A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Catelyn VI
The northern host crosses under the Twins' gates through grey rain; bread and salt are taken, and Grey Wind will not stop howling at the Freys.
The chapter retold
The northern host crosses beneath the Twins' looming gatehouse in grey, relentless rain, formally received by Walder Frey with the ritual guest gifts of bread and salt ÔÇö the ancient guarantee, older than any crown, that no harm will come to a guest under a host's roof. Catelyn watches the ceremony with visible relief that the broken betrothal has apparently been forgiven, or at least priced acceptably, by Edmure's substitute marriage.
Grey Wind will not stop growling and howling at the Freys throughout the crossing, an animal unease that every human in the scene overrides as understandable wolfish suspicion of strangers rather than what it actually is: the one member of the party whose senses have not been fooled by hospitality. The chapter's calm surface ÔÇö a wedding, a crossing, an old grudge apparently settled ÔÇö is the book's last deliberate misdirection before it detonates everything the reader has been braced for since the marriage to Jeyne Westerling first went wrong.
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.