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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 8, 2017 22:37:48 GMT
IntroductionThe Fisherman's Daughter appears in ADWD (Chapter 9, Davos I) via a recollection told to Davos Seaworth by Godric Borrell, Lord of Sweetsister, after Davos is captured trying to escape the island after washing ashore in a storm. After some conversation about Davos’ purpose, Lord Borrell informs Davos that he is not the first Lord to inadvertently find himself pleading for release in the main hall of Breakwater: Now as we all know, the overwhelming fan response to this introduction was to assume that this tale of the mystery woman who aided Ned and who Borrell claims later bore Ned’s bastard son is naught but a red herring meant to throw the reader off the scent of Jon Snow’s “true parentage” – Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. A puzzling assumption, considering that this hint had been withheld until Book Five in the series after 15 years of rampant “Jon Targaryen” fan theory, but nonetheless the idea that the Fisherman’s Daughter was but a RLJ distraction became the standard interpretation. My intent was to reexamine this chapter for clues that there is more to this seemingly minor exchange than meets the eye – I am fairly confident that this Davos chapter is far more than a slight attempt at misdirection and in fact holds significant information about the early days of the Rebellion. This exercise will also tie into Melifeather /Feather Crystal's theory about the Wheel of Time and our ability to possibly gain insight into events of the past by reviewing current events for parallels and/or inversions. Several generic but notable examples in this Davos chapter stand out immediately: 1) Lowborn Lord Davos Seaworth, currently serving as Hand to a Baratheon king, vs. highborn Lord Eddard Stark, who would later become Hand to a Baratheon king… 2) …find themselves wrecked on the shores of the Three Sisters… 3) …while heading north to White Harbor to gather support for their king’s cause... 4) …a cause that brings much blood and ruin to the Seven Kingdoms and leads to the collapse of a dynasty. There are other less noisy echoes – a burned Hand, the leader of the lion pride recently departed from King’s Landing, etc – but some are so loud one could say that these are not truly echoes, but someone yelling in your ear, “LOOK HERE!!!” In this essay, I have chosen to listen, and to look. 
Part I: O Brother, Wherefore Art Thou?To begin, let’s learn a bit about this cluster of islands in the Bite called the Three Sisters: Sweetsister, Longsister, and Littlesister. Again from Davos I: The minor takeaway here is that the Three Sisters are an isolated unit with no real fealty to Arryn/Stark/the Vale/the North/anyone, and are not widely involved/included in the affairs of the Seven Kingdoms – they keep to themselves and their business of passive plunder and the rest of the kingdom turns a blind eye for the most part. The MAJOR takeaway is that the Sisters – and Sisterton in particular – is a well-known smugglers’ haven. Davos himself knows it intimately, and it is not coincidence that we get the reveal of the Fisherman’s Daughter through his POV. There are other numerous mentions in the chapter of the Sisters' ideal location in the Bite, with its proximity to the major port of White Harbor to the north and to the Narrow Sea via a sail around the Fingers to the east; this position would be a dream for those sailors of ill repute such as smugglers and pirates, having a straight shot out to all the trade routes for Westeros & Essos, with practically no one in the Seven Kingdoms knowing or caring what goes on there. Speaking of pirates, I’ll toss this in the mix: This is an interesting passage in many regards. First, we hear a familiar refrain in the gossip about the death of the daughter of a high lord at the hands of a bard – something that we readers know to be fundamentally untrue. The daughter is dead, yes, but ‘twas not a singer that killed her; yet apparently this is the story making the rounds of the Seven Kingdoms. (That alone is worthy of further examination, IMO.) Second, there’s the lie that is developed and rehearsed as a traveler rows to Sisterton’s shore. Third, we get the news that an oldtime ally has deserted a Baratheon usurper king due to financial concerns. Finally, we get the revelation that pirate Salladhor Saan himself was the one to kick Davos (and Stannis by proxy) to the curb just shy of his destination, leaving Davos to row to shore in the dead of night for any chance of completing his task…a task that is put on temporary hold anyway due to his untimely detour on Sweetsister. Compare the above to: Were we to replace Davos with Ned Stark in that conversation with Godric Borrell, and replace the answer "At sea" with "Drowned", it's basically the same story - a white lie concocted to explain their presence in the Bite without revealing true purpose or intention. Bonus word association fun: The Fisherman's Daughter managed to get Ned ashore before the boat went down. Salla Saan managed to get Davos to the safest point to which he could row ashore before his pirate ship went down - to the south. A storm was responsible for Ned's impromptu visit to the Sisters. A Storm (Lord) was responsible for Davos' visit as well. About that fisherman, however... The fisherman here is an absent entity, unseen and unknown to anyone in Sisterton - an inverse to Salla Saan, whose ship is both seen moving about the Bite and well known to Lord Godric. The parallel here lies in the knowledge that a third party – fisherman / pirate - was responsible for delivering both Ned and Davos to the vicinity of the Sisters; however, only one’s existence can be verified. With regard to Ned’s mystery fisherman, did he truly drown before reaching shore, or is it possible that he also cast out his passenger(s) into the waters of the Bite, outside the eyes of the watchers on Littlesister or Widow’s Watch, leaving them to fend for themselves to arrive at White Harbor’s shore in secrecy? Could this fisherman been sailing a boat of a different sort – perhaps one with sails of purple, green, or black? Did he exist at all? Was Ned betrayed in the end? If so, by whom? Eddard Stark was certainly killed by honor…but was it all his own, or in part from misplaced trust in the past?
Part II: Where are you going, my grey-eyed son?
**Warning: This section is probably the most boring of this essay - all logistics and route planning. It's relevant to the theory but not that interesting, so my feelings won't be hurt if you skip. **
Next, I would like to focus on the oddity that is Ned’s journey from the Vale to Winterfell to call his banners. One minor item of interest here is that Aerys had sent his command to the Eyrie. This stood out to me, because the World Book tells us that by the end of 281/beginning of 282, “ winter had returned with a vengeance”, snow had blanketed King’s Landing, the Blackwater had frozen, etc. I assume that if it’s deep winter in King’s Landing, it is also deep winter in the Vale…which means that Jon Arryn would have already departed the Eyrie and taken up residence at the Gates of the Moon on the valley floor. On face this may not be a big deal and possibly just an oversight, but if this is true and Jon Arryn had already relocated to the Gates, Ned’s starting point is in slightly less treacherous territory (in terms of landscape) right off the bat. I’ll delve further into this point in a moment. Moving on to the route itself: Supposedly, Ned left the Eyrie / GotM and needed to avoid Gulltown, so opted to head for the Fingers to find boat passage. The journey was said to be long and perilous, with him taking the long way through the mountains toward the Fingers. This is where things start to look wonky when you take a closer look at the makeup of the Vale and some of Neddard's options for getting to Winterfell and getting there fast. A map of the Vale for general reference:  First, to get to the Fingers from the Eyrie , he would go north and then east. This in itself makes absolutely no sense if the end destination is White Harbor - talk about going out of your way. Not the best map, but you get the idea:  Curious also that the most direct route would pass through/skirt by Heart's Home, the territory of House Corbray, which has allegiance to House Arryn during the Rebellion that at the time was iffy at best : At the time that Ned would be potentially traveling through his lands, Lyn Corbray was taking up sword against his own liege lord & Ned's second father. (In addition, the Corbrays have more than a few connections to/dealings with Littlefinger and the Baelish family in general; we see in AFFC that both Lyn and Lyonel are deep in Baelish’s pocket .) To avoid Heart’s Home, Ned’s would be best served by traveling south through the Vale of Arryn toward Longbow Hall, seat of House Hunter. Not only had “Old Lord Hunter” been head of House Hunter for 45 years by that time and stoutly faithful to House Arryn, traveling through the Vale itself to Longbow Hall might not be so bad, as per this description we get from Catelyn: Doesn’t sound so terrible, right? Especially should Ned be departing from the Gates of the Moon at the valley floor (see comment above). Even in the deep of winter this route would be far less dangerous than any going through the mountains. This seems to be confirmed by a map of the Vale from The Lands of Ice and Fire:  Had he gone through the Vale Valley, Ned would have a relatively straight and easy shot from the Gates of the Moon all the way to the Narrow Sea, passing through friendly territory to boot. Note that Longbow Hall, home to staunch Arryn loyalists, also has relatively decent access to the Narrow Sea – Ned could take ship from the large bay opening itself, or he could go further north and for leave from the uppermost shore of that same peninsula. To get north to the Fingers from the Vale Valley (and avoid Corbray territory), Ned would have to cross both high mountains AND a large channel of water (unnamed on maps, but good sized) - risky even in the best of times. I will note that this act would take him towards Snakewood, seat of House Lynderly. We don’t know Lynderly allegiance during the Rebellion, but in current story Littlefinger tells Sansa that Lord Jon Lynderly is one of his friends: Also, the Lynderly sigil is that of green vipers on a black field; given that GRRM uses the term “viper” in negative connotation 99.5% of the time, I think it is fairly safe to assume that this is not a trustworthy house. So this begs the question: why? Why would Ned make such a choice when a safer and easier option was at hand? Let’s analyze another scenario: Ned circumventing Corbray/Lynderly lands from the other side, so traveling northwest toward House Belmore at Strongsong…a sound choice on the face of it, being as Jon Arryn’s recently deceased (as in, *just* killed by Aerys along with Brandon Stark) nephew Elbert’s mother was a Belmore. Meaning, there would be strong support for House Arryn from them as well, especially given that Elbert himself was heir to the Vale at the time of his death. Two points to consider here: 1) The terrain in the direction of Strongsong from the Eyrie is quite mountainous and would be very treacherous in winter. Here’s a quite detailed map that shows the rough terrain around Strongsong ( and further highlights the insanity of not going eastward through the Vale Valley). Note: Snakewood is incorrectly labeled as “Sunkenwood” on this map. Blame the Italians.  Lord Borrell’s statement tells us that Ned’s journey toward the Fingers did indeed take him through the mountains (which is why I dismiss the idea that Ned traveled the soopar-easy route through Vale Valley), and the landscape in the general direction of Strongsong is indeed mountainous and therefore quite dangerous – particularly with winter snowfall. This brings me to the second point:
2) Strongsong is in the complete opposite direction of the Fingers. In order to reach the Fingers from this vicinity, Ned would be forced to make a mind-bogglingly crazy eastbound journey across nearly the entirety of the Vale – through more mountains and hostile lands. This lunacy is compounded when you see that if Ned DID manage to make it alive through the mountains by Strongsong, he could easily continue traveling a relatively short distance north through friendly territory until reaching the inland shores of the Bite or even into the Neck. I mean, what is this? To go forward, Ned must go back? To go east, he must go west? It’s madness. That being said, we do have to contend with the supposition that Ned DID cross the mountains at some point on his journey…with the main presumption that he headed east in order to end up on the Fingers. Let’s take a closer look at that latter condition, however. Given the nature of the mountain terrain, though, along with the wintry conditions that would drastically curtail his path through the high mountains to the north, I do find it a bit strange that Ned wouldn’t try to make a break west, toward the Kingsroad. His wife certainly thought this plan made sense: One might argue that Ned needed to avoid the Kingsroad at this time due to local fighting and early skirmishes, which is a reasonable assumption. However, we see Catelyn and Ser Rodrik managing to make it incognito on return from their trip to King’s Landing despite the increasing tensions in the kingdom, with their success largely due to their traveling as a pair and not in company of a large party. When you think on it, even should Ned decide not to travel the Kingsroad all the way to Winterfell, he certainly had the option of either crossing it toward the Green Fork or following it as far as the Neck where he could then go north through his own territory via the route of his choosing. To accomplish this, however, Ned would be forced to go one way – the most dangerous way, but also the easiest & fastest way out of the Eyrie: the High Road. We then must acknowledge the greatest danger of the High Road – and the primary direction in which this danger lies. The Mountains of the Moon are plagued by fierce creatures both animal and human, as Catelyn & Co. discover on their march to deliver Tyrion to the Eyrie in AGOT. The densest concentration of these ferocious clans is at the foothills of the mountains that flank the High Road on its western edge. This mountain road is, well, mountainous, it’s dangerous, and despite its peril it would still be the quickest and most logical route from the Vale to the North while avoiding the port of Gulltown. It’s the route that checks all the boxes regarding what we know about the nature of Ned’s journey…but it’s the route he supposedly didn’t take on his way home to Winterfell. So you are probably asking yourself, what is the point of this long rambling geography lesson? Well, I believe we have a Sealord’s Cat scenario here – we’ve been seeing what we’ve been told to see about Ned’s trip, not what’s actually there. What I deduce from this analysis of the land, the alliances, and the timing of his journey is thus: Ned did not travel directly from the Eyrie to the Fingers (and may not have traveled to the Fingers at all). But why? One final observation before moving on to discussion of the Fisherman’s Daughter herself. Interestingly enough, taking the High Road west toward the Kingsroad also gets one close to some other important destinations. One is the Inn of the Crossroads, relevant for many reasons. Another is the Trident, significance obvious. The last… Well, I’ll just put this series of passages here, courtesy of Arya (ASOS 74): |
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 8, 2017 23:25:24 GMT
Part III - The Maiden Fare
Let's return to the history of the Sisters as a smuggler's haven, and Ned's impromptu traveling companion.
