Howland Reed

LOL! Nagging suspicions indeed. I don't take anything a face value.



Not only does Howland appear to be a better fighter than suspected; he knows all the magic of his people, if we are to believe Meera's tale.



- breathing mud - skinchanging an amphibious creature?
- running on leaves - across the treetops? astral projection?
- changing earth to water and water to earth - control of water levels in small streams?
- talking to trees - communicates with weirwoods; sentinel trees or greenseers in some way
- weave words - weaving words is a euphamism for spell singing
- make castles appear and disappear - controlling mists and fogs to hide buildings

And yet he goes the meet the green men to learn more for an entire winter.

lots of good insights in your post Mark.

A couple of remarks, if i may:

- IIRC the ironborn were severely harassed by the crannogmen in one place; the one where theon/reek went to negotiate their surrender and where one of the ironborn was literally rotting away.

also, yes, 'It was said that they were a cowardly people who fought with poisoned weapons and preferred to hide from foes rather than face them in open battle."
but was that said by the Freys, who are deeply prejudiced? and whoever said that you had to fight your enemies in open battle, particularly if they are twice your size?
Certainly not the spaniards who defeated napoleon's army with guerilla warfare.

In their own ways, the crannogmen are very effective fighters, as demonstrated by Meera with Sunmmer.
And as you point out, with Howland, I agree that some things don't add up.

Is it possible that the way Howland dispatched Arthur, and in so doing saved Ned's skin, did not go down well with 'righteous' Ned? hence the relationship became strained?

This is what i wrote in my thread about the Green Men:

They are said to be cowardly, because they hide when using poison arrows to defend their land. Well, how else will a 4 foot crannogman fighter take on a 7 foot Andal?
These poisons have even Victarion, who is generally no shrinking violet, quite wary of their potency. And for good reasons it seems as Theon tells us that 'Ralf was rotting' ...enough said! Shades of Dorne.
We also learn that the Citadel is interested in the queer properties of their rare herbs and plants.

This makes me wonder just how Howland Reed, our likely little crannogman, killed (was it him?) Arthur Dayne: probably not with a sword, he would have been much too small in any case.

But that isn't a force of crannogmen, which is my point. It's literally a few archers, if that.



Two arrows get shot at Theon, who's standing right in front of Moat Cailin out in the open. There's either only two archers here, or more likely only one. If there was an actual force of crannogmen Theon would've been killed.

And if there were an actual force of crannogmen they'd have attacked the Dustin/Ryswell army, and later the Bolton/Umber army, and again later the Bolton/Frey army. They never attack anybody, just these same few arrows every now and then.

There was probably never more than 10 crannogmen harassing the ironborn, if that. There's no indication there was ever a force of them at any point. The ironborn complain of "some bog devil" shooting them, or leading them off into the swamp. Never "some force" or any skirmishes.



True, but there are still times when guerrilla warfare turns into battle. Victarion had to assault Moat Cailin. That's 3 towers he needed to take. That takes time. While he's busy attacking the 3 towers, why didn't a force of crannogmen appear at his rear? Why weren't crannogmen archers posted on both sides of the kingsroad? It would've been a complete killing ground, with the ironborn trapped on all sides.

The crannogmen could've butchered Victarion's forces while he was busy trying to take Moat Cailin. They didn't.

And for a people who fight cowardly and not in open battle, then again why didn't they burn the Iron Fleet? That is exactly the tactic you'd expect from guerrilla fighters. Victarion was 30 miles away, there was nothing he could do if his fleet started to burn. He'd have been trapped and the crannogmen would've won because he'd have either had to stay there and slowly die from the swamp, or fight his way into the north where he could meet up with Asha, Theon, or Dagmer, or he'd have had to fight his way into the Riverlands, where Robb was, both of which leave Moat Cailin and the north undefended. And yet instead we see the Dustin/Ryswells do this like a year later when they take over ridding the Neck of the Ironborn.



Well again, Ned said Howland had a sword.



He didn't have a spear, a bow, a blow dart, a net, whatever. Ned said he had a sword. Of course this is a fever dream where GRRM told us not everything is literal, but Howland also wouldn't have survived fighting beside Ned in the front lines using an unconventional weapon. His net and spear trick would work against one opponent and then he'd get stabbed in the back while his net was tangled in the body for instance. So I don't doubt that he knows how to use a sword, that's what he'd have had to be using if he were fighting beside Ned. Or at least an axe, mace, etc., a traditional weapon that can withstand use throughout a battle.

Of course, I also flirt back with the idea that Howland didn't fight Arthur, and Ned did kill Arthur in single combat. We know these things

- Ned's soldiers and Yandel both say that Ned apparently killed Arthur in single combat. Only Ned and Howland survived the fight, so either Ned or Howland told them Ned had killed Arthur in single combat. Howland's obviously the chattier of the two. But regardless, one of them said it.
- And Ned himself only says that Howland saved his life while he was fighting Arthur. Ned does not say that Howland was fighting Arthur too, he doesn't say that Howland killed Arthur, or that Howland did anything to Arthur at all. He says Howland saved HIS life. Howland did something for Ned, not to Arthur.
- We are told that Arthur was wielding Dawn
- We are shown that Ned and his men had swords, as well as that Ned carries around and fights with a regular longsword, and not Ice
- We are told by Jaime a story of Arthur dueling a man using a regular longsword, and Dawn destroyed the blade due to its incredible hardness and sharpness, such that he needed a new sword. Arthur allowed him to get a new sword in this duel, but then again we also know that the Brotherhood had already been defeated at this point and Arthur was basically dueling for the love of the fight, and not because he had to.
- Unlike against the Smiling Knight, it's Arthur who is the defeated man making his last stand, while it's the rebels who have won and are simply mopping up the remnants. Is Arthur going to break a foe's sword here and allow him to get another one when he needs to win at all costs? I think not.

So for a long time I've proposed that Howland saved Ned's life simply by throwing him a new sword when his own inevitably broke against Dawn, which caught Arthur off guard as he thought Ned was done. Ned did defeat Arthur in single combat like the stories, which must have come from him or Howland say, and he did do it with Howland Reed's help, just like he himself admits. Howland simply gave Ned a new sword when Dawn broke the sword Ned was using. Which also explains why Howland himself happened to have a sword there too.

I mean, even the show included Dawn "defeating" Ned's longsword and Ned needing a new sword to beat Arthur. Which is what I'm essentially proposing.

But yeah, it seems to fit everything we know. It explains the single combat stories, it explains Ned saying Howland saved him while he (and not Howland) was fighting Arthur, and it explains the otherwise completely irrelevant detail of showing us that Dawn broke a regular longsword in Arthur's only other known duel.