Post by iheartseverus on Jul 14, 2016 17:30:55 GMT -5
This essay was written by Quiet Isle member audelise, who I hope will be joining us here in the future.
Maybe this should be saved for the re-read, but I read over these 2 Bran chapters and a few things caught my attention. I haven't puzzled out any theories or ideas, but these stuck out to me and made me wonder if there's a deeper meaning anywhere. Just wanted to see if anyone else had thoughts about the cave system with the CotF and BR. Sorry for the crazy length! (any emphasis/italics are my own doing)
I found it interesting he described the cavern with stone teeth - likely these are just stalagmites and stalactites. But the first image that came to mind was as if he was walking between the jaws of a large creature. Looking at pictures of caves, some of the formations do resemble teeth. Significant? Probably not, but I imagined them being inside the mouth of a dragon, which may or may not have been intended.All of these passages remind me of the House of Black and White. The 2 mentions of color fading and only black and white existing, even when light from a torch was burning - it all faded out.
The water that's running is described as being black, which could be just because it's dark inside there. The pool in the center of the HoBaW is described as "black as ink" - although again, it could just be because it is dark.
The description of BR brought me back to Arya's meeting of the kindly man:"Beneath he had no face; only a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin still clinging to the cheeks, and a white worm wriggling from one empty eye socket. "Kiss me, child," he croaked, in a voice as dry and husky as a death rattle." BR is also described as having a dry voice, plus the yellow skull, scraps of skin, white worm through the eye. Eerily similar and I'm unsure if that was done purposely or not.
"Jojen Paste" (or not, whatever you call it!) seems to be terrible at first and get better, until it's extremely desirable. While not as intense a change, in the HoBaW, the candles give a similar effect. "She could smell the candles. The scent was unfamiliar, and she put it down to some queer incense, but as she got deeper into the temple, they seemed to smell of snow and pine needles and hot stew. Good smells, Arya told herself, and felt a little braver."
Along with the water...multiple times the pools in Winterfell's godswood are said to be black. The caves the children are in are implied to be those of Gendel and Goyne, which have been suggested to go under the Wall. Again, unsure of what or how this plays into anything, but the river may run from beyond the Wall, down and into Winterfell.
For the night is dark and full of terrors. Oh, R'hllor. But BR is telling Bran to embrace that darkness. Melisandre said "We choose light or we choose darkness." Ice and fire, cold and hot, dark and light...this is the first instance I can recall that someone is specifically promoting the ice/cold/dark side. Again, I don't know what this means or implies, but it's such a stark contrast to everything we've heard about the Lord of Light. Perhaps BR and Bran arethe "Great Other" - but maybe light and dark doesn't mean good and evil.
The floor of the passage was littered with the bones of birds and beasts. But there were other bones as well, big ones that must have come from giants and small ones that could have been from children. On either side of them, in niches carved from the stone, skulls looked down on them. Bran saw a bear skull and a wolf skull, half a dozen human skulls and near as many giants. All the rest were small, queerly formed. Children of the forest. The roots had grown in and around and through them, every one.
...
He even crossed the slender stone bridge that arched over the abyss and discovered more passages and chambers on the far side. One was full of singers, enthroned like Brynden in nests of weirwood roots that wove under and through and around their bodies. Most of them looked dead to him, but as he crossed in front of them their eyes would open and follow the light of his torch, and one of them opened and closed a wrinkled mouth as if he were trying to speak.
...
"The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use...
but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves."Did all those creatures come to die there? Are they the results of sacrifices? Were they all somehow related to greenseeing?
There are other weirwood thrones, just like Bran has now as well. The children sitting in them are still alive...why did Brynden get called to be a greenseer? Why is Bran? How did it shift from CotF to men? Why do they need so many? WillBrynden die when Bran takes over as a greenseer? Or will he continue on half-dead, half-alive feeding off the tree?
In time you will see well beyond the trees themselves...I don't think I caught that before. What would they look through? Birds of course, living creatures. But animals were the first step in skinchanging...the trees seem like a larger step forward to look into the past, present and future. But how would he see beyond the trees?
In writing this and looking up the HoBaW stuff I realized there's some weird similarities between Arya and Bran's experiences in their training. They're both becoming something different, have a teacher that they are hiding things from, unsure of where they want to go/what they want to do, dealing with very secretive things (much of which involves death). I'll be interested to see how these two story lines weave together as we go along.
Fin. /whew
They passed another branching, and another, then came into an echoing cavern as large as the great hall of Winterfell, with stone teeth hanging from its ceiling and more poking up through its floor.
...
Before long he was flying around the cavern, weaving through the long stone teeth that hung down from the ceiling, even flapping out over the abyss and swooping down into its cold black depths.
...
Before long he was flying around the cavern, weaving through the long stone teeth that hung down from the ceiling, even flapping out over the abyss and swooping down into its cold black depths.
The roots were everywhere, twisting through earth and stone, closing off some passages and holding up the roofs of others. All the color is gone, Bran realized suddenly. The world was black soil and white wood.
