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Chapter 1: Bran
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Game of Thrones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics and Power
Climate Change and Collective Action
Gender and Power
Honor and Integrity
Identity
Summary
Analysis
Catelyn, Ned’s wife, was born a Tully. As such, she was raised at Riverrun in the Faith, meaning she worships the new gods, or the “Faith of the Seven.” The gods Ned and the Starks worship are different. They’re the old gods, who don’t have faces or names. Catelyn finds Ned in the godswood, a sacred forest that has remained untouched for 10,000 years. She tells him she has bad news: Jon Arryn is dead. Ned was Jon Arryn’s ward when he was younger. Jon Arryn was like a father both to Ned and to Ned’s fellow ward at the time, Robert Baratheon, who is now the king. Jon Arryn had also married Catelyn’s sister, Lysa, at the same time that Ned married Catelyn. Catelyn then tells Ned that there is some good news, too: King Robert is coming to Winterfell to visit.
The religions in the novel are roughly based on real-life religions. The Faith of the Seven is loosely based on Catholicism, with the seven faces of god corresponding to the Catholic faith’s idea of the holy trinity. Worship of the old gods is in turn based on paganism. The novel will later delve into the history of how those who worship the new gods came to live alongside those who worship the old gods, pointing to the real-life historical moments in which Christianity collided with paganism.
Themes
Robert will be traveling with about 100 knights along with his wife, Queen Cersei. Ned is happy to hear that until Catelyn tells him that Cersei’s brothers will also be coming. Ned has disliked the Lannisters (Cersei’s family) ever since they came to Robert’s side when he became king at the last possible moment. When they committed to support Robert, it was a foregone conclusion that he would become the king. Ned says he will send a raven with a message to his brother Ben at the Night’s Watch because Ben will also want to see Robert.
Notably, this chapter is told from Catelyn’s point of view, meaning that the observations within are based on her perspective. In her view, instead of taking a stand to support Robert when the outcome was in doubt, as Ned implicitly did, the Lannisters waited to align themselves with whoever would come out on top. In her mind, then, the Lannisters are opportunistic and untrustworthy. In other words, they do not have the same kind of honor and integrity that Ned does.
Themes
Recently, Ben has told Ned that the number of men on the Night’s Watch has been rapidly falling, and it’s not just due to desertions. They’ve also been losing men on rangings (expeditions past the Wall). Ned says wildlings must be killing those men. Catelyn says it might be the Others. Ned says that Catelyn has been listening to too many stories. Others haven’t existed for 8,000 years, and there’s no living soul who has ever seen one. Catelyn says that, until today, no living soul ever saw a direwolf either.
Catelyn underlines the implications of the sighting of direwolves south of the Wall, directly linking that sighting to a possible threat from the Others. Despite that threat, the number of Night’s Watchmen—those who are charged with protecting the people south of the Wall from the Others—has been rapidly decreasing, suggesting that people have forgotten the importance of the Night’s Watch and the threat the Others pose.
Themes
