#reel writes about asoiaf

[little-engineer-who-cant]

20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @amethystunarmed and I am very late in responding, but what else is new? I finally get to do one of these now that I've started posting my writing!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

12 as of writing this.

2. What’s your total word count?

203,764 words which is so very many and 159,923 of those words are in one series that's not even halfway done yet.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The fandoms I have published are Skyrim, Batman, Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Black Sails.

One day though, I will start posting my ASoIaF works, I swear.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

Act 1: Into the Breach - Skyrim

The Water Under the Bridge to Elysium is Still the River Styx - Batman crossover with Percy Jackson

There's a Waystation in Gotham - Batman crossover with Percy Jackson

Act 2: Rising Until Our Souls Shatter in the Sky - Skyrim

Under the Red Hood Lies Jason Todd's Shattered Dreams - Batman crossover with Percy Jackson

5. Do you respond to comments?

I really love getting them and a lot of people who comment on my fics have hit very close to future plot points! I try to respond, but I also know I'm terrible at keeping secrets because I'm so excited about what comes next, so sometimes I do not respond because I don't want to accidentally spoil my own stuff.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This one is a tie, honestly. If you want angst that gets a resolution in a different work? Then it has to be Screaming Past the Limit, Never to Slow Down Again which is another part of the Batman and PJO crossover series.

If you're looking for unresolved angst, then it is Are You Coming to the (Hanging) Tree? which is a Black Sails fic focused on Abigail Ashe. It is one of my favorite pieces I've ever written and I did it in like 20 minutes while I was at work.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

You're the Torch I'll Use to Burn this World Down, another Black Sails fic but this one focuses on Miranda because I love her and I think she deserves good things all the time.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really, but I write in very niche sections of fandoms (crossovers, modded communities, etc) so most of the people that come across my works really want to be there and try not to run creators out. The closest I've gotten was someone nagging on a location in the Damnation Saga because I screwed around with character's perceptions on map locations a bit for worldbuilding flavor.

9. Do you write smut?

To be determined. The Damnation Saga might get some, who knows.

10. Do you write crossovers?

...

That is 98% of my drafts. Literally the only works I have that are not crossovers are the Damnation stories. I have over 20 WIPs that are all crossovers. I love interweaving different stories that have similar themes or lore backgrounds, exploring how they interact and how the myths of one is perceived by the other and vice versa. Butterfly effects and world premise shifts, my beloved.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Fic? No. Original work however, @amethystunarmed and I have never really stopped our nonsense over the last 10 or so years. We still have shared Google Docs that were last modified in 2012.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

What got me into fanfiction, and what I still go back to even after all this time, is Bagginshield. I reread Sansûkh all the time. You should read it too. Everyone should. I aspire to create something that incredible and moving. I cry every time.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

Sweet Talk Hides Dark Thoughts. It's a massive crossover and I just tried to do too much. The butterfly effect got so out of hand that the story would no longer be anywhere near where I wanted it to be. It is super unwieldy in terms of both size and plot and I can't figure out a way to reel it in or finish it in a way that I'm satisfied with. Instead, I've sectioned out chunks and reskinned the concepts. For example, the entire Sirens Scream series is based on a bit I had in Sweet Talk where Silena Beauregard lives and vanishes into the unknown. Sweet Talk also explored the ramifications of there being survivors from Kronos' army and how the Titan War affected all the CHILD SOLDIERS that were fighting in it, concepts that I brought into Sirens but looked at from a different angle.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Descriptions and interweaving plot beats. I love a good Chekhov's Gun and I will fire it multiple times. I also am good at pacing. If you feel the story moving at breakneck speed with no room for breathing, it's because I want you to feel that way.

I'm also good at inner monologues, especially about a character spiraling into corruption and despair.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action sequences. Unless there's room for monologues in there, I suck at them and they are a slog to write.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I do it, but I always make sure to add a note asking for correction if I've translated it wrong. I do my best, but I am not a linguist nor do I have time to be. I use a lot of Dovahzul in the Damnation Saga and I am using both Old Norse and High Valyrian in other WIPs right now.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The Hobbit. I wanted to make an OC in Laketown so very badly, but I never got anything I was happy with.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

There's a Waystation in Gotham. Hands down. It's the fic that inspired the entire Sirens Scream series because I couldn't get that line out of my head. I wrote it in one swoop when I was in the middle of machine changes and it needed basically no edits. If asked to recommend my own work, this is the top of the list.

I am tagging @kiir-do-faal-rahhe, @vice-versa-vane, and @septemberskye

#writing #my fics #ask game

[fanficapologist]

I’m new to Of Dragons and Maelstroms and wow!!! 🤩🤩 I love your writing, the details and the weaving of different themes is just brilliant. The main character is full of sass and power and vulnerability too. I’m speeding my way through the series and loving Aemond. He is abit dark, sexy, soft at times. And abit unpredictable. Just loving everything about this. Just a quick question - I’ve seen the series on AO3 and wanted to check if cheating is going to be a theme as it’s not in the tags but I’m getting the feeling him being away might mean he is messing around with a certain witch. 😉 I don’t think that will be a theme as it’s not in the tag but Alys is mentioned so wanted to check. Just wanted to check. Like I said really love the effort and energy you are putting into this series which has really reeled me in. Xx

Hello my Love 🖤

Oh my laaawwddd this has made my day you have no idea, thank you 😍 I hope you’re enjoying the ride so far

So yes Alys will be making an appearance and things are going to get messy between Aemond and Maera for sure. And I’m also including a timeline of the actual Dance of the Dragons mentioned in ASOIAF but tweaked to suit my fic.

For the Aemond I’m writing I don’t think cheating is his style 🤷🏻‍♀️ I feel like if he wants something he takes it and idolises it with all of his being. I feel like their relationship has come far in almost forty chapters that if he cheated, all that work would mean nothing.

I know in the most recent chapter I’ve posted there’s a lot of people speculating he’s going to Harrenhaal. But here’s the tea ☕️ he’s not. That’s all I’ll say on the matter cos I don’t want to spoil it 😏

Love that you sent a question, this is actually the first one I’ve had and it made me so excited!!

Enjoy my darling 🖤

#maera wylde #aemond fanfiction #aemond targaryen #aemond x oc #chapters #hotd aemond #hotd fanfic #hotd helaena #house targaryen #house wylde

[bluemouseblackpad]

Tag ppl you wanna know betteeer

Tagged by: @somaisbatman

Last song: "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" by Talking Heads has been my latest major earworm. I just made it the new opening of the playlist I’ve been slowly building for the BBEG of my D&D campaign. “Take a look at these hands! The hands of a government man”

Favorite Color: I genuinely loved the red that @somaisbatman picked but for the sake of individuality I'll say the type of pink/lilac/violet-y color that clouds take on at sunset

Currently Watching: umpteenth rewatch of Twin Peaks: The Return with friends. I also started Nichijou with friends recently, which is hysterical

Last Movie: A few: Rewatched The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, probably a top 10-or-20 all-timer for me, since I had been thinking about the late great Michael Gambon; Patlabor 2 (without any context for the rest of the franchise), which was really interesting and beautifully animated and made me want to get mechapilled; and The World's Greatest Sinner, a film directed by and starring notorious Hollywood hanger-on Timothy Carey, about the meteoric political rise of a former insurance salesman who wants to empower the American people with immortality. To quote @impish-lion, it is a glimpse into the mind of your father's weirdest friend. He also compared the protagonist to Euron Greyjoy in that he barely registers as a human being, mainlines a Mystery Juice definitely illicit in nature, and fancies himself a god

Currently Reading: Too many books. I'm making my way through The Lord of the Rings for the first time, which, y'know, it's great. Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin is pretty good so far, and it's interesting to see earlier stages for a lot of ideas that get more fleshing out in ASOIAF. Also by GRRM we have A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which like LOTR has taken me embarrassingly long to pick up. I'm slowly inching through The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu, which I'm determined to finish because I really liked its predecessor, even if this trilogy is a little out of my usual wheelhouse. Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin is great even if I need to put it down for a few weeks at a time. And lastly Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon, at whose midpoint I've been stalled for about a year. I'm loving it, I've just seen the movie so many times, and also as you can see I've got a lot on my plate already lol

Sweet/spicy/savory: Spicy

Relationship status: Single (not working super actively to change this, but I am talking very casually to people on the apps, more to feel Desired than anything. at least one connection seems promising so We Shall See. I just want to kiss cool queer people lol)

Current Obsessions: I'm in a bit of an obsession-rut, barring like, the actually obsessive things I do, i.e. washing my hands over and over lmao. I really want to rewatch the The Terror for Halloween season, that will definitely become an obsession if I do. I've also been playing lots of Baldur's Gate III but I wouldn't say that's at Obsession Status.

Last googled: the release date for Killers of the Flower Moon. I'm busy that weekend :(

Currently working on: My video editing reel. The next arc of my D&D campaign (no idea when I'll actually be running it, but I feel really confident that I've basically got it all mapped out. I've been running it for several years now and much as I'll miss it when it's finished, I am incredibly happy to wrap it up soon lol). I've also taken to writing creatively more in my free time recently which has been nice. EDIT: oh, also my mental health/gender/interpersonal relationships but that’s not Currently so much as Perennially lol

tagging my irl friend @impish-lion even though I know him pretty well. also tagging mutuals @visenyaism/@soupseason, @moss-sprouted and @pigeonz/@melasshai. Nobody do this if you don't want to lol

#thanks for the tag friendo!

[strangesmallbard]

Two Jaime/Cersei and Jaime/Brienne!

jaime/cersei:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART / a secret 8th thing

OKAY…let me explain. i find the incest repulsive, but that’s the point of their relationship; cersei/jaime is the result of dysfunctional feudalistic family structures and patriarchy taken to its absolute extreme. what cersei and jaime lacked from their family and social environment overall, they found in each other.

cersei wanted acknowledgement as tywin’s firstborn child (son) & someone to control. jaime was an idealized version of herself. he also loved her wholly, which she lacked from everyone else in her life. meanwhile, post!rebellion jaime devoted himself to cersei when he lost faith in knighthood/honor. in doing so, he idealized her and was unable to perceive her many flaws. in many ways, she was also his idealized self. (if i was a woman, i’d be cersei). many other people have written about their dynamic better than me so i will leave it there.

and SO during asos & affc, we see cersei and jaime start to recognize each other as real, separate people and literally everything about this dynamic breaks apart. jaime is going to be the prophecized valonqar, which cersei will never see coming. it’s delicious storytelling innit!! but no, i don’t ship them. yuck, and such.

jaime/brienne

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

they are THEE asoiaf ship for me, oh my goodness. i just expended all my energy psychoanalyzing jaime and cersei, but their scenes had me. riveted. how brienne forces jaime to realize that honor is still worth something, how jaime makes brienne confront her own rigid morality. their erotic swordfighting scene. jaime jumping into the bear pit. “i dreamed of you” and “your eyes…they’re astonishing, really.”

and then, oh my god, the oathkeeper scene was gorgeous. after all that, jaime entrusts his honor with brienne, because he knows she understands. she guards the truth about his kingslaying. and true knight that she is, brienne expands her own vibes to carry his owner with her. and jaime writes in the white book very simply that he was “returned to king’s landing by lady brienne, the maid of tarth.” there’s literally so much in just that sentence. i’m still reeling.

send me an asoiaf ship!

#this is a . novel #anonymous #ask #incest tw

[butterflies-dragons]

Art credit: Maurice Greiffenhagen

In this second encounter, the Templar aimed at the centre of his antagonist's shield, and struck it so fair and forcibly, that his spear went to shivers, and the Disinherited Knight reeled in his saddle. On the other hand, that champion had, in the beginning of his career, directed the point of his lance towards Bois-Guilbert's shield, but, changing his aim almost in the moment of encounter, he addressed it to the helmet, a mark more difficult to hit, but which, if attained, rendered the shock more irresistible. Fair and true he hit the Norman on the visor, where his lance's point kept hold of the bars. Yet, even at this disadvantage, the Templar sustained his high reputation; and had not the girths of his saddle burst, he might not have been unhorsed. As it chanced, however, saddle, horse, and man, rolled on the ground under a cloud of dust.

IVANHOE: A Romance By Sir Walter Scott

Let’s talk about IVANHOE by Sir Walter Scott, the story that inspired GRRM to write about tourneys, jousting, heraldry, gallant knights and fair maidens.  

I started writing this post two years ago, with a complete different idea in my mind about all the parallels between IVANHOE and ASOIAF, but I let it unfinished for some reasons. 

I started reading IVANHOE again during mid December last year and I finished last week. And it took me one more week to finish writing this piece.

Now, this is just a compilation of parallels and similarities between Scott and Martin’s works, focused mostly on the things I enjoyed the most about them, but this is, in no way, as comprehensive as I originally planned.

This post contains spoilers. 

Here we go!      

FROM ASHBY TO ASHFORD, TO HARRENHAL, TO THE GATES OF THE MOON

GRRM has repeatedly stated how IVANHOE by Sir Walter Scott, has served as inspiration for the tourneys, jousting, melee, heraldry, etc, depicted in ASOIAF:  

Firstly, thanks for that very thorough response on the tournaments and knighthood. Fascinating. In particular given the notes about _Ivanhoe_ and its influence -- I've only witnessed the A&E production of it, although maybe about time I read it. Seems it might be ripe for ideas.

IVANHOE is well worth a read, although the style is very old fashioned, of course. Still it has some fabulous characters and scenes, and so far as I know the definitive portrayal of a medieval tournament, both melee and joust.

It has been filmed three times that I know of. The recent A&E production had some good moments, as did the older Sam Neill version... the CLASSIC version, however, is still MGM's 50s version, starring Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, and George Sanders. The jousts are wonderful, Liz is radiant, and George Sanders steals the film as Bois-Gilbert. You should definitely rent that one and have a look.

—GRRM - 1999

Sir Walter Scott is hard going for many modern readers, I realize, but there's still great stuff to be found in IVANHOE and his other novels. 

—GRRM - 2013

The novelist is midway through something of a European tour. After his trip to Switzerland, he is due in Scotland for the Edinburgh book festival. It has often been suggested that Ivanhoe (by the Scottish 19th-century novelist Walter Scott) was, alongside the War of the Roses, a major influence on A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones.

Martin was first turned on to Ivanhoe by the 1952 MGM movie starring Robert Taylor, George Sanders and a young Elizabeth Taylor. "I think it was Elizabeth Taylor at the peak of her...," his voice tails off before he clarifies. "She was the most beautiful woman in the world. I think I was nine years old when I saw that movie. How could you not fall in love with her? But the jousting and the pageantry of it made me love that story. Later, in high school, I did read that book. For a modern reader, it's a little tough to get through. The prose is very Victorian and thick but if you fight your way through it, the story is there. It has everything the movie has and more – the heraldry and jousting and the insight into the times. It was an influence in that sense."

—GRRM - Independent - 2014

[…] I knew I wanted to be in this book [Legends], so when he [Robert Silverberg] invited me to be in this book I gleefully accepted, and then I had to think, well, what am I gonna write for this book? I’m still in the middle of writing… I think I was still in the middle of writing Clash of Kings, I mean the only book out there was Game of Thrones. Well, am I gonna write a story about Tyrion or Arya or Jon Snow? No! I can’t do that. I have to save that for the book. I have to do this, I have to do a prequel. So I started thinking about my history and what would be a good area to write it, and I came up with the Dunk and Egg stuff. I was particularly attracted… that whole story [The Hedge Knight] is built around a tournament. I love medieval tournaments, reading about them, writing about them. There’s of course some of them in the main books, but this was an opportunity in a time of peace, not war, to look at a medieval tournament with all its pageantry and the jousting and the combat and reveal a little of Westerosi History.

—In conversation: George R.R. Martin with Dan Jones FULL EVENT- August 2019

And who is the ASOIAF character that incarnates GRRM’s huge love for tourneys, pageantry, heraldry and chivalry? The answer is, unquestionably, Sansa Stark. 

I’ve already written about this subject in these posts:  

GRRM has projected his romantic nature on Sansa Stark

GRRM has projected his love for knights and chivalry on Sansa Stark

GRRM has projected his love for medieval tourneys, heraldry, pageantry, knights and chivalry on Sansa Stark

And talking about Sansa Stark, the fair lady of ASOIAF, let me introduce to you the Lady Rowena of Hargottstandstede, the fair lady of IVANHOE:  

THE LADY ROWENA

Art credit: Anatoly Itkin

Formed in the best proportions of her sex, Rowena was tall in stature, yet not so much so as to attract observation on account of superior height. Her complexion was exquisitely fair, but the noble cast of her head and features prevented the insipidity which sometimes attaches to fair beauties. Her clear blue eye, which sate enshrined beneath a graceful eyebrow of brown, sufficiently marked to give expression to the forehead, seemed capable to kindle as well as melt, to command as well as to beseech. If mildness were the more natural expression of such a combination of features, it was plain that, in the present instance, the exercise of habitual superiority, and the reception of general homage, had given to the Saxon lady a loftier character, which mingled with and qualified that bestowed by nature. Her profuse hair, of a colour betwixt brown and flaxen, was arranged in a fanciful and graceful manner in numerous ringlets, to form which art had probably aided nature. These locks were braided with gems, and being worn at full length, intimated the noble birth and free-born condition of the maiden.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Rowena was a Saxon princess, a celebrated beauty, a very courteous lady, and the love interest of the hero of the story, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe. 

Wilfred and Rowena grew up together, as Rowena was the ward of Wilfred’s father, Cedric of Rotherwood, also known as Cedric the Saxon. They were also distantly related.... Cousins, maybe?

“Cedric is not her father,” replied the Prior, “and is but of remote relation: she is descended from higher blood than even he pretends to, and is but distantly connected with him by birth. Her guardian, however, he is, self-constituted as I believe; but his ward is as dear to him as if she were his own child. 

(...) 

“And be careful how you look on Rowena, whom he [Cedric the Saxon] cherishes with the most jealous care; an he take the least alarm in that quarter we are but lost men. It is said he banished his only son from his family for lifting his eyes in the way of affection towards this beauty, who may be worshipped, it seems, at a distance, but is not to be approached with other thoughts than such as we bring to the shrine of the Blessed Virgin.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Yes, IVANHOE is also the story of the forbidden [by Cedric] love between Wilfred and Rowena.

Cedric of Rotherwood dreamed with an England ruled by Saxon royalty, free of Norman invaders. So in order to fulfill his dream, he pushed for the marriage of his ward, the Lady Rowena, a descendant of Alfred the Great, with Athelstane of Coningsburgh, a descendant of the last Saxon kings that ruled England; even though the bride and groom did not love each other. Rowena’s true love was Wilfred, while Athelstane’s true love was food, and only food!       

The restoration of the independence of his race was the idol of his heart, to which he [Cedric] had willingly sacrificed domestic happiness and the interests of his own son.

(...) 

An obstacle occurred to this his favourite project in the mutual attachment of his ward and his son; and hence the original cause of the banishment of Wilfred from the house of his father.

This stern measure Cedric had adopted in hopes that, during Wilfred’s absence, Rowena might relinquish her preference; but in this hope he was disappointed—a disappointment which might be attributed in part to the mode in which his ward had been educated. Cedric, to whom the name of Alfred was as that of a deity, had treated the sole remaining scion of that great monarch with a degree of observance such as, perhaps, was in those days scarce paid to an acknowledged princess. Rowena’s will had been in almost all cases a law to his household; and Cedric himself, as if determined that her sovereignty should be fully acknowledged within that little circle at least, seemed to take a pride in acting as the first of her subjects. Thus trained in the exercise not only of free will but despotic authority, Rowena was, by her previous education, disposed both to resist and to resent any attempt to control her affections, or dispose of her hand contrary to her inclinations, and to assert her independence in a case in which even those females who have been trained up to obedience and subjection are not infrequently apt to dispute the authority of guardians and parents. The opinions which she felt strongly she avowed boldly; and Cedric, who could not free himself from his habitual deference to her opinions, felt totally at a loss how to enforce his authority of guardian.

