La luz del rayo había deslumbrado a Jon, pero llegó a vislumbrar la sombra que se lanzaba contra ellos un instante antes de oír el chillido. El primer thenita murió igual que el viejo, con la garganta destrozada. Luego, la luz desapareció y la sombra se convirtió en un remolino que gruñía, y otro hombre cayó en la oscuridad. Se oyeron maldiciones, gritos, aullidos de dolor... Jon vio caer a Forúnculo hacia atrás, derribando a tres hombres que tenía a la espalda.
«Fantasma —pensó durante un instante demencial—. Fantasma ha saltado el Muro. —Luego, el relámpago transformó la noche en día y vio al lobo con las patas sobre el pecho de Del; las fauces chorreaban sangre—. Gris. Es gris.»
Queenscrow being renamed in Sansa's honour who restores the mess of the Gift left by Jaehaerys and Alysanne with the help of a certain cousin.
I'm feeling anti Targaryen.
They're Jon's ancestors, let him clean up the mess.
Sansa will have her hands full with the North proper. :)
Alysanne and Jaehaerys -> Baelon and Alyssa -> Viserys I and Aemma -> Rhaenyra and Daemon -> Viserys II and Larra -> Aegon IV and Naerys -> Daeron II and Myriah -> Maekar I and Dyanna -> Aegon V and Betha -> Jaehaerys II and Shaera -> Aerys II and Rhaella -> Rhaegar and Lyanna -> Jon Jon grabbing a shovel and a wheelbarrow to get busy cleaning up the mess of rotten apples at the Queenscrown Inn, opening the North's first official Cider Export company and making it big.
How valuable a fief would Queenscrown be for a newly made lord?
After I wrote about Fixing Up Dragonstone, you want me to write another Medieval Home and Gardening post, this time Queenscrown edition?
The problems with Queenscrown are obvious: most of the houses have collapsed, the inn has only two standing walls, the oak doors of the tower are too warped to close completely (though the rest of the tower appears in good shape). So any new lord looking to attract people to the village is going to have to invest some money into rebuilding.
Jojen enumerates the advantages of the Queenscrown area in Bran III ASOS: “This is good land." Jojen picked up a handful of dirt, rubbing it between his fingers. "A village, an inn, a stout holdfast in the lake, all these apple trees . . . but where are the people, Bran? Why would they leave such a place?” While Bran says the inn was never much of an inn, that there was even a small one, partially made of stone (stone structures are rare in these villages), with a common room indicates there was some business from travelers/traders along the Kingsroad. The apple trees could provide some income, but as Bran’s chapter shows, the fruit is only available during the warmer seasons (which, unless seasons by the end of canon are changed to resemble those on earth, can last for years), and thus possibly unreliable (there’s possibly a business for making preserves). The thick oak trees are a potential source of timber, maybe to help rebuild the inn and some of the cottages. The lake provides fresh water, although there’s not mentioned to be fish/frogs for food there. At least some deer are around to make venison. From Queenscrown to the Wall are grasslands, “fallow fields…high meadows”, which do have value if someone were to replant or graze their flocks there come spring.
In short, I wouldn’t say Queenscrown is one of the wealthiest potential holdfasts (it’s not located near a river, near a mine, any crossing point for tolls) but has assets in its fertile soil (assessed as good by crannogman Jojen, and shown to support many apple and oak trees), its freshwater lake, the nearby fields and meadows, and its location near the kingsroad that has attracted travelers enough for an inn. If the new lord is willing to put in the work, I’m sure Queenscrown would yield more than subsistence once the wildling raids/War for the Dawn have ended. Considering 3 chapters have taken place there (2 of Bran and 1 of Jon, which may foreshadow their endgames as kings), and there are many references to how peaceful/fertile yet lonely/haunted it is without its people, it’s very likely Queenscrown will be resettled by the end of the series.
How valuable a fief would Queenscrown be for a newly made lord?
Depends on what you can grow there, most fiefs were on the primary sector which means soil productivity and other matters of natural resources need to be considered to get a rough estimation of how valuable the fief would be. There are apple trees, but is there space and good soil for apple orchards to be cultivated? There are oak trees, but is that enough for a timber industry? Is there space to graze sheep or goats? It appears to be on a lake, so there's fresh water, but not on a river to help transport large loads or drive a mill, so that would probably hurt productivity somewhat.
