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Secret Song of Florian and Jonquil Part 8: Jenny of Oldstones and her Prince of Dragonflies

December 7, 2023

Jenny of Olstones by Jesse Ochse

This latest chapter is in response to an anonymous ask for additional information on a question I answered here, about what would have happened to Sansa if Lady was not killed. In responding to the question, I referenced how the show heavily used the dragonfly motif in Sansa’s costumes and what that implied about her story on the show that D&D didn’t carry through on, but more importantly about her arc in the books.

My response to the question elicited a request for further expansion on my comment about dragonflies and Sansa. It is a good question, and one I debated whether to answer at this time because to do so would reveal two theories I’ve been planning to propose in upcoming chapters of the series.

For many different reasons, it has taken me a long time to complete the series. Part of it has to do with the time constraints of my job, but a bigger cause is probably the difficulty in getting up the energy or excitement to write an in-depth analysis when George is taking so long to deliver the next book.

Nonetheless, I am going to answer the anonymous question, and I will propose one of my theories here as well because the question got my essay writing juices flowing again. Thus, though it was not planned, before the super rush of the holiday season gets here and the writing juices stops flowing, here is Chapter 8 of my Florian and Jonquil series.

It is slightly out of order, as this topic was scheduled for 2 to 3 chapters hence. However, it is not that out of place to follow the last chapter. And so, it’s time for Jenny of Oldstones, and her Prince of Dragonflies. I will attempt to show you how the legend of Jenny and her Prince rhymes with that of Florian and Jonquil and as a result, with Jon and Sansa.

"You may read it here. It is old and fragile." He studied her, frowning. "Archmaester Rigney once wrote that history is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again, he said.” A Feast for Crows – The Kraken’s Daughter

You may wonder why I am quoting Asha’s nuncle words about Archmaester’s Rigney’s teachings here, and it would be for two reasons. First, while Archmaester Rigney’s comment is George paying homage to Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time, his words have great meaning in the story of ASOIAF. The past or rather events do repeat in ASOIAF, but not exactly. I would say that instead of a complete repetition, events in the story rhyme…possibly because of alternate timelines, but that’s for another chapter. It’s why we find echoes of the same story repeating over and over in the text and in-world historical references.

The second reason I’m including the quote from an Ironborn is because their myths…specifically that of Nagga the sea dragon has important implications in the story of Jenny; and Duncan, her Prince of Dragonflies. And as I will shortly show you, Ironborn myths…specifically the one about Nagga answers the question posed to me about dragonflies.

More importantly, this ancient myth has implications in the tale of Florian and Jonquil and thus ultimately leads us back to the current incarnation of those characters, Jon, and Sansa.

Before I get into answering the question about dragonflies, let me again state what I do in almost every essay, and that is, George like many great writers writes in symbolism—except he takes it up to the 9th degree. As a result, this is one of the main ways I analyze ASOIAF. It’s not the only way to look at his magnum opus, but if you understand this, and you’re a fan of symbolism, whether mythological, literary or your garden variety type, I think you can discern clues and or pick up on possible answers to the great mysteries of the books.

I also suggest reading, if you have not done so previously, the earlier chapters of my Florian and Jonquil series. It’s not necessary to read all at this time, but you should especially read Chapter 7, Parts 1 and 2. In those chapters, I break down a lot of the symbolism that implies Sansa is a greenseer as well as discuss how this symbolism closely ties her to Nissa Nissa and the corpse queen, the two ancient female figures at the center of the book’s great mystery. This idea that Sansa is a greenseer heavily ties into the symbolism of the dragonflies.

In the two previous chapters of the series, I also discussed how Sansa’s name is a full anagram Nassa, which in Latin means weir, and how that and her little bird moniker among many other things, ties her to Nissa Nissa and implies that she’s a secret unknowing goddess of the weirwoods.

As you read this essay series, you should also always keep in mind that George has set up his weirwood net as a hive; and there is a hive mind theme running throughout. The interesting thing about hives is that they have queens, not kings. This is one of the ways you know that the legend of Ellyn Eversweet and the King of the Bees is a tale of usurpation of the rights of the woman. We know this because there is no such thing as a King Bee.

I also referenced Ravenousreader’s brilliant essay about George’s symbolic use of the sea as a stand-in for the astral plane to which the weirwoods grant access, and how Patchface mad rantings about “under the sea” are about what the fandom calls the weirwood net. You can read RR essay in this westeros.org thread here.

By the way, her theory was written years before it was confirmed on the show in season 6 Episode 2 when Bloodraven describes travelling the astral plane of the weirwoods to Bran as being “beneath the sea.”

Bloodraven to Bran: “It's beautiful beneath the sea, but if you stay too long, you will drown.”

Bran: I wasn’t drowning. I was home.

You can watch the clip from the show here at 2:42.

youtube

Of course, we’re not talking about real drowning because we’re not talking about a real sea. Rather George is using the sea as a metaphor for his astral plane version of the river of time.

Bran is not drowning because he’s being trained on how to properly swim the green sea. That’s part of the reason why they are so many dreamers impaled on icy spires in his first weirwood dreams. They couldn’t swim the green sea. There is other symbolism in the passage about the dreamers that have to do with the icy spires I may get to another time, but the point I’m trying to make now is that the green sea is dangerous to traverse…especially for those without training. You can become trapped by the weirwoods.

I mention RR’s essay so that you can understand that often when George references the green sea or other natural water tributaries in the text, he’s talking about the weirwood net and you should be on the lookout for symbolic greenseer activities. Often, these scenes symbolize someone trying to sneak into the green sea/weirwoods; escape from the weirwoods; or being trapped by the weirwoods, which are gnarly bridges across the green sea and can grant access to the special ones—the greenseers.

So, when you see a myth in the text like the Ironborn one about the Grey King, and his battle with Nagga, the great female sea dragon which he slew, you should stop and consider if there is more implied in that tale than that of a king killing a giant sea monster. Let’s look at what we’re told about this legend.

Grey King Battles Naga; Complete Guide to Westeros - Game of Thrones - Season 1 Blu-ray Edition

The deeds attributed to the Grey King by the priests and singers of the Iron Islands are many and marvelous. It was the Grey King who brought fire to the earth by taunting the Storm God until he lashed down with a thunderbolt, setting a tree ablaze. The Grey King also taught men to weave nets and sails and carved the first longship from the hard pale wood of Ygg, a demon tree who fed on human flesh. The Grey King's greatest feat, however, was the slaying of Nagga, largest of the sea dragons, a beast so colossal that she was said to feed on leviathans and giant krakens and drown whole islands in her wroth. The Grey King built a mighty longhall about her bones, using her ribs as beams and rafters. From there he ruled the Iron Islands for a thousand years, until his very skin had turned as grey as his hair and beard. Only then did he cast aside his driftwood crown and walk into the sea, descending to the Drowned God's watery halls to take his rightful place at his right hand. —The World of Ice and Fire - The Iron Islands: Driftwood Crowns

George names his Nagga sea dragon after the real world mythological Naga of South Asian culture who are seen as demigods.

In various Asian religious traditions, the Nagas are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. —Wikipedia

In Indian religions, Patala (that which is below the feet), denotes the subterranean realms of the universe – which are located under the earthly dimension. Patala is often translated as underworld or netherworld. — Wikipedia

Nagas are associated with bodies of waters such as tributaries, rivers, lakes, seas, and wells. They are also seen as guardians of treasure. In George’s world of ASOIAF, the weirwood net is the underworld, and what greater treasure might there be to guard than one that could give access to immortality. Keep this thought, as well as the fact that they are said to sometimes take half human form in mind as I will come back to both later.

The Ironborn gives us a legend about their ancient king killing a sea dragon. Were there such things as giant sea dragons in ancient Westerosi history, and might they still exist? Possibly. After all, the story has giant flying fire breathing dragons.

However, that’s not the point of the legend. Keeping in mind that George uses the sea to symbolize the weirwood net, might the Grey King’s slaying of Nagga be there to tell us something else. Might it be there to tell us not about a battle between a king and a sea monster, but rather about one in or over access to the green sea/weirwood net. Let’s see what else the books tell us about this legend.

On the crown of the hill four-and-forty monstrous stone ribs rose from the earth like the trunks of great pale trees. The sight made Aeron's heart beat faster. Nagga had been the first sea dragon, the mightiest ever to rise from the waves. She fed on krakens and leviathans and drowned whole islands in her wrath, yet the Grey King had slain her and the Drowned God had changed her bones to stone so that men might never cease to wonder at the courage of the first of kings. Nagga's ribs became the beams and pillars of his longhall, just as her jaws became his throne. For a thousand years and seven he reigned here, Aeron recalled. Here he took his mermaid wife and planned his wars against the Storm God. From here he ruled both stone and salt, wearing robes of woven seaweed and a tall pale crown made from Nagga's teeth. —A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man

There is an overabundance of symbolism and clues drop by George in the above passage. I could have bolded the entire chapter, but I only did a few lines for this discussion. Here we see that Aeron’s thoughts about Nagga and the Grey King build upon what we’re told in the World Book. What I especially want to discuss now is his thought that Nagga’s stone ribs look like the trunk of great pale trees. Hmmm! Great pale trees…where might we have seen such a reference before?

The sun was sinking below the trees when they reached their destination, a small clearing in the deep of the wood where nine weirwoods grew in a rough circle. Jon drew in a breath, and he saw Sam Tarly staring. Even in the wolfswood, you never found more than two or three of the white trees growing together; a grove of nine was unheard of. The forest floor was carpeted with fallen leaves, bloodred on top, black rot beneath. The wide smooth trunks were bone pale, and nine faces stared inward. The dried sap that crusted in the eyes was red and hard as ruby. Bowen Marsh commanded them to leave their horses outside the circle. "This is a sacred place, we will not defile it." —A Game of Thrones, Jon VI

Nagga’s bones sound and awful lot like the limbs of a weirwood tree, but is that just happenstance? Let’s dig a bit more.

They seated the hedge knights well below the salt, closer to the doors than to the dais. Whitewalls was almost new as castles went, having been raised a mere forty years ago by the grandsire of its present lord. The smallfolk hereabouts called it the Milk house, for its walls and keeps and towers were made of finely dressed white stone, quarried in the Vale and brought over the mountains at great expense. Inside were floors and pillars of milky white marble veined with gold; the rafters overhead were carved from the bone-pale trunks of weirwoods. Dunk could not begin to imagine what all of that had cost. —The Mystery Knight

If those passages are not enough to convince you that the famous bones of Nagga are not of a giant sea dragon, but rather a weirwood tree cut down by Grey King to build his longhall, don’t forget that we have a more recent record in the text of an Ironborn king cutting down weirwoods to do just that. I’m of course talking about Harren the Black.

In his pride, Harren had desired the highest hall and tallest towers in all Westeros. Forty years it had taken, rising like a great shadow on the shore of the lake while Harren's armies plundered his neighbors for stone, lumber, gold, and workers. Thousands of captives died in his quarries, chained to his sledges, or laboring on his five colossal towers. Men froze by winter and sweltered in summer. Weirwoods that had stood three thousand years were cut down for beams and rafters. —A Clash of Kings - Catelyn I

The Grey King’s crown is another clue that Nagga’s bone are the limbs of a petrified weirwood. Note up above, it was said to be made from Nagga’s teeth and yet we also get this passage from the world book that seems to contradict this idea.

The Grey King built a mighty longhall about her bones, using her ribs as beams and rafters. From there he ruled the Iron Islands for a thousand years, until his very skin had turned as grey as his hair and beard. Only then did he cast aside his driftwood crown and walk into the sea, descending to the Drowned God's watery halls to take his rightful place at his right hand. The World of Ice and Fire - The Iron Islands: Driftwood Crowns

So was the Grey King’s crown made from the teeth of a sea dragon, or was it made of wood? George put the icing on the cake regarding Nagga’s bones being a petrified weirwood with this little bit about Galon Whitestaff, a past ironborn priest.

The power wielded by these prophets of the Drowned God over the ironborn should not be underestimated. Only they could summon kingsmoots, and woe to the man, be he lord or king, who dared defy them. The greatest of the priests was the towering prophet Galon Whitestaff, so-called for the tall carved staff he carried everywhere to smite the ungodly. (In some tales his staff was made of weirwood, in others from one of Nagga's bones.) —The World of Ice and Fire - The Iron Islands: Driftwood Crowns

In some tales Galon’s staff was made of weirwood and in others from Nagga’s bones. Seems obvious that George is deliberately conflating the two and wants the reader to do the same. What other evidence is needed?

The petrified bones of some gigantic sea creature do indeed stand on Nagga's Hill on Old Wyk, but whether they are actually the bones of a sea dragon remains open to dispute. The ribs are huge, but nowise near large enough to have belonged to a dragon capable of feasting on leviathans and giant krakens. In truth, the very existence of sea dragons has been called into question by some. If such monsters do exist, they must surely dwell in the deepest, darkest reaches of the Sunset Sea, for none has been seen in the known world for thousands of years. So say the legends and the priests of the Drowned God. —The World of Ice and Fire - The Iron Islands: Driftwood Crowns

Nagga's Hill by Lake Hurwitz © Fantasy Flight Games

Those maesters, always questioning and discounting the ancient myths, but this time, they might be on to something.

This is all pretty strong evidence that Nagga’s bones are the limbs of a cut down weirwood and not those of a sea dragon. However, while not the bones of a sea dragon, there is one other option other than just a cut down weirwood tree, and this one may make more sense.

As proposed by many in the fandom, the bones that Aeron views upon the hill might be the petrified remnant of the Grey King’s longship, carved from the cut down weirwood tree.

A demon tree of hard “pale wood” that is said to have fed on human flesh. As there are major clues that men were sacrificed to the weirwoods in the books, this passage seems to imply that the Grey King’s longship was also made of that special wood. Ygg is of course, George’s homage to Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse mythology.

Viking Longship wreck - Roskilde Viking Ship Musem

It was there beneath the arch of Nagga's ribs that his drowned men found him, standing tall and stern with his long black hair blowing in the wind. "Is it time?" Rus asked. Aeron gave a nod, and said, "It is. Go forth and sound the summons."— A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man

As you can see, a Viking longship more closely matches up to the arch of Nagga’s ribs than would be the case of an actual tree. Also, as Crowfood’s Daughter has pointed out in her awesome video essay series on the ironborn, for trees to remain curved or arched in the manner of Nagga’s ribs, they would need to retain their limbs of leaves.

We also see from this Jon’s passage that longships would have the shape of Nagga’s bones.

He swiveled the eye east and searched amongst the tents and trees till he found the turtle. That will be coming very soon as well. The wildlings had skinned one of the dead mammoths during the night, and they were lashing the raw bloody hide over the turtle's roof, one more layer on top of the sheepskins and pelts. The turtle had a rounded top and eight huge wheels, and under the hides was a stout wooden frame. When the wildlings had begun knocking it together, Satin thought they were building a ship. Not far wrong. The turtle was a hull turned upside down and opened fore and aft; a longhall on wheels. — A Storm of Swords - Jon IX

And as Jaime notes in ADWD, weirwood trees or the wood it generates never rot. It simply turns to stone over millennium.

"The Brackens poisoned it," said his host. "For a thousand years it has not shown a leaf. In another thousand it will have turned to stone, the maesters say. Weirwoods never rot." — A Dance with Dragons - Jaime I

There are lots of other passages in the text where boats are compared to sea dragons, including the one Petyr uses to take Sansa to the Vale. However, we are specifically discussing the Grey King, and so we’ll leave those other comparisons alone for now. Nonetheless, I’m sure that you can see that the textural evidence supporting the theory that Nagga’s bones are those of a petrified weirwood longship is quite strong.

You’re probably now asking yourself, what does the ironborn’s holy relic on Old Wyk whose legend is built around the myth of the Grey King slaying of a sea dragon have to do Florian and Jonquil or more specifically, the original question about dragonflies. That’s a good question, and so let me attempt to answer.

I said up above that battles in the sea or the pools of water are often meant to represent battles in the weirwoods or over the weirwoods to gain entry to their magic. So, if Nagga was not really a sea monster, but instead a weirwood tree or a longship made of weirwood, does this mean that the battle described in the Grey King legend was one such event? More importantly, if Nagga’s bones is a weirwood longship, who or what did the Grey King slay? You can cut down a tree, but would it be described as slaying? I don’t think so.

Let’s look at what else the books tell us about this Ironborn legend to see if we can discover the answer.

From the Aeron passage posted above, we discover that “Nagga had been the first sea dragon, the mightiest ever to rise from the waves.” We also find out in TWOIAF that the Grey King was said to reign for a thousand years and seven. In the books, when you hear of figures living for such a long time, one immediately wonders whether they were born greenseers or gain access to the weirwoods in some manner.

In the case of the Grey King, I think the answer is the latter. He was able to gain access to the trees. If this was the case, how did it happen? You may have missed it above when I posted the excerpt because I didn’t bold the text but another piece of his legend may give us a clue.

What is described in the passage is basically the Grey King symbolically stealing the fire of the gods and using it to set a weirwood ablaze. In mythology, stealing the fire of the gods is about gaining knowledge…often that of immortality. And in ASOIAF, immortality comes via the weirwoods.

When you recognize that aspect of the myth, you can see that the Grey King legend is that of a man stealing the knowledge of the weirwoods, and the ones he stole if from were the old gods—the greenseers.

So, how did the Grey King steal the fire of the gods? Well, his mermaid wife; his battle with the Storm God, and another ancient myth may provide the answer.

The legends surrounding the founder of House Durrandon, Durran Godsgrief, all come to us through the singers. The songs tell us that Durran won the heart of Elenei, daughter of the sea god and the goddess of the wind. By yielding to a mortal's love, Elenei doomed herself to a mortal's death, and for this the gods who had given her birth hated the man she had taken for her lord husband. In their wroth, they sent howling winds and lashing rains to knock down every castle Durran dared to build, until a young boy helped him erect one so strong and cunningly made that it could defy their gales. The boy grew to be Brandon the Builder; Durran became the first Storm King. With Elenei at his side, he lived and reigned at Storm's End for a thousand years, or so the stories claim. (Such a life span seems most unlikely, even for a hero married to the daughter of two gods. Archmaester Glaive, himself a stormlander by birth, once suggested that this King of a Thousand Years was in truth a succession of monarchs all bearing the same name, which seems plausible but must forever remain unproved.) The World of Ice and Fire - The Stormlands: House Durrandon

Durran and Elenei, Complete Guide to Westeros - Game of Thrones - Season 1 Blu-ray Edition

The legend of Durran Godsgrief and his wife Elenei has a lot of similarity to that of the Grey King and his mermaid wife. Too many for it just to be mere happenstance. It seems obvious that George wants us to consider the two, side by side, and so, what might he be trying to tell us?

They both married daughters of the sea. In the Durran myth, we learn that his wife Elenei was the daughter of the sea god while the Grey King is said to have married a mermaid. Both Duran and the Grey King also battled against gods…the latter against the storm god, while the former was said to have war against the sea god.

Taking the similarities of the two legends into account, it seems obvious that Elenei like the wife of the Grey King, was herself a mermaid, and that’ why she’s often depicted in this way in fan art. She is even depicted as a mermaid in the Complete Guide to Westeros featurette on the blue-ray edition of Game of Thrones Season One, which we have to assume was approved by George.

In GRRM’s mythological world of ASOIAF, mermaids are merlings and their leader is the Merling King. And he is considered a god. He is the sea god to who sailors pray.

