same way that a host must be able to trust that their guest will not turn their cloak and slaughter them under their own roof. In other words, both parties must be able to trust that the social conditions of peace will be upheld.

The fact that this story of the Rat Cook concerns a power dynamic as well—between the lowly cook and the Andal King—expands the metaphor into one that describes feudalism as a whole… but I’ll expand that idea in the subsequent parts to come.

For now, consider this: that the Andal King, like Sam with Bannen’s delicious-smelling corpse, might have known the difference between right and wrong, but it may have made no difference as to what he actually did: he still ate his own son.

But what of the Andal King's own crime? Who started it? The Rat Cook broke the ancient social contract of trust called “guest right” to punish the King… but for the Rat Cook to be deserving of vengeance, the Andal King must have broken a social contract as well, perhaps a social contract regarding the position of power that a King has over a cook. The King must have broken that contract first, even before the story of "The Rat Cook" picks up.

But that will be further discussed in parts to come. Next part we’ll talk more about trust in particular, finally taking look at Coldhands attempting to feed Bran a “sow”, visiting Arya in the House of Black and White, and looking at Quentyn making a deal Meereen.

[iviarellereads]

The Eye of the World, Chapter 4 - The Gleeman

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Harp icon)(1) In which we get some references that become more missable by the year.

The old gleeman himself gets kicked out of the inn during the ongoing questioning of Padan Fain. Rand is surprised to see the man's eyes are blue, because his own grey eyes have stood out in Emond's Field his whole life.

Merrilin makes comments about how Nynaeve is so young and pretty, she should be flirting with boys, not serving as Wisdom. He also says he knows Padan Fain and knows he's always enjoyed carrying bad news around. As a crowd gathers, Thom asks Egwene, as the prettiest girl he sees, to be his assistant tomorrow.

He introduces himself as Thom Merrilin(2) and, says he was formerly a court bard.(3) Mat asks if he knows anything about the false Dragon in Ghealdan, but Thom says he's no peddler or newsmonger, and he makes a point of avoiding any knowledge of Aes Sedai, because it's safer. Then he points out Rand, and all the ways he's different from the other villagers, from eye colour to his height, "tall as an Aielman", whatever that means. He picks Perrin out of the crowd, calling him as big as an Ogier,(4) and Mat has to include himself, as Thom makes fun of them for being such country boys when he's so well-traveled.

Finally, the making-fun ends, and Thom almost apologizes. When Perrin asks, he says he asked them their names to make a point later with one of his tricks, that no matter strength or height, they won't be able to lift him. Perrin offers to try now, but Thom says it'll be better later, with a bigger audience. He gives a preview of what they might see on their festival day. He juggles and names some of the stories he knows, such as "Artur Paendrag Tanreall" known to them as "Artur Hawkwing",(5) "who once ruled all the lands from the Aiel Waste to the Aryth Ocean, and even beyond." He mentions the Green Man,(6) Warders, Trollocs,(7) Ogier and Aiel, Anla the Wise Counselor,(8) Jaem the Giant-Slayer,(9) someone named Susa taming Jain Farstrider, Mara and "Three Foolish Kings".

“Tell us about Lenn,” Egwene called. “How he flew to the moon in the belly of an eagle made of fire. Tell about his daughter Salya walking among the stars.”(10)

Rand is sure Egwene asked for those stories to annoy him personally, as she was never a fan of them. But, Thom continues.

“Old stories, those,” Thom Merrilin said, and abruptly he was juggling three colored balls with each hand. “Stories from the Age before the Age of Legends, some say. Perhaps even older. But I have all stories, mind you now, of Ages that were and will be. Ages when men ruled the heavens and the stars, and Ages when man roamed as brother to the animals. Ages of wonder, and Ages of horror. Ages ended by fire raining from the skies, and Ages doomed by snow and ice covering land and sea. I have all stories, and I will tell all stories. Tales of Mosk the Giant, with his Lance of fire that could reach around the world, and his wars with Elsbet, the Queen of All. Tales of Materese the Healer, Mother of the Wondrous Ind.”(11)

On he goes, saying he can tell them of how the Dragon tried to release the Dark One into the world, and then the Aes Sedai broke the world. He's still naming stories when he sees Moiraine and stops dead. His words and tone polite as he says he means no offence to his reaction at her presence, but his body language whispers to Rand's intuition as being entirely displeased with her for some reason. After a few exchanges, she takes her leave.

