Summer - Bran III

Let me preface this by saying that this chapter was the most interesting to me in my first read-through. It dangles answers right before our eyes. One of the characters sees something that we as readers are unable to. We are given glimpses of what’s going on in multiple mysterious lands (Always-winter and Asshai). Also, if you consider the fact that the series was only intended to be three books, then the first book should include insight and foreshadowing into what is truly going on in the world.

I also talk about this chapter a lot on forums because I believe people connect certain parts to Robert Strong, Oberyn Martell and prophesy when it doesn’t have anything to do with them.

Bran recalls Maester Luwin dressing up clay dolls to look like him - dropping them out of the tower to demonstrate how dangerous climbing could be. He says, “But I never fall.” In the end, he never really does, at least not by accident or his own carelessness.

He falls though, from above the world. The imagery is interesting. I wonder if he’s seeing the world as it is in the beginning of his fall, or if he’s just entering this out of body experience from some type of void. He thinks he’s dreaming, but he’s not.

“I’ll wake up when I hit the ground,” Bran says

“You’ll die when you hit the ground,” Replies the crow, Bloodraven.

He sees the ground very far away, only grey mists surround him. He mentions that it’s cold, there’s no sun or stars. The fact that there is navigation throughout the seas makes me believe that the nothingness that surrounds him is a void his consciousness is plunging from. He is very close to death, after all. Is this a familiar experience for all those who are near-death, or only those with the warging/greenseeing ability? In a later chapter, Euron mentions that he experienced a similar circumstance.

He tries to fly.

“The things I do for love,” A painful memory, causing him to fall faster than ever, nearing death in body and mind.

“Every flight begins with a fall”

Bran sees the whole world spread out before him. “He could see the whole realm, and everyone in it.”

He sees maester Luwin studying the sky with a bronze tube, taking notes. He’s probably forecasting the weather.

He sees Robb practicing swordplay with real steel in his hand.

“Gods,” Robb swore, his young face dark with anger. “If this is true, he will pay for it.” He drew his sword and waved it in the air. “I’ll kill him myself!” Ser Rodrik bristled at him. “Put that away! The Lannisters are a hundred leagues away. Never draw your sword unless you mean to use it. How many times must I tell you, foolish boy?” Abashed, Robb sheathed his sword, suddenly a child again. Catelyn said to Ser Rodrik, “I see my son is wearing steel now.”

He sees Hodor carrying an anvil to Mikken’s forge.

He sees the weirwood brooding over its reflection until it lifts its gaze back at Bran.

He sees a galley racing across the waters of the Bite. His mother is inside, looking at the knife that was intended for him, blood still on it. Ser Rodrik is there, too, sea-sick and throwing up over the rails of the ship.

Ser Rodrik protested. “My lady, let me accompany you at least. The kingsroad can be perilous for a woman alone.” “I will not be taking the kingsroad,” Catelyn replied. She thought for a moment, then nodded her consent. “Two riders can move as fast as one, and a good deal faster than a long column burdened by wagons and wheel-houses. I will welcome your company, Ser Rodrik. We will follow the White Knife down to the sea, and hire a ship at White Harbor. Strong horses and brisk winds should bring us to King’s Landing well ahead of Ned and the Lannisters.” And then, she thought, we shall see what we shall see.

The next couple glimpses are one paragraph, which is the most discussed aspect of his experience. 

He sees Ned pleading with the King.

He sees Sansa crying herself to sleep.

He sees Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets in her heart.

I'm not sure if these visions occur before or after caught, because Arya is watching in silence, possibly hiding. Ned is still pleading with Robert even though Robert stormed off in the previous chapter - there shouldn't be much left to plead about if Lady is already dead.

“There are shadows all around them. One shadow was dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound. Another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood.”

The shadow with the terrible face of a hound is too easy, Sandor Clegane. If you’re dense, the ash is also alluded to because of his face and fire.

Armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Many take this description to mean Oberyn Martell, especially when they consider the next bit to be Gregor Clegane. Their sigil, however, is that of a RED sun, with a spear through it. Oberyn, though damn sexy in the show, is not often referenced as beautiful. Jaime, however, fits all the criteria. He’s armored in gold, and is pretty.

These two men are also the ones searching for Arya at this point in the story (refer to previous chapter). They are both leading search parties north of the Trident. North of the Trident is also where there are mountains of the Vale begin.

