Squirrels are rodents similar to the real-life animal. Squirrels in the known world can be grey[1] or black.[2]
Culture
[edit]A squirrel is included in the arms of House Wythers.[3]
Squirrel fur can be used in clothing. Squirrel fur sewn together in a grey-and-white pattern is called vair, which also is used as a tincture in heraldry.
A Liddle wears a squirrelskin cloak,[4] and Dick Crabb wears a cloak lined with squirrel skin.[5] Maester Colemon wears a threadbare grey cloak lined with squirrel fur.[6]
The mother of Areo Hotah has a dress with a squirrel collar which she wears annually when bears dance down the Sinner's Steps of Norvos.[7]
One of the spearwives of the free folk is called Squirrel because of her ability to climb.[8]
Geoff, a ranger of the Night's Watch, is called the Squirrel.[9]
History
[edit]Giants referred to the children of the forest as woh dak nag gran, the squirrel people, because they were small and quick and fond of trees.[10]
Theon Greyjoy has stalked squirrels in the godswood of Winterfell with a bow he made himself.[11]
Bran Stark once promised his mother Catelyn that he would no longer climb the walls of Winterfell because she feared for his safety, but this only lasted two weeks before he was climbing again. His father, Eddard Stark, had Bran stay in the godswood overnight to contemplate his misbehavior, but the next morning Bran was found fast asleep in the tallest sentinel tree. However, Eddard only laughed and compared Bran to a squirrel, and allowed him to climb if he must, but to try not to be seen by his mother.[12]
Recent Events
[edit]A Game of Thrones
[edit]While traveling from Winterfell to Castle Black, Yoren skins a squirrel for Morrec's stew.[13]
Bran Stark sees a black squirrel on an oak in the wolfswood.[2]
A Clash of Kings
[edit]While skinchanging into Summer, Bran notices squirrels in the godswood of Winterfell.[14] Shaggydog kills one of the squirrels.[15]
A Storm of Swords
[edit]Bran hears more squirrels in the wolfswood while skinchanged into Summer.[16] The direwolf hunts squirrels and hares as Bran's party travels toward the northern mountains.[4]
Greenbeard refers to Arya Stark as a "gold squirrel" he must take to his lord, and later as a skinny, angry squirrel.[17][18][19]
Merrett Frey is startled by a squirrel while riding to Oldstones.[20]
A Feast for Crows
[edit]Ser Illifer the Penniless cuts up a squirrel so it can be roasted for breakfast.[21]
A Dance with Dragons
[edit]In the aftermath of the battle beneath the Wall, Varamyr tried to take a squirrel-skin cloak from a dead woman. However, the woman's son stabbed Varamyr when he saw this, and ran off with the cloak.[22]
Jojen Reed thinks the chunks of meat served in blood stew within the cave of the three-eyed crow are from squirrel, while Meera Reed thinks it is from rat.[23]
At Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, Patchface is given a hat with antlers hung with bells and long brown flaps of squirrel fur that come down over his ears.[24]
Quotes
[edit]You're not my son, you're a squirrel. So be it. If you must climb, then climb, but try not to let your mother see you.[12]
—Eddard Stark, to Bran Stark
The smells filled his head, alive and intoxicating; the green muddy stink of the hot pools, the perfume of rich rotting earth beneath his paws, the squirrels in the oaks. The scent of squirrel made him remember the taste of hot blood and the way the bones would crack between his teeth. Slaver filled his mouth. He had eaten no more than half a day past, but there was no joy in dead meat, even deer. He could hear the squirrels chittering and rustling above him, safe among their leaves, but they knew better than to come down to where his brother and he were prowling.[14]
Arya: Take me to Riverrun and you'll be rewarded.
Greenbeard: Little one, a peasant may skin a common squirrel for his pot, but if he finds a gold squirrel in his tree he takes it to his lord, or he will wish he did.
Greenbeard: You are. A little gold squirrel who's off to see the lightning lord, whether she wills it or not.[17]
Arya: I'm not a squirrel.
—Arya Stark and Greenbeard
Without her valiant brother, our little queen is next to naked. She has her guards, to be sure, but I have their captain here and there about the castle. A garrulous old man with a squirrel on his surcoat. Squirrels run from lions. He does not have it in him to defy the Iron Throne.[3]
References
[edit]- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 24, Bran IV.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 37, Bran V.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 32, Cersei VII.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 24, Bran II.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 20, Brienne IV.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 41, Alayne II.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 2, The Captain Of Guards.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 51, Theon I.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Appendix.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 13, Bran II.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 37, The Prince of Winterfell.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 8, Bran II.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 13, Tyrion II.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 4, Bran I.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 46, Bran VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 9, Bran I.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 17, Arya III.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 22, Arya IV.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 34, Arya VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Epilogue.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 4, Brienne I.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Prologue.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 24, The Lost Lord.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 34, Bran III.