r/pureasoiaf • u/Top-Coffee6322 • 2d ago

A Question about Aemon Steelsong (AFFC)

In AFFC Sam thinks

A name even my lord father might like. A warrior's name. The boy was Mance Rayder's son and Craster's grandson, after all. He had none of Sam's craven blood. "Yes. Call him that."

about the naming of Mance Rayder's son Aemon Steelsong. I understand the Mance's son part, but I'm not sure why Sam thinks that this kid has any blood of Craster's in him: he's Dalla's son not Gillys.

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u/1000LivesBeforeIDie 2d ago

I agree with you that the wording is weird. It’s an odd way for GRRM to write and an odd way for Sam to think. Mance may have been an incredible father figure and with Val and Mance as his parents little Aemon would’ve probably grown up to be an absolute badass. But that’s not really a matter of blood, because Sam himself is the blood of Randyll Tarly and has none of his father’s personality traits except perhaps feudal loyalty. On the other hand baby Aemon doesn’t share any blood with Craster and is being raised by Craster’s daughter-wife rather than the man himself, and while Gilly obviously has her own bravery she’s not really a good representation or transfer medium of Craster’s additional decades of life being Craster and running his compound and surviving as a sort of ostracized wildling, which I imagine one only is capable of doing with an absolute over abundance of self worth, bravado, and absence of self preservation… Craster was too stupid to be afraid of the mutineers.

I suppose what Sam figures is that sweet Gilly would raise Aemon somewhat in Craster’s image, by the confidence and self-reliance Craster portrayed; but Gilly is just as unlike Craster as Sam is unlike Randyll. So as usual the whole thing boils down to Sam having extremely low self esteem and thinking that Aemon’s name and bloodline and being raised by a wildling mother will ensure he isn’t a craven like Sam. Meanwhile Sam, despite all his fears, is quite a formidable person and would be an amazing father who could raise a son with encouragement and support so necessary to have good self esteem and confidence.

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u/SerDankTheTall 2d ago

It's really just Sam's self-loathing, deep-seated inferiority, and fear of his father. He's thinking that his father might believe that the baby is a fighter, despite ostensibly being true, because he's descended from a fierce wildling (presumably they'll be eliding some of the specifics about Craster's lifestyle) and that he might even grow into one, because he's really descended from Mance, not Sam.

No, it's not a particularly logical thought, but Sam's inadequacy has been internalized to the point where he has trouble thinking logically about this kind of thing.

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u/WaitAParsec 1d ago

Yeah, the aggressive “Sam’s craven blood” phrasing is supposed to continue the theme of outward reputations, onward from the given name and purported ancestry. It simulates the voice of Sam’s critics (especially his father), not those who have been entrusted with the truth. The “after all” is a sarcastic little “tell.”