Now, for the giant in armor made of stone. Sure, Gregor's helm has a stone fist atop the helmet and he's called the mountain that rides, but the whole of his armor is not made of stone, nor is he relevant yet in this story. If it is a reference to Robert Strong, the armor is different and it wouldn't make much sense - Strong has white enameled plate over gilded mail. He also has rainbow feathers coming from the top of his helm. If Gregor was decapitated, then I suppose the poison used by Oberyn could turn his blood thick and black, however, GRRM uses "black blood" as a reference to any blood coming from wounds:

Khal Drogo thrashed, fighting some unseen enemy. Black blood ran slow and thick from his open wound.

He remembered the old man’s eyes too, and the black blood rushing from his throat as the storm cracked overhead.

Beneath her ravaged scalp, her face was shredded skin and black blood where she had raked herself with her nails.

All of it came pouring out of Brienne then, like black blood from a wound

When he laid the edge of the blade against the swollen throat of the creature on the straw, the skin split open in a gout of black blood and yellow pus.

The dragon gave one last hiss and stretched out flat upon his belly. Black blood was flowing from the wound where the spear had pierced him, smoking where it dripped onto the scorched sands.

So, thick black blood isn't any indication that poison was used. It most likely isn't Robert Strong. The armor is wrong, he's not yet relevant, and there's no indication that thick black blood = poison. This means it probably doesn't have anything to do with Gregor's duel with Oberyn Martell, either.

What could it be, then? If what we are seeing are events that are currently happening while Bran lays unconscious/dying/having an out of body experience, then what Bran is seeing is the literal mountains of the Vale, maybe even specifically, Giant's Lance.

Geographically, the mountains are north of the Trident, where both Sandor and Jaime are searching. It is said to be looming. If we search for Giant's Lance, we see that it's quite an imposing geographical feature:

So lovely. The snow-clad summit of the Giant’s Lance loomed above her, an immensity of stone and ice that dwarfed the castle perched upon its shoulder. Icicles twenty feet long draped the lip of the precipice where Alyssa’s Tears fell in summer. A falcon soared above the frozen waterfall, blue wings spread wide against the morning sky. Would that I had wings as well.

Interesting - Giant's Lance looming above her. Would that I have wings as well. Well I'll be damned.

Looming over them all was the jagged peak called the Giant’s Lance, a mountain that even mountains looked up to, its head lost in icy mists three and a half miles above the valley floor. Over its massive western shoulder flowed the ghost torrent of Alyssa’s Tears. Even from this distance, Catelyn could make out the shining silver thread, bright against the dark stone.

Another quote about the looming, headless mountain. Three and a half miles is 18,480 feet. Mount Everest is 29,029 feet from ground level. Mount Kilimanjaro is 19,341 feet.

What then, is the visor? There are two possibilities for the visor - either the Gates of the Moon, which lies at the base of the mountain, or the Bloody Gate. It's more likely the Gates of the Moon as it is the last line of defense before ascending the Eyrie. The Bloody gate is further south and is one of the first defenses.

“The Gates of the Moon,” her uncle said as the party drew rein. His standard-bearer rode to the edge of the moat to hail the men in the gatehouse. “Lord Nestor’s seat. He should be expecting us. Look up.” Catelyn raised her eyes, up and up and up. At first all she saw was stone and trees, the looming mass of the great mountain shrouded in night, as black as a starless sky. Then she noticed the glow of distant fires well above them; a tower keep, built upon the steep side of the mountain , its lights like orange eyes staring down from above. Above that was another, higher and more distant, and still higher a third, no more than a flickering spark in the sky. And finally, up where the falcons soared, a flash of white in the moonlight. Vertigo washed over her as she stared upward at the pale towers, so far above.

So, we have a visor, the gates of the moon, that opens up to darkness and nothingness, the Eyrie. The Eyrie is much quieter and less populated than the Gates of the Moon. What is the blood?

The Vale of Arryn bathed in the morning light. It stretched before them to the misty east, a tranquil land of rich black soil, wide slow-moving rivers, and hundreds of small lakes that shone like mirrors in the sun, protected on all sides by its sheltering peaks.

If the Eyrie is being personified with the mountains as its armor and the Gates of the Moon as its visor, then the blood of the Eyrie is the definitely the rich black soil.

He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the narrow sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki sea and beyond, to Vaes Dothrak under its mountain, to the fabled lands of the Jade Sea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the sunrise.

If what Bran is seeing are real things and events, then these dragons really exist in or near Asshai. It's possible that they're smaller dragons like those toward the end of the Targaryen dynasty. Perhaps some Targaryens/ dragons escaped Valyria and headed East. Perhaps Asshai just has dragons of their own - I wish we'd get a look at Asshai.

