Is Lem Lemoncloak Arthur Dayne, & Jon the Pisswater Prince?
Apr 16, 2016 5:36:11 GMT
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Post by Melifeather on Apr 16, 2016 5:36:11 GMT
This essay is a segment taken from my chapter analysis for The Queenmaker - AFFC Chapter 21. I wanted to focus a bit on a single character: Lem Lemoncloak, who I believe is Ser Arthur Dayne in disguise.
During the chapter analysis I came upon a scene which seemed to mirror both the attack on Elia in the woods by the Kingswood Brotherhood that had left Ser Gerold Hightower injured, and the detachment of soldiers that King Aerys II had sent afterward in search of them.
The members of the second group were led by Ser Arthur Dayne - who led in Ser Hightower’s place. The rest of the detachment were:
Ser Barristan Selmy
Lord Sumner Crakehall
Squire Merrett Frey
Squire Jaime Lannister
Arianne’s friend is Ser Andrey Dalt, nicknamed Drey. He is brother and heir of Ser Deziel Dalt who is known as the Knight of Lemonwood. He experimented sexually with both Arianne and Tyene. After the conspiracy to crown Myrcella is exposed and the living members arrested, he is condemned to exile for three years in Norvos under Lady Mellario’s service. Lady Mellario is the estranged wife of Prince Doran Martell.
Drey is meant to symbolize someone close to Cersei and Elia, both of whom made advances towards him but he likely turned them down. After the kidnapping of Lyanna, this person went into exile under the protection of Doran Martell.
I need to insert here that I believe Darkstar is mirroring Ser Gerold Hightower in The Queenmaker chapter. Darkstar’s real name is Gerold Dayne, and he makes fun of Garin’s name, because he’s named after Garin the Great; a man that led 250,000 men to their deaths in battle. Darkstar snorts that if he had led a quarter million men to their deaths would people call him Gerold the Great? Arianne reminds her friends that they needed Darkstar and the support of his house, High Hermitage, which echoes House Hightower. The repeated use of the name “Gerold” and the reference to “High” Hermitage has convinced me that he is mirroring Ser Gerold Hightower.
The Queenmaker chapter talks about how Arianne, Drey, Garin, and Spotted Sylva sit around a campfire drinking wine, all except Darkstar who is drinking unsweetened lemonwater. Symbolically “drinking” can refer to a sword fight. We’ve read about swords, snows, and trees drinking blood. This seems to imply that Ser Gerold Hightower and “Drey” got in a fight.
Darkstar excuses himself from the campfire to “have a piss”. Drey cautions him to watch for venomous snakes. Darkstar replies he has been weaned on venom, and disappears.
Snakes symbolize dual expression of good and evil, and sexual desires. Was the “venomous snake” an argument over a woman? We have Darkstar pissing after drinking lemonwater. When he comes back, Darkstar gets Arianne’s attention by calling her Princess. He stood behind her, half in starlight and half in shadow:
“How was your piss?” she asks.
“The sands were duly grateful.” Dayne put a foot upon the head of a statue of the Maiden who’s likeness had been scoured away by the sands. “It occurred to me as I was pissing that this plan of yours may not yield you what you want.”
Lets pause and contemplate that Dayne had his foot upon the head of the maiden! First, I need to state that I believe GRRM has switched identities here. Darkstar had been mirroring Gerold Hightower up until this point, but now GRRM is using just the last name, “Dayne” so I believe he is telling us that he is pointing his finger directly at Arthur here.
The statue head is meant to evoke a human skull. The most common symbolic use of the skull is a representation of death and mortality. Our author is telling us that Arthur is to blame for Lyanna’s death. Even more telling is the use of the foot on the skull. Our feet have direct contact with mother earth, and a foot inside a shoe is a euphemism for the genitals with the foot representing the penis and the shoe the vulva. Did we just find symbolic evidence that Drey is Arthur and he is the father of Lyanna’s child?
What is the symbolism of Darkstar being "half starlight half shadow"? We are making a symbolic change here. We are changing from Hightower to Dayne, Dayne to Lemoncloak. Arthur Dayne was the Sword of the Morning; that is where the lightness comes from, but this half shadow is his white cloak of the Kingsguard turning piss yellow. Now we understand that this is an imperfect man, and that even the noblest knights can become soiled.
“Piss” and “pissing” is brought up repeatedly, and the very word makes me think of “pissing match”, which is a phrase that refers to fighting. “Piss” is also yellow, and like I’ve already concluded up thread I believe this is symbolic for Lem Lemoncloak. And then there’s also this passage:
Lem, is that you? Still wearing that same ratty cloak, are you? I know why you never wash it, I do. You're afraid all the piss will wash out and we'll see you're really a knight o' the Kingsguard!”
- Tansy to Lem
The Kingswood Brotherhood was initially sheltered by the smallfolk until Arthur gained their confidence. He petitioned the king for better rights for the them and ensured that they were paid for any items the king or his soldiers took. Through his actions, Arthur endeared himself to the common people. Would it really be a surprise then if he was still protecting the realm in the current story?
A final thought…the Pisswater Prince is the moniker that Tyrion Lannister gives to the nameless “tanner’s son” from Pisswater Bend who was swapped with Prince Aegon Targaryen when he was an infant. His mother died birthing him and it was said that his father sold him to Varys for a jug of Arbor gold. Wouldn’t it be sad if Arthur left his son behind when he went into exile, only to have his skull smashed against the Wall by the Lannister’s dog? It certainly would explain Ned’s hatred towards the Lannisters, but it rips to shreds all of our assumptions that Lyanna was Jon’s mother.
