While Arya is a character that the fandom heavily associates with death, her connections to the dead that don’t seem to get much attention are the times when she hears the voices of those who have died. From Syrio apparently guiding her from the great beyond to Ned galvanizing her to reclaim her identity, this recurring aspect of her story seems hugely significant.
Calm as still water, a small voice whispered in her ear. Arya was so startled she almost dropped her bundle. She looked around wildly, but there was no one in the stable but her, and the horses, and the dead men.
Quiet as a shadow, she heard. Was it her own voice, or Syrio’s? She could not tell, yet somehow it calmed her fears.
This moment is very reminiscent of Star Wars: A New Hope when, like Arya, Luke Skywalker’s mentor is murdered and immediately afterward, Luke starts hearing Obi-Wan’s voice in his head, giving him instruction. In that film, we know it’s Obi-Wan because it’s Alec Guinness’ voice and he’s giving advice that goes counter to Luke’s instincts. With Arya, we know this instance isn’t just her remembering Syrio’s sayings, but Syrio himself because of her response to hearing him. She has an intense physical reaction and looks around her for the source of the voice. The other times it happens afterward, she’s more comfortable hearing the voice, following the instruction or heeding his wisdom. For instance:
Look with your eyes, she heard Syrio whisper. Arya looked. She knew all of her father’s men. The three in the grey cloaks were strangers. – AGOT
Look with your eyes, Syrio’s voice seemed to whisper. Her eyes saw white lather under their saddles; the horses had been ridden long and hard. – ACOK
No, a half-remembered voice seemed to whisper in her head. They are dead, or dying. Look with your eyes. – AFFC
So while there are several occasions when Arya repeats his words to herself for guidance and strength, those are clearly differentiated from the moments when he is speaking to her. In the audiobook, the narrator even shifts to Syrio’s voice in those moments, making it clear that these are not Arya’s thoughts but words whispered to her by her dead mentor.
Another instance of Arya hearing the dead is in A Clash of Kings when a severely wounded woman found by Yoren dies. She had been found along with Weasel in a raided holdfast. After what she had experienced, all she could say was “Please” over and over again until she died. But after her death, Arya continued to hear her.
The one-armed woman died at evenfall. Gendry and Cutjack dug her grave on a hillside beneath a weeping willow. When the wind blew, Arya thought she could hear the long trailing branches whispering, “Please. Please. Please.” The little hairs on the back of her neck rose, and she almost ran from the graveside. – ACOK
On its own, this moment could be interpreted as a symptom of Arya’s trauma. She’s being exposed to a great deal of horrors and atrocities as she and her party travel through a war zone. The death of this woman and her unanswered pleas could have resulted in her imagining that she could still hear her even after she died. But since we have multiple instances of Arya hearing the dead, this moment is part of a pattern.
One of the most powerful and iconic moments in Arya’s story is when she speaks to her father through the heart tree in ACOK.
Then, so faintly, it seemed as if she heard her father’s voice. “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives,” he said.
“But there is no pack,” she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. “I’m not even me now, I’m Nan.”
“You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you.”
There is room for debate on whether this scene occurs because Ned speaking through the old gods somehow, Arya’s ability to hear the dead, or some combination of the two. But it’s very clear that this is, in fact, Ned even though he died a whole novel before this. Not only does his voice sound like her father’s but he references a private conversation they had that wasn’t anywhere near a heart tree.
Since no other characters hear the voices of the dead unless they’re dreaming or delirious, it’s likely that these instances of hearing dead people are building toward this being a significant skill she has. What I’m curious about is what Arya’s ability to hear the dead will mean going forward in the story. Will this make conversing with Lady Stoneheart easier? More important to the story’s climax, will she be able to understand wights? Jon was trying to find out if it was possible to communicate with them. Arya might be the answer.
