Sorcery is Like a Sword Without a Hilt. There is No Safe Way to Grasp It (Spoilers Extended)
It was Dalla who answered him, Dalla great with child, lying on her pile of furs beside the brazier. "We free folk know things you kneelers have forgotten. Sometimes the short road is not the safest, Jon Snow. The Horned Lord once said that sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it." -ASOS, Jon X
This quote from Dalla does an amazing job of showing one of the biggest themes in ASOIAF, which is that:
All Magic has a Cost
I wanted to look at different examples of sorcery/magic taking place in the series and then seeing if there is a corresponding cost associated with it.
Shadowbabies
Two of Stannis/Mel's shadowbabies kill Renly/Cortney Penrose and allow Stannis to come into his strength. In return for this, Davos notices Stannis' aging and Mel tells us:
"Is the brave Ser Onions so frightened of a passing shadow? Take heart, then. Shadows only live when given birth by light, and the king's fires burn so low I dare not draw off any more to make another son. It might well kill him." Melisandre moved closer. "With another man, though . . . a man whose flames still burn hot and high . . . if you truly wish to serve your king's cause, come to my chamber one night. I could give you pleasure such as you have never known, and with your life-fire I could make . . ." -ASOS, Davos III
Sacrifice
This happens numerous times in which a person is sacrificed in return for whatever magic/sorcery is hoping to be invoked:
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Mirri Maz Durr/Drogo/Rhaego = Drogon/Rhaegal/Viserion (obviously not a 1v1 comparison as Drogo/Rhaego were technically already dead)
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Alester Florent = good winds sailing north to the Wall
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Senelle/Falyse/etc. = Robert Strong
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Edric Storm = "waking the stone dragon" (didn't happen)
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Shireen = (will happen at some point)
There are numerous other examples that are confirmed such as Victarion's sacrifices en route to Slaver's Bay, to those that are interesting to look at, but not confirmed (Lady = Bran) and some that we don't completely understand yet (Steffon Baratheon, etc. = Patchface).
Unknown as of Now
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Shadowbinding
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Glass Candles/Greensight
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Glamouring/Face Changing
Although we do get this awesome quote from Mel's POV about glamouring:
"The bones help," said Melisandre. "The bones remember. The strongest glamors are built of such things. A dead man's boots, a hank of hair, a bag of fingerbones. With whispered words and prayer, a man's shadow can be drawn forth from such and draped about another like a cloak. The wearer's essence does not change, only his seeming."
She made it sound a simple thing, and easy.** They need never know how difficult it had been, or how much it had cost her**. That was a lesson Melisandre had learned long before Asshai; the more effortless the sorcery appears, the more men fear the sorcerer. When the flames had licked at Rattleshirt, the ruby at her throat had grown so hot that she had feared her own flesh might start to smoke and blacken. Thankfully Lord Snow had delivered her from that agony with his arrows. Whilst Stannis had seethed at the defiance, she had shuddered with relief. -ADWD, Melisandre I
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Warging/Skinchanging
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Raising the dead
Please note that there are other types of magic such as alchemists, pyromancers, aeromancers, necromancers, fire mages, maegis who's power can possibly be attributed to things such as magic returning to the world:
"They, hmmm, seem to be working better than they were." Hallyne smiled weakly. "You don't suppose there are any dragons about, do you?"
"Not unless you found one under the Dragonpit. Why?"
"Oh, pardon, I was just remembering something old Wisdom Pollitor told me once, when I was an acolyte. I'd asked him why so many of our spells seemed, well, not as effectual as the scrolls would have us believe, and he said it was because magic had begun to go out of the world the day the last dragon died." -ACOK, Tyrion XI
and:
"Half a year gone, that man could scarcely wake fire from dragonglass. He had some small skill with powders and wildfire, sufficient to entrance a crowd while his cutpurses did their work. He could walk across hot coals and make burning roses bloom in the air, but he could no more aspire to climb the fiery ladder than a common fisherman could hope to catch a kraken in his nets."
Dany looked uneasily at where the ladder had stood. Even the smoke was gone now, and the crowd was breaking up, each man going about his business. In a moment more than a few would find their purses flat and empty. "And now?"
"And now his powers grow, Khaleesi. And you are the cause of it." -ACOK, Daenerys III
Jon later repeats that same line to Mel in ADWD and her response is very true as well:
Jon glanced over his shoulder. The shadow was there, just as she had said, etched in moonlight against the Wall. A girl in grey on a dying horse, he thought. Coming here, to you. Arya. He turned back to the red priestess. Jon could feel her warmth. She has power. The thought came unbidden, seizing him with iron teeth, but this was not a woman he cared to be indebted to, not even for his little sister. "Dalla told me something once. Val's sister, Mance Rayder's wife. She said that sorcery was a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it."
"A wise woman." Melisandre rose, her red robes stirring in the wind. "A sword without a hilt is still a sword, though, and a sword is a fine thing to have when foes are all about. Hear me now, Jon Snow. Nine crows flew into the white wood to find your foes for you. Three of them are dead. They have not died yet, but their death is out there waiting for them, and they ride to meet it. You sent them forth to be your eyes in the darkness, but they will be eyeless when they return to you. I have seen their pale dead faces in my flames. Empty sockets, weeping blood." She pushed her red hair back, and her red eyes shone. "You do not believe me. You will. The cost of that belief will be three lives. A small price to pay for wisdom, some might say … but not one you had to pay. Remember that when you behold the blind and ravaged faces of your dead. And come that day, take my hand." The mist rose from her pale flesh, and for a moment it seemed as if pale, sorcerous flames were playing about her fingers. "Take my hand," she said again, "and let me save your sister." -ADWD, Jon VI
It seems, she is basically saying that she knows the cost and is still willing to do it because of the benefits it brings.
TLDR: Please share any other examples of magic taking place that has an associated cost, or if you have an explanation/idea for what the cost would/could be for the types of magic I was unsure of, please share as well.
Posted Aug 2, 2019, 4:14 PM UTC · edited