Thirty different gods stood along the walls, surrounded by their little lights. The Weeping Woman was the favorite of old women, Arya saw; rich men preferred the Lion of Night, poor men the Hooded Wayfarer. Soldiers lit candles to Bakkalon, the Pale Child, sailors to the Moon-Pale Maiden and the Merling King. The Stranger had his shrine as well, though hardly anyone ever came to him. Most of the time only a single candle stood flickering at his feet. The kindly man said it did not matter. "He has many faces, and many ears to hear." — A Feast for Crows - Arya II

The interesting thing is that in real world mythology, and I suspect George is doing the same in ASOIAF, mermaids are sea nymphs. In some real-world cultures, they are called mermaids, and in others, sirens. And like in George’s tale, they are usually described as daughters of river or sea gods.

In many real world cultures such of those on the Asian and African continents, sea dragons such as Nāgas or the Watatsumi/Ryūjin of Japanese culture can take human or half human form…you know like the mermaids of our story. These sea dragons are also considered deities. They are sea gods.

As I’ve stated, George writes in symbolism, and there are multiple layers to his story. When he tells us historical legends, there is the surface story that you can read and interpret exactly as written and then there is the deeper symbolism that provides answers to the book’s mysteries. Usually, this hidden layer is about the weirwoods and events of the past.

The myths about Durran Godsgrief and the Grey King are two such legends that are filled with much deeper meaning and reveal much about ancient events. On the surface, they are traditional societal creation myths.

However, when you consider that the green sea and bodies of water are George’s way of symbolizing the weirwood net, as written about by rravenousreader, and confirmed on the show by Bloodraven, one can see that on a deeper level, these two legends are about accessing the weirwoods.

So, if Elenei was a mermaid who could assume both human and half human shape as is implied by her being a daughter of the sea god and the legend of her relationship with Duran, it means she was also a sea dragon. And if Elenei was a sea dragon, it also means that the Grey King’s mermaid wife was one as well. This revelation tells us a lot because, if Nagga’s ribs are not those of a sea dragon, but the petrified remains of the Grey King’s longship, which was made from the weirwood he set ablaze; as you can’t slay a tree, it can only mean that the sea dragon he slew to access the knowledge of the gods, was his mermaid wife.

Grey King and his mermaid wife by Justin Sweet for the 2024 ASOIAF Calendar

I love this latest painting by Justin Sweet of the Grey King and his mermaid wife. I especially love the suggestion that she was a redhead, but back to the story at hand.

Nagga was his both his mermaid/greenseer wife and her weirwood tree. This is how he gained access to the weirwoods and immortality and was said to live for 1000 years and seven. This is why there are so many clues that the remains of Nagga on Old Wyk are those of a ship. It’s to tell us that the Grey King’s killing of his mermaid wife gave him the access and the knowledge to sail the green sea.

I’ve listened to and read many theories that discuss the likelihood that Nagga’s bones are either those of a weirwood tree and or a longship. What I’ve never seen is the theory I propose here that the Grey King killed his wife. This is not to say that the theory does not exist. After all, there are tons of theories about the story that I have not read, but back to Nagga.

As George is always consistent in his symbolism, this is why in Asha’s Wayward Bride chapter, the trees are always written as attacking her and the other ironborn. The trees memories are eternal, and they remember the actions of the Grey King.

Men and mounts alike were trotting by the time they reached the trees on the far side of the sodden field, where dead shoots of winter wheat rotted beneath the moon. Asha held her horsemen back as a rear guard, to keep the stragglers moving and see that no one was left behind. Tall soldier pines and gnarled old oaks closed in around them. Deepwood was aptly named. The trees were huge and dark, somehow threatening. Their limbs wove through one another and creaked with every breath of wind, and their higher branches scratched at the face of the moon. The sooner we are shut of here, the better I will like it, Asha thought. The trees hate us all, deep in their wooden hearts. — A Dance with Dragons - The Wayward Bride

Now there are no weirwoods mentioned in this passage, but there are weirwoods in Deepwood Motte. And throughout this Asha chapter, there are repeated passages that make it seem as if the trees are alive and out to get the ironborn. Northmen even cover themselves in branches and attack Asha’s party. It’s as if the trees see the ironborn as the enemy.

As an aside, I love The Wayward Bride chapter and it’s one I heavily recommend re-reading. Asha ran away from the man Euron promised her to as a bride…hence the title. However, if you re-read, instead of thinking of Asha as “the wayward bride,” think instead of her as “the weirwood bride,” and you will see the echoes of a story about a runaway magical bride in the ancient past. The chapter title is one of George’s best uses of wordplay in the series.

No, I’m not saying that Asha is a greenseer, only that the chapter is there to tell us about events past and present events surrounding a “weirwood bride” who may have run off to escape her husband or fiancé, or else been “stolen” away by her lover. Re-reading the chapter with this idea in mind is a smorgasbord of symbolism and clues about events, but back to the tale at hand.

Further to the idea that the trees remember and have it in for the ironborn, it’s quite likely that the Grey King did not escape punishment when he killed his sea dragon wife. It is very interesting that Nagga’s jaws became the Grey King’s throne. When you look at how his skin is described as turning as grey as his beard, and him sitting inside Nagga’s mouth, it’s as if he’s trapped within the jaws of death.

Grey King on his throne by Arthur Bozonnet for TWOIAF

This symbolism makes sense as weirwoods are traps for the unwary. That’s why George named it after a real-world weir, which is a trap for fish. So, while the Grey King killed the first greenseer, he did not get off scot-free. He was instead trapped by Nagga’s maw. He was trapped by the weirwoods.

This idea is echoed in images of the primordial Aztec Goddess Tlaltecuhtli.

One of Tlaltecuhtli’s most distinctive features is her gaping maw, showing flint knives for teeth and a protruding tongue. Her hands and feet are often clawed, bringing to mind both predatory birds and carrion-eaters. Above she is pictured with skull masks at her elbows and feet as well as in her hands. Her birth-giving posture connects her to frog imagery. The open mouth of the Tlaltecuhtli can be seen as a tomb — or as a womb. On the first page from the Tonalámatl de los Pochtecas the Earth Goddess appears, jaws wide, teeth exposed. Out of her mouth grows the tree of life. The tree of life growing from these jaws of death completes this picture of the earth as womb and tomb, and of the mouth and eating as analogous to birth and death. —Sacred Tours of Mexico

The ironborn believe that their Drowned God and Grey King are separate entities. I would argue that they are the same and this separation of the two on their part is simply confusion about the myth that developed over the millennium. The Grey King who slew his mermaid wife and the Drowned God who turned her bones to stone are one and the same because the two acts are separate descriptions of the same event. He’s both because he failed in his quest to take over and rule the weirwood net. He was trapped and drowned in his attempt to sail the green sea.

She fed on krakens and leviathans and drowned whole islands in her wrath, yet the Grey King had slain her and the Drowned God had changed her bones to stone so that men might never cease to wonder at the courage of the first of kings. Nagga's ribs became the beams and pillars of his longhall, just as her jaws became his throne. —A Feast for Crows – The Drowned Man

The Grey King built a mighty longhall about her bones, using her ribs as beams and rafters. From there he ruled the Iron Islands for a thousand years, until his very skin had turned as grey as his hair and beard. Only then did he cast aside his driftwood crown and walk into the sea, descending to the Drowned God's watery halls to take his rightful place at his right hand. —The World of Ice and Fire - The Iron Islands: Driftwood Crowns

Sea dragons may or may not exist in the mythical world of ASOIAF, but we likely will never see one on the page. This is because the true purpose of their legend in the story is to tell us about female greenseers. They act as symbolic stand-ins for female greenseers, the original dragons of the green sea and provide clues on what happened to them.

Those of you who have read my previous essays likely remember my theory that because of the hive mind aspect of the weirwoods, we can deduce that the weirwood net was originally built around a queen, because as I noted, hives do not have kings. The sea dragon in the Grey King legend is said to be the first of its kind. Thus, the greenseer mermaid wife slew by the Grey King was also the first greenseer.

You also likely know my theory that Nissa Nissa was the first greenseer. If my theory about his mermaid wife being the sea dragon slew by the Grey King is correct, one can also see how this legend echoes that of Azor Ahai killing his wife Nissa Nissa; the Bloodstone Emperor usurping and killing his sister wife, Amethyst Empress; and the Winged Knight usurping Ellyn Eversweet. The latter being a tale of usurpation is not one I’ve seen discussed anywhere else in the fandom, and so you can read about it here.

How can all these ancient legends be of the same wife killing event, and why so many different names for the characters. Originally, I thought that the similarities and variations in the legends were a case of a world changing monomyth such as the great flood of our real-world myths appearing in so many different cultures. It could also be George simply creating different myths to drop clues for the reader to piece together. Both still maybe the case.

However, in the last few years, after reading more about GRRM’s other books, and reading a couple, I’ve come to embrace the idea that he’s playing with the theme of time travel that runs through many of his previous works. I think that we might be dealing with the same world changing event echoing through multiple timelines of the great cosmic ocean…hence the different names and the use of spiral motifs in both the books and show.

Messier 61 in Constellation Virgo taken by camera on Hubble Telescope

The weirwoods, as we saw on the show and is hinted at in the books, are a time travel mechanism. A greenseer doesn’t physically travel through time, but they can send their consciousness into the past, and quite likely the future. As we see with Bran and Hodor, strong ones can have an impact on individuals who exist outside the river of time, and this means they can affect the timeline.

Bran is only the latest of many greenseers, one who has not yet joined with the hive mind. As such, I think it’s shortsighted to assume that he is the only such greenseer throughout history who has had an impact on or tried to change the timelines…especially since men—in the masculine gained access to the trees.

George is a chess player, and he has set up his story as a great chess match. Who the two great players are still must be determine, but one only must look at the Others, as well as Euron’s arc to see a couple of the possibilities.

In fact, as we see in this passage, which I’ve read a million times and totally missed until watching Crowfood’s Daughter recent video on the “The Third Head of the Dragon,” one of these entities may already be in contact with Euron.