Summer and the Winged Wolf - UnChained - The Direwolves of Winterfell Ep 4.8 covers the warg bond of Summer and Bran in the 2nd 1/2 of A Storm of Swords as they reach the gift (Queenscrown) and wall. The magic is at play in the encounters with Jon and Sam.
Mix in wolf dreams about Robb's death, and we get a ton of rich description of Summer and Bran's bond. On an ominous note, Bran's regrettable skinchanging of Hodor features in this episode for the first time. It's wrong, and Bran knows it, but he is so ashamed of his own body...
Still, as I cover in my first Kingsblood video, Bran has terrific support from the Reeds and Hodor, he just couldn't have had this adventure without them. Sam helps a bunch here too. The scene with Summer and Sam is a great example of the direwolf's instinctive sense of danger.
Thanks to the artists! Featured are: @blndraws @sir-heartsalot-blog @vkcoleart @yvyb @sanrixian @varshavijayan @gaystannis @samartworksblog @kallielef @chillyravenart @eliamervi-blog @naomimakesart and many more.
This is the story of how I came to the concept to the Targaryen castle of Queenscrown from my Game of Thrones AU, the Court of Bastards.
Summary: Stannis takes Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen from her mother’s dying arms and raises her as his ward. The New King Robert Baratheon, first of his name, decides that her fate is to wed with shame, making her family line continue in disgrace by pairing her to his friend’s bastard, Jon Snow, despite Eddard Stark’s initial refusal.
If you haven’t read it but is interested, maybe check this out after reading at least the second chapter. If you haven’t read it and is not interested, please ignore this. If you have read it, then welcome to ramblings on my AU.
(I had to use a LOT of images from a lot of different sources. I will link them for you all, and put the owner’s name if I can find them.)
Okay, so, to ‘build’ the stronghold, first I had to have an idea of what the original, canon-verse area would be like. There were the TV show’s concept and many of artists who captured their version of Queenscrown based, mainly, on the books’ description of it.
This is Queenscrown by Michael Komarck, being approached by Bran and his company after escaping from Winterfell.
As you can see, the tower is on the lake, on a tiny piece of land, which made my life so much more difficult because; How the hell am I to make a castle there?! But I liked the difficulty and the area surrounding it was nice and would better fit the story. You can see the forest and the mountains, which are so IMPORTANT for the Plot, in the background.
In CoB, at its first draft, the tower was destructed and in that tiny piece of land was planted the godswood, which resides at the centre of the castle. From there on, I tried to build the castle and its surroundings AKA the greenhouses, the barracks, Queen’s Town, the defending walls, etc, etc.
The first draft did not include all of these things as I focused only on the castle itself seen from above. Now, keep in mind that this is only the first version of the Queenscrown I pictured and is not the final castle I envision.
Now, you look at this messy drawing and may not understand. Yeah, I got you. So I’ll translate it for you.
The godswood itself is at the centre of the castle and its land was the initial tower that formed the previous Queenscrown, the small island is filled with winter roses and a weirwood. It’s really small and around it, there is water, almost like a moat, that comes from small channels that run through the keep. These channels are made of metal, which is heated by fire in various points in the castle, and the hot metal warms the water and thus the keep. To access the godswood there are small stairs that go down from the inner castle balconies to it. There are various balconies viewing the godswood (8).
(1) The curtain walls built around the castle were in the water but not directly connected to the castle. Only one point connected land, castle and walls; the gatehouse(5), which, in this first draft, I made it so there was a drawbridge on the end of the bridge that connected the castle to land, and the bridge and the castle itself was very above the water level of the lake. After passing the bridge and approaching the gatehouse and passing the portcullis (that metal door that closes and opens vertically) you entered the castle itself. Unlike most of the castles we’ve seen, there is no actual courtyard, but I plan un further updating it so that there is a courtyard.
