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Episode 176: A STORM OF SWORDS, JON III: "Fear and Desire" SHOW NOTES!

Added 2022-02-28 15:00:08 +0000 UTC

Hello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish.

And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn.

Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-sixth episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “Fear and Desire: An Analysis of ASOS, Jon III,” in which Jon Snow explores a complex cave system.

This episode is brought to you by our NotASmallCouncil:

Spoiler warning: All published books, 5 novels, 3 Dunk and Egg novellas, histories, interviews, TWOW sample chapters, as well as Game of Thrones the TV show. Anything and everything!

When we last checked in with Jon Snow, he had been saved from execution by Ygritte lying about them going to bone town. Let’s explore Plato’s Cave … is that correct? In this synopsis of ASOS, Jon III!

Synopsis

The last night fell black and moonless, but for once the sky was clear. "I am going up the hill to look for Ghost," he told the Thenns at the cave mouth, and they grunted and let him pass.
So many stars, he thought as he trudged up the slope through pines and firs and ash. Maester Luwin had taught him his stars as a boy in Winterfell; he had learned the names of the twelve houses of heaven and the rulers of each; he could find the seven wanderers sacred to the Faith; he was old friends with the Ice Dragon, the Shadowcat, the Moonmaid, and the Sword of the Morning. All those he shared with Ygritte, but not some of the others. We look up at the same stars, and see such different things. The King's Crown was the Cradle, to hear her tell it; the Stallion was the Horned Lord; the red wanderer that septons preached was sacred to their Smith up here was called the Thief. And when the Thief was in the Moonmaid, that was a propitious time for a man to steal a woman, Ygritte insisted. "Like the night you stole me. The Thief was bright that night."

There’s something about the way GRRM describes stars and nighttime that’s magical.

Jon claims he didn’t intend to steal Ygritte. He didn’t even know she was a girl at first. Ygritte retorts that if you didn’t mean to kill someone, and you kill him, does it matter? The damn girl was so stubborn. Only Arya was more stubborn. For that matter, is Arya still his sister? He felt like Theon back at Winterfell: not belonging. And now he was a man of the Night’s Watch and didn’t have a family. But he lost those brothers too.

Jon finds Ghost on top of the hill, but his wolf loved heights, loved hills. He asks Ghost if he has names for the stars. In response, Ghost licks his face where the eagle raked his face with his talons.

The bird marked both of us, he thought. "Ghost," he said quietly, "on the morrow we go over. There's no steps here, no cage-and-crane, no way for me to get you to the other side. We have to part. Do you understand?"

Ghost’s eyes look black, and he nuzzles at Jon’s neck. While the wildlings claimed that Jon was a warg, Jon didn’t know how to do the warging stuff. He dreamed he was in Ghost and saw Mance Rayder’s host, but that was only when he was dreaming. He could communicate with Ghost then, but now he only has words. And his words are sad.

"You cannot come with me," Jon said, cupping the wolf's head in his hands and looking deep into those eyes. "You have to go to Castle Black. Do you understand? Castle Black. Can you find it? The way home? Just follow the ice, east and east, into the sun, and you'll find it. They will know you at Castle Black, and maybe your coming will warn them." He had thought of writing out a warning for Ghost to carry, but he had no ink, no parchment, not even a writing quill, and the risk of discovery was too great. "I will meet you again at Castle Black, but you have to get there by yourself. We must each hunt alone for a time. Alone."

Ghost twists away from Jon, and then bounds off, moving through the brush under the hill. Jon hopes that Ghost is heading back to Castle Black, but he doesn’t know. His fear is that he’s as bad a warg as a NW brother or spy.

Jon looks around and judges that they’re somewhere north of the Wall between the Shadow Tower and Castle Black. They had been moving for days south through woods and deep lakes and flint hill. Hard riding but easier to get to the Wall unseen.