I had a love once too. Victarion's hands coiled into fists, and a drop of blood fell to patter on the floor. I should beat you raw and red and feed you to the crabs, the same as I did her. "You have sons," he told his brother. "Baseborn mongrels, born of whores and weepers." "They are of your body." "So are the contents of my chamber pot. None is fit to sit the Seastone Chair, much less the Iron Throne. No, to make an heir that's worthy of him, I need a different woman. When the kraken weds the dragon, brother, let all the world beware." "What dragon?" said Victarion, frowning. "The last of her line. They say she is the fairest woman in the world. Her hair is silver-gold, and her eyes are amethysts . . . but you need not take my word for it, brother. Go to Slaver's Bay, behold her beauty, and bring her back to me." —A Feast for Crows - The Reaver

As Amanda asks in the video, who exactly is him that Euron speaks of? He’s speaking in third person, and so although we know he plans to rule over the charnel pits as a new god, he’s not talking about himself. Might it be the other chess player. It’s certainly possible. With the reference to Dany’s amethyst eyes, Euron’s possible association with Asshai and glass candles, I would say it’s the Bloodstone Emperor entity.

Here is the interesting thing about these repetitive ancient versions of the monomyth; there seems to be two versions of the tale of the female greenseer and her husband. One version is dark as with the ones I mentioned above including that of the Grey King killing his mermaid wife; and Azor Ahai killing Nissa Nissa where the kiss from husband to wife is of the steel variety.

The other version has softer romantic overtones as with Durran and Elenei; Florian and Jonquil; and yes, even the Night’s King and his corpse queen. There has been no indication thus far in the text that the male figures in these tales killed their female partner. In fact, their legends are just the opposite.

In the softer versions of the myth such as the one with Elenei and Duran Godsgrief, the female greenseer seems to have protected their mate...that is protected them from dying in the green sea. That is why Duran survived so many storms sent against him by the storm god. He drowned but like the myth of the Little Mermaid and her prince, he was given the kiss of life and brought back by his wife.

This is where I differ from Amanda and her wonderful video essay series about the Grey King. I don't think that his mermaid wife gave him the kiss of life. He killed her and she trapped him in the green sea...hence the Drowned God myth of the ironborn. And as he often does, George also gives us the opposite side of the myth in the same legend as we see in the ironborn doctrine of "what is dead will never die," and their practice of the "kiss of life."

Another tale that mirrors the ancient monomyth of the Azor Ahai/Nissa Nissa figures is the tale of Brienne’s ancient ancestor, Galladon of the Morne. However, it’s not quite clear where this legend falls. One wants to say it’s a more positive aspect of the myth because George names the male after the heroic Sir Gallahad of Arthurian fame, and we are told of the myth from Brienne, one of the most heroic personages in the entire series.

"Why would I lie?" she asked him. "Every place has its local heroes. Where I come from, the singers sing of Ser Galladon of Morne, the Perfect Knight." "Ser Gallawho of What?" He snorted. "Never heard o' him. Why was he so bloody perfect?" "Ser Galladon was a champion of such valor that the Maiden herself lost her heart to him. She gave him an enchanted sword as a token of her love. The Just Maid, it was called. No common sword could check her, nor any shield withstand her kiss. Ser Galladon bore the Just Maid proudly, but only thrice did he unsheathe her. He would not use the Maid against a mortal man, for she was so potent as to make any fight unfair." — A Feast for Crows - Brienne IV

Nonetheless, the Galladon/Maiden legend does have aspect of the darker side of the myth such as her gifting the “perfect knight” with an enchanted sword and “losing her heart” to him. Also note the comment that no regular sword could withstand her kiss. Lots of Nissa Nissa echoes in that passage, and George does like to upend traditional myths.

We’ve spent much time discussing sea dragons and mermaids and why they represent the seemingly missing female greenseers from the story, and now it’s time to move on to dragonflies, but before I do that, I want to briefly mention a bit of history about the Starks.

Even this did not give Winterfell dominion over all the North. Many other petty kings remained, ruling over realms great and small, and it would require thousands of years and many more wars before the last of them was conquered. Yet one by one, the Starks subdued them all, and during these struggles, many proud houses and ancient lines were extinguished forever.

Amongst the houses reduced from royals to vassals we can count the Flints of Breakstone Hill, the Slates of Blackpool, the Umbers of Last Hearth, the Lockes of Oldcastle, the Glovers of Deepwood Motte, the Fishers of the Stony Shore, the Ryders of the Rills...and mayhaps even the Blackwoods of Raventree, whose own family traditions insist they once ruled most of the wolfswood before being driven from their lands by the Kings of Winter (certain runic records support this claim, if Maester Barneby's translations can be trusted). Chronicles found in the archives of the Night's Watch at the Nightfort (before it was abandoned) speak of the war for Sea Dragon Point, wherein the Starks brought down the Warg King and his inhuman allies, the children of the forest. When the Warg King's last redoubt fell, his sons were put to the sword, along with his beasts and greenseers, whilst his daughters were taken as prizes by their conquerors. The World of Ice and Fire - The North: The Kings of Winter

If you analyze all the House names mentioned above, you will notice something in common about them, they all seem to be located at or close to water, or in deep forests where weirwoods would grow. Of course, there is no proving it unless George confirms the theory, but I would argue that these ancient houses that were conquered by the Starks were likely strong in either skin changing or greenseer abilities. And they held on to and married the daughters of the houses they conquered. This is why warg and greenseer abilities are so strong within the family. They have added the ability to their gene pool on many occasions over the generations.

Their war against the Warg King and the COTF at the suggestively named Sea Dragon Point is also very telling for all the reasons we previously discussed about sea dragons. And as we would expect, we see from this Wayward Bride passage that Sea Dragon Point is associated with weirwoods.

Asha tried to picture herself abed with Erik Ironmaker, crushed beneath his bulk, suffering his embraces. Better him than the Red Oarsman or Left-Hand Lucas Codd. The Anvil-Breaker had once been a roaring giant, fearsomely strong, fiercely loyal, utterly without fear. It might not be so bad. He's like to die the first time he tries to do his duty as a husband. That would make her Erik's widow instead of Erik's wife, which could be better or a good deal worse, depending on his grandsons. And my nuncle. In the end, all the winds blow me back toward Euron. "I have hostages, on Harlaw," she reminded him. "And there is still Sea Dragon Point … if I cannot have my father's kingdom, why not make one of my own?" Sea Dragon Point had not always been as thinly peopled as it was now. Old ruins could still be found amongst its hills and bogs, the remains of ancient strongholds of the First Men. In the high places, there were weirwood circles left by the children of the forest. "You are clinging to Sea Dragon Point the way a drowning man clings to a bit of wreckage. What does Sea Dragon have that anyone could ever want? There are no mines, no gold, no silver, not even tin or iron. The land is too wet for wheat or corn." I do not plan on planting wheat or corn. "What's there? I'll tell you. Two long coastlines, a hundred hidden coves, otters in the lakes, salmon in the rivers, clams along the shore, colonies of seals offshore, tall pines for building ships." A Dance with Dragons - The Wayward Bride

Note that the name of the peninsula is Sea Dragon Point as in a singular dragon, not plural. Also, notice how George casually throws in that wood for building ships can be found there. That George, always consistent.

I’ve talked a lot about sea dragons, mermaids, and ancient ironborn myths when this is supposed to be a chapter on Jenny and her Prince of Dragonflies; and how the two relate to Florian and Jonquil, and Jon and Sansa. Why so much ironborn?

Well, I went in-depth into the Grey King myth because I had to show you that seas dragons represent female greenseers. I had to show you instead of just telling you so you see my reasoning. More importantly, I had to do it this way so you will see the connection when I tell you that in the story, dragonflies should also be seen as sea dragons.

Dragonfly - earth.com

In fact, dragonflies are literal sea dragons, because in addition to having the word dragon in their name, they are also born in the sea. Female dragonflies lay their eggs in water, primarily swampy areas like bogs and swamps. Dragonflies spend practically all their life around such water.

The female lays eggs by tapping the surface of the water repeatedly with her abdomen, by shaking the eggs out of her abdomen as she flies along, or by placing the eggs on vegetation. In a few species, the eggs are laid on emergent plants above the water, and development is delayed until these have withered and become immersed. They take about a week to hatch into aquatic nymphs or naiads which moult between six and 15 times (depending on species) as they grow. Most of a dragonfly's life is spent as a nymph, beneath the water's surface. —Wikipedia

By the way, nymph comes from Ancient Greek and means bride.

Another interesting thing about the dragonfly is it is one of the few insects that can fly in all direction…forwards, backwards, up, down, and sideways. Thus, you can see that as sea dragons, they are the perfect symbolic representation of greenseers—individuals who can send their consciousness forward and backwards in time as it were.

This ability to fly in all directions is also present in a certain “little bird.” In fact, it’s the only bird that has this ability. The bird in question would be the hummingbird. Knowing George, do we think this is just happenstance…especially as the little bird is a popular sight in the American West and Southwest, with Arizona and New Mexico major stops in their migration progress.

The hummingbird reference is just an additional anecdote that supports my theory about Sansa being a greenseer, which I discussed here. Let me tell you another one about dragonflies that also has to do with New Mexico and the American Southwest, where we know that our author has lived for over 40 years.

Many fans have pointed out that the tale of Hades and Persephone play an important symbolic role in ASOIAF. I’ve gone further and pointed out how this legend is baked into the myth of the Nights King and his corpse queen. I’ve discussed how Arya’s childhood memory of the kids playing in the crypts wherein Jon covered himself in flour and stepped out of the crypt like a ghost does not just foreshadow his death, but also positions him as Hades, the King of the underworld, and Sansa who runs away in fear as Persephone. You can read all about this theory here.

I’ve discussed how Persephone was kidnapped from the Vale of Nysa, and what that potentially means when you consider the story of Nissa Nissa. I also covered how in Biblical times, the Vale of Nysa was mountainous and swampy, which echoes the area surrounding the river Styx that leads to the realm of Hades. This area was very like the Neck of ASOIAF, which is the entry point to the Northern underworld.

