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 tells how he has dreamed of the Winged Wolf chain 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 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, who Old Nan calls “little grandfather” because he is so somber, points out that Summer is not entangled in the net. After unentangling the wolf, and Bran calling to him, she asks if Summer ever grows angry. Bran tells her not with him, and has never drawn blood. Meera is still worried, but Bran tells 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. Still they had stayed after all the others had gone, and had 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 or enemies can find it. When Brans asks if he would be welcome at Greywater Watch after the hostilies ended, and they assure him that their lord father would have welcomed him anytime, and that leaving Winterfell would be good for him, and sooner rather than later.

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 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 dreams. Bran denies he has dreams, and that Maester Luwin gives him sleeping draughts, which he admits sometimes help. Meera tells him that 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 tells Bran that he is sure that he is the Winged Wolf bound to earth with 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 had 3 eyes, Jojen nodded. John

Bran tells them the crow first came to him when he almost died of greywater fever, and then after he fell. The crow told him he had to fly, but when Bran woke hew 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 your 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 tells them 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, asking him if he has dreamed he was Summer, and then reveals that when he touched Summer the night of the harvest feast he had 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 had not been able to tell Ser Rodrik or Maester Luwin, so could not 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 tells Bran to keep the wolf back. Bran claims that Jojen is making Summer angry, but Meera tells him that it is he that Jojen is making angry, his fear. Meera continues by telling 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 tells her that it is not his day to die, but complies, and Meera follows.

Bran had been unable to call off the wolves and remembers he is not alone and calls to Hodor. When he appears his tells Hodor to chase the wolves away, which he gleefully does. When Jojen returned 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 tells him that their wise men call them 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. Bran then asks about the meaning of the metals of 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 is signifies the study of the higher mysteries, magic; this is a study of small use and few maesters trouble with. He continues by saying 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 also 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 states 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, but they will like their meal better than he.

That night Bran was almost afraid to sit at supper, but everyone was served the same, and there was nothing wrong with the food served the Walders. Bran is relieved: nothing bad was coming to Winterfell, but he was disappointed also—so long as there was magic anything could happen. He would 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.