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Post by Ser Duncan on Mar 9, 2016 5:24:54 GMT
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. Heh, now this one, I think, maybe one of Martin's little homages. There's a Terry Pratchett book that has the idea of the third wish being the most important, and the main character (a young girl) has to figure out why the third wish is the one that counts the most in order to defeat the creature that's stalking her. She manages it, but not without the help of the greatest, old witch that ever was, in this dystopia. It's the old witch that knows all about stories and she's the one that tells the main character what the third wish should be for the story (and life) to be a good one. With that knowledge she goes on to figure out what the creature wants, and helps it instead of fighting it.
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 9, 2016 13:58:13 GMT
Old Nan used to tell stories about knights and their ladies who would sleep in a single bed with a blade between them for honor’s sake, but he thought this must be the first time where a direwolf took the place of the sword.
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 9, 2016 14:30:00 GMT
His father’s mother’s mother had been a Flint of the mountains. Old Nan once said that it was her blood in him that made Bran such a fool for climbing before his fall. She had died years and years and years before he was born, though, even before his father had been born.
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 9, 2016 14:33:26 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. Another giant tale from ASOS "In Old Nan’s stories, giants were outsized men who lived in colossal castles, fought with huge swords, and walked about in boots a boy could hide in."
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Post by Ser Duncan on Mar 9, 2016 15:55:39 GMT
His father’s mother’s mother had been a Flint of the mountains. Old Nan once said that it was her blood in him that made Bran such a fool for climbing before his fall. She had died years and years and years before he was born, though, even before his father had been born. And then Bran goes on to meet the Old Flint on the side of a mountain.
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 10, 2016 22:52:28 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.While the first quote is reminiscent of Bran in the Nightfort, I think it, along with the second quote, are some foreshadowing of Arya's story line. Her adventures beyond which lead to her descent into Hell in the Sanctum of the House of Black and White.
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Post by Maester Flagons on Mar 10, 2016 22:56:13 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.” Are you sure, Bran? Well, not necessarily evil, but Bran the warg could be the darker shade of grey. In fact he has begun down that darker path in his abuse of Hodor.
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Mar 11, 2016 2:21:58 GMT
Ohhhhh, I forgot about this one. This ties in so awesomely with a massive crackpot I'm preparing.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2016 2:05:05 GMT
Ohhhhh, I forgot about this one. This ties in so awesomely with a massive crackpot I'm preparing. Please tag me when you post this massive crackpot! You know how I love your awesome theories
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Post by jnr on Mar 12, 2016 18:02:27 GMT
And something was coming up out of the darkness, out of the bowels of the earth. You know what? I would be pretty scared too, if something was emerging from giant bowels.
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Post by min on Aug 4, 2016 17:35:30 GMT
When Bran contemplates Old Nan's stories after he wakes from his coma dream; he says that she sometimes changes the stories or mixes people up and names run together. A condition of advanced age. Later in the Night Fort he recalls that stories about the Night Fort were always scariest, especially tales about the Night's King. But all the stories are not about the time of Night King but come later. Like the tale of the Rat Cook and The 79 Sentinels. I think the Thing that Comes in the Night is one of those tales.
It's the story of three 'prentice boys who dreamed of the thing. But when each of them told the Lord Commander they didn't give the same description of the thing. Each boy dies. I've speculated that this is a story about the 3EC visiting each boy and that they couldn't fly, so they died. The thing was seen 100 years later from the Wall with 3 boys shuffling along behind him.
“There’s nothing here to hurt us, Your Grace.”
Bran wasn’t so certain. The Nightfort had figured in some of Old Nan’s scariest stories. It was here that Night’s King had reigned, before his name was wiped from the memory of man. This was where the Rat Cook had served the Andal king his prince-and-bacon pie, where the seventy-nine sentinels stood their watch, where brave young Danny Flint had been raped and murdered. This was the castle where King Sherrit had called down his curse on the Andals of old, where the ’prentice boys had faced the thing that came in the night, where blind Symeon Star-Eyes had seen the hellhounds fighting. Mad Axe had once walked these yards and climbed these towers, butchering his brothers in the dark.
Or maybe it wasn’t Mad Axe at all, maybe it was the thing that came in the night. The ’prentice boys all saw it, Old Nan said, but afterward when they told their Lord Commander every description had been different. And three died within the year, and the fourth went mad, and a hundred years later when the thing had come again, the ’prentice boys were seen shambling along behind it, all in chains.
We've been given the information that several things happened 200 year ago: the Cotf have been waiting for Bran for 200 years; the last direwolf was seen south of the Wall 200 years ago and the Night Fort was closed 200 years ago. Did the 'prentice boys also die 200 years ago?
This might be part of Stark history; a dark secret. Direwolves are sent by the old gods to the Starks and could it be that three of them ended up in the Night's Watch? And then died causing the Fort to be closed by the Lord of Winterfell at that time. It seems to me that Luwin knows more about family history and certain things are kept from Bran especially after he starts asking questions about his dreams. Rob goes so far as to say they he is not sure how much Bran should know at his age. Benjen is also tight lipped about the Night Fort and will only say it was closed 200 years ago. There seems to be some family knowledge that direwolves are dangerous and Ned is reluctant to keep the pups without warnings about training and responsibility. And possibly why Old Nan tells no stories about direwolves.
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Post by snowfyre on Dec 2, 2016 14:28:48 GMT
" Crows are all liars,” Old Nan agreed, from the chair where she sat doing her needlework. “ I know a story about a crow." Apparently there is an old superstition in the American South (and maybe elsewhere) that pet crows can be taught to talk if you split their tongues. Some random on genius.com (a song lyrics site) somehow connects this story to stanza 3 of a Gillian Welch song I was listening to recently ( I Dream A Highway): Dubious connection, there. But "forked tongue" is a phrase used to imply deceit or lying. And it did leave me thinking about this comment by Old Nan... and the fact that crows/ravens in Westeros could be said to have been (1) domesticated or made pets, (2) able to speak, and (3) liars, depending on who you ask. If crows are liars... does that imply the ability to speak? Surely. Must a crow in Westeros be taught to speak - and thus, in some sense, domesticated? Seems likely. Recalls another song I was listening to recently. (Also random.) Demons, by Guster:
Anyway. That would be Snowy's ASOIAF(ish) Thought of the Day.
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Post by snowfyre on Dec 2, 2016 14:38:44 GMT
Apparently there is an old superstition in the American South (and maybe elsewhere) that pet crows can be taught to talk if you split their tongues. What might the crow might actually say if you artificially split its tongue? Probably something like: "What the fuck are you doing taking that knife to my tongue, you asshole?! Leave me the hell alone!"
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Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Dec 4, 2016 0:41:11 GMT
Apparently there is an old superstition in the American South (and maybe elsewhere) that pet crows can be taught to talk if you split their tongues. I think I'll move down into MemphisAnd thank the hatchet man who forked my tongue For whatever reason, these two things make me think of Robert Johnson's "Crossroad Blues" - standing at the crossroad, all alone, "risin' sun goin' down" (liminal time, both worlds of day and night are and aren't at the same time). Hoped to 'flag a ride' with someone on the right path but (implied) made a deal with the devil instead. Crossroads = a split, a fork, duality of choice ("I looked east and west", the song notes). Robert Johnson's rumored Faustian bargain is a thing of legend, and of course the nature of the Faustian contract itself rooted in trickery and deceit - the devil speaks through forked tongue and the victim receives naught but eternal damnation in exchange for his soul, not the wealth/knowledge/power that is desired. /random
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