#tom sevenstrings

[lupiiny]

“There are worse things than dying with a song on your lips.”

[eonweheraldodemanwe]

Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr, Lem Lemoncloak, Tom Sevenstrings, lady Ravella Smallwood and the Ghost of Highheart artworks from the Brotherhood Without Banners starter set box of ASOIAF TMG.

[grey-joys]

Not Tom playing The Day They Hanged Black Robin when they hanged Merret Frey

[daceytheshebear]

Sometimes someone likes this silly post from ages ago and I remember how much I love this song and this gown.

the oak leaf dress

Hey guys. So. Did you know there is an actual, historical “oak leaf dress” made all of yellow silk? It is in display in the Fashion Museum of Bath, England. 

The silk satin dress features over 400 oak leaves, outlined in satin cord and chenille thread. The darker leaves on the skirt were created by actually cutting out oak leaf shapes, and backing the holes with silk net.

It’s fitting, don’t you think? These two need not be mutually exclusive…

My featherbed is deep and soft, and there I’ll lay you down, I’ll dress you all in yellow silk, and on your head a crown. For you shall be my lady love, and I shall be your lord. I’ll always keep you warm and safe, and guard you with my sword. And how she smiled and how she laughed, the maiden of the tree. She spun away and said to him, no featherbed for me. I’ll wear a gown of golden leaves, and bind my hair with grass, But you can be my forest love, and me your forest lass.

Har! 

When Tom Sevenstrings sings this song to Arya, she’s wearing the infamous acorn dress (green and brown, bear that in mind) and the dress has just been ripped apart in a ‘fight’ instigated by Arya - an act of refusal to conform with the proper little girl part. Just like in the song, where the maiden of the tree refuses the featherbed (but not the love). 

The acorn motif and the green color both symbolize youth and naivite. In the asoiaf universe we come across sayings like “the acorn dreams the oak” (to denote passage of time) and “green as summer grass” (which speaks to a lack of experience). 

Yellow/golden is the colour of autumn and maturity. Yellow is to green what the oak (and its leaves) are to the acorn.

“I’ll wear a gown of golden leaves” is a bold statement of maturity and ownership of onesef. 

Here is our gown of golden leaves, all in yellow silk:

[bastardofharrenhal]

🔥 lady stoneheart castration chamber(?

mandatory visit for these ppl

jaime lannister

jon snow

tom sevenstrings

[ichooseviolence]

There's a specific type of humor that I love in ASoIaF, and it's mostly sarcasm. Even characters that I absolutely loath make me laugh because the deliverance of their quips are so on point that I have to respect it. Tom of Sevenstrings, Jaime, Tyrion, Eddison Tollett, Olenna, Genna Lannister, Oberyn, Cersei, Euron, Renly, even Petyr. Dany has a couple moments that make me chuckle as well.

But I might actually add Sansa to the list, because some of her quips are perfection.. If she was in a healthy environment she would probably let loose on the sarcasm and take no survivors.

The older man in white spoke to Sansa gently. "Ofttimes Ser Ilyn frightens me as well, sweet lady. He has a fearsome aspect." "As well he should." The queen had descended from the wheelhouse. The spectators parted to make way for her. "If the wicked do not fear the King's Justice, you have put the wrong man in office." Sansa finally found her words. "Then surely you have chosen the right one, Your Grace," she said, and a gale of laughter erupted all around her. -AGoT Sansa I

"...It's almost as good as if some wolf killed your traitor brother. Maybe I'll feed him to wolves after I've caught him. Did I tell you, I intend to challenge him to single combat?" "I should like to see that, Your Grace." More than you know. Sansa kept her tone cool and polite, yet even so Joffrey's eyes narrowed in suspicion as he tried to decide whether she was mocking him." -ACoK Sansa I

"She must learn to hide her feelings better, so as not to anger Joffrey. When she heard that the Imp had sent Lord Slynt to the Wall, she had forgotten herself and said, "I hope the Others get him." The king had not been pleased." - ACoK Sansa II (this one literally took me out)

"Dontos was prattling on. "If I were still a knight, I should have to put on armor and man the walls with the rest. I ought to kiss King Joffrey's feet and thank him sweetly." "If you thanked him for making you a fool, he'd make you a knight again," Sansa said sharply." -ACoK Sansa IV

"Ser Meryn Trant held the blood bay for Joffrey to mount. Boy and horse alike wore gilded mail and enameled crimson plate, with matching golden lions on their heads. The pale sunlight flashed off the golds and reds every time Joff moved. Bright, shining, and empty, Sansa thought." -ACoK Sansa V (this one made me smirk)

"Curses are only in songs and stories." That seemed to amuse him. "Has someone made a song about Gregor Clegane dying of a poisoned spear thrust? Or about the sellsword before him, whose limbs Ser Gregor removed a joint at a time? That one took the castle from Ser Amory Lorch, who received it from Lord Tywin. A bear killed one, your dwarf the other. Lady Whent's died as well, I hear. Lothstons, Strongs, Harroways, Strongs...Harrenhal has withered every hand to touch it." "Then give it to Lord Frey." -AFfC Alayne I

[atopvisenyashill]

*tom sevenstrings strumming in the background* he is not one of uuuuuuuuuus!!!!

