When it comes to Tywin’s corpse, do you think there is a metaphor taking place? Or is his corpse just rotting? Given todays embalming practices, the rotting of the deceased during funerals is no longer an issue, but is the manner in which Tywin’s corpse rotted typical for Medieval preservation methods?

If there’s a metaphor, it comes from history – a lot of infamous kings supposedly rotted quickly (Henry VIII, for example) or had nasty stuff happen to their bodies (dogs licking their blood, etc), but it’s unclear how much of that actually happened vs. chroniclers who wanted it to happen.

Or maybe he was poisoned…