1.18 Catelyn IV

I started looking at this chapter a week ago, but just didn't carry through. Ooops!

The very first thing that caught my attention is the name of the ship that Catelyn and Ser Rodrik are traveling on to Kings Landing. This ship is The Storm Dancer. So, I have a thing for the ships in this story, their names, their journey's, their cargo, their passengers. At first it was just because I thought the names were interesting, but I started to focus what the names could mean when I started doing rereads. A couple years ago, while looking at Davos's chapters in Dance, I focused on two ships that he talks about, The Sloe-Eyed Maid, which is linked to Dany, who tried to book passage on it to come to Westeros from Qarth, and we later find was sunk near Sisterton. The other ship I noted was The Merry Midwife, a pockmarked old ship that might not look pretty, but keeps on keeping on. I looked at these two ships in relation to the story we get of the Fisherman's daughter to link either Ashara or Lyanna to being the Fisherman's daughter.

Another ship that shows up in that chapter in White Harbor is The Storm Dancer. The name caught my attention then, and I tried to link it to the Fisherman's daughter at that time as well, but we don't get any more than a mention of it being in harbor in Davos II in Dance. So this time through this chapter I had a moment where I realized I had never paid attention to the name of the ship that Cat travels on from White Harbor to Kings Landing, but here it is. The Storm Dancer. Traveling from White Harbor to Kings Landing in book 1, and docked in White Harbor in book 5.

So, already in this reread I have had some tinfoil that links Robert and Dany, and how I associate both of them with the idea of the word Storm in our story. Robert the Storm Lord, from the Storm lands. Daenerys, the Stormborn, which I am not sold on being really about a storm at Dragonstone, but more a hint of her parentage, possibly linking her to Robert, but also just possibly being a bastard from the Stormlands. And here is that pesky Storm word again. And this time it is linked to the word Dancer.

On first thought, when I do word association, I link Dancer to Bran's horse, and to Ashara Dayne. Since I don't think that Bran's horse had a child with Robert, I am going to look at Ashara. The reason I think of Ashara and dancing is because of the story Meera and Jojen relate to Bran about Harrenhal.


Of course, we are all familiar with this passage, and whom the identities of these people are. Or we have some guesses to the identities of these people. The Starks are easy to figure out. Robert is here as the Storm Lord, and we hear of a maid with laughing purple eyes who dances with four men and talks with one. It is assumed that Ashara is the maid with laughing purple eyes. I suppose it could be Lyanna, but she is noted to be the wolf maid in this story, and while she sniffles and dumps wine on Benjen's head, she is never noted to dance. Also, we have no hint of Lyanna's eye color, although it will not surprise me if they don't turn out to be purple or blue. I think it's accurate to think of Ashara as the maid with laughing purple eyes. And what does that maid do in this story, but dance.

Lot's of speculation on why Lyanna was crying/sniffling, but I am going to skip that. Even though it's hard for me to do, because I like to derail even my own thoughts, but ...

I am sure this seems nuts, but I think the ship The Storm Dancer is linking Robert to Ashara at Harrenhal, and perhaps afterwards. We later are told that Ashara was "dishonored" at Harrenhal, but that word can be full of possible meanings. I have speculated on many meanings. But what if Ashara and Robert bumped together like ships in the night. After all, these are a bunch of teenager's running around, smelling spring and drunk on summerwine. Stuff happens. What if it happened with Robert and Ashara? Robert seems to have some fierce appetites and Ashara is supposed to be quite beautiful.

Now, I know that a Harrenhal baby seems like it would be too old to be any of the children we are searching for parentage wise, except for perhaps Aegon/Young Griff. But my mind goes to Dany for a child of these two, and Dany is too young to be a Harrenhal baby. If her age is really 13 at the start of our story. She could be older perhaps, but no more than a year or so. But what if Robert conceived her on Ashara at some other time. After all, we know that she wasn't nailed to the floor in Dorne during the rebellion.

