Post by Some Pig No Doubt on Feb 21, 2016 22:22:20 GMT
Caught this on my last reread. Three chapters, back-to-back. WHAT DOES IT MEAN??!?!? If anyone is currently rereading ACOK, be on the "white lookout"! I'd be interested in any spots that I may have missed, OR, if there might be 3 inversions involving the color BLACK.
Chapter 12 - Dany
"A city, Khaleesi," they cried. "A city pale as the moon and lovely as a maid. … "This city is dead, Khaleesi. Nameless and godless we found it, the gates broken, only wind and flies moving through the streets." … How long the city had been deserted she could not know, but the white walls, so beautiful from afar, were cracked and crumbling when seen up close. Inside was a maze of narrow crooked alleys. The buildings pressed close, their facades blank, chalky, windowless. Everything was white, as if the people who lived here had known nothing of color. They rode past heaps of sun-washed rubble where houses had fallen in, and elsewhere saw the faded scars of fire.
…his hands overflowing with figs; tales of other fruit trees; a courtyard overgrown with twisting vines and tiny green grapes; "I've brought you a peach," Ser Jorah said, kneeling. Jhogo discovered a well where the water was pure and cold…
Yet they found bones too, the skulls of the unburied dead, bleached and broken.
"Fruit and water and shade," Dany said, her cheeks sticky with peach juice. "The gods were good to bring us to this place."
Summary: DanyCo traveling through the Red Waste, encounters a white city, long abandoned. Shows signs of being sacked long ago, with bones of the dead littered about, signs of fire. Yet, Vaes Tolorro becomes a place of refuge and safety, offering food and drink and shelter. The Dothraki are uneasy about it, believe it haunted with terrible ghosts, but the city actually provides well for the group and puts them back on track for survival - it is a place of salvation for Dany’s group that was slowly dying.
Note: DanyCo find the city by chance – she makes the decision to stay once they arrive and look around. After a while, they are “rescued” by the Thirteen and taken to Qarth, which leads to a crucial turning point for Dany and sets her upon a new path.
Chapter 13 - Jon
Whitetree, the village was named on Sam's old maps. Four tumbledown one-room houses of unmortared stone surrounded an empty sheepfold and a well. The houses were roofed with sod, the windows shuttered with ragged pieces of hide. And above them loomed the pale limbs and dark red leaves of a monstrous great weirwood. It was the biggest tree Jon Snow had ever seen, the trunk near eight feet wide, the branches spreading so far that the entire village was shaded beneath their canopy. The size did not disturb him so much as the face . . . the mouth especially, no simple carved slash, but a jagged hollow large enough to swallow a sheep. … Whitetree was the fourth village they had passed, and it had been the same in all of them. The people were gone, vanished with their scant possessions and whatever animals they may have had. None of the villages showed any signs of having been attacked. They were simply . . . empty. "Gone," cried Mormont's raven, flapping up into the weirwood to perch above them. "Gone, gone, gone."
"There were wildlings at Whitetree only a year ago."
"What do you think happened to them all?" Jon asked. "Something worse than we can imagine," suggested Dolorous Edd.
Those are not sheep bones, though. Nor is that a sheep's skull in the ashes. Beneath the skull he saw another, smaller, the jaw broken off. It was half-buried in ash and bits of bone. When he brought the skull to Mormont, the Old Bear lifted it in both hands and stared into the empty sockets. "The wildlings burn their dead. We've always known that.” Jon Snow remembered the wight rising, its eyes shining blue in the pale dead face. He knew why, he was certain.
"There's water to the north. A lake, might be. A few flint hills rising to the west, not very high. Nothing else to see, my lords."
"We might camp here tonight," Smallwood suggested. The Old Bear glanced up, searching for a glimpse of sky through the pale limbs and red leaves of the weirwood. "No," he declared. "We'll press on north," Mormont decided.
Summary: JonCo traveling beyond the Wall, through the Haunted Forest, finds the village of Whitetree, with huge white weirwood that covers whole village, abandoned within the past year. No signs of village being sacked/raided, but wildlings have been burning their dead (to keep them from rising). LC Mormont chooses to keep moving rather than stay in this place. Nothing unusual happens – true neutral encounter. Jon notes that the empty villages make the haunted forest seem more haunted.
Note: JonCo find Whitetree along planned ranging route. Mormont makes the decision to leave once they arrive and look around. The decision to continue north leads the NW to Craster's Keep, a critical turning point/place for both Jon and Sam.