Before Thom can keep performing, the Village Council finally lets out of the inn, and takes the opportunity to nip in, muttering about brandy. Bran and Nynaeve argue a bit, and when Nynaeve storms off, Cenn Buie says she needs a husband to tame her. Bran, more annoyed than ever, tells Cenn to be quiet, and further, "Stop acting like a black-veiled Aiel!" whatever that means.

Rand goes to see Tam, who tells the boys that basically, there's little chance of the war coming to the Two Rivers, and less still of any Aes Sedai trying to pass through on their way up or back from Ghealdan. We get a geography lesson explaining how the Two Rivers is blocked in on all sides by virtually impassable land, be it mountains, rivers, or hundreds of miles of uninhabited forest.

Tam also tells the boys that the day after Bel Tine they'll be sending out riders to watch the borders, and to ask other villages in the Two Rivers to do the same. It will be boring work, but Mat plans to volunteer.

Tam goes to retrieve the pony. The boys agree that Mat and Perrin will try to find any others who saw the black rider, since Rand's being dragged home to the farm for the night, and they'll ask the mayor tomorrow to let any watch riders know to look out for him. They all want to ride with the watch after Bel Tine.

In the stable, looking for his father, Rand notes all the horses. Padan Fain's are there, as are Master al'Vere's huge horses for rent when farmers need to haul more than their usual loads. The other three match their riders very obviously: a strong black stallion for Lan, a delicate white mare for Moiraine, and a dusty brown gelding that matches Thom's attitude.(12)

After leaving the village in silence, Rand breaks the silence asking why the Village Council chose to question Fain like that. Tam explains that if they'd done nothing, everyone would have worked up into a lather over the anxiety, with nothing to do about it and no outlet. Now, they've seen the Council take the matter under consideration, and they'll see the solution they came to with the watch riders. It will keep people from overreacting.

Tam tells Rand that the word has already been passed out about the black rider, but they wanted to do it responsibly, quietly, to those who won't spread panic ahead of the festival. Turns out more young men have seen him, enough that the Council couldn't ignore it.

He was surprised to realize that his step felt lighter. The knots were gone from his shoulders. He was still scared, but it was not so bad as it had been. Tam and he were just as alone on the Quarry Road as they had been that morning, but in some way he felt as if the entire village were with them. That others knew and believed made all the difference. There was nothing the black-cloaked horseman could do that the people of Emond’s Field could not handle together.

=====

(1) A harp being an instrument such as a gleeman might use in his travels… at least in fantasy worlds where harp means something slightly different than the massive, tricky rigs we have in ours. I know I said I wouldn't make too many comparisons to the show, but swapping it for a guitar was absolutely called for. (2) Funny to see a man whose name is almost Merlin showing up and meeting a woman named Nynaeve almost first in the village, that being so close to some of the names the Lady of the Lake has gone by in different tellings. (3) Probably analogous to what we'd assume, right? An entertainer who stayed contracted to one royal patron for a time. (4) Something like an ogre? (5) Heavy on the Arthuriana, this series, but not least of it in the stories of Artur Hawkwing. Arthur Pendragon, only also evoking a bit of Padraig of Ireland. Tanreall doesn't have a particularly clear origin, but I like to think of it as part reference to the holy grail (san graal), part (Britain)(royal) becoming (Tain-raal) and (Tanreall). (6) Lots of legends about a Green Man in our world, though they're not as ancient as some claim. (7) Perhaps it's obvious, but a bit of a mashup of "troll" and "orc" seems likeliest for this one. (8) Ann Landers. (9) Jack and the Beanstalk, filtered through time and retelling. (10) Lenn is John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, his part in the story having filtered through the rest of our Age, maybe another age between, and then the Age of Legends, and then the Third Age these people have lived in. Salya, Sally (Ride), similarly shifted in her role as the first American woman in space. (11) Mosk (Moscow) and his lances of fire (nukes) and the war with Elsbet (Queen Elizabeth II). Materese, Mother Theresa. RJ picked some of the biggest names of the late 80s to include, to make sure he'd get his point across that this world isn't medieval, the way we think of it, not in the slightest. This world isn't just post-apocalypse in the sense that the Breaking broke the world, they're also post-us. We are a part of this cycle, in the conceit of the fictional world. So, all of our stories filter through to them, and their stories filter back through to us. Their Artur Hawkwing was real, not in their lifetime but in their Age, since Thom named the Aiel waste and the Aryth Ocean, two places you can find on the WOT world map in any ebook or print edition of this book. But as RJ would have it, his story filtered back out to us through the cycle of the Wheel of Time turning. (There's no real point to this, I just think it's neat.) (12) Horses are very important in the Wheel of Time, not only because they're the most efficient form of transportation without a mechanical engine, but also because, like, who doesn't like horses? (Obvious exceptions apply.)

