The Elements and Magic – Water Magic

A Study of the Elements and Magic

Part Three – Water Magic

It’s time for part three of The Elements and Magic series, which explains the different kinds of magical forces we encounter in the narrative. This time we take a look at water magic.

Please read Part One to familiarize yourself with the theme of Magic and the Elements in general.

Topics discussed here are:
Songs that Move Water | Water Magic in Prophecy and Communication |Reanimation via Water Magic | From Greyscale to Butterfly Fever – the Recipe for Rapid Mass Killings | Control of Will and Mind

Contents

• Songs that move water
• Water as a medium for prophecy and communication
• Reanimation via water magic
• Development of a rapid killing agent
• Control of mind and will
• Summary

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Songs that Move Water

The Rhoynar

The Rhoynar of Essos with their strong religious ties to the Mother Rhoyne give us first insights into the application of water magic:

Art and music flourished in the cities of the Rhoyne, and it is said their people had their own magic – a water magic very different from the sorceries of Valyria, which were woven of blood and fire.
TWOIAF, Ten Thousand Ships

George highlights the difference between water magic and the magic practiced by the Valyrians.  Clearly, these are two very different forms of sorcery. Mother Rhoyne was also a source of prophecy, presumably interpreted by water wizards also proficient in the water magics employed in defence of the realm:

It was said the Mother Rhoyne herself whispered to her children of every threat, that the Rhoynar princes wielded strange, uncanny powers, that Rhoynish women fought as fiercely as Rhoynish men, and that their cities were protected by ‘watery walls’ that would rise to drown any foe.
TWOIAF, Ten Thousand Ships

‘Watery walls’ included tidal waves, flooding and waterspouts employed against dragons.

In the account of Garin the Great’s war against the Volantenes and Old Valyria, the prince himself invoked water magic to disable and drown the enemy:

At Chroyane, the cage was hung from the walls, so that the prince might witness the enslavement of the women and children whose fathers and brothers died in his gallant, hopeless war … but the prince, it is said, called down a curse upon the conquerors, entreating Mother Rhoyne to avenge her children. And so, that very night, the Rhoyne flooded out of season and with greater force than was known in living memory. A thick fog full of evil humors fell, and the Valyrian conquerors began to die of greyscale.
TWOIAF, Ten Thousand Ships

And according to Rhoynar legend, a secret song ended the Long Night:

… the return of the sun came only when a hero convinced Mother Rhoyne’s many children – lesser gods such as the Crab King and the Old Man of the River – to put aside their bickering and join together to sing a secret song that brought back the day.
TWOIAF, The Long Night.

The curse invoked by the prince causes three things:

• massive flooding / waterspouts / tidal waves
• a thick, malign fog
• illness (greyscale)

Adding to this, the song of the Crab King and Turtle God somehow ‘reset’ the earth. Was the Long Night caused by a nuclear winter type darkness or by a complete slow-down of the earth’s rotation / orbit around the sun? Did their song clear the atmosphere off debris or, alternatively, set the earth back in motion to end the Long Night?
Whatever the case, it makes us wonder how a song can influence physical matter!

How does a Song of Water work?

The prince may have simply uttered powerful incantations to invoke the curse but since the history of the Rhoynar specifically mentions singing (a form of magic originally practiced by the Children of the Forest who sang songs of the earth), it is possible that the curse took the form of a magical song directed at the waters.

The Hammer of the Waters and the Song of the Sea

Together with their greenseers, the Children of the Forest are said to have sung songs to bring about ‘the Hammer of the Waters’, shattering the Arm of Dorne and flooding the Neck.  Archmaester Cassander offers a different explanation. He proposes instead the melting of the frozen lands, bringing about a rise in sea level over the centuries. He names this slow rising of the waters ‘the Song of the Sea’.

Both versions imply the involvement of some kind of singing and water magic to cause the breaking. We’ll take a look at the properties of sound to help figure out how this could work.

The Properties of Sound Waves

Let us see how singing might influence elements by considering how sound travels through different mediums.

• Sound waves travel through a medium by causing vibrations in surrounding molecules.
• The more tightly packed the molecules are, the faster sound will travel. Thus, sound waves travel much faster through solids than through liquids or gases.
• Temperature: the warmer it is the faster sound waves will travel.
• Wave frequency: how often molecules vibrate when a wave passes through the medium.
• The frequency at which molecules vibrate matches the frequency of the original sound source.
• High-pitched sounds correspond to high frequency waves while low pitch sounds correspond to low frequency sound waves.
• Amplitude(or intensity) is the amount of energy transported through the medium (given area per unit time). It refers to the strength of a sound wave, which the human ear interprets as volume or loudness.
• Sound travels thirteen times faster through wood than through a gaseous medium.
• Sound travels four times farther and faster through water than through air.

From what we have learned above, it appears water is an excellent medium for sound transmission. Since sound waves also energize the medium, we can speculate that a magical song might also carry (or perhaps attract) enough energy to galvanise the water body itself, giving rise to fog, tidal waves, waterspouts and flooding. In fact, the presence of fire-breathing dragons on scene may have reinforced the curse. Their hot fires would have contributed to warming up both the air and water, so increasing the rate of transmission as well as the efficiency of the magical curse.

Think of these songs as spells invested with the power to supernaturally influence the elements they are invoked to affect.

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Water as a medium for prophecy and communication

I’m sure everyone has heard about whale songs. In fact, since sound travels four times faster and farther through water than through air, whales are well adapted to communicate over great distances in the oceans, using a variety of sounds including clicks, whistles and human-like music, depending on the species. Studies show that whales use lower frequencies (long wavelength sounds) for long distance echolocation. They resort to higher pitched sounds (effective over short distances), which are ideally suited to obtaining information about a target located nearby.

This brings us to Aeron Damphair who asks his god to “sing to me in the language of the leviathan”, a particularly interesting expression considering what we know about whale songs (note: GRRM consistently uses the leviathan in reference to whales).

Aeron Damphair

My god, he prayed, speak to me in the rumble of the waves, and tell me what to do. The captains and the kings await your word. Who shall be our king in Balon’s place? Sing to me in the language of leviathan, that I may know his name.
AFFC, the Prophet

In the chapter aptly titled The Prophet, Aeron Damphair beseeches the Drowned God for advice on how to deal with the succession to the Seastone Chair after Balon Greyjoy’s death. He listens to the rumble of the waves (the language of the leviathan or song of the sea) in an effort to discern their meaning.  Aeron receives his answer. As we saw above, the Mother Rhoyne also offered such wisdom: “It was said the Mother Rhoyne herself whispered to her children of every threat …”

Clearly, messages appear to diffuse through moving waters. The ‘rumble of the waves’ suggests a low pitch sound transmitted over a long distance.

When the Damphair enters the sea with his prayer, the following ensues:

The cold salt sea surrounded him, embraced him, reached down through his weak man’s flesh and touched his bones. Bones, he thought. The bones of the soul. Balon’s bones, and Urri’s. The truth is in our bones, for flesh decays and bone endures …

And gaunt and pale and shivering, Aeron Damphair struggled back to the shore, a wiser man than he had been when he stepped into the sea. For he had found the answer in his bones, and the way was plain before him.
AFFC, the Prophet

We understand that Aeron ‘heard’ or ‘felt’ this advice deep down in his bones. Audible sound transmission occurs within a range of frequencies; just as a dog hears sounds at frequencies undiscernible by human ears, perhaps the song of the sea is audible only to people with special abilities. Do the rumble and whispering of the sea cause intrinsic vibrations in the bones, which translate to coherent thoughts that surface in the conscious mind?

