Previous
Chapter 65: Arya
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
Bran has a dream that his father Ned is in the crypt. The next morning, he tells Maester Luwin about that dream. Luwin says it was nothing but a dream. Ned is a prisoner in King’s Landing and won’t die anytime soon, he says, and offers to take Bran to the crypts to show him that Ned isn’t there. Luwin summons Osha to carry Bran since Hodor won’t step foot in the crypts. When they are in the catacombs, Shaggydog, Rickon’s direwolf, attacks Luwin. Rickon stands on the stairs above them and tells Luwin to stay away from his father. Rickon says that he also had a dream the night before where he saw Ned in the crypts. Maester Luwin says that Shaggydog is wild and needs to be chained. He has already attacked three different people in Winterfell. Bran says the wolves don’t belong in chains.
Both Bran and Rickon display a seeming ability to communicate with the spiritual realm through dreams. Bran’s dream of his father in the crypt in particular builds upon the dream Bran had while in a coma, in which a three-eyed crow communicated with him. Those dreams together suggest that Bran may be in the process of developing an extra-sensorial ability to use visions to communicate across time and space. Notably, the direwolves often reflect the personality of the people they belong to. In this case, Rickon’s direwolf is undisciplined and prone to lashing out.
Themes
The group then goes to the Maester’s tower. Bran asks Maester Luwin to tell him about the children of the forest, and Luwin explains the ancient history. The children of the forest were small in stature even when they were adults. The First Men came 12,000 years ago and chopped down weirwoods to build forests, which angered the children of the forest. Eventually, the First Men and the children of the forest signed a treaty, which lasted for 4,000 years. Then the Andals came. They worshipped the new gods, and drove the First Men away, except for in the North, where the First Men were able to hold the Andals off. The children of the forest fled even farther north. Osha says they still exist beyond the Wall. A raven then flies in with a message. Maester Luwin tells them that Ned is in fact dead.
This passage provides the history of Westeros going back more than 12,000 years. That history explains some of the differences between those in the north (including the Starks) and those in the south. Namely, those in the north are descendants of the First Men and worship the old gods, while those in the south are descendants of the Andals and worship the “Faith of the Seven.” Maester Luwin was skeptical of Rickon and Bran’s assertion that they saw Ned die in their dreams, but the raven’s message proves that Rickon and Bran were correct and Maester Luwin was wrong. Luwin’s mistake opens up the question of what else might he be wrong about. In particular, Luwin has frequently said that stories of the Others are just that: stories. Now that Rickon and Bran know that Luwin is fallible, they may begin to doubt whether he is correct about the Others.
Themes
