Welcome back! This will be the second chapter synopsis of A Game of Thrones covering Bran 1. Technically, it's the first chapter, but second installment or something like that. Anyways, this chapter we are introduced to a few of the main characters and a few plot devices that show up later in the story. So like last time, I'll go over characters first, locations, and last any other key terms that would be useful to know.
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A Game of Thrones
Characters
-Brandon(Bran) Stark- Fourth trueborn child and second trueborn son of Eddard Stark, seven years old, inquisitive, thick auburn hair, deep blue eyes, strong willed but sweet and thoughtful, well loved, he loves to climb and explore around Winterfell, dutiful and tough-minded
-Robb Stark- First trueborn child and first trueborn son of Eddard Stark, fourteen years old, big, broad, growing daily, fair skinned, red-brown hair, blue eyes, muscular, strong, fast, and has moments of Lordly qualities
-Eddard(Ned) Stark- Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, solemn, brooding, long brown hair, closely trimmed beard shot with white, looks older than his thirty-five years, grim grey eyes
-Jon Snow- Bastard born son of Eddard Stark during Robert's Rebellion, fourteen years old, dark grey eyes almost black, observant, slender, dark complected, graceful, quick, quiet, brooding, long face, and dark brown hair
-Theon Greyjoy- Last living son of Lord Balon Greyjoy of the Iron Islands, ward of house Stark as punishment and to prevent Balon from rising up in open rebellion again, nineteen years old, lean, dark youth, finds everything amusing
-Jory Cassel- Nephew of Ser Rodrik Cassel, captain of the household guard at Winterfell, wears unadorned blue-grey plate armor, wry smile
-Hullen- Master of horse at Winterfell, father to Harwin
-Harwin- Son of Hullen, stocky man, clean shaven, known to speak boldly
-Desmond- Member of the guards at Winterfell, single minded when it comes to duty, confident but naive about the South
Characters(Mentioned)
-Ser Rodrik Cassel- Knight of House Cassel, uncle of Jory Cassel, master at arms of Winterfell, stout broad man with large white whiskers, doesn't like music, loyal and courageous
-Old Nan- Servant woman at Winterfell, shrunken, ugly woman, probably the oldest person in Winterfell and possibly the entire continent of Westeros, toothless, wrinkled, almost blind, too weak to climb the stairs, only small amounts of hair left, known to tell stories to the children
-Mance Rayder- King-beyond-the-Wall, leader of the Wildlings
-Rickon- Youngest child and third trueborn child of Eddard Stark, three years old
-House Tully- Ancient house with its seat at Riverrun in the Riverlands, Eddard Stark’s wife Catelyn is of House Tully, usually fair skinned, red-brown hair, blue eyes are associations
-House Tully sigil-Silver trout leaping on a striped field of blue and mud red
-House Tully words-Family, Duty, Honor
**Locations **
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-Winterfell- Ancient castle located in the farthest regions of the North, ancient ancestral castle of House Stark, capital and center of Northern Power
Notable Terms
--Valyrian Steel- Special metal made by the ancient Valyrians before the Doom, magic and spells play a role in the forging, it's lighter, stronger, and sharper than any other forged metals, distinct ripple pattern to the blades, loosely based on Damascus Steel
------Ice- Ancestral Valyrian Sword of House Stark, wide across as a man's hand, taller than Robb, spell forged, dark as smoke
-First Men- The First Men were the first people to migrate across the land bridge known as the Arm of Dorne, basic runic writing style, spoke the Old Tongue, many religious practices none unified, armored in bronze before the age of iron, raised ringforts where they settled, influence is still strongest in the furthest northern areas
A Game of Thrones Bran 1
Bran's first chapter is the second chapter in the series. It's told from Brandon Stark's perspective, Lord Eddard's second trueborn son and fourth overall trueborn child.
The chapter starts with Bran accompanying a group of twenty men, led by his father, to go pass the King's justice or in other words, execute someone. This will be Bran's first time witnessing a man being executed. Bran is seven years old, and finally deemed old enough to witness an execution. He also informs us the readers, that the summer he has lived in his entire life, has lasted a total of nine years, but finally seems to be waning.
The man being executed, had been captured at a nearby holdfast. When they got closer to the stronghold, Bran spots the man bound to the Wall. The man is dressed all in black. Ned order his men to bring the prisoner before him. The man was older and had lost both ears and a finger to frostbite. An astute eye to detail will notice, the character named Gared from the Prologue chapter is described the exact same way. Winterfell is the largest city this close to the Wall, and we know what Will and Waymar faced. It's not hard to connect the dots to realize Gared ran for his life. Bran also notices Ned's appearance has almost changed like he wasn't his father anymore, but became the Lord of Winterfell.
Gared and Ned speak for a moment. Ned asked questions while Gared gave what answers he could. Finally, Ned has Gared brought to the giant Ironwood stump in the center of square to finish the execution.
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Ned dismounts and moved into position. Theon Greyjoy, the ward of House Stark, brings "Ice" to Ned, the Stark's ancestral Valyrian Steel blade. Ned announces that deserters of the Night's Watch are to be put to death like they always have been. Bran's bastard brother, Jon Snow, reminds him to not look away because their father would know. Ned cuts his head off with a single swing, which then rolled toward Theon who kicked it away. Jon commends Bran, and the group soon start their journey back to Winterfell.
On their return trip, Bran is riding at the lead with his two older brothers, Robb and Jon. Bran listens to their discussion. Robb believes the deserter died bravely, while Jon believes he died with fear in his eyes. Robb challenges Jon to a race, instead of arguing further, and they take off ahead of everyone. Bran didn't even try to keep pace, because he knew the pony he was on could never keep up.
