The Shadows Come to Dance, My Lord (Spoilers Extended)
This post started off as just another "lets talk about Patchface" and his origins/prophecies, etc. Which is fun to do, but has been done over and over again over the last 8+ years. So while I was typing this up I came across something I found interesting.
While Patchface makes many accurate predictions (the Red Wedding among them), the following line/lines has alway stood out (a little bit) to me, mainly with how often it is repeated:
"Clever bird, clever man, clever clever fool," said Patchface, jangling. "Oh, clever clever clever fool." He began to sing. "The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord," he sang, hopping from one foot to the other and back again. "The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord." He jerked his head with each word, the bells in his antlers sending up a clangor.
The white raven screamed and went flapping away to perch on the iron railing of the rookery stairs. Shireen seemed to grow smaller. "He sings that all the time. I told him to stop but he won't. It makes me scared. Make him stop."
"The wretch is mad, and in pain, and no use to anyone, least of all himself," declared old Ser Harbert, the castellan of Storm's End in those years. "The kindest thing you could do for that one is fill his cup with the milk of the poppy. A painless sleep, and there's an end to it. He'd bless you if he had the wit for it." But Cressen had refused, and in the end he had won. Whether Patchface had gotten any joy of that victory he could not say, not even today, so many years later.
"The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord," the fool sang on, swinging his head and making his bells clang and clatter. Bong dong, ring-a-ling, bong dong. -ACOK, Prologue
and:
Over the clatter of knife and plate and the low mutter of table talk, he heard Patchface singing, ". . . dance, my lord, dance my lord," to the accompaniment of jangling cowbells. The same dreadful song he'd sung this morning. "The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord." The lower tables were crowded with knights, archers, and sellsword captains, tearing apart loaves of black bread to soak in their fish stew. Here there was no loud laughter, no raucous shouting such as marred the dignity of other men's feasts; Lord Stannis did not permit such. -ACOK, Prologue
and:
He knew the phrase, some prayer of her faith. It makes no matter, I have a faith of my own. "Only children fear the dark," he told her. Yet even as he said the words, he heard Patchface take up his song again. "The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord." -ACOK, Prologue
While it is most likely, (and still my belief) that this refers to the shadow babies created by Mel/Stannis, looking at, I began to wonder if there was an extended or different meaning
#Referring to Shadow Babies
If the phrase refers to the shadow babies that killed Renly and Cortney Penrose:
- Why are there 3 shadows instead of 2:
the shadows come to dance my lord (1), dance my lord (2), dance my lord (3)?
- If the shadows are "coming to stay", what happened to them/where did they go?
Now obviously it could mean nothing and GRRM worded it that way for cadence/poetry, but what if this means that either:
A)There is a 3rd shadow baby coming
B)This references something else
Third Shadow Baby
I have no clue what/where/how/when a third shadow baby would be used. Also there are some potential issues:
"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
and:
"Shadow?" Davos felt his flesh prickling. "A shadow is a thing of darkness."
"You are more ignorant than a child, ser knight. There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows." -ACOK, Davos II
But this does parallel the NK somewhat:
A woman was his downfall; a woman glimpsed from atop the Wall, with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars. Fearing nothing, he chased her and caught her and loved her, though her skin was cold as ice, and when he gave his seed to her, he gave his soul as well. -ASOS, Bran IV
and Mel talks about bringing forth more shadows at the Wall:
She was stronger at the Wall, stronger even than in Asshai. Her every word and gesture was more potent, and she could do things that she had never done before. Such shadows as I bring forth here will be terrible, and no creature of the dark will stand before them. -ADWD, Melisandre I
#Possible Other References
Mirri Mai Duur and Drogo
Faster and faster the visions came, one after the other, until it seemed as if the very air had come alive. Shadows whirled and danced inside a tent, boneless and terrible. -ACOK, Daenerys IV
No, Dany wanted to say, no, not that, you mustn't, but when she opened her mouth, a long wail of pain escaped, and the sweat broke over her skin. What was wrong with them, couldn't they see? Inside the tent the shapes were dancing, circling the brazier and the bloody bath, dark against the sandsilk, and some did not look human. She glimpsed the shadow of a great wolf, and another like a man wreathed in flames. -AGOT, Daenerys VIII
"That may be as it may be," answered Mirri Maz Duur, "yet the creature that came forth from your womb was as I said. Death was in that tent, Khaleesi."
"Only shadows," Ser Jorah husked, but Dany could hear the doubt in his voice. "I saw, maegi. I saw you, alone, dancing with the shadows."
"The grave casts long shadows, Iron Lord," Mirri said. "Long and dark, and in the end no light can hold them back." -AGOT, Daenerys IX
Lady Stoneheart
"Lightning comes and goes and then is seen no more. So too with men. Lord Beric's fire has gone out of this world, I fear. A grimmer shadow leads us in his place." -AFFC, Brienne VIII
Other characters referred to as "shadows"
-
Melisandre (Stannis' red shadow)
-
Jon (black/dark shadow)
-
Ghost (white shadow)
-
White Walkers (cold gods/white shadows)
-
numerous other characters
-
Shadowlands (Asshai/shadowbinders, etc.)
-
even the shadow of the Wall/Hightower
So its possible that Patchface is referring to resurrections or something along those lines as characters like Drogo, LSH, etc.
Dance of the Dragons 2.0
It could refer to the three dragons Dany hatched, Euron as false god or just the Dance of the Dragons 2.0 in general:
The winged shadow, the grieving father called him. He was the largest of her three, the fiercest, the wildest, with scales as black as night and eyes like pits of fire. -ADWD, Daenerys II
Visions danced before her, gold and scarlet, flickering, forming and melting and dissolving into one another, shapes strange and terrifying and seductive. She saw the eyeless faces again, staring out at her from sockets weeping blood. Then the towers by the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths. Shadows in the shape of skulls, skulls that turned to mist, bodies locked together in lust, writhing and rolling and clawing. Through curtains of fire great winged shadows wheeled against a hard blue sky. -ADWD, Melisandre I
Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow. A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. . . . mother of dragons, slayer of lies . . .-ACOK, Daenerys IV
While obviously you can look at numerous quotes in ASOIAF and find something out of nothing, I tried to avoid that here (but probably failed in some places). Either way I thought some details matched up well, but nothing enough to convince me 100%. Feel free to let me know what you think and/or how much you hate this, expand on the idea or add anything I missed. Thanks!
TLDR: While Patchface's prophecy most likely refers to the 2 shadow babies birthed by Mel, there is a small possibility that there is either a 3rd shadow baby coming or the prophecy means something different
Posted Oct 4, 2019, 2:49 PM UTC · edited