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There, seated on his throne amongst hundreds of notables in the shadow of Casterly Rock, the king cheered lustily as his son Prince Rhaegar, newly knighted, unhorsed both Tygett and Gerion Lannister, and even overcame the gallant Ser Barristan Selmy, before falling in the champion’s tilt to the renowned Kingsguard knight Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning.
Martin, George R. R.. The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire) (Kindle Locations 3450-3453). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
With this and other TWoIaF quotes we need to remember why we are told that. The answer ‘because benevolent GRRM just wants us to know things’ doesn’t fly: the book starts with admitting that some of it is lies and we, the readers, somehow are supposed to separate truth from fiction. TWoIaF doesn’t help anybody looking for more information, because for its crucial moments we can’t rely on it. It is like the game Windrunner sisters play in a recent World of Warcraft animated book: I tell you three things, two of them are true. The ‘why’ of this passage is: Rhaegar was decent at tournaments, but not as good as SAD.
Many tales have grown up around Lord Whent’s tournament: tales of plots and conspiracies …
A sharp line between what is known and what is simply suspected, believed, or rumored.
We have no shred of evidence that such a “shadow host” ever existed, but the notion was widely believed at the time and remains so today.
The last line is typical TWoIaF: if we are to take it literally, it says there was no evidence of a ‘shadow host’. Here the sentence makes it easy for us to decide that the true meaning is the opposite: he pretty much existed. But in many situations, with several possibilities, it is impossible to deduce with certainty what GRRM wants us to conclude.
If this tale be believed, ’twas Prince Rhaegar who urged Lord Walter to hold the tourney…
Here are the ‘two truths out of three’ in action: a) there was something suspicious about the tourney; b) people believed Rhaegar organized it for c) the purpose of overthrowing his farther. I believe there is a consensus that a) and b) are true while c) is not. (Although in Preston Jacobs "What are you missing?" video I watched recently, I was very surprised to hear that Preston believed Rhaegar was plotting to overthrow his father. It is strange how as a good analytical mind as Preston would really be wrong on so many rather obvious things - in my view, of course.) Anyway. Why did Rhaegar need the tourney?
But the most formidable of all Rhaegar’s friends and allies in King’s Landing was surely Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning.
The crown prince, who did not normally compete in tourneys, surprised all by donning his armor and defeating every foe he faced, including four knights of the Kingsguard.
Notice ‘surprised’. Notice mention of (in several places) Ser Arthur as Rhaegar’s friend: how does it matter for the story and the tournament in particular? Also remember that this time Rhaegar defeated Ser Arthur. Which I find suspicious and ask if Rhaegar simply ordered or asked (remember Arthur is called his friend) to go easy on him. Even if the game wasn’t fixed, Rhaegar really needed to win the tournament, because why else bother? He organized it, and participated in it, and won it, so it is reasonable to assume that winning the tourney was his plan from the beginning. Even if he won it by practicing hard, giving it 110%, sacrificing three roosters, or praying diligently, not rigging it in the slightest, it seems like he has put a lot of efforts into winning it. The efforts he undertook before meeting Lyanna, so it is not a sudden love that made him do all that.
And then place a garland of blue roses in Lyanna Stark’s lap. Notice the language ‘placing … in her lap with the tip of his lance’ indicating what is to come.
Was Lyanna even that beautiful? What evidence do we have? PoV’s of Eddard and other Starks? They are clearly biased towards a Stark. Then, notice how Lyanna is compared with Arya, and Arya is called a horse-face. Lyanna the Beautiful with a horse face? In S1, Ep1, Robert calls Sansa ‘the pretty one’ and asks Arya: What’s your name? Notice no niceties towards her. Also notice the question ‘What’s your name’ addressed to ‘a girl has no name’. The first time we are at Lyanna’s tomb, Robert says that the statue is lying – she was more beautiful. The chances are the statue is not lying – in his memory she is the most beautiful girl who ever lived. Real Lyanna was what she was: most likely not a beauty. Beyond these sources I don’t recall any other mention of her beauty. (Feel free to provide some – quite possibly Meera might have quoted her father.)
The purpose of the post is to state that this was Rhaegar’s plan from the beginning. To win the tournament, to name Lyanna the queen of love and beauty, to make her to fall in love with him. If you are reading about the Tourney at Harrenhal for the first time, it may see self-evident to you: Rhaegar clearly organized the tournament, he seemed to be in control, if the outcome of that is his love affair with Lyanna, then it was very likely his plan. Well, this is where we go against traditional understanding of Lyanna and Rhaegar relations: they ‘accidentally’ meet at the tournament, fall in love at first sight, beautiful, romantic, tragic love, followed by marriage and birth of a son.
What I am trying to say that it is love at first sight on Lyanna’s part, but it is carefully orchestrated by Rhaegar. Here are the reasons, beyond what we have discussed already: why call the tournament, if not to win Lyanna?
At the time of the tourney, in 281 AC, Rhaegar is 22 years old. Young, but not a teen like Lyanna. He is already married and has two children. He fought in a war. He has been involved in succession crisis, he must have known his father is suspecting his every step. Rhaegar is not a 16-year old boy. He doesn’t just suddenly fall in love.
