Sansa Stark, her symbols of Light / Dawn, and the foretelling of her return North.
[ for Sansa Week Day 1 — Identity & Heritage. ]
From the introductions, seen through the POVs of her family, Sansa’s first physical description and presence in the books is tied to light:
“Sansa looked radiant as she walked beside him” – Jon I, AGOT
“Sansa would shine in the south” – Catelyn I, AGOT
Sun & light in her eyes and hair:
"You have your mother's eyes. Honest eyes, and innocent. Blue as a sunlit sea. When you are a little older, many a man will drown in those eyes." – Sansa I, AFFC
“She had auburn hair, lighter than mine […] the red in it would catch the light of the torches and shine like copper.” – Catelyn VII, ACOK
& the name she bears from Book 3 onwards, “Alayne”, means “light”.
Derived from the Greek “Helen” after the word for “sun” and its god Helios. Alternatively “Elaine”, the French variation, meaning ‘shining light’ / ‘sun ray’.
Sansa is also marked by Ned as half of the Sun & Moon balance.
“..and Sansa… Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you” – Arya II, AGOT
And in contrast with her “moon” counterpart, Arya, who is associated heavily with the night & the Hour of the Wolf, Sansa’s symbols lie in the themes of light, morning, and dawn, which in Westeros is brought by the Hour of the Nightingale, as Sansa’s story is filled with bird and song imagery.
"Sing, little bird. Sing for your little life." – Sansa VII, ACOK
“..voices sweet as nightingales."
“Her sister had known all the songs, and she could even play a little, and sing so sweetly.” – Arya IV, ASOS
But it’s ‘DAWN’ specifically that holds a constant and significant place in Sansa’s story.
Both the sun and its rise, to Sansa, often appear in tandem with the themes of perseverance, freedom and her journey home. Her “holding out” and waiting for it.
She anticipates the arrival of dawn as she’s trying to make the climb to escape her captors, in order to go back North:
“Before she was halfway down her arms were trembling and she knew that she was going to fall. One more step, she told herself, one more step. She had to keep moving. If she stopped, she would never start again, and dawn would find her still clinging to the cliff, frozen in fear. One more step, and one more step.”
“I did it. I did it, I didn’t fall, I made the climb and now I’m going home.” – Sansa V, ASOS
Continuing the “steps”, when she makes the decision to “step out” into twilight, despite her doubt, she raises her face up to the sky, and feels the snow that tastes of her home and dreams. Then it’s dawn that suddenly arrives.
“..black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, she thought. I do not belong here.. Yet she stepped out all the same.”
“Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks. At the center of the garden, beside the statue of the weeping woman that lay broken and half-buried on the ground, she turned her face up to the sky and closed her eyes. She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.
When Sansa opened her eyes again, she was on her knees. She did not remember falling. It seemed to her that the sky was a lighter shade of grey. Dawn, she thought. Another day. Another new day. It was the old days she hungered for. Prayed for.” – Sansa VII, ASOS
After she loses consciousness and regains her bearings, dawn has come. And she rebuilds her home.
“The snow fell and the castle rose”
“It was only a castle, but before very long Sansa knew it was Winterfell.”
“Dawn stole into her garden like a thief.“
When she reminds herself that she isn’t in Winterfell, isn’t with her family and is masquerading as Alayne Stone, she ends the thought with:
“Dawn had not yet come” – Sansa VII, ASOS
She waits for it, as she is reminded that she is not home there, and of her need for Winterfell.
At dawn sea, when she finally escapes, it repeats - onwards North is the only way.
“Already the little boat was no more than a swirl of smoke and fire behind them, almost lost in the immensity of the dawn sea. There was no going back; her only road was forward.” – Sansa V, ASOS
Watching the sun rise from her quarters & a callback as well to her warging powers, the ties to which were severed, and her own freedom, as she watches the falcon in the sun:
“Maiden's was the easternmost of the Eyrie's seven towers, so she had the Vale before her, its forests and rivers and fields all hazy in the morning light. The way the sun was hitting the mountains made them look like solid gold..”
“.. A falcon soared above the frozen waterfall, blue wings spread wide against the morning sky. Would that I had wings as well.”
After thanking the Old Gods for Bran’s life, at dawn she says she saw him again:
“When dawn broke over the city, the dark red blooms of dragon's breath surrounded the girls where they lay. "I dreamed of Bran," Sansa had whispered to him. "I saw him smiling." – Eddard V, AGOT
In the text, Sansa herself is described akin to a light, the Sun.
But a lot of the themes in her arc center the concept of a metaphorical “dawn”, as the perseverance of values and dreams. She’s the representation of it – through her disillusionment arc, and the hope she keeps.
The concept of “dawn” for Sansa means her return home North. Sansa’s journey towards her light started when she left Winterfell – and will come to a finale when she returns there, for the Starks to rebuild their home and kingdom after the prophesied War for Dawn.
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