Post by Melifeather on Feb 13, 2016 19:39:02 GMT
The Prophet - AFFC Chapter 1
The chapter begins with Aeron Greyjoy drowning men on Great Wyk when they came to tell him that King Balon was dead. The first three men had offered their lives to the Drowned God fearlessly, but the fourth struggled and he needed four men to help hold the boy under water until he drowned. It was a test of faith.
Maester Aemon stated that his vows as a man of the Watch were tested three times, and that the hardest time for him was hearing about the destruction of House Targaryen during the War of the Usurper aka Robert’s Rebellion. Aemon was, at this point in the story, a maester at the Wall, and the north metaphorically is a cold dark sea, and the people that die in that northern sea rise again as undead wights. We also have Patchface as a drowned prophet, and I can see how on the surface he has a lot in common with Aeron and Aemon, but I haven’t really delved into this character for this essay. He may merit a future essay or thread of his own.
Aeron, known to all as Damphair splashed back onto land, donned a robe and pulled his long black and wet hair free. No blade had touched his hair since the sea had raised him up and it fell down past his waist. He wove strands of seaweed through it and his tangled, uncut beard.
An ancient man of a hundred years at the beginning of ASOIAF, Aemon is bald, wrinkled, shrunken, and blind. He speaks softly, but his counsel is so valued that all fall silent to hear it. Despite his age his mind is still sharp as well as his hearing.
Aeron’s drowned men formed a circle around the dead boy, praying while two worked his arms and chest, but they moved aside for Aeron. He pried apart the boys lips and gave him the kiss of life, over and over until the sea came gushing from his mouth. Aeron viewed this as a sign of approval from the Drowned God, as he has never lost a man. “Rise,” he told the sputtering boy….”you have drowned and been returned to us. What is dead can never die.”
It is unclear, although a bit unlikely that Maester Aemon had anything to do with the dead rising as wights. At night when it’s cold the dead rise again, harder and stronger. You might even say that the dead come in waves out of the cold dark northern sea. Is this what Patchface means when he talks about “under the sea”?
Aeron Damphair asked the men, “Was the storm raging when he (Balon) fell?” “Aye, “ a youth said…Aemon then said, ”The Storm God cast him down,”. For a thousand thousand years the sea and sky had been at war. Balon had made them great again, but he had earned the Storm God’s wrath.
Aerys II was also brought down by a storm “god”, Robert Baratheon with his Thor-like hammer. Rhaegar was about to make the Targaryens great again, but because of his father the sky brought war yet again.
Aeron Damphair was one of five children from Lord Quellon’s second wife. His brothers are Balon, Euron, Victarion, and Urrigon. One of Aeron’s half brothers was a sickly idiot boy named Robin, a brother that Aeron thought best forgotten.
Maester Aemon was the third son out of five children from Maekar I and Dyanna Dayne. His siblings are Aerion, Daeron, Daella, Aegon V, and Rhae. He was sent to the Citadel when he was 9 or 10, because his grandfather King Daeron II thought it was too dangerous to have so many heirs. Maekar’s eldest son, Prince Daeron had died of the pox and his only issue was a feeble-minded, simple girl named Princess Vaella.
Damphair had no love of maesters. He says their ravens are creatures of the Storm God, and he did not trust their healing, not since Urri his half brother died of an infected cut from an axe Aeron threw while dancing knives. He thinks no proper man would choose a life of thralldom, nor forge a chain of servitude to wear about his throat.
Aemon unselfishly volunteered to go to the Wall because he feared that he would be used in a plot against his brother. King Aegon V provided an “honor guard” of prisoners including Brynden Rivers to take the vows of the Nights’s Watch with him.
When Damphair told Balon that Theon was a weakling, Balon said he prayed that the wolves would kill him so that he wouldn’t stand in Asha’s way. Damphair thought Balon was blind if he believed Asha could succeed him. Aeron tried to tell him that no woman will ever rule the ironborn, not even a woman such as Asha, but Balon did not wish to hear.
