“The ʻhaunting the narrativeʼ trope involves a past character, event, or presence that continues to shape the present story. Whether through memory, trauma, or supernatural means, this presence must significantly impact the current plot or characters’ arcs, influencing their actions, emotions, or development. It's not just background—it actively echoes through the narrative.”
✧˖°. Sansa Week - day 6 "prophesies, magic, religion"
They say you forget. When the man's flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, but every day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little more a wolf, until nothing of the man is left, and only the beast remains -A Dance with Dragons, Prologue
The Ghost of High Heart is a witch who made many prophecies involving major deaths, as well as important characters and scenes that are yet to happen. One of them involves Sansa Stark: she is mentioned as playing a role in the Purple Wedding, which marked the death of King Joffrey Baratheon. Furthermore, she is prophesied to be involved in another death, in a castle made of snow.
[read more about this prophecy and the theories][please consider donating & helping <3]
In A Storm of Swords, ARYA XIII, the death of Joffrey Baratheon is recounted to Arya, including the rumours surrounding her sister, Sansa:
“The northern girl. Winterfell’s daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window.”
While the wolf imagery is not surprising considering her Stark heritage, which the small folk reaffirm, despite her marriage to a Lannister by calling her “The northern girl. Winterfell’s daughter.”, the decision by GRRM of bat wings is demands further discussion.
Throughout her story, Sansa is directly compared and tied to animals of flight; doves, falcons and exotic birds which need to be caged in order to stop them from flying away, but previously, never bats. GRRM may have landed on bat-wings this time because the wings of a bat are more unpleasant to behold, they’re leathery and ugly, thus, illustrating the sinister portrayal intended to paint Sansa as villainous.
However, for a song-bird such as Sansa, perhaps an allusion to a siren, a creature with the feathery wings of a bird of prey and the body of a woman; or even perhaps a harpy, a creature similar to a siren, who’s name, even more so than ‘siren’, has become a misogynistic and derogatory word for a detestable woman, would have been more fitting for someone who, in their eyes, committed such a monstrous act such as regicide.
Moreover, it could also be a reference to Sansa’s maternal grandmother, Minisa Whent, of the Whents of Harrenhal, whose sigil is nine bats on a yellow field. While this is a possibility, it seems rather obscure for a story supposedly originating amongst the small folk. What seems more likely is that GRRM is directly referencing JRR Tolkien’s, Lúthien Tinúviel.
In both the earlier Lay of Leithian and posthumously published, The Silmarillion, Lúthien Tinúviel, elf-maid and Princess of the hidden kingdom of Doriath, fashioned for herself a pair of bat wings, procured from the vampire-like creature Thuringwethil. And for her love, Beren, a wolf skin from the terrible “sire of all were-wolves”, Drauglin.
This act of skin-changing allowed them both to travel cross country at break-neck speeds to arrive at the lair of Morgoth, Tolkien’s lucifer parallel, an abominable immortal being who was “as tall as a tower”. Due to the supernatural power of her singing voice, and Morgoth’s lust for Lúthien, she is able to successfully defeat the giant, meaning their quest can be fulfilled.
Similarly, in the small folk’s tale of Sansa Stark, she murders the king with a spell, and wearing both the skin of a wolf, and the wings of a bat, is able to flee her captivity in King’s Landing. In doing so, this leads her straight into the domain of Petyr Baelish, the commonly theorised “savage giant” whom she must “slay” in order for her arc to be fulfilled.
Both recounts of the tale of Beren and Lúthien, as well as Sansa’s escape, are oral recounts of historical events by in-world characters, the elves (and later written down by Bilbo Baggins) in Tolkien’s legendarium, and the common people in Westeros, cements both ladies in their respective world’s myth and legend.
SANSA STARK WEEK 2025: MYTHOLOGICAL PARALLELS (DAY 3) -> SANSA STARK and PERSEPHONE. (ins/po)
#the narrative tries so hard to make sansa persephone but she says NO #i will go home for winter!!! my mother will not endlessly look for me!!! i will not stay in hell with you!!!
[quotes used under the cut][please consider donating & helping <3]
credits: @daen7kat / post
MAIDEN:
“One of Persephones common Epiphets is Kore, meaning ‘the maiden’
“I dreamt of a maiden at a feast with purple serpents in her hair (...) I dreamt of that maid again, slaying a savage giant in a castle maid of snow.” — ASOS, Arya VIII
BEAUTIFUL:
“She [Demeter] was answered by Persephone, the most beautiful.”
“Ser Ossifer speaks truly, you are the most beautiful maid in all the Seven Kingdoms.” TWOW - Alayne I
FLOWERS:
She was picking flowers: roses, crocus, and beautiful violets.
