The Tale the Knight of the Laughing Tree and a couple odd dreams
As promised, for those interested in GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series, here it is (spoilers for A Storm of Swords, of course!):
The Knight of the Laughing Tree
"There was a knight," said Meera, "in the year of the false spring. The Knight of the Laughing Tree, they called him. He might have been a crannogman, that one."
"Or not." Jojen's face was dappled with green shadows. "Prince Bran has heard that tale a hundred times, I'm sure."
"No," sad Bran. "I haven't. And if I have it doesn't matter. Old Nan would tell the same story she's told before, but we never minded, if it was a good story. Old stories are like old friends, she used to say. You have to visit them from time to time."
Well, to begin, I must say that what Old Nan told Bran about stories always makes me go "Awwwww..." It's so how I feel about old stories, good stories. I love re-reading, re-hearing, re-watching. They are good friends.
But I do think it is significant that Jojen thinks that Bran would have heard this story already, and many times.
Meera proceeds with the tale of the little crannogman (who should be her father, Howland Reed), who knew all the ways of his people (but did not dream green dreams), yet somehow was more adventurous than the usual, so he wanted to visit the Isle of Faces, which you will recall is in God's Eye, so he could find the green men who resided there. Meera tells us that he does meet the green men, but that is another tale...
The little crannogman stayed on the Isle of Faces for a winter (I don't know how many years this would have been), and when the spring came, he left and paddled north on God's Eye until he came to Harrenhal, where he could see there was a great tourney taking place. Meera tells Bran who was on hand at the tourney: the king and his son the dragon prince, the White Swords ("to welcome a new brother to their ranks"), the storm lord, the rose lord, and many of the bannermen and knights of the "great lion of the rock" who had himself stayed away due to a quarrel with the king.
Honestly, I can't remember who else has referred to this tourney and so unless I take ages to pore through the books to find every other mention of this tourney, I will just explain what I think based on this, and Jaime's POV a little later. Please correct me if I'm wrong in my conclusions! The king would be Aerys (the Mad King), and his son Rhaegar, the dragon prince. The White Swords would be the Kingsguard who would be swearing Jaime Lannister into their ranks. This is what caused the quarrel between Tywin Lannister and King Aerys, so hence Tywin did not attend (and later resigned as Hand). The storm lord would be Robert Baratheon and the rose lord would be Mace Tyrell of Highgarden.
The daughter of the castle, the queen of love and beauty, was Lord Whent's daughter, and she was defended by her four brothers (Lord Whent's sons) and her uncle, Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard. Bran asks if she was fair, and Meera agrees, but explains that there were other fairer ladies at the tourney: Rhaegar's wife, for one, Elia of Dorne.
She goes on to describe to Bran how three squires, offended by the crannogman's presence, attacked him until :'That's my father's man you're kicking,' howled the she-wolf."
"A wolf on four legs, or two?" [Bran asks]
"Two," said Meera. "The she-wolf laid into the squires with a tourney sword, scattering them all."
The she-wolf is Lyanna Stark, and she sounds an awful lot like Arya, doesn't she? She manages to chase the squires off with her tourney sword, so she must have some skill, or at the very least some kind of ferocity. Meera tells Bran how the she-wolf takes the crannogman back to her tents, cares for his wounds, and introduces him to her "pack brothers:" the wild wolf (Brandon Stark), the quiet wolf (Eddard Stark), and the pup (Benjen Stark). The crannogman feasts at Harrenhal with the Starks and "sworn swords...barrowdown men [?], and moose [Hornwood] and bears [Mormont] and mermen [Manderly]. "The dragon prince sang a song so sad it made the wolf maid sniffle, but when her pup brother teased her for crying she poured wine over his head." So, to my mind, there's something going on, at least on Lyanna's part, for her to react in such a way to Rhaegar's song.
