Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Sansa V, ACOK
“The Mother’s altar and the Warrior’s swam in light, but Smith and Crone and Maid and Father had their worshipers as well, and there were even a few flames dancing below the Stranger’s half-human face…for what was Stannis Baratheon, if not the Stranger come to judge them?” Synopsis: Sansa is trapped in Maegor’s Holdfast with Cersei, who’s not looking very stable. SPOILER WARNING: This chapter…
Now, I loves me some Stevie A., and he’s usually so (refreshingly) spot-on in his analysis of Sansa and Sandor’s relationship, which is why I am so surprised by how he seemed to miss the point of Sansa’s prayer for the Hound.
For starters, Steven opens his analysis by talking about the idealogical conflicts amongst the different aspects of the Seven itself/themselves:
In this prayer [the Mother’s Hymn], we can see a unique voice, embodying the “strength of women,” speaking out against an activity literally deified by a male aspect of the Seven. The Mother contests with the Warrior, not merely to protect her sons and daughters, but to end war itself and “teach us a kinder way.” There is a quiet rebellion here, and one that I hope we see again, because it shows us a side of the Seven that contrasts sharply with the Sparrow Movement.
Sansa’s prayer for the Hound completely illustrates this point! When she’s praying for him, she is not praying to the Warrior to give him strength and courage in battle; no, she chooses to pray to the Mother to keep Sandor safe and to heal his psychological pain. Like, WOW! And the fact that George chose to reveal to us her actual prayer for Sandor and no one else’s (even her own family) speaks for itself.
Now, on to the analysis of the prayer itself:
Sansa’s emphasis is rather more on the latter, and raises some interesting questions about the Hound. First, is it the case that “he is no true knight?” The Hound refuses to hit women no matter who orders him to, did save a young maiden from danger, will demonstrate enormous bravery in the field in Davos III, and while he certainly did murder Micah, that doesn’t make him that different from most knights. It may be the case – continuing Sansa’s theme of surfaces vs. reality – that Sansa is reacting to his surface appearance and performance rather than looking at his actions at a deep level. On the other hand, the Hound’s sanity is less than secure, so as we’ll discuss in Sansa VII, his offer of escape might well be one to avoid. Regardless, Sansa’s plea to the Mother to “save him if you can, and gentle the rage inside him” seems to be one of those rare cases in which the Seven seem to act at least on a thematic level, given how the Hound manages to survive the battle, his trial by combat, the Red Wedding, and a near-fatal wound, and does find peace on the Quiet Isle.
The claim that Sansa is viewing Sandor on “surface appearances” because she calls him “no true knight” couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s the exact opposite, in fact! Sansa is pretty much the ONLY person in all of Westeros who is actually able to see and acknowledge that Sandor is more than just a “Lannister dog”; from the moment he broke down and told her the horrible truth behind his burned face in only her second freaking chapter in this series, Sansa has had an insight into this man that literally nobody else does (or cares to; even his own employers). When she says, “he is no true knight, but he saved me all the same”, what she means is, “he swore no vows to protect the innocent, but he did so anyway.” Thus, it’s her definition of knighthood that is receiving a surface-level assessment here, not Sandor himself. She knows better at this point, and that’s why she prays for Sandor’s bodily AND spiritual salvation.
All the same, looking forward to the analyses of her upcoming ACoK chapters!
Well, I have to admit that I consider Sandor and Sansa some of the hardest material for me to analyze, both because it tends to be more about literature and psychology as opposed to politics and history, which are my strong suit, and because so much amazing stuff has been written about it by other people, so I have this nagging suspicion I’m falling short.
It’s entirely possible that I just misunderstood what’s going on in Sansa V, and in the interests of maintaining accountability, I’m going to go back and take a look and the chapter and what I’d written.
I think my main issue here is with the use of the term “no true knight.” We’ve seen Sansa use it before, both the first time she talks to the Hound and when she talks to him again in the godswood in ACOK. True knighthood, as I understand it, is about actions not vows – the Gregors and Meryn Trants of the world took vows as knights, but they don’t act to uphold them and instead lash out against the helpless. By contrast, neither Dunk nor Brienne have taken vows as knights, but they are true knights because they act as the vows demand without any expectation of reward or recognition.
So I guess my confusion remains, how is Sandor not a “true knight?” Here, I think I did make a mistake and wasn’t very clear in explaining my thinking: I don’t think it has to do with Sandor’s appearance and I shouldn’t have written that. However, I do think that it does have something to do with Sandor’s performance as opposed to his completed actions – when the chips are down, he saves her life and tries his best to protect her from Joffrey, but he keeps putting blades to her throat, which isn’t what a true knight should do.
At the same time, I don’t think Sandor really means to harm her in those moments; he’s pantomiming being a dangerous badass who nothing can hurt, but the moment that Sansa refuses to play along, he collapses into tears.
And I think Sansa recognizes this, hence her prayer. So why say “no true knight”?
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