When the death of King Aerys I left no clear heir, Lord Brynden Rivers as Hand of the King called for a Great Council to decide who would inherit the Iron Throne. The merits of each living Targaryen were discussed. There have been several Great Councils during the Targaryen reign, but a woman has never been selected.
After the death of King Balon, Damphair believed Victarion should rule though Euron was the elder brother, and even though Theon and Asha having the more lawful claim would come before them both. Aeron dismisses both children of Balon as unfit, and claims Euron cannot be king because he’s godless.
During the Great Council that chose Aegon V, at first the council had reservations about Aegon, because he had been raised among the common people. Also, Denys Blackfyre had written to King’s Landing hoping to gain support as a candidate. Brynden Rivers offered safe conduct to Westeros only to arrest him upon his arrival and dragged to the Red Keep and executed. His head was presented to council to serve as a warning against any lord that would support a Blackfyre. This act is why Aegon V had him arrested and later sent to the Wall.
Euron Greyjoy had Lord Sawane Botley (Tristifer’s father) drowned for saying that the Seastone Chair by rights belonged to Theon. Aeron said it was not a crime since no blood was shed.
Damphair spends a night along the sea praying for direction from the Drowned God. He measures Victarion’s merits and weaknesses and understands that Victarion will be hesitant to go against his elder brother. Yet he has no love for Euron. Not since the woman died.
I wonder how Aemon feels about Bloodraven after the Tragedy of Summerhall? Many of his family died, including Aegon, Duncan the Small, Jenny of Oldstones, and Ser Duncan the Tall. Maester Aemon thought that Rhaegar’s birth during the fire was associated with the prophecy of the prince that was promised.
Before he goes to sleep in his tent along the sea, Aeron walked into the icy cold sea naked and let the waters surround him. As the cold salt sea reached down through his flesh and touched his bones he is struck by the idea of the kingsmoot. He gathers some men around him and preaches to them from a boulder near the sea. There the men at first misinterpret his words declare that Aeron the Damphair should be their king, but he shook his head and said that they need to listen to their Drowned God and choose the next king at the kingsmoot.
During the Great Council, Aemon’s name was put forward to rule, but he politely declined. The Great Council had no choice but to select Aegon V the Unlikely. They had hesitated, because Egg was raised among the common people and they feared that he was too much like them.
The Reader had sent ravens summoning all of Asha’s friends to Harlaw, because he believed that Balon meant for her to sit the Seastone Chair. He did this, even though privately he told Asha that the Ironborn would never select a woman.
Rhaegar gathered supporters under the guise of a tourney at Harrenhal, and as readers we assumed that he was gathering support for himself. But what if he meant to support his mother, Rhaella? Certainly she would have the more lawful claim should Aerys die.
Upon that boulder where Aeron preached to his supporters he tells his own story about how he came to the faith. “The god took me deep beneath the waves and drowned the worthless thing I was. When he cast me forth again he gave me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a voice to spread his word, that I might be his prophet and teach his truth to those who have forgotten…”
Maester Aemon was sent to the Citadel at a very young age by his grandfather, but as an adult he voluntarily went to the Wall that holds back the dead wight waves of the great northern sea. He was blind, but his hearing was keen, and the Watch depended upon his wisdom and ability to heal.
The chapter ends with Aeron Damphair urging his followers to go to Old Wyk and let the Drowned God guide their decisions and select a king from the kingsmoot. They must return to the Old Ways if they are to become great again.
Understanding the characters in this chapter and applying them to the previous generation has me thinking that Rhaella was much more of a player than we’ve been led to believe. If we replace Damphair with Aemon, Asha with Rhaella, and the Reader with Rhaegar, then it seems that Rhaegar planned to support his mother, Rhaella to rule instead of Aerys, but Aemon may have councilled against this as the Targaryens have never selected a woman to rule in all their generations, but the implications are tantalizing.
