HS=HR is a moderately crazy Game of Thrones theory claiming that the current High Septon
is actually Howland Reed. So Howland Reed is the Lord of Greywater Watch,
in the Neck, a region full of swamps and bogs and inhabited by people called the crannogmen.
The actual castle of Greywater Watch is built on an artificial island that floats around
the Neck – what you could call Howl’s Moving Castle. Howland is the father of Meera
and Jojen Reed, the siblings that Bran is travelling with, and back in the day, Howland
was a close friend of Eddard Stark. They fought together in Robert’s Rebellion, and Ned
says Howland saved his life at the Tower of Joy. In fact, Howland is now the last survivor
of the fight at the Tower of Joy, and so is, as far as we know, the last person alive who
knows that Jon is the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna. But despite all this Howland hype, Lord Reed
hasn’t done anything in the story so far. Robb speaks of “the worth of Howland Reed”,
and sends him some letters during the war, but none of it results in action. George R.
R. Martin has said that Howland “will appear eventually”, so the question is when and
how. The High Septon is the leader of the Faith
of the Seven, the dominant religion in Westeros. The High Septon is usually elected by a council
of high-ranking clergy, at which point they stop using their old name, start wearing a
funny hat, and are considered God’s voice on Earth – so basically the Pope. Since
High Septons don’t use individual names, it can be hard to tell them apart, but in
the Song so far we’ve seen three – the fat one, who was killed in the Riot of King's
Landing, then a replacement who was installed by Tyrion and murdered by Osney Kettleblack
for Cersei. And then the third High Septon, who is really something different. Rather than being
installed as a pawn of nobility, he was swept into power on the shoulders of a popular religious
movement of common people who call themselves Sparrows. The Sparrows are outraged by the
destruction and horror caused by the wars of squabbling kings, especially that inflicted
on people of the Faith. They’re angry with the nobility and especially the Crown who
have abandoned them. So unlike the last couple of High Septons, this so-called High Sparrow
seems to actually be deeply devout, and he advocates the interests of the Faith and the
common people in ways that his predecessors did not.
So HS=HR claims that this new High Septon, the High Sparrow, is actually secretly Howland
Reed. The obvious question here is why Lord Reed would want to be High Septon. One reason
is that being High Septon would allow him to strike back at the people who destroyed
the Starks. The crannogmen are known to be “stout allies of the Starks”, and Howland
would be particularly outraged by the killing of his friend Ned. Indeed, the High Sparrow
brings up Eddard’s execution to Cersei, condemning the killing with strong words – though
any bloodshed on the steps of a Sept would likely upset the High Septon. In any case
Howland may be using the position of High Septon to gain power and take vengeance. The
High Sparrow does gain a great deal of power – he successfully negotiates for the reinstatement
of the two military orders of the Faith – the Warrior’s Sons and the Poor Fellows, collectively
referred to as the Faith Militant. The High Sparrow was willing to trade away almost a
million gold pieces owed to the Faith to achieve this, which does suggest a preference for
short-term power rather than the long-term betterment of the Faith. The High Sparrow
goes on to arrest Margaery Tyrell and torture Osney Kettleblack, then has Cersei imprisoned,
and sent on a politically and emotionally crushing walk of shame. He also refuses to
anoint Tommen, an important ritual for the boy King’s legitimisation. So the High Sparrow
has already inflicted a lot of damage to the Lannister regime, but he could do much more.
It’s hard to overstate how powerful the High Sparrow is becoming – everyone from
hedge knights to smallfolk to Lancel Lannister are signing up to fight for him, in the heart
of King’s Landing, at a time when the Crown is weak and unstable – Tywin and Kevan are
dead, most of the Lannister soldiers are off with Jamie, the King’s a boy, the Small
Council’s incompetent, Cersei’s imploding, and the masses are rising at the Sparrow’s
command. We don’t yet know what the High Septon will do with all that power, but if
he is Howland Reed, the next steps could well be finishing off the Lannisters, perhaps even
taking control of King’s Landing and the Iron Throne. It might also involve revealing
to Westeros the secret of Jon Snow’s parentage. As the son of Rhaegar Targaryen, Jon could
conceivably make a claim on the Iron Throne – especially if the Lannisters are ousted
beforehand. That is of course a big claim, which to be realised would require the support
of someone very influential. The High Sparrow could be that someone. He increasingly holds
the hearts and minds of the common people of Westeros and has “Kings and high lords
[dancing] to [his] twittering”. Howland Reed, as High Septon, would be perfectly placed
to spread word of and support for Jon’s claim.
So what actual evidence do we have that Howland Reed and the High Sparrow are the same person?
One thing is that the High Sparrow’s appearance matches that of the Reeds and of the crannogmen
generally. The High Sparrow is described as short and thin, with “hair tied … in a
… knot behind his head”. Howland’s children are described with striking similarity – Meera
is “slim … with … hair knotted behind her head”, and “both Reeds [are] slight
of build, slender … and scarcely taller than Bran”. The High Sparrow looks like
a Reed. Further, the High Sparrow has “eyes as brown as mud”, and is said to have been
“born with filth beneath his fingernails”, alluding to the mud that's associated with
crannogmen, who Little Walder Frey calls “mudmen”. Further, crannogmen are known to use sneaky
tactics. Bran says they prefer to hide from foes rather than face them in open battle.
Little Walder Frey calls them sneaks, and says “you never see them, but they see you”.
The World of Ice and Fire says they’re “small, sly [and] secretive”. All of this stuff seems
very consistent with a tactic of infiltration to indirectly attack enemies and reveal secrets.
Also, crannogmen seem to be connected to greensight and other magical powers. The World of Ice
and Fire suggests that crannogmen were “close to the children of the forest” and might
even have intermarried with them, which could explain their small stature, as well as the
green eyes and greensight that we see in Jojen. If the crannogmen have magical insight, they
may, as Maester Luwin suggests, “have secret knowledge”. When Meera and Jojen swear Greywater
Watch to Winterfell, they use an unusual oath, swearing “by ice and fire” – which alludes
to Jon’s Stark and Targaryen blood. So maybe the Reeds, perhaps through Jojen, know about
Jon’s importance as the Prince that was Promised, or a head of the dragon with three
heads, or Azor Ahai, or whatever prophecy you want to use to indicate his great magical
importance. It’s unclear how this could connect to Jojen and Bran and the Three-Eyed
Raven, but it seems possible that Howland Reed knows something about Jon’s significance,
which may motivate his ploy to play High Sparrow. And one very quick last thing is this quote
from Varys – power, sneaky shit, small man, large shadow – but yeah moving on.
So, there is some evidence – if vague evidence – for HS=HR. But there are also problems.
First is Howland’s absence from the Neck. The High Sparrow has been spending a great
deal of time walking around Westeros, gathering support, building up the movement of Sparrows.
If Howland has been absent from his home all this time, who’s leading his people in this time
of war? His kids have wondered off beyond the Wall and could be dead for all he knows.
His wife Jyana is presumably still at Greywater, governing, perhaps, but we really know nothing
about her. Things are only getting crazier up North, with Baratheons, Boltons, ironmen,
clansmen, wildlings, Others… surely Howland couldn’t abandon his family and people at
a time like this. Another problem is that of a Northman becoming
High Septon. In the North, people follow the Old Gods, not the Seven. And the closeness
of the crannogmen to the Children of the Forest and the magic of the Old Gods further separates
them from the new Faith. The High Sparrow surely has demonstrated a deep religiosity
and knowledge of the Faith – he says he “tended to half a hundred little villages … performing
marriages, absolving sinners of their sins, naming newborn children”. How could a Northman,
someone from an extremely different culture, convincingly perform all this religious service,
let alone become the ultimate religious leader of the Faith? Howland being High Septon is
like a Buddhist becoming Pope, or a Jew becoming an Imam. It’s conceivable that Howland has
studied the Faith of the Seven, or follows it even, secretly, I guess, but – it’s
all very implausible. Ultimately the biggest problem with HS=HR
is that it doesn’t make sense as a plan. For the theory to be true, Howland must have
sat down one day, during the War, with winter coming, and decided that the best plan of
action was for him to go wander the Riverlands, on foot, performing religious service for
a foreign religion, until he manages to become the leader of a popular uprising, and then become
the High Septon, a position with power sufficient to strike at the crown or support Jon Snow
– all the while hiding his identity and faking faith. Like, seriously? And the plan
relies not only on a popular movement that Howland surely couldn’t have predicted or
single-handedly created, but also on a degree of political instability that not even Littlefinger
accurately predicted. It would make far more sense for Howland to
stay in the North. That way he could protect his family and homeland from the increasingly
bloody war in the North and strike against the Boltons who betrayed Robb and perpetrated
the Red Wedding. He might not be able to support Jon’s claim on the Throne, but he could
support Jon’s claim on the North. In a Catelyn chapter of A Storm of Swords, Robb names Jon
his heir as King in the North. Right after, Robb sends Maege Mormont and Galbart Glover
with a letter to Howland Reed. So assuming they made it, Howland probably knows that
Jon is the heir to the North, as well as the son of Rhaegar. It may be that he’s been
working with Maege and Galbart ever since, which would explain where the three have been
all this time. Staying in the North wouldn’t help Howland strike at King’s Landing, but
would a reclusive crannogman really prioritise attacking a distant capital over protecting
his home? The only real disadvantage to staying in the North is that it couldn’t allow Howland
to dramatically reveal R+L=J to the realm – but George R. R. Martin is already setting
up for that revelation to happen in a very different way.
Jon’s parentage is probably going to be revealed with Bran’s magical powers. In
A Dance with Dragons, Bran has visions of past events that happened in front of weirwood
trees. Now – we know that Northern marriage customs involve a ceremony in front of a weirwood
tree, and we know that just before the Rebellion, Rhaegar and Lyanna were at (or at least very
near) the Isle of Faces, which is the site of the only weirwood grove south of the Neck
and which has been named by George R. R. Martin as somewhere that will “come to the fore in later books”.
George R. R. Martin is setting up for Bran to have a vision of Rhaegar and Lyanna’s secret marriage
at the Isle of Faces, which presumably would lead to a revelation of Jon’s parentage.
It’s almost foreshadowed by Bran’s unwitting discovery of Cersei and Jamie’s incest – he
saw a relationship that he wasn’t supposed to, with big implications for the parentage
of the star-crossed lovers’ children. So we don’t need some complicated and implausible
contrivance to reveal R+L=J – Bran’s visions are already about to do it. Admittedly,
while Bran’s visions could reveal R+L=J to Bran and maybe to Jon, it would take something
more for everyone else in Westeros to find out. If Jon was to make a claim on the Throne
as a Targaryen, he would need more than the word of a tree-boy to back him up, and as
suggested before, Howland Reed as High Sparrow would be well-placed to do that.
So HS=HR doesn’t have any strong evidence, and is pretty implausible in a bunch of ways.
There are some tantalising facts that kinda back it up, but all of those facts are still
compatible with the simpler explanation, that Howland is still in the North, and that the
High Sparrow is just what he seems. So HS=HR is a cool theory, but it’s probably not true.
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