Twenty years before the main story of Game of Thrones, there was a great tournament held
at the castle of Harrenhal . This was like, the biggest high school house party in Westeros
– everyone was there, drinking, feasting, hanging out, hooking up, trading secrets,
raising drama – and all these years later, people are still talking about what happened
those nights – who got the most drunk, who hooked up with who, who was plotting to overthrow
the government – that sorta stuff . We don't know the details of much that happened, cause
we only learn of the tourney through memory and rumour.
But we do hear one mysterious story – about the Knight of the Laughing Tree.
In Book 3, Meera Reed tells Bran Stark the story.
It begins in the Neck, a swampy region north of the riverlands . The story follows a crannogman
– a young man from the Neck, and though Meera never says his name, it's implied
that the lad is a young Howland Reed – the father of Meera and Jojen.
From his home in the Neck, Howland travelled south to the Isle of Faces, an island in the
riverlands sacred to the old gods and inhabited by a mysterious people called the green men
. Howland stayed there through winter, and when he left, he came to castle of Harrenhal,
where the tournament was beginning.
Meera lists some of the people who were there – and again she doesn't say their names,
but we can figure them out by their titles and heraldry.
There's "The king", Aerys Targaryen, "with his son the dragon prince" Rhaegar
– cause this all takes place before Robert's Rebellion when the Targaryens still ruled
Westeros.
There are "The White Swords" – the Kingsguard – who'd come "to welcome a new brother
to their ranks" – a young Jaime Lannister was about to join the Kingsguard.
"The storm lord", Robert Baratheon was there, "and the rose lord", Mace Tyrell.
But "The great lion of the rock", Tywin Lannister, didn't come – he was angry
with Aerys for taking Jaime into the Kingsguard, and for refusing to marry Rhaegar to Cersei
– Rhaegar instead married Elia Martell, she's here as well.
So the young Howland from the Neck saw all these important people at this great castle,
the knights and banners, the food and laughter , and he was excited to be a part of it . But
as he was "walking across [a] field", "enjoying the … day and harming none",
he was attacked by three young squires . There's a lot of racism against the crannogmen of
the Neck – people call them "mud-men" and "frog-eaters" . The squires believed
this was their world, and the crannogman Howland "had no right to be there".
So they hit him and kicked him and cursed him until he was saved by a "she-wolf"
– Lyanna Stark.
Lyanna drove off the squires with a blunted sword and took Howland back her tent to treat
his injuries.
There, Howland met Lyanna's brothers – "the wild wolf" Brandon Stark – who dies before
Robert's Rebellion so he isn't in the show – "the quiet wolf" Eddard Stark,
and "the pup" Benjen Stark . They're all teenagers back then – Brandon's about
nineteen, Ned was eighteen, Lyanna bout fifteen and Benjen about fourteen.
Howland was sixteen or so.
Lyanna insisted that Howland come sit with the Starks at the feast, so that night "he
ate and drank with the" northmen, and took in the sights of the feast.
He saw Prince Rhaegar sing "a song so sad it made" Lyanna cry – this is the first
mention of a connection between these two.
And he saw "a maid with laughing purple eyes", Ashara Dayne, dance with a Kingsguard,
and with Oberyn Martell, and Jon Connington, and with Ned Stark – after Ned got Brandon
to ask Ashara for the dance, cause Ned was too shy . There are rumours of a relationship
between Ned and Ashara – some say that Ned got Ashara pregnant, others think it might
have been Brandon – whoever it was, a year later, Ashara had a stillborn child, and her
brother Arthur was killed – by Ned and Howland – and Ashara committed suicide – so we
might never know the truth.
Later at the feast, Howland spotted the squires who attacked him, and saw they each served
a knight – one of House Haigh, one of House Blount, and one of House Frey . The Starks
suggested that Howland should win back his honour by beating the knights in the tournament
– but Howland wasn't much good at riding and jousting and thought he'd just make
a fool of himself.
That night he went out by the lake and looked to the Isle of Faces and prayed to the old
gods of the north.
Later at the tournament, the knights of Haigh, Blount and Frey did well in the jousting,
but late one afternoon, a new challenger appeared – a mystery knight, with his name and face
hidden, identified only by weirwood tree with a laughing face painted on his shield.
This Knight of the Laughing Tree challenged the Haigh, Blount and Frey knights, and defeated
each of them at jousting.
He gave them back their horses and armour only after the knights punished their squires
for having attacked Howland – and so the crannogman's honour was restored, and all
the crowd cheered for the mystery knight.