...
The girl child was waiting for them, standing on one end of a natural bridge above a yawning chasm. Down below in the darkness, Bran heard the sound of rushing water. An underground river.
...
One moment the flames burned orange and yellow, filling the cavern with a ruddy glow; then all the colors faded, leaving only black and white.
...
The chamber echoed to the sound of the black river.
...
Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck.
...
The sight of him still frightened Bran - the weirwood roots snaking in and out of his withered flesh, the mushrooms sprouting from his cheeks, the white wooden worm that grew from the socket where one eye had been. He liked it better when the torches were put out. In the dark he could pretend that it was the three-eyed crow who whispered to him and not some grisly talking corpse.
....
It had a bitter taste, though not so bitter as acorn paste. The first spoonful was the hardest to get down. He almost retched it right back up. The second tasted better. The third was almost sweet. The rest he spooned up eagerly. Why had he thought that it was bitter? It tasted of honey, of new-fallen snow, of pepper and cinnamon and the last kiss his mother ever gave him.
...
The girl child was waiting for them, standing on one end of a natural bridge above a yawning chasm. Down below in the darkness, Bran heard the sound of rushing water. An underground river.
...
One moment the flames burned orange and yellow, filling the cavern with a ruddy glow; then all the colors faded, leaving only black and white.
...
The chamber echoed to the sound of the black river.
...
Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck.
...
The sight of him still frightened Bran - the weirwood roots snaking in and out of his withered flesh, the mushrooms sprouting from his cheeks, the white wooden worm that grew from the socket where one eye had been. He liked it better when the torches were put out. In the dark he could pretend that it was the three-eyed crow who whispered to him and not some grisly talking corpse.
....
It had a bitter taste, though not so bitter as acorn paste. The first spoonful was the hardest to get down. He almost retched it right back up. The second tasted better. The third was almost sweet. The rest he spooned up eagerly. Why had he thought that it was bitter? It tasted of honey, of new-fallen snow, of pepper and cinnamon and the last kiss his mother ever gave him.
The water that's running is described as being black, which could be just because it's dark inside there. The pool in the center of the HoBaW is described as "black as ink" - although again, it could just be because it is dark.
The description of BR brought me back to Arya's meeting of the kindly man:"Beneath he had no face; only a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin still clinging to the cheeks, and a white worm wriggling from one empty eye socket. "Kiss me, child," he croaked, in a voice as dry and husky as a death rattle." BR is also described as having a dry voice, plus the yellow skull, scraps of skin, white worm through the eye. Eerily similar and I'm unsure if that was done purposely or not.
"Jojen Paste" (or not, whatever you call it!) seems to be terrible at first and get better, until it's extremely desirable. While not as intense a change, in the HoBaW, the candles give a similar effect. "She could smell the candles. The scent was unfamiliar, and she put it down to some queer incense, but as she got deeper into the temple, they seemed to smell of snow and pine needles and hot stew. Good smells, Arya told herself, and felt a little braver."
Along with the water...multiple times the pools in Winterfell's godswood are said to be black. The caves the children are in are implied to be those of Gendel and Goyne, which have been suggested to go under the Wall. Again, unsure of what or how this plays into anything, but the river may run from beyond the Wall, down and into Winterfell.
"Never fear the darkness, Bran." The lord's words were accompanied by a faint rustling of wood and leaf, a slight twisting of his head. "The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong."
The floor of the passage was littered with the bones of birds and beasts. But there were other bones as well, big ones that must have come from giants and small ones that could have been from children. On either side of them, in niches carved from the stone, skulls looked down on them. Bran saw a bear skull and a wolf skull, half a dozen human skulls and near as many giants. All the rest were small, queerly formed. Children of the forest. The roots had grown in and around and through them, every one.
...
He even crossed the slender stone bridge that arched over the abyss and discovered more passages and chambers on the far side. One was full of singers, enthroned like Brynden in nests of weirwood roots that wove under and through and around their bodies. Most of them looked dead to him, but as he crossed in front of them their eyes would open and follow the light of his torch, and one of them opened and closed a wrinkled mouth as if he were trying to speak.
...
"The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use...
but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves."
There are other weirwood thrones, just like Bran has now as well. The children sitting in them are still alive...why did Brynden get called to be a greenseer? Why is Bran? How did it shift from CotF to men? Why do they need so many? WillBrynden die when Bran takes over as a greenseer? Or will he continue on half-dead, half-alive feeding off the tree?
In time you will see well beyond the trees themselves...I don't think I caught that before. What would they look through? Birds of course, living creatures. But animals were the first step in skinchanging...the trees seem like a larger step forward to look into the past, present and future. But how would he see beyond the trees?
In writing this and looking up the HoBaW stuff I realized there's some weird similarities between Arya and Bran's experiences in their training. They're both becoming something different, have a teacher that they are hiding things from, unsure of where they want to go/what they want to do, dealing with very secretive things (much of which involves death). I'll be interested to see how these two story lines weave together as we go along.
Fin. /whew
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