(4) A piece of land on water level (1) is used as a training yard and overlooked by (6) the Great Hall of the keep (if you wanna go overboard, the ‘Throne Room’), the area is also used for the family’s leisure. The Great Hall is on the highest level other than the towers(2), solars(7) and the main keep(3), taking the entirety of the upper level of the East Wing and having a glass ceiling. (Though, now that I think of it, it should be further away from the main keep. So, let’s just switch it to the West Wing ok? Ok.)
The main keep(3) is the noble family’s chambers and the highest tower of the castle. At its top, there is a terrace filled with roses. It is connected to the lady and the lord’s chambers. All five towers within the castle are solars, but the two closest to the Main Keep belongs to the lord and lady of Queenscrown each.
There you have it, the first draft of the castle! Moving on to the second draft, I pictured the castle and its surrounds, because I came to the conclusion that no town could survive without protection. Ned gave The Targaryens the gift with the hope of populating it despite the wildlings’ attacks, and so the people needed protection too. From this idea, I created the second draft.
Unorganized and making little sense, the main idea behind this was to give QC districts, which were divided by kingdoms. That created seclusion though, and prejudice would rise quickly as people wouldn’t mingle as much. The streets were also inefficient, the urban planning abysmal and the crops too small to sustain such a huge place. Water was also not distributed well and if people do not have water and food, they will not procreate.
There was also the matter of the castle itself;
It still had remnants of the first draft, centralising the godswood and being in the water, with a more round shape. The difference was that the walls were pushed into the castle itself, opening the lake for the people and city pollution. Again, the water planning here is not good.
For the third draft, I focused first on the city planning itself.
Though on a smaller scale, this urban plan was much better. In the west, surrounding the Sept, there was the initial settling of the workers, giving history to its built. The Inner Walls protected the lake and the idea seemed to grow. It was still not a full map though, and the castle was incognito.
For the last draft, I used digital means, simplifying lines and concepts and also dividing them by colour. In this particular image, I made sure to map out the path Dany takes when she first arrives.
This took a few months to complete and fit well with my plans. The three first greenbelts are for farmlands not under the direct ownership of the castle, followed by the palace districts, the two purple rings. The three red rings are apartments, bakeries, homes; the city itself. The two inner greenbelts are the crops and greenhouses of the castle. The innermost greenbelt has three empty areas so the sovereigns can put whatever they please into them. Why they are there, you guys will soon know.
Keep in mind that most of this is empty, and the most populated areas are the Western ones, where oldtown is and the sponsored builds were put in the palace districts.
Finally, I moved on to making the castle;
The gatehouse (0), with the stables, entering into an ample courtyard. The first guard tower (2) connects to the gatehouse and keeps watch over the movements of the courtyard, also acting as an armoury, and the second guard tower (4) helps to isolate the guest wing, which extends to the second guard tower, passing (5) and (6). The courtyard leads into the main body of the castle (5), which has kitchens, music rooms, library, entertaining rooms and such. It has two stories, the first one leads to the gardens and last three towers (9, 10 and 11). The second story leads into the Great Hall (6), which has a glass roof. The great hall has passages to the guard and offices towers (4 and 8, respectively), with an open passageway (7) connecting the two and passing over the gardens. Surrounding the main keep (10), where the family wing resides, is the servant tower and another tower, with armoury and guards, leading into the small land and boathouse (12). [11th tower hasn’t much use, but is heavily guarded because of its easy access to the guest wing.]
For a side view of what I picture it, I drew this, looking to the side of the guest wing.
You may see that there are open corridors to the water for the guest wing and that the bridge and gatehouse are higher than the water level. IThat happened because of the visual influences I had, and also because I wanted to take as little space as possible, but also have a something worthy of the name castle. So I used height instead of width. there is also no boathouse, but the focus is to picture the style of the castle itself. It is not as detailed as I would’ve liked, but it shows enough for now.
As we move into the visuals, I will now show you my inspirations for the overall aesthetic of the place.
Now, when thinking about the surroundings, I mix Komark’s art with a little bit of this area in Washington, called Snow Lake (at least, Google says it is Snow Lake. I can’t be sure). It’s a beautiful area, and I think it could match nicely with the surroundings of the Queenscrown I picture.
