The Rat Cook - Is this the fate of the Freys?

In A Storm of Swords, Bran Stark, Jojen Reed and Meera Reed are still on their quest to go beyond the wall and find the three eyed crow, Robb is dead, as well as Grey wolf. Bran and his companions have just reached the Nightfort.

The Nightfort is an old Night Watch fort, older even than Castle Black. Bran, courtesy of old Nan, has heard a lot of scary stories about it, one of which is the story of the Rat Cook.

The Rat Cook was a cook in the Night Watch, who, in revenge for something an Andal king had done to him(?)butchers the King’s son and cooks him in a pie for his father. 

 The Rat Cook had cooked the son of the Andal king in a big pie with onions, carrots, mushrooms, lots of pepper and salt, a rasher of bacon, and a dark red Dornish wine. Then he served him to his father, who praised the taste and had a second slice. Afterward the gods transformed the cook into a monstrous white rat who could only eat his own young. He had roamed the Nightfort ever since, devouring his children, but still his hunger was not sated. “It was not for murder that the gods cursed him,” Old Nan said, “nor for serving the Andal king his son in a pie. A man has a right to vengeance. But he slew a guest beneath his roof, and that the gods cannot forgive.”

The Freys, by killing Robb Stark, have also killed a guest beneath their roof. (Remember that at the beginning of this chapter, Bran was thinking about a dream he had through Summer, in which it seems he has been made aware that Robb has been killed). So, first GRRM brings Robb’s death into the conversation, and then he uses the story of the Rat Cook to show us that the old gods really do take vengeance when the laws of hospitality are violated.

So is he giving us a hint? Are the Freys going the way of the Rat Cook?

Will Bran Stark ride a dragon?

Both the Three Eyed Crow and Jojen Reed cant stop talking about how Bran Stark is the Winged Wolf. What does that mean? Will he be one of the three heads of the dragon. Just wondering?

Robb Stark's death foretold 2

I've already written a post on the various signs that Robb Stark was going to die. See here. I've just come across another one in A Storm of Swords.

The Onion Knight, Davos Seaworth has just returned from the dead, intent on gaining access to King Stannis and killing the sorceress Melisandre, he goes to the castle and runs into Patchface the fool and Shireen, the princess. This is what Patchface has to say....

“Fool’s blood, king’s blood, blood on the maiden’s thigh, but chains for the guests and chains for the bridegroom, aye aye aye.”
Fool's Blood
At the Red Wedding, Catelyn Stark kills Walder Frey's halfwit son.

King's Blood
Robb Stark's

Blood on the maiden's thigh
The bride loses her maidenhead that day, hence the blood.

Chains for the guest
Now I don't recall if any of the guests were taken captive, I know many were killed

Chains for the Bridegroom
Edmure Frey, who has been bedding his new wife while the massacre was taking place, remains afterwards as a prisoner of the Freys

Arya Stark's Fiancee

“Also, if your sister Arya is returned to us safely, it is agreed that she will marry Lord Walder’s youngest son, Elmar, when the two of them come of age.”

One of the funniest parts of reading A Clash Of Kings again was seeing Arya listen scornfully to her fiance, Elmar Frey talk about his betrothed princess, little knowing that she is the princess he's talking about. What he would have done if he knew that the serving girl, Weasel, was his princess? that's comic relief if you ask me.

'I hope your princess dies' is the last thing she says to him. i hope that statement doesnt come back to bite her, or us, in the backside. We do so love Arya 'Horseface' Stark.

Robb Stark's Death Foretold

Robb Stark, Played by Richard Madden

Reading the Song of Ice and Fire books again, it is so glaring that Robb Stark is going to die, George  R. R Martin seems to go out of his way to tell us this, and yet its still so heartbreaking, so shocking when it finally happens.

I've found four signs that tell of Robb's impending demise, there may be more, if there are I'd be glad for someone to point me to them.

