1.42 Tyrion VI

In this chapter, after Tyrion is released from the Eyrie, he is traveling with Bronn along the high road through the Mountains of the Moon. These two characters are pretty much the sole focus in this chapter, although we do get to meet some of the members of the Vale mountain clans, and there are a few mentions of people yet in the Eyrie.

Let's start with any hint's that might fall around Tyrion:

Tyrion opens with his effort to start a fire. It's not something he knows how to do (which we did see on his journey north to the wall) but this time he is trying. He is gathering wood, making a nice wood pile, and even while arguing with Bronn about whether starting this fire is the worst idea ever, Tyrion continues his fire making process. This reminds me a bit of Dany and her building (or ordering the building of) of Drogo's pyre, and it also reminds me of Aerys determination, according to Jaime, to set Kings Landing ablaze with wildfire! 

Tyrion set's about making his fire, and borrows Bronn's flint to start a fire, but is still unable to get a spark. Bronn needs to start the fire and even needs to blow on the flames to make them flair up nicely. Before Bronn slips away into the woods to hunt up some game, we get this:


From Tyrion's perspective, the fire is blazing nicely, even if Tyrion himself doesn't set it. This reminds me of how I imagine Aerys enjoyed flames burning! This also reminds me of Cersei's appreciation for the wild fire that destroys the Tower of the Hand, even though she doesn't set it, she is enamoured of it! Some how, this feels like a Targaryen hint for Tyrion (and Cersei). The idea of Tyrion being Aerys bastard by Joanna Lannister is not new and this is one of those little nods that I think could exist in the text. It perhaps also serves to remind us that in the very last chapter, Jon lights a fire in Maester Aemon's chambers and notes "Jon had the logs crackling merrily by the time Chett led in Maester Aemon". Sometimes when reading these chapters, there seem to be concurrent kind of hints in the text, similar, yet different, and I think this appreciation that both Jon and Tyrion show for a nice fire might be one of those things that GRRM has planted into the text. If Jon and Tyrion should turn out to share Targaryen blood, these will certainly be some of the clues that GRRM scattered throughout the text.

I do note that while Tyrion wants a fire and gathers the wood and builds the pile, he is unable to set it to flame. It is Bronn who is successful at starting a fire, while Tyrion only enjoys it. I am not sure what that might mean, but it stood out to me!

We also get a couple shadowcat mentions in this chapter for Tyrion. 


Now, it is my personal tinfoil, perhaps shared by others, that cat hints in the story might be a stand in for dragons in this story. The cat hints about the Red Keep, the idea of Balerion, the tom-cat that prowls the mighty Targaryen castle and steals quails from the hands of Tywin Lannister, Tommen's love of cat's (if Cersei and Jaime end up having Targaryen blood), and recently Fire and Blood has connected cat's to the Rogare family from Lys. Shadowcat's are certainly different from a domesticated cat, but not unlike a lion perhaps. Of course, I don't want to get so wrapped up in Tyrion is a Targaryen idea that I forget all about the sigil of House Lannister, a golden lion. Even if Tyrion's father might be a dragon, his mother was still a lion, so cat's are important to the Lannister storyline. Now, shadowcat's are black with white strips (I think) but here is Tyrion joking about saddling a shadowcat. Now, this might not have to do with family blood, but I am wondering about a skinchanger gene in Tyrion. We see that Varamyr Sixskins actually has a shadowcat for a familiar animal. It's not an animal that a full grown man could saddle and ride, but could a dwarf like Tyrion ride a shadowcat? Even if not, is this "saddling" hint a wink to us that Tyrion might be able to control a shadowcat?



This shadowskin cloak has become a part of Tyrion. He wins in from Marillion on the journey to the Eyrie, and while it was taken from him, he makes certain he get's it back from Mord when he leaves the the sky cells. It is important to Tyrion! This cloak reminds me a bit about Dany and her while lion pelt, which Dany uses for protection from the sun, and to feel closer to Drogo after his death. Here, Tyrion is using it for shelter. But it is also another nod to shadowcat's in Tyrion's story, and the idea of Tyrion being wrapped in "shadows" might be a nod to his parentage not being as clear as he might believe.