So to continue - at this feast, Robert Baratheon won in a drinking contest against "the knight of skulls and kisses" while a purple-eyed maiden, presumably Ashara Dayne, danced with a knight of the Kingsguard (her uncle perhaps?), Oberyn Martell (the Red Viper of Dorne), the lord of griffins (Connington?), and finally with Ned Stark after Brandon put in a good word for him with the lady. And finally the crannogman saw and recognized the three squires who had attacked him earlier, as did Lyanna - their devices were a porcupine, a pitchfork knight, and the twin towers of the Freys. Benjen offered to arm the crannogman so he could take his vengeance for his mistreatment, but the crannogman was uncertain, since he was not used to horses and lances. Ned offered to share his tent with the crannogman (clearly this must be the beginning of the great friendship between the two), and the crannogman prayed that night on the lake shore before retiring.
"'You never heard this tale from your father?' asked Jojen." This is the second time Jojen refers to Bran having heard the story before - and this time he specifies who should have told the story.
So Meera tells Bran about the tourney - there was to be five days of jousting - the porcupine knight was among the champions on the first day while the pitchfork knight and the Frey knight won on the second day. But toward the end of the second day, the mysterious Knight the Laughing Tree appeared."It was the little crannogman, I bet." [Bran said]
"No one knew," said Meera, "but the mystery knight was short of stature, and clad in ill-fitting armor made up of bits and pieces. The device upon his shield was a heart tree of the old gods, a white weirwood with a laughing red face."
Bran persists in thinking that the mystery knight is the crannogman; Meera tells how the mystery knight challenged the three knights whose squires had attacked the crannogman, and that the mystery knight prevailed against all three, was much cheered by the common folk, and "When his fallen foes sought to ransom horse and armor, the Knight of the Laughing Tree spoke in a booming voice through his helm, saying, 'Teach your squires honor, that shall be ransom enough.'" Their armor was returned once they had scolded their squires. Later, after much speculation and Robert Baratheon and the knight of skulls and kisses swearing to reveal the mystery knight, the Knight of the Laughing Tree did not show up the next day, which infuriated King Aerys to the point that he sent Rhaegar to find him (who supposedly did not).
So what we know in the end from this story and from other sources is that Rhaegar won the tournament, and Ned remembers seeing Rhaegar giving Lyanna the wreath of blue winter roses to crown her the queen of love and beauty - instead of his wife, Elia of Dorne. Bran protests the end of the tale she told and tells Meera "'the mystery knight should win the tourney, defeating every challenger, and name the wolf maid the queen of love and beauty.'
"'She was,' said Meera, 'but that's a sadder story.'"
Well, it would be a sadder story, wouldn't it? Lyanna and Rhaegar would have fallen in love here at Harrenhal; later they ran away together, and the War of the Usurper unfolded stemming from that incident.
So anyway, I think that the Knight of the Laughing Tree was most likely Lyanna. I highly doubt that Howland Reed with his inexperience could have defeated all those knights, but if Lyanna is anything like Arya, she may very well could have (and it's possible that Ned sees Lyanna in Arya which is why he gives her "dancing lessons"). And Lyanna would have had an interest in seeing it done, because she was the one who fought the squires off the crannogman in the first place. And finally, it had to at least be a Stark when the heart tree on the mystery knight's shield was so beloved by the Starks."'Are you certain you never heard this tale before, Bran?" asked Jojen. "Your lord father never told it to you?'"
Yet alas, Bran seems completely obvlivious to the fact that despite Jojen's hints, this was a true story, a story of his own family, his father, and uncles, and aunt.
A couple other unrelated things:
Interesting Dreams
In an earlier Arya chapter, she sees Tom, Lem & Greenbeard talking a little old lady:"The old gods stir and will not let me sleep," she heard the woman say. "I dreamt I saw a shadow with a burning heart butchering a golden stag, aye. I dreamt of a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with a seaweed hanging from his wings.I dreamt of a roaring river and a woman that was a fish. Dead she drifted, with red tears on her cheeks, but when her eyes did open, oh, I woke from terror.'"
The first seems to pretty clearly refer to Melisandre and her shadow-child that killed Renly, while the third foreshadows Catelyn's fate, but I'm not sure about the second.
Also, in a later Daenerys chapter, she has a dream:"That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper's rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire, and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent."
I wonder if perhaps instead of the Usurper's rebel forces, Dany is seeing an army of Others, particularly as the one that Sam killed with his dragonglass dagger melts as well.
