The ironborn, the Drowned God and climate change
Oct 22, 2016 9:12:20 GMT
voice, SlyWren, and 5 more like this
Post by arrysfleas on Oct 22, 2016 9:12:20 GMT
The World of Ice and Fire - Yet however the ironborn arose, it cannot be denied that they stand apart, with customs, beliefs, and ways of governance quite unlike those common elsewhere in the Seven Kingdoms.
Why so?
The Drowned God: did this God drown or is it the god of the Drowned?
Why are they called ironborn and not bronze-born?
Why do they have such a chip on their shoulder? Why won't they sow? What ever happened to them?
Who is the Grey King? Who are his brothers?
Can climate change explain their legendary Grey King?
In order to try and answer these questions, I will review the islands, geography and economy, the people, their religion and ancient history. We will also learn a little glaciology.
I have covered the Seastone Chair and the mysterious castle of Pyke in a separate post.
I realise this is a long post, but there is so much material... the Greyjoys are nearly as prominent as the Starks, their characters tend to be extreme and are involved in almost all the main plots. And Euron is looming large!
All extracts are from the World of Ice and Fire (WIF) unless otherwise stated.
Here is a soundtrack to keep you going as you read.
Part 1. The Iron islands
1.1 General description
The World of Ice and Fire - The Iron Islands
Mapmakers tell us that there are thirty-one Iron Islands in the main grouping off Ironman's Bay west of the Cape of Eagles, and thirteen more clustered around the Lonely Light, far out in the vastness of the Sunset Sea. The major islands of the chain number seven: Old Wyk, Great Wyk, Pyke, Harlaw, Saltcliffe, Blacktyde, and Orkmont.
Others are used for the grazing of sheep, while many more remain uninhabited.
Mapmakers tell us that there are thirty-one Iron Islands in the main grouping off Ironman's Bay west of the Cape of Eagles, and thirteen more clustered around the Lonely Light, far out in the vastness of the Sunset Sea. The major islands of the chain number seven: Old Wyk, Great Wyk, Pyke, Harlaw, Saltcliffe, Blacktyde, and Orkmont.
Others are used for the grazing of sheep, while many more remain uninhabited.
An archipelago of forty four islands, seven main ones, many others either sparsely populated or inhabited.
We can see from the map that the islands are fairly close to the coast. The wonderful westeros wiki tells us that Banefort is two days sail from Pyke but we know also that ironborn reavers returned to their islands by nightfall.
1.2 Mountains, forestry, mines, fishery
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
... the black mountains of Great Wyk across the bay put on the blue-green hues of soldier pines.
WIF - Rugged, mountainous Orkmont was home to the Iron Kings of House Greyiron in centuries gone by.
WIF - Such riches as the Iron Islands possess lie under the hills of Great Wyk, Harlaw, and Orkmont, where lead, tin, and iron can be found in abundance. These ores are the chief export of the islands. There are many fine metalworkers amongst the ironborn, as might be expected... .
WIF - The soil of the Iron Islands is thin and stony, more suitable for the grazing of goats than the raising of crops. The ironborn would surely suffer famine every winter but for the endless bounty of the sea and the fisherfolk who reap it.
WIF - The waters of Ironman's Bay are home to great schools of cod, black cod, monkfish, skate, icefish, sardines, and mackerel. Crabs and lobsters are found along the shores of all the islands, and west of Great Wyk swordfish, seals, and whales roam the Sunset Sea. Archmaester Hake, born and raised on Harlaw, estimates that seven of every ten families on the Iron Islands are fisherfolk.
... the black mountains of Great Wyk across the bay put on the blue-green hues of soldier pines.
WIF - Rugged, mountainous Orkmont was home to the Iron Kings of House Greyiron in centuries gone by.
WIF - Such riches as the Iron Islands possess lie under the hills of Great Wyk, Harlaw, and Orkmont, where lead, tin, and iron can be found in abundance. These ores are the chief export of the islands. There are many fine metalworkers amongst the ironborn, as might be expected... .
WIF - The soil of the Iron Islands is thin and stony, more suitable for the grazing of goats than the raising of crops. The ironborn would surely suffer famine every winter but for the endless bounty of the sea and the fisherfolk who reap it.
WIF - The waters of Ironman's Bay are home to great schools of cod, black cod, monkfish, skate, icefish, sardines, and mackerel. Crabs and lobsters are found along the shores of all the islands, and west of Great Wyk swordfish, seals, and whales roam the Sunset Sea. Archmaester Hake, born and raised on Harlaw, estimates that seven of every ten families on the Iron Islands are fisherfolk.
Archmaester Hake...what an appropriate name, pity there isn't a maester Monkfish!
Orkmont and Great Wyk are mountainous islands with soldier pine forests.
The three main islands are rich in ore: iron, tin and lead. Pyke also has mines [WIF - The Iron Islands: The Black Blood]; the ironborn are miners and skilled smiths.
Lead and tin can be made into an alloy called terne which was historically used to cover iron and steel sheets to inhibit corrosion. Just what you need when living by the ocean.
The islands' soil is poor but Ironman's Bay's is rich in marine life, including whales (which the Ibbenese used to build their wealth). Seventy per cent of the population are fisherfolks.
1.3 Great Wyk and House Goodbrother
A Feast for Crows - The Prophet
It is enough, thought Aeron Greyjoy. Nine wide steps had been hewn from the stony hilltop. Behind rose the howling hills of Old Wyk, with mountains in the distance black and cruel.
The way was rough, up hills and woods and stony defiles, along a narrow track that oft seemed to disappear beneath the horse's hooves. Great Wyk was the largest of the Iron Islands, so vast that some of its lords had holdings that did not front upon the holy sea. Gorold Goodbrother was one such. His keep was in the Hardstone Hills, as far from the Drowned God's realm as any place in the isles. Gorold's folk toiled down in Gorold's mines, in the stony dark beneath the earth. Some lived and died without setting eyes upon salt water. Small wonder that such folk are crabbed and queer.
It is enough, thought Aeron Greyjoy. Nine wide steps had been hewn from the stony hilltop. Behind rose the howling hills of Old Wyk, with mountains in the distance black and cruel.
The way was rough, up hills and woods and stony defiles, along a narrow track that oft seemed to disappear beneath the horse's hooves. Great Wyk was the largest of the Iron Islands, so vast that some of its lords had holdings that did not front upon the holy sea. Gorold Goodbrother was one such. His keep was in the Hardstone Hills, as far from the Drowned God's realm as any place in the isles. Gorold's folk toiled down in Gorold's mines, in the stony dark beneath the earth. Some lived and died without setting eyes upon salt water. Small wonder that such folk are crabbed and queer.
The island is large enough that some landholdings do not border the coast. Gorold Goodbrother mines in the Hardstone Hills, he does not seem to mind being away from the shores.
Other branches of this house, on Great Wyk and Old Wyk, have names evocative of their location: Downdelving, a deep mine; Crow Spike, a jagged peak; Corpse Lake, a tailing dam (?) and Shatterstone, a quarry.
There is also a House Goodbrother on Orkmont; both Goodbrother Houses live on the main mining islands.
1.4 The Lonely Light and House Farwynds
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
They shared a certain look with the tall lord, and Aeron took them for his sons. One unfurled his banner, a great black longship against a setting sun. "I am Gylbert Farwynd, Lord of the Lonely Light," the lord told the kingsmoot.
Aeron knew some Farwynds, a queer folk who held lands on the westernmost shores of Great Wyk and the scattered isles beyond, rocks so small that most could support but a single household. Of those, the Lonely Light was the most distant, eight days' sail to the northwest amongst rookeries of seals and sea lions and the boundless grey oceans. The Farwynds there were even queerer than the rest. Some said they were skinchangers...
Lord Gylbert began to speak. He told of a wondrous land beyond the Sunset Sea, a land without winter or want, where death had no dominion. ... There every man shall be a king and every wife a queen."
They shared a certain look with the tall lord, and Aeron took them for his sons. One unfurled his banner, a great black longship against a setting sun. "I am Gylbert Farwynd, Lord of the Lonely Light," the lord told the kingsmoot.
Aeron knew some Farwynds, a queer folk who held lands on the westernmost shores of Great Wyk and the scattered isles beyond, rocks so small that most could support but a single household. Of those, the Lonely Light was the most distant, eight days' sail to the northwest amongst rookeries of seals and sea lions and the boundless grey oceans. The Farwynds there were even queerer than the rest. Some said they were skinchangers...
Lord Gylbert began to speak. He told of a wondrous land beyond the Sunset Sea, a land without winter or want, where death had no dominion. ... There every man shall be a king and every wife a queen."
The Farwynds hold lands stretching from the western side of Great Wyk across scattered islands, most of them tiny. The Lonely Light is a long way out. It is quite separate from the other islands.
There are rumours the Farwynds of the Lonely Light were skinchangers; if true, how would they have trained their gift? I will propose an answer further on.
Lord Gylbert tells of a wondrous land.... a legend? With a hint of truth? If the good lord Gylbert can skinchange an albatross he would know what is out there; perhaps it is the land that leads to the Saffron Straits.
Lord Gilbert may even be the one who gets the opinionated seagull to scream its displeasure at Euron's presence at the kingsmoot.
To better understand the Iron Islands we need to look at similar islands on planer Earth.
1.5 Volcanic islands (from greeka.com and wikipedia):
Milos
Milos is part of an area that comes under the Aegean Volcanic Arc. These volcanoes were formed by the subduction of the African plate that is under the Aegean Sea.