I’ve talked about how the real-world honey making Nysa deciduous also grows in bogs and swamps. If, as I’ve proposed, the corpse queen is a symbolic sea dragon because she’s a female greenseer and is also the Persephone character of the story, then it makes sense that she’s heavily associated with water, just as Sansa is via her Tully heritage.

As we see in the text, every time the word dragonfly is mentioned, it is associated with water. This includes reference to Oldstones in the Jenny and Duncan legend as that ruined stronghold sits on a hill above the blue fork of the Trident. Note that it sits above the “blue” fork giving it icy symbolism. As I keep saying, George is never not consistent with his symbolism.

The galley skimmed the water like a dragonfly, her oars rising and falling in perfect time. Ser Rodrik held the rail and looked out over the passing shore. "I have not been the most valiant of protectors."— A Game of Thrones - Catelyn IV

The galley was skimming downriver, a great wooden dragonfly. The water around her was churned white by the furious action of her oars. — A Storm of Swords - Jaime I

The sun was overhead, the world still and hot. Midges swarmed in the air, and a dragonfly floated over the stream, darting here and there. And the grass was moving when it had no cause to move. —A Dance with Dragons

To say again, dragonflies are symbolic sea dragons. And in the story, the myth of the sea dragon is one about the usurpation of the first greenseer who was female. So, when on the show we saw Petry give advice to Sansa that could have come straight out of the greenseer training handbook, it was hinting at something. This dialogue was the type that one would expect to come from Bloodraven to Bran, who we know is a greenseer.

You can watch the clip here, but I’ve transcribed the dialog below.

Don’t fight in the North or in the South. Fight every battle everywhere, always in your mind. Everyone is your enemy. Everyone is your friend. Every possible series of events is happening all at once. Live that way, and nothing will surprise you. Everything that happens will be something that you’ve seen before. —A Game of Thrones, Season 7, Ep 3

That is the advice you give to a greenseer in training. It’s also how great chess players think. What happens right after this scene with Petyr and Sansa, Bran the greenseer arrives. Now some will say that the comment from Petyr was to introduce Bran in the next scene but as I’ve always said, there were a million and one ways for them to have set up Bran and Sansa’s reunion without that piece of dialogue. This advice that perfectly describes a greenseer was not needed from Petyr to Sansa of all people.

This scene was one of the ways D&D hinted at Sansa’s greenseer abilities on the show without coming out and saying so. This is because to do so, would have upended their decision to have a Jon and Dany romantic relationship on the show, something I steadfastly believe won’t happen in the books.

Some other clues were the ringing of the bells all day at her birth, Arya’s, “she’s smarter than anyone I know, which came out of nowhere” and most importantly, the continued use of the dragonfly motif in her costumes. They were basically shouting in silence; Sansa is a sea dragon/greenseer.

The show incorporated dragonflies into Sansa’s costumes in so many different instances and ways, that it’s clear it wasn’t just happenstance but deliberate on their part. It was embroidered into dresses; worn as a necklaces and pins; and of course, her Season 8 dress of scales shimmered like dragonfly wings. Many fans have commented on the use of sea dragon motif in her costumes before me, including @castaliareed who wrote about the dragonfly influence on her leather armor here. I really loved that fine.

Now, I want you to remember all the clues I and others in the fandom have discussed that point to Sansa being the Persephone of the story. Would you then be surprised if I told you that there is a dragonfly named after the Greek Goddess.

Aeshna persephone, Persephone's darner, is a species of dragonfly in the family Aeshnidae. It is found in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Its natural habitats are rivers and intermittent rivers.—Wikipedia

You can read all about its discovery in Arizona in 1954 here, but I copied a brief section below, because when I read the passage, I immediately saw echoes in a passage from the world book.

Aeshna persephone is most closely related to A. palmata, and appears to be confined to Arizona, whereas palmata has not been taken in that state. The name is suggested by the habitat of this large and colorful dragonfly. In contrast to the sunny streams and ponds favored by most of its North American congeners, it inhabits mountain streams which are lighted by the sun’s rays for only a few hours each day, though it ascends periodically through the forest gloom to the sun-lit mountain slopes.—Biodiversity Heritage Library

Aeshna Persephone Darner

The passage above suggests that the Persephone dragonfly got its name from the dark mountainous area where it was discovered. Except for no mentions of swamps, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the rivers are such as that’s the natural habitat of dragonflies, the description reads a lot like the dark mountainous region of the river Styx that leads to Hades, which supports the theory I’ve proposed above.

Also, and this is very important, let’s not forget that our author has lived in New Mexico, smacked dab in the middle of the region that’s the native habitat for the Aeshna Persephone for over 40 years.

Dragonflies, like hummingbirds are prevalent in the American Southwest and are sighted all over the area. There are tours to their breeding grounds and hiking trails named after them all over the area. There is even a popular tourist attraction called Dragonfly Sanctuary Pond, the first of its kind in the country at the Albuquerque Bio Park in New Mexico.

Do we really think that George is not aware of the Persephone darner when he is so well read and knowledgeable, but more importantly has placed the myth of Hades and Persephone at the core of his ASOIAF legend of the Nights King and corpse queen. And it’s not just the inclusion of H&P myth, he also added dragonflies as an important symbol of his magical greenseers.

Yes. I think that it’s safe to say that George is aware of the Aeshna Persephone dragonfly.

The passage from the article discussing the discovery of the Aeshna Persephone also reminds me of this passage from the world book. I’m not sure it means anything, but the article was written in 1961 and so I’ve wondered if George came across it in his research. There is a fandom theory that Asshai was once the capital of TGEOTD, and thus would have been where the Bloodstone Emperor and the Amethyst Empress resided. Like I said, I’m not sure it means anything. In this instance, likely just happenstance, but I thought I would mention it.

On its way from the Mountains of the Morn to the sea, the Ash runs howling through a narrow cleft in the mountains, between towering cliffs so steep and close that the river is perpetually in shadow, save for a few moments at midday when the sun is at its zenith. — The World of Ice and Fire - The Bones and Beyond: Asshai-by-the-Shadow

So, let’s finally talk about Jenny and Duncan, her Prince of Dragonflies beginning with this passage from The Hedge Knight.

A hedge knight must hold tight to his pride. Without it, he was no more than a sellsword. I must earn my place in that company. If I fight well, some lord may take me into his household. I will ride in noble company then, and eat fresh meat every night in a castle hail, and raise my own pavilion at tourneys. But first I must do well. Reluctantly, he turned his back on the tourney grounds and led his horses into the trees. On the outskirts of the great meadow a good half mile from town and castle he found a place where a bend in a brook had formed a deep pool. Reeds grew thick along its edge, and a tall leafy elm presided over all. The spring grass there was as green as any knight's banner and soft to the touch. It was a pretty spot, and no one had yet laid claim to it. This will be my pavilion, Dunk told himself, a pavilion roofed with leaves, greener even than the banners of the Tyrells and the Estermonts. His horses came first. After they had been tended, he stripped and waded into the pool to wash away the dust of travel. "A true knight is cleanly as well as godly," the old man always said, insisting that they wash themselves head to heels every time the moon turned, whether they smelled sour or not. Now that he was a knight, Dunk vowed he would do the same. He sat naked under the elm while he dried, enjoying the warmth of the spring air on his skin as he watched a dragonfly move lazily among the reeds. Why would they name it a dragonfly? he wondered. It looks nothing like a dragon. Not that Dunk had ever seen a dragon. The old man had, though. Dunk had heard the story half a hundred times, how Ser Arlan had been just a little boy when his grandfather had taken him to King's Landing, and how they'd seen the last dragon there the year before it died. She'd been a green female, small and stunted, her wings withered. None of her eggs had ever hatched. "Some say King Aegon poisoned her," the old man would tell. "The third Aegon that would be, not King Daeron's father, but the one they named Dragonbane, or Aegon the Unlucky. He was afraid of dragons, for he'd seen his uncle's beast devour his own mother. The summers have been shorter since the last dragon died, and the winters longer and crueler."— The Hedge Knight

I included this long passage from The Hedge Knight not just to show a reference to a dragonfly in the text but to also show how George answers Dunk’s question while seemingly talking about the last fire dragon.

This is one of those passages I mentioned to be on the lookout for when you see a water reference in the text. In this instance because a dragonfly is present in the scene, you should pay particular attention. It’s basically a scene symbolizing the green sea/weirwood net.

Let’s start with how Dunk leads his horses into the “trees,” symbolically the weirwood net. And what does he find there, nothing but greenery because it’s the green sea. Spring grass as green as any knight’s banner; a tall elm tree with sprouting leaves even greener than the banners of House Tyrell and Estermont of Greenstone.

Interesting choice of house banners to reference…one that has “a rose” in a field of green, and the other that utilizes George’s favorite animal, a turtle, also in a field of green. Sigils that can be said to be floating in a sea of green.

I could also go into detail and post excerpts about real-world myths from many different regions of the world wherein ships are considered the horses of the sea, but you will have to just take my word for it. Thus, when Dunk takes his horses into the trees/green sea, you can symbolically see them as ships or sea horses sailing the green sea.

Where is all this greenery located? Well, it symbolizes the green sea and so, as one would expect, it’s next to a body of water. In this case, a stream that forms into a pool from which Dunk takes a bath.

Reeds are also growing deep along the edges, which tells you that this stream is also swamp/wetland like because that’s where reeds grow. And what is flying around in this green sea, a dragonfly…a sea dragon. Then Dunk wonders what’s difference between dragons and dragonflies. Why does the latter have that name when it looks nothing like a dragon?

As he’s wont to do, George gives the answer while seemingly talking about the last fire dragon. He incorporates the answer into all the green symbolism of the scene. Dragonflies maybe small, but they are green dragons of the green sea, and whatever happened to the original sea dragon, the first of her kind is why the weather has been out of whacked for thousands of years.

