Chapter 175

And who are you, the proud lord said, that I must bow so low? Only a cat of a different coat, that’s all the truth I know. In a coat of gold or a coat of red, a lion still has claws, And mine are long and sharp, my lord, as long and sharp as yours. And so he spoke, and so he spoke, that lord of Castamere, But now the rains weep o’er his hall, with no one there to hear. Yes now the rains weep o’er his hall, and not a soul to hear.

……

Sansa sang the bleak and mournful ballad in her clear, soft voice, stripping away much of its original arrogance and cruelty and leaving in their place a note of delicate sorrow. Domeric could not help recalling the original story: at the Red Wedding the same classic “Rains of Castamere” had played while House Stark was nearly extinguished. In the tale the song appeared three times—once in the hall of the Twins before the massacre the North would never forget; once at Joffrey’s wedding to the little rose, when the king died of poison within moments; and once at Highgarden, when that master player the Queen of Thorns was forced from the board. “The Rains of Castamere” had become a death-song. In truth it commemorated Tywin Lannister’s destruction of the rebellious houses of Reyne and Tarbeck—how he sealed every exit of Castamere and diverted a river to drown the entire castle. Not a soul survived. Such was the tale of “the cold-faced Tywin who burned Tarbeck Hall and drowned the Reynes.” It showed Tywin’s power: in politics a blend of cunning and intrigue, in war iron and unyielding force, an influence so great it became a song sung across the realm.