King Aerys, though, was not a fan.
Aerys was mad, and paranoid, and he saw the Tree Knight as his enemy – so he sent his
son Rhaegar to find out who the Tree Knight was, but apparently "all they ever found
was [the Knight's] painted shield, hanging … in a tree".
And so the story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree ends with a mystery – who was the knight?
The story leads us to believe that the Knight was Howland Reed – and Howland would fit
some of the details we're given about the Knight.
The Knight's said to be "short of stature" and Howland was "small" , and the Knight
is "clad in ill-fitting armor made up of bits and pieces" , as Howland would've
been if had to scrounge armour together to compete.
But we're also told pretty clearly that Howland isn't good at riding and jousting
– he feared he'd make a fool of himself if he entered the tourney . In the story Meera
suggests that the old gods or the green men of the Isle heard Howland's prayers by the
lake , and "gave strength to his arm" so he could win back his honour.
Which is nice enough for a fairytale.
But Game of Thrones isn't the sort of world where the weak can beat the strong by just
being righteous and brave and believing in themselves.
Littlefinger learned that in his duel with Brandon Stark . As for the old gods, they
really don't seem to be the benevolent divine intervention sorta type – they're more
into blood sacrifice, all that heavy Old Testament shit . Would they really bother answering
the prayers of a teenager who wants to win a joust?
That's just isn't consistent with what we've seen of gods and magic in this series.
The other important reason why the Knight probably isn't Howland is because Bran tells
us that he thinks the Knight is Howland.
What sort of mystery is that, if we're immediately given the right answer?
Usually the way mysteries work in this series is that we're given an obvious answer at
first – like, that Jon Snow is the bastard son of Ned Stark, or that Jon Arryn was poisoned
by the Lannisters – but we later find out that the truth is something more complex – that
Jon Snow is actually Lyanna Stark's son, and that Jon Arryn was actually poisoned by
Lysa, for Littlefinger.
So what's the deeper, more complex truth to the mystery of the Knight of the Laughing
Tree?
When Meera tells this story, Jojen seems really surprised that Bran hasn't already heard
the tale from his father Ned . This may suggest that Ned, or someone close to him was the
mystery knight.
Maybe it was one of the Stark boys.
Benjen, Ned and Brandon each would've made a better knight than Howland Reed.
The Starks were trained to ride and fight, so they wouldn't have needed divine intervention
to plausibly win a few jousts.
Brandon, especially, was said to be good at riding and fighting, and he was described
as hot-blooded, and rash – a "gallant fool" . So standing up for Howland by riding
in the tourney fits pretty well with what we know of his personality.
There are problems with Brandon, though, cause Brandon was "tall" , so even at the age
of nineteen, he might not have fit the mystery knight's short stature.
Also, it doesn't make much sense for Brandon to enter the tourney as a mystery knight,
cause he later rides in the tourney as himself – why would he choose to ride in disguise
in the first place?
Another possibility is Ned.
He was younger and shorter than Brandon , so he might fit the Knight's small stature.
And Ned riding for Howland in the tourney might help explain how Howland became such
a loyal friend to Ned . However, even as a young man Ned's described as "solemn"
and "somber" . He's responsible and reserved, with "a certain distaste for the
… pageantry of tourneys" . Joining in a joust as a mystery knight, with a shield
of a "laughing" tree is not exactly Ned's style.
He's not so showy and theatrical.
So Ned's not a great fit for the Knight of the Laughing Tree either.
Maybe it was Benjen.
Benjen was fourteen or younger then, so he'd fit the Knight's short stature.
And Benjen was the one to offer Howland armour and horse to ride in the tourney , so he was
enthusiastic about someone competing.
But on the other hand, at fourteen years of age, Ben was very young and there's no suggestion
in the text that he was particularly good at riding or fighting or jousting so he doesn't
seem a very likely Knight either.
All three Stark boys could maybe be the Tree Knight, but none are very convincing.
A more likely answer to this mystery is Lyanna Stark.
As a teenage girl, Lyanna could fit the Knight's short stature, and "ill-fitting armor".
And she certainly has motivation to help Howland – she was the one to come defend him in
the first place.
Competing in the tourney also fits well with her personality – she's described as "wild",
"willful", and "boyish" , she's said to be like Arya – and fighting to help
out a friend is exactly the sort of thing Arya would do.