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I’m inclined to attribute deep low pitch sounds to the set of symbolism pertaining to the Others.
The symbolism surrounding deep tones, booming in particular, is quite interesting.
Let’s take a short detour into that:

Rhoynar legend recalls that the Old Man of the River and the Crab King were rival gods who put aside their differences to sing a song that ended the Long Night. It would seem these two gods had some kind of influence over both the Others and the state of the planet. Incidentally, the Old Man of the River’s voice is low pitched – a deep throated roar:

It was another turtle, a horned turtle of enormous size, its dark green shell mottled with brown and overgrown with water moss and crusty black river molluscs. It raised its head and bellowed, a deep-throated thrumming roar louder than any warhorn that Tyrion had ever heard. ADWD, Tyrion IV

My personal take on the Old Man of the River and the Crab King: I suspect they are epithets of the Old Ones and the Bloodstone Emperor respectively.

In the next quote, Theon listens to the booming drums with a foreboding of doom. It is a cold, black night. The sound is associated with thunder, a weather phenomenon, with weirwoods and with the Old Gods. The best part is Theon’s plea for a sword – this should instantly put us in mind of Azor Ahai, his flaming sword and the battle for the dawn.

Even here he could hear the drumming, boom DOOM boom DOOM boom DOOM boom DOOM. Like distant thunder, the sound seemed to come from everywhere at once.

The night was windless, the snow drifting straight down out of a cold black sky, yet the leaves of the heart tree were rustling his name. “Theon,” they seemed to whisper, “Theon.”

The old gods, he thought. They know me. They know my name. I was Theon of House Greyjoy. I was a ward of Eddard Stark, a friend and brother to his children. “Please.” He fell to his knees. “A sword, that’s all I ask.  ADWD, A Ghost in Winterfell

The association between booming, wights/Others and fire continues with Jon’s dream of an attack on the Wall. Here we have boom and doom in connection with an attack by the undead and Jon calling for fire to counter the invasion. He is armoured in black ice, holding a burning sword.

That night he dreamt of wildlings howling from the woods, advancing to the moan of warhorns and the roll of drums. Boom DOOM boom DOOM boom DOOM came the sound, a thousand hearts with a single beat  …

“Stand fast,” Jon Snow called. “Throw them back.” He stood atop the Wall, alone. “Flame,” he cried, “feed them flame,” but there was no one to pay heed…

Jon was armored in black ice, but his blade burned red in his fist. ADWD, Jon

I trust you see what I mean. But let’s get back to water as a medium for communication 🙂

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Brienne and the Whispers

The association between water and ‘whispered wisdom’ continues when Brienne meets Nimble Dick Crabb who tells her about the ‘whispering heads’ kept by his ancestor Clarence Crabb. The ancient ruin called The Whispers happens to be by the sea and Brienne perceives the whispering as coming from the sea:

A mile farther on, the forest ended abruptly. Beyond was sky and sea … and an ancient, tumbledown castle, abandoned and overgrown on the edge of a cliff. “The Whispers,” said Nimble Dick. “Have a listen. You can hear the heads.”
Podrick’s mouth gaped open. “I hear them.”

Brienne heard them too. A faint, soft murmuring that seemed to be coming from the ground as much as from the castle. The sound grew louder as she neared the cliffs. It was the sea, she realized suddenly. The waves had eaten holes in the cliffs below and were rumbling through caves and tunnels beneath the earth. “There are no heads,” she said. “It’s the waves you hear whispering.”
AFFC, Brienne IV

Nimble Dick insists the heads are whispering, while Brienne listens carefully and realizes the waves are responsible for the sound. GRRM stresses the relationship between the whispering heads and the sea several times in that chapter. Here is another example:

The sound was just the sea, echoing endlessly through the caverns beneath the castle, rising and falling with each wave. It did sound like whispering, though, and for a moment she could almost see the heads, sitting on their shelves and muttering to one another. “I should have used the sword” one of them was saying. “I should have used the magic sword.”
AFFC, Brienne IV

So what is actually whispering here, the heads or the sea?
Probably both. Connect the dots to what is actually going on here: the whispering sea is the oracle that provides the knowledge, while the reanimated heads interpret the wisdom (the song) of the waves, translating the message into a language humans understand.

Also interesting is the woods witch who reanimates the heads. Being a woods witch suggests she drew on the power of the trees to reanimate those heads. You’ll find more support for this idea in my essay on The Element of Earth in Magic in which I propose the trees as a source of reanimation. Also relevant in that essay is the section on the Oak of Dodona, an oracle whose whispering was interpreted by two dove-priestesses.
The point is prophecies or wisdom imparted by the elements (or the trees) must be interpreted by someone who understands the language of the medium.
Thus, Aeron Damphair understands the ‘language of the leviathan’ (which is obviously a ‘song of the sea’) and is able to interpret its wisdom. Similarly, the whisperings of the waves are given a voice by the ‘whispering heads’.

Patchface

This brings us to Patchface, lost for two days at sea and sole survivor of a shipwreck. He utters cryptic pronouncements in prose and song, which many believe to be prophetic in nature.

The similarities between the ‘whispering heads’ and Patchface are subtle but evident. Both serve as a source of prophecy, knowledge or wisdom. Both the heads and Patchface return to the living by the intervention of female characters. Patchface is a vessel for the transmission of messages, which he receives via songs of the sea (I explain this further in this essay). Note also the conclusion the smallfolk come to – that he gave a mermaid his seed in exchange for learning to breathe water, which is similar to Howland Reed’s ability to breathe mud. Patchface is heavily associated with water – his drowning, survival, purported ability to breathe water and his hopping from one foot to another all carry amphibious connotations.

 

Other possible practitioners of Water Magic

The Fisher-Queens of the Silver Sea

There is not much to go on here except for circumstantial evidence connecting them to the magics of the Rhoynar civilization.

During the Dawn Age, the Fisher Queens ruled over a great expanse of water in Essos, since dried up except for three lakes. The Fisher Queens lived in a floating palace, which may have been powered by water magic. Their wisdom was particularly sought after by nobles and kings. Obviously, they had access to insights beyond the scope of normal men and women. Perhaps they were experts in water magic, in interpreting songs of water?
Once, their kingdom must have included territory that later became part of the Rhoynish Empire; thus the Rhoynar and their magic may have been influenced by this lost culture.

The Crannogmen

Crannogmen live in the bogs and swamps of Westeros and have close ties to the element of water. They are also capable of considerable feats of magic:

“No,” said Meera, “but he could breathe mud and run on leaves, and change earth to water and water to earth with no more than a whispered word. He could talk to trees and weave words and make castles appear and disappear.” ASOS, Bran

Meera is talking about her father, Howland Reed, here. The Reed’s castle, Greywater Watch, moves around much like the floating palace of the Fisher Queens. Indeed, floating island accommodation is common among the bog-devils, as they are termed by some. Howland Reed also has the power to convert one element into another – water to earth and back again. Crannogmen even become amphibious when necessary. Howland Reed can actually breathe mud. This shy and mysterious folk became affiliated with the CotF around the time of the Hammer of the Waters and may have learned some magic from them. Indeed, changing earth to water and water to earth as well as breathing mud is indicative of a combination of earth and water magic.

