Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Monday, June 13, 2016
Lady Lance
Lady Lance Elia Sand from Arianne 1 and 2 The Winds of Winter
Pencil sketches inspired by the preview chapters taken from The Winds of Winter.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Ser Harwin Strong
Cardboard statues of the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire.
This is a post about THE KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS. If you haven't finished reading .. We gave you fair warning.
Let us begin by saying we believe GRRM very purposefully writes in such a way that different members of his audience will pick up different bits of information. Even fans who pick up the same hints will interpret those hints differently. We think he loves doing this to us. The following are the 'hints' my husband and I picked up and they lead us to believe that Ser Maynard Plumm is really Bloodraven. Sure he could just be a spy for Bloodraven but the following are some of the reasons we think it is Brynden Rivers himself.
1. They meet Ser Maynard at the weirwood stumps (nudge, nudge) where he throws our suspicions on Ser Glendon, ah, Ball and away from himself. We all start wondering about this Glendon guy.
2. Egg asks if he's kin to Lord Viserys Plumm and he says "distantly, though I doubt that his lordship would admit to it" (cuz maybe there is no such person as Maynard Plumm).
3. His description could be irrelevant if the moonstone brooch he wears is the source of his glamour. Although they are both described as tall, thin, and having long light colored hair for what it's worth.
4. Plumm knows all about the Blackfyre Rebellion and Butterwells part in it.
5. Here are some quotes concerning this .....
-- Dunk: We'd all be bastards sons of old King Aegon if half these tales were true. Plumm: And who's to say we're not.
-- Dunk says they are going to Winterfell and Plumm replies (ironically?) "too cold up there for me".
6. Plumm does not respond to treasonous talk (as if just observing).
7. When he does speak up he discusses Bloodravens strategies and knows the royal family as well as Egg.
8. When discussing the Fiddler with Dunk and the Cat Plumm seems to know full well who the Fiddler is and what he is up to. We think he is both warning Dunk and testing his honor when he tells him to take his stuff and leave. He seems to specifically want "the boy" out of there.
9. Dunk asks Plumm "how would you know my destiny? Did you have a dream, like the Fiddler? What do you know of Egg?" Thinking Plumm is Bloodraven these questions have added meaning for us.
10. Plumm's responses of "I know that eggs do well to stay out of frying pans," and "Whitewalls is not a healthy place for the boy." seem like a lot of caring about some hedge knight and his squire.
11. Even this small statement seems significant ... Ser Maynard asks Dunk who will win the dragon egg and Dunk says he doesn't know. Plumm says "Venture a guess, ser. You have two eyes." makes us laugh because Rivers has only one eye.
12. Ser Maynard comes to help Dunk after he is injured at the well. When Dunk first sees him 'all he could make out was a hooded shape and a single pale white eye.' This description just seems way to significant to mean anything else than a comparison to the pale one-eyed Bloodraven.
13. Maynard then goes from meer spy to participant by leaving Ser Alyn down in the well and he says "save him now to execute him later?" that would not be a spy's decision but rather Bloodraven's.
14. While leaning on Plumm for support Dunk thinks 'This close, there was something queer about the cast of Ser Maynard's features. The longer Dunk looked, the less he seemed to see.' We don't think this is bloodloss, we think it's a glamour.
15. When discussing Butterwell and his fear and his concern over how much Bloodraven knows about this conspiracy .. Plumms answer is 'quite a lot' and he chuckles.
16. And then classic hiding a secret identity when the question is "who are you?" and the answer is "a friend." "One who has been watching you and wondering at your presence ..." with all that is going on, with all the many players to watch, he must know who Egg is to have such interest in this hedge knight and his squire. He's got Daemon Blackfyre to watch and he's concerned with Dunk and Egg?
17. As far as we remember Ser Maynard Plumm is completely absent from the rest of the story. He just disappears and Bloodraven appears the next morning.
So with the above in mind, try reading The Mystery Knight again and see if it isn't funnier and filled with hidden meaning as you realize just how many 'mystery knights' there are in this story. We leave you with this from the end of the story .....
Bloodraven says, "Lord Butterbutt would have me believe that Prince Maekar sent you here, to sniff out this rebellion in the guise of a mystery knight. Is that the truth of it?"
Dunk went to one knee. "No, m'lord. I mean, yes, m'lord. That's what Egg told him. Aegon, I mean. Prince Aegon. So that part's true. It isn't what you'd call the true truth, though."
Oh, GRRM ... will you ever tell us "the true truth?"
Dusty & Amie
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Grumkins in A Song of Ice and Fire
Grumkins as another species akin to the children of the forest, giants and humans. Asha says as much.
"This southron king seemed to be one of those men to whom women are another race, as strange and unfathomable as giants and grumkins and the children of the forest." - The King's Prize ADWD
Tyrion is dismissive of their existence.
"...on the Wall, watching for grumkins and snarks and all the other monsters your wet nurse warned you about. The good part is there are no grumkins or snarks, so it's scarcely dangerous work." - Tyrion II AGOT
Arya considers the dangers of grumkins granting wishes.
" In Old Nan's stories about men who were given magic wishes by a grumkin, you had to be especially careful with the third wish, because it was the last." - Arya IX ACOK
Sansa thinks about them as well.
" In Old Nan's stories the grumkins crafted magic things that could make a wish come true." - Sansa V ACOK
Dany receives the blue drink from a "dwarf" outside the House of the Undying.
"...the smallest dwarf Dany had ever seen was waiting on the threshold. He stood no higher than her knee, his faced pinched and pointed, snoutish, but he was dressed in delicate livery of purple and blue, and his tiny pink hands held a silver tray. Upon it rested a slender crystal glass filled with a thick blue liquid: shade of the evening, the wine of warlocks." - Daenerys IV ACOK
The description of this creature is quite different from all the other dwarves described so far.
"He was a dwarf, half his brother's height, struggling to keep pace on stunted legs. His head was too large for his body, with a brute's squashed-in face beneath a swollen shelf of brow." - Jon I AGOT
A squashed-in face being the opposite of pinched and pointed.
Inside the House of the Undying, Daenerys sees a vision wherein four of these "dwarves" ravage a beautiful woman.
"In one room, a beautiful woman sprawled naked on the floor while four little men crawled over her. They had rattish pointed faces and tiny pink hands, like the servitor who had brought her the glass of shade. One was pumping between her thighs. Another savaged her breasts, worrying at the nipples with his wet red mouth, tearing and chewing." - Daenerys IV ACOK
I'm reminded of the way Mad Aerys savaged Rhaella.
"They said the queen looked as if some beast had savaged her, clawing at her thighs and chewing on her breasts." - Jaime II AFFC
The Mad King seems to have gone mad after his captivity at Duskendale. Did a grumkin grant his wish to be rescued? A wish that led to the end of his family dynasty? (Was Aerys replaced by four grumkins stacked up wearing a cloak? j/k sort of).
The visions in the House of the Undying are, in a sense , offers of wish fulfillment. Many of the visions have to do with her lost family members and even a return to the house with the red door where Darry tells her she's home and safe, possibly the thing she wants the most.
"All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known." - Daenerys I AGOT
She refuses all of these visions.
Good for her.
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