When the white horse stopped in front of her, she thought her heart would burst. To the other maidens he had given white roses, but the one he plucked for her was red. “Sweet lady,” he said, “No victory is half so beautiful as you.” Sansa took the flower timidly, struck dumb by his gallantry. His hair was a mass of lazy brown curls, his eyes like liquid gold. She inhaled the sweet fragrance of the rose and sat clutching it long after Ser Loras had ridden off. […] Septa Mordane quickly took a hand. “Sweet child, this is Lord Petyr Baelish, of the king’s small council.” “Your mother was my queen of beauty once.” The man said quietly. — A Game Of Thrones, Sansa II
NARCISSUS (JONQUIL) IMAGAERY:
"It [the narcissus] was a wondrous thing in its splendor. To look at it gives a sense of holy awe to the immortal gods as well as mortal humans. It has a hundred heads growing from the root up. Its sweet fragrance spread over the wide skies up above. And the earth below smiled back in all its radiance. So too the churning mass of the salty sea. She [Persephone] was filled with a sense of wonder, and she reached out with both hands to take hold of the pretty plaything."
Dontos chuckled. "My Jonquil's a clever girl, isn't she?" -- ACOK Sansa IV
PLOTS TO MARRY HER:
She was given away by Zeus, the loud-thunderer, the one who sees far and wide. (...) She was being taken, against her will, at the behest of Zeus, by her father’s brother.
‘Petyr Baelish had offered to wed the girl himself, she recalled.’ – Cersei II, ADWD.
GOD OF RICHES AND COIN:
Hades is Ploutos [Wealth personified], who gives riches to mortal humans.
He serves as master of coin on the small council of King Robert I Baratheon.
ABDUCTION:
“The son of Kronos. The one known by many names. He seized her against her will, put her on his golden chariot, And drove away as she wept.
“As was bringing me here, when you swore to take me home."” — ASOS, Sansa VII
GRIEVING MOTHER :
“She sped off like a bird, soaring over land and sea, looking and looking. But no one was willing to tell her the truth [etêtuma], not one of the gods, not one of the mortal humans, not one of the birds, messengers of the truth [etêtuma]. Thereafter, for nine days did the Lady Demeter wander all over the earth, holding torches ablaze in her hands. Not once did she take of ambrosia and nectar, sweet to drink, in her grief, nor did she bathe her skin in water.”
“I should have let Lysa push him out her Moon Door. My poor sweet Sansa . . . why would anyone do this to her?” — ASOS, Catelyn IV
POMEGRANATE:
“but he, stealthily, put into my hand the berry of the pomegranate, that honey-sweet food, and he compelled me by biâ to eat of it..”
“Petyr cut a pomegranate in two with his dagger, offering half to Sansa. “You should try and eat, my lady.” “Thank you, my lord.” Pomegranate seeds were so messy. — ASOS, Sansa VII
SUBJECT OF JEALOUSY:
“Mint, men say, was once a maid beneath the earth, a Nymph of Cocytus, and she lay in the bed of Aidoneus; but when he raped the maid Persephone from the Aetnaean hill, then she complained loudly with overweening words and raved foolishly for jealousy […]”
“You can't want her. You can't. She's a stupid empty-headed little girl. She doesn't love you the way I have. I've always loved you. I've proved it, haven't I?” — ASOS, Sansa VII
HYMNS :
“Hymn to Phersephone. Daughter of Zeus, Persephone divine, come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline: only-befotten, Plouton's [Haides'] honoured wife, O venerable Goddess, source of life: 'tis thine in earth's profundities to dwell, fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell.”
“Sansa knew most of the hymns, and followed along on those she did not know as best she could. ” — ACOK, Sansa V
sansa week 2025: day one ➳ heritage | family | identity
Joffrey gave a petulant shrug. "Your brother defeated my uncle Jaime. My mother says it was treachery and deceit. She wept when she heard. Women are all weak, even her, though she pretends she isn't. She says we need to stay in King's Landing in case my other uncles attack, but I don't care. After my name day feast, I'm going to raise a host and kill your brother myself. That's what I'll give you, Lady Sansa. Your brother's head."
A kind of madness took over her then, and she heard herself say, "Maybe my brother will give me your head."
Here’s some insights behind each prompt to help Sansa fans understand them better!
Day 1 Heritage | Family | Identity
Day 2 In-Universe Parallels and Foils
Day 3 Mythological | Literary | Historical Parallels
Day 4 Long Road Home
Day 5 Fairytales | Songs | Prayers
Day 6 Prophecies | Magic | Religion
Day 7 Pawn To Player + AUs
We don’t want you to feel pressured or limited so you’re free to get creative and to interpret the prompts in your own ways💜 we’re so excited to see everyone’s contributions to Sansa Week!
annaxmalina
germansingergirl
titsay
romaincrisis
2087
stormborns
dailybridgerton
kaledo-art
discoholicmusic
