#hes actually running a cult with melisandre

[deithe]

modern au but everything is literally the same but all the characters have like. snapchat and 24 hour news stations. jon is still a 14 year old on a penal colony but now hes got an android phone and regularly posts on his twitter. daenerys has a meticulous instagram for each of her dragons and incredible aesthetic pictures from mereen. bran has a youtube vlog series titled "my journey to become an all seeing god! (gone wrong!)(i eat a guy 😱)". jamie and brienne appear several times on "have you seen these people" type tv broadcasts while in riverland purgatory. sansa has the most depressing private snapchat story in the world and catelyn has the world most worrying facebook mom wall ever

[ser-shitpost-lannister]

So, are the gods in ASOIAF real?

It's kinda been bugging me for a while. The Night King is obviously a thing, and dragons, but we never get exact confirmation for any of the major religions. So I'm gonna look at some of this stuff and see what I can find.

Major spoilers ahead, from all the books up to ADWD. I'm just gonna assume you have some prior knowledge of ASOIAF.

Edit: thanks @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly for teaching me how to use a cut

The Horse Gods? (Dothraki)

Either the Dosh Khaleen are just really shit at prophecies, or this is one deity (deities? wtf is even going on here) that we can cross off the list. Been a while since I read AGOT but all I really remember is Irri and Jhiqui echoing "It is known" all the time.

Overall, I'm gonna call horsebullshit.

The Drowned God (Iron Islands)

Like most of the deities in this list, we don't have any actual proof that the Drowned God exists, as long as we accept the fact that Aeron is really, really good at CPR. No Godless Man May Sit The Seastone Chair is a decent counterexample as well, since Euron manages pretty well on top of the Ironborn hierarchy.

Final opinion? Probably not real.

The Seven (South Westeros)

Again, not much proof that they are real. We don't see any answered prayers (especially not for Catelyn, RIP). The idea of Trial By Combat is also supposed to be up to the Seven, but obviously in the case of Tyrion's trial, it's not quite in divine hands. Based on that, we could disprove the Seven, but it's not exactly an airtight allegation.

To conclude, I will not be running for High Septon, and not just because of their short lifespan.

The Old Gods (North Westeros)

Ok, here's where things get interesting. Bran looking through the weirwood trees raises interesting arguments. The Children of the Forest are obviously not gods, so have the Northmen just been wrongly interpreting the signs? The Stark siblings' warg abilities are also throwing me for a loop. It's certainly magic, but is it divine?

I'm gonna leave this one up for debate.

R'hllor and the Night King (Essos & Free Cities & Westeros)

Ok, so, at least half of this bit is real. The magic zombies lend some credibility to Melisandre's cult. Stannis cuts down Renly and Courtnay Penrose using Melisandre's shadows. The Brotherhood Without Banners also supports the Red God's existence - Beric Dondarrion and Lady Stoneheart are living(?) proof. Thoros' and Melisandre's visions seem to be correct, if vague. Stannis' Kingsblood leeches seem to do the trick - Balon, Robb, and Joffrey all meet their ends shortly after his ritual on Dragonstone. Melisandre's glamour to hide Mance Rayder is another good example of the Red God's power.

So, clearly there is some kind of divine intervention here. Which leads us to

The Many-Faced God (Braavos, etc.)

The most interesting of the lot, and certainly hard to disprove. While the Servants certainly have some interesting magic (cutting off people's faces, etc.), it's not necessarily divine. Most of their power seems to be learned, not bestowed, as is the case for R'hllor. While I can appreciate the connections between different religions - including casting the Night King and the Stranger as interpretations of the Many-Faced God - it's not at the same level as the Red Priests.

TL;DR

While we don't have explicitly stated conformation of the existence of gods, I will take a leap of faith and say that R'hllor does exist, though the extent of his power remains to be seen. If he's been battling the Night King for centuries, perhaps he doesn't have the capacity to interact with the mortal world beyond the occasional smite, resurrection, and prophecy.

Tell me your fave ASOIAF religion in the comments or tag 'em.

