Jenny's song
Jenny's song is a sad song, always requested by the ghost of High Heart as payment in exchange for telling the brotherhood without banners of her prophetic dreams. It is presumably about Jenny of Oldstones, who was acquainted with a woods witch, according to the tales.[1][2]
Lyrics
High in the halls of the kings who are gone, Jenny would dance with her ghosts...[3]
Recent Events
A Storm of Swords
Arya Stark hears the song when the brotherhood without banners takes her to High Heart for the first time. The outlaws meet with the ghost of High Heart, who requests a song after telling them of her recent dreams.[4][5] Tom of Sevenstreams sings, accompanying the words with his woodharp. The song is so soft and sad that Arya can only hear snatches of the words, though the tune is half familiar to her.[4]
When the brotherhood go to High Heart a second time,[6] the dwarf woman requests the same song, which she associates with a "Jenny". As Tom sings she closes her eyes and rocks slowly back and forth, murmuring the lyrics and crying.[7]
When Robb Stark, King in the North, stops at Oldstones while en route to the Twins, Robb recalls a song about Jenny of Oldstones to his mother, Catelyn Stark.[8]
After the Red Wedding, the brotherhood waits for Merrett Frey to arrive at Oldstones with the ransom for his captured kin, Petyr Frey. When Merrett arrives, he hears Tom softly and sadly singing, "High in the halls of the kings who are gone, Jenny would dance with her ghosts..."[3]
Quotes
She always makes me sing the same bloody song. Not a bad song, mind you, but I know others just as good.[4]
Robb: There's a song. 'Jenny of Oldstones, with the flowers in her hair.'
Catelyn: We're all just songs in the end. If we are lucky.[8]—Robb Stark and Catelyn Stark
References and Notes
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 23, Daenerys IV.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon V.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 A Storm of Swords, Epilogue.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 22, Arya IV.
- ↑ III: 249 - The Shadow, the Crow, the Fish
- ↑ III: 491-492 - The Dead Kings
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 43, Arya VIII.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 45, Catelyn V.