[applesanddragons]

Tower of Joy, A Study in Symbolic Interpretation - Ch. 10

Chapter 10 - The Magic Swords

Previous: Chapter 9 - The Fight and Fighters II Beginning: Chapter 0-4 - Introduction

Gerold Hightower

In Chapter 9, we learned something new about the Whispers scene by borrowing information from the Tower of Joy scene: Brienne was going to attack Shagwell first before Podrick's stone dazed Shagwell. The TOJ information we borrowed in order to learn that comes from Ned Stark's line in Bran Stark's memory that says "and he [Arthur Dayne] would have killed me but for Howland Reed." Though that line does not occur in the Tower of Joy scene in Ned's fever dream, it qualifies as Tower of Joy information because it tells us something about the Tower of Joy fight.

First Blood (Or, Good Old-fashioned Logic)

Because we proved our character symbols to a high standard of mathematical certainty (in Chapter 5), that helped us to remain confident that Brienne is symbolizing Ned Stark, Shagwell is symbolizing Oswell Whent, Timeon is symbolizing Arthur Dayne, and Podrick Payne is symbolizing Howland Reed. With newfound confidence in our symbols, it was easier to notice that an unknown in the Whispers scene can be filled in with a known from the TOJ scene. Until then, we had placed so much of our focus on what the Whispers scene has to teach us about the TOJ scene that we hadn't stopped to consider what the TOJ scene has to teach us about the Whispers scene.

After I knew that the TOJ scene is showing me that Brienne was going to attack Shagwell first, a realization began to dawn. (This part is difficult to follow, so pay close attention for a moment.) If Ned naming Arthur Dayne as the man who would have killed him shows me that Brienne would have named Timeon as the man who would have killed her, doesn't that suggest that Ned was in a two-versus-one scenario like Brienne was? After all, Ned naming Arthur showing me that Brienne would name Timeon is only significant because it tells me who Brienne was going to attack first — Shagwell — increasing my certainty of the Timeon≈Arthur symbol. It follows, then, that who Brienne was going to attack first being significant for understanding the Whispers fight is showing me that who Ned was going to attack first should be significant to me for understanding the Tower of Joy fight.

Think about it. How can who Ned was going to attack first be significant unless he was fighting more than one foe at a time? After all, if you're fighting one foe, there's no question who you're going to attack first. That's only a question if Ned was fighting two foes or more.

Granted, who Ned was going to attack first can be significant if Ned was fighting three foes or three hundred foes. But Brienne was fighting two. So, since it is significant no matter the plurality, I should assume the number of foes matches the number in its symbolic counterpart. To summarize, Ned wound up in a two-versus-one fight at the Tower of Joy just like Brienne did at the Whispers.

From there, I can deduce that the first Kingsguard to die in the Tower of Joy fight was Gerold Hightower. After all, how could Ned have wound up in a two-versus-one fight at the Tower of Joy if three foes were still alive? He can't, so one of them must have been defeated or dead. (In a fight to the death such as this, defeated almost certainly means dead.)

Coming at it from a second direction, how could Ned have wound up in a one-versus-two fight at the Tower of Joy if anybody on his side was still in the fight? He can't, because that would make it a two-versus-two fight. Therefore, all six of Ned's company must have been out of the fight by the time Gerold Hightower was dead, leaving Ned to fight Oswell Whent and Arthur Dayne by himself.

