First time I read this book I obviously didn't give much thought about the chapter names since I didn't know any of the characters yet. This time around though, I see what George did. By starting his series with the youngest, (yeah, I know Rickon is the youngest, but he's basically in diapers, so real fun that POV would be...) George is able to show us how rough life is in the North country of Winterfell.
On this day, Bran gets to see, for the first time, his father kill a man by decapitation. George doesn't come straight out and tell us that it's Gared who's going to get his head whacked off, but he does leave us clues that it is. Eddard, Lord of Winterfell is about to pass judgment on a deserter, and brought the children along to watch. He hops off his horse with his personal ward Theon Greyjoy who grabs Eddard's Long Sword ICE, and head off up the hill where they will hear Gared's case.
Upon noticing the name of Ned's sword Ice, I "realized" that this series wasn't just about the Others, but about two swords, Ice and probably another one named fire... Of course now that I'm rereading this book, I'm not distracted by the little things that I was the first time around. I now know that Gared is a nobody, and that the series is much larger in scope than just a couple zombies, and a frickin' sword. With that I now am concentrating on Bran, who's sitting on a small pony, while his brother Robb is on one side of him, and his bastard brother Jon on the other, both sitting on large stallions, while they wait for the execution.
"Keep the pony well in hand," Jon whispered. "And don't look away. Father will know if you do."
Bran kept his pony well in hand, and didn't look away.
His father took off the man's head with a single sure stroke. Blood sprayed out across the snow, as red as summerwine. One of the horses reared and had to be restrained to keep from bolting. Bran could not take his eyees off the blood. The snows around the stump drank it eagerly, reddening as he watched.
That is life in Winterfell. Seven years old, and the end of innocence. Bran then watches as the head rolls over to Theon Greyjoy who laughs and kicks the head away. This chapter not only allows us to view life in Winterfell through the eyes of a child, but also introduces us to Jon Snow. In this chapter he takes the roll as "our" big brother. First he expresses his disgust with Greyjoys actions regarding the deceased, and then he leans over to Bran to let him know that he did well.
On the way back Robb and Jon get into a debate about whether the deserter died well, or whether he died a coward. This debate ends in an ADD/ADHD moment as they decide to race off to the end of the bridge, leaving Bran alone with his thoughts. Unbeknownst to him, his father rides up beside him and asks if he is well.
"Yes, Father, " Bran told him. He looked up. wrapped in his furs and leathers, mounted on his great warhorse, his lord father loomed over him like a giant. "Robb says the man died bravely, but Jon says he was afraid."
What do you think?" his father asked.
Bran thought about it. "Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?"
"That is the only time that a man can be brave," his father told him.
Eddard then goes on to explain why he had to carry out the sentence instead of having a headsman to do it, like other nations do.
"Yet our way is the older way. The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die."
I still love that scene, and often wonder if it is foreshadowing some future sentence that Bran or another Stark child may have to pass. He goes on to talk about Bran's future, but of course like his future this conversation is cut short. Jon comes riding back, shouting, telling both his father and Bran to hurry up, and see what Robb found.
Once they get back to the bridge, they see Robb standing there holding a bunch of baby direwolves. On the ground next to him is the mother, killed by another beast with the antler broken off and still left protruding from the animals throat. Jory worries that this is a bad omen, but Ned dismisses this as nonsense. Talk then moves onto what to do with the baby wolves. Almost everyone decides that the best option is to kill them now, it would be the most humane thing to do. Robb and Bran are upset by this, and want to keep them, but no one listens until Jon, once again steps up to talk and says:
"Lord Stark," Jon said. It was strange to hear him call Father that, so formal. Bran looked at him with desperate hope. "There are five pups," he told Father. "Three male, two female."
"What of it, Jon?"
"You have five trueborn children," Jon said. "Three sons, two daughters. The direwolf is the sigil of your House. Your children were meant to have these pups., my lord"
Of course the numbers only ran correct because Jon had excluded himself. Jon of course is his bastard son, and didn't carry the name Stark, but Snow. It's a custom in the north that whoever is born without a surname would be named Snow. I suppose out of curiosity, Ned decided to ask Jon why he didn't want a direwolf for himself, from which Jon began to explain what Ned already knew. However, Robb jumped in the middle of their conversation and assured his father he'll take excellent care of the animals. Excitedly Bran chimed in with a "Me too!" OK, alright...the kids had twisted Eddard's arm enough, and he decides to allow them to keep the wolves, but only under one stipulation, they had to take care them themselves. Of course those words have been spoken by many parents through the ages, and of course only in fantasy do children listen to that stipulation.
With that decided they head down the road for home, when Jon suddenly stops and hears a faint whining. Jon rides back, while the others watch as he kneels down by the dead wolf, and returns with something in his hands. A sixth direwolf, but not only a sixth one:
"An albino," Theon Greyjoy said with wry amusement. "This one will dies even faster than the others."
Jon Snow gave his father's ward a long, chilling look. "I think not, Greyjoy," he said. "This one belongs to me."
Surely if the dead direwolf wasn't a sign, and the 5 baby wolves, and 5 children weren't a sign, then surely the 6 wolf that's an albino would have to be a sign...wouldn't it? That ends the first chapter of A Game of Thrones.
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