I: The king laughs and the court laughs with him.
So Jon is laughing, during one of his first real trials as a leader, hedged in language that is applied to three different kings of Westeros. Not only that, the rhythm of the phrase “when the king laughs, the court laughs with him” is echoed almost word for word for Jon specifically.
He [Joffrey] laughed … and when the king laughs, the court laughs with him. Sansa ASOS
He [Jon] laughed, and Pyp and Owen and half a dozen more laughed with him. Jon ASOS
He [Barristan] had spent the best part of his own life obeying the commands of drunkards (King Robert] and madmen [King Aerys]. Barristan ADWD
Jon laughed, laughed like a drunk or a madman, and his men laughed with him. Jon ASOS
II. Bloodraven and “King.”
The raven, which is surely skinchanged by Bloodraven, Bran’s mentor and a man who can see the past/present/future, says king over and over. By Mormont’s actions, GRRM makes a literary connection between the raven’s statement and Jon.
“King,” croaked the raven. The bird flapped across the solar to land on Mormont’s shoulder. “King,” it said again, strutting back and forth.
“He likes that word,” Jon said, smiling.
“An easy word to say. An easy word to like.”
“King,” the bird said again.
“I think he means for you to have a crown, my lord.”
“The realm has three kings already, and that’s two too many for my liking.” Mormont stroked the raven under the beak with a finger, but all the while his eyes never left Jon Snow. Jon AGOT
Jon is LC in the fifth book and the raven meaning Bloodraven is at it again, calling Jon a king. A man who can see the history of Westeros is calling Jon a king again.
He rose and dressed in darkness, as Mormont’s raven muttered across the room. “Corn,” the bird said, and, “King,” and, “Snow, Jon Snow, Jon Snow.” That was queer. The bird had never said his full name before, as best Jon could recall. Jon ADWD
III: Gilly and taking a knee for kings
“They say the king gives justice and protects the weak.” She [Gilly] started to climb off the rock, awkwardly, but the ice had made it slippery and her foot went out from under her. Jon caught her before she could fall, and helped her safely down. The woman knelt on the icy ground. “M'lord, I beg you—” Jon ACOK
When Gilly entered, she went at once to her knees. Jon came around the table and drew her to her feet. “You don’t need to take a knee for me. That’s just for kings.” Jon ADWD
IV.“Kill the boy” to Aegon the Unlikely and to Jon Snow
“Kill the boy and let the man be born” was the exact same advice that Maester Aemon gave to another Aegon (Aegon the Unlikely) before he became king. Aegon the Unlikely was a compromise candidate chosen by a Great Council rather than by succession. Decades later, Jon gets the same advice this future unlikely king got:
“Allow me to give my lord one last piece of counsel,” the old man had said, “the same counsel that I once gave my brother when we parted for the last time. He was three-and-thirty when the Great Council chose him to mount the Iron Throne…Egg had an innocence to him, a sweetness we all loved. Kill the boy within you, I told him the day I took ship for the Wall. It takes a man to rule. An Aegon, not an Egg. Kill the boy and let the man be born.” The old man felt Jon’s face. “You are half the age that Egg was, and your own burden is a crueler one, I fear.You will have little joy of your command, but I think you have the strength in you to do the things that must be done. Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born. Jon ADWD.
When Sam eulogizes Maester Aemon in AFFC, he states “he counseled kings as well.”
V. King Daerons and Jon Snow.
Jon is connected in text to the nation building and ruling of two King Daeron. As a boy, he admired Daeron the Young Dragon, a conqueror who tried and failed to conquer Dorne. But as LC, Jon’s nation building mirrors Daeron the Good, who integrated Dorne into Westeros by marriage. I made a separate post detailing Jon’s textual connection to the King Daerons.
Jon sends Sam to the Citadel and Maester Aemon yet again connects Jon to a Targaryen king, this time Daeron the Good:
“My own father raised the same objections when I chose a life of service,” the old man said. “It was his father who sent me to the Citadel. King Daeron had sired four sons, and three had sons of their own. Too many dragons are as dangerous as too few, I heard His Grace tell my lord father, the day they sent me off.” Aemon raised a spotted hand to the chain of many metals that dangled loose about his thin neck.