-Ser Shitpost Lannister, guardian of Lannisport, heir to Ashemark

[mebongster87]

JonSa foreshadowing from Dany’s HOTU visions

In Daenerys’s vision when she is in the House of the Undying, there is the bit where she chances upon Rhaegar and a woman with a baby. The passage runs like this...

“Will you make a song for him?” the woman asked.

“He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire. He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany's, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. "There must be one more," he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. "The dragon has three heads." He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.

-Daenerys IV, ACOK.

Now I know, most folks think that this foreshadows Jon as the prince that was promised and the three heads of the dragon mean Jon, Daenerys and one more (because of the line “there must be one more”).

Here is my alternative speculation for this..

What if the line “there must be one more” actually refers to ONE MORE SONG instead of one more head of a dragon/dragon-rider/third head of the dragon?

Hear me out...

The woman, Elia, is asking Rhaegar, who is a harpist, to make a song for the baby. Rhaegar says he already has a song. He is the prince that was promised and his song is the song of ice and fire. When you omit the line "The dragon has three heads." this is what remains of that passage..

“Will you make a song for him?” the woman asked.

“He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire. He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany's, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. "There must be one more," he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.

Now if you read it, it really appears that the line “there must be one more” does not talk about any dragons, at all. This is such a nondescript statement that the first thought that goes through your head is “there must be one more what?”. However, it could mean that it talks about another song. This is a story about songs after all.

What if GRRM interjected that passage with the line “The dragon has three heads” as a red herring? Because after this passage, Daenerys is fixated in believing that there must be one more head of the dragon to fulfill the three heads of the dragon..though at this point she needs two heads to make up the three heads, given that Viserys is dead, she does not know Jon or that he is a Targ, fake Aegon is most likely fake and she is the last Targ!

 "Prince Aegon was Rhaegar's heir by Elia of Dorne," Ser Jorah said. "But if he was this prince that was promised, the promise was broken along with his skull when the Lannisters dashed his head against a wall.""I remember," Dany said sadly. "They murdered Rhaegar's daughter as well, the little princess. Rhaenys, she was named, like Aegon's sister. There was no Visenya, but he said the dragon has three heads. What is the song of ice and fire?"

-Daenerys V, ACOK.

Her belief that there must be three heads of the dragon really shapes her decisions and thoughts from this point onwards, and along the same lines, due to the POV trap, we start buying into this and start looking for all manners of clues in trying to decipher who is the prince that was promised and who will be the three heads of the dragon, in trying to figure out the answer to the riddle “there must be one more”. The dragon has three heads could simply mean Daenerys’s three dragons and not Jon, Daenerys and someone else.

Anyways, going back to thinking that the “prince that was promised” has a song, his is the song of ice and fire..we have the title of the book: A song of Ice and Fire.

I believe this refers to a poetic way of recounting the history of Westeros since Robert Baratheon’s death. Why I think so?

Archmaester Ebrose himself said so while lecturing Samwell Tarly about writing history, in S0702 Stormborn, 

Ebrose: “I am not writing a chronicle of the wars following the death of King Robert I so it can sit on a shelf unread. What?..You don’t like the title?”

Samwell makes a face...seeing which Ebrose says “What would you call it then?”

Samwell: Possibly something a bit more poetic.

Ebrose: We are not poets, Tarly.

I believe this was the show (and D&D and GRRM) hinting that A Song of Ice and Fire is a poetic way to describe the history of what happens in Westeros post-Robert’s death, all the wars fought between the different Houses and the even greater battles that will be fought between White walkers and later on against Daenerys and her dragons. Archmaester Ebrose is the GRRM stand-in.

Additionally, it means the two major antagonistic forces that plague Westeros, the Ice of the White Walkers and Night King and the Fire from Daenerys and her dragons. This is a direct nod to Robert Frost’s poem Ice and Fire, which served as one of the many literary pieces that influenced GRRM.

This does not refer to Jon and Daenerys being the Ice and Fire and their love story is the song of Ice and Fire.

So back to “there must be one more”...what does Rhaegar do next in Daenerys’s vision...

He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.