Again, Tyrion and the shadowskin cloak, and this time he wraps it up and uses it for sleep. But does the cloak help induce dreams in Tyrion? Or perhaps different dreams than normal? He is putting himself in a semi-familiar memory, of Mord being a gaolor and beating him, but in this dream, which Tyrion seems to gain some strength, he is the gaoler, and it is his father (Tywin?) that he is driving into the abyss. Certainly, this can be foreseen as foreshadowing of Tyrion murdering Tywin, but I wonder if Tyrion has dreamed such things before (he hints to Jon on the journey to the wall that he has indeed dreamed of setting fire to people (Tywin and Cersei), but is this dream different because fire is not used? 

Although I don't think it has any direct reference to Tyrion's parentage, while Tyrion and Bronn sit at the fire, waiting to be approached by the clansman, Tyrion tells Bronn the story of Tysha. Jaime plays in this story, as does Tywin, but Tywin in the clear villain. We get the story of true love, of lies, of a brutal gang rape, of silver coins and gold, and while reading this story, I find myself feeling about Tyrion's relationship with his father the same way I felt when hearing about Sam Tarly's situation with Randyll. Both fathers attempting to teach lessons in a pretty awful way. We also get the name of the song, "Seasons of my Love". We find out it's a Myrish song, sweet and sad. Later in our story, the lyric's will be spread thoughout the text, with some of the lines being "I loved a maid as fair as summer with sunlight in her hair", "I loved a maid as red as autumn
with sunset in her hair", and " loved a maid as white as winter with moonglow in her hair". Although I doubt this song or it's lyrics will tell us anything about a parentage mystery in our story, I do think the lyrics are an important overall theme, perhaps about love. I know we have debated on this board about what the lyrics could be for the spring verse, and I know this has been discussed on other boards over the years as well. This is one of the things I hope we get an answer about from GRRM before the end of this series.



Perhaps this has become a failing in me while reading the text, but I find that I associate the word's mad and madness with hint's of Targaryen blood (like ice for Ned and snow for Jon, etc.). And here we have one of those for Tyrion. Simple, to the point. "You're mad, dwarf". So, if madness equals Targaryen blood hints in this story, is this a direct nod at Tyrion being the bastard of Aerys?

And with this same exchange, I want to discuss Bronn just a bit. Bronn is an interesting character in this story. I have seen lot's of Bronn theories over the years, and some I could buy and some I will leave on the shelf, the one I do find rather enticing is the idea that Bronn might be descended from the Tarbeck-Reyne family. 

Before The World of Ice and Fire was published, some samples were released and one of the samples included stories from the Westerlands, and included a paragraph that did not make the final cut of the World Book, so it's debatable if the information means anything much at all. But here it is, anyway:


Ellyn was a Reyne who married, among other people, Lord Walderan Tarbeck and had three children with him, two daughters and a son. The son, Tion the Red, was said to be killed along with Walderan, and the two daughters, Rohanne and Cyrelle, were reported to have been given to the Silent Sisters after their tongues were removed. Rumors report that the three year old son of Rohanne was tossed down a well by Amory Lorch, but rumors persist that the child was smuggled to safety across the narrow sea. This boy was remembered in songs as the Last Lord Tarbeck. Even if he was tossed down a well, it might not mean his death, although one wonders how well a three-year old could swim. In this world, if there is no body, then I am going to doubt a person is dead. So, did this young Tarbeck/Reyne heir survive? If he was three at the time of the rebellion in 261AC, he would have been born in 258 or 259AC, making that child 40 or 41 years old in 299 AC. Now, I would actually think this is too old to be Bronn, but it could be possible. In an SSM GRRM even stated in that Bronn's age is early to mid thirties, so that doesn't really fit the time line, but the hints of music in this passage around Bronn are interesting.