There is one other passage from The Hedge Knight that I want to mention because I think it’s one of the most important clues about the entire series. It’s the one where Prince Maekar offers Dunk a place in his household.

"That can be changed," said Maekar. "Aegon is to return to my castle at Summerhall. There is a place there for you, if you wish. A knight of my household. You'll swear your sword to me, and Aegon can squire for you. While you train him, my master-at-arms will finish your own training." The prince gave him a shrewd look. "Your Ser Arlan did all he could for you, I have no doubt, but you still have much to learn." "I know, m'lord." Dunk looked about him. At the green grass and the reeds, the tall elm, the ripples dancing across the surface of the sunlit pool. Another dragonfly was moving across the water, or perhaps it was the same one. What shall it be, Dunk? he asked himself. Dragonflies or dragons? A few days ago he would have answered at once. It was all he had ever dreamed, but now that the prospect was at hand it frightened him. "Just before Prince Baelor died, I swore to be his man."

Dragonflies or dragons? The conflict at the heart of the series. The sea dragons/dragonflies had access to the weirwoods and the fire dragons in the form of Azor Ahai, the Bloodstone Emperor and many other symbolic representations wanted access, which led to the killing of the first sea dragon/greenseer.

In a way, Dunk’s choice was a symbolic “hedging” of his bet or rather, putting off the decision. He chose the dragonfly, but he took the dragon prince with him. And later, he does fully make the dragons his choice, which leads to his death.

On the other hand, Jenny’s Duncan was a dragon who chose to be a dragonfly, but he never quite gave up his connection to his fire heritage, which also led to his death. However, I don’t think that Duncan’s Prince of Dragonflies’ moniker is just about him choosing Jenny over the dragon crown. And this is where my second theory of this chapter comes in.

I think it’s quite possible that George gave Duncan that moniker to indicate that he was a greenseer, or at least had the untapped potential. It could be why he sought out the Ghost of High Heart, which I think is what happened and how he met Jenny.

The GOHH is a woods witch and with her diminutive stature and association with High Heart, a location that was sacred to the COTF, and is centered around a major weirwood grove, she is likely either a Child of the Forest, or a human/COTF hybrid. George has not yet answered that question, but with her green dream visions, he clearly wants her associated with the COTF.

Thus, it makes sense for a dragon prince with sea dragon/greenseer abilities to be associated with the COTF for training as was the case with Bloodraven. Now, before anyone says that there is no way that Duncan could have been a greenseer, I would say to remember Bloodraven and their family heritage.

Duncan’s mother was Black Betha Blackwood while Bloodraven’s was Melissa Blackwood. The greenseer gene is strong within the Blackwoods. It’s why they war with the Starks in ancient times and were chased out of the North. It is from his Blackwood mother that Bloodraven inherited the greenseer gene, and so Duncan having the gene as well is a very real possibility.

Was Jenny also a greenseer? This can’t be ruled out considering the hints that she might have been related to the GOHH…possibly even a daughter or granddaughter. We don’t get much of a description of Jenny except that she wore flowers in her hair, which seems to be George wanting the reader to associate her with being a forest nymph.

She’s described as being strange and as a witch. Her connection to the GOHH would seem to suggest that she might have been a woods witch as well. She’s also closely associated with Oldstones, which is a full anagram for lodestone. A lodestone is a magnetic stone and in fantasy literature, it often has magical properties. So, Jenny could have been magical as well.

However, in this instance, I think that Duncan might have been the one with the ability and his Prince of Dragonflies moniker might indicate that he was in training, just as Bran, “Prince of the Green” is being trained by Bloodraven. Jenny might have been the lodestone that brought him to his mentor, the GOHH. But as I said, I would not be shocked if she also had magical abilities because it would fit thematically.

And those flowers she wore in her head, I think that there were probably wild white roses that she found on the grave of her ancestors.

Yet in the center of what once would have been the castle's yard, a great carved sepulcher still rested, half hidden in waist-high brown grass amongst a stand of ash. The lid of the sepulcher had been carved into a likeness of the man whose bones lay beneath, but the rain and the wind had done their work. The king had worn a beard, they could see, but otherwise his face was smooth and featureless, with only vague suggestions of a mouth, a nose, eyes, and the crown about the temples. His hands folded over the shaft of a stone warhammer that lay upon his chest. Once the warhammer would have been carved with runes that told its name and history, but all that the centuries had worn away. The stone itself was cracked and crumbling at the corners, discolored here and there by spreading white splotches of lichen, while wild roses crept up over the king's feet almost to his chest. — A Storm of Swords - Catelyn V

As we find out in this Sansa chapter from AFFC, the tale of Jenny and her Prince might be very similar to that of Florian and Jonquil in its sadness.

If the Eyrie had been made like other castles, only rats and gaolers would have heard the dead man singing. Dungeon walls were thick enough to swallow songs and screams alike. But the sky cells had a wall of empty air, so every chord the dead man played flew free to echo off the stony shoulders of the Giant's Lance. And the songs he chose . . . He sang of the Dance of the Dragons, of fair Jonquil and her fool, of Jenny of Oldstones and the Prince of Dragonflies. He sang of betrayals, and murders most foul, of hanged men and bloody vengeance. He sang of grief and sadness. — A Feast for Crows - Sansa I

This passage which references both Florian and Jonquil, and Jenny and her Prince of Dragonflies also mentions the Dance of the Dragons. We know that while Jenny’s story involved dragons, it did not involve a Dance of Dragons, at least not of the fiery type. And it did involve betrayal.

We also discover in The Hedge Knight, that all the adjectives Sansa uses to describe the songs sung by Marilion could also be used to describe the legend of Florian and Jonquil. This includes betrayals; murder most foul; and a Dance of Dragons between two brothers with a woman at the center of the conflict.

I think that the latest Dance with Dragons will play out between Jon and Dany and Sansa will have a major role in this arc, because as I’ve been preaching throughout this essay series, she and Jon are the Florian and Jonquil of this iteration of the story.

However, as I noted when discussing the passage from The Hedge Knight above, not recognized by many is that there is also a dance between the sea dragon of the dragonfly variety and the fire dragon at play in the story. It’s been there since the fire dragon killed the sea dragon millennium ago to gain access to the weirwoods, and it’s a dance that continues through all the timelines iterations. And with that, let’s wind down this chapter.

In Part 2 of The Bear and the Maiden Fair, and in this brief snippet, I discussed why Sansa’s Tully heritage and other textural symbolism positions her as a sea dragon waiting to be awaken. Left alone, weirwoods don’t rot. They petrified and are turned to stone. The same can be said of weirwood goddesses. They may sleep and hibernate, but goddesses sometimes awaken. Weirwood goddesses or sea dragons sometimes awaken from stone, or better yet, awaken from under the name of Stone.

Don’t you ever wonder why George gave her a false moniker and a hidden princess storyline where she needs to awaken to reclaim her identity. It’s interesting when there is a major prophecy in the text about waking dragons from stone, and such prophecies usually have multiple and layered meanings…especially if as I’ve proposed, Sansa is the Sea Dragon Behind the Glass, as in a sleeping greenseer.

In his dream, Bran falls from the Winterfell eyrie and Bloodraven tells him to fly or die, meaning awaken to his full potential or die in the attempt as the was the case of many other dreamers who attempted to cross the weirwood bridge to the green sea. It’s not specifically stated in the dream that Bran is falling from the eyrie, but it’s implied with his habit of climbing to the top to feed the crows as he does to the one in his dream, as well as in his memory of Jaime pushing him. Then later in A Storm of Swords, George puts Sansa at the top of the Eyrie in the Vale and we get this scene.

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. A Feast for Crows, Alayne I

You do have wings Sansa, and you will fly…possibly both symbolically and literally.

To the original questioner, I hope this very long essay answers your question of why dragonflies are important in the story and what it implies about Sansa’s arc. The length was necessary because I really had to go into the ironborn Grey King myth to show the symbolic importance of sea dragons in the story and why dragonflies should be considered the same.

With that, we come to the end of Chapter 8. The next chapter is going to be a fun one, and I’ve been looking forward to writing it for almost 6 years. In fact, I first started writing it about 6 years ago…even before the Florian and Jonquil series. It was only after I started the latter series that I realized the two were connected.

For this reason, I tabled the essay, until I got to the right part of the Florian and Jonquil series to introduce the theory. I didn’t expect to be doing it now, but the query about dragonflies which led to a discussion of the Grey King and other topic provides a perfect segue. I can’t tell you the name of the chapter as that would be a big spoiler. I will say that many will find it surprising, but it’s been one of George's shinny apples sitting out there in plain sight all along.

And so I leave you with this quote from Aeron Greyjoy.

"The Storm God in his wrath plucked Balon from his castle and cast him down, and now he feasts beneath the waves in the Drowned God's watery halls." He raised his hands. "Balon is dead! The king is dead! Yet a king will come again! For what is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger! A king will rise!" —A Feast for Crows, The Prophet

Yes. What is dead does rise harder and stronger, and a king shall indeed rise. Actually, two shall rise but only one will do so by the "kiss of life," and it's not Euron. Oh, and yes, I will be discussing the infamous unkiss.

#sansa stark #jon snow #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #my meta #house stark #sansa stark meta #florian and jonquil #jenny of oldstones #prince of dragonflies #duncan targaryen

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elegantwoes · 2 years

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Sansa Stark 2022 Month - Day 5: Mother

Sansa and Catelyn Meta || More similar than you think

We all know the general consensus when it comes to Sansa Stark. Despite the physical appearance she shares with her mother Sansa is arguably more like her father in terms of personality, and that is evident in Ned's twelfth AGOT chapter and Catelyn's seveth ACOK chapter. When you contrast and compare you can see Sansa shares Ned's more calm and kinder approach and even how he tries to sympathize with their enemy despite the pain and suffering they caused to the Stark family.

