A Clash of Kings-Chapter 28

Template:Infobox Chapter ACfK Bran is with Meera and Jojen in the Godswood. Meera tells Bran that Jojen has the Greensight and has dreams that sometimes come true. Jojen reveals that he has dreamed of the Winged Wolf chained to earth and a three-eyed crow has been unable to free him from the chains. Finally, Bran tells them something of his dreams, and Jojen keeps pressing. Summer gets aggressive and attacks as Bran gets angry, but the Reeds manage to climb a tree to avoid the wolf. Afterwards Bran asks Maester Luwin about Jojen’s greensight, and is told no man has the greensight.

Synopsis

Meera, armed with a three pronged frog spear and a net, is facing Summer in the Godswood. Summer charges past the spear, but is entangled in the net as he slams into her. Bran tells her that she loses, but Jojen, whom Old Nan calls “little grandfather” because he is so somber, points out that Summer is entangled in the net. After disentangling the wolf, and Bran calling to him, she asks if Summer ever grows angry. Bran tells her not with him, and he has never drawn blood. Meera is still worried, but Bran assures her that he would not have drawn her blood; he knows and likes her. Bran thinks about how Meera is so like his sister Arya, and tells them that he wishes they were their wards instead of Big Walder and Little Walder. They have stayed after all the others have gone, and have become his constant companions. Bran tells Meera he has never heard of anyone fighting with a net, and asks if their master-at-arms taught her. She tells him her father taught her, and they have no knights or ravens at Greywater Watch; the island moves so neither ravens nor enemies can find it. When Bran asks if he would be welcome at Greywater Watch after the hostilities end, they assure him that their lord father would welcome him anytime, and that leaving Winterfell sooner rather than later would be good for him.

It is revealed that the Bastard of Bolton has forcibly taken Lady Hornwood as his wife, that Lord Manderly took her castle to protect it, and Ser Rodrik has gone east to settle the uprising and see that justice is done. Bran could ask Ser Rodrik about visiting the Reeds when he returns.

Meera reveals that Jojen has the Greensight; he has dreams of things that have not happened but sometimes do; Jojen corrects this by saying they always do. Bran asks to hear about the dreams, and is told that Jojen will, but only if Bran tells them about his own dreams. Bran denies he has dreams, saying that Maester Luwin gives him sleeping draughts, which he admits help only sometimes. Meera tells him that everyone in the Castle hears him scream when he sleeps. Bran does not tell, but is interested in what dreams Jojen has had. Jojen thinks that Bran is the Winged Wolf bound to earth by chains. He also states that a crow is trying to peck through the chains, but his beak can only chip them. When asked if the crow has 3 eyes, Jojen nods.

The crow first came to Jojen when he almost died of greywater fever, and to Bran after he fell. It told him he had to fly, but when Bran woke, he was broken and couldn’t fly. After hearing this, Jojen is sure that Bran is the Winged Wolf, and they tell Bran that the three-eyed crow is not in Greywater Watch, but north, beyond The Wall. When their father heard Jojen’s dream, he sent them to Winterfell. When Bran asks how he will break the chains he is told to open his eye, not the two that are opened, but the third one; when he opens his third eye he will be able to see south to the Summer Sea and north beyond the Wall.

Bran decides that he is tired of talking of crows, and wants to talk about something else, and then asks about Lizard-lions. However, Jojen keeps asking Bran about his dream, whether he has dreamed he was Summer, and then reveals that when he touched Summer the night of the harvest feast he felt Bran in Summer, and that he felt Bran fall. He then asks if falling scares Bran; Bran thinks of the golden man, and that he scares him. He has not been able to tell Ser Rodrik or Maester Luwin, so cannot tell the Reeds either. Jojen continues by asking if he falls every night, and there is a low rumbling growl from Summer. Meera puts herself between Summer and her brother and asks Bran to keep the wolf back. Bran claims that Jojen is making Summer angry, but Meera responds that it is him that Jojen is making angry, his fear. She tells Bran that he and Summer are part of each other. Shaggydog arrives. The direwolf lunges and Meera tells Bran to call them off, but he does not know how, and Jojen tells Bran that Summer is reacting to his anger. Meera tells her brother to climb the tree. Jojen responds that it is not his day to die, but complies, and Meera follows.

Bran has been unable to call off the wolves, but remembers he is not alone and calls to Hodor. When Hodor appears, Bran tells him to chase the wolves away, which he gleefully does. When Jojen returns to the ground he never takes his eyes off Summer as he tells Bran that they will talk again. Bran only thinks that it was the wolves, not him, and tells Hodor to bring him to Maester Luwin.

When he is with Maester Luwin, he tells him that Meera said her brother has the Greensight. Luwin explains that their wise men call such people greenseers. He then tells Bran that nobody truly knows what it is, but that the First Men thought the greenseers could see through the eyes of the Weirwood, which is why the men cut down the trees, and that they have control over animals and fish. When asked, Bran tells the maester that Jojen only claims to have dreams that sometimes come true. The maester tells Bran that everyone has dreams that come true, like when he and Rickon dreamed their father was in the crypts before they knew he was dead. He then asks Bran whether he remembers the meaning of the metals of a maester’s chain: black iron for ravenry, silver—healing, gold—sums. Luwin pulls his chain around his neck to reveal a link made of Valyrian steel and tells Bran that it signifies the study of the higher mysteries, magic; this is a study of small use that few maesters trouble with. He goes on to say that magic may have once been a mighty force but no longer: Valyria was its last ember, and dragons, the children, and giants are no more. Jojen does not have the greensight since no living man has that power.

Bran tells Meera what the maester said when she comes to him at dusk, and that Summer should not have tried to hurt Jojen, but Jojen should not have made the comments about his dreams; the crow lied, and so did Jojen that Bran could fly. Meera suggests that the maester may be wrong, but Bran replies that he is not and that his father depended on him. She leaves him with another of Jojen’s dreams, that one day soon Maester Luwin will serve him a king’s cut off the roast at a great feast, but the portion he gives to the Walders will be grey and dead, yet they will like their meal better than he.

That night Bran is almost afraid to sit at supper, but everyone is served the same, and there is nothing wrong with the food served the Walders. Bran is relieved: nothing bad is coming to Winterfell, but he is disappointed also—so long as there is magic anything can happen. He will never walk, fly or be a knight.

External links

• Analyses and summary of the chapter in the course of a 10th reread by Slynt.
• Review and summary by Leigh Butler.