The Knight of the Laughing Tree
"There was a knight," said Meera, "in the year of the false spring. The Knight of the Laughing Tree, they called him. He might have been a crannogman, that one."
"Or not." Jojen's face was dappled with green shadows. "Prince Bran has heard that tale a hundred times, I'm sure."
"No," sad Bran. "I haven't. And if I have it doesn't matter. Old Nan would tell the same story she's told before, but we never minded, if it was a good story. Old stories are like old friends, she used to say. You have to visit them from time to time."
Well, to begin, I must say that what Old Nan told Bran about stories always makes me go "Awwwww..." It's so how I feel about old stories, good stories. I love re-reading, re-hearing, re-watching. They are good friends.
But I do think it is significant that Jojen thinks that Bran would have heard this story already, and many times.
Meera proceeds with the tale of the little crannogman (who should be her father, Howland Reed), who knew all the ways of his people (but did not dream green dreams), yet somehow was more adventurous than the usual, so he wanted to visit the Isle of Faces, which you will recall is in God's Eye, so he could find the green men who resided there. Meera tells us that he does meet the green men, but that is another tale...
The little crannogman stayed on the Isle of Faces for a winter (I don't know how many years this would have been), and when the spring came, he left and paddled north on God's Eye until he came to Harrenhal, where he could see there was a great tourney taking place. Meera tells Bran who was on hand at the tourney: the king and his son the dragon prince, the White Swords ("to welcome a new brother to their ranks"), the storm lord, the rose lord, and many of the bannermen and knights of the "great lion of the rock" who had himself stayed away due to a quarrel with the king.
Honestly, I can't remember who else has referred to this tourney and so unless I take ages to pore through the books to find every other mention of this tourney, I will just explain what I think based on this, and Jaime's POV a little later. Please correct me if I'm wrong in my conclusions! The king would be Aerys (the Mad King), and his son Rhaegar, the dragon prince. The White Swords would be the Kingsguard who would be swearing Jaime Lannister into their ranks. This is what caused the quarrel between Tywin Lannister and King Aerys, so hence Tywin did not attend (and later resigned as Hand). The storm lord would be Robert Baratheon and the rose lord would be Mace Tyrell of Highgarden.
The daughter of the castle, the queen of love and beauty, was Lord Whent's daughter, and she was defended by her four brothers (Lord Whent's sons) and her uncle, Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard. Bran asks if she was fair, and Meera agrees, but explains that there were other fairer ladies at the tourney: Rhaegar's wife, for one, Elia of Dorne.
She goes on to describe to Bran how three squires, offended by the crannogman's presence, attacked him until :'That's my father's man you're kicking,' howled the she-wolf."
"A wolf on four legs, or two?" [Bran asks]
"Two," said Meera. "The she-wolf laid into the squires with a tourney sword, scattering them all."
The she-wolf is Lyanna Stark, and she sounds an awful lot like Arya, doesn't she? She manages to chase the squires off with her tourney sword, so she must have some skill, or at the very least some kind of ferocity. Meera tells Bran how the she-wolf takes the crannogman back to her tents, cares for his wounds, and introduces him to her "pack brothers:" the wild wolf (Brandon Stark), the quiet wolf (Eddard Stark), and the pup (Benjen Stark). The crannogman feasts at Harrenhal with the Starks and "sworn swords...barrowdown men [?], and moose [Hornwood] and bears [Mormont] and mermen [Manderly]. "The dragon prince sang a song so sad it made the wolf maid sniffle, but when her pup brother teased her for crying she poured wine over his head." So, to my mind, there's something going on, at least on Lyanna's part, for her to react in such a way to Rhaegar's song.