Coming at it from a third direction, how could Ned have named Arthur Dayne as the man who would have killed him but for Howland Reed if there were more than two Kingsguard alive? After Howland's intervention temporarily removed Oswell Whent from the fight, Ned still wouldn't have been able to single out the man who would have killed him but for Howland Reed, because there would have been two foes remaining rather than one.

We already knew that Howland Reed survived the Tower of Joy fight, because he's still alive in the present day. But being out of the fight is almost but not quite the same thing as being dead. Howland is living proof of that. So, whatever the right explanation is for Howland's absence in the fight (or at least in this stage of the fight), I can be sure that he was alive. I can't say the same about the other five men in Ned's company: Martyn Cassell, Theo Wull, Ethan Glover, Mark Ryswell, and Lord Dustin. Their absence from the fight during Ned's two-versus-one scenario suggests that, by that time, they were dead.

This group of five men being dead by the time Gerold Hightower was dead perfectly matches the Nimble Dick Crabb symbol we established in Chapter 6. You may remember, after Brienne killed Pyg, Shagwell killed Nimble Dick. Let's look at that symbol again, and update it in bold to see how it grew since then.

Nimble Dick Crabb ≈ Martyn Cassell + Theo Wull + Ethan Glover + Mark Ryswell + Lord Dustin

Nimble Dick Crabb and this group of men are both:

‘Companions to the Ned symbol and Howland symbol who fight with them at the Tower of Joy symbol against three men enemies there [the Three Kingsguard symbol], who die in the fight because the Ned symbol should not have included them in the fight, who are dead in the fight by the time the Gerold Hightower symbol is dead, and who were buried there.’

With this straightforward sequence of highly probable inferences, I'm able to make a bold statement about the Tower of Joy that reveals surprisingly a lot:

Killing one Kingsguard cost Ned five men.

It makes sense that the first kill would be the most difficult, because the strength of a group is usually greater than the sum of the strength of its parts. To say the same thing from an attacker's perspective, the first reduction to the group's number is usually the greatest reduction to the group's strength. Even the harshest critic of the royalist side might appreciate that Lord Commander Gerold "The White Bull" gave a good accounting of himself before he died, at least in terms of his martial prowess. In a fight of seven against three, 5-for-1 is a great trade for the three. It evens up the fight.

But how can you be certain the Kingsguard who died first was Gerold Hightower?

I can't. All of this reasoning is happening in hypothetical space, because a symbol is just an idea. I'm building out the Tower of Joy fight by filling in its blanks with knowns from the Whispers fight, because that's what the Whispers≈TOJ symbol permits me to do. Certainty about these things will only arrive when, after I've built out the Tower of Joy fight with symbolic interpretation, the new version of the fight implies predictions about the story that prove to be accurate. (We'll identify and test those predictions later. Yes, you too!)

But inasmuch as I can be confident that I'm not crossing the boundaries of symbolic interpretation by supposing that, like Pyg his symbolic counterpart, Gerold Hightower was the first Kingsguard to die, my confidence comes from my recognition of the mathematical probabilities and improbabilities that underlie the whole set of symbols. The Whispers≈TOJ symbol is so well established that, wherever a fight-related detail is known in one scene and unknown in the other, it's mathematically more probable that the scenes match than that they don't match. (In addition to that, my confidence comes from a lot of experience doing symbolic interpretation upon ASOIAF in other mysteries, as well as some hard-won knowledge about how these mysteries resolve in the end.)

If that isn't the kind of answer you were looking for, you probably intuited the mathematical probabilities, too. In that case, the answer you were looking for is probably this: I can be certain the Kingsguard who died first was Gerold Hightower because of the intersection of these three things:

I know the number of foes at the Tower of Joy was three.

I know Ned, Oswell and Arthur are symbolized by Brienne, Shagwell and Timeon, therefore Shagwell and Timeon being Brienne's last two foes necessitates that Oswell and Arthur were Ned's last two foes.

I know Gerold is symbolized by Pyg, therefore Pyg being the first of the three foes to die at the Whispers necessitates that Gerold was the first of the three foes to die at the Tower of Joy.