Finally he looked north. He saw the Wall shining like blue crystal, and his bastard brother Jon sleeping alone in a cold bed, his skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from

This is another quote used by people connecting it to Jon being stabbed at the end of ADWD. I believe it's just Jon sleeping alone (as Ghost makes the other recruits afraid), and adapting to life at the wall.

And he looked past the Wall, past endless forests cloaked in snow, past the frozen shore and the great blue-white rivers of ice and the dead plains where nothing grew or lived. North and north and north he looked, to the curtain of light at the end of the world, and then beyond that curtain. He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks. Now you know, the crow whispered as it sat on his shoulder. Now you know why you must live.

What did he see, damn it!? It says he looked beyond the curtain at the end of the world, the heart of winter. I think it has to be something other-worldly, the heart of winter - something that has to do with the existence of the Others - death itself, perhaps. Incorporeal consciousnesses, tied to the elements.

Bran looked down. There was nothing below him now but snow and cold and death , a frozen wasteland where jagged blue -white spires of ice waited to embrace him. They flew up at him like spears. He saw the bones of a thousand other dreamers impaled upon their points. He was desperately afraid.

In the show, we see a similar scene when the Other converts the baby. He's surrounded by spires of ice. I believe the truth in the books is much more graphic. Dreamers are impaled on the spires of ice. Bran is a dreamer himself. I think there are two possibilities:

1. Those who have the ability to warg/greensight "fall" when near-death, and they come close to this place, this curtain of light at the end of the world. Either they fall and die with their consciousnesses fusing with the spires of ice and become an Other, or they fly and live. 
2. The sacrifices given by Craster and/or any captives they come across with the ability to warg/greensee are taken and impaled upon the spires manually. This explains why Bran sees bones. Of course, HBO can't show babies being impaled on spires of ice, so their interpretation is more TV friendly. 

Perhaps it's the case that all with the warg/greensight ability fall when near-death, and simply only die when they hit the ground. Maybe the Others still need to impale the dreamers on the spires of ice. Maybe we'll see this if Jon has to go through it.

Death reached for him, screaming.

Is death the ground, or an entity?

Bran wakes up after learning to fly.

“His name is Summer”

It is a great crime to lie to a king - Eddard III

"It is a great crime to lie to a king"

The events that occur in this chapter are important for the analysis of the next chapter.

Arya is found by Eddard's men, but the Lannister men at the gate inform the Queen. She's brought directly before King Robert to talk about what occurred between her and Joffrey.

The royal party is held up in Castle Darry, which is an important point for the next Bran chapter. Castle Darry is "a modest holdfast a half day's ride south of the Trident." It's lord, Ser Raymun Darry, fought for Rhaegar, so there is considerable tension with the Lannisters, Starks, and Darry men all crammed into the small castle. 

Ned enters the audience chamber, asks what's going on, and studies the faces of the men present. He notices that both Jaime and Sandor are missing, leading searches north of the Trident.

There is some bickering, then Robert says to Arya, "Now, child, you will tell me what happened. Tell it all, and tell it true. It is a great crime to lie to a king."

Arya gives her account of the events that brought her there. She tells them truthfully. Joffrey goes after her and gives a completely different account of what happened.

Ned knew Arya was truthful because he was told by Sansa. "Ned had heard her version of the story the night Arya had vanished. He knew the truth."

When Sansa is brought forth to testify, she suddenly has no memory of the events. This is the moment that I began to hate Sansa, but I suppose I understand it. She's infatuated with this Prince who just gave an opposing account of what happened between him and her sister. She tried to remain neutral as she glanced between the two of them. 

Feigning ignorance was a lie though, and it is a great crime to lie to a king. Cersei wants Arya's direwolf punished, but the wolf is not present. Cersie mentions that there is a wolf present though, Sansa's Lady. 

Sansa pleads for her wolf. "All Ned could do was take her in his arms and hold her while she wept."

Ned asks Robert to be the one to swing the sword. Robert leaves without saying anything. Cersei asks for Ilyn Payne. Ned says that he will do it himself. When asked why by Cersei, Ned says, "She is of the north. She deserves better than a butcher." I can't help but think that Ned is also thinking about Arya practicing stick-fighting with a butcher's boy. He doesn't yet know about Needle, but perhaps he is already considering her wild ways. 

No sooner after the deed is done Ned gives a command to have the wolf's bones buried at Winterfell and the Hound returns with Mycah dead on his shoulder.