Also, I found a link with a bunch of pictures from different places on this one website, and oh my, does it inspire me. Like, look at this! I don’t even know if it’s editing or something like it, but look! It even has a small piece of land right in the middle!
Every one of them, I swear, fits perfectly with the Gift of my mind. So beautiful to see, but mortally cold to survive.
Okay, my darlings, now to my concept, or at least the bare minimum I wished, at first, for the castle itself.
At first, I tried to decide on what kind of style I could use, keeping in mind that I wanted something like the castles we saw in Essos. But then a BIG problem was born. How the hell a castle built for summer would sustain its residents in the far North when the winter came and the cold was stronger? Magic? Artistic license? Hell yeah. But I’m too bothered to simply kick the bucket and accept that a castle clearly built for warm temperatures could be useful in the far North.
So I went on an extended journey, searching for a castle that resided in cold lands, but if it was there and was even close to what I wanted than surely it was possible for it to be built on the Gift. And I did find it!
I present you, the remains of the Château de la Mothe Chandeniers! It is frightening how close my first draft was to this old stronghold. It was burned down in 1932, but, as you can see, it snows heavily in these lands. And if there was a castle with such big windows and delicate structure in cold lands such as these, then surely I can have my Queenscrown, right? I mean, come on! It has a balcony open to the lake!
And guys, when you see it from above it is so similar to what I first drew! It blows my mind, like, am I psych or something?
It is even built in a lake! An artificial lake, I reckon, but still!
And there are photos in the snow, in the sun, in the spring or summer...So glad I found this pearl. Imagine this place in Autumn!
Yet, I was not satisfied with it. I needed something else! I already had my delicate architecture with this French stronghold but I needed something realistic, and something really fancy to help with the deccór. I researched the North and it came to my knowledge that it was mainly based on Scottland, so it was there that I went looking for that part that was missing.
While searching for that missing link, I found something that, ugh, just made me scream in delight. You see, the thing that this beautiful Chateau doesn’t have that medieval castles must have are DEFENSE WALLS! War is constant in this world and we need focking walls! But this is right in the middle of a lake! Not a simple task to build walls, I think to myself while browsing through Google and Pinterest, searching for ‘lake castles’. Or ‘fantasy castles’. Until I found this:
The Old Castle by e-designer is not a lake castle but definitely a fantasy castle. Awesome as fuck, isn’t it? But not even a bit practical and definitively not a response to my problems. How the fuck is it possible to even build some shit even RESEMBLING this castle in ten fucking years? But yes, my muse screams, this is what you’ve been searching for! This castle was what inspired me for the second draft of the Crown Castle, with its defensive walls so close to the castle itself.
So yeah, I squint my eyes, stare at it for, like, ten minutes and nod decisively in a ‘we’ll make this work’ agreement to myself. The inner walls, the first defences of the castle itself, as well as the towers, are inspired by this beautiful art.
Also, the bridge!
That bridge right there is what I want for Queenscrown. It’s so majestic. Again, I’m making things difficult for me and for you guys to believe, but just...roll with me okay?
Now, impmon101 commented about something really cool that made me change the style of the guard towers and colour scheme of Queenscrown.
Now, the first two links are these images, which were from the short history videos regarding Old Valyria:
Now, in Queenscrown there is a lot of towers. Towers are somewhat easier to build, and having a system of guard towers surrounding and into the city is not the worst of ideas. And for the last image, which is Valyria illustrated by Ted Nasmith, if you change the lava for heated water, it wouldn’t be that far from Queenscrown if we actually change the colour schemes.
As for actual colour palettes, I go for a black on white vibe for the outdoors. The structures would be primarily made of white stone -- marble, lime-stone and whatever else -- with the detailing in black stone.
This is The Rector´s Palace, Dubrovnik, Croatia (by dleiva). You see how with some adjustments to the lighting and shadows, the detailing turns black? Mainly on the arched ceiling, you see the black lining on the white stones. Also on the pillars, the whiter stone with the dark shadowing. Now, most of this detailing is purely black on the outside. All of the dome ceilings are black gleaming stones, as well as the stone pathways, with all the lampposts being made of a clear metal that shines white in the light. It’s that monochrome feeling for the main things like the streets, outer and inner walls and the castle itself.