“The chain is heavy, Sam, but my grandsire [Daeron the Good] had the right of it. So does your Lord Snow.” Samwell AFFC
VI. Aegon the Unlikely and Jon Snow (again)
Egg, Maester Aemon’s brother who is the future King Aegon the Unlikely, is mistaken for a stableboy in the ASOIAF prequel novella. Jon thinks he might be mistaken for a stableboy.
“No one sees her ladyship unless the Longinch gives his leave. You come with me. Your stableboy can stay with the horses.”
“I’m a squire, not a stableboy,” Egg insisted. “Are you blind, or only stupid?” The Sworn Sword.
It would never do to come before this queen without a retinue of his own, if half of what they said of her was true. She might mistake him for a stableboy and hand him the reins of her horse. Jon ADWD.
VII. Kings hiding under the Snow.
The way GRRM phrases this sentence:
”Kings are a rare sight in the north.“ Robert snorted "More likely they were hiding under the snow. Snow, Ned”! Ned AGOT.
VIII. The Black Bastard & the real king of the castle.
When Arya is in the Red Keep, the seat of the kings of Westeros, she encounters Jon’s dead half sister’s cat, Balerion. The cat is called “The Black Bastard” and “the real king of the castle.” Jon is called the black bastard more than once.
“That’s the real king of this castle right there, older than sin and twice as mean… One time the king was feasting the queen’s father [Tywin], and that black bastard hopped up on the table and snatched a roast quail right out of Lord Tywin’s fingers. Robert laughed so hard he was like to burst. You stay away from that one, child.” Arya AGOT
“The black bastard [Jon] what gutted Orell,” said Rattleshirt, “and a bloody warg as well.” Jon ASOS
But they were all dead now, even Arya, everyone but her half-brother, Jon. Some nights she heard talk of him, in the taverns and brothels of the Ragman’s Harbor. The Black Bastard of the Wall, one man had called him. Arya ADWD
IX. Viserys, Jon, and kings’ seats.
“Khal Drogo says your place is not on the high bench,” Ser Jorah translated for her brother. “Khal Drogo says your place is there.”
Viserys glanced where the khal was pointing. At the back of the long hall, in a corner by the wall, deep in shadow so better men would not need to look on them, sat the lowest of the low; raw unblooded boys, old men with clouded eyes and stiff joints, the dim-witted and the maimed. Far from the meat, and farther from honor. “That is no place for a king,” her brother declared
Jon was sitting at the end of the hall which was according to Viserys, “no place for a king.”
A singer was playing the high harp and reciting a ballad, but down at this end of the hall his voice could scarcely be heard above the roar of the fire, the clangor of pewter plates and cups, and the low mutter of a hundred drunken conversations. Jon AGOT
“Don’t you usually eat at table with your brothers?”
“Most times,” Jon answered in a flat voice. “But tonight Lady Stark thought it might give insult to the royal family to seat a bastard among them.”
“I see.” His uncle glanced over his shoulder at the raised table at the far end of the hall. Benjen and Jon. Jon AGOT
"Dany glimpsed Ser Barristan sliding closer, a white shadow at her side.” Daenerys ADWD.
The Kingsguard wear signature all-white cloaks, and gold armor with extensive white enameling. For this reason they are sometimes colloquially called the “White Cloaks”, or the “White Swords” (wiki)
A kingsguard is Dany’s “white shadow” there to protect her while Ghost, an albino direwolf, is Jon’s “white shadow” there to protect him.
“Ghost padded after him, a white shadow at his side.” Jon ADWD.
Ghost ran with them, a white shadow at Jon’s side. Jon ADWD.
XI. A second life worthy of a king.
Jon is almost certain to warg into Ghost upon his death in the books and begin a second life “worthy of a king.”
He had known what Snow was the moment he saw that great white direwolf stalking silent at his side. One skinchanger can always sense another. Mance should have let me take the direwolf. There [Ghost] would be a second life worthy of a king. He could have done it, he did not doubt. The gift was strong in Snow, but the youth was untaught, still fighting his nature when he should have gloried in it. ADWD Prologue
XII. Gods, kings, and justice.
Brienne: “I was also taught that the gods make kings, not swords of men. If Stannis is our rightful King-…”
Catelyn: He’s not. Robert was never the rightful king either, even Renly said as much. Jaime Lannister murdered the rightful king [Aerys], after Robert killed his lawful heir [Rhaegar] on the Trident. Brienne and Cat. Catelyn ACOK
The gods make kings and queens for justice:
“Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves?”