The situation is that near the start of the Rebellion, 1) after Lyanna Stark has gone missing/been kidnapped by the Crown Prince, 2) after Rickard and Brandon Stark have met their deaths in King’s Landing, 3) after Jon Arryn has called banners against the Crown, we have Ned Stark (said to be en route to White Harbor) mistakenly landing in a reclusive area known to be a smugglers' cove with a mystery woman that “they say” gave Ned his bastard son Jon.
There are several takeaways from Borrell’s brief but impactful statement. First and foremost, that there’s now another contender in the ring for Jon Snow’s parentage…that one is clear. However, the remaining hints are somewhat more subtle, so let’s examine them closely. Keep in mind that both Borrell lords, father and son, were present for this encounter - the current Lord Borrell witnessed Ned's visit personally so we can take these facts in mostly good faith.
**”The fisherman drowned” : this was covered in Part I, but to recap: there is no proof of the fisherman’s existence.
**”his daughter got Stark to the Sisters before the boat went down.”: This is verification that Ned Stark had a woman physically with him. The fisherman’s daughter was a real person – a person that was not known to the people on Sweetsister who met her.
Returning to the description of the general nature of the Sisters in Part I, it is important to reiterate the mostly self-imposed isolation of the islands and the inhabitants. The Borrell lords (then and now) as well as the rest of the population would be familiar with the names of the high lords near the area (such as Stark and Manderly) and might possibly know some of them by sight, but the likelihood of them recognizing extended family or members of vassal houses would be small. A perfect example from AGOT Eddard XI as Ned is hearing petitions as Hand while Robert is out hunting demonstrates how removed people can be from the business of nobility:
Point being, no one in Sisterton recognized the Fisherman’s Daughter, but it’s not unexpected that they wouldn’t. As long as she wasn't from the Sisters, she could have been anyone, from anywhere.
**” They say he left her with a … bastard in her belly”: (skipping the first section of this one and will return to it momentarily) If Ned "left her with a bastard in her belly" from this encounter, it then means that the fisherman's daughter was not visibly pregnant while seen on Sweetsister. Now as I'm sure we are all aware, not visibly pregnant =/= not pregnant; a woman can be several months along and still not show. This also speaks to timing and reasonable expectation: Godric Borrell can apparently reconcile in his mind Jon Snow’s approximate age to the timeframe of Ned & the Fisherman’s Daughter’s showing up on Sweetsister, which means the window of opportunity exists for this outcome (a bastard child) to be possible.
This also implies that something led the Borrells to believe that Ned and this woman were intimate - such as a familiarity, a particular closeness, or even sharing a room at the inn...an intimacy that could lead to 'a bastard in her belly.' Ned - despite not being married to Cat at this point – is by nature not a man known to take his pleasures, but there still had to be some degree of affection shown between them and/or time spent together for Lord Godric to associate Fisherman's Daughter / Jon Snow. (I say “intimacy”, but this intimacy would not necessarily need to be erotic…a familiarity could certainly be construed as romantically intimate depending on the display and how it was perceived.)
A subsequent and lesser implication is that the Fisherman’s Daughter was also of an age with 18-19 yo Ned…not to mention obviously quite something.
Interestingly, Borrell doesn't mention the Fisherman's Daughter actually LEAVING/parting ways with Ned - only that Ned left her with a bastard in her belly. After Lord Borrell Sr. let him go, Ned continued on to White Harbor...and that's all we know. We have no contextual evidence to say whether or not the Fisherman's Daughter left with Ned - although if she was put forth to all on Sweetsister as a strange fisherman's daughter that Ned isn't supposed to know, it makes more sense to think that she traveled on independently and NOT to White Harbor with Ned.
** "They say he left her with a bag of silver”: Believe it or not, these ten words are the key to it all, the ones that ignited the spark of this little theory of mine. To return to the closing passage in Part I in which Arya finally leaves the Hound to his fate and makes her way to Saltpans, I will repost this pertinent section:
Arya needed silver to board the most seaworthy ship in port. Recall that earlier in that same passage, the Hound instructed her to look for coin, as they would need it for fare on a boat out of Saltpans. Obviously Arya no longer had Sandor's help in getting money at this time, so she traded her horse for a meager amount (about half a purse), and still didn’t have enough. (Luckily she had another kind of coin on her person.)
The Fisherman's Daughter, however...well, Ned gave her a BAG of silver. A full purse.
Now, you could argue that the coin was naught but pathetic recompense for the loss of her father & her boat...or you could say that Ned was merely being Mr. Nice Guy and paying her way home to wherever whor...err, she was from. Either could very well be. But something else that could very well be, something I believe more likely, is that Ned had purposely brought along this purse with full intention of giving it over to this Fisherman’s Daughter. The bag of silver is prearranged payment for passage on a pirate/merchant ship....one sailing the Narrow Sea bound for Braavos, or Tyrosh, or Dorne, or perhaps even Dragonstone. The possibilities are endless, as you can see:
Any Narrow Sea destination is a no-brainer here - simply leave the smuggler's den of Sisterton, hit the Bite, and follow trade/pirate routes wherever you want to go. Braavos is practically directly across the Bite. Dragonstone, just south of that., if you can manage the storms. Storm's End, same. Reaching Dorne is a matter of sailing down the Narrow Sea avoiding the Stepstones by zipping into the Sea of Dorne to another port not as closely eyed by the Martells, and heading on to Starfall by land. However, it should be noted that a destination of Tyrosh, Land of All Strange & Mysterious Targaryen Connections, is a straight shot down the Narrow Sea and requires none of these machinations. (“When King's Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were.” “Far away,” Ser Gerold said..)
Thus we come to the crux of my argument, and the theory of this essay:
The purpose of this chapter, the introduction of the Fisherman's Daughter, and the the reason we are given this tale through Davos, a former smuggler, is to draw attention to the finer details that point to an attempt by Ned Stark to knowingly smuggle a woman through/out of Westeros in the early days of the Rebellion. This woman was someone Ned knew well, yet someone whose identity and whereabouts needed to remain secret.
So....who could it be??
Part IIIa - Pin the Tale on the Lady
When I originally proposed this theory on Westeros forum back in 2014, it was met with mostly strong skepticism and even some derision…partly because I posted this in the RLJ-dedicated General forum, but mainly because I posited that the “Fisherman’s Daughter” was none other than Lyanna Stark. Whether she went with Rhaegar willingly out of Twoo Wuv and found herself in need of arrangements to get to a Dornish love nest, or whether she had run from her pending nuptials to Robert and needed to hide until the rebellion was over, or whether she had been in a similar predicament to that of her future niece Arya and was just being wagged all over the Riverlands by some captor or another (and allow me to say - if you guys want to suss out potential Lyanna results using parallels & echoes, Arya’s chapters are a great place to look for them, seriously)...the prelude is incidental. Regardless of the specifics of Lyanna’s situation, my proposal is that Ned got word of it and tried to help this sister that he loved with all his heart leave north-central Westeros by boat. On the other hand, once I started looking more closely at the details and discussing them with others, it became quite evident that there just as much – in truth, more – symbolism , hints, and indirect evidence available to conclude that the Fisherman’s Daughter could likely be Ashara Dayne. I will lay out arguments for both, and you can weigh accordingly and decide which fits more. (Confession: I still vacillate between them, depending on the day/hour/argument.) Support for FD = Lyanna: 1) No need for HBO teleporters. One niggling issue with the “Lyanna died at the TOJ in Dorne after hiding out with Rhaegar & 3 Kingsguard for months” idea is that no one has really been able to provide a solid explanation as to how in seven hells she GOT to Dorne in the first place. Although as my dear Weasel Pie has noted, “Lyanna at the TOJ is not canon”, Lyanna in the south is certainly not out of the question, be it TOJ or Starfall or what have you. And, much chagrin though it may bring to some, there’s information from the Fapp and other authoritative sources that say yeah, she was in/died in Dorne. If we mostly accept that Lyanna WAS somewhere in Dorne, it has yet to be resolved as to how she actually got there. I’ve heard it all – she and the ultra-Targaryen Crown Prince of the realm disguised themselves as peasants and traveled in plain sight; they camped out at the ruins of Summerhall until Robert’s army got too close and they needed to move; Arthur and Oswell schlepped her through the heaviest areas of the fighting without being discovered; Rhaegar made a secret deal with the Martells to get her to Starfall, undsoweiter unsoweiter. Really, all I can say to that is: wut. In this FD scenario that closely parallels the past, Ned putting Lyanna on a ship - possibly a pirate ship like Salladhor Saan’s, or a salt sea trader like the Titan’s Daughter – to sail the Narrow Sea…is a method that can actually get her into Dorne where she is implied to be. Her boarding a seaworthy boat at Sisterton accomplishes that purpose while avoiding all of the "Rhaegar, Lyanna, and two Kingsguard went 1000 miles down the Kingsroad in disguise!" nonsense. The intention to send Lyanna away in secret via ship also works whether she were to depart from the port of original choice – a topic I will circle back to – or found herself having to change plans on short notice and hop a boat out of Sweetsister instead. Ned secures the passage either way; this implies forethought and planning and deliberate action. 2) Guesstimated namedays of bouncing baby boys. If Lyanna did bear a child around the time of the Sack or even nearer the Battle of the Trident, the timing of the FD encounter fits neatly here (at least according to my own biased Rebellion timeline). Lyanna as the FD could be newly pregnant or still very early in her pregnancy (like 2-3 months) - this jives pretty well with the 'abduction' and early RR timeline and explains why Lord Borrell did not notice a belly/came to the conclusion that Jon Snow is the child of this union. Ned shows up on island with young hot girl, many moons later Ned shows up at Winterfell with a bouncing baby boy. Not rocket science here. 3) The invisible wolf tracking collar. Throwing in Ned’s involvement answers the eternal question of how Lord Eddard knew to take 7 northmen (that “wall of ice” that I discussed in Heresy 199) down to the famous round tower and find his missing sister with seemingly minimal effort - he already knew where she was, because he helped get her there. Whether by accompanying her for part of the trip or by entrusting her to someone else, he knew right where to find her –and perhaps exactly WHAT he would find there - when all was said and done. Also, the idea of Lyanna being shipped (literally) down to Starfall or some other populated destination could explain the "they" who found Ned holding her hand, and resolves the wonkiness surrounding the idea of the birth of a baby in an abandoned watchtower in the middle of nowhere with 3 KG acting as midwives. 