Post by min on Jul 25, 2016 15:27:43 GMT
I'm still puzzled about the sort of magic infused in the Wall. Is it a case of fighting fire with fire or analogous to a firebreak? Fighting ice with ice in other words. I just assumed that fire magic would be used against ice magic. But all you have to do is deprive fire of oxygen and it goes out. It's the killing cold that seems to have the properties of depriving oxygen and putting out campfires. Then the dead are raised by it.
The Wall has the characteristics of a man made "fire" break in that the NW keep the trees cut down and provide for it's maintenance. Ostensibly, to keep the wildlings from getting across, which it fails to do, because it wasn't the wall's original purpose.
"Finally he looked north. He saw the Wall shining like blue crystal, and his bastard brother Jon sleeping alone in a cold bed, his skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from him. And he looked past the Wall, past endless forests cloaked in snow, past the frozen shore and the great blue-white rivers of ice and the dead plains where nothing grew or lived. North and north and north he looked, to the curtain of light at the end of the world, and then beyond that curtain. He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks." - Bran Got
Which calls into question the Stark ancestral sword "Ice". Fighting ice with ice... Except that valyrian steel swords are forged in fire. It's a bit contradictory to call the sword Ice, which is really hinting at something else. That can only mean that the Palestone Sword, with it's inner light is the sword forged with ice magic. It's not coincidence that Bran describes Jon's skin growing pale and hard. The man who wields the sword, becomes the sword.
The Wall has all the characteristics of a glacier in it's massive size and it's blue white color. Glaciers are sometimes characterized as having the properties of stone. That Planetos went through some kind of ice age seems evident with the inclusion of such animals as the woolly mammoths and the now defunct unicorns (woolly rhinoceros). Possibly even the giants as a proto-race like the neanderthal. Finding the Horn of Joramun under a receding glacier is contemporary with finding stone age artifacts that we do today. It's also suggestive that the last ice age began receding about 12,000 years ago and that massive flooding events in North America and the Middle East occurred giving us the origin stories for Gilgamesh and Noah and in GRRM's world, the Hammer of the Waters. The CotF wouldn't have to call down a comet or meteor to do that or call up the waters of the oceans; they would just have to break the ice holding back massive glacial lakes. Essentially, the wall is a massive dam. If absorbs and contains the killing cold; otherwise everything within it's reach, plant and animal would become a dead zone. So bringing down the Wall or releasing the magic it contains would result in a massive tsunami of death. Very dangerous indeed. Bran the Dam Builder and the Breaker of Dams?
**********
"On starless nights the great cliff was as black as stone, a darkness towering high above the wide world, but when the moon came out, it shimmered pale and icy as a frozen stream." Jon aDwD
"Black as stone, a towering darkness"... rings a bell... Bran looks far into the north, past the wall, at the end of the earth, deep into the heart of darkness and screams. In Jon's wolf dream above, he is chased by the moon calling his name.
"Snow," the moon called down again, cackling.....
"Snow," the moon insisted...
This may be another instance of Bran connecting with Jon in a wolf dream percieved by Ghost-Jon as the moon. In Bran's original coma dream, he sees clear across the Narrow Sea and all over Westeros including Winterfell. In the HBO version, it's the astrolabe perspective of the world, telescoping in and out; far above the world.
"He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the Narrow Sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki Sea and beyond to Vaes Dothrak under it's mountain, to the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the shadows." -Bran GoT
Literally, this isn't the crow's eye view or even the eagle's eye view of your average skin-changer. It's the moon's eye view or the god's eye view. It's interesting that when the moon comes out; the Wall shimmers, pale and icy. We have Benjen's description of the Wall 'as straight as a sword' in part, the Dawn/Palestone Sword described with the characteristics of ice. There are very few books references at all:
"Something his father had told him once when he was little came back to hum suddenly. He asked Lord Eddard if the Kingsguard were truly the finest knights in the Seven Kingdoms. "No longer," he answered "but once they were a marvel, a shining lesson to the world."
"Was there one who was best of all?"
"The finest fighter I ever saw was Ser Arthur Dayne, who fought with a blade called Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star. They called him the Sword of the Morning, and he would have killed me but for Howland Reed." Father had gotten sad then, and he would say no more. Bran wished had had asked him what he meant. -Bran CoK
(Book Canon check - A slightly different version than the HBO version since Ned did tell Bran that Dayne nearly killed him. Ned just didn't elaborate on Howland's part in it.)
**********
Falling stars, fiery metallic meteorites, comets made of ice and rock...
It (Dawn Sword) is said to be made from metal forged from the heart of a fallen star. The blade is as pale as milkglass, looking like no Valyrian blade, yet sharing all of the properties, being incredibly strong and sharp. - Westeros Wiki
Probably not forged from metal; but rock and ice magic by those who sing the song of earth and know how to use ice magic, the CotF. The opposite of the Valyrian steel forged from dragons fallen from the sky (A Storm of Swords).
Pale as milkglass, the bony component used in the making of the Others; creatures with their own swords made of ice but easily dispatched with dragonglass or valyrian steel. The Palestone sword is something far more powerful than the Other's icy blade. Why would the CotF make such a thing? Unlike dragon steel blades, Dawn is one of a kind.
It's certainly not meant to dispatch the Others as we have seen them so far; but something far more powerful. Something or someone that Bran saw in the Heart of Darkness; something that makes him scream in his sleep.
