Post by lynn on Sept 17, 2017 7:37:08 GMT
Am now wondering if the tree at Whitetree could be the tree the Night's King used for his sacrifices to the Others.
And the Gate in the Nightfort--either the tree the Black Brothers used for sacrificing the Night's King. Or made from wood from the tree the Night's King was sacrificed to. . . .
Need to give this a think.
I wonder if weirwoods are connected through their root system or spread through and propogate the root system like silver maples for example. The tree at the NF seems more root-like.
A Storm of Swords - Bran IV
No, Bran thought, but he walked in this castle, where we'll sleep tonight. He did not like that notion very much at all. Night's King was only a man by light of day, Old Nan would always say, but the night was his to rule. And it's getting dark.
The Reeds decided that they would sleep in the kitchens, a stone octagon with a broken dome. It looked to offer better shelter than most of the other buildings, even though a crooked weirwood had burst up through the slate floor beside the huge central well, stretching slantwise toward the hole in the roof, its bone-white branches reaching for the sun. It was a queer kind of tree, skinnier than any other weirwood that Bran had ever seen and faceless as well, but it made him feel as if the old gods were with him here, at least.
No, Bran thought, but he walked in this castle, where we'll sleep tonight. He did not like that notion very much at all. Night's King was only a man by light of day, Old Nan would always say, but the night was his to rule. And it's getting dark.
The Reeds decided that they would sleep in the kitchens, a stone octagon with a broken dome. It looked to offer better shelter than most of the other buildings, even though a crooked weirwood had burst up through the slate floor beside the huge central well, stretching slantwise toward the hole in the roof, its bone-white branches reaching for the sun. It was a queer kind of tree, skinnier than any other weirwood that Bran had ever seen and faceless as well, but it made him feel as if the old gods were with him here, at least.
While the tree at Whitetree is huge, powerful, old and monstrous. Dolores Edd's first instinct is to cut it down. It's the only tree we've seen with a mouth large enough for a sheep and recieves burnt offerings. What is the Black Gate but a mouth that opens to consume whomever passes. Why does this tree receive meat? Perhaps the Night's King is here. Just as Bran can travel through the roots of Bloodraven's Tree to Winterfell; the NK is connected to the gate through it's root system and projects it's ghost face on the Wall. But is it blind because of age or because the tree at the Night Fort has no eyes carved into it?
The question is how can the NK live thousands and thousands of years when BR is almost consumed by the weirwood. I suspect that the answer is in what Mel tells Jon; that the Wall is a queer place and that there is power in it, in him and in ghost if only he would use it.
A Dance with Dragons - Jon VI
The direwolf looked at him as if he were a stranger.
Jon frowned in disbelief. "That's … queer."
"You think so?" She knelt and scratched Ghost behind his ear. "Your Wall is a queer place, but there is power here, if you will use it. Power in you, and in this beast. You resist it, and that is your mistake. Embrace it. Use it.
The direwolf looked at him as if he were a stranger.
Jon frowned in disbelief. "That's … queer."
"You think so?" She knelt and scratched Ghost behind his ear. "Your Wall is a queer place, but there is power here, if you will use it. Power in you, and in this beast. You resist it, and that is your mistake. Embrace it. Use it.
So I suspect the NK draws from the power of the Wall connected through it's root system. And i also wonder if the NK is the 3EC. It seems to me that Lyanna is represented by two characters in Arya and Sansa; the story of the NK might also split into the stories of Bran and Jon. Bran is a 'fallen' Stark, the boy who climbed too high and when tree-Bran encounters Ghost-Jon, he is fierce and fearless.
It would make more sense to me if Coldhands was sent by the NK to ensure that Bran gets to a place where he is safe and can receive instruction from BR. Bran can't be enthroned at Whitetree... whatever is there hasn't been revealed yet.
If the NK is the 3EC, we might glean something of his purpose when he shows Bran the heart of darkness and tells him this is the reason he must live. I suspect that something has been imprisoned beyond the ice spears and the curtain of light and the NK keeps it there. So long as the Wall stands the unseen thing remains imprisoned. Something that is attempting to escape or be reborn. I'm beginning to think that the prophecy of AA reborn isn't about a hero reborn; but a monster.
Bran must live and Jon must die for some reason. Together they have to defeat: the ancient enemy, the heart of darkness, the soul of ice, a tall and twisted thing with ten long arms and one dark eye, the first storm and the last.
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SealedEvilInACan
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EldritchAbomination
If you have read the Foresaken chapter; the canned evil appears to manifest as Euron or whatever it is that inhabits Euron as different times. His personal sigil seems to represent two crows or crows eyes and one blood eye. So three eyes and an iron crown. Euron's express purpose is to kill all the gods and enslave everyone else.
So perhaps the cotf recruited the ancient enemy among men at one time to prosecute their war against the first men... that evil got away from them and what remains of it is imprisoned beyond the curtain of light. Something that is now seeking to escape and be reborn.
So perhaps what Bran sees in the heart of darkness isn't something that can be defined but more like a serious of horrific visions not unlike Aeron's visions of Euron after taking shade of the evening.
Bran weeps hot tears and so does the Black Gate.
When we compare fallen stars to red and orange are we talking about fallen Starks or the prophecy: when the stars bleed?
I completely buy into the Dawn sword made from the heart tree of a fallen Stark, but is this Winterfell or Whitetree? That would tie the power of the sword to the Wall and the NK. So the creation of the sword is also the instrument of his release; when his watch is over.