4) Location, location, location. Back to those maps from Part II…. Rhaegar supposedly carried away his northern girl at swordpoint in the Riverlands, falling upon her ‘ not ten leagues from Harrenhal’. This area where Lyanna is rumored to have been abducted just so happens to be slightly south of where Ned would have found himself had he opted to leave the Eyrie via the East Road discussed upthread. Rephrased: if Ned fibbed about his travel path, actually departed the Eyrie via the perilous mountain road that took him, you know, through the perilous mountains (makes sense, right?), and ended up in the area around the Inn of the Crossroads, and Lyanna was also still somewhere in the vicinity post-‘kidnapping’, it's not totally impossible that she somehow rendezvoused with Ned and journeyed on together from there. I would liken this to the journey taken by Arya & the Hound toward the Twins (with a bit of Brienne and Two Handed Jaime making sexy sword time en route to King’s Landing mixed in for flavor, because this is my crackpot and I want it there): recall that Arya, after much wandering around the Riverlands in some company or another, gets to the Twins right in time for her brother’s bloody wedding, but of course her reunion with her family is interrupted by their slaughter and Sandor’s axe to the head. In this world of echoes and inversions, is it really that hard to imagine that, unlike Arya, Lyanna may have been successful in finding a live wolf relation at the end? But… there’s much and more to say about THIS story…allow me to indulge my inner George here and say, “keep reading.” Support for FD = Ashara: 1) Lady of the Waters. Ashara was famously " not nailed to the floor at Starfall" – and we readers haven’t nailed her location in general during the Rebellion. She was a court companion to Elia at Harrenhal and at Starfall at the end of the war, and who knows where in between or when she went from once place to the other. This Fisherman’s Daughter tale could be Ashara making that transition from King’s Landing to Dorne.. She also had transportation access: "They have horses in Dorne too, you know. And boats (though not many of their own)"....and I'm assuming that a lady of Starfall, a castle that borders the sea, might know a *little* bit about sailing on open bodies of water. She probably wouldn’t have the knowledge/skills to captain a merchant ship through the Narrow Sea, of course, but perhaps rowing a small boat to shore after being put off that ship in the edgewaters of the Bite? Ok, I could buy that. 2) The “Thing”. We have multiple references to Ashara Dayne and Ned having some kind of romantic involvement either at or post-Harrenhal – Catelyn hears the gossip at Winterfell, Cersei throws Ashara in Ned’s face during their talk in the godswood, Edric Dayne and Harwin both discuss it with Arya. I think it’s clear that ‘something’ happened between these two even if we aren’t sure what that ‘something’ was. It may have not even been romantic, but just looked that way to a casual observer. In addition, we know that Ashara "looked to Stark" after Harrenhal, which could imply the “thing”, or a favor that needs to be repaid, or some other connection with Ned that is not yet clear. 3) Timing is everything. As noted in Lyanna’s section, a conception in the early days of the Rebellion would result in a child near the end of the Rebellion, and Barristan certainly believes that Ashara did indeed birth a child sometime between Harrenhal and the end of the war, so there’s that. Also, Ned traveling to Starfall at the end of the war – because who doesn’t like to add on a few hundred miles to a trip at last minute, amirite? - seems more reasonable if there’s a lover and maybe a cute baby at the end of it as well as a docking station for a fancy magic sword. (I will bet five internet dollars that when not in active service Dawn sits in the meteorite from which it came. See: Marvel Black Knight.) 4) Wylla We’re On the Subject… We are all familiar with the following conversation between Ned and Robert in AGOT Eddard II: Then we get this second equally familiar exchange in ASOS Arya VIII: Wylla is Edric Dayne’s wetnurse at Starfall. This is also the name of the feisty blonde youngest daughter of Wyman Manderly at White Harbor. WYlla. WYman. Ned went on to White Harbor after his detour at the Sisters; Wylla Wetnurse - origins unknown - has been at Starfall since prior to Edric Dayne’s birth in 287. I actually have an entire separate theory on the whole Wylla Wetnurse issue that I won’t dump in here, so for brevity I will just say that there’s a very good chance that Ned borrowed Wylla from the area around White Harbor and sent her to Starfall, where she then stayed to serve House Dayne. This will be covered more in the next section. 5) The things we do for love. Back to Ned and Trouserless Bob: The bolded is a puzzling on a few levels. First, as we know, it implies that "whatever" occurred after Ned and Cat were married (or at least that's the story he's feeding Bob), and this notion seems to contradict pretty much every theory about everything associated with the Rebellion. Second, a search of the phrase “in the sight of gods and men” yields only a handful of results, and all of those results refer to only these things: *Trials/Judgments/Executions – *Kinslaying – *Proclamations/Vows (general) – And last but not least: *Weddings/Lovers – There are also numerous references to vows of various nature, mostly same context as the quotes above, before heart trees, but my point was to highlight the specificity of Ned’s phrase…and show that our of the three scenarios presented, only one of them would really be applicable to an act that dishonored Catelyn as well as Ned: Weddings & Lovers. The big argument against this is that at the time that Ned went north to call his banners and met the Fisherman’s Daughter he was not yet married to Catelyn, so this couldn’t count as infidelity or whatever. Harwin even points out to Arya: Though Harwin is referencing the earlier Tourney at Harrenhal, even after Brandon’s death/at the time of his trip to Winterfell Ned was still a single guy - and it’s possible that the new marriage plans for Ned/Cat had already been made by Jon Arryn prior to Ned’s departure from the Eyrie…meaning that he was 'unofficially' betrothed, in a sense. In addition, though I have absolutely nothing to base this on, Ned doesn’t strike me as a a guy prone to sexual proclivity. My gut says that Ned may have even been a virgin when he met up with this Fisherman’s Daughter - saving himself for his bride despite his "man's needs". I’m reminded of Sam Tarly with Gilly on their journey to Oldtown – forsaking his vows to the Night’s Watch in the presence of a young girl in his charge…as he is ferrying a king’s son to safety, I might add. Could Ned have also succumbed to his lesser angels with the young and beautiful Ashara Dayne while cooped up in the hull of a ship? Given himself and his honor (in the form of his virginity that should have been reserved for Catelyn, as Sam’s virginity should have been reserved for the Watch) to the maid in his care? Extra bonus points if there's also smuggling of a baby in the mix too, one that could be sheltered at White Harbor. Combine that with what we see unfold with son Robb and Jeyne Westerling - you know, where he kindof 'accidentally' sleeps with her while she's nursemaiding him and then promptly marries her afterward to preserve her name and dignity - and I think there may be something to the crackpot idea that Ned married Ashara Dayne "in sight of gods and men" while pledged to Catelyn Tully. (This adds an extra layer of deception on Ashara's part that I will go over later as well as discuss in the comments.) **Teaser tag: I’m also especially intrigued by this part of Harwin’s quote: “ there's no stain on your father's honor.” This is more GRRM wordplay fun that I will cover in Part V. It’s a good one, I promise. Part IV: A Tale of Two SistersA large conclusion with the Fisherman’s Daughter theory, of course, is that by sneaking a fair maid around the North (regardless of which one he was trafficking) the honorable Ned Stark more or less betrayed his house, his allies, and his cause. Ned is supposed to be seeking vengeance for his family and helping his friend Robert win a throne, but instead he places his personal interests over his loyalty...and although " the lie was not without honor", love is still " the bane of honor, the death of duty". Given all the guilt and angst and burden over his lies/mistakes that is continually alluded to in AGOT plus GRRM's love of moral ambiguity, I think such an act would fit perfectly with Ned's charcter arc – " black, white, and grey; all the shades of truth." Despite this, I struggled (and still struggle) with the identity of the Fisherman’s Daughter. Some days I lean toward Lyanna (your first theory-baby always holds a special spot in your heart, after all), and other days I lean toward Ashara. There are obvious pros and cons to both. However, when I began revising this essay, something caught my attention - another echo, so faint as to be barely noticeable. The first hint is in the name of the islands themselves: The Three Sisters. OK, so obviously that’s a giant neon sign in itself – Ned washing up on a metaphor. The second – and far more subtle – hint is in the names of the individual islands: Longsister, Sweetsister, Littlesister. Wait, what? you ask. Ned comes ashore at the island of Sweetsister. As Davos tells us, Sweetsister is pretty much anything but sweet…and that notion jives with the term “sweet sister” used throughout the series to address or refer to a female sibling in the sarcastic/pejorative sense. Ned himself is thought of as “dear” and “sweet” several times through the books (though to his credit, not in the pejorative, making "sweet" a literal translation here). By having him land on Sweetsister, I think we are being told that dear sweet Ned was up to something neither dear nor sweet. To the west of Sweetsister lies Littlesister. Little. Sister. Get it? To the east of Sweetsister lies Longsister. Hold on, you say – Ned only has one sister! Well, I give you this from Catelyn: I bet the tall Ashara Dayne had long legs, was a nice long cool drink of water, if you get my drift. Yes, what I’m saying here is that Ned’s trip to the Bite actually involved/revolved around both women. Perhaps not in physical presence at the same time, but they both have bearing upon this journey and this location – they have “sister” roles, hence the equal weight in supportive details that makes it impossible to determine which one played the lead part on opening night. To really drive it home, I will take the crazy even further: There is a parallel here between Ned and these two women, and Aegon the Conqueror and his two sisters, Rhaenys and Visenya. Yes, I know. It sounds nuts. Bear with me. Although I noticed that there are actually HUGE similarities between Ned’s arc and the history of Aegon I that will be a theory unto itself, I will only cover high-level here. To start, we have Aegon and his sister-wives. (Also, mad props to the artist of the second rendering, because I hadn't seen that photo before and it's awesome.)   Aegon was a stoic guy, mostly keeping to himself with no sycophantic fanbase or Valyrian groupies to feed his royal ego, and he didn’t do show-offish king stuff like participate in tourneys. He wielded a large and famous Valyrian steel sword named Black fyre, much like Ned Stark wields a large and famous Valyrian steel sword named Ice. His closest friend was one Orys Baratheon (Aegon later appointed this Baratheon as his Hand, just as King Bob Baratheon later appointed Ned as his Hand), but the majority of his time (when not planning Planetos domination) was spent Netflix & chilling with his two favorite ladies - his sisters. Aegon was the middle child of the family, bookended by his sisters – just as in the GRRM-sanctioned artwork up there. Did I mention that Sweetsister – the “Ned” island - is also the middle island? Next up, we have Aegon’s younger sister, Rhaenys – the Little Sister. Note that in the picture above, Rhaenys is to the right of Aegon..to the east, in other words - same position as the island of Littlesister if looking straight-on at a map. Rhaenys was the wild free-spirited sister: “ less stern and more playful and curious than her older sister; interested in music and poetry; loved to ride her dragon, Meraxes, and spent twice as much time riding than her siblings.” So, similarities to Lyanna Stark should be fairly obvious, particularly the wild side and the love of riding. “During the early years of her brother's reign, Rhaenys often aided Aegon in his efforts to win the respect of his vassals and the smallfolk. The smallfolk were a special concern for Rhaenys. She was fond of singers and bards as well. In addition, she arranged all kinds of marriages between far-flung houses including the marriage between Lord Ronnel Arryn and a daughter of Lord Torrhen Stark.” Ned had a habit of mingling with his men, having a different one sit by him for dinner each night (I can’t find this passage, of course), in order to earn their trust and respect. Since we also see Lyanna defend Howland so ferociously, I’m guessing that winning hearts and minds through good deed/support/concern for wellbeing of those beneath them in station was a family lesson. Plus singers and bards, yo. Also, a Robert/Lyanna betrothal is equivalent to a (ward of) Lord Arryn and a daughter of Lord Stark – we don’t know who suggested this pairing, or if Lyanna had any say it in whatsoever, but I’ll just point out that the idea of Lyanna being opposed to her impending marriage is solely a fan interpretation. Rhaenys died first and unexpectedly, hapless victim of scorpion bolt to eye of dragon she was riding. There was much debate over HOW she died – some say she fell off on the way down, others suspected she was crushed by Meraxes upon striking ground, and still others believe that she survived but was captured and tortured to death in the dungeons of House Uller in Dorne. All that said, no one learned the truth of her death. Despite the mystery surrounding the actual circumstances, it was clear that Rhaenys met her end in Dorne. Strike you as familiar? (And oh my god, do I have a theory in the works for you guys about torture dens!! Stay tuned to KRZY 100.1, the Some Pig Crackpot Station, for more after the break!  ) One more thing about Rhaenys: she bore Aegon his first son, the heir and future king, Aenys I. “Aenys was considered weak at birth and early childhood, but once he bonded with his dragon Quicksilver, he rapidly became stronger and more confident.” Although Aegon had loved Rhaenys the most of his sisters, it was said that she kept lovers on the side and entertained them when Aegon wasn’t around; therefore, “ Rumors abounded that he could be no true son of Aegon the Conqueror, who was a peerless warrior, and that perhaps his father had been one of the singers or mummers that Rhaenys had delighted in.” Aenys was still very young at the time of his mother’s death. Replace “dragon Quicksilver” with “direwolf Ghost”, and I think you have the idea. Regarding the bit about Rhaenys’ dalliances with other men, again – that will be part of a future crackpot thread. Last but not least, we come to Visenya - shown on the left, or the west. Visenya will make much more sense in Part V, so hang tight. Visenya was Aegon’s older sister: " ...a passionate, temperamental woman. Visenya was both stern and sensual, more voluptuous than her sister Rhaenys, more passionate, but with a dark and unforgiving side. Even those who loved her best found her stern, serious and unforgiving. Visenya was described as having a "harsh beauty" and was reputed to have dabbled in sorcery. While Rhaenys was the flirt, Visenya was the seductress. Although they shared their brother Aegon between them, they competed for him each in their own way. It is said that Aegon spent ten nights with Rhaenys for every one with Visenya. “ Regarding personality, [insert comparison to Arianne Martell/stereotypical comment of choice about the sexual mores of Dornish women here] mixed with an inversion - Ashara, laughing eyes, dancing with all the fellas at the tourney, vs. stern and serious Visenya. That being said, recall that Catelyn recounts Ashara's eyes as " haunting": often recurring to the mind and typically evoking poignant feelings; beautiful, but in a sad way and often in a way that cannot be forgotten; to keep coming back to the mind of (someone) especially in a way that makes the person sad or upset. So, we have a bit of a contradiction here for Ashara; her 'haunting' aspect ties with Visenya. That segues to Sorcery and practice of; paging Part V for that discussion. Keep reading. Visenya famously wielded the Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister. She also later gave birth to Maegor the Cruel, younger half-brother to Rhaenys’ son Aenys. In addition to being a total tyrant and despite being the second son, Maegor possessed his father’s sword Blackfyre, rode his father’s dragon Balerion, and eventually laid claim - by brute force, mainly - to the Iron Throne over the rightful heir, Aeyns’ son Aegon II. Maegor’s doings were supported and often enabled by his mother Visenya, and it was rumored that Visenya herself was responsible for the death of Aenys to clear a path to the throne for Maegor, although it could never be proven. It should also be noted that this not-really-legit ‘king’ spent 5 years exiled in Pentos for his attempts to circumvent inheritance rules – somewhat reminiscent of a young mummer’s dragon, now bent on taking the throne, who surfaced in Pentos around age 5. Although I don't have anything concrete on the kid situation yet, I believe it will prove important that the Dark Sister birthed the second child, the younger half-sibling - and there's actually a good timeline fit for this if you can get past all the standard "practically canon" RLJ assumptions. Targaryen/Fisherman's Daughter echo in a nutshell: Aegon with his two sisters departed the island of Dragonstone and purposely made landfall on Westeros at the ‘mouth’ of the Blackwater. Ned (and perhaps his two “sisters”) accidentally found themselves on the island of Sweetsister in the ‘Bite’ after departing from…well, not sure, but we can make some 'salty' guesses, no? Also, Aegon came to the 7 Kingdoms to stake a Targaryen claim and begin a dynasty. Ned was on his way to bring about its end. The first door on the right is the last door to the left, you know – inversions here, there, everywhere. I was quite excited to see these parallels and inversions unfold during my research, and hope that by linking these seemingly unrelated sets of people to a chain of tiny islands, I can demonstrate that GRRM is deliberately connecting past and present. While it wasn’t really my intention to discuss Jon Snow’s actual parentage and weigh pros/cons of each contender, the above section should nonetheless be a fun read for anyone chewing on the possibility of a “Stark + Stark = Jon” scenario - @kingmonkey already did a great job detailing the potential for such a pairing, and the parallel to Aegon I and sister-wife Rhaenys shown here could certainly support it. For the record, I’m not saying that Ned is Aegon the Conqueror reborn, mmkay? The purpose of this section is primarily to showcase the similarity in the nature & importance of a relationship between one man and two women, and also to introduce the concept of “sisterhood” that seems to be running in the background of Lyanna Stark and Ashara Dayne. These girls are connected – not just to Ned, but to each other. The details of that connection are TBD, but I believe we are going to eventually see some kind of ‘sororal’ unity between them, whether as peers/friends (Margaery’s cousins), members of a formal order of some sort (septas, graces), or some other informal collective (court maids, brothel girls). Keep in mind also that they were close in age and may have looked similar (long brown hair, slim, pretty) to boot. |
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 8, 2017 23:25:38 GMT
Part V - Midwives and MaidsIf you have stuck it out this far, THANK YOU!! Your devotion will now pay off a thousandfold with this section. Hold on to your hats.
To further support the notion that Ashara Dayne did indeed have a ticket aboard the Fisherman’s Daughter party barge, I am dropping in this link to these brilliant observations by Westeros poster @st Daga on this subject. This was a true eye-opener for me and I was so beyond excited by her find that I saved it to later incorporate into this theory (with permission, and all credit due). "Things that are outside of the main plot that I think are interesting are two ships that Davos mentions. The first is called the Merry Midwife and Davos arrived on her from Sisterton. This ship is actually described by Davos as drab and pock-marked, with grey and brown sails. Her figurehead is interesting, and is of a laughing woman, holding an infant by one foot. This makes me think of several things, namely Ashara Dayne, who was described as having laughing purple eyes, and she is holding an infant by one foot, which is similar to the story of Achilles and his mother Thetis, who dipped her son in the river Styx to protect him from harm. The second ship is the Sloe Eyed Maid, which is actually a ship that Dany thought to book passage on for she and her dragons to reach Westeros. It turnes out the Sloe Eyed Maid crashed on the shores of Sisterton, and was destroyed completely, probably when it was lured into shore by the ship wreckers at Sisterton (which is hinted at in Davos II, when Lord Borrell talks of the spices he got off a sloe eyed maid, and which he offeres to Davos to flavor up is Sister's Stew). Sloe eyed is defined as having attractive dark and almond shaped eyes. Sloe berries are purple in color (although the juice is red). Ashara Dayne is refered to as the maid with the laughting purple eyes, and Barriston Selmy thinks Dany could be Ashara's daugher, because of her eyes. So the Sloe Eyed Maid also makes me think of both Dany and Ashara Dayne. I wonder if the author is alluding to the possibility that Ashara Dayne was here in White Harbor in the past, possible disguised as a fishermans daughter along with Ned Stark. Could this be allusion to Wylla, a midwife/wet nurse/caregiver?"
Absolutely a fantastic catch – I’m still giddy over it, and owe Daga a frosty beverage or ten for this unwitting but monumental contribution to my Fisherman’s Daughter theory. I for one had never paid attention to the names of the ships, much less realized the outside associations, but there they are slapping me in the face! When I began reworking my theory to include this amazing and insightful detail, I decided to beef it up a bit with chapter text quotes and some supplemental facts from Wikipedia, and when I began pulling all of this information….BAM. The lights of Holy Shit City are shining up ahead, people. (Fair warning: for those not familiar with my large-scale theories, I tend to dive headlong down the rabbit hole and not stop until I touch bottom. Yes, ‘tis a silly place, but you may find it worthwhile in the end should you choose to power through. To paraphrase the legendary Jacques Cousteau, “We haf reached ze point of no return; zere are creatures in zis place zat have never before been seen. Bon. Ahead.”) I will work backwards here for a moment and first discuss the Merry Midwife, the ship that brings Davos to White Harbor. Referring back to the relevant section of text from St Daga’s post: " Things that are outside of the main plot that I think are interesting are two ships that Davos mentions. The first is called the Merry Midwife and Davos arrived on her from Sisterton. This ship is actually described by Davos as drab and pock-marked, with grey and brown sails. Her figurehead is interesting, and is of a laughing woman, holding an infant by one foot. This makes me think of several things, namely Ashara Dayne, who was described as having laughing purple eyes, and she is holding an infant by one foot, which is similar to the story of Achilles and his mother Thetis, who dipped her son in the river Styx to protect him from harm.” Now the text of ADWD, Davos II - the chapter following the Fisherman's Daughter: Ohhh, so much to say here. We’ll begin with the obvious: the name. As Daga has pointed out, “Merry” has association with Ashara Dayne of the “laughing” purple eyes, and “Midwife” implies…well, a baby. You know, like the one the Fisherman’s Daughter supposedly bore later. We see another example of GRRM’s tricksy inverse parallels here too – about the Midwife, it’s said “ in her youth no one had ever called her pretty”, yet Ashara Dayne was thought by many to be quite the looker and Lyanna Stark (as predecessor to Arya) could well have been "horsefaced" as a child but later grew into a "wild beauty". Next, I’ll throw in a nod to Melifeather /Feather Crystal about the “pocked” cheeks of the figurehead – the lady’s face cheeks and the baby’s bottom cheeks. In her Wheel of Time research, Feather has determined that Lyanna has a current parallel to Myrcella Baratheon as she serves in Arianne Martell’s “Queenmaker” plot. Arianne & Co. manage to sneak Myrcella out of Sunspear by using her maid Rosamund as a stand-in for Myrcella; they cover Rosamund with spots, and then claim Myrcella has the “pox” so that she stays in isolation in her chambers and Myrcella’s absence isn’t discovered until the deed is done. In other words, “pocks/pox” is used as part of the package of deception around a smuggling operation. I will admit, I was skeptical when she first came up with this comparison, but now that I view it in context, it totally works! @seams and @ravenous reader should have a good time with this wordplay. On to the appearance. The Midwife is drab grey and brown, tattered, “not a ship to draw a second glance”. Other references to grey & brown & tattered in the novels refer to clothing, usually roughspun, and isn’t it coincidental that in the large majority of cases, this type of clothing is worn by those who are common (smallfolk), identifying with common (Sparrows), or totally in disguise?Mance “Abel” Rayder’s spearwives at Winterfell on “Arya’s” rescue mission: “ Clad as serving girls in layers of drab grey roughspun, they wore brown woolen cloaks lined with white rabbit fur.” Ned with Littlefinger secretly meeting Catelyn at the brothel: "My lord, no," an urgent voice called out. "He speaks the truth." There were footsteps behind him.