Even Daenerys in her next chapter confirms that this man is her brother Rhaegar

Dany could not let it go. "His is the song of ice and fire, my brother said. I'm certain it was my brother. Not Viserys, Rhaegar. He had a harp with silver strings."

Ser Jorah's frown deepened until his eyebrows came together. "Prince Rhaegar played such a harp," he conceded. "You saw him?"

-Daenerys V, ACOK

Rhaegar starts playing on his harp, a song that fills the room with sweet sadness. We do not know whether he plays “a song of ice and fire” or something else entirely. But this bit with “sweet sadness fills the room” reminds me of the song that Marillion is composing at the Vale.

"Do you require guarding?" Marillion said lightly. "I am composing a new song, you should know. A song so sweet and sad it will melt even your frozen heart. 'The Roadside Rose,' I mean to call it. About a baseborn girl so beautiful she bewitched every man who laid eyes upon her."

- Sansa VII, ASOS.

“A song so sweet and sad” does sound awfully similar to “sweet sadness filled the room” when Rhaegar played whatever it is he was playing.

Both these songs have that in common in addition to the fact that both Marillion and Rhaegar are using their harps to compose/play this song.

What’s interesting is that of all the songs that we know of in the world of ASOIAF, “Roadside Rose” is a new song being composed in the current timeline of ASOIAF that we do not know anything about, except the fact its “About a baseborn girl so beautiful she bewitched every man who laid eyes upon her”. Yes, there are quite a few songs that are mentioned in the text like Florian and Jonquil, lyrics to which we do not know, but these songs historically exist and have already been composed and have been mentioned a few times in the story. The only new song being composed is Roadside Rose. Similarly, we know nothing about the song of Ice and Fire....

Jorah Mormont says.."It's no song I've ever heard." in Daenerys V, ACOK.

What if “there must be one more” is this song about Sansa, the Roadside Rose? Just like Ice and Fire are a pair, what if these two songs “Roadside Rose” and “A Song of Ice and Fire” are a pair, two songs about the two of the main characters of the story? What if these songs connect Jon and Sansa and their union brings the balance to Ice and Fire and unites the warring Seven Kingdoms to restore peace within the realm?

1. We for sure know that the Roadside Rose is about Sansa. This song is so sweet and sad that it will melt Sansa’s “frozen heart”. “Frozen heart” means icy heart, and this phrase has been used in one other place, 

They said Robert Baratheon was strong as a bull and fearless in battle, a man who loved nothing better than war. And with him stood the great lords her brother had named the Usurper's dogs, cold-eyed Eddard Stark with his frozen heart, and the golden Lannisters, father and son, so rich, so powerful, so treacherous.

-Daenerys II, ACOK

Ned, the bearer of a Valyrian Steel greatsword called Ice, is said to have a frozen heart.

Both Ned and Sansa here represent the Ice or the frozen heart. What can melt a frozen heart? Fire. In Ned’s case, it was Catelyn, with her red hair, kissed by fire. In Sansa’s case, it is going to be Jon, him being half-Targaryen, so he is the Fire to melt Sansa’s frozen heart.

What is another song that is also sweet and sad that can melt Sansa’s frozen heart? 

Jon is the song of ice and fire, which is so sweet and sad, that it will melt Sansa’s frozen heart.

2. “A Song of Ice and Fire” could be about Daenerys or Jon, because if that is the song of “the prince that was promised”, there is enough evidence to argue a strong case for either of those two. I am not going to go into that. Melisandre believes Jon is the prince that was promised and has been wrong about a lot of different things. Missandei, in S7, claims that it could be the prince or princess that was promised. Missandei belongs to the cult of Daenerys so both are unreliable sources. 

Anyways, I think that Jon could be the prince that was promised, mainly because of this last part of Daenerys’s vision...

“Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist..”

There is a song called “On a Misty Morn” sung by Marillion (again!) in Sansa I, AFFC and the song is about a mother who mourns her dead son, the lyrics of which goes like this...  

Oh, have you seen my boy, good ser? His hair is chestnut brown He'd promised he'd come back to me Our home's in Wendish Town.