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Reanimation via Water Magic

In my opening statement, I state the element of water is responsible for restoring vital processes of the body.
The set of clues to this are extremely subtle and yet so glaringly obvious that it’s almost painful to one who has been pondering over this issue for a while.

Hot Springs of Winterfell

The hot springs of Winterfell provide an initial hint as to the role of water as a life-giving force:

Of all the rooms in Winterfell’s Great Keep, Catelyn’s bedchambers were the hottest. She seldom had to light a fire. The castle had been built over natural hot springs, and the scalding waters rushed through its walls and chambers like blood through a man’s body, driving the chill from the stone halls, filling the glass gardens with a moist warmth, keeping the earth from freezing. Open pools smoked day and night in a dozen small courtyards. That was a little thing, in summer; in winter, it was the difference between life and death.
AGOT, Catelyn

I’ve used this quote in support of the life-sustaining qualities of fire but it is also relevant here.
Fire provides the warmth essential to all life, while water is the foundation without which no living entity can survive. The passage above compares scalding water derived from the hot springs with human blood flow, directly associating the two liquids. Water comprises approx. 70% of human body and in addition, the mineral composition of seawater is very similar to that of blood plasma.

Catelyn emphasises the hot water. She points out that in winter, the springs constitute the difference between life and death. In terms of resurrection, heat (fire) is relevant to a ‘warm raising,’ while the water element (blood) keeps the body’s vital processes going; circulating blood ensures the distribution of oxygen, nutrients and enzymes as well as transporting off waste products.

 

Aeron Damphair’s Drowning Ritual

After drowning initiates to the priesthood, Aeron performs a simplified variant of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and mouth-to-mouth respiration to revive them. Medically, this only works if the drowning victim is near death, and is done to preserve brain function until breathing and blood circulation resume. The Damphair is proud of his record. He has never lost a boy to the sea.

His drowned men formed a circle around the dead boy, praying. Norjen worked his arms whilst Rus knelt astride him, pumping on his chest, but all moved aside for Aeron. He pried apart the boy’s cold lips with his fingers and gave Emmond the kiss of life, and again, and again, until the sea came gushing from his mouth. The boy began to cough and spit, and his eyes blinked open, full of fear.
AFFC, The Prophet

The above passage tells us the following:
From the point of view of resurrection, water magic is the only method by which a dead person is fully restored. The Ironborn motto hammers this home with these celebrated words:

What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger.

What’s more, the focus of the ritual is rebirth. The drowned are reborn and they rise from the sea. The author emphasises this point very often:

That man is dead. Aeron had drowned and been reborn from the sea, the god’s own prophet. No mortal man could frighten him.

Aeron thinks of himself as having died and been reborn. He stresses this further when he states that no mortal man can frighten him, as if his experience makes him unique among men. However, from the little we know about the undead, it is clear that individual elemental magic is not sufficient to confer full functionality and quality of life on the reanimated. In terms of the story, each kind of elemental magic contributes towards restoring life in all its facets.

 

Patchface and Khal Drogo

After an exhaustive comparison of all undead characters in the books (to be presented in a separate post on resurrection), we find that Patchface and Drogo share one distinct feature which make them unique among the undead. Both have normally functioning bodies. Their vital processes are intact; they eat, drink and require sleep.

 

Water is the uniting factor in both methods of resurrection.
Patchface drowned at sea. The only clue to his survival is the smallfolk’s notion that a mermaid taught him to breathe water in exchange for his seed. This is fantasy. If crannogmen can breathe mud, why shouldn’t Patchface breathe water? He drowned in salt water and learned to breathe this water to survive. Patchface lost some of his mental capabilities; perhaps his brain did not take kindly to breathing in seawater; perhaps he lost some portion of his soul to the mermaid when he gave her his seed (think of Mel’s shadow baby); at this stage, we can only speculate as to the exact nature of his survival.
So how about Drogo?

To alleviate his fever, Dany had ordered a tub filled with tepid water for Drogo’s bath. Since the water stank of sulphur, she asked her handmaids to sweeten it with bitter oils and handfuls of crushed mint leaves. At the beginning of her ritual, Mirri Maz Duur has Drogo placed into this tub of water.

“Call your servants.”
Khal Drogo writhed feebly as Rakharo and Quaro lowered him into the bath. “No,” he muttered, “no. Must ride.” Once in the water, all the strength seemed to leak out of him. AGOT, Daenerys

The Magic Cauldron

For a long time, the significance of the tub escaped me, though I thought its use odd.
MMD’s use of it in this particular blood ritual does makes sense, however.

View the tub as a representation of the mythological cauldron, which features prominently in Celtic lore. The legend of Bran the Blessed tells of a magic cauldron of rebirth, which brought slain warriors back to life so that they could return to battle until they were killed again.

The symbolism of the cauldron also extends to the Holy Grail and Holy Chalice. The former features in Arthurian legends as a magical vessel of eternal youth and happiness.  In Christian times, its powers were transferred to the Holy Chalice. Here, it is the cup used in the celebration of the Eucharist, holding the wine representing the Blood of Christ. Jesus consecrated his blood in this cup at the Last Supper. In a parallel to the chalice, remember MMD kills Drogo’s stallion over the tub, allowing the horse’s blood to run off into the vessel.

The Cauldron and the Holy Grail are both associated with the element of water and the Celts viewed the ocean itself as a great cauldron of water.

Both Drogo and Patchface return to life in a ‘cauldron’ of water and seeing as they are unique amongst the undead in terms of their vital processes, I propose that magic mediated through the element of water accounts for the revival of their bodily functions.

Which vital processes are reactivated by Water Magic?

Considering that none of the other undead we see require any nourishment, we can infer that water magic contributes to reviving digestive and metabolic processes.
Living flesh needs fuel in the form of food to function. Only by taking in nourishment can cell division and a renewal of blood, flesh and bone take place; gaseous exchange also relies on energy produced during metabolism. In a resurrection ritual, fire magic revives the heart and circulation (as demonstrated by Lord Beric) and restores a degree of warmth, while water magic is responsible for the recovery of organ function and metabolism. Without the input of water magic, a reanimated body will remain cold and dysfunctional.

Other ingredients in MMD’s ritual

Kahl Drogo was in full possession of his bodily functions after the ritual. We can assume that MMD’s blood ritual activated the restorative powers of water and it’s worth having a look at the ingredients within the bathwater itself: sulphur, bitter oils and crushed mint.
Mint and bitter oils: Mint is very effective in the treatment of digestive problems. It is also excellent for decongesting the sinuses and promoting breathing.

The author has not qualified bitter oils, but a search brings forth essential oils such as bitter almond and bitter orange oils, both of which are indicated for gastrointestinal disorders. Bitter orange additionally increases heart rate, stimulates circulation and is a blood-purifying agent. Both have an effect on the nervous system.

Sulphur: The only water the servants could find stank of sulphur (biblical brimstone). On Earth, elemental sulphur occurs near hot springs and volcanic regions in many parts of the world. Sulphur is an essential component of all living cells; it is present in all proteins and enzymes. It also occurs as a highly toxic compound, causing neurological damage as well as behavioural changes and impaired vision and hearing.
Would you agree that these three substances could have played a part in Drogo’s survival?
Both mint and bitter oils contribute to digestive processes. Mint clears the airways and promotes breathing while bitter oils improve blood circulation. Sulphur is relevant, especially for its adverse effects. Too much of the wrong sulphur compound damages the brain and the senses – Drogo lost his wits and his senses. MMD’s ritual failed to restore Drogo fully but the reanimation of his vital processes did occur in the watery ‘cauldron of rebirth’.

