Deus Of The Week

I noticed in ASOIAf we don't have any names for the days of the week.  Weeks are a measure of time in the story,

"Have you drawn any watches this past week, Will?"
"Yes, m'lord." There never was a week when he did not draw a dozen bloody watches. What was the man driving at?  A Game of Thrones - Prologue

We know they mark a month as a cycle of the moon. I assume this is a four week month because the women's menstrual cycle 'moon blood' is also marked by the moon,

 She was bleeding, but it was only woman's blood. The moon is still a crescent, though. How can that be? She tried to remember the last time she had bled. The last full moon? The one before? The one before that? No, it cannot have been so long as that.  A Dance with Dragons - Daenerys X

and I assume these are seven day weeks because the people of Planetos are human.

Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy. A Game of Thrones - Jon VIII


The predominant religion in Westeros is the Faith of the Seven and the number seven is seen everywhere,the stars in the sky,

So many stars, he thought as he trudged up the slope through pines and firs and ash. Maester Luwin had taught him his stars as a boy in Winterfell; he had learned the names of the twelve houses of heaven and the rulers of each; he could find the seven wanderers sacred to the Faith...  A Storm of Swords - Jon III

Trials conducted by the Faith,

 A sacred court of seven judges shall sit upon this case. Three shall be of your female sex. A maiden, a mother, and a crone. Who could be more suited to judge the wickedness of women?" A Feast for Crows - Cersei X

Trial of Seven,

Dunk was lost. "Your Grace, my lords," he said to the dais. "I do not understand. What is this trial of seven?"
Prince Baelor shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "It is another form of trial by combat. Ancient, seldom invoked. It came across the narrow sea with the Andals and their seven gods. In any trial by combat, the accuser and accused are asking the gods to decide the issue between them. The Andals believed that if the seven champions fought on each side, the gods, being thus honored, would be more like to take a hand and see that a just result was achieved."  The Hedge Knight

the seven pointed star,

 Despite the chill of the autumnal wood, he was shirtless, and on his breast was carved a seven-pointed star. Andal warriors had carved such stars in their flesh when first they crossed the narrow sea to overwhelm the kingdoms of the First Men.  A Feast for Crows - Brienne I

Septs,

Her steps took her to the sept, a seven-sided sandstone temple set amidst her mother's gardens and filled with rainbow light.  A Clash of Kings - Catelyn VI

Worship was a septon with a censer, the smell of incense, a seven-sided crystal alive with light, voices raised in song. The Tullys kept a godswood, as all the great houses did, but it was only a place to walk or read or lie in the sun. Worship was for the sept.  A Game of Thrones - Catelyn I

Looking at the Faith of the Seven, I noticed some similarities between the Seven gods and the gods/planetary objects we get the names for the days of the week from. I don't know if this has been noted before but it stood out to me when I was reading ACOK Catelyn IV. the chapter where she spends the night praying in the sept before Renly and Stannis  are set to do battle.

I looked at how the days of the week got their names.

(I looked at lots of articles about this and they all seem to agree so I copy/pasted segments from different websites that had boiled  down the info into short explanations. All the links to these sites are posted with each segment. Please check them out. They are a great read and a great resource tool)

Days of the week named after the Classical planets in Hellenistic astrology

Greek or Latin names

Sunday - Sol or Helios (sun)

Monday - Luna or Selene (Moon)

Tuesday - Mars or Ares (Mars)

Wednesday - Mercurius or Hermes (Mercury)

Thursday - Jove or Zeus (Jupiter)

Friday - Venus or Aphrodite (Venus)

Saturday - Saturnus or Kronos (Saturn)

The Ptolemaic system used in Greek astronomy placed the planets in order, closest to Earth to furthest, as the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In addition the day was divided into 7 hour intervals, each ruled by one of the planets, although the order was staggered.

The first hour of each day was named after the ruling planet, giving rise to the names and order of the Roman seven-day week. Modern Latin-based cultures, in general, directly inherited the days of the week from the Romans and they were named after the classical planets; for example, in Spanish Miércoles is Mercury, and in French Mardi is Mars-day.