What is Rhaegar’s state of mind after the birth of his second child? He tells Elia Martell: There must be another.
“There must be one more,” he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. “The dragon has three heads.”
Martin, George R. R.. A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2) (p. 527). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Which implies quite a few things: he really, really wants the third child, for whatever reason. He knows Elia’s fragile health, he knows she’s just suffered a great deal with their second child, and he tells her: I need another one. What kind of loving husband is he, even before meeting Lyanna? His wife suffers through births, the doctors tell him one more child will surely kill her, and yet the only thing we know of their conversation is:
There must be one more … the dragon has three heads.
The book does make it clear that Elia will bear no more children:
Elia was bedridden for half a year after giving birth to Rhaenys, and giving birth to Aegon nearly killed her. Following Aegon's birth, the maesters told Rhaegar that Elia would bear no more children. (Westeros.org)
And yet he is telling her: I must have one more child. Translation: I will marry somebody else. I must.
After the marriage scene between Rhaegar and Lyanna shown in the last episode in S7, fans asked: how is it possible? How could Rhaegar be so cruel – to put aside his wife and two children and marry somebody else? On what grounds? Well, add to it that he is telling Elia that he must divorce her while she is still recovering from nearly dying in childbirth and breastfeeding Aegon. The fact that she might agree with him, understand and accept his motivations makes the whole thing sadder, not happier.
It is a fact, not just a mere speculation, that Rhaegar needs the third child, he is obsessed with it. For better or worse is a separate question, but it is a must for him. He gets it from Lyanna. Are you sure it is still a random meeting at a tourney? At the tourney he organized. At the tourney that didn’t have any other visible outcome except Rhaegar cheating Lyanna into falling in love with him.
One possibility is that there is no particular reason: Rhaegar just looks for any healthy female that is guaranteed to carry out the pregnancy. At a nearly biological level: just any healthy female. Unlike poor Elia. I don’t think this is the case, but if it is, then it makes the death of Lyanna look even more suspicious. Chosen for her health and ‘guaranteed deliverance’ she dies at child birth?
I suspect, of course, that Lyanna was the target of the whole operation. The reason the tourney had to be so large and pompous is to guarantee that the entire realm attends, including those Starks from far North. Then, why Lyanna?
We are not given any definitive answer, but here is a likely possibility. In the next Dunk and Egg story, they meet Starks at Winterfell. The story would be called: The She-wolves of Winterfell. (Notice ‘she-wolf’ specifically; the ability of female Starks to bond with animals is somehow more important.) Part of the following is a pure speculation. A healthy part. During their time at Winterfell Dunk and Egg discover something important. Bloodraven becomes aware of it. Something that inspires Bloodraven to organize a rather easily avoidable crime to leave Egg with no choice but to send him to the Wall. Some of that knowledge, Bloodraven, a Targaryen, might have shared with other Targaryens. (Even if Egg didn’t know it, but Dunk did, for instance.) Or Egg, Aegon V, might have known directly. Maybe they make two important discoveries: something about the Great Other or the gods of the First Men (and that’s what Bloodraven acts on) and Starks abilities to warg. Whether those abilities are Starks’ and not some other Northern family’s, we can speculate. Preston Jacobs touches upon that in recent videos.
As Starks, and Northerners in general, don’t really marry to Targaryens or in the South, I don’t see any other source of information that Rhaegar could have used. So, my best guess is he knows something about Starks discovered by Dunk and Egg. And makes a calculated decision to seduce Lyanna: the tournament, the risk to take it, his suspicious victory, possibly the Laughing Knight (which could have been a ‘lucky’ coincidence for him), crowning Lyanna, amour-tojours, all that.
How to characterize his behavior? This cold calculation in love? Rhaegar the Schemer? Rhaegar the Deceiver? Rhaegar cold-hearted? I don’t know – feel free to suggest. The reason, the broad reason, why he is doing all that made very clear: his obsession with prophecies. It may not be a selfish reason: he may honestly believe that for Westeros to survive, his wife and two children must die, the divorce must be made, Lyanna should be deceived, etc. That it is all worth it, as Melisandre puts it.
We will look more into Rhaegar and Arthur at the Tourney...
One additional remark -- Rhaegar
The day had been windy when he said farewell to Rhaegar, in the yard of the Red Keep. The prince had donned his night-black armor, with the three-headed dragon picked out in rubies on his breastplate. “Your Grace,” Jaime had pleaded, “let Darry stay to guard the king this once, or Ser Barristan. Their cloaks are as white as mine.”
Prince Rhaegar shook his head. “My royal sire fears your father more than he does our cousin Robert. He wants you close, so Lord Tywin cannot harm him. I dare not take that crutch away from him at such an hour.”
In another link I would address a much darker possibility: Rhaegar wanted to lose on purpose. He believed that his individual defeat, as well as the death of his first children, his wife and ex-wife, his father - all that is needed for the prophecy to work. For some reasons, certainly related to some prophecy or prophecies, Rhagear thought his third child should be born and grown exactly at the circumstances Jon was born. Without a mother or a father, truly accepting another man as his father, "the son of three", the prince without a kingdom, etc. Rhaegar needed the fall of Targaryens for all of it to happen.
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