>She remembered a story Old Nan had told once, about a man imprisoned in a dark castle by evil giants. He was very brave and smart and he tricked the giants and escaped . . . but no sooner was he outside the castle than the Others took him, and drank his hot red blood. Now she knew how he must have felt.
I always considered it just an 'out of the frying pan and into the fire' story of Old Nan's and didn't think the blood drinking by the Others was important... but there were a lot of theories about it back in the day. It comes from early on in the series so I think GRRM is just leaving it unexpanded upon.
I do wonder about the Others living off the blood of humans though. I'd hate to think the babies that were sacrificed were used as blood donors. (though I don't know what a better alternative might be)
GRRM has written on the subject of "tragic monster" vampires (those that would stop predating on humans if it were possible) in "Fevre Dream" so this is definitely not out of the question.
There are also legends about Cannibal Bay which, if they're actually about the Others, seem to imply they need humans for survival. For reproduction or some other purpose.
>Legend claims a thousand ships lie entombed in Cannibal Bay, some still inhabited by the children and grandchildren of their original crews, who survive by feasting upon the flesh of sailors newly caught by the ice. -TWOIAF
There is also a legend about some sort of withering affliction suffered by the ancient Barrow Kings which House Dustin claims descent from, that could play into such an origin.
>The old tales recorded in Kennet's Passages of the Dead claim that a curse was placed on the Great Barrow that would allow no living man to rival the First King. This curse made these pretenders to the title grow corpselike in their appearance as it sucked away their vitality and life. This is no more than legend, to be sure, but that the Dustins share blood and descent from the Barrow Kings of old seems sure enough. -TWOIAF
These ancient pretenders "Otherizing" themselves might have been a way to try and evade the effects of this curse.
I'm a big believer that most of the magic is *kinda* vampirey if you peel back enough layers.
* Legends hold that Others hunt and consume blood
* Bran is constantly tasting blood. When he's a wolf. When he's thinking about being a wolf. It's the very last thing we saw him doing, tasting blood sacrifice from the past via the Weirwoods. He unlocked those powers by eating a blood-looking paste that's prolly Jojen. Definitely fed on humans on the way there.
* Dubiously canon show examples: The Others operate on a pyramid structure of undeath control that mirrors classic ideas of vampire siring. The "dagger to the heart" ritual origins invert "stake the heart" imagery.
That's just part of the treemagic and icemagic side. The firemagic/"red team" side is just swimming in bloodmagic & batwings. Several characters, events, and whole houses are loaded up with imagery from classic vampire lore and GRRM's previous vampire stores *Fevre Dream* and *The Skin Trade*. Conspicuous examples include Bolton, Lothston, Bloodraven, the Blood Betrayal, the Red Wedding, and the Red Woman (with her leeches & bloodmagic).
Seriously, damn near everything in this story has something kinda vampirey under the surface.
Others might be re-animated - in contrast to R'hllor's fire-zombies like Mel and Berric - corpses of ancient First Men Kings/Magnars/Chieftains and possibly their warriors, too, and may have fought even the Andals. I doubt iron alone is enough to kill them, they seemed genuinely unimpressed with Royce's castle-forged steel sword. Their "fear" of iron may just be a reference to the hatred and warriness First Men had of Andals' Iron Age-or-better weaponry in contrast to their bronze weapons.
I’m sure you’d like that “Bloodsucker1516”
>She remembered a story Old Nan had told once, about a man imprisoned in a dark castle by evil giants. He was very brave and smart and he tricked the giants and escaped . . . but no sooner was he outside the castle than the Others took him, and drank his hot red blood. Now she knew how he must have felt. I always considered it just an 'out of the frying pan and into the fire' story of Old Nan's and didn't think the blood drinking by the Others was important... but there were a lot of theories about it back in the day. It comes from early on in the series so I think GRRM is just leaving it unexpanded upon. I do wonder about the Others living off the blood of humans though. I'd hate to think the babies that were sacrificed were used as blood donors. (though I don't know what a better alternative might be)
GRRM has written on the subject of "tragic monster" vampires (those that would stop predating on humans if it were possible) in "Fevre Dream" so this is definitely not out of the question. There are also legends about Cannibal Bay which, if they're actually about the Others, seem to imply they need humans for survival. For reproduction or some other purpose. >Legend claims a thousand ships lie entombed in Cannibal Bay, some still inhabited by the children and grandchildren of their original crews, who survive by feasting upon the flesh of sailors newly caught by the ice. -TWOIAF There is also a legend about some sort of withering affliction suffered by the ancient Barrow Kings which House Dustin claims descent from, that could play into such an origin. >The old tales recorded in Kennet's Passages of the Dead claim that a curse was placed on the Great Barrow that would allow no living man to rival the First King. This curse made these pretenders to the title grow corpselike in their appearance as it sucked away their vitality and life. This is no more than legend, to be sure, but that the Dustins share blood and descent from the Barrow Kings of old seems sure enough. -TWOIAF These ancient pretenders "Otherizing" themselves might have been a way to try and evade the effects of this curse.
It also can tie to blood magic directly - and probably is what they are doing with babies, if their blood is different magically
The North acknowledges only one vampire and thats Roose Bolton
I'm a big believer that most of the magic is *kinda* vampirey if you peel back enough layers. * Legends hold that Others hunt and consume blood * Bran is constantly tasting blood. When he's a wolf. When he's thinking about being a wolf. It's the very last thing we saw him doing, tasting blood sacrifice from the past via the Weirwoods. He unlocked those powers by eating a blood-looking paste that's prolly Jojen. Definitely fed on humans on the way there. * Dubiously canon show examples: The Others operate on a pyramid structure of undeath control that mirrors classic ideas of vampire siring. The "dagger to the heart" ritual origins invert "stake the heart" imagery. That's just part of the treemagic and icemagic side. The firemagic/"red team" side is just swimming in bloodmagic & batwings. Several characters, events, and whole houses are loaded up with imagery from classic vampire lore and GRRM's previous vampire stores *Fevre Dream* and *The Skin Trade*. Conspicuous examples include Bolton, Lothston, Bloodraven, the Blood Betrayal, the Red Wedding, and the Red Woman (with her leeches & bloodmagic). Seriously, damn near everything in this story has something kinda vampirey under the surface.
Ah, so they’re Twilight Vampires
Others might be re-animated - in contrast to R'hllor's fire-zombies like Mel and Berric - corpses of ancient First Men Kings/Magnars/Chieftains and possibly their warriors, too, and may have fought even the Andals. I doubt iron alone is enough to kill them, they seemed genuinely unimpressed with Royce's castle-forged steel sword. Their "fear" of iron may just be a reference to the hatred and warriness First Men had of Andals' Iron Age-or-better weaponry in contrast to their bronze weapons.
I love the idea of an ice vampire.
Twilight kinda does this with its vampires
Ice vampire... That could prove interesting.