Post by Melifeather on Feb 18, 2019 22:34:54 GMT
The author hasn’t specifically spelled out the reasons why Craster was leaving his sons exposed to the cold, so we can only speculate, but I believe it’s a red herring to believe they have anything to do with creating white walkers. I’m going to give you my best guess as to what’s really going on.
Ygritte told Jon this about Craster:
"Craster weds his daughters," Jon pointed out.
She punched him again. "Craster's more your kind than ours. His father was a crow who stole a woman out of Whitetree village, but after he had her he flew back t' his Wall. She went t' Castle Black once t' show the crow his son, but the brothers blew their horns and run her off. Craster's blood is black, and he bears a heavy curse." She ran her fingers lightly across his stomach. "I feared you'd do the same once. Fly back to the Wall. You never knew what t' do after you stole me."
As readers we assume Craster sacrifices his sons due to this ‘heavy curse’. Sometimes it can be enlightening to review the definitions of the words chosen by the author, so lets look at both ‘heavy’ and ‘curse’.
Heavy is characterized as having great mass or weight - typically greater than normal mass for a particular element, for example: lead or gold. It can also mean difficult to bear, characterized with severe pain or suffering.
Curse can mean several things, but most commonly it’s a prayer or invocation that brings harm or injury to someone. Curses are sometimes said to be retribution or punishment for inflicting evil or misfortune upon others, so what does this have to do with Craster?
Craster had the misfortune of being a bastard with cursed black blood, because his father was a man of the Watch that broke his oath. The blood of the Watch is black, because by swearing an oath they sever ties with their blood relatives and adopt the Watch as their brothers, creating a new family who all wear black versus wearing the colors of their severed family’s House. When people are cut (severed) and their blood is exposed to oxygen it turns a dark red, and in some lighting it even looks black. Craster has his father’s black blood in his veins and it's cursed, because his father avoided punishment. The men of the Watch take an oath to father no children and take no wives. Craster’s father broke that oath and then denied he broke it by refusing Craster as his son. His father escaped judgement and execution thereby causing the curse to fall upon Craster.
There is a recurrent thematic element of bastardy in ASOIAF, so it’s something we should pay attention to. Jon Snow and Ramsay Snow are bastards. Even though their parents come from different families they share the bastard last name of ‘Snow’, which makes them brothers in bastardy. The wildlings don’t look down on bastards nor do they single them out by giving them bastard last names, so the fact that Craster is a bastard is not what makes him so cursed. The curse comes from his father’s oathbreaking, which is why his father denied him. Oathbreakers are executed. We know this, because Ned beheaded Gared after he defected and ran in fear from the white walkers and Arya murdered Dareon, the Watchman that defected to become a singer in Braavos.
In his twisted way, Craster claimed he was ‘right with the gods’. What could he possibly mean especially since he was cursed? He might’ve been a bastard, but he married his daughters, so in his eyes his children are not bastards - a topic he had strong opinions about:
"My steward and squire, Jon Snow."
"A bastard, is it?" Craster looked Jon up and down. "Man wants to bed a woman, seems like he ought to take her to wife. That's what I do." He shooed Jon off with a wave. "Well, run and do your service, bastard, and see that axe is good and sharp now, I've no use for dull steel."
Craster was proud his children weren't bastards, so a son would be a precious and valuable possession. He may have believed he needed a great sacrifice to reverse his black blood curse, so he got right with the gods. And as long as he remained ‘godly’ he would be protected. You might even see Craster’s death a result of substituting sheep when he didn’t have any sons to sacrifice. In effect he was no longer protected, and was executed for his father’s oathbreaking.
We don’t know how long Craster had been leaving his sons exposed to the elements, but there are no sons at all at his holdfast whereas he has daughters old enough to marry and birth more children. We can conclude then that he had been leaving his sons exposed to die from the very beginning, and yet the return of white walkers is relatively new. IMO this means that the two things are not connected.
Ygritte told Jon this about Craster:
"Craster weds his daughters," Jon pointed out.
She punched him again. "Craster's more your kind than ours. His father was a crow who stole a woman out of Whitetree village, but after he had her he flew back t' his Wall. She went t' Castle Black once t' show the crow his son, but the brothers blew their horns and run her off. Craster's blood is black, and he bears a heavy curse." She ran her fingers lightly across his stomach. "I feared you'd do the same once. Fly back to the Wall. You never knew what t' do after you stole me."
As readers we assume Craster sacrifices his sons due to this ‘heavy curse’. Sometimes it can be enlightening to review the definitions of the words chosen by the author, so lets look at both ‘heavy’ and ‘curse’.
Heavy is characterized as having great mass or weight - typically greater than normal mass for a particular element, for example: lead or gold. It can also mean difficult to bear, characterized with severe pain or suffering.
Curse can mean several things, but most commonly it’s a prayer or invocation that brings harm or injury to someone. Curses are sometimes said to be retribution or punishment for inflicting evil or misfortune upon others, so what does this have to do with Craster?
Craster had the misfortune of being a bastard with cursed black blood, because his father was a man of the Watch that broke his oath. The blood of the Watch is black, because by swearing an oath they sever ties with their blood relatives and adopt the Watch as their brothers, creating a new family who all wear black versus wearing the colors of their severed family’s House. When people are cut (severed) and their blood is exposed to oxygen it turns a dark red, and in some lighting it even looks black. Craster has his father’s black blood in his veins and it's cursed, because his father avoided punishment. The men of the Watch take an oath to father no children and take no wives. Craster’s father broke that oath and then denied he broke it by refusing Craster as his son. His father escaped judgement and execution thereby causing the curse to fall upon Craster.
There is a recurrent thematic element of bastardy in ASOIAF, so it’s something we should pay attention to. Jon Snow and Ramsay Snow are bastards. Even though their parents come from different families they share the bastard last name of ‘Snow’, which makes them brothers in bastardy. The wildlings don’t look down on bastards nor do they single them out by giving them bastard last names, so the fact that Craster is a bastard is not what makes him so cursed. The curse comes from his father’s oathbreaking, which is why his father denied him. Oathbreakers are executed. We know this, because Ned beheaded Gared after he defected and ran in fear from the white walkers and Arya murdered Dareon, the Watchman that defected to become a singer in Braavos.
In his twisted way, Craster claimed he was ‘right with the gods’. What could he possibly mean especially since he was cursed? He might’ve been a bastard, but he married his daughters, so in his eyes his children are not bastards - a topic he had strong opinions about:
"My steward and squire, Jon Snow."
"A bastard, is it?" Craster looked Jon up and down. "Man wants to bed a woman, seems like he ought to take her to wife. That's what I do." He shooed Jon off with a wave. "Well, run and do your service, bastard, and see that axe is good and sharp now, I've no use for dull steel."
Craster was proud his children weren't bastards, so a son would be a precious and valuable possession. He may have believed he needed a great sacrifice to reverse his black blood curse, so he got right with the gods. And as long as he remained ‘godly’ he would be protected. You might even see Craster’s death a result of substituting sheep when he didn’t have any sons to sacrifice. In effect he was no longer protected, and was executed for his father’s oathbreaking.
We don’t know how long Craster had been leaving his sons exposed to the elements, but there are no sons at all at his holdfast whereas he has daughters old enough to marry and birth more children. We can conclude then that he had been leaving his sons exposed to die from the very beginning, and yet the return of white walkers is relatively new. IMO this means that the two things are not connected.