In the
universe of Ice and fire there are those with the abilities of green vision and
there are those with the abilities of skin changer, but In ASOIAF notably three
charters appeared to have drawn the focal points for these above
characteristics.
1. The three eyed raven (AKA Brynden Rivers)
Ser Brynden Rivers, called "Lord
Bloodraven", was a legitimized Great Bastard of Aegon IV Targaryen and
Melissa Blackwood, the king's sixth mistress. Brynden's personal arms were a
white dragon with red eyes breathing red flame on a black field. Brynden Rivers
is the "three-eyed crow" who has shown up in Bran Stark's dreams, and
is currently residing with a number of children of the forest north of the
Wall.
2. Jojen Reed
Jojen Reed is the son of Lord Howland Reed and the
heir to Greywater Watch. He was gifted with greensight. After
nearly dying of greywater fever as a child, he was given a second chance at
life when he met a three-eyed crow. The crow also gave him the gift of
greensight.
3. Brandon Stark
Brandon Stark, commonly called Bran, is the fourth
child and second son of Eddard and Catelyn Stark. Bran is a warg and currently
the new Three-Eyed Raven, using his supernatural gifts to assist his family in
the war against the White Walkers.
Although Rickon Stark, Arya stark and Jon snow
exhibit some aspects of skin changing, but those events are more incoherent and
sporadic in nature. But either green vision or skin changing alone couldn’t
invoke the greenseeing ability, the person who possessed both these ingredients
only termed as The Greenseer.
The Introspection
According to lord brynden “only one man in a
thousand is born skinchanger and only one skinchanger in thousand can be a
greenser”. It was an ancient art
perfected by children of forest and passed down to the first man as gesture of
camaraderie. It is said that when the children of forest died, they went into
the limbs and roots of weirwood trees and the trees remembered all their songs,
spells, their histories and wisdoms.
So the weirwoods furnishes an eternal bond between a
Greenseer and his abilities. A Greenseer has the ability to gaze deep into the
epochs of time, a long forgotten past, things happening thousand leagues from him all at once and also he has the capability
to see the glimpses of days to come.
As the art of greenseeing serves as a core for
the narrative of “song of ice and fire”, we have to delve deeper in search of
its arcane details. Time always has
relativistic aspects which profoundly used as a clever tool for storytelling,
here in the universe of ASOIF time’s passing is felt differently by the
weirwoods and the man.
For men time is a river, we are trapped in its
flow, hurtling from past to present, the lives of trees are different they
live, grow and die in one place and they born again at the same place. They
experience time as a fountain things are happening for them all at once in a
single sputter of moment. A weirwood will live forever if left undisturbed. To
them seasons pass in a flutter of moth’s wing, and past present and future are
one, for time is a loop bending on itself and never an arrow.
It’s the weirwood which gave the ability to
Greenseer to gaze deep into the past, the children of the forest carved eyes
into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new
Greenseer learn to use. Above introspection provided us information all the
vivid details of myth called greenseeing. Author George R.R. martin amused and
thrilled us many times in this epic saga and his details are overwhelmingly
rational and authentic. He created a masterpiece in fantasy with rationalistic
bits and more humane aesthetics then ever possible.
Interesting!
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