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.
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