Sacré-Coeur, as shown in SoloSophie’s A QUICK GUIDE TO MONTMARTRE. The Parisian basilica you see is the right shade of white I imagined, with the right amount of detail we see also in The Old Castle by e-designer -- which is our main base for the castle’s outer appearance and size -- and the tower dommes have a similar texture I wish for, like the scales of a dragon or the dommes of Valyrian; the only necessary would be the pitch black material used, as well as the black detailing on the white walls of the castle.
For a concept which includes both the castle and the area surrounding it, I really like the Arendelle castle from Frozen.
But alas, it is by the seaside, which is not Queenscrown’s case. Our castle is built in the water, not in some little piece of land. Beyond the lake, there is even a small circle of walls separating the water from the city itself, which is described as a grid circular system.
For the last draft of the castle, which ended up being a distant shot for the round model I first went with, I took great inspiration in the Neuschwanstein Castle, in Germany.
So, what do you guys think? Can you picture Queenscrown, have you got any ideas that could fit better? Let me know!
Crowned with Fire – True and False Lights in A Song of Ice and Fire (part 1)
I have previous written about the notion of “false light” in ASoIaF in relation to the prophecy of The Prince that was Promised/Azor Ahai.
…we all deceive ourselves, when we want to believe. Melisandre most of all, I think. The sword is wrong, she has to know that … light without heat … an empty glamor … the sword is wrong, and the false light can only lead us deeper into darkness, Sam.” – Maester Aemon to Sam, (AFfC, Samwell IV)
The inspiration for this meta comes from both from the quote above but also from this one from the novella The Princess and the Queen:
Atop the Hill of Rhaenys, the Dragonpit wore a crown of yellow fire, burning so bright it seemed as if the sun was rising. (The Princess and the Queen)
There are two things I want to point out in relation to this quote:
There’s a fire burning so bright that it could be mistaken for the sunrise. This is a false light.
Then there’s the image of the crown of fire.
The crown of fire or the burning crown is a piece of imagery that repeated recurs in the text, both in a positive and a negative manner. In this post, I will examine the image of the crown of fire in relation to the notion of a true light.
THE LIGHTHOUSE
The image of the Dragonpit crowned with fire is a striking one – and it made recall another instance where GRRM uses the image of a building crowned with fire, only this time it is a tower:
The challengers trotted back to the south end of the lists to await their foes: Ser Abelar in silver and smoke colors, a stone watchtower on his shield, crowned with fire. (The Hedge Knight)
Ser Abelar belongs to House Hightower. Their sigil is a white tower with a flaming beacon at the top. Their words are We Light the Way. This is an incredibly important detail and it will inform much of my examination of false and true lights in relation to the imagery of burning crowns in the text.
The sigil of House Hightower refers to their ancestral seat in Oldtown: a tower so vast and impressive that it is commonly knowns as The Hightower – and the family is called House Hightower of the Hightower. The family is among the most ancient of Westeros and they are commonly believed to descend from the First Men. During the Age of Heroes, King Uther of the High Tower is said to have commissioned Brandon the Builder, the legendary founder of House Stark, or his son Brandon to build The Hightower.
(Hightower in Oldtown. Art by Ted Nasmith)
And beyond, where the Honeywine widened into Whispering Sound, rose the Hightower, its beacon fires bright against the dawn. From where it stood atop the bluffs of Battle Island, its shadow cut the city like a sword. Those born and raised in Oldtown could tell the time of day by where that shadow fell. Some claimed a man could see all the way to the Wall from the top. (AFfC, Prologue)
This description points pot that The Hightower isn’t just a holdfast of an ancient and powerful House, it is also a lighthouse! The fire that crowns the tower is a beacon that lights the dark until the break of dawn and it guides ships into safe harbor. Compared to image of the Dragonpit crowned by fire, the Hightower crowned with fire is a positive image. Whereas the burning Dragonpit is a uncontrolled, destructive and deceptive fire that only looks like the dawn, the burning beacon of the Hightower is fire harnessed for a constructive purpose: to provide light and safety in the dark. It is the difference between a false light and a true light!