Jon’s hair is dark brown and thanks to Season 6, we know he comes back from the dead. Use of the word “promise” further cements Jon, who came back from the dead, as the prince that was promised. So I think it is safe to say that Jon’s song is the song of ice and fire.

These two songs connect Sansa with Jon, who is the prince that was promised, from Daenerys’s visions. Jon and Sansa get sad and sweet songs in the end (bittersweet ending), Daenerys does not. 

"We're all just songs in the end. If we are lucky." 

-Catelyn V, ASOS.

Sansa, with hair kissed by fire, is lucky and so is Jon. Why? Because Jon was born when Ser Arthur Dayne, who fought with a blade called Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star, was nearby guarding Lyanna at the Tower of Joy in Dorne. 

“He had seen a falling star that night. Falling stars were supposed to bring you luck....”

-Ser Duncan the Tall, The Sworn Sword.

As I mentioned, this is all speculative, but if Jon and Sansa are truly meant to be the endgame pairing, then it makes sense for them to be foreshadowed in Daenerys’s HOTU visions, as their love could be Daenerys’s “treason for love”.

[trinuviel]

Crowned with Fire – True and False Lights in A Song of Ice and Fire (part 1)

I have previous written about the notion of “false light” in ASoIaF in relation to the prophecy of The Prince that was Promised/Azor Ahai.

…we all deceive ourselves, when we want to believe. Melisandre most of all, I think. The sword is wrong, she has to know that … light without heat … an empty glamor … the sword is wrong, and the false light can only lead us deeper into darkness, Sam.” – Maester Aemon to Sam, (AFfC, Samwell IV) 

The inspiration for this meta comes from both from the quote above but also from this one from the novella The Princess and the Queen:

Atop the Hill of Rhaenys, the Dragonpit wore a crown of yellow fire, burning so bright it seemed as if the sun was rising. (The Princess and the Queen) 

There are two things I want to point out in relation to this quote:

There’s a fire burning so bright that it could be mistaken for the sunrise. This is a false light.

Then there’s the image of the crown of fire.

The crown of fire or the burning crown is a piece of imagery that repeated recurs in the text, both in a positive and a negative manner. In this post, I will examine the image of the crown of fire in relation to the notion of a true light.

THE LIGHTHOUSE

The image of the Dragonpit crowned with fire is a striking one – and it made recall another instance where GRRM uses the image of a building crowned with fire, only this time it is a tower:

The challengers trotted back to the south end of the lists to await their foes: Ser Abelar in silver and smoke colors, a stone watchtower on his shield, crowned with fire. (The Hedge Knight)

Ser Abelar belongs to House Hightower. Their sigil is a white tower with a flaming beacon at the top. Their words are We Light the Way. This is an incredibly important detail and it will inform much of my examination of false and true lights in relation to the imagery of burning crowns in the text.

The sigil of House Hightower refers to their ancestral seat in Oldtown: a tower so vast and impressive that it is commonly knowns as The Hightower – and the family is called House Hightower of the Hightower. The family is among the most ancient of Westeros and they are commonly believed to descend from the First Men. During the Age of Heroes, King Uther of the High Tower is said to have commissioned Brandon the Builder, the legendary founder of House Stark, or his son Brandon to build The Hightower.

(Hightower in Oldtown. Art by Ted Nasmith)

And beyond, where the Honeywine widened into Whispering Sound, rose the Hightower, its beacon fires bright against the dawn. From where it stood atop the bluffs of Battle Island, its shadow cut the city like a sword. Those born and raised in Oldtown could tell the time of day by where that shadow fell. Some claimed a man could see all the way to the Wall from the top. (AFfC, Prologue)

This description points pot that The Hightower isn’t just a holdfast of an ancient and powerful House, it is also a lighthouse! The fire that crowns the tower is a beacon that lights the dark until the break of dawn and it guides ships into safe harbor. Compared to image of the Dragonpit crowned by fire, the Hightower crowned with fire is a positive image. Whereas the burning Dragonpit is a uncontrolled, destructive and deceptive fire that only looks like the dawn, the burning beacon of the Hightower is fire harnessed for a constructive purpose: to provide light and safety in the dark. It is the difference between a false light and a true light!