We therefore have two good examples of reanimation involving the element of water. Since Drogo and Patchface are the only two ‘undead’ characters who exhibit functioning vital processes, we can conclude that a good dunking in water is essential to fully restoring the human body. I also tend to think that seawater (mineral composition of blood plasma is similar to seawater) is much more effective than fresh water in this regard.  

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Marching Zombies by agentfox on deviantart.com

The Development of a Killing Agent: Greyscale, the Pale Mare and the Butterflies of Naath

Water magic appears to have played a role in the development of a fast-acting killing agent, which was later refined into the more potent form of ice-magic currently used by white walkers to kill their victims. The grey death, the pale mare and butterfly fever all represent stages in the development of magic that kills its victims quickly through ravaging disease. It is what I term ‘fast-kill-magic’.

Old Nan’s tales of the Long Night are terribly frightening and we know that the Others with their army of wights are a reality. How does one instantly wipe out hundreds of people within a very short time, raise them from death, and turn them into zombies in the process? Well, answers can be found by examining the epidemics listed above.

 

Greyscale, Grey Plague and Grey Death

Greyscale is one of those illnesses nobody ever wants to contract.  If the legends are correct, the origins of this illness are rooted in magic – Prince Garin’s curse. Think of it as a biological weapon used in retaliation against the Valyrians.

A thick fog full of evil humors fell, and the Valyrian conquerors began to die of greyscale.
TWOIAF, Ten Thousand Ships

In time, more sophisticated methods evolved to instantaneously kill and subsequently impose a mind-controlling force on victims. Water magic gave way to ice magic to achieve this.

Symptoms of greyscale are reminiscent of features observable in wights.

Let’s have a look at some of the features of greyscale in relation to what we know about ‘wightdom’.

The mortal form of greyscale began in the extremities, he knew: a tingling in a fingertip, a toenail turning black, a loss of feeling. As the numbness crept into the hand, or stole past the foot and up the leg, the flesh stiffened and grew cold and the victim’s skin took on a greyish hue, resembling stone.

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Most stone men are feeble creatures, clumsy, lumbering, witless.

*****

Where he had grasped the torch, his skin had cracked and split. Blood was seeping from his knuckles though he did not seem to feel it. That was some small mercy, Tyrion supposed. Though mortal, greyscale was supposedly not painful.

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Blindness was common when the stone reached the face. In the final stages the curse turned inward, to muscles, bones, and inner organs.

*****

Harlon he recalled but dimly, sitting grey-faced and still in a windowless tower room and speaking in whispers that grew fainter every day as the greyscale turned his tongue and lips to stone.

To summarize the similarities:

• Greyscale begins in the extremities, (hard cold black hands and feet of the wights)
• Tongue and lips turn to stone, leaving victims incapable of speech (wights do not speak)
• Stone men feel no pain; neither do wights
• Inner organs are turned to stone and do not function (wights exhibit no vital processes)
• Both stone men and wights are clumsy, with a lumbering, shuffling gait.
• Children who survive greyscale are immune to the disease. Interestingly, I do not recall any sightings of undead children in the narrative.

Val, the wildling princess has very strong opinions on survivors of greyscale:

“The maesters may believe what they wish. Ask a woods witch if you would know the truth. The grey death sleeps, only to wake again.

Note her wording: ‘the grey death sleeps, only to wake again’; it strongly evokes the risen dead.
She emphasises this, even insisting that Shireen is unclean and goes as far as saying the girl is dead.

In addition to these parallels, there is uncertainty as to what actually causes the disease. Some think it has to do with damp foggy weather or is transmitted via physical contact with a victim.

Similar to the cold mists that accompany the Others, Garin’s Curse brought on a foul fog to afflict the Valyrians with the disease. Haldon also suggests that the Shrouded Lord does not bestow his “grey kiss” lightly, implying that victims are chosen intentionally – I put this down as another clue to the wights who are intentionally killed and raised, with the express purpose of waging war. The undead are a biological weapon themselves.

Adding these points to our list:

• Involvement of a weather-phenomenon (malign fog / cold mists)
• Survivors of greyscale are thought of as unclean or dead
• Victims are intentionally sought out
• The Shrouded Lord was brought back to life

The Shrouded Lord, Pirates and the Maesters

Also relevant are the many personalities attributed to the Shrouded Lord. Note he is a lord – a lord of death, as his shroud suggests. Some think the Shrouded Lord is Garin himself, while others claim there has been a series of Shrouded Lords – pirates from the Basilisk Isles. Another tale states he is different from the other stone men; he would be – he is their Lord, their leader – and he was supposedly kissed back to life by a grey woman, again strongly reminiscent of bringing the dead back to life.

From all the bits of evidence we have, my take is this:

The Shrouded Lord and the stone men represent precursors to the white walkers and the wights respectively.  In my making of a white-walker essay, I propose the Others are not natural entities that simply appear, but that they are created by man, and are possibly raised from the dead in the process.

As such, the pirates are an allegory for the Others. They represent a faction involved in the creation of Others. I’m getting a little ahead of this particular essay here, but for those of you who are interested, there is a great passage in AFFC, Samwell V regarding the Isle of Ravens, offering lots of clues to what I state here.

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Moving from greyscale to the grey plague / death

Have a look at Magister Illyrio’s account of the grey plague that hit Pentos, killing two thousand, including his wife:

“A Braavosi trading galley called at Pentos on her way back from the Jade Sea. The Treasure carried cloves and saffron, jet and jade, scarlet samite, green silk … and the grey death. We slew her oarsmen as they came ashore and burned the ship at anchor, but the rats crept down the oars and paddled to the quay on cold stone feet. The plague took two thousand before it ran its course.”
ADWD, Tyrion II

The grey death/plague kills much more rapidly that greyscale. It is absolutely lethal and represents the next phase towards ‘quick-killing-magic’. Illyrio further mentions another source of the contagion – the rats. Observant readers will have noticed that maesters are often compared to rats, grey rats, in the narrative. The above quote thus has a double meaning – it implies that the maesters were or are involved in cooking up the magic surrounding the Others and their wights. Well, the maesters supposedly played a role in bringing about the extermination of the dragons and though they claim to be building a world without magic, who knows exactly what they subscribed to in the past?  We have reason to believe that some maesters of the Citadel work(ed) for the Other side.

The magic behind the grey death

I’ll deal with the above more thoroughly in another post but I still owe you an explanation for the magic behind greyscale.

Water and earth magic combine forces to make greyscale possible. Meera tells us that her father can change water to earth and earth to water. I don’t presume to know exactly how it works but considering that water makes up approx. 70 percent of the human body, it makes sense to attribute the calcification process – the human body turning to stone – to water being turned to earth.
It’s as simple as that.

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The Pale Mare

 Why the Pale Mare represents another step to rapid mass murder and wightification:

1] Rapid transmission, claims hundreds of victims quickly

Like wildfire, the pale mare spreads very quickly through a population. The bloody flux is mentioned in several books and we get a real taste of its virulence at Slaver’s Bay where it first spreads through Astapor and is then brought to Meereen by a dying man riding a pale mare.