[[ Let me be the first to confess that, besides the various relationships *between* the symbols, there is no rule or reason that says the details of one of these scenes must match the details of the other scene. Materially speaking, there is little or no good reason to suppose GRRM can't or won't have the corresponding details of the Tower of Joy scene play out differently to the Whispers scene. In The Winds of Winter or A Dream of Spring it's entirely possible that GRRM will show us that Gerold was the second or third foe to die, that Ned did not wind up in a two-versus-one fight at all, and that Ned's memory about Arthur Dayne being the man who would have killed him but for Howland Reed is a faulty memory.

This highlights that, at this point in the interpretation, the only principles directing the interpretation are the principles of symbolism. Gerold Hightower being the first foe to die at the Tower of Joy merely retains the relationships between the symbols in the overarching Whispers≈TOJ symbol. And since we know from the little bit of math that we did that it's astonomically improbable that the existence of the commonalities between the symbols is an authorial coincidence, we can know that the symbol set as a whole has the power to command details to exist and be true in the TOJ scene with inverse-improbability (AKA probability) proportionate to astronomical. In other words, if one fight detail in one of the two symbolized scenes turns out to not be present and true and in the same way in the other scene, the whole symbol set fails. And since I can be mathematically certain the whole symbol set is true and intentional on the part of the author, it's far more reasonable to assume the one detail matches the many than that the many mismatch the one.

The operative phrase is "in the same way." For instance, the way Podrick Payne is symbolizing Howland Reed is that he's a physically unimposing young man, who's friends with the Ned symbol, who's worse at direct combat than the Ned symbol, who does something in the fight that saves the Ned symbol's life. Therefore, details that are unrelated to that description, such as Podrick's stutter, are not details I should suppose are the same for his symbolic counterpart Howland Reed, regardless that speech pattern is unknown information about Howland Reed that I might want to know for other reasons. Our questions were "What happened at the Tower of Joy?" and "What did Howland Reed do at the TOJ that saved Ned's life?" Both of those questions relate to the fight. Our question was not "What was Howland Reed's speech pattern?" That question does not have anything to do with the fight. As our very first symbols indicated, the Whispers is symbolizing the TOJ exclusively as a fight, so "fightness" is the only kind of information the symbol permits me to take from one scene to fill in unknowns in the other scene. If the story ever gives me a reason why Podrick's stutter or Howland's speech pattern is related to the Whispers or Tower of Joy fight's fightness, those things will then qualify as fight-related.

As in philosophy, you keep track of your question in order to make sure whatever answer you find is actually an answer to that question. The underlying recognition is that sometimes it's hard to notice that an answer doesn't answer your question, because sometimes it's hard to know where the rubber meets the road in a question. This is often the case in questions for which philosophy, of all confounded things, needs to be enlisted to answer it. A truth seeker needs to take precautions against his stupidity of failing to notice where the rubber meets the road in his question, meaning where in the issue at hand his knowledge runs out. This ties back to Chapter 6 when I said it's important to suit your interpretation to a definition rather than suiting the definition to your interpretation. Even though there are many things in the Whispers scene that are not a fight, the Whispers≈TOJ symbol survives mostly through its fight. So, the fight is the definition we should suit our interpretation of the symbol toward. By constraining our attention to fight-related information, we're keeping track of the parent question we're asking of the Whispers≈TOJ symbol — "What happened in the Tower of Joy fight?"

In symbolic interpretation, we want to suit the way something is present and true in scene A to the way it is present and true in scene B, and vice versa. To complete the example, doing something in the fight to save a Ned symbol's life is the way Howland Reed is present in the Whispers scene despite not being present in the Whispers scene — he's Podrick Payne (symbolically). ]]

Collecting Our Thoughts

In Chapter 3 I said that the question that prompted me to write this series of essays was "Did Ned Stark wield Ice in the battle at the Tower of Joy?" Rest assured that I haven't abandoned that question or my promise to show and tell the answer to it. As unrelated to Ice as some of the topics we've covered may seem, like Brienne's misunderstanding of honor and who Ned and Brienne were going to attack first, all of the topics we're covering relate to and converge upon this matter about Ice. Moreover, the matter about Ice relates to and converges upon the matter about "What happened at the Tower of Joy?"

We learned that Howland Reed's intervention temporarily removed Oswell Whent from the fight, that Gerold Hightower was the first Kingsguard to die, that five of Ned's men died by the time Gerold died, and that Ned was fighting Oswell Whent and Arthur Dayne by himself while Howland Reed helped from the periphery of the fight in some way.

