While waiting for their almost certain death at the hands of the approaching White Walkers, the cast of characters holed up at Winterfell spent what may be their final hours in a variety of ways on last night’s new Game of Thrones. Some told head-scratching (if not revealing) stories, others did sex with their childhood crushes. Tyrion was unsurprisingly drinking by the fire surrounded by Ser Davos, Brienne of Tarth, Jaime, and Tormund, among others, when he asked if anyone could sing a song — presumably to get their minds off of imminent doom, etc. “One of you must know one,” he reasoned.
As it would happen, Podrick Payne, who was also in attendance, did in fact know a song. Tyrion’s former squire proceeded to belt out a little ditty called “Jenny’s Song” (which was actually performed by actor Daniel Portman). You can take a gander at the lyrics below, via Vanity Fair:
High in the halls of the kings who are gone
Jenny would dance with her ghosts.
The ones she had lost and the ones she had found
And the ones who had loved her the most.The ones who’d been gone for so very long
She couldn’t remember their names
They spun her around on the damp cold stone
Spun away all her sorrow and painAnd she never wanted to leave
Never wanted to leave.
Never wanted to leave.
Never wanted to leave.
Never wanted to leave.
Never wanted to leave.
Of course, we know nothing in Game of Thrones occurs happenstance, and as such, book readers may remember the song from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels. The “Jenny” in “Jenny’s Song” actually refers to Jenny of Oldstones — a common woman who had affair with Prince Duncan Targaryen, brother of the Mad King Prince Aerys (his uncle in the books), leading him to abandon the throne and pave way for Aerys to become ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.
The song was a favorite of the Ghost of High Heart, a mysterious old woods witch who has prophetic dreams, and requests it in exchange for her visions. The song is also believed to have been written by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, who sang it to woo Jon Snow’s mother, Lyanna Stark, at the Tourney of Harrenhal.
So, take from all this what you will — but going by Daenerys’ reaction to the news that her lover-nephew Jon Snow was actually the byproduct of Rhaegar and Lyanna’s affair, thus making him the actual heir to the throne — it would seem as though this is maybe headed somewhere not great. We already see that Danys is low-key power-tripping at this point … Will Jon defer the throne to his aunt thereby ushering in the second coming of the Mad King?
In any case, given the fact that the song was performed again over the credits (this time, performed by Florence and the Machine), clearly it’s all got to mean something. You can listen to Florence and the Machine’s take below.
(Via Vanity Fair, AV Club)