Ned spun, knife in hand, as an old white-haired man hurried toward them. He was dressed in brown roughspun, and the soft flesh under his chin wobbled as he ran. "This is no business of yours," Ned began; then, suddenly, the recognition came. He lowered the dagger, astonished. "Ser Rodrik?" Ned being visited by Varys with urgent spy(der) business in the Hand’s private chambers: "Send him in," Ned said, wondering.
The visitor was a stout man in cracked, mud-caked boots and a heavy brown robe of the coarsest roughspun, his features hidden by a cowl, his hands drawn up into voluminous sleeves.
"Who are you?" Ned asked. Curiosity was stronger than caution. "Harwin, leave us," he commanded. Not until they were alone behind closed doors did his visitor draw back his cowl. "Lord Varys?" Ned said in astonishment. "Lord Stark," Varys said politely, seating himself. "I wonder if I might trouble you for a drink?" Ned filled two cups with summerwine and handed one to Varys. "I might have passed within a foot of you and never recognized you," he said, incredulous. He had never seen the eunuch dress in anything but silk and velvet and the richest damasks, and this man smelled of sweat instead of lilacs.Tommen and Myrcella encountering Arya catching cats: "A ragged dirty smelly boy," Tommen agreed.
They don't know me, Arya realized. They don't even know I'm a girl. Small wonder; she was barefoot and dirty, her hair tangled from the long run through the castle, clad in a jerkin ripped by cat claws and brown roughspun pants hacked off above her scabby knees.
Varys sending Tyrion to visit Shae in King’s Landing: They emerged through a trap at the back of a stable, having come perhaps a distance of three blocks under Rhaenys's Hill. A horse whickered in his stall when Tyrion let the door slam shut. Varys blew out the candle and set it on a beam and Tyrion gazed about. A mule and three horses occupied the stalls. He waddled over to the piebald gelding and took a look at his teeth. "Old," he said, "and I have my doubts about his wind."
"He is not a mount to carry you into battle, true," Varys replied, "but he will serve, and attract no notice. As will the others. And the stableboys see and hear only the animals." The eunuch took a cloak from a peg. It was roughspun, sun-faded, and threadbare, but very ample in its cut. "If you will permit me." When he swept it over Tyrion's shoulders it enveloped him head to heel, with a cowl that could be pulled forward to drown his face in shadows. "Men see what they expect to see," Varys said as he fussed and pulled. "Dwarfs are not so common a sight as children, so a child is what they will see. A boy in an old cloak on his father's horse, going about his father's business. Though it would be best if you came most often by night." Shae and Tyrion discussing her employment at the Keep: "The Red Keep has sufficient cooks. Butchers and bakers too. You'd need to pose as a scullion."
"A pot girl," she said, "in scratchy brown roughspun. Is that how m'lord wants to see me?"
"M'lord wants to see you alive," Tyrion said. "You can scarcely scour pots in silk and velvet."
Cersei sneaking to be with Jaime: A woman stood before him.
It is raining again, he thought when he saw how wet she was. The water was trickling down her cloak to puddle round her feet. How did she get here? I never heard her enter. She was dressed like a tavern wench in a heavy roughspun cloak, badly dyed in mottled browns and fraying at the hem. A hood concealed her face, but he could see the candles dancing in the green pools of her eyes, and when she moved he knew her.
"Cersei." He spoke slowly, like a man waking from a dream, still wondering where he was. "What hour is it?"
Finally, from good old Barristan, telling of his escape from King’s Landing. (Bonus points for the mention of silver as payment for ship passage!) “That night I traded my horse for a handful of pennies and some rags, and the next morning I joined the stream of smallfolk making their way to King's Landing. I'd gone out the Mud Gate, so I returned through the Gate of the Gods, with dirt on my face, stubble on my cheeks, and no weapon but a wooden staff. In roughspun clothes and mud-caked boots, I was just one more old man fleeing the war. The gold cloaks took a stag from me and waved me through. King's Landing was crowded with smallfolk who'd come seeking refuge from the fighting. I lost myself amongst them. I had a little silver, but I needed that to pay my passage across the narrow sea, so I slept in septs and alleys and took my meals in pot shops.”
On and on, you get the drift. I think it should be evident from these passages that I believe Davos’ old, ragged, beat-up Merry Midwife to be largely symbolic of a woman in peasant disguise ‘delivering’ someone to White Harbor at the same time as Ned. A woman of note, a beautiful young maid perhaps, that needed to travel incognito. Finally, this statement: Returning to the previous section and my speculation that Wylla Wetnurse was probably one that Ned found in/around White Harbor, I believe the above text supports that in the usual indirect way. Acting as wetnurse to noble houses could certainly be classified as a “humble trade”, one that could be plied between White Harbor and surrounding areas, including Sisterton. Also, it can’t be sheer coincidence that one of the Midwife’s major calling ports is White Harbor, home to the Wolf’s Den – a wolf’s den in real world of course serving as a place for the wolf mother to safely birth her pups. That’s not quite it for the Midwife, however. It’s telling that the Sloe-Eyed Maid was destroyed upon the shores, but the Merry Midwife, the beat-up old cog with grey and tattered sails so similar to a peasant disguise, leaves Sisterton 'alive'/intact and arrives safely at White Harbor. Could her safe deliverance be due to the care taken by her ‘captain’ to get her there? We get this later in the chapter, before Davos heads off to meet with Wyman Manderly: So the MM takes great care to avoid the "Lion-Star", that’s interesting. Her captain is even more interesting: he’s very short; he’s covered in hair; he has a mossy green mane and whiskers. With that description,does someone else come to mind? And just in case that wasn’t hint enough, George flat –out seals the deal with the next sentence: “ It made him look like a tree stump in yellow boots.” A green-hued tree stump, covered in hair the way moss covers a tree… Casso sounds almost like a cypress knee: “ a distinctive structure forming above the roots of a cypress tree of any of various species of the subfamily Taxodioideae. Their function is unknown, but they are generally seen on trees growing in swamps”. My my. And Old Casso is a “ hard master” to boot…hard like wood, I bet. A " good sailor" too - perhaps like a young lad who once sailed a skin boat down the Green Fork armed only with a shield and spear? Also note that the MM is tied up to the end of a wooden pier – oh, you mean almost, sorta, kindof like a “crannog”? “ The Irish word crannóg derives from Old Irish crannóc, which referred to a wooden structure or vessel, stemming from crann, which means "tree", plus a diminutive ending—literally "young tree". The classic image of a prehistoric crannog is of a small islet surrounded or defined at its edges by timber piles and a gangway, topped by a typical Iron Age roundhouse.” Looks a bit wooden-pier-ish, no?   This good captain Casso Mogat (and no, this is no apparent anagram; yes, I have checked) hung around faithfully for Davos to return to the ship…but after four days, while Davos was being detained at the Wolf’s Den, Casso and the Merry Midwife had to leave without him. Did someone wait for Ned as he pleaded for the understanding of old Lord Borrell in the halls of Breakwater? Was a 'captain' forced to depart with his 'passenger' before Ned could join him? To conclude this section, I’ll end where I began, with the Midwife’s homely looks: Think about those ‘layers’ of brown paint. Drab brown = the color of mud. Perhaps the girl wanted fire, and instead she was sent mud...but hey, this may not have been a bad thing after all: Finally, the Midwife is outfitted with tattered grey sails. Sails meant to move her safely on the water. Safe -grey -water. Greywater.  Mind blown yet? No? Let’s move to the Sloe-Eyed Maid, then. Clearly the Sloe-Eyed Maid was lured in under the pretense of aid/safe passage but was in reality being drawn to harm & total destruction. It’s not a huge leap to make the comparison to Ned and Ashara Dayne as the Fisherman's Daughter rowing across the unfamiliar waters of the Bite, unaware that they were being fooled by the beacon of the Night Lamp (without a Salla Saan to watch their backs). Also note that the Sloe-Eyed Maid was bound for Braavos; I refuse to believe this is sheer random coincidence, especially when we learn who else had sought passage aboard the Maid some time back: I don’t think I need to explain a connection between Daenerys Targaryen and Braavos, do I? Hopefully I also don’t need to explain the significance of the ship never actually making it to that destination, either. This also takes on a whole new meaning if you subscribe (like I do) to the belief that Ashara Dayne is actually Dany's mother - there are no lemon trees in Braavos and all that. Now, here's where the theory goes to 11. I am going to segue into a little dendrology lesson that will hopefully be somewhat more interesting than the ones you sat through in junior-year Natural Sciences. St Daga touched upon the “sloe” fruit already, the dark purple berry that brings to mind the maid with haunting purple eyes, but it goes so, so much further. Let’s sloe-ly go through the characteristics of the plant that bears these little purple babies. The berry: Sloe berries Prunus spinosa ( blackthorn, or sloe) is a species of flowering plant in the rose family (Rosaceae). The fruit, called a "sloe", is black with a purple-blue waxy bloom, ripening in autumn, and harvested—traditionally, at least in its native UK - in October or November after the first frosts. The sloe berry is the ancestral root of all cultivated plums, yet remains undomesticated. The fruit is small yet quite beautiful, like a cluster of black marbles, and though the fruit is edible and made sweeter by enduring a hard frost, is it typically quite sour and not that palatable for direct consumption.Rose family = pale blue roses, rose garlands, petals flying everywhere...you can see the connection, I'm sure. The "ancestral root" bit is probably of interest to the LmL converts of the world who believe in Geo-Dawnians / common ancestors of Daynes and Valyrians, etc. (I am one of them, fwiw - totally buy this theory.) OK, so who cares, right. Well, how’s this grab you: The sloe berries are produced from the flowers that appear in early spring. The flowers are small and delicate, with five white petals clustered into a star shape - these starry white flowers are among nature’s earliest harbingers of spring and lend to the tree’s striking appearance. The berries grow in clusters that dangle or “fall” from the branches, and the fruit itself is called a drupe : “ any fruit, as a peach, cherry, plum, etc., consisting of an outer skin, a usually pulpy and succulent middle layer, and a hard and woody inner shell usually enclosing a single seed.” Did you get that?? In other words, the sloe berry has a luscious and succulent outside and an inner seed protected by a pit, or tough protective covering. The seed is strong, you could say. The common/familiar name for this type of structure is stone fruit. When germinating a new plant from a seed or pit from fruits of this type, you are waking it from stone. (Yes, I am one of those crazy people that don't believe Jon Arryn's deathbed statement was in reference to Cersei's bastard get. I think Jon Arryn had learned about another seed...a living dragonseed.) A common use for the berries is sloe gin, a dark ruby-red liqueur that is made by soaking the fruits in a mix of gin, sugar, and aromatic spices like cloves and nutmeg – a common version also includes lemon. After the mix has been allowed to ferment for the appropriate length of time, the liqueur is separated out and the sloe used to make it is discarded. Sloe gin also calls to mind the colloquial phrase “ ginned up” - that is, to generate or increase something, especially by dubious or dishonest means. “ If something has been ginned up, it hasn’t just been bolstered, it’s been essentially fabricated or created - it’s a major doctoring of the facts, with intent.” Aside from being used as tasty fruit, sloe berries can be crushed to make a dye: “ The juice of the fruits dyes linen a reddish colour that washes out to a durable pale blue.”. Oh, but there’s more!! Part VI: Blackthorn – Tree of Strife
“Prunus spinosa is a large deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 16 ft tall, with blackish bark and dense, stiff, spiny branches. The specific name spinosa is a Latin term indicating the pointed and thornlike spur shoots characteristic of this species. The common name "blackthorn" is due to the savage thorns of the shrub, and its very dark bark.” The black bark gives it a somewhat sinister appearance, particularly in winter when devoid of leaves and flowers, which led to the blackthorn’s association with black magic. In Celtic lore, the blackthorn is known as the "Straif" tree, from which the English word "strife" is derived. The blackthorn differs from other thorn varieties in that the flowers appear before the leaves – the blooms lend to the showy spring appearance of the bush while disguising the wicked thorns underneath. From the outside, so pretty... I want to touch it... But then there's What lies beneath. Ouch!   The thorns are long and vicious; moreso than other rose varieties, scratches from the blackthorn become infected easily and result in flesh wounds that can quickly turn septic. Some of the branches forming the thorny crown of Christ at His crucifixion are said to have been those of Blackthorn.    Continuing the religious note, an old Christian superstition holds that the Devil chooses his minions by pricking them on the finger or the shoulder with a sloe thorn – the blood from the wound seals the pact with the Devil. The Blackthorn produces some of the first flowers of spring in their native Europe - blooms typically appear in March, sometimes as early as February, while winter still continues in fits and bursts. A sudden & prolonged cold snap that occurs in early spring after the flowers of the plant have begun to bloom is known as a Blackthorn Winter – this is because the white of the flowers matches the white snow or hoarfrost covering the ground. A common country saying is “ Beware the Blackthorn Winter!” as a reminder that the cold is not yet over for the season. (Or maybe “ Winter is Coming” would also suffice.) The starry blossoms of the blackthorn were considered unlucky and not worn as a decoration or brought into the house. They were associated with death, probably because they bloom on the bare, thorny black branches at winter’s end. At nighttime during their full bloom, particularly if snow or frost covers the ground, they give the tree almost a luminescence, not unlike the stars that the flowers resemble in shape. Left to grow uninhibited, the spiky branches of the blackthorn will over time weave together to form a dense and thorny hedgerow (sometimes referred to as a “living hedge”) that can be used as a barrier to places where there is a desire to deny access. Such a hedge provides a safe protected haven for several species of birds to hide amongst its branches - most notably the now-rare nightingale, with its famous melancholy song. Brief detour: The nightingale itself has a fascinating history – in Greek mythology, Philomena, the “ princess of Athens, was raped by her sister Procne’s husband Tereus, King of Thrace. Tereus had Philomena’s tongue removed to prevent her sharing the confession with her sister, but she instead wove the story of the act into a tapestry that she sent to Procne. " Procne was wroth; in revenge, she killed her son with Tereus and served the child to Tereus for his dinner. When the cannibalism was discovered, Procne and Philomena begged the gods for aid in escaping Tereus’ wrath; the gods responded by turning them into birds – “Philomena was turned into a swallow, which has no song; Procne turns into a nightingale, singing a beautiful but sad song in remorse.”