For wildling raiders, he thought. Like us. Like me.
Beyond that Wall lay the Seven Kingdoms, and everything he had sworn to protect. He had said the words, had pledged his life and honor, and by rights he should be up there standing sentry. He should be raising a horn to his lips to rouse the Night's Watch to arms. He had no horn, though. It would not be hard to steal one from the wildlings, he suspected, but what would that accomplish? Even if he blew it, there was no one to hear. The Wall was a hundred leagues long and the Watch sadly dwindled. All but three of the strongholds had been abandoned; there might not be a brother within forty miles of here, but for Jon. If he was a brother still . . .

Jon thinks he should have killed Mance. Qhorin would have done that. But the day and time had passed. He was now riding with Styr, Mangar of Thenn and Jarl. Jon promises that he’s only biding his time for when he would slip away and make for Castle Black, but the timing never worked out. Too many guards at night, and Jarl watched him suspiciously. Oh, and Ygritte was always nearby.

Two hearts that beat as one. Mance Rayder's mocking words rang bitter in his head. Jon had seldom felt so confused. I have no choice, he'd told himself the first time, when she slipped beneath his sleeping skins. If I refuse her, she will know me for a turncloak. I am playing the part the Halfhand told me to play.

Jon knows that his body play-acted well as they had sex. It was Jon’s first time, but it was not Ygritte’s. Jon keeps reminding himself that he’s playing a part. He was still a man of the Night’s Watch and Ned’s son. He was just doing what needed to be done. The problem is that he likes playing this part too much. Ygritte went to sleep beside him, and though he vowed that it was only going to be a one-time thing, he had sex with her twice more that night and then on the next day too. Jon wonders what he’s become. Is he as weak as his father was when he dishonored himself in his mother’s bed?

But then someone comes up the hill. Turns out it was only a Thenn who informs Jon that Magnar wants to see him. Jon doesn’t really care what the Magnar wants but decides not to argue -- the Thenns didn’t speak much of the common tongue as is. So, he heads down to the mouth of a cave facing out to the north -- meaning the fires they lit wouldn’t be seen by the Wall. It was all well-planned by Mance Rayder. Inside the cave, Jon hears water below and then finds Jarl with the Magnar.

Jarl and Styr the Magnar are both in command, and that didn’t please Styr at all. Jarl was Val’s lover, and Val was sister to Dalla who Mance had made queen. So, Jarl got the position due to his proximity to the king, and that pissed Styr off. But it wasn’t simple adjacent nepotism that got Jarl the job. He was a skilled raider and had gone over the Wall a dozen times even though he was only twenty years old.

Styr immediately asks what Jon knows of the patrols on the Wall. Well, they are on the Wall. There are four of them, and they ride mules as those beasts were more sure footed than horses or other beasts. Styr asks if they always ride on top. Not always. One in four patrols go at the base of the Wall to check for structural weaknesses: cracks, melting ice, tunnels the wildlings made, etc.

The Magnar nodded. "Even in far Thenn we know the tale of Arson Iceaxe and his tunnel ."
Jon knew the tale as well. Arson Iceaxe had been halfway through the Wall when his tunnel was found by rangers from the Nightfort. They did not trouble to disturb him at his digging, only sealed the way behind with ice and stone and snow. Dolorous Edd used to say that if you pressed your ear flat to the Wall, you could still hear Arson chipping away with his axe.

Styr asks how often the patrols go out. It varies. LC Qorgyle had one method, but LC Mormont varied the number of patrols, times of departure and how long they’d be out there. That was an invention of Benjen Stark -- something to unsettle the wildlings.

Jarl asks if Stonedoor or Greyguard are manned. Jon realizes that this means they’re between those two castles. Only three castles were manned when Jon left: Eastwatch, Castle Black and the Shadow Tower, but who knows what’s happened since Jon left. Styr asks how many NW brothers were in those castles.