Milos literally rose out of the Aegean Sea in the midst of earthquakes, tsunamis and submarine volcanic eruptions. All these natural phenomena occurred in the course of geological eons as a result of the collision and submersion of the African beneath the Euroasian continental plate (or Aegean plate).
The greater portion is rugged and hilly, culminating in Mount Profitis Elias 748 metres in the west. Like the rest of the cluster, the island is of volcanic origin, with tuff, trachyte and obsidian among its ordinary rocks.
In Milos the obsidian was produced and exploited since Neolithic age (7000 years ago). Obsidian from Milos has been found in most of the Mediterranean countries.
The andesitic rocks, usually dark in color, outcrop in the area of Fylakopi and Pollonia and in the southwest portion of Milos. It is possible recognize both lava domes and dike set with spectacular columnar jointing originated during the thermal cooling of the lava bodies (Glaronissia, Kalojero).
Santorini
Here is a magnificent picture of Santorini, with Old Wyk in front of Great Wyk, in the background Saltcliffe and some of the uninhabited islands.
Santorini, classically Thera, is an island in the southern Aegean Sea. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera.
The island is the result of repeated sequences of shield volcano construction followed by caldera collapse.
A giant central, rectangular lagoon, which measures about 12 by 7km, is surrounded by 300m high, steep cliffs on three sides. The main island slopes downward to the Aegean Sea.
The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption (sometimes called the Thera eruption), which occurred some 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilisation. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilisation on the island of Crete, 110 km to the south, through a gigantic tsunami. Another popular theory holds that the Thera eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis.
Looking at the descriptions and pictures of these islands leaves little doubt that the Iron Islands are modeled on volcanic islands. Iron ore can be formed by intense volcanic activity (rf the Kiruna mine in Lapland).
Ironman Bay itself is in the shape of a gigantic collapsed caldera and the coast land surrounding is mostly cliffs: Cape of Eagles, Flint Cliff. It is most likely that a final eruption followed by a caldera collapse resulted in what became the archipelago.
Volcanic soil is rich soil so the surrounding land would have been very good for agriculture.
There is no mention in the text of fumes or geysers so it is fair to assume that the volcano is – perhaps - long extinct.
Having said all this, I am not a volcanologist, so I will not mind one bit being corrected (although I have once heard and seen a hissing, roaring, fire-spitting dragon, oops, I mean volcano).
Part 2. The ironborn
2.1 Migration from Essos
I have proposed in the post 'Were the First Men truly first?' that a glaciation era in the Dawn Age brought sea levels down enough to form a land bridge between Essos and Westeros. At that time the Iron Islands archipelago was also joined to the mainland.
The first ironborn were Cymmeri people from north central Essos, one of the cradles of civilisation. The Cymmeri, a hill tribe, were the first people to work iron, before the Rhoynar, at a time when only bronze work was known elsewhere.
House Goodbrother's keep of Hammerhorn's is inland, in the Hardstone Hills, their wealth not coming from the Sunset Sea but from their mines. They are the original miners, the 'rock' people that we will discuss further on.
The many references to very tall men in the ironborn population (Galon Whitestaff, the Greyjoys: Quellon, Victarion, Asha, Gorold Goodbrother's three sons) may point to the Gipps, a 'long legged' people who also lived in the hills of north central Essos.
The Gipps made wicker shields (WIF - Beyond the Free Cities: The Grasslands). The Harlaws, one of the ancient houses who were Rock kings on the island of Harlaw have a silver scythe on their banner (in fact all five Harlaw houses have a scythe, or two, on their banner).
So both Gipps and Harlaws hint at an ancient farming background. The rich volcanic soil of the archipelago would have made good farming land.
As we will see further on, I believe there were at least two migration waves to the Iron Islands. The Cymmeri formed the first one, the Gipps would have formed the second.
Here is where I think Martin got his inspiration for the Cymmeri/Ironborn link (credit goes to puce for this one).
The Cimmerians – Robert E. Howard (from wikipedia and conan.wikia.com)
Cimmeria is a fictional land of barbarians in the Hyborian Age, and the homeland of Conan the Barbarian in the works of Robert E. Howard.
The Cimmerians are the descendants of colonists from Atlantis. Living on the main Thurian continent, the colonists survived the great cataclysm which submerged Atlantis and destroyed most of the Thurian civilisations. The survivors, at this point reduced to a stone-age level of sophistication, eventually found themselves locked in multi generational warfare with survivors of a Pictish colony. This prolonged conflict caused the Atlanteans to further devolve into little more than ape-men. With no memory of their history or even of language and civilisation itself, these beings eventually redeveloped into a people known as Cimmerians.
Cimmeria was undoubtedly a rugged wilderness, hilly, probably mountainous, heavily forested, and often cold and overcast
According to Howard, "the Cimmerians are tall and powerful, with dark hair and blue or grey eyes".
Although they know of the craft of iron-working (Conan's father was a blacksmith), they still seem to have a nearly stone-age society.
When Hyboria is superimposed over modern Europe, Cimmeria occupies the a region containing Denmark and the east coast of Scotland, most of the land submerged under the North Sea. In the interval between the Older and Younger Dryas 10,000 years ago (which is when Robert E. Howard placed the Hyborian Age), much of the North Sea area was in fact above water.
Many parallels exist between the Cymmeri -'rock' ironborn and the Cimmerians:
- both iron-working people
- the physical description of Cimmeria matches the mountainous terrain of Old Wyk
- the Hyborian Age and the Dawn age are both glaciation times
- the ironborn warred for generations with the First Men of the mainland
- descendants of a people who left a sunken continent: if the land of the Cymmeri was not sunken, the Iron Islands are a sunken volcano.
Did the ironborn also survive a great cataclysm which took them back to – near - stone age conditions?
2.2 Rock people and Salt people
WIF - The oldest surviving records at the Citadel reveal that each of the Iron Islands was once a separate kingdom, ruled by not one but two kings, a rock king and a salt king. The former ruled the island itself, dispensing justice, making laws, and settling disputes. The latter commanded at sea, whenever and wherever the island's longships sailed.
Surviving records suggest that the rock kings were almost always older than the salt kings; in some cases the two were father and son, which has led some to argue that the salt kings were no more than heirs, crown princes to their fathers. Yet there are other instances known to us where the rock king and salt king were of different houses, sometimes even rival houses known to be inimical to one another.
Surviving records suggest that the rock kings were almost always older than the salt kings; in some cases the two were father and son, which has led some to argue that the salt kings were no more than heirs, crown princes to their fathers. Yet there are other instances known to us where the rock king and salt king were of different houses, sometimes even rival houses known to be inimical to one another.
We do not know how old citadel records are, but they must go back to a time when Westeros had recovered from the Long Night.
Then, it seems that Salt Kings may have been the younger sons of Rock Kings, having to find fortune away from the ancestral hold.
I think we see here a class system. The non-landed fisherfolks created their own superior class, the Salt class, to raise themselves to the level of the land owners.
The Salt people having achieved equality with the Rock people, want to stay there. The Greyjoy's motto 'we do not sow' may well be borne of this need to stay at the top of the 'alternate' pile.
2.3 Reavers
Yet even more than the fisherman, ironborn esteem their reavers.
Fearless sailors and fearsome fighters, they would appear out of the morning mists to do their bloody work and be back at sea before the sun had reached its zenith, their longships laden with plunder and crowded with wailing children and frightened women.
Then as now, the ironborn were loath to go too far from the salt waters that sustained them, but they ruled the Sunset Sea from Bear Island and the Frozen Shore down to the Arbor.
Fearless sailors and fearsome fighters, they would appear out of the morning mists to do their bloody work and be back at sea before the sun had reached its zenith, their longships laden with plunder and crowded with wailing children and frightened women.
Then as now, the ironborn were loath to go too far from the salt waters that sustained them, but they ruled the Sunset Sea from Bear Island and the Frozen Shore down to the Arbor.
The early ironborn may be fearless sailors but since it appears they only do day-time reaving, they are not very adventurous sailors, unlike the Ibbenese whalers or the Summer Islanders.
As neither of the likely migrants to the islands mentioned earlier were mariners by tradition, the ironborn must have become sailors by necessity. This made them deeply wary of the ocean and vary cautious: day-time reavers.
This has of course changed in recent centuries culminating in Euron being a world wide corsair.
2.4 Heroes in iron armour
And when battle was joined upon the shores, mighty kings and famous warriors fell before the reavers like wheat before a scythe, in such numbers that the men of the green lands told each other that the ironborn were demons risen from some watery hell, protected by fell sorceries and possessed of foul black weapons that drank the very souls of those they slew.
Most infamous of all was Balon Blackskin, who fought with an axe in his left hand and a hammer in his right. No weapon made of man could harm him, it was said; swords glanced off and left no mark, and axes shattered against his skin.
Most infamous of all was Balon Blackskin, who fought with an axe in his left hand and a hammer in his right. No weapon made of man could harm him, it was said; swords glanced off and left no mark, and axes shattered against his skin.
Foul black weapons, sorceries? Iron weapons most likely, possibly painted in black kraken ink, bronze shattering and unknown to the First Men of the mainland. Either that or the ironborn knew some magic now forgotten.
2.5 Forced labour and salt wives
The reavers brought more than gold and grain back to the Iron Islands; they brought captives as well, who would henceforth serve their captors as thralls. Amongst the ironborn, only reaving and fishing were considered worthy work for free men. The endless stoop labour of farm and field was suitable only for thralls. The same was true for mining.