[greenbloods]

Runner up lines that didnt make it because of tumblr poll word length limitations. I'm including more of the peripheral scene because it's my post and i want to.

Tyrion and Jaime

The ruin was sad enough, but knowing what it had been made it even sadder. There was laughter here once, Tyrion thought. There were gardens bright with flowers and fountains sparkling golden in the sun. These steps once rang to the sound of lovers’ footsteps, and beneath that broken dome marriages beyond count were sealed with a kiss. His thoughts turned to Tysha, who had so briefly been his lady wife. It was Jaime, he thought, despairing. He was my own blood, my big strong brother. When I was small he brought me toys, barrel hoops and blocks and a carved wooden lion. He gave me my first pony and taught me how to ride him. When he said that he had bought you for me, I never doubted him. Why would I? He was Jaime, and you were just some girl who’d played a part. I had feared it from the start, from the moment you first smiled at me and let me touch your hand. My own father could not love me. Why would you if not for gold?

2. Catelyn and Robb

If Robb was frightened, he gave no sign of it. Catelyn watched her son as he moved among the men, touching one on the shoulder, sharing a jest with another, helping a third to gentle an anxious horse. His armor clinked softly when he moved. Only his head was bare. Catelyn watched a breeze stir his auburn hair, so like her own, and wondered when her son had grown so big. Fifteen, and near as tall as she was.

Let him grow taller, she asked the gods. Let him know sixteen, and twenty, and fifty. Let him grow as tall as his father, and hold his own son in his arms. Please, please, please. As she watched him, this tall young man with the new beard and the direwolf prowling at his heels, all she could see was the babe they had laid at her breast at Riverrun, so long ago.

3. Needle

Her floppy hat went next, then the gloves. They were Salty’s too. She emptied her pouch into her palm; five silver stags, nine copper stars, some pennies and halfpennies and groats. She scattered them across the water. Next her boots. They made the loudest splashes. Her dagger followed, the one she’d gotten off the archer who had begged the Hound for mercy. Her swordbelt went into the canal. Her cloak, tunic, breeches, smallclothes, all of it. All but Needle.

She stood on the end of the dock, pale and goosefleshed and shivering in the fog. In her hand, Needle seemed to whisper to her. Stick them with the pointy end, it said, and, don’t tell Sansa! Mikken’s mark was on the blade. It’s just a sword. If she needed a sword, there were a hundred under the temple. Needle was too small to be a proper sword, it was hardly more than a toy. She’d been a stupid little girl when Jon had it made for her. “It’s just a sword,” she said, aloud this time . . .

. . . but it wasn’t.

Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell’s grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan’s stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow’s smile. He used to mess my hair and call me “little sister,” she remembered, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes.

Polliver had stolen the sword from her when the Mountain’s men took her captive, but when she and the Hound walked into the inn at the crossroads, there it was. The gods wanted me to have it. Not the Seven, nor Him of Many Faces, but her father’s gods, the old gods of the north. The Many-Faced God can have the rest, she thought, but he can’t have this.

4. Jenny's song

She drank the last of the wine in four long swallows, flung the skin aside, and pointed her stick at Lord Beric. “I’ll have my payment now. I’ll have the song you promised me.”

And so Lem woke Tom Sevenstrings beneath his furs, and brought him yawning to the fireside with his woodharp in hand. “The same song as before?” he asked.

“Oh, aye. My Jenny’s song. Is there another?”

And so he sang, and the dwarf woman closed her eyes and rocked slowly back and forth, murmuring the words and crying. Thoros took Arya firmly by the hand and drew her aside. “Let her savor her song in peace,” he said. “It is all she has left.”

5. Maester Cressen and Stannis

Maester Cressen blinked. Stannis, my lord, my sad sullen boy, son I never had, you must not do this, don’t you know how I have cared for you, lived for you, loved you despite all? Yes, loved you, better than Robert even, or Renly, for you were the one unloved, the one who needed me most. Yet all he said was, “As you command, my lord, but . . . but I am hungry. Might not I have a place at your table?” At your side, I belong at your side . . .

(9) a son or a daughter.

'where's 'ned loves my hair?'' nowhere. you must choose.

[seaworthit]

Romance? In my anti government insurgency? It's more likely than you think....

[deadlypen1]

A friendly reminder that Tom Sevenstrings sings Jenny of Oldstones as the Brotherhood goes around hanging Freys.