It was in vain that he attempted to dazzle her with the prospect of a visionary throne. Rowena, who possessed strong sense, neither considered his plan as practicable nor as desirable, so far as she was concerned, could it have been achieved. Without attempting to conceal her avowed preference of Wilfred of Ivanhoe, she declared that, were that favoured knight out of question, she would rather take refuge in a convent than share a throne with Athelstane, whom, having always despised, she now began, on account of the trouble she received on his account, thoroughly to detest.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Oh, how I love a woman with some amount of agency in the Middle Ages! Cedric you idiot! Imagine calling a woman “despotic”, when she was subjected to your will and foolish dream of Saxon restoration, when you betrothed her with someone she detested, but mostly, when she was willing to reject the throne of England rather than marry without love. And even if we consider her a “spoiled brat” (the most popular opinion among readers), Cedric himself admitted that he was the one to blame for it:   

“Cedric, though surprised, and perhaps not altogether agreeably so, at his ward appearing in public on this occasion, hastened to meet her, and to conduct her, with respectful ceremony, to the elevated seat at his own right hand appropriated to the lady of the mansion.”

*** 

“Rowena’s will had been in almost all cases a law to his household and Cedric himself, as if determined that her sovereignty should be fully acknowledged within that little circle at least, seemed to take a pride in acting as the first of her subjects.”

Opposite to being “despotic,” Rowena seemed to inspire loyalty among her retinue, especially in her handmaid Elgitha, who was always ready to defend her Lady even against Cedric himself:

“Elgitha, let thy Lady Rowena know we shall not this night expect her in the hall, unless such be her especial pleasure.”

“But it will be her especial pleasure,” answered Elgitha, with great readiness, “for she is ever desirous to hear the latest news from Palestine.”

Cedric darted at the forward damsel a glance of hasty resentment; but Rowena and whatever belonged to her were privileged, and secure from his anger. He only replied, “Silence, maiden; thy tongue outruns thy discretion. Say my message to thy mistress, and let her do her pleasure. Here, at least, the descendant of Alfred still reigns a princess.”

(...)

If, leaving this task, which might be compared to spurring a tired jade, or to hammering upon cold iron, Cedric fell back to his ward Rowena, he received little more satisfaction from conferring with her. For, as his presence interrupted the discourse between the lady and her favourite attendant upon the gallantry and fate of Wilfred, Elgitha failed not to revenge both her mistress and herself by recurring to the overthrow of Athelstane in the lists, the most disagreeable subject which could greet the ears of Cedric.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Rowena convinced Cedric to help Isaac and Rebecca (and a wounded Wilfred hidden in a litter as a sick friend of Isaac and his daughter), when they were left alone and unsafe in the road:

“The man is old and feeble,” she said to her guardian, “the maiden young and beautiful, their friend sick and in peril of his life; Jews though they be, we cannot as Christians leave them in this extremity. Let them unload two of the sumpter mules and put the baggage behind two of the serfs. The mules may transport the litter, and we have led horses for the old man and his daughter.”

Cedric readily assented to what she proposed, and Athelstane only added the condition, “That they should travel in the rear of the whole party, “where Wamba,” he said, “might attend them with his shield of boar’s brawn.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Rowena was also generous and grateful, as we can see in this passage, when she addressed her rescuers from Torquilstone (Robin Hood & Co.), with these words:

As Rowena bent her steed towards Locksley’s seat, that bold yeoman, with all his followers, rose to receive her, as if by a general instinct of courtesy. The blood rose to her cheeks as, courteously waving her hand, and bending so low that her beautiful and loose tresses were for an instant mixed with the flowing mane of her palfrey, she expressed in few but apt words her obligations and her gratitude to Locksley and her other deliverers. “God bless you, brave men,” she concluded—“God and Our Lady bless you and requite you for gallantly perilling yourselves in the cause of the oppressed! If any of you should hunger, remember Rowena has food; if you should thirst, she has many a butt of wine and brown ale; and if the Normans drive ye from these walks, Rowena has forests of her own, where her gallant deliverers may range at full freedom, and never ranger ask whose arrow hath struck down the deer.” “Thanks, gentle lady,” said Locksley—“thanks from my company and myself. But to have saved you requites itself. We who walk the greenwood do many a wild deed, and the Lady Rowena’s deliverance may be received as an atonement.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

As you can see Rowena wasn't a despot or a spoiled brat, she was just a very sheltered young noble lady. She was kind and smart and a fervent defender of Wilfred’s honor and of her love for him. And that requires courage, especially in the Middle Ages:   

“Let Prior Aymer hold my pledge and that of this nameless vagrant, in token that, when the Knight of Ivanhoe comes within the four seas of Britain, he underlies the challenge of Brian de Bois-Guilbert, which, if he answer not, I will proclaim him as a coward on the walls of every Temple court in Europe.”

“It will not need,” said the Lady Rowena, breaking silence: “my voice shall be heard, if no other in this hall is raised, in behalf of the absent Ivanhoe. I affirm he will meet fairly every honourable challenge. Could my weak warrant add security to the inestimable pledge of this holy pilgrim, I would pledge name and fame that Ivanhoe gives this proud knight the meeting he desires.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Rowena knew what she wanted, she wasn’t power hungry, she loved Wilfred dearly and she faithfully waited for him. 

Rowena represents a happy and peaceful childhood and the hope of a domestic and peaceful adult life as well, in contrast to the adventurous and perilous life of a knight errant or a crusader in his quest to conquer the Holy Land.  

This conflict of the heart is vastly illustrated in the book, especially in these dialogues between Rebecca with Wilfred, and Cedric with King Richard - Coeur de Lion, who was still disguised as the Black Knight: 

“Glory!” continued Rebecca; “alas! is the rusted mail which hangs as a hatchment over the champion’s dim and mouldering tomb, is the defaced sculpture of the inscription which the ignorant monk can hardly read to the inquiring pilgrim—are these sufficient rewards for the sacrifice of every kindly affection, for a life spent miserably that ye may make others miserable? Or is there such virtue in the rude rhymes of a wandering bard, that domestic love, kindly affection, peace and happiness, are so wildly bartered, to become the hero of those ballads which vagabond minstrels sing to drunken churls over their evening ale?”

(...)

“I know,” he said, “that ye errant knights desire to carry your fortunes on the point of your lance, and reck not of land or goods; but war is a changeful mistress, and a home is sometimes desirable even to the champion whose trade is wandering. Thou hast earned one in the halls of Rotherwood, noble knight. Cedric has wealth enough to repair the injuries of fortune, and all he has is his deliverer’s. Come, therefore, to Rotherwood, not as a guest, but as a son or brother.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

At the end, to the vast dismay of many readers that, until today, root for a Wilfred and Rebecca happy ending romance, Wilfred chose Rowena, and by choosing his first love, he chose home, he chose peace.      

Read more about Rowena Defense Squad here.

Now, let me tell you that the dynamics between Cedric and his dream of Saxon restoration, his ward the Lady Rowena, and Athelstane of Coningsburgh, the last descendant of the old Saxon kings of England, made me think, in a darker way, about the dynamics between Petyr Baelish and his dream of Westeros domination, his bastard “daughter” Alayne Stone (Sansa Stark), and Harry Harding AKA Harry the Heir. 

Even Sweetrobin (Baelish’s stepson), like our good Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe (Cedric’s son), fits in the role of the unlucky suitor rejected by the lady’s guardian/father.       

FAIR COMPLEXIONS AND INSIPIDITY

And now let me draw your attention to Scott’s seemingly disdain of people with fair complexions and Martin’s apparently homage to it. Let’s see:

As many readers have already noted, Scott seemed to think less of people with fair complexions, as we can see in these passages:

“Her complexion was exquisitely fair, but the noble cast of her head and features prevented the insipidity which sometimes attaches to fair beauties.”

(...)

“Her disposition was naturally that which physiognomists consider as proper to fair complexions—mild, timid, and gentle.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

So Rowena, despite her fair complexion, was blessed with beautiful features and not so blonde hair (“her profuse hair, of a colour betwixt brown and flaxen” & “graceful eyebrow of brown”), but she was not exempted of the natural disposition that came with a fair complexion, so she was mild, timid and gentle....   

It is because of these kind of assertions that readers tend to perceive Rowena as bland and boring, especially in comparison with the dark haired Rebecca.

Now let’s see how two of Martin’s heroes (Dunk & Jon Snow) react to certain “fair ladies”

The banner-bearer was a tall knight in white scale armor chased with gold, a pure white cloak streaming from his shoulders. Two of the other riders were armored in white from head to heel as well. Kingsguard knights with the royal banner. Small wonder Lord Ashford and his sons came hurrying out the doors of the keep, and the fair maid too, a short girl with yellow hair and a round pink face. She does not seem so fair to me, Dunk thought. The puppet girl was prettier.

—The Hedge Knight

After them came the children. Little Rickon first, managing the long walk with all the dignity a three-year-old could muster. Jon had to urge him on when he stopped to visit. Close behind came Robb, in grey wool trimmed with white, the Stark colors. He had the Princess Myrcella on his arm. She was a wisp of a girl, not quite eight, her hair a cascade of golden curls under a jeweled net. Jon noticed the shy looks she gave Robb as they passed between the tables and the timid way she smiled at him. He decided she was insipid. Robb didn’t even have the sense to realize how stupid she was; he was grinning like a fool.

—A Game of Thrones - Jon I

So Dunk thought that Tanselle, with her olive skin and dark tresses, was prettier than the blonde Lady Ashford, and while our good Jon Snow didn’t directly compared the blonde Princess Myrcella with anyone, he described her as “shy,” “timid” “stupid” and “insipid” (now imagine what would Scott say about Targies?).

RADIANT LADIES

But it is very interesting than after describing blonde Princess Myrcella as “timid” and “insipid,” (like Scott did with Rowena), Jon Snow proceeded to describe his redhead half-sister Sansa as “radiant.” 

His half sisters escorted the royal princes. Arya was paired with plump young Tommen, whose white-blond hair was longer than hers. Sansa, two years older, drew the crown prince, Joffrey Baratheon. He was twelve, younger than Jon or Robb, but taller than either, to Jon’s vast dismay. Prince Joffrey had his sister’s hair and his mother’s deep green eyes. A thick tangle of blond curls dripped down past his golden choker and high velvet collar. Sansa looked radiant as she walked beside him, but Jon did not like Joffrey’s pouty lips or the bored, disdainful way he looked at Winterfell’s Great Hall.

—A Game of Thrones - Jon I

Jon later even said that blonde Prince Joffrey “looked like a girl.” Like his “insipid” little sister, perhaps? Bold of you Jon Snow! You can’t acknowledge Cersei and Jaime's beauty and then proceed to call their offsprings and mini me-s “insipid.” 

Anyways, we all know that the Stark men (with the Stark look), likes their ladies with red hair.  

And we all know that later Dunk got really passionated about a redhead lady called Rohanne Webber. 

Back to Rowena, she was not once described as “radiant,” but our gallant Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe did describe her as “bright.” 

And “bright” is a synonym of “radiant.” 

“Rebecca,” said Ivanhoe, “thou hast painted a hero; surely they rest but to refresh their force, or to provide the means of crossing the moat. Under such a leader as thou hast spoken this knight to be, there are no craven fears, no cold-blooded delays, no yielding up a gallant emprize, since the difficulties which render it arduous render it also glorious. I swear by the honour of my house—I vow by the name of my bright ladylove, I would endure ten years’ captivity to fight one day by that good knight’s side in such a quarrel as this!”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

My bright ladylove.... *sigh*

Sorry Rebecca, this man was taken. 

Read more about about the word “radiant” in ASOIAF in these posts:  

Jon calling Sansa ‘radiant’ has romantic connotations

ASOIAF & A Song for Lya

Candles and torches can’t match a radiant sun

A FEAST OF THE SWORDS 

While reading the following passage:

“Pledge me in a cup of wine, Sir Templar,” said Cedric, “and fill another to the Abbot, while I look back some thirty years to tell you another tale. As Cedric the Saxon then was, his plain English tale needed no garnish from French troubadours when it was told in the ear of beauty; and the field of Northallerton, upon the day of the Holy Standard, could tell whether the Saxon war-cry was not heard as far within the ranks of the Scottish host as the cri de guerre of the boldest Norman baron. To the memory of the brave who fought there! Pledge me, my guests.” He drank deep, and went on with increasing warmth—“Ay, that was a day of cleaving of shields, when a hundred banners were bent forward over the heads of the valiant, and blood flowed round like water, and death was held better than flight. A Saxon bard had called it a feast of the swords—a gathering of the eagles to the prey—the clashing of bills upon shield and helmet, the shouting of battle more joyful than the clamour of a bridal. But our bards are no more,” he said; “our deeds are lost in those of another race; our language—our very name—is hastening to decay, and none mourns for it save one solitary old man. (...)"

—IVANHOE: A Romance

I wondered if Cedric’s words were the inspiration for GRRM to name the third and four ASOIAF books “A Storm of Swords” and “A Feast for Crows,” because these lines: “A feast of the swords” and “A gathering of the eagles to the prey” are basically the same, and they come from the same context as well, fights, battles, war:

He found himself outside the city, walking through a world without color. Ravens soared through a grey sky on wide black wings, while carrion crows rose from their feasts in furious clouds wherever he set his steps.

—A Clash of Kings - Tyrion XV

High, low, overhand, he rained down steel upon her. Left, right, backslash, swinging so hard that sparks flew when the swords came together, upswing, sideslash, overhand, always attacking, moving into her, step and slide, strike and step, step and strike, hacking, slashing, faster, faster, faster . . .

—A Storm of Swords - Jaime III

The rain was falling from a black iron sky, pricking the green and brown torrent with ten thousand swords.

—A Storm of Swords - Arya IX

It could be just a coincidence, but the images and metaphors evoked by Cedric really got me thinking about the ASOIAF books titles. 

A TOURNEY NEAR A MEADOW 

A major event in IVANHOE is the tourney, or Passage of Arms, that happens at the town of Ashby, also called Ashby-de-la-Zouche. But more precisely, the tourney takes place near a meadow:

The passage of arms, as it was called, which was to take place at Ashby, in the county of Leicester, as champions of the first renown were to take the field in the presence of Prince John himself, who was expected to grace the lists, had attracted universal attention, and an immense confluence of persons of all ranks hastened upon the appointed morning to the place of combat.

The scene was singularly romantic. On the verge of a wood, which approached to within a mile of the town of Ashby, was an extensive meadow of the finest and most beautiful green turf, surrounded on one side by the forest, and fringed on the other by straggling oak-trees, some of which had grown to an immense size. 

—IVANHOE: A Romance

The major event of the first Dunk & Egg tale, The Hedge Knight, is also a tourney that takes place near a meadow:    

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.

—The Hedge Knight

As you can see, GRRM took inspiration from the Passage of Arms at Ashby Meadow from IVANHOE, for the Tourney at Ashford Meadow from The Hedge Knight.  

Later, GRRM also wrote about a tourney as the major event of the third Dunk & Egg tale, The Mystery Knight.

QUEEN OF LOVE AND BEAUTY

Art credit: Hulton Archive

As it was pointed out back in 2005, the election of the Queen of Love and Beauty probably has its origins in IVANHOE:

Opposite to this royal gallery was another, elevated to the same height, on the western side of the lists; and more gaily, if less sumptuously decorated, than that destined for the Prince himself. A train of pages and of young maidens, the most beautiful who could be selected, gaily dressed in fancy habits of green and pink, surrounded a throne decorated in the same colours. Among pennons and flags bearing wounded hearts, burning hearts, bleeding hearts, bows and quivers, and all the commonplace emblems of the triumphs of Cupid, a blazoned inscription informed the spectators, that this seat of honour was designed for “La Royne de las Beaulte et des Amours”. But who was to represent the Queen of Beauty and of Love on the present occasion no one was prepared to guess.

(...)

Whether from indecision or some other motive of hesitation, the champion of the day remained stationary for more than a minute, while the eyes of the silent audience were riveted upon his motions; and then, gradually and gracefully sinking the point of his lance, he deposited the coronet which it supported at the feet of the fair Rowena. The trumpets instantly sounded, while the heralds proclaimed the Lady Rowena the Queen of Beauty and of Love for the ensuing day, menacing with suitable penalties those who should be disobedient to her authority. They then repeated their cry of “Largesse,” to which Cedric, in the height of his joy, replied by an ample donative, and to which Athelstane, though less promptly, added one equally large.

There was some murmuring among the damsels of Norman descent, who were as much unused to see the preference given to a Saxon beauty as the Norman nobles were to sustain defeat in the games of chivalry which they themselves had introduced. But these sounds of disaffection were drowned by the popular shout of “Long live the Lady Rowena, the chosen and lawful Queen of Love and of Beauty!” To which many in the lower area added, “Long live the Saxon Princess! long live the race of the immortal Alfred!”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

But GRRM is also a great fan of Arthurian Legends where we can find more examples of knights giving a golden circlet or another jewell to the “fairest lady” or “Queen of Beauty and of Love” at a tournament:

[…] Ah, said the knight, that is the best knight I trow in the world, and the most man of prowess, and he hath been served so as he was even more than ten times, and his name hight Sir Pelleas, and he loveth a great lady in this country and her name is Ettard. And so when he loved her there was cried in this country a great jousts three days, and all the knights of this country were there and gentlewomen, and who that proved him the best knight should have a passing good sword and a circlet of gold, and the circlet the knight should give it to the fairest lady that was at the jousts. And this knight Sir Pelleas was the best knight that was there, and there were five hundred knights, but there was never man that ever Sir Pelleas met withal but he struck him down, or else from his horse; and every day of three days he struck down twenty knights, therefore they gave him the prize, and forthwithal he went thereas the Lady Ettard was, and gave her the circlet, and said openly she was the fairest lady that there was, and that would he prove upon any knight that would say nay.

—Le Morte D'Arthur - BOOK IV - CHAPTER XX - How a knight and a dwarf strove for a lady, by Thomas Malory (1485)

‘Lead then,’ she said; and through the woods they went. And while they rode, the meaning in his eyes, His tenderness of manner, and chaste awe, His broken utterances and bashfulness, Were all a burthen to her, and in her heart She muttered, 'I have lighted on a fool, Raw, yet so stale!’  But since her mind was bent On hearing, after trumpet blown, her name And title, 'Queen of Beauty,’ in the lists Cried—and beholding him so strong, she thought That peradventure he will fight for me, And win the circlet:  therefore flattered him, Being so gracious, that he wellnigh deemed His wish by hers was echoed; and her knights And all her damsels too were gracious to him, For she was a great lady.

And when they reached Caerleon, ere they past to lodging, she, Taking his hand, 'O the strong hand,’ she said, 'See! look at mine! but wilt thou fight for me, And win me this fine circlet, Pelleas, That I may love thee?’

(…)

Then blushed and brake the morning of the jousts, And this was called 'The Tournament of Youth:’ For Arthur, loving his young knight, withheld His older and his mightier from the lists, That Pelleas might obtain his lady’s love, According to her promise, and remain Lord of the tourney.  And Arthur had the jousts Down in the flat field by the shore of Usk Holden:  the gilded parapets were crowned With faces, and the great tower filled with eyes Up to the summit, and the trumpets blew. There all day long Sir Pelleas kept the field With honour:  so by that strong hand of his The sword and golden circlet were achieved.

Then rang the shout his lady loved:  the heat Of pride and glory fired her face; her eye Sparkled; she caught the circlet from his lance, And there before the people crowned herself: So for the last time she was gracious to him.

—Idylls of the King - Pelleas and Ettarre, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1859 - 1885) 

So Tristram won, and Lancelot gave, the gems, Not speaking other word than “Hast thou won? Art thou the purest, brother?  See, the hand Wherewith thou takest this, is red!” to whom Tristram, half plagued by Lancelot’s languorous mood, Made answer, “Ay, but wherefore toss me this Like a dry bone cast to some hungry hound? Lest be thy fair Queen’s fantasy.  Strength of heart And might of limb, but mainly use and skill, Are winners in this pastime of our King. My hand—belike the lance hath dript upon it— No blood of mine, I trow; but O chief knight, Right arm of Arthur in the battlefield, Great brother, thou nor I have made the world; Be happy in thy fair Queen as I in mine.”

And Tristram round the gallery made his horse Caracole; then bowed his homage, bluntly saying, “Fair damsels, each to him who worships each Sole Queen of Beauty and of love, behold This day my Queen of Beauty is not here.” And most of these were mute, some angered, one Murmuring, “All courtesy is dead,” and one, “The glory of our Round Table is no more.”

(...)

Then in the light’s last glimmer Tristram showed And swung the ruby carcanet.  She cried, “The collar of some Order, which our King Hath newly founded, all for thee, my soul, For thee, to yield thee grace beyond thy peers.”

