129 ACOK 56 Catelyn VII Brandon & Rickard

Edmure is still gone, having left at the beginning of 119 Catelyn 17 A Dozen Fords to defend Riverrun. He’s expected back now. Desmond has brought twenty casks up from the cellars to celebrate their having driven off Tywin, Edmure’s victorious return, and Robb’s having taken the Cragg. No one else knows, so Catelyn’s secretly mourns Bran & Rickon, having received news Theon mounted their heads on the walls of Winterfell. Brienne stays despite being bid join the festivities outside and Catelyn tells her the news. She asks Brienne to attend her at midnight, saying she’s sent wine to the Kingslayer. Catelyn first assesses Jaime as so without honor he could never be trusted to trade himself for her girls, but when he calls her back, gets drunk and begins to rant about the unfairness of his being accused of having shit for honor, citing Ned’s infidelity as comparison, Catelyn calls for Brienne’s sword. It’s made to seem she might take his head, having been provoked by Jaime’s constant incitement, but Catelyn has been convinced he wants to be a man of honor and puts the sword to Jaime to require him to vow he’ll convince Tyrion and Cersei to release Sansa and Arya in exchange for his return.

Stoneheart setup: False news of Bran & Rickon’s deaths prompts Catelyn to free Jaime, forcing him at sword point to promise to return Sansa & Arya to her after returning to King’s Landing. Karstark’s execution setup: Catelyn seems to want to kill Jaime as revenge in grief for two dead sons. They discuss the Karstark boys Jaime killed and Jaime attempts to provoke Catelyn verbally, the way Lord Rickard will. Foreshadowing in the name Rickard Stark, referenced in the burning story. Did Catelyn go to Jaime knowing she might free him? It seems she only meant to confront him about having sent the catspaw, but bringing Brienne suggests she thought she might. Or, it might be that, after he tells the story of how Brandon and Rickard were killed and asks “who has shit for honor now?” she realizes Jaime does value his honor and can be made to swear, since he disliked that oaths conflicted. I don’t understand it yet. Construction of Jaime’s Argument to Judge One’s King Jaime gets drunk and vents his trauma about having been made to watch Aerys torture Brandon to death with his powerlessness to save his father from burning to death. This trauma explains why Jaime killed Aerys. He’ll later tell Brienne to brace for rape using the same technique he used to stand by and allow the crime. It upset Jaime deeply having been made to stand as powerless as Brandon. His judgment of Aerys must have been clear on his face at the time because the White Bull reminded him “You swore a vow to guard the king, not to judge him.” 798 However, Ned judged Aerys, as did those of the rebel allegiance.

Drunk, Jaime vents about how Aerys killed Brandon & Rickard. Brandon had been enroute to Riverrun to marry Catelyn when he heard about Lyanna and went to King’s Landing instead. Hoster has raged and called Brandon a “gallant fool.” 797 Brandon rode in calling for Rhaegar to come out and die, but Aerys took the names of the men of Brandon’s party, meant to be a wedding party. Fathers were summoned and killed with their sons to instill fear and staunch rebellion. It’s supposed to seem like Catelyn might kill Jaime to comment on rule by fear and vows at swordpoint. She’s actually come to interrogate Jaime about her assumption the Lannisters tried to kill Bran. When Catelyn realizes she was wrong, she recognizes the opportunity she’s been bitterly afraid to hope for—to trade Jaime for the girls—is remotely viable and seizes it. With Edmure and Robb both gone and the castle drunk, it’s her best chance.

• In the previous chapter, 128 Tyrion 21 Caught Slap, Tyrion speculates to Cersei that Jaime’s life is in danger, since the Stark’s blame Lannisters for Bran’s fall and the catspaw.

• After a monologue about beheading Theon, how she’d enjoy revenge, and how Starks are their own executioners, Catelyn says she’s sent wine to Jaime and plans to visit him at midnight. Having already said Robb will need to avenge his brothers because Cersei would never release the girls to her, it seems Catelyn is off her rocker and that her plan can’t possibly be to release Jaime to trade him for the girls. 786-787

• Catelyn names midnight as the hour she’ll go to Jaime. When Brienne asks why so late, Catelyn says “The dungeons are windowless. One hour is much like another down there, and for me, all hours are midnight.” 787 This proves she does not choose the hour to find Jaime sleeping but knows her intentions will be opposed.

• Jaime has not touched the wine, saying he assumed it poisoned without even knowing of the Stark boys’ deaths. That isn’t the reason. He understood the wine as a likely act of diplomacy and that to accept it without knowing the price was foolish. Once he knows Catelyn wants to trade intel, Jaime agrees to drink so he can insult the vintage as part of negotiations.

