Spoilers for A Song of Ice and Fire, A Dance with Dragons, The World of Ice and Fire.
The dragon in Winterfell.
No, not that dragon.
Well, maybe that dragon.
See, it's a matter of interpretation.
But I'm talking about a real dragon.
Fire made flesh.
In A Clash of Kings, Bran VII, Bran is hiding in the crypts of Winterfell
while the battle rages above ground.
His friends are with him; Osha, Meera, Jojen, Hodor, and his little brother Rickon.
But Bran is warging inside of his direwolf Summer, for the third day in a row,
and the chapter begins like this.
So... did you catch the dragon?
A great winged snake whose roar was a river of flame.
Did Summer just see a real living dragon?
Or is this just a fancy description of smoke and flame?
That's the million dragon question, one that's hotly debated among the readers.
If it is a real dragon, then I have a lot of doubts.
The biggest doubt being: why didn't Bran say anything about the dragon to his friends?
If Summer saw it, and Bran was warged into Summer, then Bran saw it too.
What kind of eight-year-old doesn't tell his friends about a dragon?
I don't know.
I think that's the weirdest thing about it, if it is real.
I think the dragon is real.
Allow me to explain.
One of the cool things about the point-of-view style is that we get to see inside the characters' minds
and how they think.
The story is establishing a pattern with the way the direwolf thinks about things.
Summer thinks of swords as man-claws, which makes a lot of sense in the mind of a direwolf,
because he wouldn't be too familiar with swords, or, non-biological weaponry in general.
But he does know what claws are, because he's familiar with claws.
Hardskin is how the direwolf thinks of armor, because he knows what skin is
but he probably doesn't understand armor very well.
As with all point-of-view characters, things appear to the reader only in the way the point-of-view
character understands them.
Man-rock is how Summer thinks of a castle, because he has a good understanding of rocks,
but a weak understanding of castles.
And man-pack is how Summer thinks of a group of men, because he's familiar with a pack,
but he's probably less familiar with armies.
Now, when I apply that pattern to the great winged snake whose roar was a river of flame,
it makes sense that Summer doesn't think of it as a dragon, because Summer has never seen
a dragon and because he can't read stories.
But he does know what a snake is, because he's probably familiar with snakes.
And he does know what wings are, because he's probably familiar with birds.
And he does know what a river and flames are because he's familiar with rivers and with flames.
So there it is.
A man-claw is a real sword, hardskin is real armor, man-rock is a real castle,
a man-pack is a real army, and a great winged snake whose roar was a river of flame
is a real dragon! Hahaha!
The pattern points to the dragon being real.
But! That raises a lot of questions.
Like... where in Winterfell has the dragon been hiding all this time?
Maybe the dragon was hiding in the crypts, so deep that he never encountered a person.
Alright, alright.
But then where did the dragon come from?
In the World of Ice and Fire, Maester Yandel has this to say.
Vermax left a clutch of eggs somewhere in the depths of Winterfell’s crypts,
where the waters of the hot springs run close to the walls.
So maybe Mushroom was right! Hmmm...
I will say, I don't like how Maester Yandel here is telling me what to think.
I'll decide what I can dismiss, thank you very much.
Alright, maybe the dragon is Vermax Junior, and the hot springs kept the egg warm
until it hatched.
Or maybe not.
I mean who would ever doubt the truth in a book named Truth?
I know what you're thinking.
Alright wise guy.
Then what did the dragon eat all this time?
There ain't no food down there.
The dragon was eating spiders when he was a baby, and then baby rats, and then...
rats as big as dogs.
But that's just a story.
Old Nan is always making up stories.
Well, let's look at one of Old Nan's stories, to see if Old Nan is credible.
It seems... that some of Old Nan's stories turn out to be true.
So maybe the story about the giant rats in the crypts is true too.
But dragons are noisy!
Wouldn’t somebody have heard it moving around, hunting giant rats and growling and stuff?
(haunting bass music)
A sound, low and deep and shivery.
Did Jon make this noise to scare the other kids?
Or was that the sound of a dragon from somewhere deep in the crypt,
forgotten in the excitement of Jon's prank?
Or perhaps mistakenly attributed to Jon?
Bran and his friends finally come out of hiding and exit the Winterfell crypts.
The wooden door was very heavy, and Hodor made a raucous as he opened it.
Now, I don't think the fires or the battle of Winterfell woke the dragon,
or hatched it for that matter.
I think it's been alive for a long time.
But I do think this is a case of: Osha doesn't know how close to the truth she is.
Hahaha!
So what do you think?
Did Summer see fire and smoke?
Or did Summer see a dragon?
Fire made metaphor, or fire made flesh?