And the hanging shown takes place at Oldstones too

[oathkeeperoathbreaker]

Tom o’ Sevens

She knew the singer by the woodharp he cradled against his jerkin, as a mother might cradle a babe. A small man, fifty from the look of him, he had a big mouth, a sharp nose, and thinning brown hair. His faded greens were mended here and there with old leather patches, and he wore a brace of throwing knives on his hip and a woodman’s axe slung across his back.

Arya II, A STORM OF SWORDS

He was a small fellow, garbed in ragged green breeches and a frayed tunic of a lighter shade of green, with brown leather patches covering the holes. His nose was long and sharp, his smile big and loose. Thin brown hair fell to his collar, snaggled and unwashed. Fifty if he’s a day, thought Jaime, a hedge harp, and hard used by life.

Jaime VII, A FEAST FOR CROWS

[gotcasting]

Tom Sevenstrings

Robert Carlyle - 56 years old, English.

[alpacaidentitycrisis]

I totally fancast Robert Carlyle as Tom o’ Sevens

[leviloviatar]

What’s your take on “my featherbed“? I woulddd loveeee to read your meta!!!! I mean this song is amazing.. how can they not realise that this song is perfect for gendrya?? And it is indeed for gendrya? And the most important think is that even though they have their differences they still have their love for each other (and this song)! And I hate to use the word love in general, but this song underlines their love!!

Omg, lovely anon, THANK YOU so much for asking me! I am flattered and honestly humbled that you would call what I do “meta” and not “crazy obsessive rambling” I will do my best not to disappoint you.

MY FEATHERBED IS A LOVE SONG SPECIFICALLY FOR GENDRY AND ARYA

Anyone who says differently is either in major denial or just literally can’t read.

When GRRM includes song lyrics in the books its a cue for the reader to pay attention, and “My Featherbed” is no different. It is literally the love theme for these two and just in case the reader doesn’t notice it right away, GRRM makes sure all the other characters notice it:

Both of them were covered in dirt, and one sleeve was torn on her stupid acorn dress. Tom was singing when they returned to the hall.

My featherbed is deep and soft, and there I’ll lay you down,

I’ll dress you all in yellow silk, and on your head a crown.

For you shall be my lady love, and I shall be your lord.

I’ll always keep you warm and safe, and guard you with my sword.

Harwin took one look at them and burst out laughing, and Anguy smiled one of his stupid freckly smiles and said, “Are we certain this one is a highborn lady?” But Lem Lemoncloak gave Gendry a clout alongside the head. “You want to fight, fight with me! She’s a girl, and half your age! You keep your hands off o’ her, you hear me?”

“I started it,“ said Arya. “Gendry was just talking.”

“Leave the boy, Lem,” said Harwin. “Arya did start it, I have no doubt. She was much the same at Winterfell.”

Tom winked at her as he sang.

And how she smiled and how she laughed, the maiden of the tree, 

She spun away and said to him, no featherbed for me.

I’ll wear a gown of golden leaves, and bind my hair with grass,

But you can be my forest love, and me your forest lass.

“I have no gowns of leaves,” said Lady Smallwood with a small fond smile, “but Carellen left some other dresses that might serve. Come, child, let us go upstairs and see what we can find.”

Tom Sevenstrings and Lady Smallwood are both shipping it so hard.

I’m not saying anything groundbreaking here. We know GRRM uses songs to reinforce themes (hello, Bear and the Maiden Fair) and this song is literally a love song, the lord proposes to the lady, offering her a crown and yellow silk (um hello house Baratheon) and she smiles, laughs, and instead counters with a proposal of her own, a rejection of courtly life but not a rejection of him. This is a love song. And the song frames the most romantic interaction between these characters (as yet). And it even references themes from both characters narrative arcs (Arya as the wild highborn lady. Gendry’s class issues).  And the second verse is sung specifically to Arya. Arya is the maiden of the tree. It’s not even subtle! She is literally dressed like an oak tree at this moment! 

And then we get Lady Smallwood smiling fondly (perhaps remembering how it felt to first fall in love) and saying that she doesn’t have a gown of leaves for Arya. Because Arya is the Maiden of the Tree from the song. And Gendry is the Lord. And this is literally their love song. 

GRRM wrote a love song specifically for Arya and Gendry. It does not come up anywhere else in the narrative. It is their song. It is not subtle. It is intentional. 

[blacksmithgendry]

me every time I see a post that says "OMG SANSA IS THE FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE ARYA x GENDRY SHIP FANCLUB!1111!" like:

[what-the-waterbear]

Taylor swift is the bard of the modern!AU

Of all the boys tossing rocks at your window, I’ll be the one waiting there even when it’s cold. — GENDRYA AU: MODERN