Hang with me, as I know this seems like wild speculation based on a ships name, but I have seen the same connection made for The Shy Maid, linking Ned and Ashara, and this is really no different.

This is what Catelyn tells us about The Storm Dancer:

Okay, so we are told this is a Tyroshi ship, the fourth ship that Moreo has owned, that she is fast, with two masts and sixty oars. This ship was the fastest available in White Harbor and Cat had not taken Ser Rodrik's advice to take a fishing sloop out of the three sisters. He wanted stealth but she insisted on speed. They fought terrible winds during the voyage, but still made good time.

We hear that Ser Rodrik had been sick, and not only that, but he was almost blown off the boat when a storm seized them off Dragonstone, and managed to hang on to a rope off the side of a ship until he was rescued by sailors on the ship. Interesting here is the sudden storm off of Dragonstone. Daenarys' birth is associated with a storm at Dragonstone. And while I have often not believed this storm happened, what if it did? A sudden storm killed Steffan Baratheon and his wife, perhaps it was trying to kill the seed of Robert, as well.

Here is some of Lord Borell's conversation with Davos:

So, we have account of Ned being in Sisterton, shipwrecked with a woman whom was reported to be the daughter of the Fisherman who's boat that she and Ned arrived in Sisterton on. But Ned and the woman made it to the Sister's before the ship went down. It's interesting to me that Rodrik wanted to be stealthy and take a fishing boat to Kings Landing, and here is Ned on a fishing boat, just sailing north instead of south. It seems perhaps Ned was trying to be stealthy. Was it just because he was trying to sneak into the north to raise his banners? Perhaps, but it seems more likely it was because of whom he was traveling with. The fisherman's daughter. Whom I think is probably Ashara, but could be Lyanna, too.

Still, Ashara makes a bit more sense, because we are told this women with Ned helped guide the ship safely to shore. How would Lyanna do this? But Ashara might be able to. She was raised in a castle on an island on the Summer Sea. She would be more familiar with boats and sailing than a land locked, horse loving Lyanna Stark.

An important question is why would they need to sneak? Also, something about they way they acted together left people to believe they were lovers. Were they? Or was she obviously pregnant, and people assumed that child was Ned's. Perhaps she was pregnant with Ned's child but I think it very likely it was Robert's. Could be Rhaegar's, also.

After being in Sisterton, Ned got to White Harbor. Was the fisherman's daughter still with him? I think so. Borell talks about how Ned gave her a bag of gold, "they say" which means he has no good source for this, only rumor, so it probably happened away from Sisterton. And I think that Ned got to White Harbor with this woman, who was probably pregnant. And then he got her passage on a ship out of White Harbor. A fast ship, a big ship, a ship like The Storm Dancer. A ship that travel's from White Harbor, past the Fingers, past Dragonstone where sudden storms pop up, and to Kings Landing. Catelyn tells us the path the ship would take, the speed of it, the relative safety.

I think it's possible that in White Harbor, Ned met another woman, a woman who could have served as a midwife or perhaps a wet nurse. If the fisherman's daughter is Ashara, then this other woman could have been Lyanna or Wylla. We have three interesting ships linked to White Harbor or Sisterton. The Sloe-Eyed Maid, which is linked to Dany in Qarth, and ends up sunk off Sisteron, The Merry Midwife, who is pockmarked and looks haggard but still is plying her trade, and The Storm Dancer, who is still racing along the Narrow Sea, quickly moving passengers from point a to point b for a bag of gold. 

I have doubted the story of Dany's birth for a long time but what if Dany was born at Dragonstone, in a storm, just like we are told. But perhaps her mother hadn't been there for a while, perhaps Dany's mother arrived just in time to give birth to Dany. I have felt for a while that Dany's mother is Ashara, and if Dany's father is Robert, this could link them both to her, by the name of a ship, The Storm Dancer, that carried a pregnant Ashara to Dragonstone for a birth. Or perhaps it carried her to Kings Landing, where she was the person who was later snuck to Dragonstone in place of Rhaella, in time to give birth. I had always assumed the child was Rhaegar's but what if it wasn't. What if that child was Robert's?