Light is often associated with Truth and it is a symbolic connection that is millennia old in Western thought. Within the universe of GRRM’s world, this symbolic connection is also in play. In the cult of R’hllor, the high priest of the Red Temple in Volantis in not called the Flame of Truth and the Light of Wisdom but I’ve argued elsewhere that the priesthood of R’hllor are blinded by a false light. For them any fire contains the light of truth, whether it is a fire used for visions or a fire used to burn men and women so their purified souls can ascend into the light of R’hllor. The problem with this cult is that they are fanatics and fanatics always stares so hard into the light of a perceived “Truth” that they become blind to everything else.

Too much light blinds the eye and a fire unchecked devours.

However, let’s return to The Hightower and Old Town because the words We Light the Way refers not only to the lighthouse function of House Hightower’s holdfast but also to their role as patrons of learning. King Uthor of the High Tower’s sons King Urrigon and Prince Perrimore the Twisted were integral to the founding of the Citadel and House Hightower has remained patrons of this institution of learning ever since the founding.

Thus, on the symbolic level we have another distinction between a false and a true fire. There’s the false light of prophecy and the fanaticism of the priesthood of R’hllor versus the true light of learning. GRRM has explicitly stated that in his text, prophecy is rarely useful. Instead the meanings are often murky and misleading. That can be incredibly dangerous because if those murky meanings are being mistaken for an absolute truth then it is easy to be lead astray. Melisandre is a good example – her visions are ambigious and hard to read but she places an absolute faith in the prophecy of Azor Ahai reborn, even when she acknowledges that she can read a prophecy wrongly:

“If sometimes I have mistaken a warning for a prophecy or a prophecy for a warning, the fault lies in the reader, not the book.” - Melisandre (ASoS, Davos V)

Likewise, not all scholars are wise and not all of their work leads to the truth of things. However, there’s room for debate and dissent within a scholarly community. A scholar has to be prepared for having his theories and findings contested and he has to provide evidence for his argument. In contrast, there’s not much room for debate or dissent within the cult of R’hllor. That’s the trouble with fanatics: their truth is the only truth.

“I AM THE FIRE THAT BURNS AGAINST THE COLD, THE LIGHT THAT BRINGS THE DAWN”

The imagery of a lighthouse as a beacon against the dark, a guiding light until the break of dawn makes me think of the wows of the Night’s Watch:

"Hear my words, and bear witness to my vow,” they recited, their voices filling the twilit grove. “Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.” (AGoT, Jon VI)

Furthermore, the text itself connects The Hightower in the far South with the Wall in the far North:

Some claimed a man could see all the way to the Wall from the top. (AFfC, Prologue)

This is, of course, not the literal truth but the mention of the Wall within a description of the Hightower servers to connect the two edifices in the reader’s mind. Then there’s the legend that the Hightower was built by Brandon the Builder, the same man who is credited with the building of the Wall.

A TOWER CROWNED WITH GOLD

The Hightower is not the only crowned tower in the text. In A Storm of Swords both Bran and Jon comes across a small holdfast called Queenscrown:

“The holdfast has a golden crown, see? He pointed across the lake. You could see patches of gold paint up around the crenellations. “Queen Alysanne slept there, so they painted the merlons gold in her honor.” – Bran Stark to Jojen Reed, (ASoS, Bran III)

This relates the Queenscrown tower indirectly to the Night’s Watch. The journey Queen Alysanne made North was to visit the Night’s Watch and she was so impressed by them that she had more land allotted to the Watch. This is called the New Gift. Queen Alysanne was called the Good Queen and the smallfolk painted the merlons so it would look like the golden crown she wore.

(Bran, Hodor, Meera and Jojen trying to make their way to the holdfast Queenscrown. Art by Michael Komarck)

“It is only a towerhouse. Some little lordling lived there once, with his family and a few sworn men. When raiders came he would light a beacon from the roof. Winterfell has towers three times the size of that.” […] “Men can build a lot higher than this. In Oldtown there’s a tower taller than the Wall.” – Jon Snow to Ygritte (ASoS, Jon V)

Here the Queencrown tower is directly compared to the Hightower in Oldtown. The tower crowned by fire is a beacon that guides or, in this case, warns. However, the connection with the crowned tower as a positive image (a true light) and kingship (golden crown) is an interesting one.