However despite the obvious difference that doesn't mean there is no similarity between Sansa and Catelyn. In this meta I am going to delve deeper into that parallel and the similarities that Sansa Stark and Catelyn Tully share:

Riverlands

Politics

Woman's bravery

Sharp Wit

Motherhood

Riverlands:

At first glance it doesn't seem like Sansa has a lot of connection to the Riverlands, but one of the more notable ones, is the Whent imagery in her chapters - the house her maternal grandmother and Catelyn's mother (Minisa Tully) is part of:

"I forgot, you've been hiding under a rock. The northern girl. Winterfell's daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window. But she left the dwarf behind and Cersei means to have his head." (A Storm of Swords - Arya XIII).

The second one is the dragonflies motif that has been present with Sansa since the beginning of the tv-show (x, x). A very fitting motif, because not only does the dragonfly change, transformation, adaptability, and self-realization, and Sansa goes through all of this in her character arc, but it also ties back to her love for songs and stories - Jenny Old Stones and the Prince of Dragonflies. Jenny in particular has quite the similarities with Sansa:

Jenny claimed descent from long-vanished kings of the First Men. The ruined castles of Oldstones was once the seat of House Mudd.

The connection that Jenny has to the Riverlands and the First Men reminds you of Sansa Stark who is both a Stark (First Men) and a Tully (Riverlands). Interestingly enough in fan art Jenny Oldstones is often depicted to have red hair - connecting herself more to the Tullys and also to Sansa (x, x, x). Catelyn also has her own part that connects her to this song. Back when she was a child she often renacted the story of Duncan and Jenny with Littlefinger and her sister Lysa.

Politics:

While this ability is on the rusty side due to crippling self esteem and lack of experience, it should be noted that Sansa has quite the talent for looking at situations with a critical eye. That is evident here when Sansa examines the reward Littlefinger gets in her last ACOK chapter:

Joffrey laughed, and the court with him. Lord Paramount of the Trident, Sansa thought, and Lord of Harrenhal as well. She did not understand why that should make him so happy; the honors were as empty as the title granted to Hallyne the Pyromancer. Harrenhal was cursed, everyone knew that, and the Lannisters did not even hold it at present. Besides, the lords of the Trident were sworn to Riverrun and House Tully, and to the King in the North; they would never accept Littlefinger as their liege. Unless they are made to. Unless my brother and my uncle and my grandfather are all cast down and killed. The thought made Sansa anxious, but she told herself she was being silly. Robb has beaten them every time. He'll beat Lord Baelish too, if he must. (A Clash of Kings - Sansa VIII)

Sansa accurately notes that the Lannisters have no right to give Harrenhal away, because the castle isn't in their possession. Nor would the bannermen of Lord Hoster Tully ever accept Littlefinger as their Lord Paramount unless they have a scheme up their sleeve. Sansa basically predicted the Red Wedding well ahead. This is no different from her Lady Mother, Catelyn Tully, who figured out what Hoster Tully did to Lysa years ago, by only hearing a couple of delirious words from her father's mouth:

Could Tansy be some pet name he called Lysa, the way he called me Cat? Lord Hoster had mistaken her for her sister before. You'll have others, he said. Sweet babes, and trueborn. Lysa had miscarried five times, twice in the Eyrie, thrice at King's Landing . . . but never at Riverrun, where Lord Hoster would have been at hand to comfort her. Never, unless . . . unless she was with child, that first time . . . (A Storm of Swords - Catelyn I)

Not only this but both Sansa and Catelyn immediately notice that tension is brewing in the Vale, despite being there for a short while.

Catelyn was at a loss for words, Jon Arryn's son, she thought incredulously. She remembered her own baby, three-year-old Rickon, half the age of this boy and five times as fierce. Small wonder the lords of the Vale were restive. - Catelyn VI AGOT

and

From bits and pieces of overheard conversations Sansa knew that Jon Arryn's bannermen resented Lysa's marriage and begrudged Petyr his authority as Lord Protector of the Vale. The senior branch of House Royce was close to open revolt over her aunt's failure to aid Robb in his war, and the Waynwoods, Redforts, Belmores, and Templetons were giving them every support. (A Storm of Swords - Sansa VII)

Woman's courage:

A song of Ice and Fire is not short on characters who show a lot of courage but here we are going to talk about a specific kind of bravery that Brienne called a woman's courage:

"No, but you have courage. Not battle courage perhaps but . . . I don't know . . . a kind of woman's courage.

The type of courage that doesn't require physical strength, but inner strength instead, and Sansa, just like her Lady Mother, shows a tremendous amount of it.

It's when she goes in front of court and where she so sweetly and bravely plead forgiveness for her father's sake. Make no mistake this takes a lot of bravery, not just because of how big King's Landing throne room true is to GRRM's imagination, but also how much risk it put Sansa in:

She stopped under the throne, at the spot where Ser Barristan’s white cloak lay puddled on the floor beside his helm and breastplate. “Do you have some business for king and council, Sansa?” the queen asked from the council table. “I do.” She knelt on the cloak, so as not to spoil her gown, and looked up at her prince on his fearsome black throne. “As it please Your Grace, I ask mercy for my father, Lord Eddard Stark, who was the Hand of the King.” She had practiced the words a hundred times.

Or when she, in spite of feeling fear of dying herself, bravely stood up and took on the duties that Cersei abandoned and calmed the people's fear:

She never knew why she got to her feet, but she did. "Don't be afraid," she told them loudly. "The queen has raised the drawbridge. This is the safest place in the city. There's thick walls, the moat, the spikes . . ." "What's happened?" demanded a woman she knew slightly, the wife of a lesser lordling. "What did Osney tell her? Is the king hurt, has the city fallen?" "Tell us," someone else shouted. One woman asked about her father, another her son. Sansa raised her hands for quiet. "Joffrey's come back to the castle. He's not hurt. They're still fighting, that's all I know, they're fighting bravely. The queen will be back soon." The last was a lie, but she had to soothe them. She noticed the fools standing under the galley. "Moon Boy, make us laugh."

This is no different from Catelyn who grabbed onto valyrian steels bravely and fiercely regardless of her own safety just to protect her son Bran:

She reached up with both hands and grabbed the blade with all her strength, pulling it away from her throat. She heard him cursing into her ear. Her fingers were slippery with blood, but she would not let go of the dagger.

Or when Catelyn who in spite of feeling a deep sense of grudge over what happened to Ned or Bran, she values peace and wants the fighting to end as soon as possible, so she can take care of her remaining loved ones. That takes a great deal of bravery and inner strength:

“He wouldn’t . . . you’d never make a peace with Stannis, would you? Bend the knee? You wouldn’t . . .” “I will tell you true, Brienne. I do not know. My son may be a king, but I am no queen . . . only a mother who would keep her children safe, however she could.” “I am not made to be a mother. I need to fight.” “Then fight . . . but for the living, not the dead. Renly’s enemies are Robb’s enemies as well.”

Sharp Wit:

Sharp wit has been a skill in Sansa's repertoire for quite some while now, but though this skill has been used in defense through most of the books Sansa has been in, in her The Winds of Winter chapter sample we see Alayne/Sansa taking her armor of courtesy and morphing it into a sword, and Sansa uses this sword very well.

The first example of this is when Harrold Hardying confronts Sansa after he has humiliated her in front of his foster family, and asks her forgiveness. Sansa, who at this point has been subjugated far too much at the hand of men and them making a habit of demanding something out of her, and likely is completely done with this, tells him a big fat no:

And there he stood, Harry the Heir himself; tall, handsome, scowling. "Lady Alayne. May I partner you in this dance?" She considered for a moment. "No. I don't think so." Color rose to his cheeks. "I was unforgiveably rude to you in the yard. You must forgive me." "Must?" She tossed her hair, took a sip of wine, made him wait. "How can you forgive someone who is unforgiveably rude? Will you explain that to me, ser?"

Even when she does agree to dance with him in the end, Sansa doesn't stop holding fire to his feet:

Besides, Petyr said that I should not seem eager. Instead she said, “I have heard that you are about to be a father.” It was not something most girls would say to their almost-betrothed, but she wanted to see if Ser Harrold would lie ... “Saffron?” Alayne tried not to laugh. “Truly?” Ser Harrold had the grace to blush. “Her father says she is more precious to him than gold. He’s rich, the richest man in Gulltown. A fortune in spices.” “What will you name the babe?” she asked. “Cinnamon if she’s a girl? Cloves if he’s a boy?” That almost made him stumble. “My lady japes.” “Oh, no.” Ser Harrold studied her face. “You are comely enough, I grant you. When Lady Anya first told me of this match, I was afraid that you might look like your father.” “Little pointy beard and all?” Alayne laughed. “I never meant…“ “I hope you joust better than you talk.”

Another good example is when Sansa tries to help Lady Myranda who is being harassed by so called "knights". However, in her attempt to rescue her dear friend, Sansa is caught in the middle, and ends up being oggled by one of them. Sansa humiliates him in return:

“Alayne!” cried Myranda Royce, from a carved stone bench beneath a beech tree, where she was seated between two men. She looked in need of rescue. Smiling, Alayne walked toward her friend. .... He was staring so intently at Myranda’s breasts that he hardly noticed Alayne until Myranda rose to hug her. “Thank you, thank you, thank you” Randa whispered in her ear .... Not to be outdone, the pimply knight hopped up and said, “Ser Ossifer speaks truly, you are the most beautiful maid in all the Seven Kingdoms.” It might have been a sweeter courtesy had he not addressed it to her chest. “And have you seen all those maids yourself, ser?” Alayne asked him. “You are young to be so widely travelled.” He blushed, which only made his pimples look angrier. “No, my lady. I am from Gulltown.”

By the looks of her sample chapter Sansa seems to be completely fed up being treated rudely and getting sexualized by men. And if she can be like this while masquerading as the bastard daughter of a highly unpopular lord protector in the most snobbish and classist region of Westeros, imagine what she will be like, once she assumes her identity as Sansa Stark, and is in Winterfell, where she's likely to hold the position that her lady mother once held?