AFTERTHOUGHT...what if...what if...Bran went back in time and retrieved Jon, preventing the baby swap? It fits symbolically with Jon's direwolf Ghost. Is Jon supposed to be dead? Was he retrieved like a ghost pup from the past?
During the chapter analysis I came upon a scene which seemed to mirror both the attack on Elia in the woods by the Kingswood Brotherhood that had left Ser Gerold Hightower injured, and the detachment of soldiers that King Aerys II had sent afterward in search of them.
The members of the second group were led by Ser Arthur Dayne - who led in Ser Hightower’s place. The rest of the detachment were:
Ser Barristan Selmy
Lord Sumner Crakehall
Squire Merrett Frey
Squire Jaime Lannister
Arianne’s friend is Ser Andrey Dalt, nicknamed Drey. He is brother and heir of Ser Deziel Dalt who is known as the Knight of Lemonwood. He experimented sexually with both Arianne and Tyene. After the conspiracy to crown Myrcella is exposed and the living members arrested, he is condemned to exile for three years in Norvos under Lady Mellario’s service. Lady Mellario is the estranged wife of Prince Doran Martell.
Drey is meant to symbolize someone close to Cersei and Elia, both of whom made advances towards him but he likely turned them down. After the kidnapping of Lyanna, this person went into exile under the protection of Doran Martell.
I need to insert here that I believe Darkstar is mirroring Ser Gerold Hightower in The Queenmaker chapter. Darkstar’s real name is Gerold Dayne, and he makes fun of Garin’s name, because he’s named after Garin the Great; a man that led 250,000 men to their deaths in battle. Darkstar snorts that if he had led a quarter million men to their deaths would people call him Gerold the Great? Arianne reminds her friends that they needed Darkstar and the support of his house, High Hermitage, which echoes House Hightower. The repeated use of the name “Gerold” and the reference to “High” Hermitage has convinced me that he is mirroring Ser Gerold Hightower.
The Queenmaker chapter talks about how Arianne, Drey, Garin, and Spotted Sylva sit around a campfire drinking wine, all except Darkstar who is drinking unsweetened lemonwater. Symbolically “drinking” can refer to a sword fight. We’ve read about swords, snows, and trees drinking blood. This seems to imply that Ser Gerold Hightower and “Drey” got in a fight.
Darkstar excuses himself from the campfire to “have a piss”. Drey cautions him to watch for venomous snakes. Darkstar replies he has been weaned on venom, and disappears.
Snakes symbolize dual expression of good and evil, and sexual desires. Was the “venomous snake” an argument over a woman? We have Darkstar pissing after drinking lemonwater. When he comes back, Darkstar gets Arianne’s attention by calling her Princess. He stood behind her, half in starlight and half in shadow:
“How was your piss?” she asks.
“The sands were duly grateful.” Dayne put a foot upon the head of a statue of the Maiden who’s likeness had been scoured away by the sands. “It occurred to me as I was pissing that this plan of yours may not yield you what you want.”
Lets pause and contemplate that Dayne had his foot upon the head of the maiden! First, I need to state that I believe GRRM has switched identities here. Darkstar had been mirroring Gerold Hightower up until this point, but now GRRM is using just the last name, “Dayne” so I believe he is telling us that he is pointing his finger directly at Arthur here.
The statue head is meant to evoke a human skull. The most common symbolic use of the skull is a representation of death and mortality. Our author is telling us that Arthur is to blame for Lyanna’s death. Even more telling is the use of the foot on the skull. Our feet have direct contact with mother earth, and a foot inside a shoe is a euphemism for the genitals with the foot representing the penis and the shoe the vulva. Did we just find symbolic evidence that Drey is Arthur and he is the father of Lyanna’s child?
What is the symbolism of Darkstar being "half starlight half shadow"? We are making a symbolic change here. We are changing from Hightower to Dayne, Dayne to Lemoncloak. Arthur Dayne was the Sword of the Morning; that is where the lightness comes from, but this half shadow is his white cloak of the Kingsguard turning piss yellow. Now we understand that this is an imperfect man, and that even the noblest knights can become soiled.
“Piss” and “pissing” is brought up repeatedly, and the very word makes me think of “pissing match”, which is a phrase that refers to fighting. “Piss” is also yellow, and like I’ve already concluded up thread I believe this is symbolic for Lem Lemoncloak. And then there’s also this passage:
Lem, is that you? Still wearing that same ratty cloak, are you? I know why you never wash it, I do. You're afraid all the piss will wash out and we'll see you're really a knight o' the Kingsguard!”
- Tansy to Lem
The Kingswood Brotherhood was initially sheltered by the smallfolk until Arthur gained their confidence. He petitioned the king for better rights for the them and ensured that they were paid for any items the king or his soldiers took. Through his actions, Arthur endeared himself to the common people. Would it really be a surprise then if he was still protecting the realm in the current story?
A final thought…the Pisswater Prince is the moniker that Tyrion Lannister gives to the nameless “tanner’s son” from Pisswater Bend who was swapped with Prince Aegon Targaryen when he was an infant. His mother died birthing him and it was said that his father sold him to Varys for a jug of Arbor gold. Wouldn’t it be sad if Arthur left his son behind when he went into exile, only to have his skull smashed against the Wall by the Lannister’s dog? It certainly would explain Ned’s hatred towards the Lannisters, but it rips to shreds all of our assumptions that Lyanna was Jon’s mother.
AFTERTHOUGHT...what if...what if...Bran went back in time and retrieved Jon, preventing the baby swap? It fits symbolically with Jon's direwolf Ghost. Is Jon supposed to be dead? Was he retrieved like a ghost pup from the past?