There are plenty of golden crowns in the text – mostly in relation to actual people wearing golden crowns, whether they be kings or pretenders, as well as heraldic sigils with golden crowns. However, there are a few examples where “a golden crown” is used metaphorically. In one of Sansa’s chapters in A Game of Thrones, Joffrey’s blonde hair is described as shining in the sun like a golden crown. Then there’s the “golden crown” that Viserys gets from Khal Drogo:

It had grown so silent in the hall that she could hear the bells in Khal Drogo's hair, chiming softly with each step he took. His bloodriders followed him, like three copper shadows. Daenerys had gone cold all over. "He says you shall have a splendid golden crown that men shall tremble to behold."

When the gold was half-melted and starting to run, Drogo reached into the flames, snatched out the pot. "Crown!" he roared. "Here. A crown for Cart King!" And upended the pot over the head of the man who had been her brother.(AGoT, Daenerys V)

Viserys’ golden crown turned out to be a false crown, one that killed him – and Joffrey’s crown of golden curls is also a deceptive image. It appears in the text right before he reveals his true nature in the confrontation with Arya and Mycah. Furthermore, Joffrey is a false king since he has no claim to the crown of Westeros. Then there’s also the fact that they both men are vicious and abusive men. Joffrey was a terrible king as would Viserys have been.

I am not entirely ready to make a definite conclusion about what the imagery of a tower crowned in gold may signify but I do find the connection an interesting one, especially since Queencrown is also compared to The Hightower, directly in terms of size and indirectly in terms of their function as a beacon of light. So you could argue that the tower crowned in gold in relation to the tower crowned by fire could signify a true king/queen. In that sense, it is interesting that this particular tower makes an appearance in one of Jon’s chapters, considering his hidden heritage. There’s an interesting passage in one of Jon’s chapters:

… a huge bolt of lightning stabbed down from the sky and touched the surface of the lake. For half a heartbeat the world was noonday bright. The clap of thunder was so loud that Ygritte gasped and covered her ears. “Did you look?” Jon asked, as the sound rolled away and the night turned black again. “Did you see?” "Yellow," she said. "Is that what you meant? Some o' them standing stones on top were yellow." "We call them merlons. They were painted gold a long time ago. This is Queenscrown."Across the lake, the tower was black again, a dim shape dimly seen. "A queen lived there?" asked Ygritte.

"A queen stayed there for a night." Old Nan had told him the story, but Maester Luwin had confirmed most of it. "Alysanne, the wife of King Jaehaerys the Conciliator. He's called the Old King because he reigned so long, but he was young when he first came to the Iron Throne. In those days, it was his wont to travel all over the realm. When he came to Winterfell, he brought his queen, six dragons, and half his court. The king had matters to discuss with his Warden of the North, and Alysanne grew bored, so she mounted her dragon Silverwing and flew north to see the Wall. This village was one of the places where she stopped. Afterward the smallfolk painted the top of their holdfast to look like the golden crown she'd worn when she spent the night among them.” (ASoS, Jon V)

The dark of the night is briefly illuminated by lightning, and in that brief flash of light Jon and Ygritte sees the golden crown on the tower, i.e. the merlons painted gold. Jon correctly identifies the tower as Queencrown and tells Ygritte the story of how it came to wear a crown. The story relates to his own ancestors, one of the rare good kings from the Targaryen dynasty: Jaeherys I “the Conciliator” and his sister-wife Good Queen Alysanne. She cared for the smallfolk and he gave the realm its first unified set of laws, among other things. In this sense, the story of Queenscrown links this particular imagery of a golden crown with a positive view of kingship – as opposed to the imagery of the golden crown in relation to Joffrey and Viserys.