The first three times come up in A Clash Of Kings, when Stannis, Renly and Catelyn meet, just before Renly is killed. Stannis tells Catelyn that Robb is a traitor and his time will come as well.

Stannis frowned at her. “You presume too much, Lady Stark. I am the rightful king, and your son no less a traitor than my brother here. His day will come as well.”

 
Afterwards, when Catelyn has witnessed Renly's horrific death, she shivers when she remembers this threat.

The second time is the vision or revelation that Daenerys Targaryen has in The House of the Undying...

 Farther on she came upon a feast of corpses. Savagely slaughtered, the feasters lay strewn across overturned chairs and hacked trestle tables, asprawl in pools of congealing blood. Some had lost limbs, even heads. Severed hands clutched bloody cups, wooden spoons, roast fowl, heels of bread. In a throne above them sat a dead man with the head of a wolf. He wore an iron crown and held a leg of lamb in one hand as a king might hold a scepter, and his eyes followed Dany with mute appeal.

Because we do not yet know that Robb will die in a feast, the connection does not come automatically, but it should, who else could be a King with the head of a wolf, only Robb Stark.

The third time is when a desperate Theon Greyjoy, after taking Winterfell, dreams of the feast that had been given for King Robert Baratheon when he comes to Winterfell in the beginning of A game of thrones, except in his dream, the King is dead, and so is Ned Stark, in fact everyone in the feast is someone who has died prior to that moment. then the door opens and Robb bursts in, with his direwolf Grey Wind, both of them with wounds all over their bodies.

That night he dreamed of the feast Ned Stark had thrown when King Robert came to Winterfell. The hall rang with music and laughter, though the cold winds were rising outside. At first it was all wine and roast meat, and Theon was making japes and eyeing the serving girls and having himself a fine time… until he noticed that the room was growing darker. The music did not seem so jolly then; he heard discords and strange silences, and notes that hung in the air bleeding. Suddenly the wine turned bitter in his mouth, and when he looked up from his cup he saw that he was dining with the dead. 

King Robert sat with his guts spilling out on the table from the great gash in his belly, and Lord Eddard was headless beside him. Corpses lined the benches below, grey-brown flesh sloughing off their bones as they raised their cups to toast, worms crawling in and out of the holes that were their eyes. He knew them, every one; Jory Cassel and Fat Tom, Porther and Cayn and Hullen the master of horse, and all the others who had ridden south to King’s Landing never to return. Mikken and Chayle sat together, one dripping blood and the other water. Benfred Tallhart and his Wild Hares filled most of a table. The miller’s wife was there as well, and Farlen, even the wildling Theon had killed in the wolfswood the day he had saved Bran’s life. 

But there were others with faces he had never known in life, faces he had seen only in stone. The slim, sad girl who wore a crown of pale blue roses and a white gown spattered with gore could only be Lyanna. Her brother Brandon stood beside her, and their father Lord Rickard just behind. Along the walls figures half-seen moved through the shadows, pale shades with long grim faces. The sight of them sent fear shivering through Theon sharp as a knife. And then the tall doors opened with a crash, and a freezing gale blew down the hall, and Robb came walking out of the night. Grey Wind stalked beside, eyes burning, and man and wolf alike bled from half a hundred savage wounds.

This was the scene that finally convinced me that Robb would die, and soon.

There was one more thing though that came up in A Storm Of Swords, and that was the worst of all.

Melisandre bowed her head stiffly, and said, “As my king commands.” Reaching up her left sleeve with her right hand, she flung a handful of powder into the brazier. The coals roared. As pale flames writhed atop them, the red woman retrieved the silver dish and brought it to the king. Davos watched her lift the lid. Beneath were three large black leeches, fat with blood. 

The boy’s blood, Davos knew. A king’s blood. 

Stannis stretched forth a hand, and his fingers closed around one of the leeches. 

“Say the name,” Melisandre commanded. 

The leech was twisting in the king’s grip, trying to attach itself to one of his fingers. “The usurper,” he said. “Joffrey Baratheon.” When he tossed the leech into the fire, it curled up like an autumn leaf amidst the coals, and burned. 