The Wall and the Dawn Sword were made of ice magic to protect the realms of men from the heart of darkness; while the Others were made to protect the CotF and the greenseers from men would be my conclusion. You have to fight ice with ice.
The Wall has the characteristics of a man made "fire" break in that the NW keep the trees cut down and provide for it's maintenance. Ostensibly, to keep the wildlings from getting across, which it fails to do, because it wasn't the wall's original purpose.
"Finally he looked north. He saw the Wall shining like blue crystal, and his bastard brother Jon sleeping alone in a cold bed, his skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from him. And he looked past the Wall, past endless forests cloaked in snow, past the frozen shore and the great blue-white rivers of ice and the dead plains where nothing grew or lived. North and north and north he looked, to the curtain of light at the end of the world, and then beyond that curtain. He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks." - Bran Got
Which calls into question the Stark ancestral sword "Ice". Fighting ice with ice... Except that valyrian steel swords are forged in fire. It's a bit contradictory to call the sword Ice, which is really hinting at something else. That can only mean that the Palestone Sword, with it's inner light is the sword forged with ice magic. It's not coincidence that Bran describes Jon's skin growing pale and hard. The man who wields the sword, becomes the sword.
The Wall has all the characteristics of a glacier in it's massive size and it's blue white color. Glaciers are sometimes characterized as having the properties of stone. That Planetos went through some kind of ice age seems evident with the inclusion of such animals as the woolly mammoths and the now defunct unicorns (woolly rhinoceros). Possibly even the giants as a proto-race like the neanderthal. Finding the Horn of Joramun under a receding glacier is contemporary with finding stone age artifacts that we do today. It's also suggestive that the last ice age began receding about 12,000 years ago and that massive flooding events in North America and the Middle East occurred giving us the origin stories for Gilgamesh and Noah and in GRRM's world, the Hammer of the Waters. The CotF wouldn't have to call down a comet or meteor to do that or call up the waters of the oceans; they would just have to break the ice holding back massive glacial lakes. Essentially, the wall is a massive dam. If absorbs and contains the killing cold; otherwise everything within it's reach, plant and animal would become a dead zone. So bringing down the Wall or releasing the magic it contains would result in a massive tsunami of death. Very dangerous indeed. Bran the Dam Builder and the Breaker of Dams?
**********
"On starless nights the great cliff was as black as stone, a darkness towering high above the wide world, but when the moon came out, it shimmered pale and icy as a frozen stream." Jon aDwD
"Black as stone, a towering darkness"... rings a bell... Bran looks far into the north, past the wall, at the end of the earth, deep into the heart of darkness and screams. In Jon's wolf dream above, he is chased by the moon calling his name.
"Snow," the moon called down again, cackling.....
"Snow," the moon insisted...
This may be another instance of Bran connecting with Jon in a wolf dream percieved by Ghost-Jon as the moon. In Bran's original coma dream, he sees clear across the Narrow Sea and all over Westeros including Winterfell. In the HBO version, it's the astrolabe perspective of the world, telescoping in and out; far above the world.
"He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the Narrow Sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki Sea and beyond to Vaes Dothrak under it's mountain, to the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the shadows." -Bran GoT
Literally, this isn't the crow's eye view or even the eagle's eye view of your average skin-changer. It's the moon's eye view or the god's eye view. It's interesting that when the moon comes out; the Wall shimmers, pale and icy. We have Benjen's description of the Wall 'as straight as a sword' in part, the Dawn/Palestone Sword described with the characteristics of ice. There are very few books references at all:
"Something his father had told him once when he was little came back to hum suddenly. He asked Lord Eddard if the Kingsguard were truly the finest knights in the Seven Kingdoms. "No longer," he answered "but once they were a marvel, a shining lesson to the world."
"Was there one who was best of all?"
"The finest fighter I ever saw was Ser Arthur Dayne, who fought with a blade called Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star. They called him the Sword of the Morning, and he would have killed me but for Howland Reed." Father had gotten sad then, and he would say no more. Bran wished had had asked him what he meant. -Bran CoK
(Book Canon check - A slightly different version than the HBO version since Ned did tell Bran that Dayne nearly killed him. Ned just didn't elaborate on Howland's part in it.)
**********
Falling stars, fiery metallic meteorites, comets made of ice and rock...
It (Dawn Sword) is said to be made from metal forged from the heart of a fallen star. The blade is as pale as milkglass, looking like no Valyrian blade, yet sharing all of the properties, being incredibly strong and sharp. - Westeros Wiki
Probably not forged from metal; but rock and ice magic by those who sing the song of earth and know how to use ice magic, the CotF. The opposite of the Valyrian steel forged from dragons fallen from the sky (A Storm of Swords).
Pale as milkglass, the bony component used in the making of the Others; creatures with their own swords made of ice but easily dispatched with dragonglass or valyrian steel. The Palestone sword is something far more powerful than the Other's icy blade. Why would the CotF make such a thing? Unlike dragon steel blades, Dawn is one of a kind.
It's certainly not meant to dispatch the Others as we have seen them so far; but something far more powerful. Something or someone that Bran saw in the Heart of Darkness; something that makes him scream in his sleep.
The Wall and the Dawn Sword were made of ice magic to protect the realms of men from the heart of darkness; while the Others were made to protect the CotF and the greenseers from men would be my conclusion. You have to fight ice with ice.