When Catelyn spoke of her girls and Brienne suggested Cersei has a girl of her own and might take pity, Catelyn says “I could wish... but no. Robb will avenge his brothers (on Theon).” 786 Why would Catelyn associate return of her girls with revenge for Bran and Rickon? It seems like Catelyn wants to avenge herself on Jaime for Bran and Rickon, but won’t because Cersei holds her girls. This is reinforced when Jaime admits to throwing Bran from the window and Catelyn thinks “If I had a knife, I would kill him now, she thought until she remembered the girls.” 793

• When Jaime asks Catelyn why he should tell her anything, she says ‘To save your life.“

• When she calls for Brienne’s sword, it seems she means to take Jaime’s head off herself, as she recently discussed Starks being their own executioners. He’s been provoking her verbally, saying Ned was more faithful to Robert than to her and that Littlefinger had her maidenhead. It seems Catelyn might be about to kill Jaime in a crime of passion. Only, that’s clearly not it. The question is, what is Catelyn thinking.

Later, in 145 Jaime 1 Better Man, Jaime we get the rest of the scene in Jaime’s recollection. Catelyn twisted the sword against him, pressuring him to vow to convince Tyrion to follow through with his promise to return Sansa & Arya. “Refuse and I will have your blood.” This sets up for Stoneheart, as such an oath cannot be called sacred yet Catelyn views breach of it to warrant hanging. Catelyn’s Denials

• That she has no authority in the castle. Her former authority had been through Hoster. Now, though he has not died, Edmure is considered lord and she is not viewed as his proxy. When she hears the castle folk toasting Tully, knowing they mean Edmure, Catelyn wrankles, thinking: “My father is not dead. My sons are, but my father lives, damn you all, and he is your lord still.” 787
  

  • Daughter’s Duty. That Catelyn sits with Hoster, though he can have no awareness of her or be comforted by her suggests she is there to be comforted, herself. Maester Vyman even senses this and offers her a sleeping draught. Catelyn’s reason for refusing is duty to grieve her sons. When she might have helped her sons, she stayed at Riverrun, citing duty to sit by her father, though he mistook her for Lysa and suffered. Now, when she ought to sleep, she pretends a duty to grieve.

  • Grief as basis for denial. Catelyn grieves Hoster as he dies, acknowledging him on his deathbed as “more dead than alive” and thinking “No matter how tightly I hold him, I cannot keep him here. Let him go. Yet her fingers would not seem to unbend.” 787 Comparison to Bran in coma in Game of Thrones.

• That she’s wrong about the Lannister conspiracy to kill Bran.

  • That Littlefinger lied about the catspaw’s dagger being Tyrion’s. Jaime remembers the bet and claims the catspaw’s dagger was not won by Tyrion but by Robert, who showed it to him to gloat, having won it betting against Jaime. Catelyn remembers the time she and Lysa were lost in the fog and Littlefinger rescued them. When Jaime says Robert won the dagger, Catelyn thinks “Petyr had sworn otherwise, Petyr who had been almost a brother, Petyr who loved her so much he fought a duel for her hand...and yet if Jaime and Tyrion told the same tale, what did that mean? The brothers had not seen each other since departing Winterfell more than a year ago. ‘Are you trying to deceive me?’ Somewhere there was a trap here.” 794-95

  • Though Jaime acknowledges Cersei’s children are his and that he threw Bran from a window to hide it, he denies hiring the catspaw. Says they spoke of it, but it was too dangerous and Bran seemed likely to die anyway. Besides, he’d have done it himself if it were to be done. He’s never yet hired a catspaw.
    

The gods are men: The gods are deaf because of men like you/Bran to become the old gods

• Reminiscent of Sansa’s talk of the gods not answering in 126 Sansa 10 Fire & Blood, Catelyn rages at Brienne’s attempt to comfort her, asking “what god would let this happen?” 785

• sits by sleeping Hoster’s bedside and confides to him that the gods do not answer her. Memory of being lost in the fog with Lysa, as children. Complains about the war and craves family.

• Jaime asks where her husbands tress were when Cersei took his head? “If there are gods, why is the world so full of pain and injustice?” 791

• Jaime says if Bran was not the spying type, Catelyn should blame the gods that brought him to their window. He’s already acknowledged throwing the boy out the window. “Then blame those precious gods of yours who brought the boy to our window and gave him a glimpse of something he was never meant to see.” 793

• Bran had to fall. In the recent 127 Jon 16 Sworn Foes, Bran comes to Jon to teach him to warg and may also have shown Ghost the way to the wildling camp, even getting him caught by Orell’s eagle. Bran must become capable of time travel, since he is not yet the three eyed crow. If Bran from the future can contact Jon, he could have orchestrated his own circumstance of awakening.
  

The wolves protect the children. Setup for Grey Wind to dislike Westerlings Catelyn thinks of the girls being in danger when she realizes they do not have their wolves. she thinks first of how Bran’s wolf saved her from the catspaw, then speculates that Theon must have killed the wolves when he took Winterfell. “I was certain the boys would be safe so long as the direwolves were with them. Like Robb with his Grey Wind. But my daughters have no wolves now.“ 785 News of Bran & Rickon’s deaths prompts Catelyn to free Jaime to trade for Sansa & Arya Jaime tells the story of Brandon & Rickard’s deaths Truth value and getting the whole story: Bran & Rickon are not dead. Brandon & Rickard’s deaths were much worse than reported. Catelyn’s own intentions and motives are unclear, even through her first hand account.

One of Lord Rickard Karstark's sons slain in the Whispering Wood was named Eddard.