GOT re read Arya IX
westeroswolf
ASOS Re-Read, Arya IX
I’ll start off with, that I find the beginning of this chapter hilarious, wrong as that may be. Arya is obviously not an easy hostage with Sandor saying thing like “if you bite me again..” and trying to convince her that killing him “won’t do you a bit of good” and wraps her up like a sausage roll at night. He also responds with other threats of violence such as beating her, but I think his bark is worse than his bite. Arya mentions quite often that he treats like a baby or a doll, which I find interesting.
I wonder how many times he thinks he has ended up with the wrong sister.
At the beginning of the chapter Arya thinks he is taking her back to Kings Landing and that the Trident is the Blackwater. The only information The Hound gives her is that they are heading to “Harroway Town…Where Lord Root stables Old King Andahar’s two-headed water horse.” I tried to do some research on this, but all I could find out is that Lord Roote is the head of a minor house in the Riverlands and King Andahar was an Andal king, possibly from the age of heroes. The sound of it is quite melodic and reminds me of Good king Wenceslas, so possibly this is from a song or a story. I bet I know another character who would know. Or I could have got this completely wrong.
I think this chapter is where we get our first glimpse of Stranger in detail. When Arya tries to steal him he nearly bites her face off and she says how he is gentle with his owner but not for anyone else. Stranger also lashes out at one of the ferrymen. I like the idea that Stranger is a reflection of Sandor and it reminds me of when Sansa thinks of him as “a mean tempered dog that he will bite any hand that tries to pet him.”
When they cross the Trident the weather is horrible and Arya has a fever, which Sandor is not sympathetic about. Sandor promises payment for the crossing on “knight’s honour”. The ferrymen must be desperate for the money to agree to this. During the crossing Arya wonders about jumping overboard until she sees one of the ferrymen fall. When they are finally over the river Sandor gives them the receipt from the BWB as payment. I could be wrong here but I though he won forty thousand dragons when he won the tourney, but the receipt id for nine thousand. Has he managed to spend thirty one thousand dragons or could he not carry it all out of Kings Landing with him?
They make camp early that night due to Arya’s fever and when they are eating their supper Sandor starts talking about Sansa, he never beat her, he saved her life, she sang him a song. He seems absurdly proud about the song, which makes me wonder of Sansa is not the only one who later Romanticises the BBW scene. They also discuss Gregor and Arya questions Sandor’s desire to kill him. Personally if it does come to that I think it will be a bit disappointing. I hope Sandor starts to think more about living than killing.
Arya tells him she thought he was taking her back to the Lannister’s and he seems quite hurt by that and explains that he is taking her to the twins for ransom and expresses his desire for Robb to take him in his service. Is he just looking for another master and kennel, or is his decision to swear allegiance to the Starks more to do with Little Birds?