Illustrated A Song of Ice and Fire

Melisandre and Night's Queen

Fire and Ice juxtaposition

Melisandre and Night's Queen, representing the Ice and Fire duality. In this drawing Melisandre, together with King Stannis Baratheon and a Shadow Warrior stand juxtaposed to Night's Queen with Night's King and a White Walker. The female embodiments of Fire and Ice well represent the themes of the books: the kings give their seeds to these powerful women to create soldiers that will fight in the War for the Dawn on opposite fronts. But is this conflict absolute? Are Fire and Ice powers opposite to each other, engaged in a never ending struggle, or is there some connection in these elemental forces? I figured that from the color scheme might come reason to ponder: If on the Fire side we have fire colors, Melisandre's reds, the orange, yellow, red and gold of the flames. But the king's eyes are blue!... On the Ice side we have cold colors: the blue of the Others eyes, the white, grey and silver. But Ghost's eyes are red, and so the Weirwood's eyes. That's why I figured that, even if on the Ice side, Night's King's eyes might be red, just ad Stannis's eyes are blue!

The Silence, cruel and fast, Euron's single mast galley

After Aegon the Conqueror put an end to the Hoare's Black Line, melting Harrenhal and torching Harren the Black with all his sons in the fires of Balerion the Black Dread, the Iron Islands fell into chaos, so many battles were fought between rival factions in the attempt to establish a new ruling power structure; so many people died, it is reported, that so much blood went into the water that krakens come up to the surface! It is more than likely Euron Greyjoy is looking to put much blood in the waters as soon as he meet with the Redwyne fleet! The new information regarding krakens being attracted by blood in the water, from the chapter about Aegon I Reign in the recently published Fire and Blood, may be indication that King Euron is about to attempt some human sacrifice letting much blood in the water to attract krakens to be used some way in the upcoming battle against the Iron Throne fleet.

Tyrion II, A Dance with Dragons; Two heads Tyrion dream

Tyrion, traveling Essos in Illiryo Mopatis carriage, sleeps and dreams of a great battle in Westeros. The author leaves many doors open for the interpretations of this dream: Could this be a Dragon Dream, a prophetic dream envisioning what's to come in the future? Is this dream, considering the presence of Bittersteel, a vision of a Blackfyre invasion of Westeros?... The recurring theme of the periodical menace posed to the Seven Kingdoms by the Blackfyre? Is it a prophecy of the return of the Dragons?... Being the Dragons red or black? Or is it just a jumble of all the arguments discussed with Illiryio in their previous conversation?...

Reference excerpt from the book: Tyrion II; A Dance with Dragons

That night Tyrion Lannister dreamed of a battle that turned the hills of Westeros as red as blood. He was in the midst of it, dealing death with an axe as big as he was, fighting side by side with Barristan the Bold and Bittersteel as dragons wheeled across the sky above them. In the dream he had two heads, both noseless. His father led the enemy, so he slew him once again. Then he killed his brother, Jaime, hacking at his face until it was a red ruin, laughing every time he struck a blow. Only when the fight was finished did he realize that his second head was weeping.

Jon VII; A Clash of Kings, Bran as a Weirwood calls Jon warged in Ghost

During the ranging with Qhorin Halfhand party, near the Frostfangs, while resting Jon Snow sleeps, and dreams. For the first time in his life he wargs into Ghost, he sees and feels what the direwolf sees and feels. Then he lives an experience even weirder.

Reference excerpt from the book: Jon VII; A Clash of Kings

His brothers were out there somewhere, and his sister, but he had lost their scent. He sat on his haunches and lifted his head to the darkening sky, and his cry echoed through the forest, a long lonely mournful sound. As it died away, he pricked up his ears, listening for an answer, but the only sound was the sigh of blowing snow. Jon? The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only . . . A weirwood. It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother's face. Had his brother always had three eyes?

The Queensguard; A Dance with Dragons, ser Barristan reflects upon the Defiance of Duskendale

Ser Barristan reflects upon the kings he served; a life of duty: heroic deeds, but also failures and atrocities... The Defiance of Duskendale appears to him as quite the moral dilemma; he conducted heroic deeds and fullfilled his duty as a kingsguard, but saving Aerys II ultimately resulted to be bad for the Realm.

Reference excerpt from the book: The Queensguard; A Dance with Dragons

Barristan Selmy had known many kings. He had been born during the troubled reign of Aegon the Unlikely, beloved by the common folk, had received his knighthood at his hands. Aegon’s son Jaehaerys had bestowed the white cloak on him when he was three-and-twenty, after he slew Maelys the Monstrous during the War of the Ninepenny Kings. In that same cloak he had stood beside the Iron Throne as madness consumed Jaehaerys’s son Aerys. Stood, and saw, and heard, and yet did nothing. But no. That was not fair. He did his duty. Some nights, Ser Barristan wondered if he had not done that duty too well. He had sworn his vows before the eyes of gods and men, he could not in honor go against them … but the keeping of those vows had grown hard in the last years of King Aerys’s reign. He had seen things that it pained him to recall, and more than once he wondered how much of the blood was on his own hands. If he had not gone into Duskendale to rescue Aerys from Lord Darklyn’s dungeons, the king might well have died there as Tywin Lannister sacked the town. Then Prince Rhaegar would have ascended the Iron Throne, mayhaps to heal the realm. Duskendale had been his finest hour, yet the memory tasted bitter on his tongue.