Stannis grasped the second. “The usurper,” he declared, louder this time. “Balon Greyjoy.” He flipped it lightly onto the brazier, and its flesh split and cracked. The blood burst from it, hissing and smoking.

 The last was in the king’s hand. This one he studied a moment as it writhed between his fingers. “The usurper,” he said at last. “Robb Stark.” And he threw it on the flames.

I don't know much about rituals but haven seen what the priestess had done before, when she did this in A Storm of Swords, I felt it was a sure thing, Robb Stark was going to die.

Meera and Jojen Reed

“To Winterfell we pledge the faith of Greywater,” they said together. “Hearth and heart and harvest we yield up to you, my lord. Our swords and spears and arrows are yours to command. Grant mercy to our weak, help to our helpless, and justice to all, and we shall never fail you.”

 

“I swear it by earth and water,” said the boy in green.

 

“I swear it by bronze and iron,” his sister said.

“We swear it by ice and fire,” they finished together.

 

 

Meera and Jojen Reed swearing their allegiance to the King in the North - ACoK

Let's not forget Howland Reed

The theory of Jon Snow being Lyanna Starks and Rhaegar Targaryen child is believed by a large percent of A Song of Ice and Fire fans.

After Eddard's incident with Jaime Lannister at King's Landing, and his subsequent injury, he dreams or remembers his battle with the three last Kingsguard, (the battle of the seven against three) who were guarding Lyanna Stark.

We all know Eddard promised Lyanna something 'in her bed of blood' which sounds to me like childbirth. We all know the kingsguard only protect royal blood, so the presence of three kingsguard at Lyanna's side is really suspect, unless they were protecting the Targaryen she was carrying... Jon Snow.

Now if Lyanna was really pregnant and Jon Snow is her child, now that Eddard Stark is dead, the only person who would know for a fact is the only other person who survived that epic combat, the crannogman Howland Reed.

Isn't it strange how Howland Reed keeps getting mentioned but he never appears. He is mysterious and so are his children, they know things.... They probably know much more as I'm sure we're soon to find out.

So what's the point of this post.... The Reeds are important.

Was Killing Shae an Act of Jealousy or Mercy

What would have happened to Shae if Tyrion hadn’t killed her? Imagine that she was discovered unconscious or bound on the bed, with Tywin’s body in the privy, I believe Cersei would have taken her rage out on her, had her tortured and killed maybe, sold to a slaver like she did to the mother of Robert’s bastard twins in Casterly Rock.

 

Tyrion is aware that Shae really did not have a choice in the matter of testifying against him, against Cersei’s threats she would have been like paper in a fire, what really could she have done?

Slapping Prince Joffrey

Would Tyrion Lannister have fared better at the hands of his relatives, mainly Queen Cersei and King Joffrey, if he hadn’t been so eager to play the disciplinarian towards Joffrey.

 

I liked Tyrion for Slapping Joffrey early on in AGoT, Joffrey deserved that slap, I think it’s really important for children in positions of power to have at least one or two people who they fear and respect. Joffrey doesn’t respect Tyrion though and he is confident that his mother will do something about the slap judging from his outburst “I’ll tell mother!”

 

Perhaps all that contributes to Joffrey’s treatment of Tyrion after the failed attack on Kings landing in ACoK. Or maybe not. If Tyrion had perhaps been a sweet, indulgent uncle, maybe Joffrey would have liked him better, or treated him better? I don’t know. Joffrey doesn’t seem the sort to treat a dwarf with respect. Myrcella and Tommen both love Tyrion, and they portrayed as much better children than Joffrey.

 

Between Cersei’s fear and hatred of Tyrion, Joffrey’s diddian and Tywin Lannister’s disgust of him. I don’t think Tyrion would have ever been fairly treated by his family, no matter what he did right or wrong.