Here, we have Tyrion asking Bronn, "Where's your love of music, Bronn?". This might mean nothing more than a glib comment from Tyrion, but as we will know, there is huge imagery around the Lannister's and their song "The Rains of Castamere", written and became famous after Tywin flooded the mines of Castamere, drowning the family and household members of the Reynes deep in their own mine, and it plays into the Red Wedding as well, so this song hints at how the Tywin Lannister liked to do business. Ruthless! The song has been used by Tywin to reign in (pardon the pun) people that were hesitant to bow to Tywin's dictates but hearing the song and understanding what Tywin was capable of, were able to think twice before crossing Tywin Lannister.

The excerpt that I listed above also hints at a sad song about this "last Lord Tarbeck" who would carry both Tarbeck and Reyne blood, as well as the blood of whomever his father was by Rohanne Tarbeck. As far as I know, there is no proof this song even exists, but if anyone has some idea of what it might be, I would love to hear about it! But ... "Where's your love of music, Bronn?" might just mean more than it seems at first.

We get a few descriptors for Bronn in this chapter. 


Black hair, dark eyes. We have no clear ties to either the Tarbeck or Reynes, from this. Black hair shows up often in our story, most notable in the Baratheon lines (nope, not even trying to claim that Bronn is a Baratheon) and dark eyes are very vague. They could be dark and of any color. Grey, as we are told Jon and Arya's eyes are "dark eyes, like mine" even though we know they both have grey eyes, even Ned's eyes are noted to be dark grey. (nope, not even trying to claim that Bronn is a Stark). Those "dark eyes" could be dark green, dark brown, dark grey, dark blue, or even black but while it doesn't connect Bronn to a Tarbeck or Reyne in coloring, it doesn't discount him either.

Now, the idea is about as shiny of tinfoil as I can spin up, and this is by no means my original idea, but it's something I read years ago and has managed to stick with me. Perhaps just because I like the idea of someone from those families surviving, some little piece of the puzzle that Tywin had missed that could rear up and claim so much, perhaps even directly from the Lannisters, while using the Lannister's as a stepping stone. I guess the irony of the situation appeals to me, even though there is very, very little to back it up.

Another thing that Tyrion says to Bronn, rather in an arsehole manner, is that Bronn is from this passage:


Tyrion could not be more blunt in this. He claims it several times, lowborn and scum, and the irony of Bronn not being lowborn at all really appeals to me, and also that Tyrion was blind to it. He also claims that duty, honor and friendship mean nothing to Bronn, but he doesn't really know Bronn, so this is a lot of conjecture, based on Bronn killing his traveling companion to put him out of the misery of a slow death. We see this come up a couple times in our story (the Hound and Arya's story line), and perhaps Bronn had done the kindest thing possible for Chiggen! Sometimes, I think Tyrion is very wrong about things, and he might be wrong about Bronn. About the lowbirth, about the scum, about the honor!


The other thought I had about Bronn while reading this chapter is this:


Of course, on one level this dig is at Bronn, who I believe butchered Tyrion's horse on the journey to the Eyrie, but it also reminds me very strongly of the Dothraki. Black hair, dark eyes... could this all be a hint that Bronn has some Dothraki connection that we don't know about? One thing that little excerpt about "the last Lord Tarbeck" mentioned was the child taken away to Essos. Could the child have fallen into the hands of the Dothraki at some point, or at least crossed their path. We see that the Dothraki seem to welcome Jorah Mormont into their world. They seem to prize warriors above most other things, and if the story is telling us anything, it is that Bronn is both a good warrior, but also smart and not afraid to fight dirty if needed. Something the Dothraki would appreciate, I think.

So there it is. Perhaps some hints about Tyrion's parentage (more likely) and some about Bronn (less likely). 

ETA: In Tyrion IV of AGOT, Tyrion notes that Bronn's eyes are black. In this same chapter, Bronn tells Tyrion (while someone else butchers Tyrion's horse) that Dothraki prefer horse meat to beef or pork and reports "meat is meat" although, horse meat is better if fried up with onions. Sounds like a man who knows a thing or two about eating horse meat!