JON & ARYA STARK’S NIGHTMARE ABOUT WINTERFELL & KING’S LANDING
There is an interesting parrallel that both characters share in the bad dreams they have and where they lead.
Arya was chasing Blarion the Black cat and she gets lost and finds the hidden room below the Red Keep filled with dead dragons.
When they had first come to King’s Landing, she used to have bad dreams about getting lost in the castle. Father said the Red Keep was smaller than Winterfell, but in her dreams it had been immense, an endless stone maze with walls that seemed to shift and change behind her. She would find herself wandering down gloomy halls past faded tapestries, descending endless circular stairs, darting through courtyards or over bridges, her shouts echoing unanswered. In some of the rooms the red stone walls would seem to drip blood, and nowhere could she find a window. Sometimes she would hear her father’s voice, but always from a long way off, and no matter how hard she ran after it, it would grow fainter and fainter, until it faded to nothing and Arya was alone in the dark.
It was very dark right now, she realized. She hugged her bare knees tight against her chest and shivered. She would wait quietly and count to ten thousand. By then it would be safe for her to come creeping back out and find her way home. - Arya Stark, AGoT
As Arya escapes through a secret tunnel under the Red Keep, she remembers Winterfell’s crypt:
Suddenly Arya remembered the crypts at Winterfell.
Arya remembers a childhood memory of all the Stark children (minus Rickon) in the crypts and a ghost jumps out and scares them. Sansa runs away screaming. That ghost was Jon, covered in flour joking around. Before he’s revealed, Arya punches the “ghost” and baby Bran is clutching Arya’s hand and Robb’s leg. They all laugh about it.
The memory made Arya smile, and after that the darkness held no more terrors for her. … She was going home. Everything would be better once she was home again, safe behind Winterfell’s grey granite walls.
~*~
JON SNOW’S NIGHTMARE ABOUT WINTERFELL
Jon has this bad dream about Winterfell that has him feeling lost and unwanted. He is not really alone in the castle though. The King’s of Winter are down in the crypts where Jon is being lured. He is afraid.
“Sometimes I dream about it,” he said. “I’m walking down this long empty hall. My voice echoes all around, but no one answers, so I walk faster, opening doors, shouting names. I don’t even know who I’m looking for. Most nights it’s my father, but sometimes it’s Robb instead, or my little sister Arya, or my uncle.”
[…]
“Do you ever find anyone in your dream?” Sam asked.
Jon shook his head. “No one. The castle is always empty.” He had never told anyone of the dream, and he did not understand why he was telling Sam now, yet somehow it felt good to talk of it. “Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. (When Arya escapes the Red Keep, she goes through the stables where she is alone with dead men) That always scares me. I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time, screaming for someone, for anyone. And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiralling down. (Arya goes down “serpentine staircase when she tries to find the room with the dragon bones and escape the Red Keep) Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of. I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way. It gets darker and darker, until I want to scream.” He stopped, frowning, embarrassed.
"That’s when I always wake."
~*~
2 Notes:
The tunnels under the Red Keep:
Red Keep was commissioned by Aegon the Conqueror, yet was only finished in the time of his son Maegor. Maegor, whose mother was accused of using witchcraft in order to conceive him, and who he himself was accused of using dark magics.
About the Red Keep, he said: "only the blood of the dragon will know it's secrets."
Yet GRRM chooses this way for Arya to find her freedom? Interesting.
~*~
Where is Arya's Home?
This line from her nightmare:
By then it would be safe for her to come creeping back out and find her way home.
In Jon's mind, is Winterfell Arya's home? In ADWD, Jon knows "Arya" is Winterfell yet he thinks this:
Bring her home, Mance. I saved your son from Melisandre, and now I am about to save four thousand of your free folk. You owe me this one little girl. - Jon, ADwD
Is the Wall Arya's home? No, it's wherever Jon is. Just like Arya's second visit to the room full of dead dragons, Jon will enter the crypts at Winterfell again and the King's of Winter will not frighten him.