“Not so, my Queen,” he said, “but the red fruit Grown on a magic oak-tree in mid-heaven, And won by Tristram as a tourney-prize, And hither brought by Tristram for his last Love-offering and peace-offering unto thee.”

—Idylls of the King - The Last Tournament, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1859 - 1885)

Wilfred, under the disguise of a Mystery Knight, crowning Rowena, a Saxon Princess, over the Norman ladies, during a tourney organized by Prince John and his retinue of Norman lords, reminded me of Rhaegar Targaryen crowning Lyanna Stark over his own wife, Princess Elia Martell.   

But by crowning Rowena, Wilfred not only offended Prince John and the Norman lords and ladies, he also offended Athelstane of Coningsburgh, Rowena’s betrothed. 

So great was the offense to Athelstane, that he decided to join the team of the Norman lords to fight against the team of the Mystery Knight (Wilfred) at the melee during the second day of the tournament:   

About the same time arrived Cedric the Saxon, with the Lady Rowena, unattended, however, by Athelstane. This Saxon lord had arrayed his tall and strong person in armour, in order to take his place among the combatants; and, considerably to the surprise of Cedric, had chosen to enlist himself on the part of the Knight Templar. The Saxon, indeed, had remonstrated strongly with his friend upon the injudicious choice he had made of his party; but he had only received that sort of answer usually given by those who are more obstinate in following their own course than strong in justifying it.

His best, if not his only, reason for adhering to the party of Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Athelstane had the prudence to keep to himself. Though his apathy of disposition prevented his taking any means to recommend himself to the Lady Rowena, he was, nevertheless, by no means insensible to her charms, and considered his union with her as a matter already fixed beyond doubt by the assent of Cedric and her other friends. It had therefore been with smothered displeasure that the proud though indolent Lord of Coningsburgh beheld the victor of the preceding day select Rowena as the object of that honour which it became his privilege to confer. In order to punish him for a preference which seemed to interfere with his own suit, Athelstane, confident of his strength, and to whom his flatterers, at least, ascribed great skill in arms, had determined not only to deprive the Disinherited Knight of his powerful succour, but, if an opportunity should occur, to make him feel the weight of his battle-axe.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

A knight crowning a lady betrothed to another as his Queen of Love and Beauty? An offended betrothed? A battle axe? This is Robert Baratheon and his war hammer against Rhaegar Targaryen all over again....   

QUEEN IMAGERY

Art credit: Charles Edmund Brock

Also take note how Rowena is surrounded by “queen imagery.” She was a Saxon Princess betrothed with a Saxon claimant to the throne of England, just like Sansa Stark was betrothed with Joffrey Baratheon, the heir to the Iron Throne.

Rowena was crowned Queen of Love and Beauty during the tourney at Ashby by her first love Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, disguised as the Disinherited Knight, the same way Ser Loras Tyrell (Sansa’s crush), known as the Knight of Flowers, unofficially crowned Sansa Stark as Queen of Love and Beauty during the Hand’s Tourney celebrated in Kings Landing.

Take note that Loras played a reverse Rhaegar to Sansa's Lyanna during the Hands's Tourney. Rhaegar was adorned with RED rubies and crowned Lyanna with BLUE roses; while Loras was adorned with BLUE sapphires and gifted Sansa with a RED rose. The author's intention to make us think about the Great Tourney at Harrenhal is hidden at plain sight.

And finally, Rowena had a throne:

A short passage, and an ascent of seven steps, each of which was composed of a solid beam of oak, led him to the apartment of the Lady Rowena, the rude magnificence of which corresponded to the respect which was paid to her by the lord of the mansion. The walls were covered with embroidered hangings, on which different-coloured silks, interwoven with gold and silver threads, had been employed, with all the art of which the age was capable, to represent the sports of hunting and hawking. The bed was adorned with the same rich tapestry, and surrounded with curtains dyed with purple. The seats had also their stained coverings, and one, which was higher than the rest, was accommodated with a footstool of ivory, curiously carved.

(...)

The Lady Rowena, with three of her attendants standing at her back, and arranging her hair ere she lay down to rest, was seated in the sort of throne already mentioned, and looked as if born to exact general homage. The Pilgrim acknowledged her claim to it by a low genuflection.

“Rise, Palmer,” said she graciously. ”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Rowena is often depicted seated on her high seat or throne (see the illustrations above), that curiously enough reminded me a lot of the Queen in the North’s Throne.

Read more about Sansa Stark & Queen Imagery in these posts:

QUEEN SANSA

QUEENS = Alyssa/Cersei; Alysanne/Sansa; Rhaena/Margaery; and Elinor/Daenerys

Sansa - Alayne - Alysanne - Sara - Sansara - ALL the similarities between Good Queen Alysanne & Sansa

Eleanor of Aquitaine = GRRM inspiration for Good Queen Alysanne, Catelyn Stark, Brienne of Tarth and Sansa Stark

THE ARMS OF COURTESY

When I read the following passage:

Secondly, any knight proposing to combat might, if he pleased, select a special antagonist from among the challengers, by touching his shield. If he did so with the reverse of his lance, the trial of skill was made with what were called the arms of courtesy, that is, with lances at whose extremity a piece of round flat board was fixed, so that no danger was encountered, save from the shock of the horses and riders. But if the shield was touched with the sharp end of the lance, the combat was understood to be at outrance, that is, the knights were to fight with sharp weapons, as in actual battle.

—Ivanhoe - a Romance - Sir Walter Scott

Especially this part: “the arms of courtesy, that is, with lances at whose extremity a piece of round flat board was fixed, so that no danger was encountered, save from the shock of the horses and riders.”

I immediately thought of Sansa’s iconic line: “courtesy is a lady’s armor,” because, like the “arms of courtesy” in a tournament, courtesy is for Sansa an instrument that, although it cannot physically hurt anyone, can still provide protection against her enemies

Also, the two ends of a lance determining if the joust would be with the “arms of courtesy” or with sharp weapons, reminded me of the two Stark sisters being the two sides of the same coin: Sansa with her sewing needles and Arya with her sword Needle.  

MYSTERY KNIGHTS AND TREE SIGILS

Art credit: Edward A. Wilson

Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe joined the tourney at Ashby-de-la-Zouche as a Mystery Knight designated as the “Disinherited Knight” by the inscription on his shield, the Spanish word “Desdichado,” meaning precisely “Disinherited.”  

All eyes were turned to see the new champion which these sounds announced, and no sooner were the barriers opened than he paced into the lists. As far as could be judged of a man sheathed in armour, the new adventurer did not greatly exceed the middle size, and seemed to be rather slender than strongly made. His suit of armour was formed of steel, richly inlaid with gold, and the device on his shield was a young oak-tree pulled up by the roots, with the Spanish word Desdichado, signifying Disinherited. He was mounted on a gallant black horse, and as he passed through the lists he gracefully saluted the Prince and the ladies by lowering his lance. The dexterity with which he managed his steed, and something of youthful grace which he displayed in his manner, won him the favour of the multitude, which some of the lower classes expressed by calling out, “Touch Ralph de Vipont's shield—touch the Hospitallers shield; he has the least sure seat, he is your cheapest bargain.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

But the the Spanish word “Desdichado” has other acceptations that translated to English mean “joyless” or “unhappy,” which made me think about another Mystery Knight: “The Knight of Tears” AKA Aemon the Dragonknight:

Bran nodded sagely. Mystery knights would oft appear at tourneys, with helms concealing their faces, and shields that were either blank or bore some strange device. Sometimes they were famous champions in disguise. The Dragonknight once won a tourney as the Knight of Tears, so he could name his sister the queen of love and beauty in place of the king’s mistress.

—A Storm of Swords - Bran II

Wilfred was indeed a “Desdichado.” His father separated him from Rowena, his first love, and from his own home and fortune, he was disinherited and unhappy, a man in tears, just like Aemon the Dragonknight, “The Knight of Tears”, and his doomed love for his brother’s wife.  

But Wilfred also bore a tree on his shield: “a young oak-tree pulled up by the roots” as a homage to the forest of oak-tress that surrounded the meadow: 

The scene was singularly romantic. On the verge of a wood, which approached to within a mile of the town of Ashby, was an extensive meadow of the finest and most beautiful green turf, surrounded on one side by the forest, and fringed on the other by straggling oak-trees, some of which had grown to an immense size.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

And this is exactly what happened with Dunk in The Hedge Knight. Dunk chose an elm tree as part of the device to be painted in his shield, as a homage to the huge elm tree by the pool near Ashford, the place he turned into his pavilion: 

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.

(...)

“What color paint do you have?” he asked, hoping that might give him an idea.

“I can mix paints to make any color you want.”

The old man’s brown had always seemed drab to Dunk. “The field should be the color of sunset,” he said suddenly. “The old man liked sunsets. And the device…”

“An elm tree,” said Egg. “A big elm tree, like the one by the pool, with a brown trunk and green branches.”

“Yes,” Dunk said. “That would serve. An elm tree…but with a shooting star above. Could you do that?”

The girl nodded. “Give me the shield. I’ll paint it this very night and have it back to you on the morrow.”

—The Hedge Knight

And a tree on a shield also made me think about another important Mystery Knight from ASOIAF, the “Knight of the Laughing Tree” AKA Lyanna Stark and the weirwood tree with a laughing face on her shield:  

But late on the afternoon of that second day, as the shadows grew long, a mystery knight appeared in the lists.

Bran nodded sagely. [...] “It was the little crannogman, I bet.”

“No one knew,” said Meera, “but the mystery knight was short of stature, and clad in ill-fitting armor made up of bits and pieces. The device upon his shield was a heart tree of the old gods, a white weirwood with a laughing red face.”

(...)

“Whoever he was, the old gods gave strength to his arm. The porcupine knight fell first, then the pitchfork knight, and lastly the knight of the two towers. None were well loved, so the common folk cheered lustily for the Knight of the Laughing Tree, as the new champion soon was called.”

—A Storm of Swords - Bran II

The same way that Dunk chose an elm tree that was located next to a pool, as the device on his shield, Lyanna, as a member of House Stark that worshipped the Old Gods, chose a weirwood tree as the device on her shield. Near Harrenhal there was the Isle of Faces, full of weirwood trees with their carved faces, at the centre of the Gods Eye lake. And take note that The Heart Tree at Winterfell is also located next to a pool. 

Read more about about Dunk’s shield and the hints of Jon Snow’s true parentage in these posts:

DUNK SNOW - Parallels and Similarities between Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and Jon Snow

THE BLACK PRINCE WITH THE WHITE GUARDIAN - Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, the Tourney at Ashford Meadow and the songs about Florian and Jonquil.

Now, particularly about the laughing tree, Lyanna laughed at everyone, because she was no knight but a young girl. The same way Dunk laughed at everyone because he was no knight at all, he was never anointed as one. 

And Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, somehow despite being a “Desdichado,” also laughed at everyone because he was a Saxon knight that favored a Norman monarch, but not Prince John, the organizer of the tourney, but King Richard - Coeur de Lion.

Also the laughing tree gives us the image of the laughing face of a jester or a fool, that abounds to the “knight and fool imagery” that surrounds many characters of IVANHOE and ASOIAF. 

Continuing with the parallels, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, as the Disinherited Knight, beat, among others, three Norman knights: Brian de Bois-Guilbert, Reginald Front-de-Boeuf and Philip de Malvoisin, three of the main bad guys of the story, that were conspiring with Prince John to usurp the throne of England to the detriment of King Richard - Coeur de Lion. 

The same way, Lyanna Stark, as the Knight of the Laughing Tree, also beat three southern knights, the porcupine knight (House Blount), the pitchfork knight (House Haigh), and the knight of the twin towers (House Frey), whose squires bullied Howland Reed (vassal of House Stark). 

BAD BOYS 

BRIAN DE BOIS-GILBERT 

Pictures credit: Edited by me from: 1. Sam Neill as Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert for the film Ivanhoe (1982); 2. House Stark Sigil stained glass window by Spin Dunbar; and 3. House Corbray of Heart's Home Sigil.

Brian de Bois-Gilbert was a Templar knight, an old creep in his forties predating young girls just because his first love left him for some simple guy with no great money or glory like the celebrated knight of the Temple that fought in the Holy Land... A combination of Jorah Mormont, Petyr Baelish, Tyrion Lannister and the hound.... Pathetic....  But, unlike me, most of the readers and GRRM himself seem to love him.... 

Anyways, Bois-Gilbert’s personal sigil reminded me of House Corbray’s sigil:

Lastly, he laid aside his shield, which had received some little damage, and received another from his squires. His first had only borne the general device of his rider, representing two knights riding upon one horse, an emblem expressive of the original humility and poverty of the Templars, qualities which they had since exchanged for the arrogance and wealth that finally occasioned their suppression. Bois-Guilbert’s new shield bore a raven in full flight, holding in its claws a skull, and bearing the motto, Gare le Corbeau.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Coat of armsThree black ravens in flight, holding three red hearts, on a white field (Argent, three ravens volant sable, each clutching in their claws a heart gules).

—House Corbray of Heart's Home

So, it could be that GRRM took inspiration in Bois-Gilbert’s sigil to create House Corbray’s sigil. 

GRRM’s affection for Bois-Gilbert could also explain why he commissioned the glass artist Spin Dunbar, a House Corbray Sigil stained glass window, among other great houses of Westeros, like Stark, Arryn, Lannister, Greyjoy and Targaryen.

And this made me think about Lyn Corbray, that at this point of the story is in the Vale next to Alayne Stone (Sansa Stark), and maybe planning some dubious deed like kidnapping a maiden or something.... More about this later.

REGINALD FRONT-DE-BOEUF

I’m only mentioning this cruel and perverse character because of his name and sigil. Front de Boeuf means Ox face or Ox forehead and his sigil was a black bull’s head:   

The gigantic Front-de-Bœuf, armed in sable armour, was the first who took the field. He bore on a white shield a black bull’s head, half defaced by the numerous encounters which he had undergone, and bearing the arrogant motto, Cave, Adsum. Over this champion the Disinherited Knight obtained a slight but decisive advantage. Both Knights broke their lances fairly, but Front-de-Bœuf, who lost a stirrup in the encounter, was adjudged to have the disadvantage.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Front de Boeuf was a huge and strong man, described as gigantic, and he was also a cruel and perverse man, so of course this villain reminded me of Gregor Clegane the Mountain.

Also the black bull’s head of his sigil reminded me of Gendry’s helmet and somehow the hound’s helmet as well....  

MAURICE DE BRACY

Maurice De Bracy was a mercenary knight at the order of Prince John:

“The Saxon porker,” he said, “is either asleep or minds me not. Prick him with your lance, De Bracy,” speaking to a knight who rode near him, the leader of a band of free companions, or condottieri; that is, of mercenaries belonging to no particular nation, but attached for the time to any prince by whom they were paid.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

De Bracy wasn’t as evil as Bois-Gilbert or Front-de-Bœuf, he was just an ambitious fool that Rowena reduced into a puddle of shame at the end.

FOLDED HANDS AND TEARLESS EYES

Moving forward, the guarded reaction of Rowena to the revelation of the Disinherited Knight’s true identity and to Wilfred passing out at her feet due to his wounds at the en of the melee, reminded me of Sansa’s reaction to the death of Ser Hugh of the Vale at the hands of Gregor Clegane:  

When the helmet was removed, the well-formed yet sun-burnt features of a young man of twenty-five were seen, amidst a profusion of short fair hair. His countenance was as pale as death, and marked in one or two places with streaks of blood.

Rowena had no sooner beheld him than she uttered a faint shriek; but at once summoning up the energy of her disposition, and compelling herself, as it were, to proceed, while her frame yet trembled with the violence of sudden emotion, she placed upon the drooping head of the victor the “splendid chaplet which was the destined reward of the day, and pronounced in a clear and distinct tone these words: “I bestow on thee this chaplet, Sir Knight, as the meed of valour assigned to this day’s victor.” Here she paused a moment, and then firmly added, “And upon brows more worthy could a wreath of chivalry never be placed!” The knight stooped his head and kissed the hand of the lovely Sovereign by whom his valour had been rewarded; and then, sinking yet farther forward, lay prostrate at her feet.

(...)

“I was somewhat afflicted,” he said, “to see the grief of the Queen of Love and Beauty, whose sovereignty of a day this event has changed into mourning. I am not a man to be moved by a woman’s lament for her lover, but this same Lady Rowena suppressed her sorrow with such dignity of manner that it could only be discovered by her folded hands and her tearless eye, which trembled as it remained fixed on the lifeless form before her.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Despite Ser Hugh of the Vale being nothing to Sansa, her reaction to his death was identical to Rowena’s reaction at a wounded and unconscious Wilfred, with folded hands and no tears:

Jeyne covered her eyes whenever a man fell, like a frightened little girl, but Sansa was made of sterner stuff. A great lady knew how to behave at tournaments. Even Septa Mordane noted her composure and nodded in approval.

(...)

The most terrifying moment of the day came during Ser Gregor's second joust, when his lance rode up and struck a young knight from the Vale under the gorget with such force that it drove through his throat, killing him instantly. The youth fell not ten feet from where Sansa was seated. The point of Ser Gregor's lance had snapped off in his neck, and his life's blood flowed out in slow pulses, each weaker than the one before. His armor was shiny new; a bright streak of fire ran down his outstretched arm, as the steel caught the light. Then the sun went behind a cloud, and it was gone. His cloak was blue, the color of the sky on a clear summer's day, trimmed with a border of crescent moons, but as his blood seeped into it, the cloth darkened and the moons turned red, one by one.

Jeyne Poole wept so hysterically that Septa Mordane finally took her off to regain her composure, but Sansa sat with her hands folded in her lap, watching with a strange fascination. She had never seen a man die before. She ought to be crying too, she thought, but the tears would not come. Perhaps she had used up all her tears for Lady and Bran. It would be different if it had been Jory or Ser Rodrik or Father, she told herself. The young knight in the blue cloak was nothing to her, some stranger from the Vale of Arryn whose name she had forgotten as soon as she heard it. And now the world would forget his name too, Sansa realized; there would be no songs sung for him. That was sad.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa II

I’ve always admired Sansa’s ability to suppress her emotions and vailed them with courtesy (THE FOLDED HANDS!!!), so reading Rowena’s emotions seeing Wilfred for the first time after his exile and how that happiness shortly morphed into sorrow, strongly reminded me of Sansa and made me love Rowena in a similar way. 

These passages from Sansa and Rowena also reminded me of this scene from Eugénie Grandet, where the heroine of the story had to hide her sorrow at the betrayal of her only love, her cousin Charles, with a courteous smile in front of everyone who was expecting a flood of tears:

She appeared in the evening at the hour when the usual company began to arrive. Never was the old hall so full as on this occasion. The news of Charles’s return and his foolish treachery had spread through the whole town. But however watchful the curiosity of the visitors might be, it was left unsatisfied. Eugenie, who expected scrutiny, allowed none of the cruel emotions that wrung her soul to appear on the calm surface of her face. She was able to show a smiling front in answer to all who tried to testify their interest by mournful looks or melancholy speeches. She hid her misery behind a veil of courtesy.

—Eugénie Grandet

Also look at this:

A lady’s armor is her courtesy. Alayne could feel the blood rushing to her face. No tears, she prayed. Please, please, I must not cry.

—The Winds of Winter - Alayne I

Courtesy is a lady’s armor... Indeed.

NO ONE WILL EVER MARRY ME FOR LOVE

Rowena reminded me of Sansa in so many ways, she was also the object of desire for many greedy men who wanted to marry her to restore ancient claims to the England throne or to increase their riches.

The same way Rowena’s guardian, Cedric, betrothed her with Athelstane of Coningsburgh in order to restore Saxon royalty and claim the throne of England, Prince John gave Rowena’s hand in marriage to Maurice de Bracy, in order to cement the Norman conquest over Saxon lands:

“We shall cheer her sorrows,” said Prince John, “and amend her blood, by wedding her to a Norman. She seems a minor, and must therefore be at our royal disposal in marriage. How sayst thou, De Bracy? What thinkst thou of gaining fair lands and livings, by wedding a Saxon, after the fashion of the followers of the Conqueror?”

“If the lands are to my liking, my lord,” answered De Bracy, “it will be hard to displease me with a bride; and deeply will I hold myself bound to your Highness for a good deed, which will fulfil all promises made in favour of your servant and vassal.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

This is Tywin Lannister saying “the key to the north is Sansa Stark” when he informed Tyrion that he must marry Sansa at once and reclaim the North to the crown, all over again.

