Some More Thoughts on Coldhands' Identity (Spoilers Extended)
I've posted numerous posts with regards to the characters known as Coldhands. Including a few days ago when I posted some Thoughts on Coldhands.
Other posts that involve Coldhands at least somewhat include:
In this post, I would like to explore the possiblity that Coldhands is member of house Blackwood
While we know that Coldhands isn't Benjen we get at least a decent description of him. Some seem to tie very heavily with House Blackwood.
Coldhands is described as thin and gaunt:
The ranger studied his hands as if he had never noticed them before. "Once the heart has ceased to beat, a man's blood runs down into his extremities, where it thickens and congeals." His voice rattled in his throat, as thin and gaunt as he was. "His hands and feet swell up and turn as black as pudding. The rest of him becomes as white as milk." -ADWD, Bran I
Of which numerous characters (especially some beyond the wall) are described. That said, numerous members of House Blackwood are described this way:
- Bloodraven
Bloodraven is described in "The Sworn Sword," so I won't repeat that here. He's tall and wiry, but scrawny compared to his magnificent half-brothers. Although a good swordsman, his main weapon is the bow; he has a tall longbow made of weirwood, and fires white weirwood arrows fletched with raven feathers. He is also, by repute, a sorcerer. Sharp features, vaguely sinister. -SSM, Concerning the Great Bastards: 6 April 2004
- Benjicot Blackwood
Tall and slim -Fire and Blood I
- Alysane "Black Aly" Blackwood
Tall and thin -Fire and Blood I
- Royce Blackwood
A tall man and a fine singer -Fire and Blood I
- Tytos Blackwood
At his side stood the Lord Tytos Blackwood, a hard pike of a man with close-cropped salt-and-pepper whiskers and a hook nose. His bright yellow armor was inlaid with jet in elaborate vine-and-leaf patterns, and a cloak sewn from raven feathers draped his thin shoulders. It had been Lord Tytos who led the sortie that plucked her brother from the Lannister camp. -AGOT, Catelyn XI
and:
Lord Tytos Blackwood met him in the outer ward, mounted on a destrier as gaunt as himself. Very tall and very thin, the Lord of Raventree had a hook nose, long hair, and a ragged salt-and-pepper beard that showed more salt than pepper. In silver inlay on the breastplate of his burnished scarlet armor was a white tree bare and dead, surrounded by a flock of onyx ravens taking flight. A cloak of raven feathers fluttered from his shoulders. -ADWD, Jaime I
- Hoster Blackwood
He was. The boy met Jaime by the stables, with a bedroll slung over one shoulder and a bundle of scrolls beneath his arm. He could not have been any older than sixteen, yet he was even taller than his father, almost seven feet of legs and shins and elbows, a gangling, gawky boy with a cowlick. "Lord Commander. I'm your hostage, Hoster. Hos, they call me." He grinned. -ADWD, Jaime I
Obviously its not a ton of characters, but it does represent a pattern.
Coldhands also controls ravens
While this could be alluded to Bloodraven, I think it is also interesting that Coldhands controls ravens:
From a nearby oak a raven quorked, and Bran heard the sound of wings as another of the big black birds flapped down to land beside it. By day only half a dozen ravens stayed with them, flitting from tree to tree or riding on the antlers of the elk. The rest of the murder flew ahead or lingered behind. But when the sun sank low they would return, descending from the sky on night-black wings until every branch of every tree was thick with them for yards around. Some would fly to the ranger and mutter at him, and it seemed to Bran that he understood their quorks and squawks. They are his eyes and ears. They scout for him, and whisper to him of dangers ahead and behind. -ADWD, Bran I
and this quote matches up very well with this one about the Blackwood's weirwood:
Through their thick, diamond-shaped panes of yellow glass Jaime glimpsed the gnarled limbs of the tree from which the castle took its name. It was a weirwood ancient and colossal, ten times the size of the one in the Stone Garden at Casterly Rock. This tree was bare and dead, though.
"The Brackens poisoned it," said his host. "For a thousand years it has not shown a leaf. In another thousand it will have turned to stone, the maesters say. Weirwoods never rot."
"And the ravens?" asked Jaime. "Where are they?"
"They come at dusk and roost all night. Hundreds of them. They cover the tree like black leaves, every limb and every branch. They have been coming for thousands of years. How or why, no man can say, yet the tree draws them every night." Blackwood settled in a high-backed chair. "For honor's sake I must ask about my liege lord." -ADWD, Jaime I
and:
He heard the dark red leaves of the weirwood rustling, whispering to one another in a tongue he did not know. The starlight itself seemed to stir, and all around them the trees groaned and creaked. Sam Tarly turned the color of curdled milk, and his eyes went wide as plates. Ravens! They were in the weirwood, hundreds of them, thousands, perched on the bone-white branches, peering between the leaves. He saw their beaks open as they screamed, saw them spread their black wings. Shrieking, flapping, they descended on the wights in angry clouds. They swarmed round Chett's face and pecked at his blue eyes, they covered the Sisterman like flies, they plucked gobbets from inside Hake's shattered head. There were so many that when Sam looked up, he could not see the moon. -ASOS, Samwell III
Since "they" killed Coldhands "long ago":
"No. They killed him long ago. Come now. It is warmer down deep, and no one will hurt you there. He is waiting for you." -ADWD, Bran II
and Leaf (who makes that statement) is at least 200 years old:
Meera said, "You speak the Common Tongue now."
"For him. The Bran boy. I was born in the time of the dragon, and for two hundred years I walked the world of men, to watch and listen and learn. I might be walking still, but my legs were sore and my heart was weary, so I turned my feet for home."
"Two hundred years?" said Meera.
The child smiled. "Men, they are the children." -ADWD, Bran II
I looked pretty hard for Blackwoods in the NW, or who were killed "long ago" in a manner that might fit, but didn't have much luck sadly.
Some other interesting facts:
-
House Blackwoods words have not been confirmed yet
-
The Blackwoods bury some of their dead beneath the dead weirwood:
"Once. Robert was my youngest and never strong. He died nine days ago, of a looseness of the bowels. Lucas was murdered at the Red Wedding. Walder Frey's fourth wife was a Blackwood, but kinship counts for no more than guest right at the Twins. I should like to bury Lucas beneath the tree, but the Freys have not yet seen fit to return his bones to me." -ADWD, Jaime I
After doing the research, there weren't as many ties as I previously thought and while I didn't find anything that excluded Coldhands from being a member of House Blackwood, there isn't really any evidence besides some circumstantial stuff and some decent parallels.
While I still enjoyed putting this together, I still think Coldhands as a member of the Raven's Teeth makes the most sense, even though I thoroughly enjoy some of the time loop, etc. theories about Dunk, Jaime, etc.
TLDR: Attempting to come up with as much info as I could tying Coldhands to House Blackwood
Posted Jun 3, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC