Does anyone besides Ned, Howland Reed, and maybe Benjen know about R+L=J? Specifically, has Howland Reed told Meera and Jojen? Do you think Rhaegar told anyone that Lyanna was pregnant other than the three Kingsguard who died at the Tower of Joy? If not, when (if ever) did Rhaegar plan on publicly revealing he had fathered a son with Lyanna?

opinions-about-tiaras:

racefortheironthrone:

That’s a good question. Here’s the thing, there’s people who know parts of the story – Howland Reed told his kids about the Knight of the Laughing Tree, so they may well have guessed that Lyanna ran away with Rhaegar, but I don’t think he told them about the Tower of Joy (it’s possible Jojen saw it in a vision) although they may have put two and two together

Likewise, I’ve always been under the impression that the older folks at House Dayne know, since Ned stayed there with baby Jon until Jon was able to travel and their servant Wylla was Jon’s wetnurse and likely Lyanna’s midwife – after all, Arthur Dayne was the closest to home of any of the knights at the Tower of Joy, and he’s definitely going to send to home for a servant to help with the birthing of a royal child since that’s completely outside his wheelhouse. Also, this always made sense to me as both the simplest and most tragic answer to how Ned knew where to find Lyanna: Ashara Dayne told her lover where to find his sister, and that’s a big part of the reason she took her life. 

As for Rhaegar, he may may have told some of his closest confidants like Richard Lonmouth, but I doubt it. And I have no idea how he was planning that particular revelation. 

You know, I’ve never actually thought Ashara Dayne was Ned’s lover, at least not during the war. He clearly had some deep and complex feelings for her but I’ve never really thought they were gettin’ it on after he was wed to Catelyn.

Ned Stark isn’t some emotionless honor-machine like a lot of people think he is; he barely knew Catelyn at the time, he married her, bedded her, and then rode away to war. But Ned seems like the kind of person who would need a VERY good reason to violate his marriage vows, which one imagines were not just sworn in the Sept at Riverrun but probably also in its godswood before their heart tree, and “want to get my bone on with the exotic Valyrian beauty” probably doesn’t qualify as a good reason in his eyes. “Let people THINK I did in order to protect my nephew from being strangled in his crib by my best friend” is a… BETTER reason.

I’ve always just thought that Ned rather violently suppresses rumors of his relationship with Ashara precisely because he didn’t sleep with her and doesn’t want her good name dragged through the mud posthumously, and also (and I think Ned realizes this on some level, he is too good a politician not to) because it muddies the waters a bit; his closest friends think he fathered Jon on some serving wench, other people think it was Ashara Dayne, nobody looks much deeper than that.

Just to be clear, I think Ned was Ashara’s lover before he was married, likely at the Tourney of Harrenhal and perhaps in the period that elapsed between the Tourney and his wedding.