TRUE KNIGHT

Art credit: John Rush

The true knights of Ivanhoe are of course Wilfred of Ivanhoe and King Richard - Coeur de Lion, but one can argue that they were more fools than true knights.

If you want to find the real true knights of the story you need to look in the direction of Wamba, the actual fool, and Gurth, the swineherd. They were also slaves, property of Cedric the Saxon, which made their role as true knights even more compelling. 

But let’s talk of King Richard - Coeur de Lion here, who first appeared in the story disguised as a Mystery Knight designated as the “Black Knight”:   

There was among the ranks of the Disinherited Knight a champion in black armour, mounted on a black horse, large of size, tall, and to all appearance powerful and strong, like the rider by whom he was mounted. This knight, who bore on his shield no device of any kind, had hitherto evinced very little interest in the event of the fight, beating off with seeming ease those combatants who attacked him, but neither pursuing his advantages nor himself assailing any one. In short, he had hitherto acted the part rather of a spectator than of a party in the tournament, a circumstance which procured him among the spectators the name of Le Noir Faineant, or the Black Sluggard.

(...)

And now, valiant knight, may I pray ye for the name of my honourable guest?”

“Truly,” said the knight, “Holy Clerk of Copmanhurst, men call me in these parts the Black Knight; many, sir, add to it the epithet of Sluggard, whereby I am no way ambitious to be distinguished.”

(...)

“Deny it not, Sir Knight, you are he who decided the victory to the advantage of the English against the strangers on the second day of the tournament at Ashby.”

“And what follows if you guess truly, good yeoman?” replied the knight. “I should in that case hold you,” replied the yeoman, “a friend to the weaker party.”

“Such is the duty of a true knight at least,” replied the Black Champion; “and I would not willingly that there were reason to think otherwise of me.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

King Richard - Coeur de Lion saved Wilfred twice in the story, not to mention all the times that he probably helped Wilfred during their adventures at Holy Land....

Indeed, King Richard - Coeur de Lion, disguised as the Black Knight, saved Wilfred at the melee, when he was fighting against three powerful opponents at the same time: Rowena’s offended betrothed Athelstane of Coningsburgh, the Templar Bois-Gilbert and the gigantic Front-De-Beouf. Wilfred was about to lose and even worse, to die, at the hands of those three men, until the Black Knight came to his rescue and defeated his adversaries, getting the victory of the tournament.  

Later, King Richard - Coeur de Lion rescued a wounded and kidnapped Wilfred from the flames that were consuming Torquilstone:   

“I had not found thee, Wilfred,” said the Black Knight, who at that instant entered the apartment, “but for thy shouts.”

“If thou be’st true knight,” said Wilfred, “think not of me—pursue yon ravisher—save the Lady Rowena—look to the noble Cedric!”

“In their turn,” answered he of the Fetterlock, “but thine is first.”

And seizing upon Ivanhoe, he bore him off with as much ease as the Templar had carried off Rebecca, rushed with him to the postern, and having there delivered his burden to the care of two yeomen, he again entered the castle to assist in the rescue of the other prisoners.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

King Richard - Coeur de Lion performed the most valiant and formidable chivalric deeds of the story. Wilfred was his fair maiden and also the voice of the reason, because Richard was happy playing the gallant knight here and there neglecting his real and royal duty of claiming his throne and rule his country (hence Scott also designated him as Le Noir Faineant, or the Black Sluggard). If not for Wilfred, constantly reminding him his duty, Richard would still be playing the knight errant with Robin Hood & Co. 

Sounds familiar? Look at this:

“Good man!” The king clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ve half a mind to leave them all behind and just keep going.”

A smile touched Ned’s lips. “I do believe you mean it.”

“I do, I do,” the king said. “What do you say, Ned? Just you and me, two vagabond knights on the kingsroad, our swords at our sides and the gods know what in front of us, and maybe a farmer’s daughter or a tavern wench to warm our beds tonight.”

“Would that we could,” Ned said, “but we have duties now, my liege…to the realm, to our children, I to my lady wife and you to your queen. We are not the boys we were.”

—A Game of Thrones - Eddard II

Coeur de Lion was a fool (and Robert too), as I said before.   

And all this talk about knights and fools inevitably reminded me of Sansa Stark, the ASOIAF character who is most surrounded by knight and fool imagery. More about this later. 

ABDUCTING A MAIDEN AFTER A TOURNEY IN ORDER TO MARRY HER

After the tourney at Ashby a kidnapping happened. A kidnapping that was intended to cement a marriage. 

Sounds familiar?    

What on earth dost thou purpose by this absurd disguise at a moment so urgent?”

“To get me a wife,” answered De Bracy coolly, “after the manner of the tribe of Benjamin.”

“The tribe of Benjamin?” said Fitzurse; “I comprehend thee not.”

“Wert thou not in presence yester-even,” said De Bracy, “when we heard the Prior Aymer tell us a tale in reply to the romance which was sung by the Minstrel?—He told how, long since in Palestine, a deadly feud arose between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the Israelitish nation; and how they cut to pieces well-nigh all the chivalry of that tribe; and how they swore by our blessed Lady, that they would not permit those who remained to marry in their lineage; and how they became grieved for their vow, and sent to consult his holiness the Pope how they might be absolved from it; and how, by the advice of the Holy Father, the youth of the tribe of Benjamin carried off from a superb tournament all the ladies who were there present, and thus won them wives without the consent either of their brides or their brides’ families.”

“I have heard the story,” said Fitzurse, “though either the Prior or thou has made some singular alterations in date and circumstances.”

“I tell thee,” said De Bracy, “that I mean to purvey me a wife after the fashion of the tribe of Benjamin; which is as much as to say, that in this same equipment I will fall upon that herd of Saxon bullocks, who have this night left the castle, and carry off from them the lovely Rowena.”

“Art thou mad, De Bracy?” said Fitzurse. “Bethink thee that, though the men be Saxons, they are rich and powerful, and regarded with the more respect by their countrymen, that wealth and honour are but the lot of few of Saxon descent.”

“And should belong to none,” said De Bracy; “the work of the Conquest should be completed.”

“This is no time for it at least,” said Fitzurse “the approaching crisis renders the favour of the multitude indispensable, and Prince John cannot refuse justice to any one who injures their favourites.”

“Let him grant it, if he dare,” said De Bracy; “he will soon see the difference betwixt the support of such a lusty lot of spears as mine, and that of a heartless mob of Saxon churls. Yet I mean no immediate discovery of myself. Seem I not in this garb as bold a forester as ever blew horn? The blame of the violence shall rest with the outlaws of the Yorkshire forests. I have sure spies on the Saxon’s motions—To-night they sleep in the convent of Saint Wittol, or Withold, or whatever they call that churl of a Saxon Saint at Burton-on-Trent. Next day’s march brings them within our reach, and, falcon-ways, we swoop on them at once. Presently after I will appear in mine own shape, play the courteous knight, rescue the unfortunate and afflicted fair one from the hands of the rude ravishers, conduct her to Front-de-Bœuf’s Castle, or to Normandy, if it should be necessary, and produce her not again to her kindred until she be the bride and dame of Maurice de Bracy.”

“A marvellously sage plan,” said Fitzurse, “and, as I think, not entirely of thine own device.—Come, be frank, De Bracy, who aided thee in the invention? and who is to assist in the execution? for, as I think, thine own band lies as far off as York.”

“Marry, if thou must needs know,” said De Bracy, “it was the Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert that shaped out the enterprise, which the adventure of the men of Benjamin suggested to me. He is to aid me in the onslaught, and he and his followers will personate the outlaws, from whom my valorous arm is, after changing my garb, to rescue the lady.”

“By my halidome,” said Fitzurse, “the plan was worthy of your united wisdom! and thy prudence, De Bracy, is most especially manifested in the project of leaving the lady in the hands of thy worthy confederate. Thou mayst, I think, succeed in taking her from her Saxon friends, but how thou wilt rescue her afterwards from the clutches of Bois-Guilbert seems considerably more doubtful—He is a falcon well accustomed to pounce on a partridge, and to hold his prey fast.”

“He is a Templar,” said De Bracy, “and cannot therefore rival me in my plan of wedding this heiress;—and to attempt aught dishonourable against the intended bride of De Bracy—By Heaven! were he a whole Chapter of his Order in his single person, he dared not do me such an injury!”

“Then, since nought that I can say,” said Fitzurse, “will put this folly from thy imagination, for well I know the obstinacy of thy disposition, at least waste as little time as possible; let not thy folly be lasting as well as untimely.”

“I tell thee,” answered De Bracy, “that it will be the work of a few hours, and I shall be at York at the head of my daring and valorous fellows, as ready to support any bold design as thy policy can be to form one. But I hear my comrades assembling, and the steeds stamping and neighing in the outer court. Farewell. I go, like a true knight, to win the smiles of beauty.”

“Like a true knight!” repeated Fitzurse, looking after him; “like a fool, I should say, or like a child, who will leave the most serious and needful occupation to chase the down of the thistle that drives past him. But it is with such tools that I must work—and for whose advantage? For that of a Prince as unwise as he is profligate, and as likely to be an ungrateful master as he has already proved a rebellious son and an unnatural brother. But he—he too is but one of the tools with which I labour; and, proud as he is, should he presume to separate his interest from mine, this is a secret which he shall soon learn.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Rhaegar, is that you?

Was Rhaegar trying to perform a wedding in the manner of the tribe of Benjaming? Or more precisely, Freefolk style?  

So, Rowena and Rebecca were abducted after the tourney at Ashby by two men, De Bracy and Bois-Gilbert, who wanted to make the girls their wife and mistress respectively. Both girls were captives at Torquilstone, a castle that ended burned and destroyed. 

The same way Lyanna was “abducted” by Rhaegar, who later impregnated her and put her in a tower, the so called Tower of Joy. After Lyanna’s death Eddard torn the tower down.  

Now, Lyn Corbray being a dubious character, bearing a similar sigil to Bois-Gilbert’s sigil, and being so near to Alayne Stone (Sansa Stark) at the Vale, and with a tourney about to start at the Gates of the Moon, got me thinking about the possibility of Sansa being abducted by Corbray, with the help of some other dubious knights (Ser Byron, Ser Morgarth, and Ser Shadrich), that are also at the Vale for the tourney. All of them supposedly under Petyr Baelish commands.... 

TAMING A NOT SO FIERCE BEAST

As I said before, Maurice De Bracy wasn’t as evil as Bois-Gilbert and Front-de-Bœuf, he was just an ambitious fool that Rowena reduced into a puddle of shame at the end. Let’s see:

After kidnapping Rowena, De Bracy wore his best attire and presented himself to his intended bride: 

He saluted Rowena by doffing his velvet bonnet, garnished with a golden brooch, representing St. Michael trampling down the Prince of Evil. With this, he gently motioned the lady to a seat; and, as she still retained her standing posture, the knight ungloved his right hand, and motioned to conduct her thither. But Rowena declined, by her gesture, the proffered compliment, and replied, “If I be in the presence of my jailor, Sir Knight—nor will circumstances allow me to think otherwise—it best becomes his prisoner to remain standing till she learns her doom.”

“Alas! fair Rowena,” returned De Bracy, “you are in presence of your captive, not your jailor; and it is from your fair eyes that De Bracy must receive that doom which you fondly expect from him.”

“I know you not, sir,” said the lady, drawing herself up with all the pride of offended rank and beauty—“I know you not; and the insolent familiarity with which you apply to me the jargon of a troubadour forms no apology for the violence of a robber.”

“To thyself, fair maid,” answered De Bracy, in his former tone—“to thine own charms be ascribed whate’er I have done which passed the respect due to her whom I have chosen queen of my heart and loadstar of my eyes.”

“I repeat to you, Sir Knight, that I know you not, and that no man wearing chain and spurs ought thus to intrude himself upon the presence of an unprotected lady.” 

“That I am unknown to you,” said De Bracy, “is indeed my misfortune; yet let me hope that De Bracy’s name has not been always unspoken when minstrels or heralds have praised deeds of chivalry, whether in the lists or in the battlefield.”

(...)

“Proud damsel,” said De Bracy, incensed at finding his gallant style procured him nothing but contempt—“proud damsel, thou shalt be as proudly encountered. Know, then, that I have supported my pretensions to your hand in the way that best suited thy character. It is meeter for thy humour to be wooed with bow and bill than in set terms and in courtly language.”

“Courtesy of tongue,” said Rowena, “when it is used to veil churlishness of deed, is but a knight’s girdle around the breast of a base clown. I wonder not that the restraint appears to gall you: more it were for your honour to have retained the dress and language of an outlaw than to veil the deeds of one under an affectation of gentle language and demeanour.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

As you can see, Rowena knew since the beginning that De Bracy kidnapped her dressed as an outlaw and later came dressed as a gallant knight as her rescuer. Such a brilliant plan Maurice.... You can’t fool my clever girl Rowena!

And since his fake gallantry didn’t work, De Bracy tried to convince Rowena by threatening the lives of Wilfred and Cedric.

When the Bois-Gilbert and De Bracy performed the abduction of Rowena, they also abducted Cedric, Athelstane and the Jews Isaac of York and his daughter Rebecca. 

Unbeknownst to Rowena, Athelstane and Cedric, who helped Isaac and Rebecca on the road, a wounded Wilfred was hidden in the Jews’s litter. And when Bois-Gilbert and De Bracy stormed upon them, only De Bracy inspected the litter and recognized the wounded Wilfred. 

So, faced with Rowena's firm reluctance to be his bride, De Bracy threatened her with handing the wounded Wilfred over to the cruel Front-de-Beouf, Wilfred’s rival for the Barony of Ivanhoe: 

“Wilfred here!” said Rowena, in disdain; “that is as true as that Front-de-Bœuf is his rival.”

(...)

“Save him, for the love of Heaven!” said Rowena, her firmness giving way under terror for her lover’s impending fate.

“I can—I will—it is my purpose,” said De Bracy; “for, when Rowena consents to be the bride of De Bracy, who is it shall dare to put forth a violent hand upon her kinsman—the son of her guardian—the companion of her youth? But it is thy love must buy his protection. I am not romantic fool enough to further the fortune, or avert the fate, of one who is likely to be a successful obstacle between me and my wishes. Use thine influence with me in his behalf, and he is safe; refuse to employ it, Wilfred dies, and thou thyself art not the nearer to freedom.”

(...)

“Cedric’s fate also depends upon thy determination,” said De Bracy, “and I leave thee to form it.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

At that point, at the possibility to lose the lives of her guardian Cedric and her beloved Wilfred, Rowena burst desperately into tears:

After casting her eyes around, as if to look for the aid which was nowhere to be found, and after a few broken interjections, she raised her hands to heaven, and burst into a passion of uncontrolled vexation and sorrow. It was impossible to see so beautiful a creature in such extremity without feeling for her, and De Bracy was not unmoved, though he was yet more embarrassed than touched. He had, in truth, gone too far to recede; and yet, in Rowena’s present condition, she could not be acted on either by argument or threats. He paced the apartment to and fro, now vainly exhorting the terrified maiden to compose herself, now hesitating concerning his own line of conduct.

“If,” thought he, “I should be moved by the tears and sorrow of this disconsolate damsel, what should I reap but the loss of those fair hopes for which I have encountered so much risk, and the ridicule of Prince John and his jovial comrades? And yet,” he said to himself, “I feel myself ill framed for the part which I am playing. I cannot look on so fair a face while it is disturbed with agony, or on those eyes when they are drowned in tears. I would she had retained her original haughtiness of disposition, or that I had a larger share of Front-de-Bœuf’s thrice-tempered hardness of heart!”

Agitated by these thoughts, he could only bid the unfortunate Rowena be comforted, and assure her that as yet she had no reason for the excess of despair to which she was now giving way.” But in this task of consolation De Bracy was interrupted by the horn, “hoarse-winded blowing far and keen,” which had at the same time alarmed the other inmates of the castle, and interrupted their several plans of avarice and of license. Of them all, perhaps, De Bracy least regretted the interruption; for his conference with the Lady Rowena had arrived at a point where he found it equally difficult to prosecute or to resign his enterprise.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Rowena's tears demolishing de Bracy's determination and turning him into a puddle of shame, reminded me of Sansa taming a far more dangerous beast, the hound, when he attempted to rape her during the night of the Blackwater Bay Battle.  

But De Bracy’s graceless interactions with Rowena didn’t end there, the best part was Rowena’s coup de grâce after she was rescued by the joined forces of Cedric, the Black Knight and Robin Hood & Co. 

Again bowing from her palfrey, Rowena turned to depart; but pausing a moment, while Cedric, who was to attend her, was also taking his leave, she found herself unexpectedly close by the prisoner De Bracy. He stood under a tree in deep meditation, his arms crossed upon his breast, and Rowena was in hopes she might pass him unobserved. He looked up, however, and, when aware of her presence, a deep flush of shame suffused his handsome countenance. He stood a moment most irresolute; then, stepping forward, took her palfrey by the rein and bent his knee before her.

“Will the Lady Rowena deign to cast an eye on a captive knight—on a dishonoured soldier?”

“Sir Knight,” answered Rowena, “in enterprises such as yours, the real dishonour lies not in failure, but in success.”

“Conquest, lady, should soften the heart,” answered De Bracy; “let me but know that the Lady Rowena forgives the violence occasioned by an ill-fated passion, and she shall soon learn that De Bracy knows how to serve her in nobler ways.”

“I forgive you, Sir Knight,” said Rowena, “as a Christian.”

“That means,” said Wamba, “that she does not forgive him at all.”

“But I can never forgive the misery and desolation your madness has occasioned,” continued Rowena.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Rowena annihilated De Bracy. And she did it with her armor of courtesy.

HARPS ARE WEAPONS

At this point of the story, I found this little parallel about the power of music and songs:  

“I promise thee, brother Clerk,” said he, “I will ask thee no more offensive questions. The contents of that cupboard are an answer to all my inquiries; and I see a weapon there (here he stooped and took out the harp) on which I would more gladly prove my skill with thee than at the sword and buckler.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

“I also planted the notion of Ser Loras taking the white. Not that I suggested it, that would have been too crude. But men in my party supplied grisly tales about how the mob had killed Ser Preston Greenfield and raped the Lady Lollys, and slipped a few silvers to Lord Tyrell's army of singers to sing of Ryam Redwyne, Serwyn of the Mirror Shield, and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight. A harp can be as dangerous as a sword, in the right hands.

—A Storm of Swords - Sansa VI

Harps are weapons indeed.

REBECCA

Art credit: Edouard Henri Théophile Pingret

And now, at last, let’s talk about Rebecca. Not so much tho, because she is a readers’ favorite and many pieces have been written already extolling her many virtues.  

Rebecca was the daughter of Isaac of York. Her father and her were Jews. She was a healer. She treated Wilfred’s wounds and saved his life. She fell deeply enamoured of him. But despite the obvious physical attraction, her love was unrequited.

Rebecca also inflamed an unbridled passion in the Templar Brian de Bois-Gilbert, who wanted to possess her and tried to force himself on her many times, without the slightest success.

But I would like to comment a few scenes from Rebecca that reminded me of Sansa.

First, her suicide attempt at the face of rape:

“Remain where thou art, proud Templar, or at thy choice advance!—one foot nearer, and I plunge myself from the precipice; my body shall be crushed out of the very form of humanity upon the stones of that courtyard ere it become the victim of thy brutality!”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

The mention of the eventual destruction of her body made me think of a similar passage from Sansa: 

Perhaps I will die too, she told herself, and the thought did not seem so terrible to her. If she flung herself from the window, she could put an end to her suffering, and in the years to come the singers would write songs of her grief. Her body would lie on the stones below, broken and innocent, shaming all those who had betrayed her. Sansa went so far as to cross the bedchamber and throw open the shutters … but then her courage left her, and she ran back to her bed, sobbing.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa VI

Second, Rebecca’s prayers for her enemies:

Another name glided into her petition; it was that of the wounded Christian, whom fate had placed in the hands of bloodthirsty men, his avowed enemies. Her heart indeed checked her, as if, even in communing with the Deity in prayer, she mingled in her devotions the recollection of one with whose fate hers could have no alliance—a Nazarene, and an enemy to her faith. But the petition was already breathed, nor could all the narrow prejudices of her sect induce Rebecca to wish it recalled.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Wilfred wasn't a real enemy, but not so long ago he had hurt her feelings with his change of demeanor when he realized she was a Jewess (that’s why she called him “an enemy to her faith”). But she was grateful he saved her father from a great danger, she healed his wounds and she had fell for him, so of course she prayed for his well being.

