Re-reading Song of Ice and Fire

Chapter 17, Bran
Summary
Bran finds himself in a strange dream. He’s far above the world and he’s falling. He is accompanied by a crow. They have strange conversation. At one point Bran gets a glimpse at entire world, a detailed vision. He sees all his relatives, sees places far away and among many, he sees things taking place in the North, way behind the wall. He can see what has awakened. Three eyed crow tells Bran to fly, which he finally does.

Quotes

“Are you really a crow?” Bran asked.
Are you really falling? the crow asked back.
“I’ll wake up when I hit the ground,” Bran told the bird.
You’ll die when you hit the ground, the crow said.

He saw Sansa crying herself to sleep at night, and he saw Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets hard in her heart. There were 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.

Now you know, the crow whispered as it sat on his shoulder. Now you know why you must live.
“Why?” Bran said, not understanding, falling, falling.
Because winter is coming.

Commentary

Very strange chapter. I’m usually not a fan of the mystical “dreaming experiences”, but this chapter managed to raise the hair on my neck more than once. The three eyed crow is trying to explain something to Bran. He’s showing him visions, or maybe he just accompanies Bran through the visions he creates himself? He’s trying to wake the power that sleeps in him, his third eye.

What I have not been able to figure out is who is the third shadow in the vision with Sansa and Arya (see quote above). The one with the hound is obviously Clegane, the one armored like sun is Jaime but the third one, in the stone armor, I don’t know. Is it Ser Ilyn Payne, the description fits him best but is he significant enough to appear in a vision? I don’t think it’s Barristan or Renly, surely not Robert?

The last thing I wanted to touch on in this chapters commentary are the Stark words uttered by the crow. “Now you know why you must live. (…) Because winter is coming.” This not only reinforces the new meaning of the words, but also suggests that Bran will play a key role in the fight against “winter”.

Chapter 8, Bran
Summary
We skip forward in time, Ned announced his decision, preparations are underway, Bran is to leave Winterfell. Before he leaves he wants to say goodbye to the people in the castle, but finds out that he’s too sad to do it, so instead he goes climbing. He reaches one of his favorite spots, the top of the ruined tower. To his surprise, he hears people inside. The Queen and her brother are talking about the King and his newly appointed Hand. Bran wants to see who’s talking and is seen. He almost falls, but Jaime Lannister catches him only push him out of the window. Bran falls down to the courtyard.

Quotes

“You’re not my son,” Ned told Bran when they fetched him down, “you’re a squirrel. So be it. If you must climb, then climb, but try not to let your mother see you.”

The man looked over at the woman. “The things I do for love,” he said with loathing. He gave Bran a shove.

Commentary

In this chapter we get to know Bran a bit better. He’s still very young and has child’s way of thinking. And he loves to climb. His trip through the roof, a peaceful goodbye is a prelude to the first truly shocking event of the book.

The scene with Cersei and Jaime was particularly shocking to me, because it actually describes incest. I was completely caught off guard, one question was sounding in my head: They are doing WHAT? Honestly, at this stage I didn’t know if I wanted to continue reading the book. I was afraid that this kind of content would be a main theme overshadowing everything else. I decided to give the book a chance and I’m happy that I did. The strong sexual content and shocking incest were the means to build character, not the leading theme in the series.

Right as I got over the fact that brother and sister have sex I was shocked again when Jaime pushed out Bran out of the window to fall to his death. I don’t think that there ever was a better introduction of a bad character. I’m willing to bet that everyone who read this chapter for the first time thought: “I hope you die a painful death!”

Chapter 1, Bran
Summary
Bran, along with his father, brothers and small company of men travels to near village to see kings justice done. The deserter from Night’s Watch was captured and put to trial in front of Lord Ned Stark. The punishment for desertion from Night’s Watch is death. The man is beheaded by Ned. On the way back to the Winterfell Robb and Jon find a fresh corpse of a direwolf. The boys also find five direwolf pups which Ned wants to put down, but is persuaded by Jon Snow when he mentions the omen in this finding. Five direwolf pups for five trueborn children of the House of Stark. Ned is convinced and decides that his children will keep the pups. Just as they are leaving for the castle Jon finds a sixth pup, an albino, obviously meant for the bastard child of Ned, Jon Snow.

Quotes

Our way is the old way. The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.

“Lord Stark,” Jon said. It was strange to hear him call Father that, so formal. “There are five pups, three male, two female.”
“What of it, Jon?”
“You have five trueborn children,” Jon said. “Three sons, two daughters. The direwolf is the sigil of your House. Your children were meant to have these pups, my lord.”
“You want no pup for yourself Jon?”
“The direwolf graces the banners of House of Stark,” Jon pointed out. “I am no Stark, Father.”

Commentary

There are many chapters I can call favorite in the Song of Ice and Fire series (I’ll keep calling them SoIaF from now on). This one is definitely one of them. Main Point Of View (POV) characters are introduced in this chapter. We meet the Stark brothers, Bran and Robb, their father Ned and his bastard son Jon Snow. Seeing those four characters interact I immediately realised the emotional depth this novel brings. Reading this chapter I felt the majesty of Lord Ned Stark and I was humbled by the character of Jon, who has to live all his life knowing that he is a bastard, that his brothers and sisters have completely different destiny than him. So close, yet so alienated. That’s how you suck the reader in, give him amazing characters to follow right from the beginning!

This chapter is significant for one more reason - the direwolves are introduced along with the assumption that they are meant to belong to the Stark children. At this stage the reader suspects that those are no mere wolves, but the full significance of this finding has yet to be revealed.