"Five hundred at Castle Black. Two hundred at Shadow Tower, perhaps three hundred at Eastwatch." Jon added three hundred men to the count. If only it were that easy . . .
Jarl was not fooled, however. "He's lying," he told Styr. "Or else including those they lost on the Fist."
"Crow," the Magnar warned, "do not take me for Mance Rayder. If you lie to me, I will have your tongue."
"I'm no crow, and won't be called a liar." Jon flexed the fingers of his sword hand.

The Magnar studies Jon and then says they’ll know their numbers soon enough. He dismisses Jon and says he might ask for him back if he has more questions. So, Jon heads off, thinking that the wildlings would be easier to hate and betray if they were like Styr. His band of wildlings - the Thenns again - were a hard people who lived in the far north. And they viewed Styr as a god, and he commanded absolute obedience from them -- hence why Mance chose him to lead the expedition over the Wall.

Jon walks past those Thenns, wondering where Ygritte got off to. Grigg the Goat tells him that she went to the back of the cave. So, Jon heads in the direction Grigg points, moving through a maze of columns and stalactites. He tries to find his way around, and then he finds a dark hole under wet stone. He kneels and calls for Ygritte. Her voice answers back from the hole. So, Jon crawls his way through the hole until he finds it open to a larger cavern. And there, he sees Ygritte and light from a torch playing orange and green against the green water. Jon asks what she’s doing here, and she sees she heard water and wanted to see how deep the cave went. To a dead end?

"You know nothing, Jon Snow. It went on and on and on. There are hundreds o' caves in these hills, and down deep they all connect. There's even a way under your Wall. Gorne's Way."
"Gorne," said Jon. "Gorne was King-beyond-the-Wall."
"Aye," said Ygritte. "Together with his brother Gendel, three thousand years ago. They led a host o' free folk through the caves, and the Watch was none the wiser. But when they come out, the wolves o' Winterfell fell upon them."

Jon knows this story. Gorne killed the King in the North, but the king’s son took up the cause and killed Gorne. Ygritte states the Night’s Watch came. And the Umbers too, Jon says. All three of them killed Gorne’s brother Gendel.

"You know nothing, Jon Snow. Gendel did not die. He cut his way free, through the crows, and led his people back north with the wolves howling at their heels. Only Gendel did not know the caves as Gorne had, and took a wrong turn." She swept the torch back and forth, so the shadows jumped and moved. "Deeper he went, and deeper, and when he tried t' turn back the ways that seemed familiar ended in stone rather than sky. Soon his torches began t' fail, one by one, till finally there was naught but dark. Gendel's folk were never seen again, but on a still night you can hear their children's children's children sobbing under the hills, still looking for the way back up. Listen? Do you hear them?"

Jon hears nothing but the rain. Wait, wrong podcast. He hears the water and asks if the way was lost. Ygritte says some search for the way, but those people that go too deep find Gendels children, and they’re hungry. They only eat flesh down in the dark. With that, Ygritte bites Jon’s neck.

Jon nuzzles up against her hair and tells Ygritte that she sounds like Old Nan. No way. Ygritte’s not old. She’s older than Jon. Yup. Wiser too. With that, she disrobes to show him how old she is. Jon says they shouldn’t, but Ygritte says they should. She tells Jon to show her his.

"I know I want you," he heard himself say, all his vows and all his honor forgotten. She stood before him naked as her name day, and he was as hard as the rock around them. He had been in her half a hundred times by now, but always beneath the furs, with others all around them. He had never seen how beautiful she was. Her legs were skinny but well muscled, the hair at the juncture of her thighs a brighter red than that on her head. Does that make it even luckier? He pulled her close. "I love the smell of you," he said. "I love your red hair. I love your mouth, and the way you kiss me. I love your smile. I love your teats." He kissed them, one and then the other. "I love your skinny legs, and what's between them." He knelt to kiss her there, lightly on her mound at first, but Ygritte moved her legs apart a little, and he saw the pink inside and kissed that as well, and tasted her. She gave a little gasp. "If you love me all so much, why are you still dressed?" she whispered. "You know nothing, Jon Snow. Noth-oh. Oh. OHHH."