Such could not be said of those [thralls] condemned to work the mines—those dark, dangerous pits beneath the hills where the masters were brutal, the air was dank and foul, and life was short.
Such could not be said of those [thralls] condemned to work the mines—those dark, dangerous pits beneath the hills where the masters were brutal, the air was dank and foul, and life was short.
Some ironborn only consider reaving or fishing as worthy work, and whilst some managed farmland and mines they had a prisoner workforce to do the actual labour. They do not do any menial work. It is very similar to a slavery based society.
The description of the harsh life in the mines is quite reminiscent of the Valyrian mining environment, narrated by the Kindly Faceless Man, where life was cheap.
It was young women the reavers prized most, ... but the fairest and strongest and most nubile would be kept as salt wives by their captors.
On the Iron Islands, however, a man may have only one "rock wife" (unless she should die, whereupon he may take another), but any number of "salt wives."
Salt marriages, like rock marriages, were customarily performed by priests of the Drowned God … and the children of such unions were considered legitimate. "Salt sons" may even inherit, when a man has no trueborn sons by his rock wife.
On the Iron Islands, however, a man may have only one "rock wife" (unless she should die, whereupon he may take another), but any number of "salt wives."
Salt marriages, like rock marriages, were customarily performed by priests of the Drowned God … and the children of such unions were considered legitimate. "Salt sons" may even inherit, when a man has no trueborn sons by his rock wife.
This prisoner work force is also used to augment population via polygamy. Rock wives and children are not threatened by this polygamy. The 'salt' progeny is eventually assimilated within the ironborn people. One reason for this is to increase the reaver/warrior class.
2.6 War instead of trade
All that the islands lacked the reavers found in the green lands. Little and less was taken in trade; much and more was bought in blood, with the point of a sword or the edge of an axe.
The Hoare kings also discouraged the practice of reaving. And as reaving declined, trade grew.
A Clash of Kings - Theon I
In those days, the ironborn did not work mines; that was labor for the captives brought back from the hostings, and so too the sorry business of farming and tending goats and sheep. War was an ironman's proper trade. The Drowned God had made them to reave and rape, to carve out kingdoms and write their names in fire and blood and song.
The Hoare kings also discouraged the practice of reaving. And as reaving declined, trade grew.
A Clash of Kings - Theon I
In those days, the ironborn did not work mines; that was labor for the captives brought back from the hostings, and so too the sorry business of farming and tending goats and sheep. War was an ironman's proper trade. The Drowned God had made them to reave and rape, to carve out kingdoms and write their names in fire and blood and song.
The early ironborn were not traders:
- they had iron ore but since the First Men who lived on the coast did not know how to work it, the ironborn would not have traded it to avoid sharing their advanced metal working knowledge (weapon superiority). They did not have copper mines so could not trade that with the First Men who knew bronze work.
- they could have traded whale products, like the Ibbenese, but they were not seafarers, only coastal fishermen.
- there would have been no point trading other fishery products with coastal fisherfolks.
Summary
Iron working people first migrated to the islands, followed by farming people. Eventually, farming was replaced by fishing and reaving. The Rock people provided superior iron armour to the Salt people which enabled the latter to reave with success.
The Salt people were initially poor sailors due to their lack of sea faring ancestry.
Rock and Salt was also the emergence of a class structure, leaving the thralls as underlings.
It appears that the islands had little of value to trade with the mainland (save iron which they would not trade), so reaving became the way to obtain what the islands lacked.
Reaving was also a mean to bring back quasi slaves and polygamy was introduced in some controlled manner.
Why was their volcanic rich land deficient and their population lacking? I will address this further on.
Part 3. Prophets and priests
3.1 The Storm God
A Feast for Crows - The Prophet
"A kingsmoot, a kingsmoot. No king but from the kingsmoot!" And the clamor that they made was so thunderous that surely the Crow's Eye heard the shouts on Pyke, and the vile Storm God in his cloudy hall.
"A kingsmoot, a kingsmoot. No king but from the kingsmoot!" And the clamor that they made was so thunderous that surely the Crow's Eye heard the shouts on Pyke, and the vile Storm God in his cloudy hall.
The Storm God is vilified; not surprising considering what storms can do to men at sea.
The ironborn have a fairly classic dualistic religion: Drowned God and Storm God. Much opportunity for superstition.
The Sistermen also worship dual 'element' gods: the Storm God and the Lady of the Waves. Their god of the waves has a much more poetic name than the Drowned God, but the end result of its attention is the same: drowning.
3.2 The Drowned God
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
We were born from the sea, and to the sea we must return. Even here he could hear the ceaseless rumble of the waves and feel the power of the god who lurked below the waters.
We were born from the sea, and to the sea we must return. Even here he could hear the ceaseless rumble of the waves and feel the power of the god who lurked below the waters.
The Drowned God lives below the waters; below the waters is the ocean floor.
The ironborn are born from the sea. As we have seen that they are migrant hill people, something happened to them to change their history.
WIF - "We did not come to these holy islands from godless lands across the seas," the priest Sauron Salt-Tongue once said. "We came from beneath those seas, from the watery halls of the Drowned God who made us in his likeness and gave to us dominion over all the waters of the earth."
Perhaps the haranguing priest Sauron is right and the ironborn came from the fabled 'Deep Ones'. With a name like Sauron though, I trust him not and I think it is more likely that he has forgotten his origins.
Let us remember Jojen's wise words 'but so much is forgotten..' (Storm, Bran I).
A Feast for Crows - The Prophet
... he could hear the pounding of the waves, the hammer of his god calling him to battle. ...That man is drowned, and the god has made me strong. The cold salt sea surrounded him, embraced him, reached down through his weak man's flesh and touched his bones. Bones, he thought. The bones of the soul. Balon's bones, and Urri's. The truth is in our bones, for flesh decays and bone endures.
"Aye," said Aeron. "The god took me deep beneath the waves and drowned the worthless thing I was. When he cast me forth again he gave me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a voice to spread his word, that I might be his prophet and teach his truth to those who have forgotten.
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
The sea was stirring too. The waves grew larger as the wind rose, sending plumes of spray to crash against the longships. The Drowned God wakes, thought Aeron.
... he could hear the pounding of the waves, the hammer of his god calling him to battle. ...That man is drowned, and the god has made me strong. The cold salt sea surrounded him, embraced him, reached down through his weak man's flesh and touched his bones. Bones, he thought. The bones of the soul. Balon's bones, and Urri's. The truth is in our bones, for flesh decays and bone endures.
"Aye," said Aeron. "The god took me deep beneath the waves and drowned the worthless thing I was. When he cast me forth again he gave me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a voice to spread his word, that I might be his prophet and teach his truth to those who have forgotten.
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
The sea was stirring too. The waves grew larger as the wind rose, sending plumes of spray to crash against the longships. The Drowned God wakes, thought Aeron.
The contact with the sea reminds Aeron that truth lies in his bones. The 'bones remember' is mentioned elsewhere in ASOIAF. It is interesting that this belief also exists in the ironborn culture.
We are getting a clear picture of the Drowned God here: as the Drowned God awakes, the waves grow larger. This god is causing the waves and by extension when it is fully awaken, it becomes a tidal wave, a sea dragon, the hammer of the waters.
It seems like Aeron was taken by the waves – when was he drowned? At the end of Balon Greyjoy's first rebellion:
A Feast for Crows - The Prophet
In the end the Golden Storm went down off Fair Isle during Balon's first rebellion, cut in half by a towering war galley called Fury when Stannis Baratheon caught Victarion in his trap and smashed the Iron Fleet. Yet the god was not done with Aeron, and carried him to shore. Some fishermen took him captive and marched him down to Lannisport in chains, and he spent the rest of the war in the bowels of Casterly Rock, proving that krakens can piss farther and longer than lions, boars, or chickens.
That man is dead. Aeron had drowned and been reborn from the sea, the god's own prophet. No mortal man could frighten him, no more than the darkness could . . . nor memories, the bones of the soul.
In the end the Golden Storm went down off Fair Isle during Balon's first rebellion, cut in half by a towering war galley called Fury when Stannis Baratheon caught Victarion in his trap and smashed the Iron Fleet. Yet the god was not done with Aeron, and carried him to shore. Some fishermen took him captive and marched him down to Lannisport in chains, and he spent the rest of the war in the bowels of Casterly Rock, proving that krakens can piss farther and longer than lions, boars, or chickens.
That man is dead. Aeron had drowned and been reborn from the sea, the god's own prophet. No mortal man could frighten him, no more than the darkness could . . . nor memories, the bones of the soul.
Aeron had a cathartic experience and was reborn a prophet.
We learn in the chapter 'The Foresaken' (Winds) that Aeron is once again a prisoner, in the bowels of some castle. History repeats for Aeron.
3.3 The priests of the Drowned God
The Drowned God has no temples, no holy books, no idols carved in his likeness, but he has priests aplenty.
… Since long before recorded history these itinerant holy men have infested the Iron Islands, preaching his word and denouncing all other gods and those who follow them. Ill clad, unkempt, oft barefoot, the priests of the Drowned God have no permanent abode but wander the islands as they will, seldom straying far from the sea. Most are illiterate; theirs is an oral tradition, and younger priests learn the prayers and rituals from the elder. Wherever they might wander, lords and peasants are obliged to give them food and shelter in the name of the Drowned God. Some priests eat only fish. Most do not bathe, save in the sea itself. Men from other lands often think them mad, and so they may appear, but it cannot be denied that they wield great power.
