First, I would like to apologize for writing a little bit too fast this time. I am heading to the New York Comic Con tomorrow and I am so excited.
Most of the information about warging / skinchanging comes from the prologue of A Dance with Dragons. First the prologue details the abominations that a warg / skinchanger should not be doing according to Haggon, a Wildling skinchanger. He was a hunter and a friend of the Night’s Watch, and used to trade with Eastwatch by the Sea. Here is the list of abominations a warg or skinchanger should not do.
- A man should not eat the flesh of another man. The implication is that a warg should not eat humans. Be careful Arya! For those who have not read the books, she eats people while being inside her lost direwolf, Nymeria.
- Wargs / skinchangers should not have sexual intercourse with an animal.
- A warg / skinchanger should not possess the body of another person. Be careful Bran!
Wolves were harder. A man might befriend a wolf, even break a wolf, but no man could truly tame a wolf. “Wolves and women wed for life,” Haggon often said. “You take one, that’s a marriage. The wolf is part of you from that day on, and you’re part of him. Both of you will change.”
Haggon also discusses the concept of the second life:
“When the man’s flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, but every day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little more a wolf, until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains.”
This is interesting since it seems that the human presence inside the animal eventually fades the longer the warg / skinchanger stays inside. Since this person cannot return to the human body, he / she eventually becomes more like the beast. I would like to know how this would apply to Jon Snow in the long run, especially in the cliffhanger ending of A Dance with Dragons. I guess he will have more wolfish characteristics in his personality.
- The prologue chapter starts with him wearing the skin of a wolf, and attacking and devouring together with two other wolves three adults and a baby. As the prologue progresses he remembers how he has eaten other people while being inside some of his animals. He also devoured Haggon, his own teacher at certain point.
- He has been inside a female wolf while coupling. He also experienced one of his deaths while giving birth to a stillborn cub, which implies he was a female in warg form.
- As a prologue point of view, he is dying and tries to warg or skinchange into Thistle, a woman that was taking care of him. She went basically mad in the process inflicting self-injury and fought him to the point that he had to leave her body. Of course, he ended inside a wolf after he died. Of special note is the following quote:
For a moment it was as if he were inside the weirwood, gazing out through carved red eyes as a dying man twitched feebly on the ground and a madwoman danced blind and bloody underneath the moon, weeping red tears and ripping at her clothes. Then both were gone and he was rising, melting, his spirit borne on some cold wind. He was in the snow and in the clouds, he was a sparrow, a squirrel, and oak. A horned owl flew silently between his trees, hunting a hare; Varamyr was inside the owl, inside the hare, inside the trees.
From Varamyr’s point of view, the reader is presented with important details:
General Perception of Wargs and Skinchangers: According to his father, Varamyr’s place was with his own kind. This could be the result of Varamyr being a kinslayer, and a good way for his father to get rid off him instead of killing him. It seems his parents did not want to take care of him at all because of both his warging abilities and kinslaying. Varamyr also used his warging abilities to get reluctant girls on his bed, which means that people were scared of him. Overall wargs / skinchangers are feared by the Wildlings even though they seem to have been tolerated and respected under Mance’s rule. Similarly, wargs and skinchangers are hunted down and killed south of the Wall which means that people are also scared of them.
One Skinchanger Can Sense Another One: He knew what Jon Snow was the moment he saw him with Ghost. He thought the gift was strong in Jon even though he is not skilled at it. Varamyr wanted to steal Ghost from Jon. However, Mance forbade it.
Healthy Bond Vs. Forceful Bond: The reader also notes that Varamyr forced himself into some of his beasts. For example, he mentions that the bear hated him. It was not a healthy bond between them. Does a dragon horn create a healthy bond between a rider and a dragon? This is an open topic for debate. However, I do believe that this type of bond is forceful.
It has been rumoured that Varamyr Sixskins will be casted for the fifth season. Here is the link:
Most of the negative attributes of Varamyr have been transferred to Orell in the TV show. Since Varamyr would be introduced very late in the TV show compared to the books, I guess there would be a merge between him and another character, Borroq, a skinchanger who controls a boar. Haggon was also his teacher, and it seems that he does not hold anything against Jon Snow. The interesting thing is that there is a certain symbolism with the “boar” (Robert Baratheon was killed by a boar). I guess it would be great to have somebody like Borroq skinchanging into a bunch of animals on TV. Here are some interesting links discussing Borroq as a mentor for Jon Snow.
Boroq’s Role and the Symbolism of the Boar
Here are some pins of Varamyr and Borroq.
If interested, here is a link mentioning all the known wargs / skinchangers in A Song of Ice and Fire. This link also establishes the difference between a skinchanger and a warg, a distinction that is not made in the TV show.
Next week I will be writing about fashion updates for this fall and possibly one for next spring. I will also be writing about greenseers too.