The modern English days of the week were inherited from gods of the old Germanic Norse culture — Wednesday is Woden’s-day (Woden or Wettin eqv. Mercury), Thursday is Thor’s-day (Thor eqv. Jupiter), Friday is Frige-day (Frig eqv. Venus). It can be correlated that the Norse gods were attributed to each Roman planet and its god, probably due to Roman influence rather than coincidentally by the naming of the planets.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet


The Naming of the Days

The Greeks named the days week after the sun, the moon and the five known planets, which were in turn named after the gods Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronus. The Greeks called the days of the week theTheon hemerai "days of the Gods". The Romans substituted their equivalent gods for the Greek gods, Mars, Mercury, Jove (Jupiter), Venus, and Saturn. (The two pantheons are very similar.) The Germanic peoples generally substituted roughly similar gods for the Roman gods, Tiu (Twia), Woden, Thor, Freya (Fria), but did not substitute Saturn. https://www.crowl.org/Lawrence/time/days.html

Sunday-   Sun day

Monday - Moon day

Tuesday - Tyr

Wednesday - Woden/Odin

Thursday - Thor

Friday - Frige/Freya

Saturday- Saturn


The Seven

Catelyn studied the faces. The Father was bearded, as ever. The Mother smiled, loving and protective. The Warrior had his sword sketched in beneath his face, the Smith his hammer. The Maid was beautiful, the Crone wizened and wise.
And the seventh face . . . the Stranger was neither male nor female, yet both, ever the outcast, the wanderer from far places, less and more than human, unknown and unknowable. A Clash of Kings - Catelyn IV


Sun day and Moon day - The Father and the Mother

The two Dothraki girls giggled and laughed. "You are foolish strawhead slave," Irri said. "Moon is no egg. Moon is god, woman wife of sun. It is known."
"It is known," Jhiqui agreed.   A Game of Thrones - Daenerys III



Tuesday - Tyr/ Mars Ares- god of war  - The Warrior

Týr equated with Mars in an 18th-century manuscript (ÍB 299 4to)

Tyr (pronounced like the English word “tier”; Old Norse Týr, Old English Tiw, Old High German Ziu, Gothic Tyz, Proto-Germanic *Tiwaz, “god”) is a Norse war god, but also the god who, more than any other, presides over matters of law and justice. His role in the surviving Viking Age myths is relatively slight, and his status in the later part of the Viking Age may have been correspondingly minor. But this wasn’t always the case. Other kinds of evidence show us that Tyr was once one of the most important gods to the Norse and other Germanic peoples. Tyr’s role as one of the principal war gods of the Norse, along with Odin and Thor.     https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/tyr/



Wednesday - Woden/Odin - The Stranger

And the seventh face . . . the Stranger was neither male nor female, yet both, ever the outcast, the wanderer from far places, less and more than human, unknown and unknowable. ACOK Cat IV

Odin was a wanderer.

His shamanic spirit-journeys are well-documented. The Ynglinga Saga records that he often “travels to distant lands on his own errands or those of others” while he appears to others to be asleep or dead.

“Odin the Wanderer” by Georg von Rosen (1886)

...the Stranger was neither male nor female, yet both...

 He was also a practitioner of Seidr   - Norse magic and shamanism concerned with the course of fate.
According to the societal norms of the Viking Age, seidr wasn’t a fitting activity for men, to say the least. According to traditional Germanic gender constructs, it was extremely shameful and dishonorable for a man to adopt a female social or sexual role. A man who practiced seidr could expect to be labeled argr (Old Norse for “unmanly;” the noun form is ergi, “unmanliness”) by his peers – one of the gravest insults that could be hurled at a Norseman.


Odin was even an outcast,


...ever the outcast,...

Odin is often the favorite god and helper of outlaws, those who had been banished from society for some especially heinous crime, as well. Like Odin, many such men were exceptionally strong-willed warrior-poets who were apathetic to established societal norms – Egill Skallagrímsson (Egil’s Saga) and Grettir Ásmundarson (The Saga of Grettir the Strong) are two examples. The late twelfth/early thirteenth-century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus even relates a tale of Odin being outlawed from Asgard for ten years so that the other gods and goddesses wouldn’t be tarnished by the vile reputation he had acquired amongst many humans.  https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/odin/



Odin is often accompanied by the wolves Geri and Freki

The god Odin enthroned and flanked by the wolves Geri and Freki and the ravensHuginn and Muninn as illustrated (1882) byCarl Emil Doepler

 and ravens Huginn and Munnin.

 

A warrior, likely Odin, flanked by two ravens on an Iron Age helmet from what is now Sweden

When the Stranger comes he is sometimes accompanied by these same animals.