So this myth pretty much has it all, from the love-ish triangle involving a man and two sisters (!!), child sacrifice, kinslaying, hidden tapestry messages, the Rat Cook, little birds, etc. But then the icing on the echo cake is this: “Coincidentally, although most of the depictions of the nightingale and its song in art and literature are of female nightingales, the female of the species does not sing—it is the male of the species who sings its characteristic song.”
Philomena’s tale and nightingale’s song has been likened to poetry throughout the centuries by many authors, including Homer (The Odyssey), Ovid (Metamorphoses), Virgil, and Shakespeare. The ‘song’ was considered a lamentation due to the violence of the story, but in the Romantic Era the perception changed and the symbolism centered upon artistic creativity, virtue, goodness, and the joyous experience of nature. Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his collection Lyrical Ballads, "The Nightingale" (1798) tried to redefine the nightingale’s sad song as one more uplifting and positive. “He remarked that "in nature there is nothing melancholy," (line 15) expressing hope "we may not thus profane / Nature’s sweet voices, always full of love / And joyance!" (lines 40–42).” It should be noted that the common nightingale is one of the few birds that sings at night as well as day, although only unpaired males tend to sing regularly at night in hopes of attracting a like nocturnal mate. Paired males will commonly sing at dawn, in the hour before sunrise, primarily to defend its territory. Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote in his “A Defense of Poetry": "A poet is a nightingale who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds; his auditors are as men entranced by the melody of an unseen musician, who feel that they are moved and softened, yet know not whence or why.”
At the conclusion of“The Nightingale”, Coleridge writes of a father taking his crying son outside in the night: And he beheld the moon, and, hushed at once,
Suspends his sobs, and laughs most silently,
While his fair eyes, that swam with undropped tears,'
Did glitter in the yellow moon-beam! Well!—
It is a father’s tale: But if that Heaven
Should give me life, his childhood shall grow up
Familiar with these songs, that with the night
He may associate joy.
In case you aren’t following me yet: At this point I would like to invite you to a continuation of the discussion of the blackthorn tree and an in-depth look at its role in Celtic lore. **LINK TO FOLLOW SOON** I had initially intended to drop that into this topic because there are some fascinating connections between sacred trees in real world legend and trees (and people!) in ASOIAF, not to mention a POINT with regard to this Fisherman’s Daughter essay, but it was simply too long and too much of a beast for a single thread. This separate essay also ties into the role of “sisters” that I touch on this thread, and covers that aspect much more deeply – their relationships to one another and the magics associated with them. This FD theory will be enriched by that additional essay, and may even help make more sense of this one.
That being said, I will end here with the summation of the Blackthorn: It produces the sloe berries that have been associated with the Sloe-Eyed Maid/Ashara Dayne, it’s a “dark sister” to a different “white” tree in the same rose family (see the essay), it’s all made of 'star stuff', and it’s not necessarily a nice happy little tree that Bob Ross would daub on a canvas. It’s a black, wintry, sorcerous, wickedly thorny tree with a sinister reputation, even though it has a hidden softer side, in that it "protects" a rare melancholy bird. And now we have a Dayne maiden (really, that maiden's whole family) linked to it. I'll insert here that I think it's high time that we take an interest in Ashara & Arthur Dayne's parents. Obviously daddy was a Dayne, but I'm dying to know who their mother was. Or grandmother. I will bet more internet money that it's a family with more than passing familiarity with dark magic. I've got a few candidates in mind but I'd love some brainstorming from the peanut gallery.
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 9, 2017 2:07:32 GMT
However, an affiliation with evil shrubbery (yes, I said that in a Monty Python-esque voice in my head) is not the only item of interest about the Sloe-Eyed Maid. Now I’d like to dive into what caught my eye in the first place and led me to delve further into this FD idea.
Part VII - Lavender, Violet, Indigo...All the Shades of CrocusSaffron...the world’s most costly spice. A POUND of it, even – Godric Borrell must be tingling all the way to his little webbed toes! Why, you ask? Let’s talk some botany. For those not culinarily inclined, saffron is a spice derived from the Crocus sativus, or “saffron crocus”, a lovely purple bulb that flourishes in warm Mediterranean regions.  Actually, it’s not just A spice, it’s THE spice…. Saffron is by far the most expensive food on this planet (and presumably any planet) due to its rarity, high maintenance, low yield, ridiculously brief bloom times, and equally ridiculous labor-intensive harvesting methodology; if you are willing to pay up to $10,000 for a single pound of saffron hand-culled from 75,000 individual flowers, you too can enjoy its rich earthy flavor in your sister’s stew! You see, saffron threads are actually the dried stamens or stigmas of the crocus; each crocus bulb produces a single flower, and each of these purple beauties – that bloom for but a single week in October-ish, I might add, coincidentally right about the same time as the sloe berries of the blackthorn become ripe for harvest – produces three crimson red filaments that must be delicately picked BY HAND from the flower. (See them in the photo above?) These filaments, the stigmas, are part of the flower’s reproductive system – the stigma is the end of the structure that houses the ovules, where the egg cells form. The saffron crocus flower has three ovules, for three eggs. Three eggs has the crocus... Word association for @ravenous reader: the stigma is the name for this reproductive part of the crocus, basically the receptacle that receives the germinating pollen – but, as I’m sure we’ve all heard, the word “stigma” has another meaning: stigma, n : a mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation.
It is not by chance that the plural of stigma is “stigmata”:
Marks resembling the wounds of the crucified body of Christ, said to be supernaturally impressed on the bodies of certain persons, especially nuns, tertiaries, and monastics.
Recall that in Part III I dropped in an innocuous quote from Harwin about Ned and Ashara’s supposed affair – I’ll post it again to refresh your memory. No stain, no stigma associated with Ashara back then. What about later? Did Ashara develop a different sort of stigma that might tarnish Ned’s sterling reputation? (While you contemplate that quandary, I’ll comment that it’s most interesting how we keep circling back to female religious figures with the symbolism in this chapter – particularly female religious figures of a sisterhood with a strong focus on purity and chastity.) Although the crocus itself is not particularly difficult to grow as long as climate needs are met, harvesting the threads is an operation of great delicacy - one mistake or careless handling and the valuable saffron is ruined. In small-scale extractions the saffron filament can be removed while leaving the flower intact, but in most cases once the stigma is removed, the flower is destroyed in the process and discarded/cast aside. (Remember what happens to the sloe berries after they’ve given up their juice for some ginny-gin-gin? Same freaking thing.) Speaking of flowers… that purple crocus, though. The saffron crocus itself has several cult associations throughout history, most of them revolving around a pre-Greek/Greek area divinity named Krokos (or Krokus). In one legend Krokos is a fertility demon with homosexual tendencies; one night while engaging in some rough sexy-time with his playtoy the androgynous Hermes, Hermes forgot the safe word and injured Krokos – wherever his blood dripped, a saffron crocus grew, with the three red stigmas serving as visual reminders of his blood. (This theme is also seen in a similar tale of sun-god Apollo and his male lover Hyacinthos - and others have made good observations about the connections to/significance of Apollo with regard to ASOIAF.) The most common myth, however, is that of Krokus and the night-nymph Smilax. There are several versions of this myth and I will touch on the most popular. There is a unifying theme of sexual abundance/desire/illicitness between lovers here, too, even though the tales may vary slightly. In the first, the Spartan Krokus was far more interested in the hunt with his male companions than he was in Smilax (a lead-in to the tale of his affair with Hermes). Poor Smilax pined for the handsome gent in a show of unrequited love until she wasted away from longing and sadness. She was discovered in this tragic state by the goddess Aphrodite, who took pity on her and transformed her into the thorny greenbrier (or sarsaparilla), with carrion-scented white flowers and blue-black berries to represent the night nymph. (Are you seeing the pattern here? I should note that the berries ripen to maturity for picking in the fall, just like the sloes & crocus stigmas; berries can also be bright red, and have heart-shaped leaves and flowers that smell like death – see the Sister Trees essay for significance of that.) To punish Krokus for his cruel indifference, Aphrodite then sent Artemis to retrieve Krokus from his “hunt” (wink wink) and turned him into the crocus flower. (This was a fun discovery because it ties into the idea that many folks have held about Ashara Dayne perhaps having the household hots for her princess’s husband…and the idea that Rhaegar was possibly gay/bi, too, can’t count that out. What stood out for me though was the involvement of both Aphrodite (who correlates well to Cersei) and Artemis (who correlates well to Lyanna). Our ASOIAF ladies would have all been around the same age in the 280s, and I think there’s a good possibly that they all knew each other /interacted with each other at court. Cersei was a schemer even then and in my opinion (along with some textual hints) she was involved *somehow* in the leadup to the Rebellion - I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she roped Lyanna into some devious plan that of course would be to Cersei's benefit/Lyanna's detriment. Good future discussion point here, methinks.) A variation on this myth does a 180 and places Krokus as the spurned lover. Krokus fell madly in love with the woodland nymph that he spied in the forest one day; she rebuffed his advances and this time he did the pining and wasting. The gods were so moved (annoyed?) by his emo grief that they turned him into a flower and her into the brambly vine so that they might forever grow and navelgaze together. Awwwww. The last legend has Krokus and Smilax as mutual lovers – truly a (falling) star-crossed romance, as the gods dropped the banhammer on licentious affairs between mortals and half-deities (unless they were the ones doing it, and then as with the US GOP, hypocritical rulebreaking is totally cool). Once their forbidden love was discovered, Artemis (again!) in particular got pretty heated about it as she too was having an affair with Krokus, see raging double standard above. Artemis petitioned Aphrodite (again!) to work some revenge magic on her behalf, and Aphrodite obliged by turning Krokus into a crocus. However, this gave Smilax the sads, and again with the pining - which in turn hit Artemis in the feels and led her to turn Smilax into the briar/sarsaparilla so that she and Krokus could become immortally entwined. Same flower different garden, etc. Despite not knowing which version is the original and/or true, I think you can get the point easily enough: purple flower = handsome dude, thorny bush with dark berries = beautiful dark nymph. Not hard to see what dots I’m connecting here, right? A bit of fun and possibly significant trivia: “The smilax is now known to contain steroidal saponins that might actually heighten female sexual desire, much as would an overabundance of testosterone in women. Smilax as an herb of women's sexual arousal would explain her association with Black Aphrodite. There's an implication that Smilax could thus have been the rejected aggressor in an unusually heightened state of arousal, so was heartbroken to be ignored. As a night-nymph whose herb was one of the four most sacred to Hekate [Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts, and necromancy], she could never induce Krokos to awaken, given that a saffron crocus keeps its petals closed at night, and failed at her seduction of him.