… Since long before recorded history these itinerant holy men have infested the Iron Islands, preaching his word and denouncing all other gods and those who follow them. Ill clad, unkempt, oft barefoot, the priests of the Drowned God have no permanent abode but wander the islands as they will, seldom straying far from the sea. Most are illiterate; theirs is an oral tradition, and younger priests learn the prayers and rituals from the elder. Wherever they might wander, lords and peasants are obliged to give them food and shelter in the name of the Drowned God. Some priests eat only fish. Most do not bathe, save in the sea itself. Men from other lands often think them mad, and so they may appear, but it cannot be denied that they wield great power.
This is a religion based entirely on the priests, numerous, omnipresent, mendicant, powerful, exclusive and shore-bound. They have been able to maintain this cultural strangle hold for millennia via their oral tradition.
I wonder if their habit of drinking sea water is not having an impact on their grey cells.
A Feast for Crows - The Prophet
He had no love of maesters. Their ravens were creatures of the Storm God, and he did not trust their healing, not since Urri. No proper man would choose a life of thralldom, nor forge a chain of servitude to wear about his throat.
He had no love of maesters. Their ravens were creatures of the Storm God, and he did not trust their healing, not since Urri. No proper man would choose a life of thralldom, nor forge a chain of servitude to wear about his throat.
Aeron does not like the maesters and I suggest it is because their knowledge and teachings are a threat to the Drowned God priests' exclusive oral tradition.
That ravens are 'a creature of the Storm God' can be paralleled to the westerosi proverb 'dark wings, dark words' or our contemporary one of 'no news is good news'. It may also be because ravens are harbinger of not just dark news but also dark events: we know the ravens are spies.
3.4 Galon Whitestaff and the kingsmoot
WIF - The greatest of the priests was the towering prophet Galon Whitestaff, so-called for the tall carved staff he carried everywhere to smite the ungodly.
It was Galon who decreed that ironborn must not make war on other ironborn, who forbade them to carry off each other's women or raid each other's shores, and who forged the Iron Islands into a single kingdom, summoning the captains and the kings to Old Wyk to choose a high king to reign supreme over salt kings and rock kings alike.
A Feast for Crows - The Prophet
I was not made to sit upon the Seastone Chair . . . no more than Euron Crow's Eye. For I have heard the god, who says, No godless man may sit my Seastone Chair!"
It was Galon who decreed that ironborn must not make war on other ironborn, who forbade them to carry off each other's women or raid each other's shores, and who forged the Iron Islands into a single kingdom, summoning the captains and the kings to Old Wyk to choose a high king to reign supreme over salt kings and rock kings alike.
A Feast for Crows - The Prophet
I was not made to sit upon the Seastone Chair . . . no more than Euron Crow's Eye. For I have heard the god, who says, No godless man may sit my Seastone Chair!"
Galon Whitestaff, a rather tall man, probably the first prophet, who carried a white wood staff, convinced the ironborn, captains and kings, to unite and so stop the anarchy that reigned on the islands. He started the dominance of the priests on the governance process via the kingsmoot.
Aeron is the reborn Galon who when faced with the likelihood of loosing his religious control on the ironborn to a 'godless' Euron, calls the first kingsmoot in thousands of years. No 'godless man' may sit on 'his' chair. He had hopes... .
WIF - Here alone in all of Westeros men made their own kings, assembling in great councils called kingsmoots to choose the rock kings and salt kings who would rule over them.
The ironborn also tell of occasions when the priests called "the captains and the kings" together to remove an unworthy ruler.
A Feast for Crows - The Kraken's Daughter
Lord Rodrik shook his head. "Beneath the bones of Nagga every captain stands as equal. Some may shout your name, I do not doubt it.
The ironborn also tell of occasions when the priests called "the captains and the kings" together to remove an unworthy ruler.
A Feast for Crows - The Kraken's Daughter
Lord Rodrik shook his head. "Beneath the bones of Nagga every captain stands as equal. Some may shout your name, I do not doubt it.
Traditionally the priests oversee governance via the kingsmoot where both Salt and Rock Kings are equal. What was done can also be undone by a reconvened kingsmoot. This system which can enable the removal of unelected tyrants has been used and can be used again.
In Dance, The Wayward Bride, Tristifer Botley tells Asha the story of a kingsmoot in the Age of Heroes that was invalidated because one of the legitimate pretendant was absent. Theon missed the kingsmoot that elected Euron... not that Euron would care, but the small folks and great lords might.
All the Free Cities in Essos (and the crannogmen in the time of the Marsh Kings) have similar consultative governance systems where brute strength does not necessarily win as rulers are chosen by councils.
Having said that, the kingsmoot called by Aeron rather resemble a modern day vote-buying election where candidates promise all and sundries to the voters after having fooled them with demagogic rhetoric:
The Winds of Winter - The Foresaken - Aeron
The kingsmoot had chosen Euron Crow's Eye, but the kingsmoot was made of men, and men were weak and foolish things, too easily swayed by gold and lies.
Something else happened at that kingsmoot:
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
aaaaaaaRRREEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
It was a terrible sound, a wail of pain and fury that seemed to burn the ears. Aeron Damphair covered his, and prayed for the Drowned God to raise a mighty wave and smash the horn to silence, yet still the shriek went on and on. It is the horn of hell, he wanted to scream, though no man would have heard him.
A Feast for Crows - The Reaver
[Aeron] "It was not the god who spoke. Euron is known to keep wizards and foul sorcerers on that red ship of his. They sent some spell among us, so we could not hear the sea. The captains and the kings were drunk with all this talk of dragons."
[Victarion] "Drunk, and fearful of that horn. You heard the sound it made. It makes no matter. Euron is our king."
aaaaaaaRRREEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
It was a terrible sound, a wail of pain and fury that seemed to burn the ears. Aeron Damphair covered his, and prayed for the Drowned God to raise a mighty wave and smash the horn to silence, yet still the shriek went on and on. It is the horn of hell, he wanted to scream, though no man would have heard him.
A Feast for Crows - The Reaver
[Aeron] "It was not the god who spoke. Euron is known to keep wizards and foul sorcerers on that red ship of his. They sent some spell among us, so we could not hear the sea. The captains and the kings were drunk with all this talk of dragons."
[Victarion] "Drunk, and fearful of that horn. You heard the sound it made. It makes no matter. Euron is our king."
Aeron wished for a watery hammer to smash Euron's horn. Horn which seems to bind men. A horn of hell indeed.
Is this how the Night King bound his brothers? Food for thought.
3.5 The Ygg tree and Ragnarok
The Grey King also taught men to weave nets and sails and carved the first longship from the hard pale wood of Ygg, a demon tree who fed on human flesh.
Martin is fond of Norse mythology, so we must learn a bit too.
Norse mythology – Ragnarok: cycles of life and death and the Ygg tree
Yggdrasil is an immense mythical tree that connects the nine worlds in Norse cosmology.
During Ragnarok, the destruction of the world at the end of the Germanic mythical cycle, Midgard sinks into the sea, only to rise again, as green and fertile as ever, when the cycle begins again and the creation is repeated.
Midgard is the world of humans and it is said to have sunk into the sea.
Note the notion of cycles and repeated creation. This is absolutely applicable to the Iron Islands as we will see further on. Also, yet another image of a drowned world.
3.6 The driftwood crown
By tradition, the driftwood crown itself was broken up and returned to the sea upon the death of its wearer. His successor would don a new crown made from driftwood freshly washed up upon the shore of his home island.
A renewal practice, just like rebirth after drowning or just like the cycles of Ragnarok.
A Feast for Crows - The Kraken's Daughter
[Lord Rodrik] "Archmaester Rigney once wrote that history is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again, he said. I think of that whenever I contemplate the Crow's Eye. Euron Greyjoy sounds queerly like Urron Greyiron to these old ears.
[Lord Rodrik] "Archmaester Rigney once wrote that history is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again, he said. I think of that whenever I contemplate the Crow's Eye. Euron Greyjoy sounds queerly like Urron Greyiron to these old ears.
House Greyiron ruled unchosen for a thousand years, Urron Greyiron having slaughtered the kingsmoot.
As history is a wheel and repeats itself, Lord Rodrick - The Reader - is painfully aware that Euron could start another thousand years tyrannic dynastic reign.
Summary
The Drowned God lurks below the waves, when it awakes, the waves, its hammer, grow larger. In full force the waves will become the 'hammer of the waters', a sea dragon, a tidal wave.
The ironborn priests, who froth all over the islands like uninvited pests, wield power and influence and want to keep it that way. A fairly standard religious practice. Their influence extends to the highest level as they can arrange kingsmoots and as we have seen with Aeron's doings, try to influence them.
History is a wheel and has and will repeat itself. The chosen king must be a god fearing man less ancient calamities recur.
Euron was elected by the kingsmoot, he did not take the driftwood crown by force, but did he take it by sorcery? However he can be removed by the kingsmoot as Theon, a legitimate pretendant, a Rock King, was not present.
Part 4. Glaciation periods on Earth – the three Dryas periods
Before we tackle the legend of the Grey King, we need to learn a tiny bit about glaciation events.
Gotta do like Tyrion, arm ourselves with knowledge!
The Dryas periods are named after an indicator genus, the arctic and alpine plant Dryas, the remains of which are found in higher concentrations in deposits from colder periods.