Light is often associated with Truth and it is a symbolic connection that is millennia old in Western thought. Within the universe of GRRM’s world, this symbolic connection is also in play. In the cult of R’hllor, the high priest of the Red Temple in Volantis in not called the Flame of Truth and the Light of Wisdom but I’ve argued elsewhere that the priesthood of R’hllor are blinded by a false light. For them any fire contains the light of truth, whether it is a fire used for visions or a fire used to burn men and women so their purified souls can ascend into the light of R’hllor. The problem with this cult is that they are fanatics and fanatics always stares so hard into the light of a perceived “Truth” that they become blind to everything else.
Too much light blinds the eye and a fire unchecked devours.
However, let’s return to The Hightower and Old Town because the words We Light the Way refers not only to the lighthouse function of House Hightower’s holdfast but also to their role as patrons of learning. King Uthor of the High Tower’s sons King Urrigon and Prince Perrimore the Twisted were integral to the founding of the Citadel and House Hightower has remained patrons of this institution of learning ever since the founding.
Thus, on the symbolic level we have another distinction between a false and a true fire. There’s the false light of prophecy and the fanaticism of the priesthood of R’hllor versus the true light of learning. GRRM has explicitly stated that in his text, prophecy is rarely useful. Instead the meanings are often murky and misleading. That can be incredibly dangerous because if those murky meanings are being mistaken for an absolute truth then it is easy to be lead astray. Melisandre is a good example – her visions are ambigious and hard to read but she places an absolute faith in the prophecy of Azor Ahai reborn, even when she acknowledges that she can read a prophecy wrongly:
“If sometimes I have mistaken a warning for a prophecy or a prophecy for a warning, the fault lies in the reader, not the book.” - Melisandre (ASoS, Davos V)
Likewise, not all scholars are wise and not all of their work leads to the truth of things. However, there’s room for debate and dissent within a scholarly community. A scholar has to be prepared for having his theories and findings contested and he has to provide evidence for his argument. In contrast, there’s not much room for debate or dissent within the cult of R’hllor. That’s the trouble with fanatics: their truth is the only truth.
“I AM THE FIRE THAT BURNS AGAINST THE COLD, THE LIGHT THAT BRINGS THE DAWN”
The imagery of a lighthouse as a beacon against the dark, a guiding light until the break of dawn makes me think of the wows of the Night’s Watch:
"Hear my words, and bear witness to my vow,” they recited, their voices filling the twilit grove. “Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.” (AGoT, Jon VI)
Furthermore, the text itself connects The Hightower in the far South with the Wall in the far North:
Some claimed a man could see all the way to the Wall from the top. (AFfC, Prologue)
This is, of course, not the literal truth but the mention of the Wall within a description of the Hightower servers to connect the two edifices in the reader’s mind. Then there’s the legend that the Hightower was built by Brandon the Builder, the same man who is credited with the building of the Wall.
A TOWER CROWNED WITH GOLD
The Hightower is not the only crowned tower in the text. In A Storm of Swords both Bran and Jon comes across a small holdfast called Queenscrown:
“The holdfast has a golden crown, see? He pointed across the lake. You could see patches of gold paint up around the crenellations. “Queen Alysanne slept there, so they painted the merlons gold in her honor.” – Bran Stark to Jojen Reed, (ASoS, Bran III)
This relates the Queenscrown tower indirectly to the Night’s Watch. The journey Queen Alysanne made North was to visit the Night’s Watch and she was so impressed by them that she had more land allotted to the Watch. This is called the New Gift. Queen Alysanne was called the Good Queen and the smallfolk painted the merlons so it would look like the golden crown she wore.
(Bran, Hodor, Meera and Jojen trying to make their way to the holdfast Queenscrown. Art by Michael Komarck)
“It is only a towerhouse. Some little lordling lived there once, with his family and a few sworn men. When raiders came he would light a beacon from the roof. Winterfell has towers three times the size of that.” […] “Men can build a lot higher than this. In Oldtown there’s a tower taller than the Wall.” – Jon Snow to Ygritte (ASoS, Jon V)
Here the Queencrown tower is directly compared to the Hightower in Oldtown. The tower crowned by fire is a beacon that guides or, in this case, warns. However, the connection with the crowned tower as a positive image (a true light) and kingship (golden crown) is an interesting one.