THE BURNED TOWER

There is another tower that the text relates to the Lighthouse in Oldtown. However, it is done very subtly through the imagery of a specific passage in A Clash of Kings:

Behind him the broken tower stood, its summit as jagged as a crown where fire had collapsed the upper stories long ago. As the sun moved, the shadow of the tower moved as well, gradually lengthening, a black arm reaching out for Theon Greyjoy. By the time the sun touched the wall, he was in its grasp. (ACoK, Theon VI)

The tower in question is the Broken Tower of Winterfell, also called the Burned Tower. Along with the Godswood and the Crypts, the Broken Tower is one of the most distinct landmarks of Winterfell. It was once the tallest watchtower in Winterfell but it was struck by lightning and the resultant fire cause the top to cave in.

What is so interesting above is not just the image of the tower’s ragged summit resembling a crown but also the image of the tower as a giant sundial, its shadow an arm reaching out for Theon. If we compare this image with the description of the Hightower from A Feast of Crows, you can recognize the striking imagery: 

And beyond, where the Honeywine widened into Whispering Sound, rose the Hightower, its beacon fires bright against the dawn. From where it stood atop the bluffs of Battle Island, its shadow cut the city like a sword. Those born and raised in Oldtown could tell the time of day by where that shadow fell. Some claimed a man could see all the way to the Wall from the top. (AFfC, Prologue)

Here we have the image of the tower as a sundial again but whereas the shadow of the Broken Tower is likened to an arm, the shadow of the Hightower is like a sword.

What does the Broken Tower of Winterfell have to do with this theme of beacons, true lights and golden crowns. The Broken Tower is associated with secrets, lies and truths. It is here that Bran witnesses Cersei and Jaime Lannister having sex. Jaime pushes Bran in order to keep this secret, to maintain the lie that Cersei’s children are Robert Baratheon’s children and not born of incest.

How does this relate to image of the tower as a sundial, which is the associative point between the Hightower and the Broken Tower? The quote from Theon’s chapter comes from a passage where he is trying to bluff himself out of a looming fight with Rodrik Cassel by threatening to hang his daughter Beth. This whole passage is saturated with anxiety on Theon’s part because he feels that he cannot win. The shadow of the tower thus becomes the shadow of the sundial, counting down the time to the moment of truth. Thus, on the basis on such an associative logic, the Broken Tower becomes a symbolic locus for secrets, lies and the countdown to the moment of truth.

This is where this post crosses into the territory of tinfoil. Daenerys Targaryen has several visions in the House of the Undying in Quarth. One of them goes like this: 

Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow. A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. . . . mother of dragons, slayer of lies…  (ACoK, Daenerys IV) 

The imagery of this passage indicates that Dany will uncover three lies (I think that in this context “slayers of lies” doesn’t signify a literal killing). What are the lies that Dany has to uncover? 

The first one most likely relates to Stannis Baratheon – the blue-eyed king with a glowing red-sword. I have previously written about how Melisandre is wrong when she identifies Stannis as Azor Ahai come again and I have also explored the idea that his glowing sword is wrong as well. Here the sword is linked with the sunset rather than the dawn. Stannis’ “Lightbringer” is a false light that leads into the night and not into the dawn. Stannis as AA reborn is the first lie that Dany has to slay. 

The second lie probably relates to fAegon, the young man that Varys claims to be Rhaegar Targaryen’s son and that he has had brought up as the perfect hidden prince. Many readers suspect that fAegon is not who Varys says he is, and Dany’s vision of the cloth dragons, a mummer’s dragon as she calls it, seems to support this theory. 

Then there’s the third (and final) lie: The stone beast that takes wing from a smoking tower, breathing dark flame. I think that this lie represents Jon Snow’s parentage – the stone beast represents his Targaryen heritage and the smoking tower represents the Broken Tower, also called the Burned Tower. Though the Broken Tower mainly features in Bran’s and Theon’s chapters, you could argue that Jon is indirectly present through the symbolism of the crows that live in the tower – and Jon is continually called Crow during his time with the Wildlings. Whether the Broken Tower will play a literal part in the disclosure of Jon’s true parentage remains to be seen – but it’s metaphorical connection with secrets and lies (as well as its burned status) makes it a good candidate for the smoking tower in Dany’s vision. 

In the next installment I’ll taker a closer look at the imagery of the burning crown in relation to the notion of the false light.