The chapter begins with Aeron Greyjoy drowning men on Great Wyk when they came to tell him that King Balon was dead. The first three men had offered their lives to the Drowned God fearlessly, but the fourth struggled and he needed four men to help hold the boy under water until he drowned. It was a test of faith.
Maester Aemon stated that his vows as a man of the Watch were tested three times, and that the hardest time for him was hearing about the destruction of House Targaryen during the War of the Usurper aka Robert’s Rebellion. Aemon was, at this point in the story, a maester at the Wall, and the north metaphorically is a cold dark sea, and the people that die in that northern sea rise again as undead wights. We also have Patchface as a drowned prophet, and I can see how on the surface he has a lot in common with Aeron and Aemon, but I haven’t really delved into this character for this essay. He may merit a future essay or thread of his own.
Aeron, known to all as Damphair splashed back onto land, donned a robe and pulled his long black and wet hair free. No blade had touched his hair since the sea had raised him up and it fell down past his waist. He wove strands of seaweed through it and his tangled, uncut beard.
An ancient man of a hundred years at the beginning of ASOIAF, Aemon is bald, wrinkled, shrunken, and blind. He speaks softly, but his counsel is so valued that all fall silent to hear it. Despite his age his mind is still sharp as well as his hearing.
Aeron’s drowned men formed a circle around the dead boy, praying while two worked his arms and chest, but they moved aside for Aeron. He pried apart the boys lips and gave him the kiss of life, over and over until the sea came gushing from his mouth. Aeron viewed this as a sign of approval from the Drowned God, as he has never lost a man. “Rise,” he told the sputtering boy….”you have drowned and been returned to us. What is dead can never die.”
It is unclear, although a bit unlikely that Maester Aemon had anything to do with the dead rising as wights. At night when it’s cold the dead rise again, harder and stronger. You might even say that the dead come in waves out of the cold dark northern sea. Is this what Patchface means when he talks about “under the sea”?
Aeron Damphair asked the men, “Was the storm raging when he (Balon) fell?” “Aye, “ a youth said…Aemon then said, ”The Storm God cast him down,”. For a thousand thousand years the sea and sky had been at war. Balon had made them great again, but he had earned the Storm God’s wrath.
Aerys II was also brought down by a storm “god”, Robert Baratheon with his Thor-like hammer. Rhaegar was about to make the Targaryens great again, but because of his father the sky brought war yet again.
Aeron Damphair was one of five children from Lord Quellon’s second wife. His brothers are Balon, Euron, Victarion, and Urrigon. One of Aeron’s half brothers was a sickly idiot boy named Robin, a brother that Aeron thought best forgotten.
Maester Aemon was the third son out of five children from Maekar I and Dyanna Dayne. His siblings are Aerion, Daeron, Daella, Aegon V, and Rhae. He was sent to the Citadel when he was 9 or 10, because his grandfather King Daeron II thought it was too dangerous to have so many heirs. Maekar’s eldest son, Prince Daeron had died of the pox and his only issue was a feeble-minded, simple girl named Princess Vaella.
Damphair had no love of maesters. He says their ravens are creatures of the Storm God, and he did not trust their healing, not since Urri his half brother died of an infected cut from an axe Aeron threw while dancing knives. He thinks no proper man would choose a life of thralldom, nor forge a chain of servitude to wear about his throat.
Aemon unselfishly volunteered to go to the Wall because he feared that he would be used in a plot against his brother. King Aegon V provided an “honor guard” of prisoners including Brynden Rivers to take the vows of the Nights’s Watch with him.
When Damphair told Balon that Theon was a weakling, Balon said he prayed that the wolves would kill him so that he wouldn’t stand in Asha’s way. Damphair thought Balon was blind if he believed Asha could succeed him. Aeron tried to tell him that no woman will ever rule the ironborn, not even a woman such as Asha, but Balon did not wish to hear.