Chapter 14 - Arya
Finally the town came into view; a cluster of white houses spread out around the walls of the holdfast, a big sept with a shingled wooden roof, the lord's towerhouse sitting on a small rise to the west . . . and no sign of any people, anywhere. This empty town frightened her almost as much as the burnt holdfast where they'd found the crying girl and the one-armed woman. Why would people run off and leave their homes and everything? What could scare them so much?
Despondent, she climbed off her horse and knelt by the lake. The water lapped softly around her legs. The green water was warm as tears, but there was no salt in it. It tasted of summer and mud and growing things.
The town was as dark as any forest when Yoren and the others reappeared. "Tower's empty," he said. "Lord's gone off to fight maybe, or to get his smallfolk to safety, no telling. Not a horse or pig left in town, but we'll eat. Saw a goose running loose, and some chickens, and there's good fish in the Gods Eye." Koss went out the postern gate and brought the goose back, and two chickens as well…
"We'll stay in the holdfast, with the gates barred," the old man said. "I like the feel o' stone walls about me when I sleep." Arya could not keep quiet. "We shouldn't stay here," she blurted. "The people didn't. They all ran off, even their lord." "Smart boy," said Yoren. "Thing is, the folks who lived here were at war, like it or no. We're not. Night's Watch takes no part, so no man's our enemy."
"I command you once more, in King Joffrey's name, to prove the loyalty you profess and open these gates," said Ser Amory.
"Got me young boys in here," Yoren shouted down.
"Storm the walls and kill them all," Ser Amory said in a bored voice.
All around them, the town burned. The night air was full of smoke, and the drifting red embers outnumbered the stars. … Above was nothing but blood and roaring red and choking smoke and the screams of dying horses. A dozen feet down the tunnel she heard the sound, like the roar of some monstrous beast, and a cloud of hot smoke and black dust came billowing up behind her, smelling of hell.
Summary: AryaCo traveling through the Riverlands, near the God’s Eye – finds a village of white houses, recently abandoned. No signs of it having been sacked/raided. It has food and shelter and safety so Yoren opts to make camp; Arya is very unnerved by the empty place even with no signs of ruin. For good reason – the ruin comes to them. Lorch descends, burns the town, kills all but a handful of those in Yoren’s caravan. The village proves to be a place of death and destruction for Arya and her people, who thus far had been surviving fairly well. They become the bones and the burned.
Note: AryaCo intentionally goes to the white village. Yoren makes the decision to go there/camp there as part of “avoidance route”. Lorch’s sacking leads to Arya’s “rescuing” of Jaqen H’ghar, which also leads to a crucial turning point for Arya that eventually takes her on a new life path.
Chapter 12 - Dany
"A city, Khaleesi," they cried. "A city pale as the moon and lovely as a maid. … "This city is dead, Khaleesi. Nameless and godless we found it, the gates broken, only wind and flies moving through the streets." … How long the city had been deserted she could not know, but the white walls, so beautiful from afar, were cracked and crumbling when seen up close. Inside was a maze of narrow crooked alleys. The buildings pressed close, their facades blank, chalky, windowless. Everything was white, as if the people who lived here had known nothing of color. They rode past heaps of sun-washed rubble where houses had fallen in, and elsewhere saw the faded scars of fire.
…his hands overflowing with figs; tales of other fruit trees; a courtyard overgrown with twisting vines and tiny green grapes; "I've brought you a peach," Ser Jorah said, kneeling. Jhogo discovered a well where the water was pure and cold…
Yet they found bones too, the skulls of the unburied dead, bleached and broken.
"Fruit and water and shade," Dany said, her cheeks sticky with peach juice. "The gods were good to bring us to this place."
Summary: DanyCo traveling through the Red Waste, encounters a white city, long abandoned. Shows signs of being sacked long ago, with bones of the dead littered about, signs of fire. Yet, Vaes Tolorro becomes a place of refuge and safety, offering food and drink and shelter. The Dothraki are uneasy about it, believe it haunted with terrible ghosts, but the city actually provides well for the group and puts them back on track for survival - it is a place of salvation for Dany’s group that was slowly dying.
Note: DanyCo find the city by chance – she makes the decision to stay once they arrive and look around. After a while, they are “rescued” by the Thirteen and taken to Qarth, which leads to a crucial turning point for Dany and sets her upon a new path.
Chapter 13 - Jon
Whitetree, the village was named on Sam's old maps. Four tumbledown one-room houses of unmortared stone surrounded an empty sheepfold and a well. The houses were roofed with sod, the windows shuttered with ragged pieces of hide. And above them loomed the pale limbs and dark red leaves of a monstrous great weirwood. It was the biggest tree Jon Snow had ever seen, the trunk near eight feet wide, the branches spreading so far that the entire village was shaded beneath their canopy. The size did not disturb him so much as the face . . . the mouth especially, no simple carved slash, but a jagged hollow large enough to swallow a sheep. … Whitetree was the fourth village they had passed, and it had been the same in all of them. The people were gone, vanished with their scant possessions and whatever animals they may have had. None of the villages showed any signs of having been attacked. They were simply . . . empty. "Gone," cried Mormont's raven, flapping up into the weirwood to perch above them. "Gone, gone, gone."