The Winds of Winter

George R. R. Martin is hard at work on The Winds of Winter, the next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire/ Game of Thrones series. It will be finished sometime in 2013 and we fans can hardly wait.

There is very limited information available on the plot of the new novel, but a sample chapter is available to be read for free on GRRM's website here

The Sayings of Dolorous Edd

Dolouros Edd (real name, Eddison Tollett) is one of my favourite characters form A Song of Ice and Fire. He is a squire in the Night’s Watch who first appears in A Clash of Kings. He has a very dour personality and a very black sort of humour and whenever he appears he always makes very pessimistic yet very entertaining statements. I already think GRRM is a genius but the creation of Dolorous Edd elevates him even more in my opinion.

I decided to compile some of the sayings of Dolorous Edd, they are pessimistic, strange, dour but very very funny.

So here in italics… the words of Dolorous Edd


A CLASH OF KINGS

When Lord Commander Monmouth wishes he could ask a few questions from a burnt skull found in an abandoned wilding village….

“Bad enough when the dead come walking,” he said to Jon as they crossed the village, “now the Old Bear wants them talking as well? No good will come of that, I’ll warrant. And who’s to say the bones wouldn’t lie? Why should death make a man truthful, or even clever? The dead are likely dull fellows, full of tedious complaints—the ground’s too cold, my gravestone should be larger, why does he get more worms than I do…”

Delivering a message to Jon Snow to join the Lord Commander inside Craster’s Keep ….

“Lord Mormont’s in the hall,” he announced. “He said for you to join him. Best leave the wolf outside, he looks hungry enough to eat one of Craster’s children. Well, truth be told, I’m hungry enough to eat one of Craster’s children, so long as he was served hot. Go on, I’ll see to your horse. If it’s warm and dry inside, don’t tell me, I wasn’t asked in.”

On being told that by Jon Snow that Craster would like to be given an axe….

“Give the wildling an axe, why not?” He pointed out Mormont’s weapon, a short-hafted battle-axe with gold scrollwork inlaid on the black steel blade. “He’ll give it back, I vow. Buried in the Old Bear’s skull, like as not. Why not give him all our axes, and our swords as well? I mislike the way they clank and rattle as we ride. We’d travel faster without them, straight to hell’s door. Does it rain in hell, I wonder? Perhaps Craster would like a nice hat instead.”

Jon smiled. “He wants an axe. And wine as well.”

“See, the Old Bear’s clever. If we get the wildling well and truly drunk, perhaps he’ll only cut off an ear when he tries to slay us with that axe. I have two ears but only one head.”

“Smallwood says Craster is a friend to the Watch.”

“Do you know the difference between a wildling who’s a friend to the Watch and one who’s not?” asked the dour squire. “Our enemies leave our bodies for the crows and the wolves. Our friends bury us in secret graves. I wonder how long that bear’s been nailed up on that gate, and what Craster had there before we came hallooing?” Edd looked at the axe doubtfully, the rain running down his long face. “Is it dry in there?”

“Drier than out here.”

“If I lurk about after, not too close to the fire, belike they’ll take no note of me till morn. The ones under his roof will be the first he murders, but at least we’ll die dry.”

Jon had to laugh. “Craster’s one man. We’re two hundred. I doubt he’ll murder anyone.”

“You cheer me,” said Edd, sounding utterly morose. “And besides, there’s much to be said for a good sharp axe. I’d hate to be murdered with a maul. I saw a man hit in the brow with a maul once. Scarce split the skin at all, but his head turned mushy and swelled up big as a gourd, only purply-red. A comely man, but he died ugly. It’s good that we’re not giving them mauls.” Edd walked away shaking his head, his sodden black cloak shedding rain behind him. 

In General Discussion….

“There’s always a bear,” declared Dolorous Edd in his usual tone of gloomy resignation. “One killed my brother when I was young. Afterward it wore his teeth around its neck on a leather thong. And they were good teeth too, better than mine. I’ve had nothing but trouble with my teeth.”

“Did Sam sleep in the hall last night?” Jon asked him.