Lyanna being the Knight also adds a cool twist in having the Knight who everyone assumed
to be a man turn out to be a girl.
At one point in the story Meera describes the Knight's voice "booming" through
his helm – maybe the echoeyness of the Knight's helmet helped disguise Lyanna's voice.
Of course, it is questionable whether a fifteen year old girl would be strong enough to use
a lance in a joust , but in Winds, there's another fifteen-year-old girl, Elia Sand,
who jousts so much they call her Lady Lance – a perfect precedent for Lyanna to joust
also.
Further, we're told a bunch of times that Lyanna was a very good horse rider – Roose
Bolton says that Lyanna "was half a horse", and he also says in the same paragraph that
"A great jouster must be a great horseman" . Jaime Lannister agrees, thinking that jousting
is three-quarters horsemanship . The text directly links the idea of riding being important
for jousting to the fact that Lyanna was great at riding – a pretty strong hint that Lyanna
could have done well in a tourney.
So Lyanna fits the Knight of the Laughing Tree quite well – but the most convincing
reasons for why Lyanna was probably the mystery knight relate to how this would fit with the
broader story.
It's very very interesting that we're specifically told that King Aerys sent his
son Rhaegar to find and unmask the Knight of the Laughing Tree.
Because later in this same tournament, Prince Rhaegar publicly crowns Lyanna as his Queen
of Love and Beauty, and later, he runs away with Lyanna, leading to Robert's Rebellion
, the deaths of Rhaegar and Lyanna, and the birth of Jon Snow.
Maybe the fateful relationship between Lyanna and Rhaegar all began when Rhaegar was sent
to find the Knight of the Laughing Tree.
We're told that no one found the Knight, but what if Rhaegar did and chose to keep
Lyanna's secret?
Maybe he was impressed by her boldness in riding in the tourney.
We already know Lyanna wept at the beauty of Rhaegar's harp earlier.
Maybe they hit it off.
They say there's nothing "like a tourney to make the blood run hot" – so "maybe
some words were whispered in a tent of a night", "Words or kisses, maybe more" maybe this
is how Lyanna and Rhaegar, ice and fire, first fell in love.
It's also very interesting that the place where all this happens, and the place where
Rhaegar later quote-unquote abducts Lyanna is so close to the Isle of Faces.
There are theories that Rhaegar and Lyanna secretly got married on the Isle of Faces,
with the weirwoods all round – so that psychic Bran can later have a vision of the wedding
and R+L=J can finally be revealed.
This all very speculative, but it fits so well with what we know, and paints a beautiful
picture of a tragic love story between Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, a story that
all begins with the Knight of the Laughing Tree.
So given how well this all fits, and given the hints of Lyanna's riding ability and
personality, it seems pretty likely that Lyanna is our mystery knight.
But we'll also have a quick look at a crazier theory.
As we saw in Season 6, Bran Stark's greensight tree-magic psychic powers can lead to some
pretty wacky timey-wimey shenanigans, like when he broke the mind of Hodor by reaching
through his past self to make the Hodor of the present "hold the door".
Some fans believe that something similar could have happened with the Knight of the Laughing
Tree – that when Howland prayed to the old gods, Bran answers his prayers from the future
by warging into past-Howland, taking the identity of the mystery knight – with a weirwood
on his shield – and using some manner of old gods magic to win the jousts and restore
Howland's honour.
This fits some of the talk of magic mentioned in Meera's story , and it also gives Bran
the chance to be something he's always dreamed of being – a knight . After Meera tells
the story of the Tree Knight, Bran thinks that he'd love to be a knight for a day.
"A day would be enough", he thinks.
Maybe with the magic of the old gods he got that one day at the tourney of Harrenhal.
So yeah the magic time-travel theories are kinda ridiculous, but it has happened before,
and these ideas can have some nice thematic resonance.
But it was probably Lyanna.
We'll talk more about Lyanna and Rhaegar before Season 7 arrives, but you might like
to go back and watch the Season 6 Episode 10 video – Rhaegar and Lyanna and Jon are
explained about 14 minutes in.
Thanks for watching this video.
As ever, these theories and ideas mostly come from the Game of Thrones fan community – go
check out westeros.org and the subreddits.
Thanks to the translators for translating captions, thanks to The Mico for use of his
art, and thanks to the Patrons who make Alt Shift X possible, including Paige Marchus-Stewart,
Natalie Woo, Jason Gray Jr, Walt Mayfield, and History of Westeros – a podcast you
should all check out, link below.
Cheers!
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