This scene is similar to Sansa praying even for Tyrion and the hound the day of the Blackwater Bay Battle:

She sang for mercy, for the living and the dead alike, for Bran and Rickon and Robb, for her sister Arya and her bastard brother Jon Snow, away off on the Wall. She sang for her mother and her father, for her grandfather Lord Hoster and her uncle Edmure Tully, for her friend Jeyne Poole, for old drunken King Robert, for Septa Mordane and Ser Dontos and Jory Cassel and Maester Luwin, for all the brave knights and soldiers who would die today, and for the children and the wives who would mourn them, and finally, toward the end, she even sang for Tyrion the Imp and for the Hound. He is no true knight but he saved me all the same, she told the Mother. Save him if you can, and gentle the rage inside him.

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa V

But we all know that, unlike Wilfred to Rebecca, Tyrion and the hound paid Sansa’s kindness with abuse.

And there will be a third scene to comment later. 

LOVE TRIANGLES

As you may have already noticed, IVANHOE is full of love triangles. Some of them very similar the main ASOIAF love triangles. Let’s talk about them:

Wilfred - Rowena - Athelstane 

In this triangle, Rowena is Lyanna Stark, Athelstane is Robert Baratheon, and the role of Rhaegar is played first by Wildred, who crowned Rowena as his Queen of love and Beauty during the tourney at Ashby, and later by Maurice De Bracy, who abducted Rowena after the tourney, and put her on a castle tower. 

Athelstane fighting against Wilfred with his battle-axe at the melee, reminded me of Robert fighting Rhaegar with his war-hammer at the Trident.

Much later, during the Battle at Torquilstone, Athelstane thought that Bois-Gilbert was abducting Rowena again, and snatching a mace (similar to a hammer) from a dying soldier, run to fight the Templar knight. But unlike Robert killing Rhaegar with his war-hammer, Bois-Gilbert was the one who broke Athelstane’s mace and killed him (apparently):

Athelstane, who, as the reader knows, was slothful, but not cowardly, beheld the female form whom the Templar protected thus sedulously, and doubted not that it was Rowena whom the knight was carrying off, in despite of all resistance which could be offered.

“By the soul of St. Edward,” he said, “I will rescue her from yonder over-proud knight, and he shall die by my hand!”

“Think what you do!” cried Wamba; “hasty hand catches frog for fish; by my bauble, yonder is none of my Lady Rowena, see but her long dark locks! Nay, an ye will not know black from white, ye may be leader, but I will be no follower; no bones of mine shall be broken unless I know for whom. And you without armour too! Bethink you, silk bonnet never kept out steel blade. Nay, then, if wilful will to water, wilful must drench. Deus vobiscum, most doughty Athelstane!” he concluded, loosening the hold which he had hitherto kept upon the Saxon’s tunic.

To snatch a mace from the pavement, on which it lay beside one whose dying grasp had just relinquished it, to rush on the Templar’s band, and to strike in quick succession to the right and left, levelling a warrior at each blow, was, for Athelstane’s great strength, now animated with unusual fury, but the work of a single moment; he was soon within two yards of Bois-Guilbert, whom he defied in his loudest tone.

“Turn, false-hearted Templar! let go her whom thou art unworthy to touch; turn, limb of a band of murdering and hypocritical robbers!”

“Dog!” said the Templar, grinding his teeth, “I will teach thee to blaspheme the holy order of the Temple of Zion”; and with these words, half-wheeling his steed, he made a demi-courbetteeh towards the Saxon, and rising in the stirrups, so as to take full advantage of the descent of the horse, he discharged a fearful blow upon the head of Athelstane.

“Well,” said Wamba, “that silken bonnet keeps out no steel blade!” So trenchant was the Templar’s weapon, that it shore asunder, as it had been a willow twig, the tough and plaited handle of the mace, which the ill-fated Saxon reared to parry the blow, and, descending on his head, levelled him with the earth.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

But Athelstane wasn't really dead. Three days after his supposed death he appeared to his own obsequies like a ghost.... Asking for food....

Something similar happened to Dunk in The Mystery Knight, when he remained unconscious for several hours after a joust and everyone believed he was dead.   

And this “resurrection” in IVANHOE of course reminded me of Jon Snow coming back to life in The Winds of Winter....  

Rowena - Wilfred - Rebecca

This love triangle, somehow reminded me a bit of Catelyn - Eddard - Ashara. Mostly because there are still people that claim that Eddard never loved Catelyn and his true love was Ashara. There is also the fact that Eddard met Ashara during the tourney at Harrenhal, the same way Wilfred and Rebecca met at after the tourney at Ashby.

This love triangle also reminded me a bit of Elia - Rhager - Lyanna. At some point, Prince John even suggested the idea that the tourney’s champion must crown Rebecca, who was a Jewess, in order to offend the Christian Saxons. But Wilfred wasn’t a Normand, and he crowned Rowena, the Saxon Princess, offending the Normans instead.

Now, as I mentioned before, most of the readers wanted a Wilfred and Rebecca happy ending romance, just to be left disappointed at the end, when they read that Scott decided that Wilfred marry his first love Rowena. This “ships-war” was so intense that in 1850 another British author called William Makepeace Thackeray (the author of Vanity Fair), published an IVANHOE fan-fiction named “Rebecca and Rowena: A Romance Upon Romance.”

But in order to make Wilfred and Rebecca’s union possible, Mister Thackeray made Rowena a hateful woman, always reminding her husband that Rebecca loved him, then Mister Thackeray killed Rowena (Wilfred marries Rebecca after Rowena’s death) and his worst crime, Mister Thackeray made Rebecca convert into Christianity, which was, in no way, a good idea... Rebecca is, until today, so much admired precisely because she was not willing to renounce her faith in order to live a more advantageous life. Shame on you Mister Thackeray, shame on you!     

The Italian composer, Gioachino Rossini, was smarter in adapting IVANHOE to an opera of the same name. He merged Rowena and Rebecca into one character named Leila: 

The plot, derived from Sir Walter Scott, takes place in Great Britain and involves the enmity between the Saxons and Normans in the 12th century, with Ivanhoe (tenor) being the (disguised) son of the Saxon Cedric (baritone), enemy of Norman Brian de Boisguilbert (bass). The Muslims Ismael (baritone) and his daughter Leila (soprano) take refuge in Cedric’s castle, since Boisguilbert is pursuing them and is in love with Leila. All ends well when Ivanhoe duels with and kills Boisguilbert, and Leila turns out to be Edith, long-lost daughter of Olric, the last descendant of the Saxon kings. Ivanhoe and Edith are allowed to wed, with Saxons and Normans joining together in celebration against the French invaders. 

[Source]

It’s not perfect, but it’s better than Mister Thackeray’s disproportionate contempt against Rowena.... 

My dear Rebecca, daughter of Isaac of York, has always, in my mind, been one of these; nor can I ever believe that such a woman, so admirable, so tender, so heroic, so beautiful, could disappear altogether before such another woman as Rowena, that vapid, flaxen−headed creature, who is, in my humble opinion, unworthy of Ivanhoe, and unworthy of her place as heroine. Had both of them got their rights, it ever seemed to me that Rebecca would have had the husband, and Rowena would have gone off to a convent and shut herself up, where I, for one, would never have taken the trouble of inquiring for her.

—Rebecca and Rowena: A Romance Upon Romance - William Makepeace Thackeray

And it gets even worse....

Sounds familiar?

Bois-Gilbert - Rebecca - Wilfred

This is the most tragic of the love triangles from the IVANHOE, because Bois-Gilbert’s passion for Rebecca was unrequited, because Rebecca’s infatuation with Wilfred was also unrequited, and because despite Wilfred’s physical attraction to Rebecca, he expressed more passion for chivalry itself than for Rebecca, and because he hadn't forgotten his love for Rowena either (He mentioned Rowena’s name in every dialogue he had with Rebecca). Not to mention the evident change in his demeanor towards Rebecca after knowing she was a Jewess.

Wilfred performed an grand gesture of gallantry for Rebecca near the end of the story, but he did it mostly for the love of chivalry itself than for her. He was enamoured of being a true knight and Rebecca played the part of the perfect maiden in distress. But when he opened his eyes from that fantasy, he chose a peaceful domestic life at his homeland with his first love Rowena.

This conflict of the heart was also reflected in King Richard - Coeur de Lion, when he, thanks to Wilfred’s insistence, decided to reveal his true identity at last and renounced to the fantasy of being a knight errant in order to do his duty as King and rule his country.     

But Rebecca remained in Wilfred’s mind as a frequent memory, she represents the recurrent fantasy of an adventurous life as a knight errant in foreign lands.    

WITCHERY

And here comes the third scene from Rebecca that reminded me of Sansa. The accusations and rumors of witchery.

Bois-Gilbert’s overflowed passion for Rebecca made him commit serious mistakes, and the worst of them was taking her to Templestowe. He, a knight Templar, who vowed to remain unmarried, took a young girl to a preceptory of his Order, secretly and without the allowance of his superiors.

And when the presence of the young beautiful Jewess Rebecca at Templestowe was known to everyone in the Order, since the Templars didn’t want to soil their reputation as decent devoted men, they decided to blame the girl:  

If we were told that such a man, so honoured, and so honourable, suddenly casting away regard for his character, his vows, his brethren, and his prospects, had associated to himself a Jewish damsel, wandered in this lewd company through solitary places, defended her person in preference to his own, and, finally, was so utterly blinded and besotted by his folly, as to bring her even to one of our own preceptories, what should we say but that the noble knight was possessed by some evil demon, or influenced by some wicked spell?

—IVANHOE: A Romance

The Templars used Rebecca’s healing abilities against her and declared her a witch. 

They even forged false testimonies, twisting real facts in order to accuse her of witchery:

Not to be behind his companion, this fellow stated that he had seen Rebecca perch herself upon the parapet of the turret, and there take the form of a milk-white swan, under which appearance she flitted three times round the castle of Torquilstone; then again settle on the turret, and once more assume the female form.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

This passage about Rebecca morphing into a swan and flying from a castle turret, reminded me of the folk legends that were born after the Purple Wedding about Sansa morphing into a direwolf or winged wolf, and then flying away from a tower window:

“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 dwarf’s wife did the murder with him,” swore an archer in Lord Rowan’s livery. “Afterward, she vanished from the hall in a puff of brimstone, and a ghostly direwolf was seen prowling the Red Keep, blood dripping from his jaws.”

—A Storm of Swords - Jaime VII

Despite all the false accusations against her, Rebecca persisted in her innocence and demanded a trial by combat. If her champion lost, Rebecca would have been burned at the stake.

Rebecca’s trial at Templestowe got me thinking about the possibility of Sansa being put on trial. Her head is wanted for the kingslaying of Joffrey after all, and all those folk tales about her were born precisely after Joffrey’s death.... 

TRIAL BY COMBAT

Rebecca’s trial by combat is one of the last events of IVANHOE. The Templars’ champion was Bois-Gilbert, and at the last moment, after Isaac's pleas, Wilfred, still in recovery from his wounds, went to Templestowe to be Rebecca's champion.

At the end, Wilfred didn’t do much because in the middle of his fight against Bois-Gilbert, the Templar died. He just died. Probably from a heart attack. Very accurate, since his passion for Rebecca was always unrequited, undesired by her and impossible by their circumstances. A doomed passion.      

And this trial by combat of course reminded me of the very particular trial by combat depicted in The Hedge Knight, more precisely, a Trial of Seven. Seven champions against seven champions. One party in favor of Dunk, accused of hitting a royal although while defending a young maiden from the abuse of said royal. The other party in favor of Prince Aerion Targaryen who broke the fingers of the Dornish puppeteer Tanselle, after she played a tale where a puppet knight killed a puppet dragon....

Dunk didn’t get to find seven champions to fight for him, the trial was about to start and he had only six champions, but at the last moment, a “Black Knight” came to fight in his favor. Said “Black Knight” was Prince Baelor Targaryen, the Prince of Dragonstone himself, willing to fight against his own blood, because Dunk’s claim was fair. Baelor was a real true knight, in the same fashion of King Richard - Coeur de Lion, fighting against the Norman lords that favored his brother Prince John. 

And while Bois-Gilbert was the unexpected death in IVANHOE, Prince Baelor Targaryen was the unexpected death in The Hedge Knight. The only thing in which they can be compared, since Bois-Gilbert was the main villain of IVANHOE, while Prince Baelor was a real true knight. It must have been his maternal Dornish blood.

WHEN DO YOU EVER FIND FOLLY SEPARATED FROM VALOUR?

Knight and fool imagery

Art credit: Milo Winter

IVANHOE is not only full of love triangles, but it’s also full of knights that are truly fools and fools that are truly knights. 

As I said before, if you want to find the real true knights of the story you need to look in the direction of Wamba, the actual fool, and Gurth, the swineherd. They were also slaves, property of Cedric the Saxon, which made their role as true knights even more compelling. 

Meanwhile the supposed true knights....

Look at De Bracy’s foolish delusions of being a true knight through deception:   

“I tell thee,” answered De Bracy, “that it will be the work of a few hours [abducting Rowena], and I shall be at York at the head of my daring and valorous fellows, as ready to support any bold design as thy policy can be to form one. But I hear my comrades assembling, and the steeds stamping and neighing in the outer court. Farewell. I go, like a true knight, to win the smiles of beauty.”

“Like a true knight!” repeated Fitzurse, looking after him; “like a fool, I should say, or like a child, who will leave the most serious and needful occupation to chase the down of the thistle that drives past him. But it is with such tools that I must work—and for whose advantage? For that of a Prince as unwise as he is profligate, and as likely to be an ungrateful master as he has already proved a rebellious son and an unnatural brother. But he—he too is but one of the tools with which I labour; and, proud as he is, should he presume to separate his interest from mine, this is a secret which he shall soon learn.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Now look at Wamba the fool, teaching some lessons to King Richard - Coeur de Lion, still disguised as the Black Knight:   

“Content you, Sir Knight, it is in safe keeping. When valour and folly travel, folly should bear the horn, because she can blow the best.”

“Nay but, rogue,” said the Black Knight, “this exceedeth thy license. Beware ye tamper not with my patience.”

“Urge me not with violence, Sir Knight,” said the Jester, keeping at a distance from the impatient champion, “or folly will show a clean pair of heels, and leave valour to find out his way through the wood as best he may.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

Here we can see how Wamba the fool, was more observant and watchful of their surroundings than Coeur de Lion: 

“You will not harm me, then?” said Wamba.

“I tell thee no, thou knave!”

“Ay, but pledge me your knightly word for it,” continued Wamba, as he approached with great caution.

“My knightly word I pledge; only come on with thy foolish self.”

“Nay, then, valour and folly are once more boon companions,” said the Jester, coming up frankly to the Knight’s side; “but, in truth, I love not such buffets as that you bestowed on the burly Friar, when his holiness rolled on the green like a king of the nine-pins. And now that folly wears the horn, let valour rouse himself and shake his mane; for, if I mistake not, there are company in yonder brake that are on the look-out for us.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

More words of wisdom from Wamba the fool:

“What, Wamba, art thou there?” said Richard; “I have been so long of hearing thy voice, I thought thou hadst taken flight.”

“I take flight!” said Wamba; “when do you ever find folly separated from valour? There lies the trophy of my sword, that good grey gelding, whom I heartily wish upon his legs again, conditioning his master lay there houghed in his place. It is true, I gave a little ground at first, for a motley jacket does not brook lance-heads as a steel doublet will. But if I fought not at sword’s point, you will grant me that I sounded the onset.”

“And to good purpose, honest Wamba,” replied the King. “Thy good service shall not be forgotten.”

—IVANHOE: A Romance

The knight and fool imagery was also present in Arthurian Legends, as we can see here:

Dagonet, the fool, whom Gawain in his mood Had made mock-knight of Arthur’s Table Round, At Camelot, high above the yellowing woods, Danced like a withered leaf before the hall. And toward him from the hall, with harp in hand, And from the crown thereof a carcanet Of ruby swaying to and fro, the prize Of Tristram in the jousts of yesterday, Came Tristram, saying, “Why skip ye so, Sir Fool?”

(...)

And little Dagonet on the morrow morn, High over all the yellowing Autumn-tide, Danced like a withered leaf before the hall. Then Tristram saying, “Why skip ye so, Sir Fool?” Wheeled round on either heel, Dagonet replied, “Belike for lack of wiser company; Or being fool, and seeing too much wit Makes the world rotten, why, belike I skip To know myself the wisest knight of all.”

—The Last Tournament, Idylls of the King - Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1859 - 1885) 

A tournament? A fool and a knight? It seems that not only IVANHOE has influenced GRRM to write about tourneys, fools and knights. 

This fool and knight imagery is very present in ASOIAF, not only in the main books but also in The Hedge Knight.

The story about Florian and Jonquil is an important theme in The Hedge Knight novella, in parallel with the tourney. The story of Dunk’s infatuation with the Dornish puppeteer Tanselle develops around the knight and fool imagery from the tale of Florian and Jonquil that Tanselle performed with her puppets at Ashford Meadow.

This morning the puppeteers were doing the tale of Florian and Jonquil. The fat Dornishwoman was working Florian in his armor made of motley, while the tall girl held Jonquil’s strings. “You are no knight,” she was saying as the puppet’s mouth moved up and down. “I know you. You are Florian the Fool.”

“I am, my lady,” the other puppet answered, kneeling. “As great a fool as ever lived, and as great a knight as well.”

“A fool and a knight?” said Jonquil. “I have never heard of such a thing.”

“Sweet lady,” said Florian, “all men are fools, and all men are knights, where women are concerned.”

It was a good show, sad and sweet both, with a sprightly swordfight at the end, and a nicely painted giant. When it was over, the fat woman went among the crowd to collect coins while the girl packed away the puppets.

Dunk collected Egg and went up to her.

“M'lord?” she said, with a sideways glance and a half-smile. She was a head shorter than he was, but still taller than any other girl he had ever seen.

“That was good,” Egg enthused. “I like how you make them move, Jonquil and the dragon and all. I saw a puppet show last year, but they moved all jerky. Yours are more smooth.”

“Thank you,” she told the boy politely.

Dunk said, “Your figures are well carved too. The dragon, especially. A fearsome beast. You make them yourself?”

She nodded. “My uncle does the carving. I paint them.”

“Could you paint something for me? I have the coin to pay.” He slipped the shield off his shoulder and turned it to show her. “I need to paint something over the chalice.”

The girl glanced at the shield, and then at him.

“What would you want painted?”

Dunk had not considered that. If not the old man’s winged chalice, what? His head was empty. Dunk the lunk, thick as a castle wall. “I don’t … I’m not certain.” His ears were turning red, he realized miserably.

“You must think me an utter fool.”

She smiled. “All men are fools, and all men are knights.”

—The Hedge Knight

The night after the first day of the tourney Prince Aerion Targaryen assaulted Tanselle. Alerted by Egg, Dunk struck Aerion in defense of the girl.      

Dunk was imprisoned after the incident for striking the prince, but Dunk claimed he was only following the knightly vows to defend the weak and innocent. That was the reason why Aerion demanded a trial of seven to clear his name. Prince Daeron Targaryen also claimed to have been injured by Dunk, so Daeron made a claim against Dunk as well.

Dunk, who was often called Dunk the lunk (short for “lunkhead,” a fool), probably a bastard, someone not allowed to damage any royal, defended the weak and innocent even against an evil prince, because that’s what true knights must do. That night at Ashford Meadow, Dunk became a de facto knight.

Dunk was a fool to strike a prince but he was also a true knight to defend the innocent girl. Dunk became Florian the Fool.

In the main books, the character most associated with knight and fool imagery and Florian and Jonquil is Sansa Stark.