The Forsaken; The Winds of Winter, Euron Greyjoy clad in Valyrian Steel Armor

After being imprisoned for a long time, initially in a castle dungeon then in the hold of the Silence, Aeron Greyjoy is finally brought out of his prison, but not to be freed! Euron has him brought on the deck of the ship, to be tied to the prow side by side with the silent figurehead and a pregnant Talia Flowers; that he may assist the preparations for the naval battle with the Redwine fleet. He sees his brother clad in a valyrian steel armor.

Reference excerpt from the book: The Forsaken; The Winds of Winter

"Euron Crow’s Eye stood upon the deck of Silence clad in a suit of black-scaled armor like nothing Aeron had ever seen before. Dark as smoke it was, but Euron wore it as easy as if it was the thinnest silk. The scales were edged in red gold that gleamed and shimmered when he moved. Patterns could be seen within the metal. Whorls and glyphs and arcane symbols molded into steel. Valyrian steel, the Damphair knew. His armor is Valyrian steel. In all the Seven Kingdoms, no man owned a suit of Valyrian steel. Such things had been known four hundred years ago, in the days before the Doom, and even then they would have cost a kingdom. Euron did not lie. He’s been to Valyria. No wonder he was mad. “Your Grace,” said Torwald Browntooth. “I have the priests. What do you want done with them?” “Bind them to the prows,” Euron commanded. “My brother on the Silence. Take one for yourself. Let them dice for the others. One to a ship. Let them feel the spray, the kiss of the Drowned God, wet and salty.”"

Brienne III, A Feast for Crows; Ser Clarence Crabb, his woodswitch wife and the heads at the Whispers

On her search for Sansa, riding together with Podrick Payne and Nimble Dick Crabb, traveling towards Crackclaw Point and the ancient castle called the Wispers, Brienne hears the story of the mighty Ser Clarence Crabb, eight feet tall hero of the First Men of Crackclaw Point, from the mouth od Nimble Dick Crabb himself.

Reference excerpt from the book: Brienne III; A Feast for Crows

“The Whispers. You heard o’ Clarence Crabb, o’ course.” “No.” That seemed to surprise him. “Ser Clarence Crabb, I said. I got his blood in me. He was eight foot tall, and so strong he could uproot pine trees with one hand and chuck them half a mile. No horse could bear his weight, so he rode an aurochs.” “What does he have to do with this smugglers’ cove?” “His wife was a woods witch. Whenever Ser Clarence killed a man, he’d fetch his head back home and his wife would kiss it on the lips and bring it back t’ life. Lords, they were, and wizards, and famous knights and pirates. One was king o’ Duskendale. They gave old Crabb good counsel. Being they was just heads, they couldn’t talk real loud, but they never shut up neither. When you’re a head, talking’s all you got to pass the day. So Crabb’s keep got named the Whispers. Still is, though it’s been a ruin for a thousand years. A lonely place, the Whispers.”

Daenerys VI, A Storm of Swords; Ser Barristan & Ser Jorah in the sewers of Meereen

Ser Barristan Selmy and Ser Jorah Mormont in the sewers of Meereen Ser Barristan Selmy and Ser Jorah Mormont are, together with Strong Belwas, part of the group Queen Daenerys sends to infiltrate Meereen, gaining access trough the sewers system, at the time of the attack on the city. Here we see Ser Jorah Mormont butchering the giant pale lizard which has just attacked and killed one of the men of the elite warriors attack force. Ser Barristan Selmy stands behind him holding a torch, he’s still armed only with Arstan Whitebeard wooden staff. The decision of having him not holding any weapon (especially a sword) was based on the fact that, a few paragraphs later in the chapter, the old night tells Dany he’s never hold a sword since he’s been dismissed from Joffrey’s King’s Guard, and that he’ll accept a sword only from his Queen’s hands!

Reference excerpt from the book: Daenerys VI; A Storm of Swords

While Joso's Cock and the other rams were battering the city gates and her archers were firing flights of flaming arrows over the walls, Dany had sent two hundred men along the river under cover of darkness to fire the hulks in the harbor. But that was only to hide their true purpose. As the flaming ships drew the eyes of the defenders on the walls, a few half-mad swimmers found the sewer mouths and pried loose a rusted iron grating. Ser Jorah, Ser Barristan, Strong Belwas, and twenty brave fools slipped beneath the brown water and up the brick tunnel, a mixed force of sellswords, Unsullied, and freedmen. Dany had told them to choose only men who had no families… and preferably no sense of smell. They had been lucky as well as brave. It had been a moon's turn since the last good rain, and the sewers were only thigh-high. The oilcloth they'd wrapped around their torches kept them dry, so they had light. A few of the freedmen were frightened of the huge rats until Strong Belwas caught one and bit it in two. One man was killed by a great pale lizard that reared up out of the dark water to drag him off by the leg, but when next ripples were spied Ser Jorah butchered the beast with his blade. They took some wrong turnings, but once they found the surface Strong Belwas led them to the nearest fighting pit, where they surprised a few guards and struck the chains off the slaves. Within an hour, half the fighting slaves in Meereen had risen.