The Younger Dryas is the youngest and longest of three stadials that resulted from typically abrupt climatic changes that took place over the last 16,000 calendar years. Within the Byltt-Sernander classification of north European climatic phases, the prefix ‘Younger’ refers to the recognition that this original ‘Dryas’ period was preceded by a warmer stage, the Allerød oscillation, which in turn was preceded by the Older Dryas around 14,000 calendar years BP. This is not securely dated, and estimates vary by 400 years, but it is generally accepted that it lasted around 200 years. In northern Scotland the glaciers were thicker and more extensive than during the Younger Dryas. The Older Dryas, in turn, is preceded by another warmer stage, the Bølling oscillation that separates it from a third and even older stadial. This stadial is often, but not always, known as the Oldest Dryas. The Oldest Dryas occurred approximately 1,770 calendar years before the Younger Dryas and lasted about 400 calendar years. According to the GISP2 ice core from Greenland, the Oldest Dryas occurred between about 15,070 and 14,670 calendar years BP.
The change to glacial conditions at the onset of the younger Dryas in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere between 12,900–11,500 BP in calendar years has been argued to have been quite abrupt, in sharp contrast to the warming of the preceding Older Dryas interstadial. It has been inferred that its end occurred over a period of a decade or so, but the onset may have been faster... Nothing of the size, extent, or rapidity of this period of abrupt climate change has been experienced since its end.
... the end of Younger Dryas can at best can only be estimated to have occurred sometime about 10,000–10,050 radiocarbon years BP.
Depending on the specific ice core analysis consulted, the Younger Dryas is estimated to have lasted 1,150–1,300 years. Measurements of oxygen isotopes from the GISP2 ice core suggest the ending of the Younger Dryas took place over just 40–50 years in three discrete steps, each lasting five years. Other proxy data, such as dust concentration, and snow accumulation, suggest an even more rapid transition, requiring about a 7°C warming in just a few years.
Some features
- Glaciation or increased snow in mountain ranges around the world
- Drought in the Levant, perhaps motivating the Natufian culture to develop agriculture
- Decline of the Clovis Culture and extinction of animal species in North America
Sea levels
Based upon solid geological evidence, consisting largely of the analysis of numerous deep cores from coral reefs, variations in rates of sea level rise have been reconstructed for the postglacial period.
For the early part of de-glacial sea level rise, three major periods of accelerated sea level rise, called meltwater pulses, occurred. They are commonly called meltwater pulse 1A0 between 19,000 and 19,500 calendar years ago; meltwater pulse 1A between circa 14,600 and 14,300 calendar years ago; and meltwater pulse 1B between circa 11,400 and 11,100 calendar years ago.
The Younger Dryas occurred after meltwater pulse 1A, which was a 13.5m rise over about 290 years centred at about 14,200 calendar years ago and before meltwater pulse 1B, which was a 7.5m rise over about 160 years centred at about 11,000 calendar years ago.
Between meltwater pulse 1A and meltwater pulse 1B, the Younger Dryas was an interval of a significantly reduced rate of sea level rise relative to the periods of time before and after it.
This reduction in the rate of sea level rise directly reflected a substantial reduction of the global inflow of meltwater into the world's oceans during the Younger Dryas.
A frequently mentioned cause for these glaciation periods is a reduction in the ocean's thermohaline circulation due to a large discharge of freshwater from a glacial lake in North America which reduced the salinity and density of the surface ocean in the North Atlantic.
The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, also known as the Clovis comet hypothesis, is one of the competing scientific explanations for the onset of the Younger Dryas cold period after the last glacial period. The hypothesis, which scientists continue to debate, proposes that the climate of that time was cooled by the impact or air burst of one or more comets.
Abrupt climate change is a much and more discussed topic in particular here at NOAA
The 8.2 kiloyear event is the term that climatologists have adopted for a sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present, or c. 6,200 BCE, and which lasted for the next two to four centuries.
A rapid cooling around 6200 BCE was first identified by Swiss botanist Heinrich Zoller in 1960, who named the event Misox oscillation.
The 8.2 kiloyear cooling event may have been caused by a large meltwater pulse from the final collapse of the Laurentide ice sheet of northeastern North America, most likely when the glacial lakes Ojibway and Agassiz suddenly drained into the North Atlantic Ocean.
… Based on sea-level data from below modern deltas, 2–4m of near-instantaneous rise is estimated, in addition to 'normal' post-glacial sea-level rise. Meltwater pulse sea-level rise was experienced fully at great distance from the release area.
What to make of all this scientific background?
On our planet, the Pleistocene de-glaciation period was interrupted by several stadial or 'mini glaciation' periods: the oldest Dryas, the older Dryas and the younger Dryas.
Glaciation periods equate to low sea levels as water is trapped in the expanding ice. Low sea levels mean bridges connecting otherwise separated land masses and more land being available for hunting, gathering, cultivation and communications.
During de-glacial periods, sea levels rise flooding the flora, and drowning whatever fauna and humans who cannot escape to higher grounds.
In addition to these three periods, another abrupt climate change took place 8,200 years ago.
Dryas Octopela
Part 5. Legends and ancient history
5.1 The Grey King
WIF - In the Age of Heroes, the legends say, the ironborn were ruled by a mighty monarch known simply as the Grey King. The Grey King ruled the sea itself and took a mermaid to wife, so his sons and daughters might live above the waves or beneath them as they chose. His hair and beard and eyes were as grey as a winter sea, and from these he took his name. The crown he wore was made of driftwood, so all who knelt before him might know that his kingship came from the sea and the Drowned God who dwells beneath it.
The deeds attributed to the Grey King by the priests and singers of the Iron Islands are many and marvellous.
The Grey King also taught men to weave nets and sails and carved the first longship from the hard pale wood of Ygg, a demon tree who fed on human flesh.
The Grey King's greatest feat, however, was the slaying of Nagga, largest of the sea dragons, a beast so colossal that she was said to feed on leviathans and giant krakens and drown whole islands in her wroth. The Grey King built a mighty longhall about her bones, using her ribs as beams and rafters. From there he ruled the Iron Islands for a thousand years, until his very skin had turned as grey as his hair and beard. Only then did he cast aside his driftwood crown and walk into the sea, descending to the Drowned God's watery halls to take his rightful place at his right hand.
The deeds attributed to the Grey King by the priests and singers of the Iron Islands are many and marvellous.
The Grey King also taught men to weave nets and sails and carved the first longship from the hard pale wood of Ygg, a demon tree who fed on human flesh.
The Grey King's greatest feat, however, was the slaying of Nagga, largest of the sea dragons, a beast so colossal that she was said to feed on leviathans and giant krakens and drown whole islands in her wroth. The Grey King built a mighty longhall about her bones, using her ribs as beams and rafters. From there he ruled the Iron Islands for a thousand years, until his very skin had turned as grey as his hair and beard. Only then did he cast aside his driftwood crown and walk into the sea, descending to the Drowned God's watery halls to take his rightful place at his right hand.
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
Nagga had been the first sea dragon, the mightiest ever to rise from the waves.
Nagga had been the first sea dragon, the mightiest ever to rise from the waves.
The Grey King ruled a thousand years which is how long both Durran Godsgrief and the Pearl Emperor reigned; a legendary period of time which I believe represents the initial growth of a people.
The Grey King ruled the sea, in other words, the sea did his bidding; with his mermaid wife they can care for the living and the dead.
He is named after the colour of a winter sea.
As 'his kingship came from the sea and the Drowned God', it is likely that the Grey King's reign was preceded by one of the Drowned God's 'hammery' events.
During this thousand year period of stability, the Grey King had much opportunity to 'perform marvellous deeds' that is enhance human life. We can imagine the ironborn having lost their fire, the most precious of commodities, due to an initial calamity, getting it back during an electrical storm.
The Grey King taught men how to carve a longship and weave sails and nets:
- was it long distance mariners, who would visit their ancient stronghold of Pyke, who came to the isles and taught the ironborn?
- was it a wrecked longship that drifted on one of the islands and the ironborn learned from it?
By this deed, it seems that the Grey King ushered in the 'salt' class.
How to account from the connection to Ygg, the demon tree?
I will come back to these points.
The Grey King is well liked by the ironborn. Its reign represents a period of prosperity.
The Grey King slayed Nagga: Nagga is a weirwood grove whose trees have petrified (I will explain this in the Nagga section).
I suggest that rising sea levels prior the Grey King's reign flooded the cave of the root system of this weirwood grove which eventually killed the trees. As the trees were dead, the ironborn on Old Wyk used the trunks and branches to 'build' a very large 'hall'. In that hall, they held whatever council ruled the islands.
Nagga was the first sea dragon known to the ironborn: this implies that he was not the last, other sea dragons came after it. Some may have come before.
The Grey King walked into the sea: or more likely the sea ended his reign.
The Grey King was king over all the Iron Islands, but he left a hundred sons behind him, and upon his death they began to quarrel over who would succeed him. Brother killed brother in an orgy of kinslaying until only sixteen remained. These last survivors divided up the islands between them. All the great houses of the ironborn claim descent from the Grey King and his sons save, curiously, the Goodbrothers of Old Wyk and Great Wyk, who supposedly derive from the Grey King's leal eldest brother.
The Goodbrothers stand apart as they do not descend from the Grey King.
Just what we need to confuse the situation! thanks Grum!
So! the Grey King had a 'leal eldest brother': what does this mean?
