#thathousewiththeredoor

[roadsiderose]

The House with the Red Door is in....

There has been enough debate on the house with the red door that Dany grew up in. This is because Dany believes that this house was located in Braavos. But the lemon tree growing outside this house puzzled a few of us readers. We saw Dany reminisce about this house in AGOT and ACOK. But it was in AFFC, when two of our characters Arya and Sam arrive in Braavos that some of us started suspecting that the house with the red door may not be in Braavos.

Here is Sam's observation when he gets to Braavos:

Trees did not grow on Braavos, save in the courts and gardens of the mighty.

And then there is Arya's:

Braavos, devoid of grass and trees ... They have no trees, she realized. Braavos is all stone, a grey city in a green sea. ... In the forest, they see all. but there are no trees here ... "There's no more wood." Dareon had paid the innkeep double for a room with a hearth, but none of them had realized that wood would be so costly here.

And the latest sample chapter from TWOW, 'Mercy' does little to end our debate:

“Seven hells, this place is damp,” she heard her guard complain. “I’m chilled to the bones."Where are the bloody orange trees? I always heard there were orange trees in the Free Cities. Lemons and limes. Pomegranates. Hot peppers, warm nights, girls with bare bellies. Where are the bare-bellied girls, I ask you?” “Down in Lys, and Myr, and Old Volantis,” the other guard replied. He was an older man, big-bellied and grizzled. “I went to Lys with Lord Tywin once, when he was Hand to Aerys. Braavos is north of King’s Landing, fool. Can’t you read a bloody map?”

Some readers think that lemon trees could exist in Braavos. That Sam's observation 'Trees did not grow on Braavos, save in the courts and gardens of the mighty' - means that it is possible lemon trees could grow in Braavos in the courts and gardens of the rich. We could argue these semantics forever, and I feel that really curtails this debate. Because what is important is not where lemon trees could grow but whether Dany's memories are of a place other than Braavos.

Let us for a second assume that lemon trees cannot grow in Braavos. Then where else could this house with the red door be?

I want to suggest an alternative idea here, an idea that this house exists in another city. (I won't say I have a foolproof theory. It is more of a possibility.) Keep reading...

I was watching Preston Jacob's video posted here on the same subject. And though I disagree with some of the other conclusions he has (R+L=D), there are some things he pointed out on his video that were thought provoking.

Perfumes:

She did take a dozen flasks of scented oils, the perfumes of her childhood; she had only to close her eyes and sniff them and she could see the big house with the red door once more. (Daenerys, AGOT)

Besides the memory of the house with the red door and the lemon tree, there are a few other things that invoke her childhood memories. Certain perfumes remind Dany of her childhood.

Wooden Beams:

I know this room, she thought. She remembered those great wooden beams and the carved animal faces that adorned them. And there outside the window, a lemon tree! The sight of it made her heart ache with longing. It is the house with the red door, the house in Braavos. (Daenerys, ACOK)

The house with the red door had wooden beams that had carved animal faces adorned on it.

Stone Houses:

In her dream they had been man and wife, simple folk who lived a simple life in a tall stone house with a red door. (Daenerys, ADWD)

She was walking down a long hall beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, must not look behind her. There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone. (Daenerys, AGOT)

The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings. She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door, green fields and great stone houses and arms to keep her warm, there. She threw open the door. (Daenerys, AGOT)

In her dreams, the house with the red door was a tall stone house. She also remembers running on a path of stone.

So what we know is that besides the house with the red door, there are a few other things that remind her of her childhood such as sweet-smelling perfumes and stone houses.

But Braavos doesn't entirely add up to the description of her childhood home. Braavos has a sharp and salty smell, and stinks of brine and fish. Though Braavos does seem to have houses built of stone because wood is scarcely available there.

If Braavos is not the place of her childhood memories, which city or town could this be?

In the books, we are often told lemon trees grow in Dorne because the climate allows for it. But the homes in Sunspear are made of mud and brick. The Water Gardens is another place where fostered children play but these are famed for their pale pink marble walls and floors. And most of Dorne is a desert, something Dany would have recollected, if that is where she grew up.

When Davos arrives at White Harbor, the scent of the place immediately reminded him of the times he had visited the port city as a child.

Davos had always been fond of this city, since first he’d come here as a cabin boy on Cobblecat. Though small compared to Oldtown and King’s Landing, it was clean and well-ordered, with wide straight cobbled streets that made it easy for a man to find his way. The houses were built of whitewashed stone, with steeply pitched roofs of dark grey slate.

Roro Uhoris once told him that each city had a unique scent. White Harbor's scent was sharp, salty and fishy, Lannisport fresh and earthy. And Oldtown smelled flowery as a perfumed dowager.

Roro Uhoris, the Cobblecat’s cranky old master, used to claim that he could tell one port from another just by the way they smelled. Cities were like women, he insisted; each one had its own unique scent. Oldtown was as flowery as a perfumed dowager. Lannisport was a milkmaid, fresh and earthy, with woodsmoke in her hair. King’s Landing reeked like some unwashed whore. But White Harbor’s scent was sharp and salty, and a little fishy too. “She smells the way a mermaid ought to smell,” Roro said. “She smells of the sea.”

When Sam visits Oldtown, he notices that the city was built entirely of stone.

Oldtown was built in stone, and all its streets were cobbled, down to the meanest alley. The city was never more beautiful than at break of day. West of the Honeywine, the Guildhalls lined the bank like a row of palaces.

One thing Oldtown has in common with Braavos is that these port cities are built of stone. They have cobbled streets. Though Oldtown has a much warmer climate, and is more pleasant smelling than Braavos.

The great city of Oldtown is the equal of King’s Landing in size, and it is superior in all other respects, being vastly older and more beautiful, with its cobbled streets, ornate guildhalls, stone houses, and three great Monuments. (WOIAF)

Since Oldtown lies far south of King's Landing it has a climate that would provide enough sunshine and warm weather to grow lemon trees.

I suspect when Dany's arrives in Westeros, she will find her house with the red door in Oldtown.