When the death of King Aerys I left no clear heir, Lord Brynden Rivers as Hand of the King called for a Great Council to decide who would inherit the Iron Throne. The merits of each living Targaryen were discussed. There have been several Great Councils during the Targaryen reign, but a woman has never been selected.
After the death of King Balon, Damphair believed Victarion should rule though Euron was the elder brother, and even though Theon and Asha having the more lawful claim would come before them both. Aeron dismisses both children of Balon as unfit, and claims Euron cannot be king because he’s godless.
During the Great Council that chose Aegon V, at first the council had reservations about Aegon, because he had been raised among the common people. Also, Denys Blackfyre had written to King’s Landing hoping to gain support as a candidate. Brynden Rivers offered safe conduct to Westeros only to arrest him upon his arrival and dragged to the Red Keep and executed. His head was presented to council to serve as a warning against any lord that would support a Blackfyre. This act is why Aegon V had him arrested and later sent to the Wall.
Euron Greyjoy had Lord Sawane Botley (Tristifer’s father) drowned for saying that the Seastone Chair by rights belonged to Theon. Aeron said it was not a crime since no blood was shed.
Damphair spends a night along the sea praying for direction from the Drowned God. He measures Victarion’s merits and weaknesses and understands that Victarion will be hesitant to go against his elder brother. Yet he has no love for Euron. Not since the woman died.
I wonder how Aemon feels about Bloodraven after the Tragedy of Summerhall? Many of his family died, including Aegon, Duncan the Small, Jenny of Oldstones, and Ser Duncan the Tall. Maester Aemon thought that Rhaegar’s birth during the fire was associated with the prophecy of the prince that was promised.
Before he goes to sleep in his tent along the sea, Aeron walked into the icy cold sea naked and let the waters surround him. As the cold salt sea reached down through his flesh and touched his bones he is struck by the idea of the kingsmoot. He gathers some men around him and preaches to them from a boulder near the sea. There the men at first misinterpret his words declare that Aeron the Damphair should be their king, but he shook his head and said that they need to listen to their Drowned God and choose the next king at the kingsmoot.
During the Great Council, Aemon’s name was put forward to rule, but he politely declined. The Great Council had no choice but to select Aegon V the Unlikely. They had hesitated, because Egg was raised among the common people and they feared that he was too much like them.
The Reader had sent ravens summoning all of Asha’s friends to Harlaw, because he believed that Balon meant for her to sit the Seastone Chair. He did this, even though privately he told Asha that the Ironborn would never select a woman.
Rhaegar gathered supporters under the guise of a tourney at Harrenhal, and as readers we assumed that he was gathering support for himself. But what if he meant to support his mother, Rhaella? Certainly she would have the more lawful claim should Aerys die.
Upon that boulder where Aeron preached to his supporters he tells his own story about how he came to the faith. “The god took me deep beneath the waves and drowned the worthless thing I was. When he cast me forth again he gave me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a voice to spread his word, that I might be his prophet and teach his truth to those who have forgotten…”
Maester Aemon was sent to the Citadel at a very young age by his grandfather, but as an adult he voluntarily went to the Wall that holds back the dead wight waves of the great northern sea. He was blind, but his hearing was keen, and the Watch depended upon his wisdom and ability to heal.
The chapter ends with Aeron Damphair urging his followers to go to Old Wyk and let the Drowned God guide their decisions and select a king from the kingsmoot. They must return to the Old Ways if they are to become great again.
Understanding the characters in this chapter and applying them to the previous generation has me thinking that Rhaella was much more of a player than we’ve been led to believe. If we replace Damphair with Aemon, Asha with Rhaella, and the Reader with Rhaegar, then it seems that Rhaegar planned to support his mother, Rhaella to rule instead of Aerys, but Aemon may have councilled against this as the Targaryens have never selected a woman to rule in all their generations, but the implications are tantalizing.