One sick person is enough to infect whole camps of people:

Soon after came the sickness, a bloody flux that killed three men of every four, until a mob of dying men went mad and slew the guards on the main gate.” ADWD, Daenerys V

Ser Barristan frowned. “Your Grace, I have known the bloody flux to destroy whole armies when left to spread unchecked.
ADWD, Daenerys V

2] It is a water-borne disease:

• The Pale Mare spreads via contaminated water supplies, faecal-oral transmission, unsanitary conditions and through handling of the dead.
• Symptoms of the pale mare include high fever accompanied by severe bloody diarrhoea. It therefore affects body fluids.
• There is not much in the way of treatment, though improving sanitary conditions helps to stem the tide of infections. Plenty of fresh clean water helps to combat dehydration but even the best cared for individuals do not make it.
• Note heavy involvement of water here.

3] Association with slavery or captivity throughout the books

Undead wights are slaves to their white-walker masters who control them by spiritually binding victims to their will.  Similarly, the bloody flux is often mentioned in connection with bondage of some kind or other:

Dany’s freed slaves make up the bulk of victims in slavers bay. The Astapori freed men camping outside Meereen suffer, as do those locked up in Astapor itself.

Every time the bloody flux features in Tyrion’s chapters, he happens to be in captivity:

While in the sky cells of the Eyrie:

Tyrion felt a pang of rage. “You fucking son of a pox-ridden ass,” he spat. “I hope you die of a bloody flux.” For that, Mord gave him a kick, driving a steel-toed boot hard into Tyrion’s ribs on the way out. AGOT, Tyrion V

As a slave in the service of Yezzan in Yunkai:

The healer entered the tent murmuring pleasantries, but one sniff of the foul air and a glance at Yezzan zo Qaggaz put an end to that. “The pale mare,” the man told Sweets.
ADWD, Part II, Tyrion II

Victarion frees enslaved oarsmen who have survived the bloody flux:

Here we have an additional bonus clue – after freeing the slaves, he renames the galleys Ghost and Shade:

“Men slain in battle?” asked Victarion. The crews of the galleys denied it; the deaths were from a bloody flux. The pale mare, they called it (…)

Afterward he put their crews to death as well, saving only the slaves chained to the oars. He broke their chains himself and told them they were now free men (…)

The galleys he renamed Ghost and Shade.
ADWD, Victarion

In connection with the Tickler’s questioning and torture of prisoners:

They learned that Lord Beric had ten starvelings with him, or else a hundred mounted knights; that he had ridden west, or north, or south; that he had crossed the lake in a boat; that he was strong as an aurochs or weak from the bloody flux. No one ever survived the Tickler’s questioning; no man, no woman, no child. ACOK, Arya VI

4] Miscellaneous clues

Pisswater Bend and the Pisswater Prince

In the next quote, the bloody flux is spreading in the stews along the Pisswater Bend. Pisswater is contaminated water. Pisswater also puts us in mind of the Pisswater Prince, the child allegedly killed in place of Aegon Targaryen. Note here the connection to Jon Connington, Aegon’s mentor, who contracts greyscale.

The kettle is close to boiling. So many thieves and murderers are abroad that no man’s house is safe, the bloody flux is spreading in the stews along Pisswater Bend, there’s no food to be had for copper nor silver. ACOK, Tyrion

George loves to play with words – how about Aegon himself as the Pisswater Prince? Many believe Aegon is a false prince. Actually, I think he really is Rhaegar’s son. He is false in a different sense –  he is a Pisswater Prince – a contaminated prince if you like: a Targaryen who does not have the blood of the dragon J

The Pale Mare and its rider

The pale mare is perceived as a sign of wroth and ruin. Indeed, the Others are a sign of wroth and ruin in more ways than one. They probably appear with the purpose of vengeance in mind. When they appeared on that cliff in the Hardhome episode, we knew exactly what would follow, didn’t we?

“We must pray,” said the Green Grace. “The gods sent this man to us. He comes as a harbinger. He comes as a sign.”
“A sign of what?” asked Dany.
“A sign of wroth and ruin.”
ADWD, Daenerys V

Interestingly, Grey Worm asks permission for the Unsullied to purify themselves in seawater after helping to administer to the sick. The Damphair praises seawater for its healing properties and the ocean itself is a ‘cauldron of rebirth’, as we have seen.
Later we learn that the Unsullied escaped infection; looks like seawater has some awesome properties!

Even the name – the pale mare – and the fact that we are talking about a horse is indicative of the real reason the disease features prominently in ADWD. Think of the Others who are pale creatures of frozen water who ride dead horses. Or of Bloodraven, who compares skinchanging ravens to riding a horse. Of Khal Drogo, whose only coherent thought is “must ride.” In a twist on this, white walkers are ‘ridden’ – I suspect they take their orders from a powerful greenseer.

*****

Remember the main difficulty must have been to develop a magic capable of killing large numbers of people instantaneously. Rome was not built in a day. Neither was magic. The grey death and the pale mare are epidemics, early developmental stages and precursors to the current magic the Others employ in their genocidal activities.

I have one last convincing tit-bit for you.
Consider cholera – a real-life counterpart to the pale mare.

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Cholera, the Pale Mare and John Snow

Cholera is a deadly water-borne disease that shares symptoms and modes of transmission with the pale mare. Afflicted persons die of shock and dehydration within a day if left untreated. While researching the subject, I came across a very intriguing bit of information regarding the discovery of the cause of a cholera-outbreak during the 19^th century.

London suffered two horrific cholera epidemics in the mid 1800’s, killing over a hundred thousand people in total.

‘Foul humours’ or miasmas (reminding us of the foul fog raised by the Rhoynar) were believed to be the cause for centuries. Then a physician named John Snow came along, and together with a parish priest, the Reverend Henry Whitehead, studied hundreds of cases, eventually tracing the source of the disease to a contaminated water supply within the city.  The main take-away at the time was that cholera is not an air-borne, but a water-borne disease. John Snow and Reverend Whitehead arrived at this correct conclusion by creating a map spotlighting individual cases in the London area, setting an important precedent for the science of epidemiology.
Read all about it here: 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak

The entire story was written and published by Steven Berlin Johnson in 2006. His book is titled:
The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think this is a coincidence!

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The Butterflies of Naath

The last clue to the process of mass-killing and wightification is the mysterious disease that exterminates visitors to Naath, an island also known as the Isle of Butterflies.

Butterfly fever is not directly related to water but it does hint at controlling aspects of wightdom through the ‘dancing’ of the victims and the carrying off of the Naathi into slavery at night.

The World Book has this to say about the Butterfly Fever that once exterminated slavers and corsairs who landed on its shores:

Yet none of these invaders survived, and the Naathi claim that none lasted more than a year, for some evil humour lurks in the very air of this fair isle, and all those who linger too long on Naath soon succumb. Fever is the first sign of this plague, followed by painful spasms that make it seem as if victims are dancing wildly and uncontrollably. In the last stage, the afflicted sweat blood and their flesh sloughs from their bones. The Naathi themselves are seemingly untroubled by this illness.
TWOIAF, Naath

Again we have a reference to ‘evil humors’. Also interesting – the victims sweat blood instead of water and the illness causes their flesh to peel off. Archmaester Ebrose believes butterflies transmit the disease. He thinks the culprit is a specific black and white variety (black and white could be a hint at the Faceless Men).
In another passage, we learn that in Lys, Naathi slave girls sent to whore houses wear translucent butterfly wings as a form of decoration, reminding us of the translucent bones of white walkers and the wings of young dragons. Undoubtedly, all this is linked in some way.

Slavers from the Basilisk Isles soon found out they could avoid infection by landing on Naath at night when butterflies are inactive. They forthwith carried off its people into slavery at night, which should remind us that the Others only strike at night.