So to continue - at this feast, Robert Baratheon won in a drinking contest against "the knight of skulls and kisses" while a purple-eyed maiden, presumably Ashara Dayne, danced with a knight of the Kingsguard (her uncle perhaps?), Oberyn Martell (the Red Viper of Dorne), the lord of griffins (Connington?), and finally with Ned Stark after Brandon put in a good word for him with the lady. And finally the crannogman saw and recognized the three squires who had attacked him earlier, as did Lyanna - their devices were a porcupine, a pitchfork knight, and the twin towers of the Freys. Benjen offered to arm the crannogman so he could take his vengeance for his mistreatment, but the crannogman was uncertain, since he was not used to horses and lances. Ned offered to share his tent with the crannogman (clearly this must be the beginning of the great friendship between the two), and the crannogman prayed that night on the lake shore before retiring.
"'You never heard this tale from your father?' asked Jojen." This is the second time Jojen refers to Bran having heard the story before - and this time he specifies who should have told the story.
So Meera tells Bran about the tourney - there was to be five days of jousting - the porcupine knight was among the champions on the first day while the pitchfork knight and the Frey knight won on the second day. But toward the end of the second day, the mysterious Knight the Laughing Tree appeared."It was the little crannogman, I bet." [Bran said]
"No one knew," said Meera, "but the mystery knight was short of stature, and clad in ill-fitting armor made up of bits and pieces. The device upon his shield was a heart tree of the old gods, a white weirwood with a laughing red face."
Bran persists in thinking that the mystery knight is the crannogman; Meera tells how the mystery knight challenged the three knights whose squires had attacked the crannogman, and that the mystery knight prevailed against all three, was much cheered by the common folk, and "When his fallen foes sought to ransom horse and armor, the Knight of the Laughing Tree spoke in a booming voice through his helm, saying, 'Teach your squires honor, that shall be ransom enough.'" Their armor was returned once they had scolded their squires. Later, after much speculation and Robert Baratheon and the knight of skulls and kisses swearing to reveal the mystery knight, the Knight of the Laughing Tree did not show up the next day, which infuriated King Aerys to the point that he sent Rhaegar to find him (who supposedly did not).
So what we know in the end from this story and from other sources is that Rhaegar won the tournament, and Ned remembers seeing Rhaegar giving Lyanna the wreath of blue winter roses to crown her the queen of love and beauty - instead of his wife, Elia of Dorne. Bran protests the end of the tale she told and tells Meera "'the mystery knight should win the tourney, defeating every challenger, and name the wolf maid the queen of love and beauty.'
"'She was,' said Meera, 'but that's a sadder story.'"
Well, it would be a sadder story, wouldn't it? Lyanna and Rhaegar would have fallen in love here at Harrenhal; later they ran away together, and the War of the Usurper unfolded stemming from that incident.
So anyway, I think that the Knight of the Laughing Tree was most likely Lyanna. I highly doubt that Howland Reed with his inexperience could have defeated all those knights, but if Lyanna is anything like Arya, she may very well could have (and it's possible that Ned sees Lyanna in Arya which is why he gives her "dancing lessons"). And Lyanna would have had an interest in seeing it done, because she was the one who fought the squires off the crannogman in the first place. And finally, it had to at least be a Stark when the heart tree on the mystery knight's shield was so beloved by the Starks."'Are you certain you never heard this tale before, Bran?" asked Jojen. "Your lord father never told it to you?'"
Yet alas, Bran seems completely obvlivious to the fact that despite Jojen's hints, this was a true story, a story of his own family, his father, and uncles, and aunt.
A couple other unrelated things:
Interesting Dreams
In an earlier Arya chapter, she sees Tom, Lem & Greenbeard talking a little old lady:"The old gods stir and will not let me sleep," she heard the woman say. "I dreamt I saw a shadow with a burning heart butchering a golden stag, aye. I dreamt of a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with a seaweed hanging from his wings.I dreamt of a roaring river and a woman that was a fish. Dead she drifted, with red tears on her cheeks, but when her eyes did open, oh, I woke from terror.'"
The first seems to pretty clearly refer to Melisandre and her shadow-child that killed Renly, while the third foreshadows Catelyn's fate, but I'm not sure about the second.
Also, in a later Daenerys chapter, she has a dream:"That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper's rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire, and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent."
I wonder if perhaps instead of the Usurper's rebel forces, Dany is seeing an army of Others, particularly as the one that Sam killed with his dragonglass dagger melts as well.