The Goodbrothers descend from an earlier period than that of the Grey King, one that is true to type, a similar period.
This mystery is very puzzling. What is Martin on about?
How can the ironborn legend be explained if these siblings of the Grey King cannot be accounted for? (Did Azor Ahai have elder siblings?)
This is where our brief glaciology tutorial comes in handy.
5.2 The Grey King and the Younger Dryas
We have seen that on our planet, which is a definite model for the author, the de-glaciation period was interrupted by several mini glaciation periods: a younger one, an older one and an oldest one.
I suggest that Martin has modelled the legendary events that affected the Iron Islands on these earthly events.
The Grey King is the equivalent of the Younger Dryas, which lasted over a thousand years, the Grey King's leal eldest brother is the equivalent of the Oldest Dryas.
As these periods are essentially cold periods, it makes sense that the Grey King is named after the colour of a winter sea.
Below is a table where I have attempted to map Iron Islands events with the known earthly events of the late Pleistocene (Rf Part 4).
Please keep in mind that I am suggesting that Martin used this earth period as a template, so dates, duration and measures are indicative only.
Martin who is – in this story - a 'science fantasy' writer adapted these known events to engineer Planetos in the same fashion as he invented two (not four) legged dragons, 'special ice' white walkers and red comets. All fantasy creations with a solid scientific base.
MP = meltwater pulse
We are told that the Goodbrothers of Old and Great Wyk were the only descendants/survivors from the 'eldest brother period'. This was when the first migration to the archipelago took place, at a time when the sea levels were low, the land bridges large and arable volcanic land rich and plentiful.
The name Goodbrother itself implies that this eldest brother, true to type, was good: a long period of time when sea levels varied little and people could farm, mine and even trade reliably.
No one claims to descend from the middle 'older' brother. Perhaps no one migrated to the islands during that stable period as it may have been too short. Perhaps no one survived from any migrations of that period.
All the other great houses, the ancient houses, descend from the sons of the Grey King. These families must represent a separate wave of migration to the islands, migration which took place during the 'younger brother period'. These families are the survivors of the 'orgy of kinslaying'.
The end of that third glacial period was also followed by rising sea levels as the ice melted so that most of the remaining rich arable land would have been gone and survival made difficult.
Sixteen brothers (families) remained after the fight for survival which is two each for the seven main islands and the Farwynds. A Rock King and a Salt King on each.
The three 'Grey King' periods reinforce the parallel to the Ragnarok cycles of renewals and the wheel of time/history.
Why would the end of a mini-glaciation period have caused such radical changes to the ironborn to the point that they changed into a 'Drowned God' culture?
Sea levels would have risen but to cause such a devastating trauma to the inhabitants they must have risen very rapidly, else many more survivors should have been able to reach high ground.
Something radical must have taken place.
I think Martin has merged this last boundary period, the end of the mini glaciation, with the '8.2k kiloyear' event, an additional catastrophic event: a 'hammer of the waters' type of event, a tsunami.
That very event which is associated with the Long Night.
This would explain the additional seven years mentioned by Aeron. One year of civil war for each of the seven main islands.
This may also explain the Grey King's skin getting as grey as his hair: as 'grey' represents 'cold', the climate got colder at that point in time.
An undersea quake cum tidal wave event prior to the reign of the Grey King explains the very small survival rates of the first ironborn due to lack of warning.
The Goodbrothers live at 'Hammerhorn' and their sigil is a war horn: having once survived a 'hammer of the waters', they became the watchers, using the horn to warn of any incoming tidal wave.
This tidal wave explains the killing of Nagga and its adornment with tapestries of sea weeds.
A tidal wave at the end of the reign of the Grey King explains the decimation of the population and their loss of identity.
So! the Grey King had a 'leal eldest brother': what does this mean?
- the Grey King had elder brothers
- leal is a Scottish term meaning loyal, faithful, honest, true.
The Goodbrothers descend from an earlier period than that of the Grey King, one that is true to type, a similar period.
This mystery is very puzzling. What is Martin on about?
How can the ironborn legend be explained if these siblings of the Grey King cannot be accounted for? (Did Azor Ahai have elder siblings?)
This is where our brief glaciology tutorial comes in handy.
5.2 The Grey King and the Younger Dryas
We have seen that on our planet, which is a definite model for the author, the de-glaciation period was interrupted by several mini glaciation periods: a younger one, an older one and an oldest one.
I suggest that Martin has modelled the legendary events that affected the Iron Islands on these earthly events.
The Grey King is the equivalent of the Younger Dryas, which lasted over a thousand years, the Grey King's leal eldest brother is the equivalent of the Oldest Dryas.
As these periods are essentially cold periods, it makes sense that the Grey King is named after the colour of a winter sea.
Below is a table where I have attempted to map Iron Islands events with the known earthly events of the late Pleistocene (Rf Part 4).
Please keep in mind that I am suggesting that Martin used this earth period as a template, so dates, duration and measures are indicative only.
Martin who is – in this story - a 'science fantasy' writer adapted these known events to engineer Planetos in the same fashion as he invented two (not four) legged dragons, 'special ice' white walkers and red comets. All fantasy creations with a solid scientific base.
MP = meltwater pulse
| Earth period name | Sea level events | Iron Islands events |
| Pleistocene de-glaciation From abt 25k | MP 1A0 | Growth of Old Wyk's weirwood grove and occupation by the children of the forest Building of Pyke by pre FM mariners. Seastone Chair tossed on Old Wyk by an undersea quake borne wave |
| Oldest Dryas 15k to 14.6k 400 yrs | Low and stable | Nagga, the first sea dragon is alive Eldest of Grey King's brother's reign – Dawn Age - stable environment - Cymmeri/Goodbrother migration - mining, farming, trading - birth of the Rock class |
| Bølling oscillation 14.6k to 14k 600 yrs | 14.6-14.3 - MP 1A – 13.5m rise | Gradual loss of land |
| Older Dryas 14k to 13.8 200 yrs | Low and stable | Elder Grey King brother's reign - stable environment |
| Allerød oscillation 13.8 to 12.9 900 yrs | Sea levels rise abt 90m | Further gradual loss of land - children greenseers foresee a coming calamity and leave Old Wyk - an undersea quake borne sea dragon sweeps the area , causing a first set-back to the population - Nagga/weirwood grove's root system is flooded by sea water - fire is lost |
| Younger Dryas 12.9 to 11.7 200 yrs Start of period is 'abrupt' End of period is abrupt, eg Greenland temp rose 10dg in 10yrs | Sea levels stable | Grey King's reign of 1,000 years - Age of Heroes - long stable period - Gipps/Harlaw migration - mining, farming, trading - mariners or Sunset Sea drift bring sail boat knowledge; sea fishing starts - birth of the Salt class - Nagga/weirwood grove slowly dies and petrifies - a sea dragon wipes out most of the population - death of the Grey King followed by an orgy of kinslaying - loss of land bridge to mainland, Iron Islands cut off |
| Holocene starts 11.7 8.2k event 20 yrs sudden release of freshwater from lake Agassiz | 11-4 – 11.1 - MP 1B – 7.5m rise MP of 2-4m | a comet born impact initiates the Long Night Is this the additional 7 years of the Grey King's reign mentioned by Aeron? Ironborn in cultural shock: - prophets create the Drowned God - farming is near impossible - reaving starts - the vile Storm God is never far |
We are told that the Goodbrothers of Old and Great Wyk were the only descendants/survivors from the 'eldest brother period'. This was when the first migration to the archipelago took place, at a time when the sea levels were low, the land bridges large and arable volcanic land rich and plentiful.
The name Goodbrother itself implies that this eldest brother, true to type, was good: a long period of time when sea levels varied little and people could farm, mine and even trade reliably.
No one claims to descend from the middle 'older' brother. Perhaps no one migrated to the islands during that stable period as it may have been too short. Perhaps no one survived from any migrations of that period.
All the other great houses, the ancient houses, descend from the sons of the Grey King. These families must represent a separate wave of migration to the islands, migration which took place during the 'younger brother period'. These families are the survivors of the 'orgy of kinslaying'.
The end of that third glacial period was also followed by rising sea levels as the ice melted so that most of the remaining rich arable land would have been gone and survival made difficult.
Sixteen brothers (families) remained after the fight for survival which is two each for the seven main islands and the Farwynds. A Rock King and a Salt King on each.
The three 'Grey King' periods reinforce the parallel to the Ragnarok cycles of renewals and the wheel of time/history.
Why would the end of a mini-glaciation period have caused such radical changes to the ironborn to the point that they changed into a 'Drowned God' culture?
Sea levels would have risen but to cause such a devastating trauma to the inhabitants they must have risen very rapidly, else many more survivors should have been able to reach high ground.
Something radical must have taken place.
I think Martin has merged this last boundary period, the end of the mini glaciation, with the '8.2k kiloyear' event, an additional catastrophic event: a 'hammer of the waters' type of event, a tsunami.
That very event which is associated with the Long Night.
This would explain the additional seven years mentioned by Aeron. One year of civil war for each of the seven main islands.
This may also explain the Grey King's skin getting as grey as his hair: as 'grey' represents 'cold', the climate got colder at that point in time.
An undersea quake cum tidal wave event prior to the reign of the Grey King explains the very small survival rates of the first ironborn due to lack of warning.
The Goodbrothers live at 'Hammerhorn' and their sigil is a war horn: having once survived a 'hammer of the waters', they became the watchers, using the horn to warn of any incoming tidal wave.