He found himself outside the city, walking through a world without color. Ravens soared through a grey sky on wide black wings, while carrion crows rose from their feasts in furious clouds wherever he set his steps. White maggots burrowed through black corruption. The wolves were grey, and so were the silent sisters; together they stripped the flesh from the fallen. There were corpses strewn all over the tourney fields.   A Clash of Kings - Tyrion XV


Odin rules over Valhalla( the Hall of the Slain) where warriors who died in battle are brought and served by the Valkyries. The Stranger has the Silent Sisters.

"A man would need to be a fool to rape a silent sister," Ser Creighton was saying. "Even to lay hands upon one . . . it's said they are the Stranger's wives, and their female parts are cold and wet as ice."   A Feast for Crows - Brienne I


The Valkyries are sometimes known as the Handmaidens of Odin


 Through the Mother's Doors marched white septas from their cloister, seven abreast and singing softly, while the silent sisters came single file down the Stranger's Steps. Death's handmaidens were garbed in soft grey, their faces hooded and shawled so only their eyes could be seen.  A Feast for Crows - Jaime I


Thursday - Thor - The Smith

Thor's Fight with the Giants (1872) by Mårten Eskil Winge

A host of brothers appeared as well, in robes of brown and butternut and dun and even undyed roughspun, belted with lengths of hempen rope. Some hung the iron hammer of the Smith about their necks, whilst others carried begging bowls.  A Feast for Crows - Jaime I

Drawing of a Viking Age gilded silver Mjölnir pendant (length 4.6 cm) found at Bredsätra in Öland, Sweden, now kept in the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities

I dont equate Thor with the Smith just because of his hammer. Thor shares some other aspects with the Smith

In addition to his role as a model warrior and defender of the order of society and its ambitions, Thor also played a large role in the promotion of agriculture and fertility (something which has already been suggested by his blessing of the lands in which the first Icelanders settled). This was another extension of his role as a sky god, and one particularly associated with the rain that enables crops to grow. As the eleventh-century German historian Adam of Bremen notes, “Thor, they say, presides over the air, which governs the thunder and lightning, the winds and rains, fair weather and crops.” https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/thor/


Septon Meribald describes the Seven,

Brienne cleared her throat. "At Evenfall my father's septon always said that there was but one god."
"One god with seven aspects. That's so, my lady, and you are right to point it out, but the mystery of the Seven Who Are One is not easy for simple folk to grasp, and I am nothing if not simple, so I speak of seven gods." Meribald turned back to Podrick. "I have never known a boy who did not love the Warrior. I am old, though, and being old, I love the Smith. Without his labor, what would the Warrior defend? Every town has a smith, and every castle. They make the plows we need to plant our crops, the nails we use to build our ships, iron shoes to save the hooves of our faithful horses, the bright swords of our lords. No one could doubt the value of a smith, and so we name one of the Seven in his honor, but we might as easily have called him the Farmer or the Fisherman, the Carpenter or the Cobbler. What he works at makes no matter. What matters is, he works. The Father rules, the Warrior fights, the Smith labors, and together they perform all that is rightful for a man. Just as the Smith is one aspect of the godhead, the Cobbler is one aspect of the Smith. It was he who heard my prayer and healed my feet." A Feast for Crows - Brienne V





Friday - Frigg/Frige/Freya - the Maiden

“Freyja and the Necklace” by James Doyle Penrose (1890)

“Frigga Spinning the Clouds” by John Charles Dollman (1909)

Freya  and Frigg

Freya (Old Norse Freyja, “Lady”) is one of the preeminent goddesses in Norse mythology. She’s a member of the Vanir tribe of deities, but became an honorary member of the Aesir gods after the Aesir-Vanir War. Her father is Njord. Her mother is unknown, but could be Nerthus. Freyris her brother. Her husband, named Odr in late Old Norse literature, is certainly none other than Odin, and, accordingly, Freya is ultimately identical with Odin’s wife Frigg ...

While the late Old Norse literary sources that form the basis of our current knowledge of pre-Christian Germanic religion present Freya and Frigg as being at least nominally distinct goddesses, the similarities between them run deep. Their differences, however, are superficial and can be satisfactorily explained by consulting the history and evolution of the common Germanic goddess whom the Norse were in the process of splitting into Freya and Frigg sometime shortly before the conversion of Scandinavia and Iceland to Christianity (around the year 1000 CE).......

