3 AGOT Catelyn I: Antler in the Throat

Catelyn does not feel she can bring up her concerns about the ill omen being gossiped of in the yard. Readers don't yet know the king's sigil is a stag. The omen suggests Ned (direwolf) will be killed by Robert (stag).

North vs South

Catelyn's discomfort in the godswood of Winterfell suggests there's an eerie feeling there, like the one rangers experienced north of Wall. She contrasts her own woods and religion, which are sunny and tidy, with the tangled, brooding, northern woods and her husband's solemnity while he cleans his sword after taking a man's life. Ned is brooding about the problems of the north, despite all having gone well today. The deserter died well. Bran behaved well. But something is going on north of the Wall.

Though Ned lights up at the news Robert is coming and it seems salve to his new grief over Jon Arryn, Catelyn can't help but think of the ill omen of the direwolf found killed by a stag around the time the news arrived.

The Stark words “Winter is coming” seem to remind of the Others of the prologue. That Ned imagines gathering an army to address the issue north of the Wall, one he takes to be Mance Rayder's army of wildlings seems the very thing to do.

But Ned does get frustrated with Robert for giving such little notice and bringing so many men as to require as influx of food. On the other hand, visits are the antidote to grief.

Theme Progressions

“You listen to too many of Old Nan's stories The Others are as dead as the children of the forest, gone eight thousand years. Maester Luwin will tell you they never lived at all. No living man has ever seen one.” The irony is that Ned executed Gared that very morning: a living man who had seen the Others.

Constructions

Introduction of the Mystery of Who Killed Jon Arryn

Catelyn's version of Robert's Rebellion contrasts Daenerys's in 4 AGOT Daenerys I