That's an astoundingly specific description of the fight, considering that we knew almost nothing about the fight to begin with. I dare say nobody would have guessed these things about the Tower of Joy fight before now, because they seem so unlikely. Surely a safer bet would have been that, among the eight men total who died (5 rebels and 3 royalists), they died at a comparable rate. Perhaps a sequence of 2-for-1, 2-for-1, and 1-for-1 would be the most conservative bet. Or maybe even 3-for-1, 1-for-1, and 1-for-1, supposing that Arthur Dayne managed to outshine everyone else, being the best fighter alive wielding the best sword around.

But this? A 5-for-1 exchange followed by a 0-for-2 comeback where, with a little help from Howland, Ned killed the 2? That's incredible. If this news has no other effect on me, at the least it inflames my interest to know how Ned accomplished such an impressive combat feat. I have to know more of what happened! Thankfully, there are more things in the Whispers and TOJ scenes that are fight-related, and that we can use to grow our symbols, to make them more robust and useful for sussing out more of what happened in the fight at the Tower of Joy. Let's do it.

The Weapons

So far, all but one of the symbols we've found are made of people — Ned and Brienne, Podrick and Howland, Shagwell and Oswell, and so on. Whispers≈TOJ is the only one that isn't made of people. It's made of scenes, events, or places, however you want to think of it. What I'm trying to highlight is that anything can be a symbol. (Except a symbol. As I warned in Chapter 7, GRRM doesn't write symbols of symbols in ASOIAF.)

[[ I don't know why, but I would guess that's because a symbol that needs to be symbolized is a poor symbol. Perhaps the feeling is that the first symbolization of a thing should have already captured the thing's gist. ]]

Since the essence of the Whispers≈TOJ symbol is fightness, and weapons are fight-related, wouldn't it be cool if the weapons are symbolizing the other weapons? I mean, since the fighters are symbolizing the other fighters, and the combat is symbolizing the other combat, it would seem a big missed opportunity if GRRM didn't write it so that the weapons are symbolizing the other weapons. So, maybe he did! Let's look and see.

One weapon symbol is easy, because we already found it when we were making the Timeon≈Arthur Dayne symbol. Timeon's spear is symbolic of Arthur's sword Dawn, because they have dornish in common. A spear is a characteristically dornish weapon because it's the dornish peoples' favored weapon, and it's on the sigil of Dorne's principal house, House Martell, whose sigil is a sun impaled by a spear. Dawn is characteristically dornish because it's the ancestral sword of House Dayne, whose castle is in Dorne. As if to give the reader a freebie, the fighters and their weapons are united by the same commonality: dornish.

How about Pyg and Gerold? What do their weapons have in common? Pyg was wielding a broken sword at the Whispers, and, since no other information is available about Gerold's sword, except that it's a sword, a safe assumption is that Gerold Hightower was wielding an ordinary steel sword at the Tower of Joy. Castle-forged steel of the highest quality, no doubt. Nothing less would be suitable for a knight of the Kingsguard.

Finding the commonality between Pyg and Gerold's weapons seems easy, too, at first. Pyg has a broken sword and Gerold has a sword, so obviously they have "sword" in common. But remember, the other two Kingsguard have swords too, so "sword" isn't exclusive enough to specify the subjects of the weapon symbol to Pyg and Gerold.

So, besides "sword", what else do Pyg and Gerold's weapons have in common?

The only other material thing we know about either of their swords is that Pyg's sword is broken. We could get creative and delve into non-material things, like what the weapons do, how they're used, and dramas they're involved in. But before we do that we should exhaust the material realm first. (This ties in with the part in Chapter 7 when I said literal interpretation must be the foundation of symbolic interpretation.)

Pyg's sword is broken and Gerold's sword is not, as far as we know. Then again, Gerold was the first Kingsguard to die... What if Gerold's sword was broken? What if Gerold's sword breaking during the Tower of Joy fight is WHY he was the first Kingsguard to die? Well, that would be pretty dramatic, but it wouldn't make sense. Why not? Because none of Gerold's opponents owned a Valyrian steel sword.

;)

Next: Chapter 11 - Cold as Ice

Beginning: Chapter 0-4 - Introduction

applesanddragons