Eighth Meeting (8/23)

Hello! Sorry for the late update. Thank you Quinci for supplying the pizza, and Candie for the lemon cake (that we almost forgot to eat)! Our next meeting will be Friday September 6th, at 6 pm in the Winn Room. Candie will be cooking for us. We will read to page 412, stopping before Arya's chapter (the first line of her chapter is "Fear cuts deeper than swords.")

At this meeting, we talked about the following:

• How many men are at the Wall? We know 200 rode north with Lord Commander Mormont and another 100 are riding to meet them from the Shadow Tower. Answer: less than 1,000 men. During the time of Aegon's Conquest (about 300 years ago), the Wall had 10,000 men. Castle Black once held 5,000 men. It currently holds about 600. (There are 19 castles along the Wall, and no more than 17 have ever been occupied at one time. Only three are currently occupied.)
• We talked more about the different religions. The Drowned God was first mentioned: "What is dead may never die." We also know of the Old Gods, the New Gods (the Seven), the Great Stallion (the Dothraki god), and R'hllor (the Lord of Light).
• In the Dothraki religion, when a rider dies his horse must be slain with him so that his spirit can ride to the Night Lands. If a child dies who is too young to ride, no horse is killed. The child must be reborn.
• We talked about the sigils of the Houses and how they might have been chosen. A lot of the animals that appear on sigils are native to the area the House comes from (like the Mormont bear, the Baratheon stag, or the Arryn falcon). In other cases, the animal might represent some aspect of the House (Lannister lions, Clegane hounds, Littlefinger's mockingbird). Or they could be something a House founder encountered by accident in the wild (Hornwood moose, Crakehall brindled boar), or saw in a dream or vision (Brax unicorn, Connington griffin, Greyjoy kraken, Manderly merman). There are also several sigils that don't display animals: Frey's twin towers, Dondarrion's lightning bolt, Bolton's flayed man, Tarly's hunter, Glover's mailed fist, etc.
• Dragons originated in the east. They didn't come to Westeros until Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters brought three of them across the Narrow Sea to Dragonstone. Westeros' environment was possibly not suitable to them, for they slowly became smaller and weaker until they died out (this could also be due to inbreeding between the three of them).
• We established that the men who attacked Yoren's group were Lannister men, but not the gold cloaks from King's Landing who were looking for Gendry earlier in the book. These men were probably Gregor Clegane's.
• Beric Dondarrion is still in the Riverlands looking for Gregor Clegane. Does he know that Ned has been beheaded?
• It was determined that somewhere between one and two years have passed since the beginning of the first book.
• Stannis' claim to the throne is helped somewhat by Renly's claim. Renly has no legitimate right to the throne and at least Stannis, as Renly's older brother, has more of a right than Renly. The smallfolk have no real reason to back Stannis since Joffrey's illegitimacy is only a rumor about an unpopular king made by his rival.
• Do we trust Varys? He says he is concerned with what is best for the realm. But we have seen him conspiring with Ilyrio Mopatis in secret about war.
• We talked about the title "A Clash of Kings." We listed all the king's we know of: Joffrey, Renly, Stannis, and Robb. There is also Dany in the east who plans to become queen, and Mance Rayder the King-Beyond-the-Wall. Also Theon thinks he will become King of the Iron Islands, and his farther Balon Greyjoy intends to take a crown (as opposed to accepting one from Robb).

Happy reading!

House Tyrell
"Growing Strong"