A Game of Thrones-Chapter 66

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Bran VII
A Game of Thrones chapter
AGameOfThrones.jpg
POV Bran
Page 610 US HC (Other versions)
Chapter chronology (All)
Bran VII
Arya V  ← Bran VII →  Sansa VI

Bran Stark and Rickon Stark have the same dream about seeing their father in the crypts. Maester Luwin takes Bran down to the crypts to show him his father is not there. They find Rickon already there. They go back to the Maester’s turret where Luwin tells them about coming of the First Men, the treaty with the Children of of the Forest and the coming of the Andal men. A raven arrives with news of Lord Eddard’s death.

Synopsis

Bran is watching Ser Rodrik Cassel train the new young recruits in the yard of Winterfell. Maester Luwin is taking measurements of the comet through his lens tube. Bran tells Luwin that they do not fight very well, and is told that Eddard took the cream of the guard with him to King's Landing, and then Robb took the rest along with all the likely men for leagues around; men are needed to walk the walls of Winterfell. Bran stares resentfully at the boys below thinking how he had knocked Prince Tommen down many times. Then Bran advances the idea of fighting from the back of Hodor, but Luwin dismisses the idea as impractical. Then Bran talks about the blind knight Symeon Star-Eyes, and Luwin tells Bran that is only a story and that he must put his dreams aside.

The mention of dreams brings Bran to his dreams of the three-eyed crow, a dream that was very sad. He tells Luwin how the crow brought him down to the crypts and father was there; father was sad, because of Jon. When he woke up he wanted to go down to the crypts to see if father was there, but Hodor will not carry him down into the crypts. Luwin tells Bran that Eddard will be down there some day, but that will not be for many years. He insists the dream was real and that his father was there. In order to dispel the boy’s delusion, Maester Luwin calls for [[Osha], who tells them that she has lived beyond the wall, a hole in the ground will not scare her. With Summer, they descend into the crypts. Summer will not venture past the stairs. As Luwin sweeps his torch by the opening to the crypt that will one day hold Lord Eddard, Shaggydog jumps out and ravages the maester’s arm. Then Shaggydog and Summer fight as Rickon emerges yelling at them to leave his father alone. Bran learns that Rickon had the same dream as him, and Rickon calls off Shaggy. Bran dreams that he saw his father, Ned, in the catacombs of Winterfell. Maester Luwin summons Osha to carry Bran and goes down to the crypts with him; Osha tells them that she has lived her life beyond The Wall and a hole in the ground will not scare her. Because of Osha’s good behavior, the chains from her shackles removed, but the shackles remain to show she is not totally trusted. She carries him with sure steps in her arms, but Bran does not mind.

The vault seems very dark and gloomy. Summer and Osha seem uncomfortable. When Bran states that the men represented by the granite statues were the Kings of Winter, Osha tells him that winter has no king; if he had seen it he would know. They proceed down the long corridor, past the statues, but Summer refuses to leave the steps. Bran tells the accomplishments of the different lords and kings: Jon Stark, Rickard Stark, Theon Stark, Brandon the Shipwright, Brandon the Burner, Rodrik Stark, Torrhen Stark, and Cregan Stark, . When they get to the end with the statues of Brandon Stark, Lyanna Stark and Lord Rickard Stark, Luwin sticks his arm into the future tomb of Eddard, and Shaggydog springs out and savages Maester Luwin's arm. Bran calls for Summer, who slams into Shaggydog, knocking the wolf off Luwin. Osha has goes to assist Luwin. As the wolves fight, Rickon appears at the mouth of Eddard’s tomb, telling Luwin to leave his father be. When Bran tells Rickon father is not there, Rickon states that he saw him last night, and that he is coming home. Luwin now, looking unsure, tells Rickon that Shaggydog was supposed to be chained. Rickon replies that he does not like to be chained, and Luwin states that he is now the third man that Shaggydog has savaged and it will only be a matter of time before he kills someone. Bran calmly states they will wait in Maester Luwin's tower, which Luwin states is quite impossible. Osha replies that the Bran is the lord. Richon agrees to come if Shaggy comes too. Maester Luwin reluctantly follows.

They enter Maester Luwin's cluttered turret, where Osha proceeds to bandage the maester's wound, following his instructions. Luwin tries to explain to the boys that what them both dreaming the same dream. He tries to say the Rickon is too young to understand, to which Rickon states that he is four. Then he tells Bran that he is old enough to know that dreams are dreams. Osha adds in that some are and some are not; the Children of the Forest could teach him something about dreams. Bran starts to go into the stories that Nan told about the Children of the Forest: they knew the songs of the trees, fly like birds, swim like fish, talk to animals, and make beautiful music. The Maester says that a man who trusts in spells duels with a glass sword. Luwin takes out several arrowheads made of dragonglass, or obsidian, which the children of the forest forged far below the earth. He tells them that the children used shirts of woven leaves and greaves of bark in place of armor and carried blades of obsidian; Osha comments that they still do. Bran and Rickon each take some arrowheads. 'The Children lived during the Dawn Age, before the coming of men in the land now called the Seven Kingdoms. They lived in the depths of the woods, in caves and crannogs and secret tree towns. Their wise men were called greenseers and carved the faces in the weirwoods to watch over the forest. No one knows how long they reigned or where they came from.' Twelve thousand years ago, the First Men crossed the broken arm of Dorne before it was broken. The First Men were mounted, tall of stature and wielded bronze weapons.

The First Men chopped down the weirwood trees to build holdfasts, and the Children of the Forest, enraged, started a war. The greenseers supposedly used dark magic to make the sea rise and break the landmass that is now the broken arm of Dorne. Finally, a truce was called and the leaders of both races met on the island in the God's Eye now known as the Isle of Faces. After the Pact was forged, the greenmen were formed to keep watch over the Isle of Faces. The First Men eventually adopted the gods of the wood worshiped by the Children. The signing of the Pact ended the Dawn Age and began the Age of Heroes. The Pact started 4000 years of friendship between the Children and the First Men. While the kingdoms of the First Men endured, so did the Pact, all through the Age of Heroes, courtesan the Long Night and the birth of the Seven Kingdoms. Eventually the Andal raiders came with steel and fire, and the seven pointed star of the new gods. The war lasted for hundreds of years, and the Andals. The Andals burned most of the weirwoods remaining in the south, slaughtering the Children where they found them. The Children fled north. During the story Osha adds that there are still children north of the Wall, and also giants, and other old races; Maester Luwin is not happy with Osho filling the two boys with folly.

Luwin’s tale is cut off when the two direwolves start howling. Now Bran is sure that he had known it. The direwolves quiet and a bloodied raven appears. Even Maester Luwin is not sure he wants to know what is in the message. Bran, hugging Rickon hard, asks about the message and Osha tells him he knows, while putting a hand gently on his head. Maester Luwin tells them that they will need to find a stone carver that knew is likeness well.

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References and Notes