The version in which they were mutual lovers for whom death came between may have one sustaining piece of evidence in its favor. Since herbal smilax was used in antiquity to concoct a treatment for venereal diseases, this makes one wonder if Krokos & Smilax (both being aphrodisiacs in their namesake herbal form) weren't mutually lusty lovers who came to unhappy ends merely for spreading the clap. Plague divinities both cure & cause illnesses, so we can certainly see why it was that carrion-scented Smilax, despite that she was fair of face, was a daughter of Night [Greek goddess Nyx] rather than of some pleasanter divinity. The Keres [Greek female death spirits; Roman equivalent Tenebrae (the Darknesses/the Shadows)] were a sisterhood born of Nyx & which among other attributes were bringers of plague; their leader, Ker, was a diminished form of Kar, an All-mother of Crete with rule of Life & Death, & to whom the saffron crocus was most sacred. Other than Ker, the individual Keres are never named, other than when it is noted that their names were plagues; it is not impossible that Smilax was one of Ker's sisterhood.”
Once again, a dark seductive goddess tied to black magic (remember Visenya, the dark sister?) trying to snare the handsome purple flower guy in her web forrrevvverrrrrr. Another shoutout to sisterhood, too! The "bringers of plague" jumped out at me as well - I'm reminded of the most famous star-crossed ill-fated lovers of all, Romeo and Juliet: as Mercutio dies from his mortal stab wounds received in his duel with Tybalt, he curses the Montagues and Capulets for bringing about this fate, crying out in his death throes, "A plague o' both your houses!" We can argue for eternity about the parallels to these Shakespeare characters and who represents whom, so I won't go down that road beyond noting the association between plague and forbidden romance.
Last thing about Smilax..or rather, her botanical importance: In most versions of the myth, Smilax is transformed into a thorny (and invasive/hard to get rid of) vine - usually sarsaparilla/greenbrier – that has many attributes in common with the Blackthorn tree. I should note here for the benefit of @ravenous reader that both the sarsaparilla and the blackthorn are both a real favorite of one group in particular: the order Lepidoptera. Moths LOVE these plants – the catepillars munch on the leaves, mature moths often hide themselves among the branches/vines, and some species of Oecophorinae, commonly known as “ Concealer Moths” for their amazing abilities of concealment, camouflage, and mimicry of other insects (not necessarily other Lepidopterae, either!), in their larval form feed almost exclusively on the dead bark of the blackthorn. Armed with this knowledge, I will now make it my life's mission to suss out the connection between Petyr Baelish and Ashara Dayne because it must exist, dammit. However, there’s another plant associated with the Smilax legend that also has ties to Lepidopterae – namely, the large grey convolvulus hawk moth that feeds on its leaves. In some instances, the tale has Smilax transforming not into sarsaparilla but bindweed – another pretty yet wildly invasive flowering (but not thorny) vine in genus Convolvulus, loved by the grey hawk moth that shares its name. The most common name for the Convolvulaceae family (of which bindweed and sister vine the moonflower are members) is “ Morning Glory” – so named because flowers only unravel in the very early morning...in other words, they bloom at Dawn. Sloe berries, blackthorn, crocuses, flowering vines, and moths: all linked by concealment, confusion, transformation, darkness, shadow…and House Dayne. Hold on, though…we’re still not through with the treasure aboard the Sloe-Eyed Maid! (But I promise this is it.)
A dissection of the pepper is necessary here too, believe it or not. Cracked = another word for crazy or mad; eg Mad King Aerys. Black = a color strongly associated with House Targaryen. From Volantis = Volantis is all that’s left of the nobility of Old Valyria. “ The Old Blood refers to some of the population in Volantis, noble families who can prove unbroken descent from old Valyria itself. “ Nothing finer =
Forty chests of it = Davos is having this conversation early in the year 300. Rhaegar was born in year 259. Depending on where his nameday fell in the year, had he lived Rhaegar would currently be 40 years old. Rare and valuable cargo, saffron red and pepper black, carried by a sloe-eyed maid. Where is the cargo of a ship typically carried, might I ask? In the hold of the ship…also known as the belly. Godric Borrell took this unexpected “gift “ from the Sloe-Eyed Maid and used it for his own ‘enrichment’ purposes...and surprisingly, he shared a bit of his bounty with Davos. I wonder what “gift” the senior Lord Borrell discovered those long years ago...and I wonder if we have already been given a hint as to what might have been done with that rare and precious treasure? Old Lord Borrell may have cast his Stark fish back into the sea, but was he aware of the bigger prize catch in his net? If so, did he spare a piece of the largest critter to offer to Ned Stark in a gesture of generosity, or did he keep it all for his own ends - especially if the former lord of Sisterton knew of some OTHER grand plan in the making? Could Ned have needed to get to White Harbor for another reason besides returning to Winterfell to call his banners? Did Wyman Manderly make a back-room deal to secure another wife for “Rhaegar”? (I have already staked my claim in the HoBaW Marvel forum and on Westeros.org for this prediction: Wyman Manderly is not a friend to House Stark. He will spectacularly betray them in the end...and possibly not for the first time.) I will add here that the mention of " his dead son's bones" is also quite noteworthy. As we know, the Fisherman's Daughter encounter occurs early in the war, and Rickard and Brandon Stark are already dead. However, we also know that somehow or other the bones of the Starks made it north to be interred in the crypts of Winterfell. How did they arrive there? Who took possession of them on the long journey from King's Landing to the North? Once I re-read the above passage in new context, I again think that Lord Too-Fat has some 'splainin to do, because I am willing to bet those bones were held as bait - perhaps along with a 'fish tale' of interest to Ned Stark - at White Harbor.
Conclusion
When I began the revision of this essay, it wasn’t my intention to lay out a point-by-point scenario of the “how” and “what” of the Fisherman’s Daughter story…and it still isn’t. Although I’m a huge fan of ferreting out GRRM’s use of parallels/echoes/inversions and applying them to the current story to form a murky narrative in the vein of “history repeats itself”, I learned a while back that it’s nearly impossible to reconstruct a complete story that way with limited data. My friend Maester Flagons demonstrated this futility long ago, with the following argument: “Here are seven rubies. <> <> <> <> <> <> <> Now make a three-headed dragon out of them.” (I still laugh about that.) Because George mixes and matches the old when he’s recycling the new, it’s very easy to get caught up in a web of 1:1 assumptions that you can’t escape, so instead I tried to focus on the symbolism to demonstrate that the Fisherman’s Daughter is probably a young lady of great importance rather than just a…well, fisherman’s daughter. As to the details and the logistics, that’s up for discussion. I don’t “know” what happened when Ned made that journey from the Vale to Winterfell, and even though I firmly believe that Ashara Dayne for SURE was part of that journey, I don’t know WHY she was there, what her relationship was with Ned, or what purpose she may have served. I’ve got speculations out the wazoo, naturally, but nothing concrete. I do think that we should take a closer look at some of the conclusions drawn from this essay, however: - Ashara and/or Lyanna accompanying Ned. We only have one Fisherman’s Daughter, but the symbolism supports both their presence. Why? - The “sisterhood” of the two women. As I noted earlier, this theme runs throughout the story – and if you read my Sisterhood of Trees essay, you’ll see it goes even deeper. These ladies are connected, perhaps in more ways than one, and this connection is being reflected everywhere. - Ashara as the ‘dark’ sister. What is this telling us about House Dayne and the role of Starfall in the story? Turn to the trees to find out.  My personal opinion is that our purple-eyed maid (and perhaps her brother too) will turn out to be not quite so nice. - Ripe “fruits”. That is, babies. To me, the symbolism indicates that Ashara had a Targaryen child in her company in some way. We can go round and round over whether it was a live Aegon that was handed off to safety, or a budding one in someone’s belly, or both, but IMO it’s clear that there was a hatchling dragon in the mix. - Howland Reed was there, I‘m sure of it. Again though, it’s hard to pin down when/at what location due to the danger in classifying parallel vs. inverse situations into definitive boxes. Was he waiting for Ned at White Harbor? Was he alone? Just not enough information to say, but it seems clear that he was involved in this leg of the trip. - Ned’s route was a big fat fib. Personally, I believe this is where we need to focus on the potential for Ned to end up in the area of Saltpans (like Arya), which of course leads to the Quiet Isle, tucked away at the mouth of the Trident. min /LynnS has had some great insight into the setup of the Quiet Isle, notably its seclusion, its silence, and its women’s huts used by common and noble ladies alike. Though it is quite easy to access the Bay of Crabs and then the Narrow Sea from the QI, this route would pass right by Gulltown, occupied by Targaryen loyalists even in those early days of the Rebellion; this route would need to be avoided. Did he go that way anyway? Is that how he ended up in the Bite? Honestly I haven’t worked this out just yet, but I do like the idea that Ned was in the vicinity of the Quiet Isle, perhaps looking for something he thought he’d lost. Question is: did he find it? Or were his hopes dashed on the rocks of Sweetsister like the hull of the Sloe-Eyed Maid? I will end with this poignant & perfect quote from the ADWD Davos II chapter in which he reflects on both the fate of the Sloe-Eyed Maid and his own at the hands of Lords Borrell and Manderly: Ironically, in my Trees essay Lyanna Stark is the sister tree associated with light, not Ashara Dayne from the family we link with stars and Dawn. Dawn is of course the first light of day, nothing false about it, but perhaps with relation to the tale told here we should take to heart its alternate meaning: “ to become evident to the mind; be perceived or understood.”