"There were wildlings at Whitetree only a year ago."
"What do you think happened to them all?" Jon asked. "Something worse than we can imagine," suggested Dolorous Edd.
Those are not sheep bones, though. Nor is that a sheep's skull in the ashes. Beneath the skull he saw another, smaller, the jaw broken off. It was half-buried in ash and bits of bone. When he brought the skull to Mormont, the Old Bear lifted it in both hands and stared into the empty sockets. "The wildlings burn their dead. We've always known that.” Jon Snow remembered the wight rising, its eyes shining blue in the pale dead face. He knew why, he was certain.
"There's water to the north. A lake, might be. A few flint hills rising to the west, not very high. Nothing else to see, my lords."
"We might camp here tonight," Smallwood suggested. The Old Bear glanced up, searching for a glimpse of sky through the pale limbs and red leaves of the weirwood. "No," he declared. "We'll press on north," Mormont decided.
Summary: JonCo traveling beyond the Wall, through the Haunted Forest, finds the village of Whitetree, with huge white weirwood that covers whole village, abandoned within the past year. No signs of village being sacked/raided, but wildlings have been burning their dead (to keep them from rising). LC Mormont chooses to keep moving rather than stay in this place. Nothing unusual happens – true neutral encounter. Jon notes that the empty villages make the haunted forest seem more haunted.
Note: JonCo find Whitetree along planned ranging route. Mormont makes the decision to leave once they arrive and look around. The decision to continue north leads the NW to Craster's Keep, a critical turning point/place for both Jon and Sam.
Chapter 14 - Arya
Finally the town came into view; a cluster of white houses spread out around the walls of the holdfast, a big sept with a shingled wooden roof, the lord's towerhouse sitting on a small rise to the west . . . and no sign of any people, anywhere. This empty town frightened her almost as much as the burnt holdfast where they'd found the crying girl and the one-armed woman. Why would people run off and leave their homes and everything? What could scare them so much?
Despondent, she climbed off her horse and knelt by the lake. The water lapped softly around her legs. The green water was warm as tears, but there was no salt in it. It tasted of summer and mud and growing things.
The town was as dark as any forest when Yoren and the others reappeared. "Tower's empty," he said. "Lord's gone off to fight maybe, or to get his smallfolk to safety, no telling. Not a horse or pig left in town, but we'll eat. Saw a goose running loose, and some chickens, and there's good fish in the Gods Eye." Koss went out the postern gate and brought the goose back, and two chickens as well…
"We'll stay in the holdfast, with the gates barred," the old man said. "I like the feel o' stone walls about me when I sleep." Arya could not keep quiet. "We shouldn't stay here," she blurted. "The people didn't. They all ran off, even their lord." "Smart boy," said Yoren. "Thing is, the folks who lived here were at war, like it or no. We're not. Night's Watch takes no part, so no man's our enemy."
"I command you once more, in King Joffrey's name, to prove the loyalty you profess and open these gates," said Ser Amory.
"Got me young boys in here," Yoren shouted down.
"Storm the walls and kill them all," Ser Amory said in a bored voice.
All around them, the town burned. The night air was full of smoke, and the drifting red embers outnumbered the stars. … Above was nothing but blood and roaring red and choking smoke and the screams of dying horses. A dozen feet down the tunnel she heard the sound, like the roar of some monstrous beast, and a cloud of hot smoke and black dust came billowing up behind her, smelling of hell.
Summary: AryaCo traveling through the Riverlands, near the God’s Eye – finds a village of white houses, recently abandoned. No signs of it having been sacked/raided. It has food and shelter and safety so Yoren opts to make camp; Arya is very unnerved by the empty place even with no signs of ruin. For good reason – the ruin comes to them. Lorch descends, burns the town, kills all but a handful of those in Yoren’s caravan. The village proves to be a place of death and destruction for Arya and her people, who thus far had been surviving fairly well. They become the bones and the burned.
Note: AryaCo intentionally goes to the white village. Yoren makes the decision to go there/camp there as part of “avoidance route”. Lorch’s sacking leads to Arya’s “rescuing” of Jaqen H’ghar, which also leads to a crucial turning point for Arya that eventually takes her on a new life path.