Sansa's behavior in the The Winds of Winter chapter sample really reminds you of Catelyn who has no problem sharing her opinion and calling people out when it's neccessary, especially men:

"While he lives," Renly admitted. "Though it's a fool's law, wouldn't you agree? Why the oldest son, and not the best-fitted? The crown will suit me, as it never suited Robert and would not suit Stannis. I have it in me to be a great king, strong yet generous, clever, just, diligent, loyal to my friends and terrible to my enemies, yet capable of forgiveness, patient—" "—humble?" Catelyn supplied.

Another man was fallen, trapped beneath his injured horse, both of them screaming in pain. Squires rushed out to aid them. This is madness, Catelyn thought. Real enemies on every side and half the realm in flames, and Renly sits here playing at war like a boy with his first wooden sword.

and:

"I call it weak." Lord Randyll Tarly had a short, bristly grey beard and a reputation for blunt speech. "No disrespect to you, Lady Stark, but it would have been more seemly had Lord Robb come to pay homage to the king himself, rather than hiding behind his mother's skirts." "King Robb is warring, my lord," Catelyn replied with icy courtesy, "not playing at tourney." Renly grinned. "Go softly, Lord Randyll, I fear you're overmatched."

Nor does she have a problem calling out her own son Robb when she believes his actions go too far, especially when it concerns the wellbeing of her daughters:

"Don't call me the boy," Robb said, rounding on his uncle, his anger spilling out all at once on poor Edmure, who had only meant to support him. "I'm almost a man grown, and a king—your king, ser. And I don't fear Jaime Lannister. I defeated him once, I'll defeat him again if I must, only . . ." He pushed a fall of hair out of his eyes and gave a shake of the head. "I might have been able to trade the Kingslayer for Father, but . . ." ". . . but not for the girls?" Her voice was icy quiet. "Girls are not important enough, are they?"

Another aspect where Sansa and Catelyn share a resemblance when it comes to wit is how Tyrion, a very misogynistic character who is not known for complimenting women on their intellect, notices it and makes commentary about it:

''Tyrion led Sansa around the yard, to perform the necessary courtesies. 'She is good at this, he thought, as he watched her tell Lord Gyles that his cough was sounding better, compliment Elinor Tyrell on her gown, and question Jalabhar Xho about wedding customs in the Summer Isles. His cousin Ser Lancel had been brought down by Ser Kevan, the first time he’d left his sickbed since the battle. He looks ghastly. Lancel’s hair had turned white and brittle, and he was thin as a stick. Without his father beside him holding him up, he would surely have collapsed. Yet when Sansa praised his valor and said how good it was to see him getting strong again, both Lancel and Ser Kevan beamed. She would have made Joffrey a good queen and a better wife if he’d had the sense to love her'

Tyrion notes that Sansa's wit, her ability to work the room and charm people rivals that of any queen. Which reminds me of how he, albeit bregrudingly, admitted that Catelyn has outwitted him at every turn:

This is the high road,” he gasped, looking at Lady Stark with accusation. “The eastern road. You said we were riding for Winterfell!” Catelyn Stark favored him with the faintest of smiles. “Often and loudly,” she agreed. “No doubt 'your friends will ride that way when they come after us. I wish them good speed.” Even now, long days later, the memory filled him with a bitter rage. All his life Tyrion had prided himself on his cunning, the only gift the gods had seen fit to give him, and yet this seven-times-damned she-wolf Catelyn Stark had outwitted him at every turn. The knowledge was more galling than the bare fact of his abduction.'

Motherhood:

When you look at Sansa's Vale arc it's easy to notice how similar her situation is to Ned's childhood. Being a 'daughter' of a 'father' (Jon Arryn/Petyr Baelish), befriending a Baratheon (Mya Stone/Robert Baratheon). However, what is less noticable, but no less important. is how Sansa's arc in the Vale resemblances Catelyn's own childhood as well; a young teenage girl assuming the role of Lady of the Keep and playing the role of pseudo mother for a much younger boy. Who am I talking about here, Sansa or Catelyn? The answer is both.

Sweetrobin seems to be the 'Edmure' to Sansa's 'Catelyn' and it's through this relationship we first hand get to not only see what Sansa's future potential parenting skills would be, but also how she would raise her eldest son who would be her heir. The first instance of that is how Lysa introduces us to Sweetrobin:

"Robert has weak eyes, but he loves to be read to," Lady Lysa confided. "He likes stories about animals the best. Do you know the little song about the chicken who dressed as a fox? I sing him that all the time, he never grows tired of it.

We get to know that Sweetrobin likes a children's song. However by the time we get to the first Sansa chapter in AFFC little Robert seems to favor the stories of the winged knight and begs Sansa/Alayne if she can read it to him:

"No," he said, "but I'm not going. I want to stay in bed. You could read to me about the Winged Knight." The Winged Knight was Ser Artys Arryn. Legend said that he had driven the First Men from the Vale and flown to the top of the Giant's Lance on a huge falcon to slay the Griffin King. There were a hundred tales of his adventures. Little Robert knew them all so well he could have recited them from memory, but he liked to have them read to him all the same.

Sweetrobin who once liked a very childlike song meant for young children suddenly seems to favor a story more fit for a young boy who is on the road to grow up. In a span of a couple weeks Sansa already started the process of young Robert unlearning the toxic coddled mindset. An impressive feat if you think about.

And this isn't the only way she works to make him grow up. In Sansa's first AFFC chapter we see Sweetrobin nas tried to slip into Sansa's bed several times and even going so far as nuzzling into her breasts, a habit that was indulged on Lysa's part. However Sansa quickly puts it to stop by forcing him to stay in his own bedroom:

I know you were. Sweetrobin had been accustomed to crawling in beside his mother, until she wed Lord Petyr. Since Lady Lysa’s death he had taken to wandering the Eyrie in quest of other beds. The one he liked best was Sansa’s . .. which was why she had asked Ser Lothor Brune to lock his door last night.

This scene has been often used to show how awful Sansa is to Sweetrobin, but if you think about it, is it really? Learning how to sleep in your own bedroom is something all children have to learn and at some point Sweetrobin has to grow up. Sansa using this tough love method on him early on will be benficial to young Robert in the long run.

Another iexample where see Sansa's parenting skills is when Sansa comes up with the idea for the Winged Knight's Tourney for Robert:

It was clever. The tourney, the prizes, the winged knights, it had all been her own notion. Lord Robert’s mother had filled him full of fears, but he always took courage from the tales she read him of Ser Artys Arryn, the Winged Knight of legend, founder of his line. Why not surround him with Winged Knights? She had thought one night, after Sweetrobin had finally drifted off to sleep. His own Kingsguard, to keep him safe and make him brave. And no sooner did she tell Petyr her idea than he went out and made it happen.

I don't think many are appreciative of this brilliant move, because this winged knight tourney has several purposes.

Surrounding him with the winged knights would help young Robert feel more saver and less scared and therefore he would likely get less seizures.

Having proper role models around him could inspire him to get more braver and stronger just like the winged knights.

By giving young Robert a group of knights who would serve him as the King's guard, she is not only asserting his identity as Lord of the Vale and Warden of the East, but by also keeping the young heirs around Robert they could foster a stronger relationship with him and make the young heirs, who are future Vale bannermen, more loyal to young Robert in the future.

If that wasn't enough, there's even a fourth purpose to this. In the long run it could work in favor for Sansa in the future when she decides to go against Littlefinger. By organizing this winged knight tourney Sansa is imposing herself in the eyes of the lords as a parental figure, which will be highlighted even more once she shed's her Alayne persona for her Stark one. Even if Sansa reveals she played a part in hiding Lysa's true killer to Yohn Royce and/or Anya Waynwood, it would likely not affect her credibility, because she has been showing all along she was on young Robert's side, through her motherly act towards Sweetrobin. Sansa is essentially undermining Littlefinger and unknowingly setting him up through her kindness and he’s not even aware of it.

All of this is possible not just because of Sansa's own intelligence and her innate ability to be kind, but also the almost effortless strict but loving and kind motherly act towards young Robert, which is very reminiscent of her own mother Catelyn, especially how she is with her own eldest son Robb:

Catelyn gave her firstborn a challenging look. "If you are to rule in the north, you must think these things through, Robb. Answer your own question. Why would anyone want to kill a sleeping child?" ...

The way Catelyn refuses to coddle Robb and hold his hand through everything shows where Sansa got that tactic from.

Another instance is that despite wanting to protect Robb from any danger Catelyn knows that sending Robb back to Winterfell would damage his reputation in the eyes of the bannermen, and therefore prevent from properly ruling over the North:

“Pray, who were those men I saw here a moment ago? Roose Bolton, Rickard Karstark, Galbart and Robett Glover, the Greatjon, Helman Tallhart … you might have given the command to any of them. Gods be good, you might even have sent Theon, though he would not be my choice.” “They are not Starks,” he said. “They are men, Robb, seasoned in battle. You were fighting with wooden swords less than a year past.” She saw anger in his eyes at that, but it was gone as quick as it came, and suddenly he was a boy again. “I know,” he said, abashed. “Are you … are you sending me back to Winterfell?” Catelyn sighed. “I should. You ought never have left. Yet I dare not, not now. You have come too far. Someday these lords will look to you as their liege. If I pack you off now, like a child being sent to bed without his supper, they will remember, and laugh about it in their cups. The day will come when you need them to respect you, even fear you a little. Laughter is poison to fear. I will not do that to you[…]'

So while Sansa does act and think like her father she emulates herself like Catelyn and that is just as much valid as the similarities Sansa shares with Ned. In conclusion, Sansa Stark is such a beautiful and refreshing combination of both Ned and Catelyn and still a very unique and multifaceted character that can not only stand on her own feet but also can surpass both her parents.

#ASOIAF #Sansa Stark #Catelyn Stark #Catelyn Tully #sansamonth2022 #sansaappreciationfest2022 #valyrianscrolls

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