Note also that it is corsairs – pirates – who capture and enslave the people and remember that I propose them as stand-ins for white-walkers who play a similar role in killing and spiritually enslaving humans (in the section on greyscale) at night.

Butterfly fever is another epidemic style illness that kills its victims rapidly, but it has an additional interesting feature: the painful spasms that cause victims to appear as if dancing wildly and uncontrollably – and here we have the link to shambling wights and mind control. And that is our next topic.

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Control of Mind and Will

In this section, I show that control over wights has its origins in water magic. Though difficult to pinpoint, this original method must have utilized a song of water or a song of the sea. This music was composed in a frequency specifically chosen to bind the will of the victim to a controlling entity. Remember Aeron Damphair – not only does he feel the sea touching his bones, he finds the truth in his bones as well. There’ll be a further example of this when we discuss the significance of Patchface’s bells further down. I propose that the song or music employed resonated at a frequency directed at the bones, causing them to vibrate in unison with the song. These vibrations then transmit to the brain where they influence the senses and override (sub)conscious thought, thus enabling a take-over of the mind by a third party. The properties of the sound waves, especially the pitch of the music dictates the type of influence. Thus, a ‘whispering’ could denote transmission of information such as advice or prophecy, while a low booming tone could influence thought processes and ensuing actions.

We will now take a look at the evidence for water-mediated control in the narrative.

The Kraken – Watery Control from the Deep

You come striding through the flames stern and fierce, your great axe dripping blood, blind to the tentacles that grasp you at wrist and neck and ankle, the black strings that make you dance.” ADWD, The Iron Suitor

 Moqorro, the Blackflame, reveals this disquieting information to Victarion. It’s my favourite quote regarding the controlling aspect of water associated magic. The Kraken is a monster of the sea – huge, dangerous and grasping.
The red priest aptly expresses the symbolism of its tentacles – black strings that make you dance. Like puppets on a string, the wights dance to the tune of their pale masters.

House Greyjoy’s sigil is the kraken and Victarion’s brother Euron is a prime example of a ruthless, grasping leader.

His ship is named Silence; he rips out the tongues of his crew, damning them to speechlessness; does this not remind us of the wights once again?

Euron shows signs of becoming a powerful greenseer, with abilities that may match Bran’s. His association with the kraken and with the captive warlocks indicate a move in the direction of ‘Otherdom’ and mind-control. I propose that Shade-of-the evening is an elixir also designed to activate the psychic gifts required to wake/control a certain faction of white walkers. It has all the labels suggesting its use: it is a blue drink, it is served to Dany in a crystal glass, it turns a drinker’s lips blue with time. That Euron forces the captive warlocks into cannibalism is another disquieting sign – cannibalism is an abomination that is very likely required by one who aspires to raising the dead.

Black Harren of House Hoare and builder of Harrenhal, is another Ironborn tyrant with a cruel reputation. Captives built the castle situated near the God’s Eye under horrific conditions. After Aegon the Conqueror’s fire treatment, the castle’s black towers, described as twisting fingers, are comparable with grasping black tentacles:

Across the pewter waters of the lake the towers of Black Harren’s folly appeared at last, five twisted fingers of black, misshapen stone grasping for the sky.
ACOK, Jamie

From a pre-released chapter of The Winds of Winter, we learn of krakens drawn by blood to the surface, pulling galleys under water. Some of the bodies wash up on Ghost Hill’s shores. These tales remind us of Old Nan’s stories about the Others, who smell the hot blood of their victims and hunt them down, while Ghost Hill is a nod at the wights and Others in general. Also of note is the Valyrian connection to krakens, specifically Lord Celtigar who owns a horn that can summon krakens from the sea, as well as the Smoking Sea surrounding Valyria itself, which teems with krakens just waiting to pull ships under.

 

Dancing as a Metaphor for Mind-Control

Dancing is undoubtedly also a metaphor for spiritual enslavement and mind-control. I talk about this in The Element of Fire part of this series and will just quote from that section here:

Patchace’s proclamations give us a point of reference:
“the shadows come to dance” and “in the dark, the dead are dancing”

Dead men and shadows dance. Dead men (undead slaves) are dancing like puppets on a string to the tune of the one controlling the master gem. The souls of wights are enslaved and controlled by a power similar to that of the master-slave ruby relationship. The only difference is that rubies are not involved in controlling wights.  This is achieved by sapphires or more correctly, magic that relates to the controlling and channelling power of sapphires. The sapphire itself belongs to the same group of mineral as the ruby. The only difference between the two gems are the inclusions that give them their different colouring. The bright blue eyes of white walkers and wights are the clue to this soul-enslaving power. Just to be clear, the dancing dead are subject to ice-magic.

At some point, water, fire, earth and ice magic come together to kill, raise and exert control. “Dancing” or spiritual will-control appears to have its roots in water magic.

The Water Dance

Arya, in her role as a personified angel of death, was in the process of learning a fighting style, the water dance, from Syrio Forel before her lessons ended due to the turn of events. In the following quote, her movement into a water dancer’s stance is coupled with dead leaves that crunch beneath her feet. If you’ve read the post on earth magic, you’ll know that I propose the trees as a source of raising the dead, so the dead leaves here are significant in that respect. Arya also frequently hops from one foot to another. Hopping is specific to some amphibians such as frogs and toads and belongs to the set of symbolism that includes the metaphoric dancing.

Amphibians are creatures of both water and the earth and in the above quote, we again have a pairing of water (water dance), earth (leaves) and death.

She turned her body sideways in a water dancer’s stance without even thinking about it. Dead leaves crunched beneath her feet.

The water dance itself is all about control – its main purpose is to develop expert physical control over one’s whole body as well as over the senses. A trained water dancer is someone who has control over his own subconscious movements, over what he or she sees and hears, and is thus able to anticipate and react accordingly when pitted against an enemy.

But the water dance is not only about control. It’s a fighting style and the goal is to kill.

According to the World Book, water dancers who fight on the surface of the Moon Pool of the Sealords’s Palace can fight and kill on the pool’s surface without disturbing the water itself. The greatest of the water dancers is the First Sword, who protects the Sealord and commands his personal guard.

Pilman of Lannisport, a ship’s captain, provided an account of a water-dancer duel to the Citadel. The water-dancers, he tells us, do seem to barely skim upon the surface, but it is an illusion caused by the darkness, for they always duel at night. 
TWOIAF, Braavos

In view of what we know about the Others, the analogy of the water dance as both a killing and a controlling agent makes perfect sense; they operate in darkness, glide silently through the snows, leaving no tracks. The strong sense of illusion surrounding their appearance and armour comes across very well in these quotes:

The Others made no sound. 
Will saw movement from the corner of his eye. Pale shapes gliding through the wood. He turned his head, glimpsed a white shadow in the darkness. Then it was gone. Branches stirred gently in the wind, scratching at one another with wooden fingers. Will opened his mouth to call down a warning, and the words seemed to freeze in his throat. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps it had only been a bird, a reflection on the snow, some trick of the moonlight. What had he seen, after all?

Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.
AGOT, Prologue

Notice also the references to the moon – water dancers duelling on the Moon Pool and the attention drawn to shifting patterns on armour, which run like moonlight on water. The First Sword protects and answers to the Sealord of Braavos – this throws up interesting implications. Is the mysterious force behind the Others an connected to an entity from the sea?  The Drowned God? Deep Ones?