There are plenty of golden crowns in the text – mostly in relation to actual people wearing golden crowns, whether they be kings or pretenders, as well as heraldic sigils with golden crowns. However, there are a few examples where “a golden crown” is used metaphorically. In one of Sansa’s chapters in A Game of Thrones, Joffrey’s blonde hair is described as shining in the sun like a golden crown. Then there’s the “golden crown” that Viserys gets from Khal Drogo:
It had grown so silent in the hall that she could hear the bells in Khal Drogo's hair, chiming softly with each step he took. His bloodriders followed him, like three copper shadows. Daenerys had gone cold all over. "He says you shall have a splendid golden crown that men shall tremble to behold."
When the gold was half-melted and starting to run, Drogo reached into the flames, snatched out the pot. "Crown!" he roared. "Here. A crown for Cart King!" And upended the pot over the head of the man who had been her brother.(AGoT, Daenerys V)
Viserys’ golden crown turned out to be a false crown, one that killed him – and Joffrey’s crown of golden curls is also a deceptive image. It appears in the text right before he reveals his true nature in the confrontation with Arya and Mycah. Furthermore, Joffrey is a false king since he has no claim to the crown of Westeros. Then there’s also the fact that they both men are vicious and abusive men. Joffrey was a terrible king as would Viserys have been.
I am not entirely ready to make a definite conclusion about what the imagery of a tower crowned in gold may signify but I do find the connection an interesting one, especially since Queencrown is also compared to The Hightower, directly in terms of size and indirectly in terms of their function as a beacon of light. So you could argue that the tower crowned in gold in relation to the tower crowned by fire could signify a true king/queen. In that sense, it is interesting that this particular tower makes an appearance in one of Jon’s chapters, considering his hidden heritage. There’s an interesting passage in one of Jon’s chapters:
… a huge bolt of lightning stabbed down from the sky and touched the surface of the lake. For half a heartbeat the world was noonday bright. The clap of thunder was so loud that Ygritte gasped and covered her ears. “Did you look?” Jon asked, as the sound rolled away and the night turned black again. “Did you see?” "Yellow," she said. "Is that what you meant? Some o' them standing stones on top were yellow." "We call them merlons. They were painted gold a long time ago. This is Queenscrown."Across the lake, the tower was black again, a dim shape dimly seen. "A queen lived there?" asked Ygritte.
"A queen stayed there for a night." Old Nan had told him the story, but Maester Luwin had confirmed most of it. "Alysanne, the wife of King Jaehaerys the Conciliator. He's called the Old King because he reigned so long, but he was young when he first came to the Iron Throne. In those days, it was his wont to travel all over the realm. When he came to Winterfell, he brought his queen, six dragons, and half his court. The king had matters to discuss with his Warden of the North, and Alysanne grew bored, so she mounted her dragon Silverwing and flew north to see the Wall. This village was one of the places where she stopped. Afterward the smallfolk painted the top of their holdfast to look like the golden crown she'd worn when she spent the night among them.” (ASoS, Jon V)
The dark of the night is briefly illuminated by lightning, and in that brief flash of light Jon and Ygritte sees the golden crown on the tower, i.e. the merlons painted gold. Jon correctly identifies the tower as Queencrown and tells Ygritte the story of how it came to wear a crown. The story relates to his own ancestors, one of the rare good kings from the Targaryen dynasty: Jaeherys I “the Conciliator” and his sister-wife Good Queen Alysanne. She cared for the smallfolk and he gave the realm its first unified set of laws, among other things. In this sense, the story of Queenscrown links this particular imagery of a golden crown with a positive view of kingship – as opposed to the imagery of the golden crown in relation to Joffrey and Viserys.
