11 examples of George R.R. Martin’s subtle foreshadowing in A Song of Ice and Fire

11. The Red Wedding

The Red Wedding gets teased many times before it happens. There’s plenty of examples. One of the better hints is in Theon Greyjoy’s dream after he captures Winterfell in A Clash of Kings. He dreams of a feast for King Robert turning into gruesome butchery, and panics when he sees Robb in the center of it all.

"That night he dreamed of the feast Ned Stark had thrown when King Robert came to Winterfell. The hall rang with music and laughter, though the cold winds were rising outside…he noticed that the room was growing darker. The music did not seem so jolly then; he heard discords and strange silences, and notes that hung in the air bleeding…King Robert sat with his guts spilling out on the table from the great gash in his belly, and Lord Eddard was headless beside him…And then the tall doors opened with a crash, and a freezing gale blew down the hall, and Robb came walking out of the night. Grey Wind stalked beside, eyes burning, and man and wolf alike bled from half a hundred savage wounds. Theon, A Clash of Kings"

Patchface, Stannis’ simpleminded fool, plays the foreshadow game the best. One of his infamous jingles goes like this: “Fool’s blood, King’s blood, Blood on the maiden’s thigh, but chains for the guests and chains for the bridegroom, aye, aye aye.” That seems a pretty clear reference to the fool Catelyn killed, Robb, Roslin and Edmure Tully, and the killed or captured Stark forces.

We also get a subtle hint during Arya and the Hound’s journey to the Twins in A Storm of Swords. “Keep your mouth shut and do as I tell you,” the Hound says, “and maybe we’ll make it in time for your uncle’s bloody wedding.”

We get some less poetic examples, too. For instance, in Tyrion’s second chapter in A Storm of Swords, Tywin tells his him, “Some battles are won with swords and spears, others with quills and ravens,” as he’s busy writing letters. In Tyrion’s third chapter, Tywin turns down Balon Greyjoy’s offer to fight the Starks in exchange for their territory, as “a better option may well present itself.” Both of these scenes foreshadow Tywin’s alliance with the Walder Frey and the Boltons to wipe out the Starks during the Edmure’s wedding.

This was only a small sampling of what Martin’s done. There are surely dozens more examples of foreshadowing, of things that have already happened and of things yet to come.

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