The stories about Florian and Jonquil are Sansa Stark’s favorite songs:

“Father, I only just now remembered, I can’t go away, I’m to marry Prince Joffrey.” She tried to smile bravely for him. “I love him, Father, I truly truly do, I love him as much as Queen Naerys loved Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, as much as Jonquil loved Ser Florian. I want to be his queen and have his babies.” —A Game of Thrones - Sansa III

She pulled a chair close to the hearth, took down one of her favorite books, and lost herself in the stories of Florian and Jonquil, of Lady Shella and the Rainbow Knight, of valiant Prince Aemon and his doomed love for his brother’s queen. —A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV

Home, she thought, home, he is going to take me home, he’ll keep me safe, my Florian. The songs about Florian and Jonquil were her very favorites. Florian was homely too, though not so old. —A Clash of Kings - Sansa II

Sansa Stark has these stories and songs so deep in her heart that she resorts to them at crucial moments.  

Indeed, when Sansa defended and saved Dontos Hollard’s life, she used the knight and fool imagery to reason with Joffrey.

The king stood. “A cask from the cellars! I’ll see him drowned in it.” Sansa heard herself gasp. “No, you can’t.” Joffrey turned his head. “What did you say?” Sansa could not believe she had spoken. Was she mad? To tell him no in front of half the court? She hadn’t meant to say anything, only … Ser Dontos was drunk and silly and useless, but he meant no harm. “Did you say I can’t? Did you?” “Please,” Sansa said, “I only meant … it would be ill luck, Your Grace … to, to kill a man on your name day.” “You’re lying,” Joffrey said. “I ought to drown you with him, if you care for him so much.” “I don’t care for him, Your Grace.” The words tumbled out desperately. “Drown him or have his head off, only … kill him on the morrow, if you like, but please … not today, not on your name day. I couldn’t bear for you to have ill luck … terrible luck, even for kings, the singers all say so …” Joffrey scowled. He knew she was lying, she could see it. He would make her bleed for this. “The girl speaks truly,” the Hound rasped. “What a man sows on his name day, he reaps throughout the year.” His voice was flat, as if he did not care a whit whether the king believed him or no. Could it be true? Sansa had not known. It was just something she’d said, desperate to avoid punishment. Unhappy, Joffrey shifted in his seat and flicked his fingers at Ser Dontos. “Take him away. I’ll have him killed on the morrow, the fool.” “He is,” Sansa said. “A fool. You’re so clever, to see it. He’s better fitted to be a fool than a knight, isn’t he? You ought to dress him in motley and make him clown for you. He doesn’t deserve the mercy of a quick death.” The king studied her a moment. “Perhaps you’re not so stupid as Mother says.” He raised his voice. “Did you hear my lady, Dontos? From this day on, you’re my new fool. You can sleep with Moon Boy and dress in motley.“ — A Clash of Kings - Sansa I

Sansa was a fool to defy a king but she was also a true knight to defend the innocent drunkard knight. Sansa became Florian the Fool.

Littlefinger took advantage of this event and Sansa’s love for those stories and sent Dontos Hollard, a defenestrated knight turned fool, a poor version of the legendary Florian, to help Sansa escape King’s Landing.  

“I prayed to the gods for a knight to come save me,” she said. “I prayed and prayed. Why would they send me a drunken old fool?” […] “The singers say there was another fool once who was the greatest knight of all…” “Florian,” Sansa whispered. A shiver went through her. “Sweet lady, I would be your Florian,” Dontos said humbly, falling to his knees before her. […] “I vow, with your father’s gods as witness, that I shall send you home.” He swore. A solemn oath, before the gods. “Then…I will put myself in your hands, ser.”

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa II

Sansa can easily play the role of the fair Jonquil, but Dontos was a false Florian only pretending under Littlefinger’s commands in exchange for gold.

Read more about Sansa Stark, the tourney at Ashford meadow and Florian and Jonquil in this post:

THE BLACK PRINCE WITH THE WHITE GUARDIAN - Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, the Tourney at Ashford Meadow and the songs about Florian and Jonquil.

MISCELLANY

Art credit: Frank E. Schoonover

And finally a less detailed little list of parallels and similarities between IVANHOE and ASOIAF that I found during my re-read:

The tourney at Ashby had a political background

Prince John and his Normand lords organized the tourney in order to gain the love of the natives of England by giving them entertainment in the form of sport games: jousting and melee. Prince John was conspiring to usurp the Throne of his brother Coeur de Lion:

In this manner did Prince John endeavour to lay the foundation of a popularity, which he was perpetually throwing down by some inconsiderate act of wanton aggression upon the feelings and prejudices of the people.

—IVANHOE: A Romance

This is repeated in The Hedge Knight and The Mystery Knight. 

In the first tale, The Hedge Knight, the tourney at Ashford Meadow was organized to let Prince Valarr Targaryen shine in the jousting. His father Prince Baelor Targaryen was a renowned jouster, unlike Valarr, who, very curiously, only got easy adversaries during the lists.    

In the third tale, The Mystery Knight, the tourney at Whitewalls was organized by rebels supporters of the Blackfyres. It was supposed to mark the start of the Second Blackfyre Rebellion, leaded by Dameon II Blackfyre, who first appeared in the tourney as the the hedge knight John the Fiddler. 

The ancient English word “anon”

Before IVANHOE, I had only read the word “anon” in ASOIAF. The word is only repeated three times in a couple of Jon’s chapters from ADWD:

"You could dance with me, you know. It would be only courteous. You danced with me anon." "Anon?" teased Jon. "When we were children." She tore off a bit of bread and threw it at him. "As you know well."

—A Dance with Dragons - Jon X

A snowflake danced upon the air. Then another. Dance with me, Jon Snow, he thought. You'll dance with me anon.

—A Dance with Dragons - Jon XII

But in IVANHOE is plenty used, since the books was published in 1819. And I also read the word in some other ancient works cited here: Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Malory (1485) and Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1859 - 1885).

Character names

GRRM has used some of the IVANHOE character names in ASOIAF. Here a few examples:

Cedric the Saxon: Ser Cedric Payne, cousin of our dear wee Podrick Payne. 

Brother Ambrose: There is plenty of Ambrose-s in ASOIAF, The Sworn Sword and the Mystery Knight. Here is one of them: As for Elinor, she was promised to a young squire, a son of Lord Ambrose; they would be wed as soon as he won his spurs. —A Storm of Swords - Sansa II

Wat Tyrrel: There is plenty of Wat-s in ASOIAF and The Sworn Sword. And Tyrrel sounds pretty similar to Tyrell.

Tybalt: In IVANHOE, Wamba the fool sang a song with these lines: “O Tybalt, love, Tybalt, awake me not yet” - “Compared with these visions, O, Tybalt, my love?” - “But think not I dreamt of thee, Tybalt, my love.” Tybalt sounds pretty similar to Tybolt, and there was a Tybolt Lannister in The Hedge Knight. 

Rowena: In the Appendix of AGOT we find out that Lady Rowena Arryn was the cousin and second wife of Jon Arryn.

And this is the end.

See you anon!

#IVANHOE #ASOIAF #Sansa Stark #jonsa #GRRM #Sir Walter Scott #Alayne Stone #Queen of Love and Beauty #Tourney at Ashby-de-la-Zouche #Tourney at Ashford Meadow #The Hedge Knight #Knight and Fool Imagery #Florian and Jonquil #Tourney at Harrenhal #The Knight of the Laughing Tree

[buttercuparry]

I love it when Jonaryas write dissertations explaining how little they understand about fiction and how fiction is- more often than not- a reflection of a culture/society's beliefs and values. Using media to fulfil your creepy (and repugnant) ship is still a shitty (AND REPUGNANT) thing to do.

Bro why are you in the asoiaf fandom. Like afdghjgk. Lmao.

"Creepy and Repugnant ship"

Do I look like I care about whatever fucking morality you are trying to preach here?

Like if you are so concerned about my ship and my shipping choices having the power to distort any real life relationship, I do not understand why the fuck are you here in my ask box? Like if I knew someone (because that's how you are behaving) who endorses incest as a suitable relationship to pursue in rl, I would fucking block them.

Also again my question stands. What the fucking hell are you doing consuming a series like asoiaf? A series that not only has a subject like incest but also includes slavery, genocide, destruction wrought by war and the subsequent PTSD that the survivor experiences, child marriage and sexual assault. If you are of the opinion that someone's fictional choice is going to be a blight on the society and cannot differentiate between the reel and real, then why are you so fucking into the series? So much so that you picked a random nobody on the internet to send anon hate?

A coward is what you are. Hiding behind the anon option to harass someone is not going to get to very far on whatever moral journey you are on.

Good day and also try sending another ask and you see how fast you get blocked.

[theredpharaoah]

My Out Of The Box Prompts:

Some Notes:

All of these are for gay Jon. Jon is a bottom and no one can change my mind. The pairings are Jon x Theon, Jon x Robb and Jon x Willas. I really only use AO3. These are for stories not one shots. I hate one shots, especially good ones. Also, Dany is my fav character, however the Targaryens being alive - especially her- makes AUs very difficult. So most of these are going off the Tale of Snow and Madness formula; they aren’t alive. Tag me if y’all use any of these, and I’ll be adding to these periodically. My ADHD ass can’t sit and write this stuff, so I hope someone else uses these ideas or are inspired by them. I would like for the fandom to get more creative.

1. Gimme a Dark Theon x Jon. We’re always getting sensitive Theon, but what if he actually lived up to the Greyjoy name? Maybe he pretends to be nice to Jon and reels him in before springing the trap or some shit.

2. Jon is Theon’s salt wife. Don’t know or care how it happens but another Dark Theon would be cute.

3. Jon somehow ends up being raised or fostered on the Iron Islands. You could do a slavers situation or whatever you can think of. Maybe the Greyjoy Rebellion never happened and the whole family is just crazy. They say they’ll send Jon back to Ned, but years later he’s starting to think that it’ll never happen. Theon x Jon of course.

4. Kinda like the first one but more Winterfell based. A love at first sight thing that quickly gets dark. Theon falls in love with Jon when he arrives at Winterfell, quickly becomes obsessed, seduces him, and everything just spirals from there.

5. Wylla or Ashara don’t give Jon to Ned. Instead they run away. I’ve had a couple of ideas for this. Maybe they go to Braavos and raise him to be similar to the black Pearl. Maybe they die in childbirth or when he’s young and he is raised by the Otherys. You could really do whatever from there. Maybe he ends up going back to Westeros, the Otherys send him to the Starks when he’s still young(Wylla or Ashara would’ve said who the father is)

6. Jon doesn’t go to the wall but instead pulls a Saera Targaryen. Doesn’t have to be in Lys. Maybe he becomes like the first Westerosi courtesan or something idk. I’d love a Valtesse, Ninon influence.

7. I’d like stories where they go more in depth about the power difference between Jon, Theon, and his siblings. How fucked up feudalism is, and how he had very little hope of social mobility. Of course I’d love to see how this impacts his relationships and how he deals.

8. A Shiera Seastar sort of thing with Jon. I like the idea of warging being a taught skill within certain Northern and Reach households. A skill restricted to the nobles. Maybe warging and skinchanging aren’t actually restricted to animals, and that is just the accepted form of use for it. Maybe it’s just northern magic. A Jon that kinda invents or is taught first men witchcraft. Their would be some peasants born with the ability but since they don’t learn how to do higher forms like skin change or warg, they use it in different ways - Witchcraft. I’m thinking traditional witchcraft influences. If you don’t know too much about that, just take shit from the show Salem - you don’t need to actually practice trad craft for this.

9. Going off that last prompt; a world where some first men houses teach their kids warging. The Starks being descended from the Warg King would be the most powerful. Maybe Jon isn’t good with animals or isn’t taught due to him being a bastard. He ends up “warging” the dead - necromancy. They say the children could talk to the dead so I don’t think this is at all out there for the ASOIAF world.

10. Young Jon is moping around at night or something when he hears a beautiful song and follows it. He comes across a beautiful boy by a pool of water who pulls him under. Nixie Theon steals Jon and takes him home to the iron islands.

11. Back to that warging being taught thing; powerful warg Robb obsessed with Jon through childhood and teenage years and whatnot.

12. Jon becomes a blacksmith and eventually creates a steel close in power to Valyrian steel. Maybe he uses that Viking technique where they used bones but uses giant bones, children’s bones, merling bones - whatever. I don’t care how it’s done, I just want an introspective, sad, queer, blacksmith Jon.

13. Jon had always been a sad boy, but instead of just stewing around he writes poetry. What happens when it gets out? Jon becomes a famed poet in courts around the world AU. You could use your own poetry or just steal existing poems.

14. Genius Jon. Jon is alright at weapons training, but nowhere near as good as Robb and Theon. He instead finds solace in the countless books kept by Maester Luwin. A story where Jon is a scientific prodigy - especially in regards to poison, medicine, and anatomy. Luwin dotes on him and gives him full access to his collection( a very expansive one considering his Valyrian link). Eventually when loaned out by Luwin to assist Aemon for a short time, Jon stumbles upon Bloodraven’s secret stash of books he left at Castle Black. I imagine this including Bloodraven, Shiera, and many other Targ’s private journals, along with Serenei’s and books on the Rhoyne, the First Men, the deep ones, etc. He would’ve basically inherited all of Bloodraven and Shiera’s combined occult libraries, and Aemon’s blind ass would allow him to take it as he would have no idea wtf it is. I imagine this going the way of Jon maybe learning the ASOIAF equivalent to ceremonial magic. Calling up Merlings, Valyrian dead, Deep Ones, Children, etc. Necromancy, Astrology, Divination, etc What he does with all that power is up to you.

15. Another genius Jon. Jon shipwrecks on Skagos, and is not at all prepared for what he finds there. I imagine Skagos being like the game The Forest here. An ancient lab that originally belonged to The Children, Garth Greenhand, The Valyrians, The Rhoyne, Deep Ones, or whoever. Jon fights his way to the center and finds the research/lab/whatever. With the failed experiments now subdued, he prepares to try and find some way of leaving but instead decides to stay and finish the work. A Jon Snow meets Becca Franco sorta thing. You could have him doing whatever type of research and experimentation, I really don’t care.

16. A Madeline Miller Circe AU. Jon is exiled to Skagos for being queer or something for a couple of years. Becomes a pharmakist through warging or through green dreams or whatever. I imagine him thinking of his siblings and Theon the same way Circe thought of hers and the Olympians.

17. Jon’s not Garth Greenhand but he’s pretty damn close to it. Jon is given to the Tyrells as a servant( I think this was popular in that age). He falls in love with flowers and drugs from working in the gardens and seeks to make more beautiful ones. So I imagine him using his warg abilities(my definition) or something to make amazing and out of this world plant species and drugs. Think Nariphon, Lumiere Fruit(true blood), Golden Apples, The Marquess’ security roses(The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland...), Zaqqum, Soma, Amrita, etc. I would imagine him maybe building an underground drug empire, or using the Nariphon to protect women or something. Something that eventually catches the eyes of the Tyrells who have always been thirsty for power. A Dark Willas x Jon. I’m always down for Mpreg as long as they don’t start acting too cringy. Maybe he invents the drug or procedure for it?

18. When Jon asked what the problem was with liking men, the only answer he ever got was that two men can’t create a child. He sought to prove that point wrong. Another pharmakist Jon prompt. I imagine him creating many drugs and plants similar to the ones listed in the prompt above, but his true goal is basically mpreg. I imagine it would be like some sort of Rose of Jericho implant. I’m thinking like a parasitic flower that blooms into an artificial womb when it comes into contact with a certain substance. Maybe it somehow clones Jon or transforms sperm into eggs. Or like something to do with Hippocampus’ Idk. It’s fiction so you can do whatever.

19. If you follow my blog then you know I’m an occultist so there will be a lot of pharmakeia and occult AUs. From a young age Jon dreams of a pale city, full of Lily Princes and Women flying through the air. Jon has green dreams of a past life where he was the prince of Sar Mell before its fall. I would base a lot of the techniques here around the Buddhist yogas and tantra practices. The pale city was known for its flowers, so you could use what was already listed above for that. I model the way his past life would look - and who Jon would imitate - off of the Prince of the Lilies fresco, Minoan dress, and how Male Hindu gods look and dress.

20. Basically the same thing but instead we take the resurgence concept from Jupiter Ascending and mix it with stuff from The 100. Jon is a resurgence of a prince of Sar Mell, born with black blood and the memories of several lives. We know literally nothing about the Rhoyne, Valyria, and the knowledge they possessed. Whose to say the Rhoyne didn’t know about genes and gene editing? I of course would like pharmakeia, but I also think of them a lot like the Isu from Assasin’s creed. The prince would’ve been a lot like Persephone from Odyssey aesthetically(really just her throne room). Maybe the Rhoynish prince of Sar Mell ruled Naath, and the real reason people die after a couple of hours is because of radiation. I’d also love if y’all added the bees recognize him as royalty thing. Idk, go crazy.

21. Jon grows up with a Robb who acts a lot like Dionysus. Northern religion includes temples to Garth, Nissa Nissa, Night’s Queen, Night’s King, Warg King, Bran the Builder, etc. The green men are sworn to the service of Robb. I imagine a North full of parties and festivals with a great relationship with the Reach. A wild hedonistic Stark family sans Jon. Dark Robb x Jon.

22. Jon is sent to the reach as a servant or something and is taken advantage of by a dark Dionysian Willas. Dark Willas x Jon

23. Jon goes South with his father and sisters AU. Jon has always been the most boring of his siblings, never one for games and intrigue. Ain’t shit funny about being a bastard. Sometimes he thinks even Arya wouldn’t like him if she wasn’t an outcast too. However when it comes to protecting his family from the dangerous plots of those around them, he’ll do almost anything. Jon finds a Valyrian book of games in the Red Keep, and comes to the conclusion that the Valyrians were absolutely insane. Have y’all ever been on the ThreeKings subreddit? This is that. Jon finds a Valyrian book of games involving all sorts of strange things to do with spirits. He bargains for information and power in an effort to get a leg up on his enemies, and keep his family safe. I think the Watcher Among The Books rite would be a good place to start when writing this. I would LOVE if someone did this. This would be challenging though as it would be really politics and intrigue heavy. The ThreeKings subreddit is fun to read through too.

24. An AU where Jon is a lot like Loki from myth. I don’t imagine him being as mean and deceitful as Loki or killing his brother or anything. I imagine him as having Loki’s abilities(anyway you can explain it) and being very misunderstood. A retelling of Loki’s myths but in the ASOIAF world with some limitations, and through Jon. I think this would have to include mpreg. Most likely Robb X Jon.

25. An ironborn culture/ Poltical Intrigue one. Somehow Jon is Theon’s salt wife. So Salt Wives would actually be integral to the culture of the ironborn in this. They make their husband’s clothes, take care of their children or charges, represent them at court, etc. I imagine there being two connected courts; a Salt Court and an Iron court. The Salt court would be basically for the Salt Wives and the Iron/Rock Court would be for the ironborn. Usually the Salt Wives spend their time in the salt court as reaching too high is dangerous. They compete amongst themselves, and make sure that their respective Greyjoy is well loved by the peasants. However they can go to the Iron Court, they just have to be ready for an uphill battle. The ladies of the Iron Court will bully them mercilessly, and the men are even more violent and predatory. Pyke is like a battleground in that the Greyjoys are known for having a lot of children, but most very rarely live long. While there is an official heir, everyone within the family is encouraged to fight for the chair. I imagine Jon starting in the salt court and using his foreign identity to his advantage. Maybe he’d style himself as a siren to the peasants. He’d heal the sick and assist them through his warging, medical knowledge, green dreams, etc. this allows him to bypass the drowned priests, and enter directly into the folk religion of the island. He would then use politics, fashion statements, murders, deals, etc, to climb his way to the top of the court and help Theon secure the chair. Bonus points if you write him having to deal with prospective Rock Wives. I imagine him like a mix of Medea( not as homicidal) and Jared Leto’s Hephaestion. Rodrik and Maron are alive and I imagine Alannys and Balon as being like Olympias and Phillip II from Alexander 2004. Theon is dark as well.

26. Another Jon is a salt wife on Pyke AU. Jon finds himself in the library a lot to get away from the violence of Ironborn Court. So I would think Pyke has a great library with a bunch of rare shit due to them being Pirates who loot and steal. Not that they would know since no one on those damn islands read. They think it’s like witchcraft or some shit if I remember correctly. Maybe Jon goes to the drowned hall? That could be cute. So anyway, Jon finds all sort of arcane and occult shit in there. You can combine this with the above one or make it it’s own separate thing.

27. Catelyn demands Jon be given away as a baby. Ned gives him to Robert as a servant where he is swiftly forgotten and raised by Varys.

