Symbolism & House Stark Part 1

As the first family to be introduced through Bran's POV in book 1, it is only fitting that this blog series begins with House Stark.

A bit of background

House Stark, whose seat lies in the Northern city of Winterfell, is one of the oldest standing houses in Westeros. According to legend, the House was found some 8000 years ago by Bran the Builder of the First Men. This in itself holds significance of a symbolic nature considering that his decendant of the same name, Bran, is the first of the Starks that the audience meets.

The significance of the Sigil and Words

The Stark sigil takes the form of a grey direwolf on a field of white, and their words the dire warning Winter is Coming.

On the face, the symbolism of the sigil is to the point. The direwolf is a fictional creature, thought canonically as extinct, linked to both the Stark ancestral line and the North. The white background is there to represent snow, another strong link to the Westrosi North and to northern baseborn children, even Lord Stark's son Jon. However, digging deeper further sybolism can be uncovered. In the wild, wolves travel in packs, lead by the strongest who protect the weakest. This can be seen to mirror the Stark family, where they stick together through the many hardships they face and will without doubt sacrifice their own safety for the others in their “pack”. Coming back to the near-extinction of the Direwolf, this can be seen as foreshadowing for the seperation and near-extinction of the Stark family itself beginning with Eddard's death at the beginning of the first book.

Again, the words Winter is Coming can seem rather obvious in terms of symbolism, for there isn't a time where winter is not coming, but this too can be explored in more detail. In a way, this phrase can also be symbolic of coming-of-age. Bran is refered to as “sweet summer child” throughout the books, meaning he has seen none of the hardships winter, and indeed adulthood can bring. This interpretation is supported by Eddard himself when he says “Summer will end soon enough, and childhood too.”

Bringing this more in line with the book, we have Bran's waking from his coma as winter is beginning and, with the seperation from his family and new need for independence pointing as well to the beginning of adulthood.

This symbolism of summer's end is brought full circle with Bran's naming of his direwolf Summer. This link to his direwolf, and the other Stark children with their own will be explored in the next post.