This tidal wave explains the killing of Nagga and its adornment with tapestries of sea weeds.
A tidal wave at the end of the reign of the Grey King explains the decimation of the population and their loss of identity.
5.3 Urras Greyiron, called Ironfoot
They chose Urras Greyiron, called Ironfoot, the salt king of Orkmont and most fearsome reaver of that age. Galon himself placed a driftwood crown upon the high king's head, and Urras Ironfoot became the first man since the Grey King to rule over all the ironborn.
This is the very beginning of the ironborn kingdom and their first king bears the name Greyiron: grey for the Grey King and iron for their origins.
I suggest his nickname of Ironfoot is a nod to Tolkien:
Dáin II Ironfoot (LOTR wiki)
Dáin II Ironfoot is a Dwarf and king of Erebor in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy concerning Middle-earth.
Around the year 2500 of the Third Age, Grór son of Dáin I founded the Iron Hills as an independent kingdom after the Dwarves were exiled from the Grey Mountains to the west because of attacks by Cold-drakes seeking the vast wealth of the mountains, which had resulted in the death of the king Dáin I.
The Iron Hills are remnants of the Iron Mountains of the First Age and are located east of the Lonely Mountain ... In the Third Age, they are home to a Dwarf kingdom.
The Hills were mined uninterruptedly for thousands of years by them, because of the hills' rich amount of iron.
Note: Cold-Drakes were dragons that lacked the great power of all of Middle-earth's most infamous dragons (Ancalagon, Glaurung, and Smaug): the ability to breathe fire. Nonetheless, they were strong foes with their iron-hard scales, wicked claws, and terrible fangs.
This parallel confirms King Urras Greyiron, the Ironfoot, as a dual representative of 'salt' and 'rock'. Whether he was a dwarf is not mentioned. He may well have been the son of the Orkmont Rock king.
This is also perhaps a hint that the Cymmeri who left Essos and eventually settled in the hills of the Iron Islands were chased from their original land by Essosi dragon lords.
This has been hard going so let's go on a tangent for a minute:
Interlude - Serwyn's mirror shield – was it a sheet of ternefoil?
We can add to this dwarf cum dragon LOTR parallel the fact that this first ironborn king, Urras Ironfoot has very nearly the same name as a legendary dragon who used to hang around Westeros, Urrax, the one killed by Serwyn of the Mirror Shield:
A Dance with Dragons - Tyrion III
"No doubt. Well, Hugor Hill, answer me this. How did Serwyn of the Mirror Shield slay the dragon Urrax?"
"He approached behind his shield. Urrax saw only his own reflection until Serwyn had plunged his spear through his eye."
"No doubt. Well, Hugor Hill, answer me this. How did Serwyn of the Mirror Shield slay the dragon Urrax?"
"He approached behind his shield. Urrax saw only his own reflection until Serwyn had plunged his spear through his eye."
We know the ironborn mined iron, lead and tin and so could coat an iron shield with terne (rf Part 1).
Here is a terne coated shingle roof: nice and reflective!
There you go, Serwyn used a terne (or even just tin) coated shield made by Gorold Goodbrother's ancestors. I should add that the Dornish Yronwoods also mined iron and tin – and silver.
This legend goes back to the Age of Heroes, a time when the First Men had settled the Reach and the Grey King ruled the Iron Islands.
A time when life was 'normal' for the ironborn and trade could have taken place.
Summary
The Grey Kings' reigns represent mini glaciation periods when sea levels are stable and the inhabitants of the yet-to-become islands still have ample suitable land to live on. The lower sea levels also preserve the existence of land bridges with the mainland.
The in-between periods and the events following the last mini glaciation saw rising sea levels gradually robbing the ironborn of their arable lands and eventually left them with poor islands, with only mining or fishing for survival.
The islands have been hit twice, at least, by tidal waves, each time with a small group of survivors.
The last time this happened a civil war took place, their culture was lost - in a similar way to the North American Clovis culture mentioned in Part 4 - and the priest re-birthed the tiny ironborn under the Drowned God.
Galon Whitestaff, the first prophet, unified the petty island kingdoms under the first driftwood king, the Salt king of the mining island of Orkmont, who represented both 'rock' and 'salt' people.
Part 6. Nagga
WIF - … Nagga, largest of the sea dragons, a beast so colossal that she was said to feed on leviathans and giant krakens and drown whole islands in her wroth.
A beast that can feed on leviathans has to be much larger than these largest of mammals and a beast that can drown whole islands has to be even larger than islands. Balerion the Dread, Aegon the Conqueror's huge dragon seems like chicken feed compared to Nagga.
A Game of Thrones - Bran III
At the heart of the godswood, the great white weirwood brooded over its reflection in the black pool, its leaves rustling in a chill wind.
A Dance with Dragons - Jaime I [at Raven tree’s godswood.]
It was a weirwood ancient and colossal, ten times the size of the one in the Stone Garden at Casterly Rock. This tree was bare and dead, though.
"The Brackens poisoned it," said his host. "For a thousand years it has not shown a leaf. In another thousand it will have turned to stone, the maesters say. Weirwoods never rot."
At the heart of the godswood, the great white weirwood brooded over its reflection in the black pool, its leaves rustling in a chill wind.
A Dance with Dragons - Jaime I [at Raven tree’s godswood.]
It was a weirwood ancient and colossal, ten times the size of the one in the Stone Garden at Casterly Rock. This tree was bare and dead, though.
"The Brackens poisoned it," said his host. "For a thousand years it has not shown a leaf. In another thousand it will have turned to stone, the maesters say. Weirwoods never rot."
Weirwoods are colossal and have a white trunk. Once dead, they never rot but turn to stone, i.e. petrify; it takes a thousand years; just about as long as the Grey King's reign.
WIF - These cold, wet, windswept islands were never well forested, and their thin soil did not support the growth of weirwoods. No giants ever made their homes here, nor did the children of the forest walk what woods there were. The old gods worshipped by these elder races were likewise absent.
Let's put that statement under scrutiny.
A Feast for Crows - The Iron Captain
The wind was blowing from the north as the Iron Victory came round the point and entered the holy bay called Nagga's Cradle.
Victarion joined Nute the Barber at her prow. Ahead loomed the sacred shore of Old Wyk and the grassy hill above it, where the ribs of Nagga rose from the earth like the trunks of great white trees, as wide around as a dromond's mast and twice as tall.
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
On the crown of the hill four-and-forty monstrous stone ribs rose from the earth like the trunks of great pale trees... and the Drowned God had changed her bones to stone so that men might never cease to wonder at the courage of the first of kings.
... For a thousand years and seven he reigned here, Aeron recalled.
WIF - The Iron Islands: Driftwood Crowns
… Galon Whitestaff, so-called for the tall carved staff he carried everywhere to smite the ungodly. (In some tales his staff was made of weirwood, in others from one of Nagga's bones.)
The wind was blowing from the north as the Iron Victory came round the point and entered the holy bay called Nagga's Cradle.
Victarion joined Nute the Barber at her prow. Ahead loomed the sacred shore of Old Wyk and the grassy hill above it, where the ribs of Nagga rose from the earth like the trunks of great white trees, as wide around as a dromond's mast and twice as tall.
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
On the crown of the hill four-and-forty monstrous stone ribs rose from the earth like the trunks of great pale trees... and the Drowned God had changed her bones to stone so that men might never cease to wonder at the courage of the first of kings.
... For a thousand years and seven he reigned here, Aeron recalled.
WIF - The Iron Islands: Driftwood Crowns
… Galon Whitestaff, so-called for the tall carved staff he carried everywhere to smite the ungodly. (In some tales his staff was made of weirwood, in others from one of Nagga's bones.)
Forty four ribs, one for each of the Iron Islands. Trunks of great white/pale trees, made of stone.
I think we can safely say that Nagga's ribs are petrified weirwoods. There was a weirwood grove once on Old Wyk and Galon's white staff was indeed made of weirwood. It is no wonder Galon was inspired.
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
Nine wide steps had been hewn from the stony hilltop.
Nine wide steps had been hewn from the stony hilltop.
Weirwood groves are found on hills, like High Heart, and under these hills we find children's caves.
Nagga's grove is situated on a hill on Old Wyk. Under this hill, we would find the cave which was flooded prior to the time of the Grey King.
Nagga's ribs? arches? time to call the mythbusters:
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
It was there beneath the arch of Nagga's ribs that his drowned men found him...
It was there beneath the arch of Nagga's ribs that his drowned men found him...
Some readers have suggested that these arched ribs are the remnants of an ancient enormous upturned boat because they form an arch. I doubt it, it is very common in nature to see trees on both sides of a pathway towering and arching together.
Here are a couple of pics, taken in the fabled land, west of the Sunset Sea:
| Oak Alley Plantation, Louisiana | Cypress Tree Tunnel At The Historic Marconi Wireless Station, California |
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Besides, on planet mythos, Nagga is a dragon, snake or serpent, often associated with the sea, in numerous oriental religions and cultures. So I think it is pretty clear Martin is not talking about an upturned dromond.
Nagga is sacred
A Feast for Crows - The Kraken's Daughter
"I do. All I dream about is you. Asha, I swear upon the bones of Nagga, I have never touched another woman."
A Dance with Dragons - Jon IV
"Do I need to make you swear an oath before a tree?"
"I do. All I dream about is you. Asha, I swear upon the bones of Nagga, I have never touched another woman."