28. Same as the last but Catelyn arranges for him to be raised by Littlefinger.

29. Same as the other 2 but it’s Cersei who becomes attached to Robert’s forgotten servant and raises him among her children. It would be Cersei and Jon centric. Joffrey x Jon could work here. Willas x Jon too.

30. Same as the other 3 but maybe he’s raised in Lysa or Hoster’s court as a servant.

31. A story based off of Anaïs Nin’s Mallorca. Jon is Maria, Robb takes the place of Evelyn, and Theon is Evelyn’s brother. The og story always pisses me off but I would love to see it expanded into a full story.

32. Story Of The Eye au with Jon as the victim. Any of the above pairings. I’m not really into the pairing anymore, but this would be a great Thramsay story.

33. Y’all ever read ShaperV’s Time Braid? Classic masterpiece in the Naruto fandom. But anyway something along those lines with Jon, you decide the event and all that.

34. Jon knew from a young age that he liked men, and he also knew that he had to be the most undesirable person to ever exist. Not that any highborn men would ever take a lowborn seriously. He decides love isn’t in his future and focuses on the blade. I imagine Jon being like Clarke, O, Lexa, and Luna from The 100. A insecure Jon who thinks he isn’t worthy of love.

35. Jon becomes a famed artist. He starts out painting portraits but he becomes famed for his surrealists pieces.

36. Painter of The Night AU. Any of the three pairings.

37. Killing Stalking AU. Jon sneaks into Theon’s room as an act of revenge and things take a horrible turn. Please don’t have him pissing himself and stuff. I can do all sort of kinks but I hate excrement😭. I imagine Jon as being pretty much himself but not knowing how to deal with a Theon who is very much not acting himself. Preferred Theon, but a servant going into Willas’ off limits room could work too. Or even Robb.

38. The Hungarian Adventurer AU. So I actually fucking despise this story by Anaïs Nin, but I just read Chocolat and Macaron by sometimesImeow. I would love to see that verse expanded but I’m imagining a naive 14-15 year old Jon with Willas. I don’t really want a copy and paste of that story, but I imagine Willas as acting like this character now.

39. Y’all heard of the term Ergi in(excuse my ignorance) Viking culture? It exists as an actual class in first men cultures and Jon is one of them. They don’t have a lot of rights and they’re not very well respected. Robb x Jon.

40. Cruel intentions AU. So Cruel Intentions 1995 is actually based off of this old ass play. I don’t care which pairing it is but if y’all do that pool scene it BETTER be Theon.

41. The Bacchae AU. Jon goes to war with Robb but as he is lowborn, he is thrown in with the rest of the fodder. Lost in the Riverlands, Jon is slowly driven insane by the horrors of war - especially those done to women and children. Wargs, Drugs, and stressful situations was never going to be a good combination. Basically Jon is Dionysus. He collects a band of women and pretty boys- whores, commoners, etc - that he turns into Bacchae using a mix of warging and drugs. The drugs allow for them to basically use a berserker fighting style. They run through the riverlands killing men and driving ppl insane. Maybe Arya is the one who makes Jon snap out of it, idk.

42. Pretty much the same as above but it’s the Green Men and The Wild Hunt.

43. The Children/Others are kinda like the Fae from true blood. Mostly they use the Lumiere fruit, light, and hide on a different plane. Jon firsts falls into the Fae realm while hiding from Catelyn as a child. Let’s do Dark Children of The Forest or Others. They act like actual Fae from myth and Jon learns a lot by bargaining with them and shit.

44. People often forget that the Children could talk to the dead too. Theon locks Jon in the crypts where he discovers a strange and ancient ability. A Jon who practices necromancy and Tibetan Chöd. He bargains with dead spirits for secrets and power.

45. A story where Jon kinda does the first part of Dany’s story but in westeros, and not with dragons. I’m imagining the moment at the end of Season 1 where Dany rises from the ashes with her 3 infant dragons This is gonna sound strange but I think it could be cool if his “power” would basically be him being the first omega. Make him like a Mohini sort of character or something. Maybe he can turn other people into omegas. A twist on the Alpha, Beta, Omega, thing.

46. I can’t remember the name of the story, but it’s an AU where all the houses are vampire families but the targs were different. It was a Robb x Jon and really good. Anyways, more vampire fics taking place in the fandom are needed. Especially ones like that. I really like Jon not being a vampire in those too. At least at first.

47. Jon in an act of compassion, demands Theon takes Ghost instead of him. This explores what would’ve happened if Jon would’ve given Theon Ghost and in doing so put Theon’s internal battle to rest. Theon x Jon or Jon x Robb or all 3.

48. Theon and Jon Titanic AU. Jon is Rose, Theon is Jack.

49. Carmilla AU. I think it would work best with Theon but It could be any of them. This could also be a good subtle form of vampirism for doing a vampiric westeros AU tbh.

Can someone tell me why I can’t create a Willas x Jon tag? I’ve noticed we can’t seem to create new tags anymore.

#asoiaf fanfiction #theon x jon #game of thrones fanfiction #jon x robb #gay fanfiction

[myupostsheadcanons]

Books “Read” in 2019

I am going to rank these by how much i enjoyed them vs. any actual literary quality. often well written books aren’t always the most entertaining books.

Note: i listen to many of these books at work, which is why i am able to go through so many of them in a year.

List from 2017 List from 2018

------- My Favs of the Year ----

Novels from The First Law:

Best Served Cold (#1), The Heroes(#3), Red Country(#4), Sharp Ends(#5).

A Little Hatred (#2) (Age of Madness, sequel to The First Law)

I read “The First Law Trilogy” about a year or two ago and finally got around to reading the rest of the books, just in time for a new series taking place in the same world to start up (Age of Madness) and now i am waiting like everybody else for the next two books to come out in 2020 and 2021. A Little Hatred shouldn’t be read as a stand alone, a lot of what goes on is dependent mainly on knowledge from the first trilogy and in The Heroes, then bits and pieces from Best Served Cold and Red Country. So much of your enjoyment of each book is based on what you’ve learned in other ones (character development or seemingly useless information being not so useless later).

Age of Legend (Book 4,  Legend of the First Empire)

This is more-or-less an “aftermath” book where the main characters are still reeling about what happened in the previous book and are trying to make plans for what they are going to do next. I still like the characters and the world/setting it takes place in.

House of Assassins (Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, Book 2)

I’ve been waiting for the next book in this series to come out the second i finished the first book in the series. It is one of those Science fiction in the disguise of Fantasy settings and I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see how that plot/revelation comes out (I am certain that the location the story takes place is Earth, more specifically around Asia/India, but in a post-invasion apocalypse setting where nobody remembers anything prior to the invasion). I also really like how much of a badass Ashok is... i have a thing for emotionally stunted badass characters, especially when their flaws are held up to a mirror and have real consequences.

R. R. Haywood’s Worldship Humility & Extinct (Extracted, Book 3)

I love the way Haywood writes characters and dialog. I was at-first iffy about WSH, but was won over after i warmed up to the new characters.

Shades of Magic Trilogy (A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, A Conjuring of Shadows)

Solid multi-verse and magic system world. Well-written characters, some minor nitpicks on plot points, but can be easily ignored. LGBTQ rep, the gays don’t stay buried.

“Don’t you have enough [knives]?” “You can never have too many.” [me, every time: LOL]

One of the few times when a character deserves a redemption arc, doesn’t really get one, dies, and i am perfectly fine with it because it is done well.

Assassin’s Fate (Fitz and the Fool, Book 3)

I read this one in book-book form, but i already knew most of the emotionally painful parts of the book by spoiling it to myself when it first came out a couple years ago. The main appeal is the inner monologues of the two main characters, even if like 50% of this trilogy is basically spending weeks/months trying to go from Point A to Point B, when many other books would have glossed over the details of travel.. but you can really feel the stress as they dwell in their thoughts and struggles.

Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles & Circe

Re-Imagining of the Iliad and The Odyssey. Focusing not on the characters of Achilles or Odysseus, but on Petroclus (Achilles’ lover) and Circe the sea nymph witch that Odysseus had an affair and child with.

The Spear of the Stars (Cycle of Galand, Book 5)

Still love Dante and Bleys... This is where they really get into the meat of world building and solving the mysteries of the Arawn Cycle (the book/bible) and peel back the layers of their reality.

Dust (Silo Book 3)

A great ending to a good series, it answers whether or not humanity can or has survived what had caused them to be locked away in the silos.

Blackthorn and Grim (Dreamer’s Pool, Tower of Thorns, Den of Wolves)

I like the premise of the books, the two main characters first seeking out revenge, but end up wanting to become better people due to magic shenanigans.... One part Fantasy, One Part Mystery, One Part Lovestory.

The Dispatcher (Audible Free Book) 

I want a whole series based off this novella. It is John Scalzi so he can write a good story. I had previously read Android’s Dream by him, which it didn’t make it into my top-10 that year, but was still decent, even if the subject matter was a bit gross... The Dispatcher world is a Sci-Fi Noir, not quite Cyberpunk, where people don’t die by anything other than natural causes. The Dispatcher’s job is to kill people before something goes does wrong and the person “resets” to when they where safe and sound.

---- this is the “Above Average” Zone ----

All the Pretty Horses & Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

The master of bleak and depressing fiction. if regular Dark Fiction isn’t enough for you.... there is Cormac McCarthy books. Get use to the “purple prose” that fills up pages with no dialog.

The Golem and the Jinni

Supernatural world of the far past dealing with Edwardian New York and Immigration. It not only is a “fish out of water” story of the two main characters trying to fit in with society but they are among communities that are also new to America and trying to find their own place in the world. There are love subplots but most of those kind of fizzle out.

The Axe and the Throne: Bounds of Redemption Vol. 1.

“Discount First Law” book... it is lacking the dark humor that made TFL series far more entertaining.  This was also the book that was prefaced by warning people about how grim and dark the setting was... Hahahaha. I still found it entertaining none the less, and hope the rest would show up on audible soon.

Black Snow, White Crow (Audible Free Book) 

Another one of those short stories that should have a larger saga to its name. Fantasy Industrial Punk. It has the whole equality role reversal thing going on, it isn’t done quite as well as Left Hand of Darkness (but that book leaned onto the boring side of things).

Stephen King’s IT, Pet Semetary, and Carrie

It’s Stephen King. Classic King. Not much else to say.

Watership Down

Depressing Rabbit Book. Though I did like all the stories and mythology the rabbits had.

Bloody Acquisitions (Fred the Vampire Accountant, Book 3)

A series that is always fun to listen to. I wish the audio books were cheaper because they are rather short.

Lethal White (Cormoran Strike, Book 4)

shuddup, i don’t care if it is Rowling... i have a low-key crush on Cormoran.... he just hits that big-burly tragic-backstory man-shaped soft-spot of mine. These stories are also her “for adults” writings so...  expect more racism and garbage values.

The Eye of the World (Book 1, Wheel of Time)

Classic set up to a long running series, though i am reluctant to go further as the middling books in this series are said to drag out the story too much.... It’s not as self-centered as Wizard’s First Rule and the characters are more relatable and stick to their fantasy tropes. This is the “mold” that other modern fantasy try to subvert by going “darker and edgier.”

The Exorcist

If you like the movie, read the book. There is a lot of back story that the movie wasn’t able to adapt.

---- This is the “AVERAGE, but Still Good”  Zone ---

The Iliad and The Odyssey

Classics. I am still on the hunt for an unabridged version of Jason and the Argonauts story. I also have Virgil’s Aeneid in my wishlist to get too soon.

Phillipa Gregory’s Plantagonate Novels (The Lady of the Rivers, The Red Queen, White Queen, The Kingmaker’s Daughter)

Sometimes it is like reading the same book 5x in a row. other times you end up not liking the previous protagonist in a book you just finished reading because of how the current protagonist sees them from their POV.

Return of the King (Lord of the Rings, Book 3)

Read the other books last year and didn’t get around to this one for a few months.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Fuck... I’m a janitor... why can’t i afford a house?   If you liked Stephen King’s “IT” go back and read this book.

Alien Franchise Dramatizations: Alien: Sea of Sorrows, Alien: The Cold Forge (Audible Free Book) Alien III (Audible Free Book)

I don’t mind that they all are done with a full cast. Though often I end up wanting to find the actual book and listen to them with just one narrator and descriptions.

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (Narnia, Book 1)

I would like to get the rest of the books in this series, but for books that are only 5-7 hours long they want 20$ a book for them. It needs to go into an omnibus.

Stephen Fry’s Victorian Secrets (Audible Free Book)

It’s Stephen Fry... he’s funny and a good narrator.

Wizard’s First Rule (Book 1, Sword of Truth)

I don’t like Richard. He started off alright, but even before he got tortured 2/3rds into the book, i was starting to dislike his personality.  Other than that, the side characters and world are solid, but it was like taking an R-rated movie and cutting it down for TV. There is somethings that are vaguely described when i am use to harder fiction like ASoIaF, The First Law, Dresden, and McCarthy books actually describing those things.

Halloween (2018, movie novel)

Like I said when i first read the book, it would’ve benefited by a second re-write before being published. But, i like the movie and so I liked the book.

Don Quixote

Another classic read. I did find it hilarious that the Author spent a good chunk of the second book complaining about Fanfiction of his own book... in the 1600′s.

The Princess Diarist

I listened this book instead of going to see TROS. worth it.

Smoke Gets in Your eyes: And other Lessons from the Crematorium

Non-Fiction, If you want to know the ins and outs of the funeral business and get told in an informative yet non-clinical way with lots of tidbits and history facts tossed in as well as a semi-autobiographical account of the Author’s life.

--- These Books are “Alright” ---

Frank L. Baum’s Wizard of Oz books

I ligit got into an argument with a 70yo man in a comic book shop about how Canon the other Oz books were post Baum’s death. He was looking for Oz comic books and I brought up reading the first 14 books, and he’s like “There’s over 100 of them” and i was all “but all those are written by somebody else.” and he got all “they are still canon...” 

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

If you want to know about the In//cel ideology in a classic literary form, this fits the bill. So much man pain.

A Christmas Carol (Tim Curry) (Audible Free Book)

Tim Curry, guys.....

The Poetic Edda (Norse God Mythology)

I listened this book twice. I bought two Edda books thinking I’d get some extra content, but no... same book just different production teams and readers. Returned the one with the worst translation.

Treasure Island (Audible Free Book, dramatization)

I need to read the actual book sometime, but i did like the cast and thought they did a good job.

Wally Roux, Quantum Mechanic (Audible Free Book)

A YA coming of age story about diversity and acceptance... with wacky science fiction. 

Carmilla (Audible Free Book, dramatization)

The vampire before Dracula. Victorian Lesbian love story.

Even Tree Nymphs get the Blues (Audible Free Book)

A novella from one of those “love on the Bayou” romance series with supernatural creatures. Could practically take place in the same world of either True Blood, Dresden, or Fred the Vampire Accountant.

Mystwick School of Musicraft (Audible Free Book)

Harry Potter lite. For 10yo girls.

A Grown-up’s Guide to Dinosaurs (Audible Free Book)

I like dinosaurs.

Rivals! Frenemies Who Changed the World (Audible Free Book, Dramatization)

Interesting way on telling us about the Fossil Wars and Puma vs. Adidas.

True-Crime from Audible: Body of Proof (Audible Free Book),   Midnight Son (Audible Free Book), The Demon Next Door (Audible Free Book), Killer By Nature (Audible Free Book)

Why is True-Crime or YA fiction the only halfway-decent things Audible is giving us? But yeah, these are basically the type of reporting that the two journalists from Halloween were trying to do. Where they go around and gather up information about semi-famous cases and present it in a Podcast-like format.

---- Meh... ---

Camp Red Moon (Audible Free Book)

Would’ve been better if they were actually written by R. L. Stein.

More Bedtime Stories for Cynics (Audible Free Book)

No... half of these aren’t written very well.

The Darkwater Bride (Audible Free Book, Dramatization)

The setting is nice, but it is far too .... Soap Opera Dramatic.

Junk (Audible Free Book)

A cross between Alien Invasion and Zombie outbreak, read by John Waters and written as if it was a bad version of a Philip K. Dick Novel.

Rip Off!! (Audible Free Book)

Most of them are duds and boring. I don’t even remember half of them without having to look them up. The two that stood out the most for me where the “Other Darren/Bewitched” and the “Dark and Stormy Night” stories, the rest were rather garbled.

--- Garbage... ---

Dodge and Twist (Audible Free Book, Dramatization)

No, you are not being edgy or kool.

Unread:

Siege Tactics (Spells, Swords, & Stealth. Book 4)

Triumphant (Genesis Fleet, Book 3)

Earthsea (Tehanu and Tales from Earthsea, i am going to re-listen to the first three before i get to these)

Into the Wilds (Warriors, Book 1)

Pout Neuf (Audible Free Book)

House of Teeth (Audible Free Book)

Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons (Audible Free Book)

The Other Boleyn Girl (Phillipa Gregory)

#the first law #legend of the first empire #saga of the forgotten warrior #realm of the elderlings #a darker shade of magic #the song of achilles #john scalzi #r. r. haywood #Cycle of Galand #blackthorn and grim #myu reads #long post

[fortunatelylori]

Why the Jon/Daenerys romance doesn’t work (Part 1)

Are D&D really idiots?

Disclaimer: So ... my experience with Tumblr is veeeery limited ... as in this is my first post on here so if I fail to link things properly, give credit for gifs, caps or other people’s creations in an appropriate manner, I apologize in advance. Please let me know if you notice something like that and I will change things accordingly.

I have been scrolling around the site for about a week now, after having revisited season 7 of GOT. I will freely admit in advance that I ship Jonsa. However, for what it’s worth, when season 7 first came out, I was more than ready to abandon my Jonsa dreams and get on board with the Jonerys love fest, since everyone around me assured me that it was the end all be all of romance. After seeing the episodes for the first time, I was completely underwhelmed but I ignored my gut feelings because well ... everyone assured me that Jon and Dany were oh, so meant to be. Who am I to fight fate, I thought?!? So I just shrugged and moved on with my life.

However, part of the problem with this ship is that the more time passes, the more people like me, who actually enjoy watching and rewatching the same thing over and over again, start to see the cracks in it. I don’t mean to offend anyone that ships Jonerys, even though I probably will or anyone who likes Dany. Personally, I’ve had a whole host of problems with her character but I will refrain from commenting on my issues with her in this series and just give an opinion on why this story has the deepest scent of red herring since the invention of red herrings.

Before I get into it, I will keep these metas mainly focused on the story from a scriptwriting POV, since that was my job for a time. This series will be less focused on visual cues, camera angles and such. People with far more patience and experience have already done this so I will focus my observations around my area of expertise, such as it is.

In this first part I will try to dispel a few notions about  David Benioff, D.B. Weiss and their writing crew.

One of the common defenses for Jonerys, is that the creators of GOT are simply not every good at their job. They are unable to craft a decent love story for these two characters.

So the guys who created the most popular TV show on Earth, a show that HBO has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into, are hacks. Ok … 

Why do people believe that? Well, for a number of reasons:

1)      The show does not have the thematic scope and wealth of characters that GRRM included in his series

This is true. From the direwolves, to the missing characters, to entire plot threads, prophecies and themes upon themes, D&D have significantly simplified GRRM’s work.

But I would argue this is not because they don’t know how to do their jobs, but rather because they do know how to do it.

GRRM’s himself has said that he started writing ASOIAF out of sheer frustration with being a scriptwriter. Writing a book IS an extremely liberating experience after writing scripts. Why? Because words on a page cost nothing, aside from time and creativity. The sky is the limit.

The sky is absolutely not the limit when you’re a scriptwriter. You are constrained by all sorts of things like: money, sets, weather, daylight vs. night time, actors ‘availability etc. You’re always looking at what you can condense, tighten up. You’re always cutting words out of lines to make them sharper, regrouping scenes so you can maximize your locations, cut out all the fat so you can get an episode that is the required length.

And then there’s the all important element: the audience. People have different reactions to reading something vs. watching something. You read to get lost in a world, the journey is the main entertainment. In contrast, you come back week after week to watch a TV show to see what your favorite characters are getting up to.

Considering all of this, is it really surprising that they would cut out things like the young Griff or fArya from the show? Does anyone believe that the general audience out there cares about them? No. They want to see Jon, Arya, Tyrion, Dany … And they also want to see progression. A season of Tyrion on a boat thinking about stuff is not an option.

