A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Catelyn V
Lord Hoster Tully is given to the river that raised him; Edmure's arrows shame him thrice before the Blackfish takes the bow and lights the boat with one.
The chapter retold
Riverrun sends Lord Hoster Tully to the river that raised him in the old Tully way ÔÇö his body laid on a boat, set alight and pushed out onto the current to burn as it drifts from sight. The ceremony turns unexpectedly humiliating for his son: Edmure, given the honor of loosing the flaming arrow that ignites the pyre, misses three times in front of the assembled mourners, the failure compounding with every shot until it becomes less a tribute than a public embarrassment.
Brynden Tully, the Blackfish, finally takes the bow from his nephew without ceremony or comment and lights the boat in a single shot, sparing the moment further indignity through sheer competence rather than sentiment. Lord Hoster Tully's death closes a chapter of the war's older generation and quietly reasserts the Blackfish as the family's dependable center ÔÇö the uncle who gets things done while the son who was supposed to inherit that steadiness still has not found it.
This movement: The Red Wedding
- Edmure weds Roslin Frey under the Twins' roof; the bread and salt are eaten; the music is wrong.
- Crossbows from the gallery, tent canvas cut over the feast outside, Grey Wind penned and shot.
- Robb dies with Roose Bolton's steel in his heart: "Jaime Lannister sends his regards."
- Catelyn opens her own face with her nails, and a Frey opens her throat. The North dies at a wedding.
The fallen ÔÇö spoilers
- Lord Hoster Tully ÔÇö Lord of Riverrun, gone to the river after a long fading; the fish returned to the water.