THE BURNED TOWER
There is another tower that the text relates to the Lighthouse in Oldtown. However, it is done very subtly through the imagery of a specific passage in A Clash of Kings:
Behind him the broken tower stood, its summit as jagged as a crown where fire had collapsed the upper stories long ago. As the sun moved, the shadow of the tower moved as well, gradually lengthening, a black arm reaching out for Theon Greyjoy. By the time the sun touched the wall, he was in its grasp. (ACoK, Theon VI)
The tower in question is the Broken Tower of Winterfell, also called the Burned Tower. Along with the Godswood and the Crypts, the Broken Tower is one of the most distinct landmarks of Winterfell. It was once the tallest watchtower in Winterfell but it was struck by lightning and the resultant fire cause the top to cave in.
What is so interesting above is not just the image of the tower’s ragged summit resembling a crown but also the image of the tower as a giant sundial, its shadow an arm reaching out for Theon. If we compare this image with the description of the Hightower from A Feast of Crows, you can recognize the striking imagery:
And beyond, where the Honeywine widened into Whispering Sound, rose the Hightower, its beacon fires bright against the dawn. From where it stood atop the bluffs of Battle Island, its shadow cut the city like a sword. Those born and raised in Oldtown could tell the time of day by where that shadow fell. Some claimed a man could see all the way to the Wall from the top. (AFfC, Prologue)
Here we have the image of the tower as a sundial again but whereas the shadow of the Broken Tower is likened to an arm, the shadow of the Hightower is like a sword.
What does the Broken Tower of Winterfell have to do with this theme of beacons, true lights and golden crowns. The Broken Tower is associated with secrets, lies and truths. It is here that Bran witnesses Cersei and Jaime Lannister having sex. Jaime pushes Bran in order to keep this secret, to maintain the lie that Cersei’s children are Robert Baratheon’s children and not born of incest.
How does this relate to image of the tower as a sundial, which is the associative point between the Hightower and the Broken Tower? The quote from Theon’s chapter comes from a passage where he is trying to bluff himself out of a looming fight with Rodrik Cassel by threatening to hang his daughter Beth. This whole passage is saturated with anxiety on Theon’s part because he feels that he cannot win. The shadow of the tower thus becomes the shadow of the sundial, counting down the time to the moment of truth. Thus, on the basis on such an associative logic, the Broken Tower becomes a symbolic locus for secrets, lies and the countdown to the moment of truth.
This is where this post crosses into the territory of tinfoil. Daenerys Targaryen has several visions in the House of the Undying in Quarth. One of them goes like this:
Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow. A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. . . . mother of dragons, slayer of lies… (ACoK, Daenerys IV)
The imagery of this passage indicates that Dany will uncover three lies (I think that in this context “slayers of lies” doesn’t signify a literal killing). What are the lies that Dany has to uncover?
The first one most likely relates to Stannis Baratheon – the blue-eyed king with a glowing red-sword. I have previously written about how Melisandre is wrong when she identifies Stannis as Azor Ahai come again and I have also explored the idea that his glowing sword is wrong as well. Here the sword is linked with the sunset rather than the dawn. Stannis’ “Lightbringer” is a false light that leads into the night and not into the dawn. Stannis as AA reborn is the first lie that Dany has to slay.
The second lie probably relates to fAegon, the young man that Varys claims to be Rhaegar Targaryen’s son and that he has had brought up as the perfect hidden prince. Many readers suspect that fAegon is not who Varys says he is, and Dany’s vision of the cloth dragons, a mummer’s dragon as she calls it, seems to support this theory.
Then there’s the third (and final) lie: The stone beast that takes wing from a smoking tower, breathing dark flame. I think that this lie represents Jon Snow’s parentage – the stone beast represents his Targaryen heritage and the smoking tower represents the Broken Tower, also called the Burned Tower. Though the Broken Tower mainly features in Bran’s and Theon’s chapters, you could argue that Jon is indirectly present through the symbolism of the crows that live in the tower – and Jon is continually called Crow during his time with the Wildlings. Whether the Broken Tower will play a literal part in the disclosure of Jon’s true parentage remains to be seen – but it’s metaphorical connection with secrets and lies (as well as its burned status) makes it a good candidate for the smoking tower in Dany’s vision.
In the next installment I’ll taker a closer look at the imagery of the burning crown in relation to the notion of the false light.