Now, it's possible this is the story of Rhaegar and Ashara's baby, and how Ned snuck Ashara and said baby to safety, but that ship's name being The Storm Dancer connects Robert and Ashara to me. What if the name that Rhaegar cried out in the water's of the trident was not Lyanna, whom we think was Rhaegar's lover but Robert loved, but Ashara, the woman that Rhaegar loved but was Robert lover?

I did watch Days of Our Lives with my mom today, so it might have poisoned by brain!

I know this is a lot of crazy speculation based on the names of a few ships, but I think that GRRM puts a lot of though into idea's like this. And I know that many people argue that GRRM made up the idea of the Fisherman's daughter to throw a red herring to people who claim the parentage of Dany and Jon is so obvious, who argue that GRRM is only trying to distract us from the obvious truth of RLJ, but if The Storm Dancer early in book one is linked to the the fisherman's daughter that we don't hear about until the fifth book, then it's safe to say he had it all planned from the beginning.

Another ship observation in this chapter:

I am not sure yet why, but this idea of this ship from the Summer Isles passing The Storm Dancer seems important. Any idea what a swan ship is?

Another interesting ship observation in this chapter is this:

It seems like the queen's barge can only be in reference to the queen herself, Cersei, and if so, is the fat-bellied whaler supposed to be in reference to Robert? Hull black with tar. If this is telling us about Robert, what does a hull of black tar indicate? If it's not Robert, then who does the fat-bellied whaler indicate? Unless this is a hint of our previous king and queen, Rhaella and Aerys, but I don't get the reference, in that case. Any idea's? 

Ned does tell Cersei to exile herself and go as far as The Summer Isles or the Port of Ibben, so perhaps this has something to do with that? This and the swan ship from the Summer Isles.

Yes, I am The Derailer!!!

Perhaps. Yes! I like to think that Ned is baptising in the cool air of the north after relations with Cat, so perhaps Lyanna also had baptising moments.

Well, I don't know if that actually might have happened, but it might indicate that there was never a sexual relationship between Robert and Lyanna. And is Robert really a womanizer. I certainly don't see him as a rapist. Yes, he seems to like sex, but can't blame a guy for that.  Not being more careful about creating children, and then taking care of those children is much more irritating to me.

Sansa does have pearls sewed onto her wedding cloak, which could fit the idea of a bride, as you say.

This is one of the things that makes me associate Stark's with pearls. There is more, but this is the only one I can find quickly.


Yes, lilac is not really Rhaegar's shade of purple, so I was stretching with that. Maybe the Daynes, as their sigil color is a pale purple.

Another idea for lilac is mourning. This color is used for final or lesser stages of mourning. Perhaps that could be indicative of Lyanna's knowing about the deaths of her father and brother?

So, I was thinking about this pearl idea being associated to the Starks, which they are in my head cannon, but after searching last night, there are not many pearl hits at all for the Starks. Arya has the most, eight total, one of which is the baby pearls on her dress, but the most of them are in relation to the Black Pearl courtesan in Braavos. Sansa has three, Jon has one (those are freshwater pearls the wildlings give up to cross the wall), Bran has none, and Ned has two. Catelyn has none, although I wasn't sure if I wanted to include her as a Stark in my search.

By far the most pearl links to any one character is Daenerys. She has twenty all together, so more than all of the Stark's put together. I am not sure if that means anything or not, but perhaps Dany is the baby pearl if this is a hint to us about Lyanna's baby. This is not my favored idea, but I suppose R+L=D is still in the running.

So, my head cannon on pearls now stands corrected!

I think it was that damn cup that Mace Tyrell gave to Joffrey on his wedding, which had a mother of pearl Direwolf on the cup that lead my mind astray! Still, it's certainly a pearl connection to the direwolf, but the only white direwolf we have is Jon (err, Ghost).