When Ned Stark washed up on the shores of Sweetsister with the Fisherman’s Daughter, he too was almost home...and possibly faced with the ‘dawning’ realization that the light he chased wasn’t true. Perhaps the illumination that he believed was within his grasp was only the starlight of a dark sister luring him to an uncertain fate. END |
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Post by Melifeather on Jul 11, 2017 2:23:36 GMT
Well done! I am in awe of this work! There is so much to add and comment on, but not from my phone...so I promise to return once at my computer. But I will add this...what was the sloe berry scientific name? Roseceae? Myrcella 's handmaiden was Rosamund. Reminds me of the word the reporter uttered in Citizen Kane : Rosebud. OMG! A REPORTER'S last word was "Rosebud"! Read what GRRM wrote in his Not A Blog. He said he liked stories about reporters. Not only that, he bolded the title GOOD GIRLS REVOLT! HAR!!!: grrm.livejournal.com/541795.html?thread=26239843#t26239843 |
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 11, 2017 2:56:31 GMT
Well done! I am in awe of this work! There is so much to add and comment on, but not from my phone...so I promise to return once at my computer. But I will add this...what was the sloe berry scientific name? Roseceae? Myrcella 's handmaiden was Rosamund. Reminds me of the word the reporter uttered in Citizen Kane : Rosebud. OMG! A REPORTER'S last word was "Rosebud"! Read what GRRM wrote in his Not A Blog. He said he liked stories about reporters. Not only that, he bolded the title GOOD GIRLS REVOLT! HAR!!!: grrm.livejournal.com/541795.html?thread=26239843#t26239843Ooooh, nice catch!!! Citizen Kane hadn't even crossed my mind, but yeah, totally! I'm still working on the "sister" essay - very close to being finished with that - but when you read that one you'll see that there are TWO important trees, both sisters in the ROSE family, but opposites of each other. It's amazing, you will like it. |
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Post by Melifeather on Jul 11, 2017 11:16:42 GMT
A quick aside about Citizen Kane and Rosebud...Kane starts out honorably but is corrupted by power. Before he dies he sees a snow globe and utters the infamous "Rosebud", which turns out to be the brand name of a (snow) sled he played on during a happy childhood. An intertwining of rosebud/Rosamund the handmaiden/Ashara and snow/Lyanna. IMO Robert Baratheon is Citizen Kane. He starts out with honorable intentions, but is tempted and corrupted by power. Later on he thinks back on happier times, lamenting about his rosebud the snowy Lyanna. OK...short on time. I am going to make replies section by section as time permits. Part IA king's command and a friend's betrayal, Davos might have said. Instead he answered, " Storms." You may disagree with me on this point, but I take "Storms" more literally. IMO Robert Baratheon plays more of a part in Lyanna's disappearance than most believe. The Soiled Knight chapter has parallels to many characters, but Jaime Lannister and Robert Baratheon in particular. Both men "colluded" with Cersei. Jaime did it for love of his "sweet sister", and Robert did it to gain Tywin Lannister as an ally. the Three Sisters: Sweetsister, Longsister, and Littlesister. IMO "Sweetsister" is Cersei. I think she played a big part in Lyanna's disappearance, so even though you make a great point about Ned landing on Sweetsister, I think this also hints at Cersei's culpability. The Three Sisters were fickle bitches, loyal only to themselves. GOOD GIRLS REVOLT! I think all three "sisters" made their own decisions and didn't necessarily consider family honor first when they took action. This is an interesting passage in many regards. First, we hear a familiar refrain in the gossip about the death of the daughter of a high lord at the hands of a bard – something that we readers know to be fundamentally untrue. The daughter is dead, yes, but ‘twas not a singer that killed her; yet apparently this is the story making the rounds of the Seven Kingdoms. (That alone is worthy of further examination, IMO.) Second, there’s the lie that is developed and rehearsed as a traveler rows to Sisterton’s shore. Third, we get the news that an oldtime ally has deserted a Baratheon usurper king due to financial concerns. Finally, we get the revelation that pirate Salladhor Saan himself was the one to kick Davos (and Stannis by proxy) to the curb just shy of his destination, leaving Davos to row to shore in the dead of night for any chance of completing his task…a task that is put on temporary hold anyway due to his untimely detour on Sweetsister. Can a parallel to Littlefinger be drawn here? Didn't he basically play the role of the "pirate" that picked up Sansa after Ser Dontos rowed her out into the Blackwater? Then the pirate deserts the ally after he outlived his use. There must have been another "pirate" that helped either Lyanna or Ashara. The smuggling aspect seems to apply more so to Ashara. I don't think I'm alone in thinking Arya and Sansa parallel Lyanna and Ashara, that the former retraced the paths of the latter, and that they switch places somehow. I'm wondering if Ashara hid her hair color or assumed another's identity (Rhaella's perhaps?) in order to sneak out of Kings Landing? A storm caught them on the way. The fisherman drowned, but his daughter got Stark to the Sisters before the boat went down. Robert Baratheon, after defeating lords near and around Summerhall, inexplicably returns to Storm's End. The WB says he took prisoners. Is it possible that he came upon either Ashara or Lyanna and brought her to Storm's End? The fisherman drowned, but his daughter got Stark to the Sisters...so are we thinking the "fisherman" in this story is the pirate? A role much like Littlefinger played with Sansa, who also is pretending to be his daughter. If Sansa is reprising Ashara here on her journey out of Kings Landing, the smuggler pirate pretended to be her father, but ultimately somehow brings Ned his sister or brought Ned to his sister. More later... |
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 11, 2017 13:12:27 GMT
OK...short on time. I am going to make replies section by section as time permits. Same!!! Which is why I will respond at length tonight after work.  I like my new job, but I strongly dislike not being able to post during the day! It's nearly impossible to do it from a phone. Good comments though, and I will get back to them this evening! Also, thank you for reading, I appreciate you taking the time.  |
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Post by freyfamilyreunion on Jul 11, 2017 14:31:53 GMT
This:
makes me think of this passage:
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Post by freyfamilyreunion on Jul 11, 2017 14:56:41 GMT
Continuing the idea of "sloe gin" (boy doesn't that sound like jojen?), this leads me to think about what is used to create gin, which is the juniper berries. Which apparently aren't actually berries but a conifer (like a pine cone, it makes me think of Bran being offered blackberry cakes and pinenut cakes by the Mountain clansman). It's dried form has also been used as a substitute for a black pepper. (Didn't Borell capture cracked black pepper from the sloe eyed maiden?).
It also led me to this tidbit about the mythology behind the Juniper berry:
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 11, 2017 15:34:33 GMT
Continuing the idea of "sloe gin" (boy doesn't that sound like jojen?), this leads me to think about what is used to create gin, which is the juniper berries. Which apparently aren't actually berries but a conifer (like a pine cone, it makes me think of Bran being offered blackberry cakes and pinenut cakes by the Mountain clansman). It's dried form has also been used as a substitute for a black pepper. (Didn't Borell capture cracked black pepper from the sloe eyed maiden?). It also led me to this tidbit about the mythology behind the Juniper berry: YESSESSS I have to finish the trees essay as this ties in perfectly. I find it very intriguing that all of these various plants have these things in common: dark berries, fruit that ripens in autumn, association with black magic (either in practice of or warding against). And all of them relate somehow to house Dayne. I will talk about the "Stark" tree in the upcoming essay. There is a sister relationship here too. |
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Post by freyfamilyreunion on Jul 11, 2017 15:58:19 GMT
Continuing the idea of "sloe gin" (boy doesn't that sound like jojen?), this leads me to think about what is used to create gin, which is the juniper berries. Which apparently aren't actually berries but a conifer (like a pine cone, it makes me think of Bran being offered blackberry cakes and pinenut cakes by the Mountain clansman). It's dried form has also been used as a substitute for a black pepper. (Didn't Borell capture cracked black pepper from the sloe eyed maiden?). It also led me to this tidbit about the mythology behind the Juniper berry: YESSESSS I have to finish the trees essay as this ties in perfectly. I find it very intriguing that all of these various plants have these things in common: dark berries, fruit that ripens in autumn, association with black magic (either in practice of or warding against). And all of them relate somehow to house Dayne. I will talk about the "Stark" tree in the upcoming essay. There is a sister relationship here too. I loved your idea that Ned may have married Ashara Dayne after the Harrenhal tourney, which lines up nicely with Robb's storyline, and would fit in with Ned's personality. It also is really the only explanation as to how Ned dishonored both himself and Cat in the eyes of gods and men. Basically Ned entered into a polygamous marriage.
While focusing on the Targaryen's incest, we often forget Aegon the Conqueror's other taboo, he had a polygamous relationship. I still think that Lyanna and Benjen may be Jon's parents, which highlight the "abomination" that is incest (which we are told is considered an abomination both in the north and the south, both for the old gods and the new gods).
Ned's secret relationship may have made him commit a different taboo, when Brandon was killed and Ned was needed to marry Cat to cement the Tully alliance. This is really good stuff.
As for your tree essay, I would look up the Asherah poles. These are either poles or trees used to worship Asherah by the Israelis. They were ordered to cut them down, along with any shrines to the god Baal (a bull headed god who was associated with the sacrifice of children, cough tower of joy cough). Anyway Asherah was lumped in with Baal as a forbidden idol. A book came out in 1967, called The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai. The book's theory was that the Israeli's originally worshipped two gods Yaweh and his bride Asherah. Later it became forbidden to worship the female goddess and her trees or poles were cut down.
There is also a biblical passage regarding Elijah. After Elijah slays the prophets of both Baal (the bull headed god) and Asherah, he sits under a Juniper tree and asks for God to take his life. I don't know why but the image reminds me of Ned sitting under the Weirwood after he takes the life of the Night's Watch deserter.
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Jul 11, 2017 16:24:44 GMT
Quote This function doesn't work on phone, sorry-
"I loved your idea that Ned may have married Ashara Dayne after the Harrenhal tourney, which lines up nicely with Robb's storyline, and would fit in with Ned's personality. It also is really the only explanation as to how Ned dishonored both himself and Cat in the eyes of gods and men. Basically Ned entered into a polygamous marriage"
There's another layer to this that I planned to discuss in the comments, because it's my personal crackpot opinion.
I think this may be where some of Ashara 's deception comes into play. I believe she was already pregnant with a Targling, and she purposely seduced Ned on this journey to cover her tracks - she used the attraction at the tournament to accomplish this ruse. Think Jeyne Westerling, or at least her mother' scheme, mixed with Gilly.
So Ned does the deed, feels guilty and says vows under heart tree. Sends her on her way to Starfall. Then, he is forced to marry Cat in the sept, in sight of gods and men. Ned finished warring, went to Starfall to see Ashara and confess, only to find that his first wife has birthed a silver haired purple eyed kid that clearly isn't his.
I think there's another bit of trickery in here too, related to lyanna- and this is why Ned seems so bitter about Ashara.
Sorry so vague, this is hard from a phone.
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Post by Melifeather on Jul 11, 2017 17:12:29 GMT
Lyanna and Benjen may be Jon's parents, Wouldn't Benjen be too young? Isn't he younger than Lyanna? Different topic regarding Wyman Manderly...IMO he's the inversion of Robert Baratheon, and that is why you, Some Pig, think he's going to backstab the Starks, but I think what you're seeing is a betrayal of the Lord of Winterfell who is currently a Bolton. I think Wyman's description is symbolic of Robert's hidden debauchery...maybe that's not the best word, but I will revisit this thought later. |
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Post by Melifeather on Jul 11, 2017 18:17:25 GMT
Part 2One minor item of interest here is that Aerys had sent his command to the Eyrie. This stood out to me, because the World Book tells us that by the end of 281/beginning of 282, “ winter had returned with a vengeance”, snow had blanketed King’s Landing, the Blackwater had frozen, etc. I assume that if it’s deep winter in King’s Landing, it is also deep winter in the Vale…which means that Jon Arryn would have already departed the Eyrie and taken up residence at the Gates of the Moon on the valley floor. On face this may not be a big deal and possibly just an oversight, but if this is true and Jon Arryn had already relocated to the Gates, Ned’s starting point is in slightly less treacherous territory (in terms of landscape) right off the bat. I’ll delve further into this point in a moment. This is my only comment for part 2 since I really have no objections to what you've already, very thoroughly, thought through. If the Year of the False Spring had winter returning unexpectedly, then it is possible that they were living up in the Eyrie.
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My personal opinion is that our purple-eyed maid (and perhaps her brother too) will turn out to be not quite so nice. 
I like my new job, but I strongly dislike not being able to post during the day! It's nearly impossible to do it from a phone.