“I’d not call it sleeping. The ground was hard, the rushes ill-smelling, and my brothers snore frightfully. Speak of bears if you will, none ever growled so fierce as Brown Bernarr. I was warm, though. Some dogs crawled atop me during the night. My cloak was almost dry when one of them pissed in it. Or perhaps it was Brown Bernarr. Have you noticed that the rain stopped the instant I had a roof above me? It will start again now that I’m back out. Gods and dogs alike delight to piss on me.”

Talking about the smell of cold in the woods while cooking a stew over a camp fire…

“I know this wood as well as any man alive, and I tell you, I wouldn’t care to ride through it alone tonight. Can’t you smell it?”

Grenn was staring at him with wide eyes, but Dolorous Edd said, “All I smell is the shit of two hundred horses. And this stew. Which has a similar aroma, now that I come to sniff it.”

Cooking Eggs in the cold forest……

Edd stood over the kettle swishing the eggs about with a spoon. “I envy those eggs,” he said. “I could do with a bit of boiling about now. If the kettle were larger, I might jump in. Though I would sooner it were wine than water. There are worse ways to die than warm and drunk. I knew a brother drowned himself in wine once. It was a poor vintage, though, and his corpse did not improve it.”

“You drank the wine?”

“It’s an awful thing to find a brother dead. You’d have need of a drink as well, Lord Snow.” Edd stirred the kettle and added a pinch more nutmeg.

A STORM OF SWORDS

“I knew a man once who wore his sword on a chain around his neck like that. One day he stumbled, and the hilt went up his nose.”

On the possibility of riding dead horses like the Others do…..

“Dywen now, he says we need to learn to ride dead horses, like the Others do. He claims it would save on feed. How much could a dead horse eat?” Edd laced himself back up. “Can’t say I fancy the notion. Once they figure a way to work a dead horse, we’ll be next. Likely I’ll be the first too. ‘Edd’ they’ll say, ‘dying’s no excuse for lying down no more, so get on up and take this spear, you’ve got the watch tonight.’ Well, I shouldn’t be so gloomy. Might be I’ll die before they work it out.”

On his ill luck….

“I never win anything,” Dolorous Edd complained. “The gods always smiled on Watt, though. When the wildlings knocked him off the Bridge of Skulls, somehow he landed in a nice deep pool of water. How lucky was that, missing all those rocks?”

“Was it a long fall?” Grenn wanted to know. “Did landing in the pool of water save his life?”

“No,” said Dolorous Edd. “He was dead already, from that axe in his head. Still, it was pretty lucky, missing the rocks.”

On dying defending the wall….

“We’ll defend the Wall to the last man,” said Cotter Pyke.

“Probably me,” said Dolorous Edd, in a resigned tone.

A FEAST FOR CROWS

Asked a simple question…..

A snowflake landed on Sam’s nose. “Jon wants to see me?”

“As to that, I could not say,” said Dolorous Edd Tollett. “I never wanted to see half the things I’ve seen, and I’ve never seen half the things I wanted to. I don’t think wanting comes into it. You’d best go all the same.

On eating Mice…..

Dolorous Edd Tollett gave a sigh. “When I was a lad, we only ate mice on special feast days. I was the youngest, so I always got the tail. There’s no meat on the tail.”

Saying farewell to Sam Tarly as Sam leaves to board a boat…..

“And to you, Sam,” said Dolorous Edd. “Your boat’s not like to sink, I don’t think. Boats only sink when I’m aboard.”

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

“Pomegranates. All those seeds. A man could choke to death. I’d sooner have a turnip. Never knew a turnip to do a man any harm.”

On Sam…

“He’ll be down with the books. My old septon used to say that books are dead men talking. Dead men should keep quiet, is what I say. No one wants to hear a dead man’s yabber.” Dolorous Edd went off muttering of worms and spiders.

On stepping on rats…..