Also, GOT has quite a reputation for having a hellava lot of characters. Just watch the honest trailer that Screen Junkies have done:

At around the 3:20 mark they point out all the characters whose names you remember and all those you don’t. And it’s hilarious. Why? Because it’s true.

By season 3, people were still struggling to remember Littlefinger’s actual name. How do you think they’d fair with all the Greyjoys that pop up in the books like mushrooms after the rain?

So yes, D&D and their team cut out themes, characters and storylines for the sake of brevity. That’s what scriptwriters have to do, as sad as it may sound. That’s not to say they do everything right but by and large they’ve done a decent enough job for me not to assume they can’t write a proper love story for 2 characters that they’ve been working with for 6 seasons.

2)      Emilia and Kit have chemistry in real life so if that didn’t translate on screen, it’s because the scriptwriters were doing a terrible job at tapping into it

See, I would almost buy into that if it wasn’t for the fact that their scenes aren’t poorly conceived but rather are actively undermining the budding romance. You never get a sense of completion, of certainty from any of them. I will go through every scene in my next post, but for now, I’d just like to draw your attention to this moment:

(source: @dreamofspring )

We’ll leave aside character motivations on this for now, but if the script writers put that line in there to further advance the Jonerys romance, then they shouldn’t be in charge of writing commercials, let alone multimillion productions.

Are we to assume they simply forgot the other two instances where this line was used?

They revisited the Tower of Joy this season but apparently no alarm bells went off in the writer’s room at this:

(source:  @dreamofspring​)

They paralleled Jon’s arc this season to Mance Rayder’s but nope, simply forgot about this:

This script went through a dozen rewrites and probably 100 hands by the time it made it to the screen and yet at no point did anyone think: “Hey guys maybe we shouldn’t have Jon say good bye to his lady love by quoting Mance right before he was burned alive.” Those silly, silly writers.

3)      The show has taken a dive quality wise since they can’t follow GRRM’s source material any longer

There is some validity to this, I will admit. This season we’ve seen the likes of Tyrion, Varys and Littlefinger lose some of their vital energy and characteristics that have made them such interesting, fun characters to watch.

The Littlefinger plot, in particular, was poorly executed. In their desire to leave us in the dark about what was happening in order to have what amounted to a cheap twist at the end, we were given a convoluted, clunky mystery plot where everyone was playing everyone else but not really. While I’m glad, on principal, that the show established the Stark sisters coming together as a unit against a common foe, giving Littlefinger such a stupid ending left a bitter taste in my mouth. Not a worthy completion to the arc of one of the best players of the Game of Thrones at all. So yes, they dropped the ball on that one.

Tyrion and Varys are a different matter. The main reason why they’re rather ineffective and sidelined is because they probably shouldn’t be there in the first place. That’s because their entire vision on life, justice and good kingship comes directly at odds with Dany’s “Fire and blood” policy. They are just now starting to worry about this predicament but they’re both far too smart not to have noticed until now. The woman brought 3 dragons and a Dothraki horde into Westeros. What did they think she was going to do with them? Play boggle?!?

If I try really hard, I can find an explanation for Tyrion. I think, probably, he’s still reeling for the trial and murdering dad so he’s not in the best state of mind.

Varys however? He definitely shouldn’t be there. He should be with young Griff which makes much more sense since it’s very likely there is a deep, personal connection there that would make the usually cynical and skeptical Varys trust that the person he is actively supporting is actually best for the realm. But alas, young Griff doesn’t exist so he’s stuck with Dany, until he finally turncoats and gets burned alive. So brevity is at fault here.

All that being said, I think it’s unfair to assert that the show runners have dropped the ball. That’s because the more I think about it, the more season 7 looks like a part of a whole, instead of an arc on its own. There are too many open ended questions, too many character choices that don’t make sense (particularly Jon who is, by far, the central character this season) for it to feel complete.

Season 7 is like the Infinity War part 1 of Game of Thrones. You can analyze it on its own but you can’t really determine its true quality or meaning until you see Part 2.

I know this got very long so thank you to everyone that had the patience to read until the end. J

#jonsa #meta #my got meta #anti-jonerys #i wish you good fortune in the wars to come

[battlestar-royco]

8x03 Arya anon. I agree with everything you said about Jon and Dani. Originally I thought the Night King would be defeated by one of them (because duh) but the Arya twist was one I didn't see coming and yet kinda makes sense. Which is surprising considering the horrible writing of the last few seasons. And now we're back to who is going to win the Iron Throne. I'm personally rooting for Sansa to win and Arya to become head of her Queensguard while Jon becomes Lordof Winterfell or something. You?

Hi again! In the grand scheme of GOT/ASOIAF things, I’m not invested much in the concept of Azor Ahai and who it will be. The two main contenders from the books are Jon and Dany, two characters toward which I am pretty neutral (I don’t viscerally hate them like I do other characters, but I don’t love them like I do the Stark sisters), so I wasn’t as horrified by the Arya choice as others were. If D&D had to pull the rug out from under us for shock effect, I’m glad they chose Arya. I also would have loved to see it be Bran because his storyline is obviously much more involved with the NK than Arya’s ever was. They could have given Arya the Cersei kill and kept consistent with the Jon/Dany/Bran foreshadowing and I would have been okay with that. Alas. This show? Making sense? Preposterous.

As for the Iron Throne: I’m still just… reeling and appalled at the fact that the writers consider Cersei and the game of thrones to be the ultimate endgame of this story, so I hadn’t really predicted much beyond the War for the Dawn. It feels like this episode was their way of brushing the WW and the NK aside, as if they hadn’t been building up to it for seven seasons, so they could move on to this drawn-out and contrived conflict in KL. Personally, I’m not rooting for any final king or queen. I feel like the Iron Throne will become irrelevant by the end of the books, so I never gave much thought to the show’s IT endgame because I truly didn’t expect it to be a thing. I have always thought that all the Starks belong in the North. I don’t see the IT appealing to any of them after two generations of trauma, war, and separation caused by the people in KL. I also would really like if all the Seven Kingdoms become independent as they once were, instead of just a Northern independence ending solely because the relevant characters happen to be from the North. The North aren’t the only ones who were affected by the war. Knowing the writers of this show, there probably will be a final king or queen, with the North being the one independent kingdom. I will honestly be very upset if Sansa ends up on the IT instead of in Winterfell, but if I had to guess, I’ll say Jon, perhaps ruling beside Queen Dany. On that assumption, I really sincerely hope Sansa, Arya, and Bran can be K/QitN, Pevensie style. All this to say: what I’m rooting for is different from what I predict. I’m rooting for a social deconstruction of the IT; a split of the 7K; and either all the Starks as K/QitN or at the very least Sansa as queen with Arya as queensguard, Bran as whisperer, and Jon as adviser or something. I predict a J0nerys marriage and rule, Bran and Arya staying in the North, and Sansa might either end up on the small council in KL or as Lady of Winterfell.

#got spoilers #got

[joannalannister]

Beginnings

Below the cut is a selection of GRRM’s opening sentences (or opening paragraphs) from his various stories. This is not a comprehensive list, though it comes close.

The purpose of this compilation is to reflect on the compelling nature of GRRM’s writing. I would like to gain insight into why GRRM’s beginnings have such power to reel so many people in. I would also like to see if any patterns or commonalities emerge, though I am not sure if any exist. Finally, I hope such study may inspire me to improve my own writing.

Findings: GRRM’s beginnings vary: deaths, warnings that go unheeded, loves lost, arrivals of unexpected guests, lots and lots of things. I would say a death or three is GRRM’s most common opener, used multiple times throughout his career, but he opens with anything. 

Typically GRRM’s opening sentences have a signifier that we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Sometimes this signifier is small and subtle and easily missed (see “The Glass Flower” below), while sometimes GRRM hits you over the head with a sledgehammer. His better intros imo are the more subtle ones that we’re not on Old Earth any longer, and the reveal that we’ve fallen into Faerie takes place more slowly, and we have to gather worldbuilding clues along the way. (Think of the low-magic of the first chapters of ASOIAF; compare it to the reader being bludgeoned with the “volcryn” descriptions in the opening paragraph of “Nightflyers” below. I prefer the former.) 

GRRM’s opening sentences are bold and evocative. They’re typically active rather than descriptive. They often tell a Hemmingway-esque short story all by themselves, and I think that’s a large part of what makes them compelling. (A lot of GRRM’s writing feels episodic, self-contained, such as when even a single chapter of ASOIAF tells a story all its own, such as Aeron’s TWOW chapter. Perhaps this is a vestige of GRRM’s career as a tv writer.) GRRM’s first sentence or first paragraph perfectly encapsulates what the story is going to be about (a poetic version of his thesis, if you will), but it leaves you asking all sorts of questions about what the story will entail, drawing you in. His beginnings are often strongly emotional: shame, anger, fear, despair, joy, love. 

There is a pattern to opening novels set in the Ice & Fire universe: time. The Dunk & Egg prequels begin with a season (spring in THK, summer in TSS & TMK). I would venture a guess that the first sentence of The She-Wolves of Winterfell will mention summer or autumn. (I would put my money on autumn, tbh.) (There may be reasons for this.)

The main ASOIAF novels begin with a time of day, although perhaps it would be more accurate to say they begin with a measure of light or shadow. The first sentence of the prologue of AGOT begins with a darkening of the world as night falls, but the true opening of the series -- Bran’s POV, the first POV -- is a dawning. (Insert rant here about how ASOIAF is not nihilist; dawnings symbolize hope in fantasy literature, and ASOIAF is above all hopeful.) 

The first sentence of ACOK is another dawn, while ASOS speaks of day, “grey and bitter cold,” as we move from the bright light of dawn to a cloudy day toward night. The FeastDance, originally intended to be a single volume, is a special case imo. The first sentence of ADWD refers to night, in keeping with the Battle for the Dawn drawing ever closer, but AFFC speaks only of dragons in its short first sentence. However, the prologue of AFFC occurs very late at night / very early in the morning, matching up to the time set by the ADWD prologue. I theorize that the opening sentence / paragraph of the prologue of TWOW will mention “night” or “darkness” in some way. 

I know GRRM says he’s a gardener rather than an architect, but if you reread his openings after you’ve finished the story, you can always see the ending right there at the beginning. GRRM's beginnings are usually excellent imo. But I think his endings are better. The endings are what stick the knife in me. I forget his beginnings -- they get folded smoothly into the story like butter into cookie dough, hence my need for this list -- but his endings haunt me. GRRM’s endings -- the ending of a character, the ending of a chapter, the ending of one of his novels -- his endings linger, long after the rest is gone. (“No, don’t, don’t cut my hair. Ned loves my hair.”) But its the beginnings that set it all up.

GRRM’s first sentences:

The Prophet came out of the South with a flag in his right hand and an axe handle in his left, to preach the creed of Americanism.

--And Death His Legacy

Outside the walls the Jaenshi children hung, a row of small gray-furred bodies still and motionless at the ends of long ropes. 

--And Seven Times Never Kill Man

The crossworlds had a thousand names. Human starcharts listed it as Grayrest, when they listed it at all—which was seldom, for it lay a decade’s journey inward from the realms of men. The Dan’lai named it Empty in their high, barking tongue. [...] But mostly it was the crossworlds to the beings who paused there briefly while they jumped from star to star.

--The Stone CIty

When he finally died, Shawn found to her shame that she could not even bury him.

--Bitterblooms

“Heresy,” he told me. The brackish waters of his pool sloshed gently.

--The Way of Cross and Dragon

There is a girl who goes between the worlds.

--The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr  (this story was so beautiful, i love it so, it killed me)

Adara liked the winter best of all, for when the world grew cold the ice dragon came.

--The Ice Dragon

You can buy anything you might desire from Gray Alys. But it is better not to.

--In The Lost Lands

They came straight from the ore-fields that first time, Trager with the others, the older boys, the almost-men who worked their corpses next to his.

--Meathouse Man

Simon Kress lived alone in a sprawling manor house among dry, rocky hills fifty kilometers from the city. So, when he was called away unexpectedly on business, he had no neighbors he could conveniently impose on to take his pets. The carrion hawk was no problem; it roosted in the unused belfry and customarily fed itself anyway. The shambler Kress simply shooed outside and left to fend for itself; the little monster would gorge on slugs and birds and rock jocks. But the fish tank, stocked with genuine earth piranha, posed a difficulty. Finally Kress just threw a haunch of beef into the huge tank. The piranha could always eat one another if he were detained longer than expected. They’d done it before. It amused him.

--Sandkings

When Jesus of Nazareth hung dying on his cross, the volcryn passed within a light-year of his agony, headed outward. When the Fire Wars raged on Earth, the volcryn sailed near Old Poseidon, where the seas were still unnamed and unfished. By the time the stardrive had transformed the Federated Nations of Earth into the Federal Empire, the volcryn had moved into the fringes of Hrangan space.

--Nightflyers

The Pear-Shaped Man lives beneath the stairs. 

--The Pear-Shaped Man

On the high ramparts of Vargon, Colonel Bengt Anttonen stood alone and watched phantasms race across the ice.

--Under Siege

Willie smelled the blood a block away from her apartment.

--The Skin Trade

Once, when I was just a girl in the first flush of my true youth, a young boy gave me a glass flower as a token of his love.

--The Glass Flower

The spring rains had softened the ground, so Dunk had no trouble digging the grave.

--THK

In an iron cage at the crossroads, two dead men were rotting in the summer sun.

--TSS

A light summer rain was falling as Dunk and Egg took their leave of Stoney Sept.

--TMK

“We should start back,” Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them.

--A Game of Thrones

The morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer.

--A Game of Thrones (i included both the prologue and the opening chapter of agot because i love them both)

The comet’s tail spread across the dawn, a red slash that bled above the crags of Dragonstone like a wound in the pink and purple sky.

--A Clash of Kings

The day was grey and bitter cold, and the dogs would not take the scent.

--A Storm of Swords

Dragons,” said Mollander.

--A Feast for Crows

The night was rank with the smell of man.

--A Dance with Dragons

#lannister thoughts #beginnings #first sentences #/ #// #dreamsongs #asoiaf #dunk and egg

[poorquentyn]

Hi PQ! I've found your tumblr recently and enjoyed the hell of it (I'm going to be disappointed if at least the Eldrich Apocalypse doesn't come to pass) but one (unimportant) thing struck me: why don't you appreciate (or at least don't do it as much) Arya, Tyrion, Dany and Jaime? Those 4 are among my top 10 ASOIAF characters and neither crack a spot in your POV or overall characters ranking. I'm nitpicking, don't be annoyed, but you answered a similar question about Ned, so... Why not ask, huh?

Well, ten is a tiny number with a cast this massive, so leaving anyone off a top ten list isn’t a criticism; just a reflection that, say, Euron, Stannis, Catelyn, and Quentyn hit me harder than Arya, Tyrion, Dany, and Jaime. Tyrion’s definitely still a favorite–I wrote a series about his ADWD storyline. I’ve also written a fair amount about Dany, although admittedly it’s mostly about her ADWD arc and where I see her going in TWOW and ADOS. This is because I wasn’t really reeled in RE Dany until her last two ADWD chapters (Daznak’s Pit and the return to the Dothraki Sea), which really crystallized her characterization and trajectory for me and IMO featured much stronger prose than most of her story to date. Before that, I felt her supporting cast was weak and that both her dialogue and inner monologue were somewhat stilted compared to the other main characters. GRRM didn’t feel as comfortable in Dany’s skin and story as Catelyn’s, and wasn’t as interested in her environment as he was in Jon’s and Sansa’s, or at least that’s how it seemed to me. 

Arya’s just such a well-covered character in so many respects that I don’t feel like I have much to add, though I should write more about her time in Braavos, as it’s easily my favorite part of her story so far. I’ve said my piece about Jaime, I don’t feel the need to add to it here; suffice to say I’m not a big fan, though GRRM is great at writing his inner monologue and I’m interested in a lot of things that happen in his chapters.  

#tyrion lannister #daenerys targaryen #arya stark #jaime lannister #asoiaf meta

[fic-dreamin]

My all time favorite series! Thank you, Terry, for a great journey! I first began reading this series in the 90s and haunted the Fantasy aisle in the bookstore periodically until each new installment was offered. Yes, some basic elements are in the story (a must for the genre) but the premise and the back story details are quite unique and fascinating. I grew up watching swashbuckler and mythical movies on Saturday afternoons and pined for more stories of far away heroes and dangerous adventure that were not at all similar to my safe, suburban reality. Perhaps my youth was as shielded as Richard's youthful years in Westland. The Three Muskateers, Jason and the Arogonauts, and then the original series of Star Trek head up my long list of favorites. This series was a natural for me. It has been a few years since I read The Omen Machine so I will read it again before I read the next 2. I am glad to see several of the series made the New York Best Seller List. Right now, the book club I am in wanted a sci-fi or fantasy selection so I proffered this and am enjoying reading it again. Tonight I will discover if they liked it. Go to Amazon

Great book,especially if you are waiting for Martin to finish his next book. I started off with LOTR and moved to ASOIAF. Like many I wanted something similar while I wait for Martin to finally finish his next book. I read several books and his dark material series trying to fill the void. I came upon the debt of bones in a collection of short fantasy stories and it reeled me in. I saw that Goodkind was getting a lot of positive reviews but after reading his critics I thought twice about starting the series. It really is crazy how well his books are rated but so many people like me were almost influenced by the strong criticism against him. Go to Amazon

I had mixed feelings about this book I had mixed feelings about this book. When it started I was like, yeah, this is OK. Then there were some clear Star Wars like plot lines (Obi-Wan, anyone?). After that I just started getting bored with the journey. Still, I didn’t give up. I kept on. And I’m glad I did. The story took on a much more original direction, with some emotionally gripping scenes. This isn’t a love story, but there is a type of Romeo and Juliet tragedy entangled within. Some decent twists and interesting characters. Good questions regarding the power of love and hate. The price of justice and forgiveness. Keep in mind that there are scenes more appropriately labeled “adult” than “young.” Some mature sexual content and of course, the expected fantasy violence (does get a bit gory at times). Would personally rate it 18+. Overall, I enjoyed the tale and will look to read the second book down the road. Go to Amazon

I tried really hard to like this book I tried really hard to like this book. After all, I don't mind a predictable story. I like a good formulaic fantasy novel as much as the next gal. But... I cannot abide bad writing. And the writing in this book is bad enough that I don't think I can bring myself to finish it. I'm enjoying the story, but the writing is distracting enough that it keeps pulling my focus. I like getting lost in my stories, and the writing in this book is preventing me from doing that. Go to Amazon

It Burns Us, Precious!!! The writing! Egads! It hurts my eyeballs. I wanted to like this book, and in truth, I do. The story is there. The plot is there. But, the writing is juvenile. It's like someone wanted to wax poetic in a Tolkien manner (and I do love Tolkien), but did it with a middle school vocabulary. Which wouldn't be bad if it were well WRITTEN middle school level reading. Look at Harry Potter...Percy Jackson...but this feels like it was written with middle school talent, as well. It probably would have ok if I hadn't cut my fantasy teeth on A Song of Ice and Fire or just gotten done reading Eye of the World. Frankly, when you've disappeared into the best: Middle-earth, Westeros, Arakkis, Randland, Hogwarts...this one lacks polish, and it shows in its wooden and flat dialogue and poorly executed writing style. Go to Amazon

I would ponder about this book all day till I got off work to immerse myself back into this wonderful new world I was lucky enough to find this book in a resale shop, paid under $2.00 for it, that was many many many years ago...starting from the first sentence I was enthralled, I literally could not put this book down. When I had to, I seemed to suffer as much as Richard did, I would ponder about this book all day till I got off work to immerse myself back into this wonderful new world, full of sights, sounds, taste...yes, there were some uncomfortable parts, but overall, I was tin Richard's corner, Zedd made me laugh, Darken Rahl I personally wanted to thrash...each character made a permanent home in my mind, where today they still dwell...waiting for the end of a long story, hoping for their happy ending..hoping... Go to Amazon

Epic Fantasy Fanfare Other One-Star Reviews -- What They Said absolutely amazing! Five Stars Amazing start to a seriea Good read Great read A good next series for the Harry Potter fan in your house At least the titles are cool :) Awesome!

#Book 1): Terry Goodkind: 9780312857059: Amazon.com: Books