As he rode, Bran loses himself in thought. He doesn't even hear his father ride up beside him. Ned asked Bran if he was well, to which he replied yes. He continues by telling his father the discussion the older brothers were having. Ned asks him what he thinks. After a pause, Bran asks if a man can be brave when he's afraid, and Ned tells him that's the only time a man can be brave. Ned then asked if Bran knew why he did it?
Bran assumed the man being executed was a wildling from beyond the Wall, so he begins repeating some of Old Nan's stories. Ned laughs and explains that the man was from the Night's Watch, a sacred order of knights started thousands and thousands of years ago, not a wildling. He expands by saying there are no men as dangerous as a deserter of the Night's Watch, because he is capable of committing any crime, no matter how atrocious, and he understands the moment he is caught his life will be forfeit, and he will be executed. The vows they all take to become a part of the Watch forbids them the possibility of leaving, alive that is.
This wasn't what Ned was asking, though. He reiterates the question but clarifies by asking why he, Ned, had to be the one to swing the sword? After a moment of uncertainty, Ned begins with how the Starks bloodline descends from the First Men. They trace their house and the Stark name all the way back to Brandon the Builder, the supposed founder of House Stark during the Age of Heroes. The old customs were followed more closely the further north a person went. One of these customs is that if you are to sentence a man to die, you at least owe it to him to look him in they eyes and hear his last words. If after that, you cannot swing the sword, then, maybe he doesn't deserve to die. Those who hide behind a paid executioner soon forget what death is.
As Bran takes it all in, Jon reappears, looking excited, shouting and waving his arms, as he rode back towards the group. When he gets close enough, he hurries everyone up to see what Robb had found. He immediately turns around and heads right back up the road. Ned assumes it's just normal mischief of boys, but still puts heel to his horse, to see what the cause of the excitement is.
Robb was on the north side of the bridge on the riverbank with Jon still mounted at his side. Robb seemed to be cradling something in his arms. Jory and Theon were the first to reach the boys. Theon gave a curse and drew his sword, Jory already had his drawn yelling for Robb to back away. Robb smiles and assures them the mother is dead. It's just a carcass.
Bran, trying to follow his father's instructions, is quite anxious to see what they had found. He dashes to their side on the riverbank, as soon as he is able to dismount. Theon wonders aloud what the creature could be, to which Robb replies that it's a wolf. He declares it a freak to be of such a massive size.
When Bran finally makes it close enough to the party, he sees a half covered carcass with bloodstained snow surrounding it, but her size was most prominent detail. She had to be twice as big as any hound he had ever seen. Jon, then, corrects Theon, reminding him this was no regular wolf, but actually a direwolf. Theon remembers it said direwolves haven't been seen this far south of the Wall in 200 years, but yet here one lay.
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Bran looks to Robb and realizes he is holding something. He rushes over to Robb who holds out a small pup for Bran to pet. After he pet the small pup, Jon comes over and hands him his own pup. Theon and Hullen both protest saying it better to kill them now than have direwolves south of the Wall. Robb orders them to stop what they were doing, sounding like the true Lord of Winterfell for that moment.
Ned wonders how the wolf died, but Robb had already figured it out. A stags antler had broken off inside her throat, and she slowly bled out. One of the party thought it a sign, and even Ned begins to protest that the wolves shouldn't be south of the Wall, but that's when Jon interjects. He explaining that the wolf had five pups, three males and two females. He then points out, that it matches Ned's trueborn children, three sons and two daughters. His children were meant to have the wolves pups. The count only worked because he excluded himself, since he was a bastard born child. No one missed the significance of Jon's actions. Ned asks why he doesn't want one too, but Jon just tells him the direwolf is the sigil of House Stark, and Jon is no Stark.
Ned stresses that no one will help them raise the wolves. The children will feed them and care for all the needs. They will also train them. Both boys agreed without a passing thought, so the group climb onto their horses and begin their journey back with Winterfell.
About halfway across the bridge, Jon pulls up, stopping his horse. Ned asks him what's wrong, but Jon only asks if they could hear that? Jon narrows in on the location and rides back close to where the mother wolf had died. Soon he came riding back to the group smiling. There was a sixth pup that had either crawled away, or had been forced away by the others. The wolf Jon found was an albino with solid white fur, but also had its eyes open well before any of the other pups. He had striking red eyes to contrast the white fur and snow. This wolf was different from the others, just like Jon himself.
The chapter leaves off here with the group going back to Winterfell. The children have all acquired direwolves that play their own roles throughout the later books. A couple things to note that caught my attention.
-Gared is still executed, even after telling the truth of a supernatural like being north of the Wall. He was genuinely afraid never wanting to see one again. For such an honorable person as Ned supposed to be, I don't think execution of a man telling the truth is very honorable.
-The stump and snows after the execution are described as drinking the blood up eagerly. I'm not certain if this will be important later or not. The personification of drinking and eagerly just added to the almost mystical or magical theme to this chapter.
-This chapter hold a MAJOR clue as to what will happen by the end of this particular book. I love how Martin tells us foreshadowing, symbolisms, or just all around hidden meaning inside his story. If you know the foreshadowing or think you know leave it in the comments. I'll try ending each post with a question similar to this. The winner will get their comment upvoted at least may become a thing later. (it's almost pointless at the moment but won't take long for me to finally reach that elusive penny in voting power 😂)
As always thank you all for spending time with yours truly, there's no gift more precious than time.
-Bran the Builder
