The Old Gods and the New

In this chapter we are introduced to Catelyn of House Tully of Riverrun, Ned Starks southern wife. Martin uses her to give us a crash course on religion and practices in the North and South. We learn that they are as different as spring and winter. We also learn that Jon Arryn, a character that was like a second father to Ned Stark, is dead.

From the news of Jon's Arryn death we learn a few very important things. We learn that the King, Robert of House Baratheon is headed to Winterfell. Ned Stark mentions that he finds it strange that the widow of Jon Arryn, Lysa Tully, went to the Eyrie rather than Riverrun. As we now now, Lysa had specific plans and thus traveled to the impregnable land where the Eyrie sits.

During this reread I find myself paying a lot more attention to the gods in this world. The north, as we are told in this chapter, follows the old gods. The old gods of the children of the Forrest have no names. We know through Catelyn that Lord Stark sits before the weirwood in the godswood after taking a man's life. "The heart tree", as Ned calls the weirwood, makes Catelyn uneasy because she senses that the face carved by the long gone children of the forest watches her. Catelyn's southern family worships the new gods. She feels like an outsider in the north. We can truly see that Catelyn views the north as a dark place compared to her southern home. 

Her southern traditions are very different from the practices in the north. Her religion, The Faith of the Seven seems more complicated. She describes that worshiping involves a septon, incense, a seven sided crystal, and song. Worshipping the old gods involves praying before the weirwood tree in the godswood. No priests, no song, just the worshiper and the tree. 

 In the North, the children of the forest carved the faces in the trees long before the arrival of the First Men. During a war, between the Children and the first men, all the trees in the south were cut down. The only place in the south where weirwoods still exist is in the isle of faces. This caught my attention because I don't exactly remember this from my first read. Maybe this isle will come to play in future books. Perhaps a Howland Reed/knight of the laughing tree/Green Seer Bran connection. 

As we now know, the weirwood trees are a sort of network. A network that greenseers use to see visions of the past and present. Since there are no weirwoods in the south we no that greenseers have no sight there. 

It's interesting that Catelyn Stark, despite believing in the faith of the seven, is so afraid of the weirwood trees. She is also afraid of The Others. One would think that her faith would put her at peace. According to Ned Stark, The Others and the children of the forest have been gone for thousands of years and Maester Luwin doesn't even believe the Others ever existed. Catelyn Tully obviously believes in all of these otherworldly entities. She is very uneasy about the dead direwolf in the snow with the antler it's throat. Foreshadowing that George RR Martin throws at us right at us from the beginning. This is definitely one of the more obvious omens in the books. Direwolf and Stag, representing the Starks and Baratheons. 

Finding and reinterpreting all of the omens and prophecies is something I'm really looking forward to. I'm sure Martin has foreshadowed the end of the series already. I hope that as we read the last two books we can say, "Whoa, that was spelled out all along!"  Or maybe we'll be completely blindsided. As "boy" says in season 3 episode 6 of A Game of Thrones "If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." I'm definitely paying attention to omens/prophecies throughout this re-read and I think the Children of the forest storyline will give us many clues.


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