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A shooting star,[1] or falling star,[2] is a small celestial object (usually a meteoroid) going through the atmosphere of the world.
Culture
Seeing a falling star is considered to bring luck.[1]
Azor Ahai is prophesied to be reborn when "the red star bleeds".[3] The prince that was promised is prophesied to be born beneath a "bleeding star". However, some believe the bleeding star is not a falling star, but a comet.[4]
History
According to legend, over ten thousand years ago,[5] the founder of House Dayne tracked a falling star to an island at the mouth of the Torentine, and discovered there a stone with magical powers. The castle of Starfall was constructed on that location,[2] and the Dayne ancestral greatsword, Dawn, was forged from the heart of this fallen star.[6]
In the legends of Yi Ti, the Bloodstone Emperor of the Great Empire of the Dawn rejected their gods, and instead encouraged the worship of a black stone said to have fallen from the sky. This emperor is said to have founded the Church of Starry Wisdom and possibly caused the start of the Long Night.[7]
In 209 AC, the night Ser Duncan the Tall accepted Egg as his squire for the duration of the tourney at Ashford Meadow, Dunk spotted a green shooting star in the sky outside Ashford, which he believed was lucky. The next day, when Tanselle asked Dunk what she should paint for his new sigil, he had her include the falling star above an elm tree.[1]
Duncan later had a sandsilk tunic painted in the Dornish style with his sigil. Since he had faced a trial of seven at Ashford and barely escaped with his life while three men did die, he was no longer sure that falling stars were lucky.[8]
Recent events
A Feast for Crows
Brienne of Tarth has the sister of the captain of the guardsmen at the gatehouse of Duskendale paint a new sigil on her shield. As Brienne cannot use her own sigil, she has the captain's sister paint a coat of arms she recalls from the armory of Evenfall Hall,[9] unknowing that it was the falling star-and-elm sigil of Duncan the Tall.
Quotes
The stars were everywhere, thousands and thousands of them. One fell as he was watching, a bright green streak that flashed across the black and then was gone. A falling star brings luck to him who sees it, Dunk thought. But the rest of them are all in their pavilions by now, staring up at silk instead of sky. So the luck is mine alone.[1]
—thoughts of Duncan the Tall
Falling stars were supposed to bring you luck, so he'd told Tanselle to paint it on his shield, but Ashford had been anything but lucky for him. Before the tourney ended, he had almost lost a hand and a foot, and three good men had lost their lives. I gained a squire, though. Egg was with me when I rode away from Ashford. That was the only good thing to come of all that happened. He hoped that no stars fell tonight.[8]
—thoughts of Duncan the Tall
It was more a picture than a proper coat of arms, and the sight of it took her back through the long years, to the cool dark of her father's armory. She remembered how she'd run her fingertips across the cracked and fading paint, over the green leaves of the tree, and along the path of the falling star.[9]
—thoughts of Brienne of Tarth
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Hedge Knight.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Dorne: Kingdoms of the First Men.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 25, Davos III.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 35, Samwell IV.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 21, The Queenmaker.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 21, Bran III.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Bones and Beyond: Yi Ti.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 The Sworn Sword.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 9, Brienne II.