In the book A Storm of Swords, two separate Arya chapters describe encounters with a particularly notorious witch. The Ghost of High Heart, aka the Wood’s Witch, had been known to the powerful in Westeros for many, many years, stretching back to Daenery’s father, Aegon Targaryen and far beyond. In the Arya chapters, she accurately describes the scenes surrounding the deaths of Robb Stark, Catelyn Stark, Littlefinger and more, as well as the two most notorious and gruesome weddings in book and television history.
In one prophecy, the witch says: “I dreamt a wolf howling in the rain, but no one heard his grief. I dreamt such a clangour I thought my head might burst, drums and horns and pipes and screams, but the saddest sound was the little bells.
“I dreamt of a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, venom dripping from their fangs. And later I dreamt that maid again, slaying a savage giant in a castle built of snow.”
The wolf must be Grey Wind, howling to warn Jon of the betrayal at the Red Wedding, but locked outside. All the screams are the slaughter inside and the ‘little bells’ refer to Aegon Frey, also called Jinglebell. The ‘lackwit’ was the fool of the Frey castle and has his throat cut by Cateyln in the books, rather than the Frey daughter.
The maid at the feast is Sansa at Joffrey’s wedding, and the serpents are the poison jewels, which are hidden in her headdress rather than a necklace on the HBO adaptation.
It was originally thought the final line referred to Sansa smashing Robert Arryn’s toy giant in her snow castle at the Eyrie.
Petyr Baelish’s involvement had confused fans, with many believing his symbol was a mockingbird, after the pin he always wore as his personal emblem. But, actually, this house sigil is the Titan of Braavos. In other words, a giant.
When Arya sails into the harbour at Braavos, she sees the statue of the Titan and observes he is so big that he could walk over the walls of Winterfell. That snow castle Sansa built was also supposed to represent her home and Littlefinger stepped over its walls. Littlefinger, of course, meets his death at the hands of Sansa and Arya at the Stark stronghold.
The other prophecy says: “The old gods stir and will not let me sleep. I dreamt I saw a shadow with a burning heart butchering a golden stag, aye. I dreamt of a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings. I dreamt of a roaring river and a woman that was a fish. Dead she drifted, with red tears on her cheeks, but when her eyes did open, oh, I woke from terror. All this I dreamt, and more.”
The first death is Renly Baratheon (the stag) at the hands of Melisandre’s shadow. The woman who is a fish is Catelyn Stark whose family Tully house symbol is a silver trout. Her body was thrown in the river after the Red Wedding and, of course, in the books she opens her eyes again when she is brought back to half-life.
The only difference so far is the drowned crow death. Euron Greyjoy’s symbol has two crows and he worships the Drowned God, but this prophecy implies a Faceless Man will kill him, rather than Jaime Lannister on the show. He is still alive in the books so that one remains to be seen…
