Okay so…. life went way off the rails this week so I didn’t get to do a daily post about Game of Thrones the way I wanted to. But I’ve still got a little bit of time before the final season premieres so let’s do one more as the clock ticks down! If you missed the first of my two coutdown posts, you can find the first one here!
Some of the most interesting scenes in the ASOIAF books are the ones centered on prophecy and dreams. The show cut back on those scenes except for a select few (The Prince Who Was Promised, Bran’s warging and visions of the past, Dany in the House of the Undying) but there are more visions and divinations in the books that offer a look at the characters’ journeys and turmoils. I’m going to skip over ones that made it into the show for the most part and muse a little on some of my favorite dreams and prophecies from each book.
“Sometimes I dream about it” [Jon] said, “I’m walking down this long empty hall. My voice echoes all around, but no one answers, so I walk faster, opening doors, shouting names. I don’t even know who I’m looking for. Most nights it’s my father, but sometimes it’s Robb instead, or my little sister Arya, or my uncle…. The castle is always empty….. Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. That always scares me. I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time, screaming for someone, for anyone. And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of. I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way. It gets darker and darker, until I want to scream” – A Game of Thrones
Jon’s dream as he explains it to Sam in the first book is pretty predictive with hindsight. The four Starks mentioned — Ned, Robb, Arya, Benjen— aren’t just the family members Jon is closest to, they’re also the ones who die or are presumed dead at some point in the series. His description of the empty castle mirrors descriptions given by Bran and others after the Ironborn and Ramsey destroy it later.
And the bit about the crypts. “Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me…. I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway.” The one question that has haunted Jon all of his life, the identity of his mother, has its answer in the crypts. We’re told later on about the Targaryen tendency towards prophetic dreams (more on that in a bit) and with hindsight, it seems like this might be one of the more subtle nods in the first book towards Jon’s parentage. He’s not scared of the Kings of Winter, but of something else in the crypts. He’s scared of what lies entombed with its newer residents. Brandon, Lyanna and Ned all end up buried with a lot of forgotten history and secrets, much of which relates to Jon himself. I think he subconsciously knows, or some force is trying to tell him, that there are answers for him down there. But Jon in AGOT isn’t ready to hear them. He’s got some growing and living to do before he’ll be able to accept the truth.
Dany’s wrist still tingled where Quaithe had touched her. “Where would you have me go?” she asked.
“To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.” – A Clash of Kings
The prophecies given to Dany in the books and show are some of my favorites. There’s a sense of dramatic irony to them in that the reader often knows more about what’s going on in the larger story than Dany herself does, especially if you come to the books from the show.
This prophecy midway through the second book, when Dany is about to take her first major steps towards becoming Daenerys of House Targaryen, First of Her Name and it gives a good preview of her long-term story. Quaithe knows Dany has to go North but first, at least in the show, she does go to the South to Dragonstore and that’s where she meets Jon and learns about the Army of the Dead. Before she can go to Westeros, she must first establish herself in Essos. And before spring can come again, they’ll be a hard winter to come.
“To go forward you must go back” is the only one of Quaithe’s assertions that doesn’t explicitly invoke geography. As the books continue, Dany begins to meet and listen to those who knew her family, in particular, Barristan Selmy. Through Barristan, she learns the truth about her father and what he was really like. Though she’s reluctant to hear and believe it at first. But to be a good ruler, to reestablish House Targaryen, she has to know where her family has been and why the people of Westeros will be reluctant to accept her. Only by admitting the faults of those who came before can she move forward and be better.
“I swore an oath to keep him safe,” [Brienne] said to Rhaegar’s shade. “I swore a holy oath.”
“We all swore oaths,” said Ser Arthur Dayne, so sadly.
The shades dismounted from their ghostly horses. When they drew their longswords, it made not a sound. “He was going to burn the city,” Jaime said. “To leave Robert only ashes.”
“He was your king,” said Darry.
“You swore to keep him safe,” said Whent.
“And the children, them as well,” said Prince Lewyn.
Prince Rhaegar burned with a cold light, now white, now red, now dark. “I left my wife and children in your hands.”
“I never thought he’d hurt them.” Jaime’s sword was burning less brightly now. “I was with the king…”
“Killing the king,” said Ser Arthur.
“Cutting his throat,” said Prince Lewyn.
“The king you had sworn to die for,” said the White Bull. – A Storm of Swords
God, this is one of my favorite scenes in the entire book series.
Jamie’s chapters in the books make it clear that he’s haunted by his actions in the rebellion. Most importantly, they highlight his respect and loyalty to Rhaegar and how his greatest regret is that he couldn’t protect Rhaegar’s children. He’s not haunted by the ghost of Aerys, but of Rhaegar and his fellow kingsguard. As the series goes on, especially in A Feast for Crows, this becomes the thing that drives him and Cersei apart. It’s not Cersei protecting him, fighting beside him in this dream. It’s Brienne. The is the start of Jamie’s “redemption.”
Jamie has twisted that advice the Tyrion gave Jon to wear the words people hurl at him “like a suit of armor” and let his titles of Kingslayer and Oathbreaker close him off from everyone. His idea of honor is a complicated one but generally shows a tendency to know what the right thing to do is, even if he doesn’t follow through. I’m excited to see what happens when Jamie finds out about Jon’s parentage. Will he see it as an opportunity to succeed where he once failed?
“Why would the gods take my eyes and my strength, yet condemn me to linger on so long, frozen and forgotten? What use could they have for an old done man like me?” Aemon’s fingers trembled, twigs sheathed in spotted skin. “I remember, Sam. I still remember.”
He was not making sense. “Remember what?”
“Dragons,” Aemon whispered. “The grief and glory of my House, they were.”
“The last dragon died before you were born,” said Sam. “How could you remember them?”
“I see them in my dreams, Sam. I see a red star bleeding in the sky. I still remember red. I see their shadows on the snow, hear the crack of leathern wings, feel their hot breath. My brothers dreamed of dragons too, and the dreams killed them, every one. Sam, we tremble on the cusp of half-remembered prophecies, of wonders and terrors that no man now living could hope to comprehend…” – A Feast for Crows
Aemon’s death arc is a bit longer in the books than it is in the show. It also doesn’t take place at the wall. Jon sends him with Sam to Oldtown to keep Aemon and his kings’ blood away from Melisandre. As he gets closer to death, he begins musing on his life. To Sam, these musings make little sense, but to the reader, they make a whole lot of sense.
This is one of the first scenes that gives concrete evidence for Targaryen dreams involving prophecy and dragons. “I see a red star bleeding in the sky… I see their shadows on the snow.” Martin loves mentioning snow in reference to dragons and The Prince Who Was Promised and the bleeding star that heralds the birth of Dany’s dragons. “We tremble on the cusp of half-remembered prophecies.”
Aemon later talks about how he thinks the prophecy of the promised “prince” was actually mistranslated as dragons have no gender. I’m going to take it one step further and say it’s been mistranslated, and that it’s not a prince OR princess, but a prince AND princess. Additionally, the line about “wonders and terrors that no man now living could hope to comprehend,” is definitely a nod towards the White Walkers and perhaps Jon’s eventual death as the character at the heart of that conflict.
“The gods gave us long lives but not great numbers, lest we overrun the world as deer will overrun a wood where there are no wolves to hunt them. That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The giants are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great lions of the western hills have been slain, the unicorns are all but gone, the mammoths down to a few hundred. The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us.” – A Dance with Dragons
Leaf says this to Bran when he asks where the rest of the Children of the Forest have gone. It’s one of the saddest, yet most pragmatic predictions in the books. As the Army of the Dead rises, other old magics of the North are dying. We know the Children helped create the walkers and that both during the first War of the Dead and now, they needed the humans’ help to defeat them. In that way, despite the fact that she blames this on men, it appears that the Children helped bring about the loss of magic as it relates to the Old Gods of the North.
Noticeably, there is no reference to dragons in Leaf’s lament. But they are not of the North. They are of Old Valyria in the South. With the Children’s numbers so much more diminished now than in the first war, humans will have to rely on different kinds of magic from different places to fight back the Long Night. The knowledge of the North and the magic of the South have to unite to win.
There’s also the prophetic line, “the direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well.” That does not bode well for Ghost and Nymeria, the only two direwolves of prominence left in the story. It also may not bode well for the metaphorical direwolves, the children of House Stark. At this point in the story, House Lannister has lost all of the power and respect Tywin commanded giving metaphorical weight to “the great lions of the western hills have been slain.” Fingers crossed that this is mostly literal and refers to the lions that House Lannister used to keep as pets.
Because honestly, there is only one hill I’ll die on regarding season 8 and the last two books: If Ghost dies, I riot.*
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