Careful of the rats, my lord.” Dolorous Edd led Jon down the steps, a lantern in one hand. “They make an awful squeal if you step on them. My mother used to make a similar sound when I was a boy. She must have had some rat in her, now that I think of it. Brown hair, beady little eyes, liked cheese. Might be she had a tail too, I never looked to see.”

On eating the Wildings…..

Dolorous Edd said, “Now I understand why King Stannis let the wild-lings through the Wall. He means for us to eat them.”

Jon had to smile. “It will not come to that.”

“Oh, good,” said Edd. “They look a stringy lot, and my teeth are not as sharp as when I was younger.”

On being Lord Commander of the Night’s watch….

“I had a frightening dream last night, m’lord,” Dolorous Edd confessed. “You were my steward, fetching my food and cleaning up my leavings. I was lord commander, with never a moment’s peace.”

On falling off the wall….

A sudden gust of wind set Edd’s cloak to flapping noisily. “Best go down, m’lord. This wind’s like to push us off the Wall, and I never did learn the knack of flying.”

On Jon taking Ghost and not him on a ranging…..

Dolorous Edd said, “He’s going with you?”

“He is.”

“A clever wolf, him. And me?”

“You’re not.”

“A clever lord, you. Ghost’s the better choice. I don’t have the teeth for biting wildlings anymore.”

On Spearwives versus Rats….

“Place was overrun with rats when we moved in. The spearwives killed the nasty buggers. Now the place is overrun with spearwives. There’s days I want the rats back.”

Craster's Children

What does Craster actually sacrifice the male babies to? Is it the others or the wights who come to take them. Old Nan says the Others feed the blood of human babies to their wights, so the others themselves don’t drink blood do they? Only feed it to the wights?

Just Wondering.

Eddard Stark's Honour

I got so angry at Eddard Stark while reading Game of Thrones again that I almost decided that he deserved to die. 

The fault many honourable men have is that they think others will act like them, they imagine that others will do the honourable thing.

I can't forgive him the lives of all those Stark men who died at Kings Landing. Renly warned him, even Littlefinger tried to steer him in a more sensible direction!

The worst part is…. The night the king died, Eddard Stark slept! He slept! Somehow, I don’t believe that Cersei slept a blink at all that night.

The Dagger and Other Questions

The Dagger

After five books, we know who sent the man with the dagger to kill Bran and why. But why did Littlefinger/Lord Petyr Baelish lie to Catelyn Stark, what was he trying to achieve? Was he trying to foster some sort of enmity between the houses Lannister and Stark? Was he trying to prompt a war…. I still don’t know, or maybe, I have missed it somewhere.

Nymeria

 

Would Nymeria ever belong to Arya Stark again? She seems to have become so wild, but at least Arya can feel her in her dreams. And when will Arya come back to Westeros and as what? 

The black cat that Arya tries to catch in the Red Keep. That’s Rhaenys Targaryen's cat right? The one she used to pretend was a dragon? I think so.

AS TALL AS A KING

I’m reading all the books again a second time around and its as good as if I were reading them for the first time.

Anyway, during the feast in honour of King Robert at Winterfell when Jon Snow, hurt by a comment from his uncle Benjen Stark goes outside and has a short conversation with the dwarf, Tyrion Lannister, did anybody else think that the last sentence of that chapter, when Tyrion opens the doors to go back inside and the light throws his shadow out and in that moment Tyrion stands as “tall as a king.” is very profound and probably prophetic.

I know that with there being Jon Snow (who may not be dead), Aegon Targaryen (or Young Griff) and Daenerys Targaryen, it seems like the three heads of the dragon may be complete, but what if Tyrion is one of the heads….? Fine he’s not a targaryen..(at least we don’t think so, there's no mention that Aerys ever fulfilled his wish of having Tywin Lannister’s wife)… okay,, its far-fetched… but it’s a theory that has found a place in my head.

Anyway, dragon or no dragon….. I do believe that at the end of the series, a wiser Sansa will actually be proud to call Tyrion her husband, or Prince…. She likes princes.