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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 7, 2016 22:49:37 GMT
As for Nan's stories, one thing about two of them struck me as being variants of the Jack and the Bean Stalk story. The one you mentioned above about the bad little boy who climbed too high, and then another story in ACOK about a clever boy who escaped a castle of giants only to get killed by the Others. So in both cases, as opposed to the ending of the Jack and the Bean Stalk story, the boy's journey comes to an unfortunate end. Don't know if it means anything or not, but I thought I'd mention it. Good catch. It could be something or nothing. I should get the rest of the stories on page here. Might be some more nuggets to gather up.
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 7, 2016 23:04:34 GMT
His father would be the Hand of the King, and they were going to live in the red castle at King’s Landing, the castle the Dragonlords had built. Old Nan said there were ghosts there, and dungeons where terrible things had been done, and dragon heads on the walls. Not much on the surface in this one. Ghosts in the red castle caught my eye. Not much about ghosts throughout the Song. Ygritte mentions shades let loose from digging. Jaime asks about ghosts, and Qyburn seems to believe. But what ghosts are at King's Landing? This small piece of Old Nan's tale may be just a ghost story, but thought I'd ask anyway.
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Post by Ser Duncan on Mar 7, 2016 23:11:06 GMT
Old Nan told him a story about a bad little boy who climbed too high and was struck down by lightning, and how afterward the crows came to peck out his eyes. Bran was not impressed . There were crows’ nests atop the broken tower, where no one ever went but him, and sometimes he filled his pockets with corn before he climbed up there and the crows ate it right out of his hand. None of them had ever shown the slightest bit of interest in pecking out his eyes. As for Nan's stories, one thing about two of them struck me as being variants of the Jack and the Bean Stalk story. The one you mentioned above about the bad little boy who climbed too high, and then another story in ACOK about a clever boy who escaped a castle of giants only to get killed by the Others. So in both cases, as opposed to the ending of the Jack and the Bean Stalk story, the boy's journey comes to an unfortunate end. Don't know if it means anything or not, but I thought I'd mention it. Nice! I don't remember that story about the boy who escaped the a castle of giants. Very Jack and the Beanstalk-ish. The one thing that struck me about Old Nan's story of the little boy that climbed too high and was struck by lightening, is that the broken tower Bran climbs was struck by lightening about a hundred years before Ned was born, Bran says. Now if Old Nan is as old as the hills, then maybe she was a child when the watchtower was struck, not a hundred years ago, and maybe someone was in it and died by falling out when the lightening struck?
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Post by Ser Duncan on Mar 7, 2016 23:12:46 GMT
I should get the rest of the stories on page here. Might be some more nuggets to gather up. Oh would you? Please? That would be brilliant, because I have no memory of the story FreyFamilyReunion is referring to.
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Post by freyfamilyreunion on Mar 7, 2016 23:49:18 GMT
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Post by Ser Duncan on Mar 8, 2016 0:12:17 GMT
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 8, 2016 2:28:53 GMT
Arya in the Red Keep
Huge stones had been set into the curving walls as steps, circling down and down, dark as the steps to hell that Old Nan used to tell them of. And something was coming up out of the darkness, out of the bowels of the earth.
Arya in King's Landing
Arya glanced at it thoughtfully, but it was well beyond the reach of her stick. It made her think of the sea. Maybe that was the way out. Old Nan used to tell stories of boys who stowed away on trading galleys and sailed off into all kinds of adventures.
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 8, 2016 2:29:52 GMT
Old Nan says the children knew the songs of the trees, that they could fly like birds and swim like fish and talk to the animals,” Bran said. “She says that they made music so beautiful that it made you cry like a little baby just to hear it.
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 8, 2016 2:32:14 GMT
Without the direwolf, Jon felt almost naked. He found himself glancing at every shadow with unease. Unbidden, he thought back on the tales that Old Nan used to tell them, when he was a boy at Winterfell. He could almost hear her voice again, and the click-click-click of her needles. In that darkness, the Others came riding, she used to say, dropping her voice lower and lower. Cold and dead they were, and they hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun, and every living creature with hot blood in its veins. Holdfasts and cities and kingdoms of men all fell before them, as they moved south on pale dead horses, leading hosts of the slain. They fed their dead servants on the flesh of human children.
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 8, 2016 13:58:08 GMT
The nightfires had burned low, and as the east began to lighten the immense mass of Storm’s End emerged like a dream of stone while wisps of pale mist raced across the field, flying from the sun on wings of wind. Morning ghosts, she had heard Old Nan call them once, spirits returning to their graves.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2016 16:15:07 GMT
Has anyone ever wondered where Old Nan got all of these stories? If she is about 100 years old who was living during the time of her childhood that is well known in the main series?
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Post by Ser Duncan on Mar 8, 2016 17:51:18 GMT
Has anyone ever wondered where Old Nan got all of these stories? In her own words... The old woman smiled at him toothlessly. “My stories? No, my little lord, not mine. The stories are, before me and after me, before you too." If she is about 100 years old who was living during the time of her childhood that is well known in the main series? Well, Aemon was living during her time, since they're about the same age. And Bloodraven for sure too. I have a suspicion that Maester Walgrave (or whatever his name is, I can't be bothered to look up the correct spelling) from the Citadel was not only alive, but somehow involved with important things that happened before and after the Rebellion.
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 9, 2016 1:56:03 GMT
Has anyone ever wondered where Old Nan got all of these stories? If she is about 100 years old who was living during the time of her childhood that is well known in the main series? This question about her stories got my mind to wandering into crackpot territory. She seems to know everything about everything. What if she is some sort of maegi or has the greensight even?
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 9, 2016 1:59:40 GMT
Old Nan told scary stories of beastlings and shapechangers sometimes. In the stories they were always evil. “I’m not like that,” Bran said. “I’m not. It’s only dreams.”
Jaqen still owed her one death. In Old Nan’s stories about men who were given magic wishes by a grumkin, you had to be especially careful with the third wish, because it was the last.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2016 3:03:46 GMT
Has anyone ever wondered where Old Nan got all of these stories? If she is about 100 years old who was living during the time of her childhood that is well known in the main series? This question about her stories got my mind to wandering into crackpot territory. She seems to know everything about everything. What if she is some sort of maegi or has the greensight even? Or maybe the spirits of Winterfell talk to her? I don't think any of those three ideas is that crackpot
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