Someone had dressed her in woman’s clothes again, but this dress fit much better than that hideous pink rag the goat had made her wear. “Blue is a good color on you, my lady,” Jaime observed. “It goes well with your eyes.” She does have astonishing eyes.
Beginning in the twelfth century, the improved status of blue was made most evident by its prominence in images of the Virgin Mary, notably in her robes. This prevalence, which continues even now, has transformed blue into a color of sanctity and divinity.
(Blue: The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau (trans. Markus I. Cruse))
A writer of the early Christian era says that the unicorn is so ferocious that no hunter can possibly capture him. Only by leading a virgin maiden to him can he be taken. Charmed by her, the unicorn springs into her lap and embraces her. Tamed and distracted, he is then trapped, killed by the huntsmen, and brought to the palace of the king. It is important to note that the unicorn hunt and capture in the tapestries have enormous symbolic significance. On one level the symbolism is religious: the hunt and capture by a virgin are themes that can be interpreted as the whole divine plan for man’s Redemption—Christ’s incarnation through his birth to the Virgin Mary, the pursuit of him by his enemies, his death on the cross, and finally his resurrection, which coincides with the reappearance of the live unicorn in the last tapestry. On the other hand the symbolism is secular: many people believe that the Unicorn Tapestries were made to celebrate a wedding, their story representing an allegory of courtship and marriage. After the fourteenth century the unicorn sought by hunters and then beguiled by the virgin maid personified the valiant medieval lover undergoing great danger and suffering to gain the acceptance of his beloved.
(“The Unicorn Tapestries”)
Throughout the fourteenth century, […] the use of colors in chivalric romances underwent several metamorphoses. […] Most striking was the appearance of blue with its positive associations: from this period on, blue knights are courageous, loyal, and faithful characters. Knights dressed in blue first appeared as secondary figures, before moving into the ranks of heroes in the second half of the century.
(Blue: The History of a Color)
At close hand, the brilliant blue armor looked rather less splendid; everywhere it showed scars, the dents of mace and warhammer, the long gouges left by swords, chips in the enameled breastplate and helm. His cloak hung in rags. From the way he moved, the man within was no less battered. A few voices hailed him with cries of “Tarth!” and, oddly, “A Beauty! A Beauty!” but most were silent. The blue knight knelt before the king. “Grace,” he said, his voice muffled by his dented greathelm.
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