A Dance with Dragons - Jon IV
"Do I need to make you swear an oath before a tree?"
We saw earlier that Old Wyk is sacred. Now we see that Nagga's bones are sacred, witness to an oath. The same practice as that of the First Men in the North who take oaths before weirwoods.
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
But that was in the dawn of days, when mighty men still dwelt on earth and sea. The hall had been warmed by Nagga's living fire, which the Grey King had made his thrall. On its walls hung tapestries woven from silver seaweed most pleasing to the eyes.
...Gone, all the glory gone. Men were smaller now. Their lives had grown short.
But that was in the dawn of days, when mighty men still dwelt on earth and sea. The hall had been warmed by Nagga's living fire, which the Grey King had made his thrall. On its walls hung tapestries woven from silver seaweed most pleasing to the eyes.
...Gone, all the glory gone. Men were smaller now. Their lives had grown short.
Who are these mighty men that Aeron is recollecting? I can only suggest that they are the Grey Kings of legend who were not only mighty, having slayed Nagga, but also lived for hundreds of years.
The Grey King owned Nagga's living fire: did the ironborn burn away the endless supply of wood provided by this huge grove of dying or dead giant trees? Perhaps. Or not.
Perhaps the ancient volcano was not quite extinct and a fumarole perdured within the grove, re-ignited by a lighting strike.
What about the tapestries of silver seaweed? Tons of seaweed deposited by a tidal wave on the branches of the trees and shining like silver in the moonlight. Some nice imagery there for someone else to elucidate.
Summary
A weirwood grove of forty four trees is the biggest found in the ASOIAF story (High Heart only had thirty one). We can be certain that the children of the forest lived there for a considerable time. We have seen that volcanic islands can contain large amount of obsidian (Rf Milos), the children's favoured weapons' material.
I suggest that they foresaw the arrival of the Sea Dragon that preceded the Grey King and fled to the tall trees of the Neck.
I do not think a greenseer was responsible. Greenseers are not 'green-doers'. However, it is possible that red-eyed 'gifted' children engineered this cataclysm.
Their presence on Old Wyk would also explain remnants of Old Gods beliefs and practices mentioned here and there in the text:
- the Farwynds rumoured knowledge of skinchanging
- the practice of human sacrifice to the Ygg weirwood tree
- the taking of an oath on the bones of Nagga, the weirwood grove
- the belief that that 'the kinslayer is accursed', found all over Westeros.
- the belief that 'the bones remember'.
The early ironborn shared the land with the children.
The Farwynds would have learned skinchanging from the children. However they are not said to descend from one of the Grey King's elder brothers, which means they would have only reached the islands after the children left them. How can we account for this (ignoring any possible blooper in the WIF)?
I suggest the Farwynds of Lonely Isle were not part of either Essosi First Men migrations to what became the Iron Islands. They were mariners who settled on this island separately. Their land was always an island.
Archmaester Haereg once advanced the interesting notion that the ancestors of the ironborn came from some unknown land west of the Sunset Sea, citing the legend of the Seastone Chair.
Perhaps Archmaester Haereg was partially right about the ironborn coming from land west of the Sunset Sea. At least for the Farwynds. They certainly have the right name for it.
Revisiting Ygg, the demon tree
WIF - The Grey King also taught men to weave nets and sails and carved the first longship from the hard pale wood of Ygg, a demon tree who fed on human flesh.
So much is said in such a short sentence! So much imagery!
First let's dissect the text:
Recall that Yggdrasil is an immense mythical tree that connects the nine worlds in Norse cosmology.
A Feast for Crows - The Drowned Man
Nine wide steps had been hewn from the stony hilltop.
… Nagga's ribs became the beams and pillars of his longhall, just as her jaws became his throne.
WIF - It was the Grey King who brought fire to the earth by taunting the Storm God until he lashed down with a thunderbolt, setting a tree ablaze. The Grey King also taught men to weave nets and sails and carved the first longship from the hard pale wood of Ygg, a demon tree who fed on human flesh.
Nine wide steps had been hewn from the stony hilltop.
… Nagga's ribs became the beams and pillars of his longhall, just as her jaws became his throne.
WIF - It was the Grey King who brought fire to the earth by taunting the Storm God until he lashed down with a thunderbolt, setting a tree ablaze. The Grey King also taught men to weave nets and sails and carved the first longship from the hard pale wood of Ygg, a demon tree who fed on human flesh.
The nine steps leading to Nagga, the weirwood grove, represent the nine Norse worlds; Ygg is a tree in the grove. Like a jaw is in the head of animals, the throne is at the head of the grove.
The Grey King sits in the jaws of the demon tree, the tree that feeds on human flesh.
Ygg is the throne tree in the weirwood grove. It has a carved face. Sacrifices were performed there.
Ygg is the tree that the Storm God's lightning bolt charred into a hull shape.
Now let's downdelve a bit more into Norse mythology:
In Norse mythology, the Norns are three female divine beings who have more influence over the course of destiny than any other beings in the cosmos. They dwell within the Well of Urd beneath Yggdrasil, the great ash tree that stands at the center of the universe and holds the Nine Worlds in its branches and roots. They shape destiny by carving runes into the trunk of the tree, or, in some sagas and poems, by weaving destiny like a web or tapestry.
In Norse mythology, Sessrúmnir is both the goddess Freyja's hall located in Fólkvangr, a field where Freyja receives half of those who die in battle, and also the name of a ship.
Viking is the name of the son of Vífil and Eimyrja in Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar. Viking is the father of Thorsten and Thorer.
His magic dragon ship is Ellida, the first ship in the North, given to him as a gift by Aegir. The ship is big like a fortress, but faster than an eagle. It is not fastened by nails, but rather, the planks were grown together.
The Norns dwell within the well of Urd beneath Yggdrasil, they shape destiny by carving the trunk of a tree and weaving.
Sessrúmnir is both Freya's hall and the name of a ship.
Ellida is the first Viking ship and her hull planks were grown together.
My interpretation of this ironborn legend:
The children lived on Nagga's hill and their singers lingered underneath it, as seen in Leaf's cave of skulls. From there, they shaped the destiny of men living on the land. Then they left.
Their greenseer, entangled in the dying roots of Ygg, a weirwood tree, in Bloodraven fashion, therefore unable to leave with them, remained and was fed by the blood of human sacrifices that he demanded.
This greenseer is the Grey King incarnate.
This greenseer, who did marvellous deeds, sent a green dream to a Farwynd of the Lonely Isles, who came in his longship (the Farwynd's sigil shows a longship) and taught the ironborn to weave sails and nets. They used the burnt out Ygg trunk as their first longship hull.
Norse mythology is vast and complex. I have no doubt that this legend can be interpreted differently.
Part 7. Overall summary
Like the cycles of Ragnarok, the ironborn have undergone several cycles of creation/migration and destruction/drowning. At the individual human level, Theon is a prime example of this death and rebirth cycle.
They ironborn were repeatedly and severely set-back by rising sea levels and tidal waves which took away their rich volcanic soil, their access to farmland, their fire, and worst of all, their population.
Climate change, warmer periods intermixed with stadial/cold periods, underpins these life cycles.
Like the fictitious Cimmerians from the drowned city of Atlantis, and the real Clovis people, sudden climate change just about killed their civilisation.
The final calamity that ended the age of the Grey King took away the last land bridge to the mainland and thus formed the Iron Islands. It literally drowned most of the population and the ironborn were 'reborn' as a people left with very little and were forced to become reavers and 'thrallers' to survive.
The priesthood replaced the lost culture by that of the Drowned God and to this day believe that if one is drowned in the shallows they cannot be drowned else-wise and will be stronger for the ordeal.
The Drowned God who lives in the 'watery halls' is the source of the tidal waves from the ironborn's point of view.
Of course, a 'hammer of the waters' can be caused as much by an undersea quake resulting from tectonic plates having a rub as by a large meteor falling in the Sunset Sea. Alternatively, any quake can cause a land collapse.
Regardless of the cause, a sudden rise of sea levels and/or a tidal wave is the consequence.
Aeron 'prayed for the Drowned God to raise a mighty wave and smash [Euron's] horn to silence' at the kingsmoot. Aeron should be careful what he wishes for, if what we have learned about ironborn history is anything to go by.
Aeron tells that the Grey King reigned for a thousand and seven years: I think these added years stand for the 'orgy of kinslaying', one for each of the seven main islands, that followed the Long Night which hurried the end of the Grey King's reign.
I have wondered whether the Iron Islands were victim of repeated epidemic of greyscale, which would explain the omni-present 'grey' and their finger dance pastime as a way to justify the need to cut limb extremities. The islands are cold and damp, an environment where greyscale thrives. However only two cases are recorded in their 'modern' history. So whilst present, it does not appear to be endemic.
The first ironborn settlers lived for a long time alongside the children of the forest who dwelt in weirwood grove now called Nagga's ribs and the ironborn have retained aspects of the Old Gods culture. The Grey King incarnate was probably a greenseer who helped the ironborn to become sailors, one of his marvellous deeds.
The ironborn have such a chip on their shoulder because they have been dealt so harshly by nature... and will be again when Ragnarok returns.
Martin wants us to be aware of the catastrophic consequences of sudden climate change on civilisation.
The end.
If there were 44 trees, there may have been more than one greenseer in the cave. We know from Bran's experience that it's not uncommon for a cave to contain many greenseers, half-alive below a weirwood grove. I'll get back to this, but it's not essential to my idea.
