There is currently a new book out by George R.R. Martin., Elio M. Garcia, Jr. and Linda Antonsson, The World of Ice and Fire. It is about the history of Westeros, a book given to Tommen when he ascended the throne. It is written by Maester Yandel, who has a bias in favour of the Lannisters. As a result, this history book is not something to be considered accurate. There are several biases against the First Men and House Stark.
The Old Gods: The Children of the Forest carved the eyes on the weirwood trees to enable their wisemen, the Greenseers, to see. When the First Men arrived from Essos, they cut down the weirwoods since they believed and feared that they were being spied upon, an advantage to their enemies at that time, the Children of the Forest. Yandel also mentions that Greenseers can see the past, the future and present events basically everywhere. According to Maester Yandel, this is all nonsense, but everybody who has read the books or watched the show is aware that that is not the case:
Yet the First Men were less learned than we are now, and credited things that their descendants today do not (6).
But mayhaps some of the feats of the greenseers have more to do with foolish tales than truth (6).
Perceptions about the Others / White Walkers: They are portrayed as a tribe of the First Men that settled in the far north. Because of the strong winter associated with the Long Night, they were pushed to move south.
That they became monstrous in the tales told thereafter, according to Fomas, reflects the desire of the Night’s Watch and the Starks to give themselves a more heroic identity as saviours of mankind, and not merely the beneficiaries of a struggle over dominion (12).
This quotation basically summarizes the fact that people in Westeros do not believe that White Walkers / Others have ever existed.
Rhaegar Targaryen’s crowning of Lyanna Stark: According to some characters, Lyanna Stark was pretty. Of course, there is Eddard Stark who described her as beautiful and wild. Robert Baratheon seemed to have fallen in love with her beauty too without taking into consideration her nature and personality. Jaime Lannister recalls her face as being pretty and even his uncle, Kevan, describes her as a “wild beauty” even though he considers Cersei prettier. The following excerpt shows the bias, but at the same time it brings Arya to the reader’s mind:
The crowning of the Stark girl, who was by all reports a wild and boyish young thing with none of the Princess Elia’s delicate beauty….(126)
Maester Yandel is just trying to please Tywin Lannister. In a previous post, I mentioned how Tywin wanted his daughter, Cersei, to marry Rhaegar Targaryen. Of course, he was refused. When it came to Rhaegar to choose what the fandom and readers suspect to be a second wife (nobody in Westeros suspects this though), Cersei was not taken into consideration, but Lyanna Stark was. However, the fact that Lyanna was preferred over Cersei really hurt the Lannister pride (I feel that Tywin would have loved to get his daughter abducted by the Crown Prince). I also tend to agree with the following poster concerning the preference of Lyanna over Cersei by both Robert and Rhaegar, and the fact that the Maester Yandel is trying to please mainly Tywin and the Queen. However, the bias against the Starks is everywhere in the book.
The World of Ice and Fire – Rhaegar and Lyanna
Another thing to consider is the beauty of Elia Martell (Rhaegar’s wife). Cersei considered her ugly thinking that Elia’s lack of beauty was one of the reasons why Rhaegar left her for Lyanna. Barristan compares her with a woman he has a strong infatuation with, Ashara Dayne. Basically Elia’s beauty is unimpressive when compared to Ashara’s. However, this does not mean that Elia was ugly; she was just being compared to somebody from House Dayne, whose members are described as extremely “beautiful” in the books. Ashara herself had dark hair and purple eyes (what a nice combination). It seems that Eddard Stark was also infatuated with Ashara at certain point too. I suspect Elia was attractive, but beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. There are people who find blond hair and blue eyes bland, and have a preference towards a darker colouring. I myself love blue eyes, and I am so glad that one of my boys have them (he is so cute and he is a little version of me with a different colouring). I am indifferent to hair colour though. One thing for sure based on Barristan’s point of view is that Elia was clever.
The North Vs. The Ironborn: Bear Island originally was ruled by House Woodfoot. However, the Ironborn conquered it. Eventually it was taken back by Rodrik Stark, and given to House Mormont. Here is Maester Wally’s opinion of how the island was reconquered by House Stark:
The histories of the North claim that Rodrik Stark won Bear Island back from the ironborn in a wrestling match, (……..). More sober scholars call this into question, suggesting that if there was “wrestling,” it was with words. (139).
When it comes to the Ironborn I do not think that battles are won with words. The Ironborn are simply culturally aggressive. Peace treaties are not their thing.
There are also plenty of biases against House Targaryen too. There is a conspiracy theory in which the archmaesters of the Citadel want to end everything that is magic in the world. According to Marwyn, one of the few archmaesters who believes in the existence of magic, the Citadel was behind the extermination of all the dragons (real dragons and Targaryens too). It is likely that they were behind the fall of House Targaryen, whose some members were well-known for practicing sorcery and having dragon dreams full of prophecy. I am not sure what is the Citadel’s position concerning House Stark. Obviously, it seems most maesters dismiss the stories about the Others / White Walkers, greenseers and wargs as just nonsense. In a subsequent post, I might expand a little bit more about this conspiracy.
Excerpts from:
Martin, George R.R., Elio M. Garcia, JR. & Linda Antonsson. The World of Ice and Fire. New York: Bantam Books, 2014. Print.
Here are some pins from The World of Ice and Fire.