Patchface and Shireen

It is no accident that Shireen and Patchface are paired in the narrative. Patchface represents one side of the story – he is an example of an undead person, influenced by a force that sends him songs, which he transmits to the public. Shireen is the other side of the coin, an example of greyscale as a precursor to zombification. Roll them symbolically into one person and we have a stone man, subservient to an unknown entity.

Two key clues to figuring this out are:

• Patchface’s shuffling, sideways walking style (which is akin to dancing)
• the bells on his antlered tin bucket hat

We have a good description of Patchface here:

Behind her, shuffling and hopping in that queer sideways walk of his, came her fool. On his head was a mock helm fashioned from an old tin bucket, with a rack of deer antlers strapped to the crown and hung with cowbells. With his every lurching step, the bells rang, each with a different voice, clang-a-dang bong-dong ring-a-ling clong clong clong.
ACOK, Prologue

 Shuffling, lurching, hopping, sideways walking, crablike gait are all variations on ‘dancing’.
When you compare the features of various undead, you will find that only Patchface and the wights share the uncoordinated clumsy shuffling walking style. One could say they share a lack of wits as well. Patchface speaks of course, and has not lost his wits entirely. With the wights, we know they are directed by a third party.

George’s biggest story regarding bondage and mind-control is demonstrated by Theon Greyjoy’s arc; it is the reason we have to endure his harrowing story of degradation and torture at the hands of Ramsay Bolton. I will not expand on Theon here but sure enough, there is a quote linking his predicament with the above keywords:

The missing toes on his left foot had left him with a crabbed, awkward gait, comical to look upon.

Jorah Mormont is another example of a character who begins to shuffle after being enslaved and physically abused:

The knight had not adapted well to bondage. When called upon to play the bear and carry off the maiden fair, he had been sullen and uncooperative, shuffling lifelessly through his paces when he deigned to take part in their mummery at all.

Note also Pyat Pree, the Qartheen warlock, who hops oddly from one foot to another after Dany’s ordeal in the House of the Undying, indicative of ‘dancing’ and mind control as explained above.

 

Patchface’s Bells and the Three Bells of Norvos

A further ingredient in the magic of spiritual mind control is music.
His shuffling provides the connection to the undead, while his antlered hat, hung with clanging bells hints at the controlling mechanism. Figuring this out is rather tricky but we know that Patchface’s bells each ring in a different voice:

With his every lurching step, the bells rang, each with a different voice, clang-a-dang bong-dong ring-a-ling clong clong clong. ACOK, Prologue

This should put us in mind of the famous Bells of Norvos, about which the World Book reveals interesting facts. Note that like the fool’s cowbells, these also ring in distinctive ‘voices’.

No account of Great Norvos is complete without the mention of the city’s three bells, whose peals govern every aspect of city life, telling the Norvoshi when to rise, when to sleep, when to work, when to rest, when to take arms, when to pray (often), and even when they are permitted to have carnal relations (rather less often, if the tales be true). Each of the bells has its own distinctive ‘voice,’ whose sound is known to all true Norvoshi. The bells bear the names Noom, Narrah, and Nyel; TWOIAF, The Free Cities

Three named bells peal orders understood by the people. Remarkably, the bells govern every aspect of life.
In fact, the people of Norvos are completely controlled by the ringing bells and are obviously expected to obey the pealed commands. This establishes the premise of people hearing and responding to musically transmitted commands.

Aero Hotah, originally from Norvos, also recalls the three famous bells:

As he honed the axe, Hotah thought of Norvos, the high city on the hill and the low beside the river. He could still recall the sounds of the three bells, the way that Noom’s deep peals set his very bones to shuddering, the proud strong voice of Narrah, sweet Nyel’s silvery laughter. AFFC, The Captain of the Guards

Note that Noom sets Hotah’s bones to shuddering and remember Aeron Damphair, who hears the rumbling of the waves (the song of the leviathan), and feels the cold salt sea touching his bones.

Think now of the whispering heads, of Clarence Crabb, who listened to their advice and of Brienne, who heard them tell her to use her magic sword. I’ve established that the heads actually obtain their knowledge from the sound of the sea. These cases are not only associated with water in one way or another, they always involve telling the consultant (willing or unwilling) what to do. Control is the keyword here.

Patchface’s bells serve as a parallel to the controlling aspect of the bells of Norvos. Much like the Damphair, I believe he hears spoken messages from the sea. His bells clang as he capers about and his accompanying dance steps suggest he does hear a tune to go with the words. We can infer that the additional incorporation of musical bells into the formula of the song of the sea represents an addition to and an improvement over the magic originally employed to cause greyscale. With the controlling music at his disposal, a wizard now had a means to actually direct the will of his victims. You may have noticed a missing link here – the raising of the dead. That belongs in the realm of earth magic!

Patchface can be regarded as an intermediary figure in the quest to perfecting resurrection and mind-control:

Drowning > Revival by water-mediated magic > subject to song and music (bells) that induce him to make his pronouncements at the right moments to the right person or group of people.

 

Why are some undead so clumsy?

I can offer a scientific explanation of sorts. Achieving and maintaining balance is associated with a set of sensorimotor control systems that rely on vision, touch, and auditory/vestibular input to function properly. The brain processes input from the eyes, ears and muscles and sends motor impulses to the muscles and joints, thus directing movement and maintaining balance.  Problems with achieving equilibrium occur when any of these sensory organs are rendered dysfunctional by disease, injury or aging. Typical symptoms are clumsiness and general motoric handicaps as well as problems with vision, orientation and equilibrium.

The frequency of the music employed to bind the undead to the will of their masters interferes with the sensorimotor system of the undead, ultimately disrupting their sense of balance. Victims are reduced to clumsiness and jerky, dancing movements.

This magical formula was not efficient enough and was subsequently refined and transformed into a more potent variant – ice magic, which exhibits a much more advanced mechanism of control, specifically utilizing the eyes – look out for the next article in this series where I shall explain how that works.

Who dunnit?

The clue here is Patchface’s antlered hat. It could only have been a greenseer. A greenseer with great powers and a taste for vengeance. One who turned away from a path of benevolence to one of righteous justice against a crime or abomination committed against him and his people. But that’s another story…

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Summary of the Element of Water in Magic

Songs that move water

The ancient Rhyonar who revered their Mother River were well-versed practitioners of water magic. In the account of Garin the Great’s war against the Volantenes and Old Valyria, the prince himself invoked water magic, which both drowned the enemy and caused them to die of greyscale. In a parallel to the songs of the earth sung by the children of the forest, his curse may have taken the form of a song of water.

The effects generated by the curse can be explained by considering the properties of sound waves. Water is an excellent medium for sound transmission. Since sound waves also energize the medium they travel through, we can speculate that a magical song might also carry enough energy to galvanise the water body itself, giving rise to tidal waves, waterspouts and flooding. Garin’s curse may also have been rendered more powerful by the presence of fire-breathing dragons on scene. Their hot fires would have contributed to warming up both the air and water, thus increasing the rate of transmission as well as the efficiency of the magical curse.

*****

Water as a medium for prophecy and communication

When Aeron Damphair needs advice regarding the succession to the Seastone Chair, he listens to the rumble waves, asking the Drowned God to provide him an answer in the language of the leviathan.  Aeron gets his answer. As the sea swirls around his body, he feels the cold deep inside and discovers the truth in his bones. Clearly, insights can be gleaned by listening to the waters.  Mother Rhoyne also offered such wisdom: “It was said the Mother Rhoyne herself whispered to her children of every threat …”

The idea of obtaining wisdom by listening to the whispering of the sea is further demonstrated after Brienne hears the tale of Ser Clarence Crabb and his whispering heads. Brienne realizes the waves are responsible for the sound. GRRM stresses the relationship between the whispering heads and the sea several times. We can conclude that the whispering sea provides the knowledge, while the reanimated heads are the oracle that interpret the wisdom (the song) of the waves, translating the message into a language humans understand.