“Some kings make themselves. Robert did.”
“He was no true king,” Dany said scornfully. “He did no justice. Justice … that’s what kings are for.” Daenerys ASOS.
The first time chapter GRRM ever wrote and the first time we meet Jon:
He put a hand on Bran’s shoulder, and Bran looked over at his bastard brother. “You did well,” Jon told him solemnly. Jon was fourteen, an old hand at justice. Bran AGOT.
A king should protect his people as Davos says and this is the mantra that Jon becomes the embodiment of. “I am the shield that guards the realms of men.”
“There’s much I don’t understand,” Davos admitted…And I know that a king protects his people, or he is no king at all.“ Davos ASOS
The shield that guards the realms of men. Ghost nuzzled up against his shoulder, and Jon draped an arm around him. He could smell Horse’s unwashed breeches, the sweet scent Satin combed into his beard, the rank sharp smell of fear, the giant’s overpowering musk. He could hear the beating of his own heart. When he looked across the grove at the woman with her child, the two greybeards, the Hornfoot man with his maimed feet, all he saw was men. Jon ADWD.
XIII. Matters for a king: marriages and inheritances.
In his position as Lord Commander, Jon exceeds his mandate. He acts as a king. By Jon’s own words:
"Marriages and inheritances [lands and property] are matters for a king, my lady.” Jon to Alys Karstark. Jon ADWD
Cersei says Jon has given Stannis lands and property:
“The father [Ned] would have handed the realm to Stannis. The son [Jon] has given him lands and castles.” - Cersei to the Small Council.
Jon later brokers Alys Karstark’s marriage to the Magnar of the Thenns and secures the loyalty of the Thenns. And, Jon gives Alys away at her wedding.
“Will my lord be feasting with us?” Mully asked Jon Snow.
“Shortly.” Sigorn might take it as a slight if he did not appear. And this marriage is mine own work, after all. Jon to Mully.
“Who brings this woman to be wed?” asked Melisandre.
“I do,” said Jon. “Now comes Alys of House Karstark, a woman grown and flowered, of noble blood and birth.” He gave her hand one last squeeze and stepped back to join the others. Jon ADWD.
Boldness is a trait of a king according to Tyrion:
A king must be bold. Tyrion ASOS
You’re [Jon] bold enough to be a Stark. Stannis to Jon. Jon ASOS.
Stannis stared at him incredulously, then gave a bark of laughter. “You are bold enough, Snow, I grant you that.” Jon ADWD.
You have a bold tongue in the king’s solar, boy [Jon] - Godry to Jon. Jon ADWD.
Jon was less amused. “I will not ask my men to do what I would not do myself. I mean to lead the ranging.”
“How bold of you,” said the queen [Selyse]. Jon ADWD.
I want to be careful using external sources such as other books or historical events to predict future events for ASOIAF as it’s not as credulous as using the text of ASOIAF itself. But it’s fine for analytical purposes.
If anyone has read Tad Williams’ fantasy series Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, it’s obvious that ASOIAF is heavily influenced by it and George himself has stated that Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn influenced him to write ASOIAF. The link details some of the surprising similarities between Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and ASOIAF.
Tad’s fantasy series, The Dragonbone Chair and the rest of his famous four-book trilogy was one of the things that inspired me to write my own seven-book trilogy. I read Tad and was impressed by him, but the imitators that followed — well, fantasy got a bad rep for being very formulaic and ritual. And I read The Dragonbone Chair and said, “My god, they can do something with this form,” and it’s Tad doing it. It’s one of my favorite fantasy series. - GRRM.
Jon Snow’s analogue Simon Snowlock, who has a mysterious lineage, becomes king as a last choice. Jon is a character who’s been connected in text to a King Aegon the Unlikely who was chosen by a Council and who was not the first choice as the lords distrusted Aegon the Unlikely who’d grown up on the road with commoners.
I’ve skipped Mel’s visions (”show me your king, your instrument” and the flames whispering Jon’s name and giving Mel a mug shot of Jon) and other points because Mel’s visions are not simple and this post is already too long.
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