Shy afterwards, Ygritte asks if that’s a thing lords do with their ladies down in the south. Mm-hm. Jon doesn’t think so. He just wanted to kiss her down there. She seemed to like it. Ygritte agrees and asks again if anyone taught him. Nope. Jon’s only been with Ygritte. She teases him about being a maid, and Jon says he was a member of the Night’s Watch. Was.

Jon asks who Ygritte’s first was. A boy who was also kissed by fire. He tried to come back and steal her, but Longspear broke his arm, and the boy never tried again. Jon is relieved that it wasn’t Longspear. He liked Longspear. Ygritte thinks that’s gross as Longspear was from her village, and they’re related. Children born of incest are cursed by the gods. Jon asks about Craster.

She punched him again. "Craster's more your kind than ours. His father was a crow who stole a woman out of Whitetree village, but after he had her he flew back t' his Wall. She went t' Castle Black once t' show the crow his son, but the brothers blew their horns and run her off. Craster's blood is black, and he bears a heavy curse." She ran her fingers lightly across his stomach. "I feared you'd do the same once. Fly back to the Wall. You never knew what t' do after you stole me."

Once again, Jon says he didn’t steal Ygritte. And Ygritte stubbornly says that Jon stole her when he jumped from the mountain and killed Orell. She reminds him of the story of Bael the Bard and how he plucked the rose of Winterfell. Ygritte thought Jon was plucking her. But he wasn’t. He knows nothing. But he might be learning.

Jon sees that the light from the torch is almost out and says they should get out of the cave. Ygritte teases him about being afraid of Gendel’s children. It’s only a little ways up, and she’s not done with Jon. She asks if Jon would perform the lord’s kiss on her again. Maybe she could try it back with him.

The torch finally dies out, but Jon doesn’t care. His guilt returns later. Weaker. Jon wonders why this is so wrong when it feels so right. The cavern was pitch black when they finish with only dim light from the other passage. They try to get dressed, bump into each other and fall into the pool together, and then they start having sex again.

"Jon Snow," she told him, when he'd spent his seed inside her, "don't move now, sweet. I like the feel of you in there, I do. Let's not go back t' Styr and Jarl. Let's go down inside, and join up with Gendel's children. I don't ever want t' leave this cave, Jon Snow. Not ever."

And that is the synopsis of ASOS, Jon III! I hope I didn’t blush too much in doing the synopsis. This is a nice chapter. Nice. What did you think, ser?

Depth

The last couple Jon chapters were huge in terms of scale and scope, and part of me does miss that ambition, as well as characters like Mance and Tormund, who we won’t see again until the book is almost over. But Jon’s story has been scaled down for a reason: to capture his newfound intimacy with Ygritte. It’s a heartfelt chapter, written in shades of red and flashes of heat. It perfectly conveys the feeling of falling in love, the whole world shrinking down to just the two of them, even as both of them know that it can’t last forever. Without George stopping the plot progression dead to focus on character, later events in Jon’s chapters wouldn’t be nearly as emotionally effective.

There’s a real melancholy coming back to this chapter as a re-reader, because we know the ultimate fate of these two doomed lovers. Much as George writes a lot of darkness to make the light feel that much brighter, he makes heartbreak that much sadder by showing two people falling into doomed love with each other. Still, there is beauty and love in the here and now, and I think what Ygritte says later plays so well with this chapter as it stands on its own and what it means for the future: “You’re mine. Mine, as I'm yours. And if we die, we die. All men must die, Jon Snow. But first we'll live.”

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

The wildlings will go over the Wall in Jon’s next chapter.

Ghost will return to Castle Black to find Jon near the very end of the book.

Theory/Discussion

Is the tale of Gendel and Gorne legit?

Conclusion


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