Patchface, who because of his escape from death by drowning and his ‘under the sea’ pronouncements, is another prophesying character associated with the sea. He too hears messages from the sea, which he passes on to people in the vicinity.

*****

The role of water magic in reanimation

Hot water piped through of Winterfell is compared to blood flowing through a man’s body. This is an important parallel between life-blood and water. Water comprises approx. 70% of human body and in addition, the mineral composition of seawater is very similar to that of blood plasma.  It seems natural that water magic should play a significant part in resurrection.

Aeron Damphair’s drowning ritual for initiates to the priesthood demonstrates that from the point of view of resurrection, water magic is the only method by which a dead person is fully restored. The Ironborn motto hammers this home with these celebrated words:

What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger.

What’s more, the focus of the ritual is rebirth. The drowned are reborn and they rise from the sea.

Water magic revives the body’s vital processes

Upon examining all undead characters in the story, we find that only Khal Drogo and Patchface return with their vital processes intact. Both are examples of reanimation magic involving the element of water. In a parallel to the mythical cauldron of rebirth of Celtic lore, both characters are reborn in a cauldron of water, Drogo in his bloody tub and Patchface in the great cauldron that is the ocean. We can conclude that a good dunking in water is essential to fully restoring the human body. I also tend to think that seawater (mineral composition of blood plasma is similar to seawater) is much more effective than fresh water in this regard.  Specifically, digestive processes and metabolism revitalised by water magic.

*****

Development of a fast-acting killing agent

Water magic appears to have played a role in the development of a fast-acting killing agent, later refined into the more potent form of ice-magic currently used by white walkers to kill their victims. The grey death, the pale mare and butterfly fever all represent stages in the development of magic that kills its victims quickly through ravaging disease.

Greyscale and the Grey Death

The grey death has its origins in Garin’s curse. Interestingly it is an illness with symptoms very similar to the features of undead wights:

• Greyscale begins in the extremities, (hard cold black hands and feet of the wights)
• Tongue and lips also turn to stone, leaving victims incapable of speech (wights do not speak)
• Stone men feel no pain; neither do wights
• Inner organs are turned to stone and do not function (wights exhibit no vital processes)
• Both stone men and wights are clumsy, with a lumbering, shuffling gait.

• Children who survive greyscale are immune to the disease. Interestingly, I do not recall any sightings of undead children in the narrative

• Involvement of a weather-phenomenon (malign fog / cold mists)
• Survivors of greyscale are thought of as unclean or dead
• Victims are intentionally sought out
• The Shrouded Lord himself was brought back to life

Water and earth magic combine forces to make greyscale possible. Meera tells us that her father can change water to earth and earth to water. Considering that water makes up approx. 70 percent of the human body, it makes sense to attribute the calcification process – the human body turning to stone – to water being turned to earth.

 

The Pale Mare

The Pale Mare is heavily associated with water. It is transmitted by contaminated water supplies, causes severely dehydrating bloody diarrhoea and has a very high mortality rate. It has been known to kill whole armies within a few days. With the exception of establishing a clean environment and drinking large amounts of clean fresh water, not much can be undertaken to halt the progression of the illness.

The Pale Mare (or bloody flux) is also frequently mentioned in conjunction with bondage or slavery of one kind or another. Numerous quotes in Tyrion’s chapters testify to this. Interestingly, the term bloody flux appears in this context in chapters unrelated to his period of bondage in Essos. What is the connection with the Others here? Remember that wights are slaves to the Others. They have no will of their own and are subject to the control of their cold masters.

Like the Others, the Pale Mare is also seen as a harbinger of wroth and ruin.

I discovered another juicy titbit while researching the real life counterpart to the Pale Mare: at a time when the real cause of cholera was unknown, London experienced an epidemic during which a physician named John Snow conducted an investigation in order to pinpoint the source of the disease. A coincidence? Read about it: 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak  😉

 

The Butterflies of Naath

Butterfly fever is another epidemic style illness that kills its victims rapidly, but it has an additional interesting feature: the painful spasms that cause victims to appear as if dancing wildly and uncontrollably – and here we have the link to shambling wights and mind control. Slavers from the Basilisk Isles soon found out they could avoid infection by landing on Naath at night when butterflies are inactive. They forthwith carried off its people into slavery at night, which should remind us of the Others, who only strike at night. Butterfly fever isn’t directly related to water but it does provide insights into the final controlling stage as part of the formula to kill, raise and enslave a population.

*****

Control of Mind and Will

The Kraken – watery control from the deep

The Kraken is a monster of the sea – huge, dangerous and grasping. The Blackflame aptly expresses the symbolism of its tentacles – black strings that make you dance. Like puppets on a string, the wights dance to the tune of their pale masters. Consider what we know about the Greyjoy’s, whose sigil is the kraken. Theon Greyjoy’s arc reflects the bondage and spiritual mind-control aspect of undead wights. His uncle Euron is a prime example of a ruthless, grasping leader. His ship is named Silence; he rips out the tongues of his crew, damning them to speechlessness; does this not remind us of the wights once again?

Dancing is undoubtedly also a metaphor for spiritual enslavement and will control. Patchace’s proclamations give us a point of reference: “the shadows come to dance” and “in the dark, the dead are dancing”

 

Shuffling, lurching, hopping, sideways walking, crablike gait are all variations on ‘dancing’.
When you compare the features of various undead, you will find that only Patchface and the wights share the uncoordinated clumsy shuffling walking style. It is no accident that Shireen and Patchface are paired in the narrative. Patchface represents one side of the story – he is an example of an undead person, influenced by a force that sends him songs, which he transmits to the public. Shireen is the other side of the coin, an example of greyscale as a precursor to zombification. Roll them symbolically into one person and we have a stone man, subservient to an unknown entity.

The water dance

which Arya learns and practices, is all about control – its main purpose is to develop expert physical control over one’s whole body as well as over the senses. A trained water dancer is someone who has control over his own subconscious movements, over what he or she sees and hears, and is thus able to anticipate and react accordingly when pitted against an enemy.

The Bells of Norvos

A further ingredient in the magic of spiritual mind-control is music. Patchface and his clanging cowbells provide the link between music and mind-control. They put us in mind of the famous Three Bells of Norvos, one of the nine wonders made by man. The three named bells peal orders understood by the people, governing every aspect of life.
In fact, the people of Norvos are completely controlled by the ringing bells and are obviously expected to obey the pealed commands. This establishes the premise of people hearing and responding to musically transmitted commands.

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Writing this was quite difficult, I must admit. I’ve tried to present all the relevant information in a coherent form. Do inform me of ideas that perhaps do not make sense to you – I’ll do my best to improve the article!

Many thanks for reading and feel free to comment 🙂

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You may also find these related articles of interest:

• The Elements and Magic – Earth Magic
• The Elements and Magic – Fire Magic
• Patchface – The Fool with many Voices

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Contents

• Songs that move water
• Water as a medium for prophecy and communication
• Reanimation via water magic
• Development of a rapid killing agent
• Control of mind and will
• Summary

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