The word for “Friday” in Germanic languages (including English) is named after Frija, the Proto-Germanic goddess who is the foremother of Freya and Frigg. None of the other Germanic peoples seem to have spoken of Frija as if she were two goddesses; this approach is unique to the Norse sources. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that in the Norse sources we find a confusion as to which goddess this day should have as its namesake. Both Freyjudagr (from Freyja) and Frjádagr (from Frigg) are used.     https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-vanir-gods-and-goddesses/freya/

The argument as to whether Freya and Frigg are the two different goddesses is apt when you compare them to their planetary equivalent Venus,

Though some ancient civilizations referred to Venus both as the "morning star" and as the "evening star", names that reflect the assumption that these were two separate objects, the earliest recorded observations of Venus by the ancient Sumerians show that they recognized Venus as a single object,^[140] and associated it with the goddess Inanna

I know Freya or Frigg were not maidens as we know them in ASOIAF. They were not virgins.


Almah derives from a root meaning "to be full of vigour, to have reached puberty".^[1] In the ancient Near East girls received value as potential wives and bearers of children: "A wife, who came into her husband's household as an outsider, contributed her labor and her fertility ... [h]er task was to build up the bet 'ab by bearing children, particularly sons" (Leeb, 2002).^[4] Scholars thus agree that almah refers to a woman of childbearing age without implying virginity.^{[2]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almah}

The word 'almah' in the bible  is disputed to mean 'young woman' and not virgin. That is an argument i don't want to get into. I only use it to connect the old norse meaning of Freya as 'lady'..............


I see the Maiden as an unmarried female of childbearing age rather than a virgin


Saturday - Saturn/Kronos  -  the Crone

Saturday is named for Saturn whose equivalent is Kronos. Im not equating Kronos with the Crone because they sound the same(although come on!!!).


 

Chronos and his child by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, National Museum in Warsaw, a 17th-century depiction of Titan Cronus as "Father Time," wielding a harvesting scythe

Kronos/Cronus/Cronos is associated  Chronos the personification of time and is where we get 'chrono' meaning 'time'. Kronos is depicted with a sythe.

The Crone of the Seven is old and wise

                                                       The Crone is very wise and old,
                                                      and sees our fates as they unfold.
                                                      She lifts her lamp of shining gold,
                                                          to lead the little children.
                                                                 —The Song of the Seven

She is often depicted with a lamp,

 Lastly she turned to the Crone, whose statues often showed her with a lamp in one hand. "Guide me, wise lady," she prayed. "Show me the path I must walk, and do not let me stumble in the dark places that lie ahead." A Clash of Kings - Catelyn IV

Part of the story of Kronos is he devoured his children.



Painting by Peter Paul Rubens of Cronus devouring one of his children



The old woman smiled at him toothlessly. "My stories? No, my little lord, not mine. The stories are, before me and after me, before you too."
She was a very ugly old woman, Bran thought spitefully; shrunken and wrinkled, almost blind, too weak to climb stairs, with only a few wisps of white hair left to cover a mottled pink scalp. No one really knew how old she was but his father said she'd been called Old Nan even when he was a boy. She was the oldest person in Winterfell for certain, maybe the oldest person in the Seven Kingdoms. Nan had come to the castle as a wet nurse for a Brandon Stark whose mother had died birthing him. He had been an older brother of Lord Rickard, Bran's grandfather, or perhaps a younger brother, or a brother to Lord Rickard's father. Sometimes Old Nan told it one way and sometimes another. In all the stories the little boy died at three of a summer chill, but Old Nan stayed on at Winterfell with her own children. She had lost both her sons to the war when King Robert won the throne, and her grandson was killed on the walls of Pyke during Balon Greyjoy's rebellion. Her daughters had long ago married and moved away and died. All that was left of her own blood was Hodor, the simpleminded giant who worked in the stables, but Old Nan just lived on and on, doing her needlework and telling her stories.  A Game of Thrones - Bran IV


The old women in the story, the ones we would call crones, are often wise and often childless having lived to see them die from war and sickness or even 'devoured by time'.

Brandon's Bastards

“Brandon was different from his brother, wasn’t he? He had blood in his veins instead of cold water. More like me.”  A Clash of Kings Catelyn VII


Brandon Stark was known to have been very different from his brother Eddard.

 "....'The wolf blood,' my father used to call it. Lyanna had a touch of it, and my brother Brandon more than a touch. It brought them both to an early grave."  A Game Of Thrones  Arya II

In Meera Reed's Knight of the Laughing Tree story, She calls Ned 'the quiet wolf'' and Brandon 'the wild wolf''.

"The she-wolf laid into the squires with a tourney sword, scattering them all. The crannogman was bruised and bloodied, so she took him back to her lair to clean his cuts and bind them up with linen. There he met her pack brothers: the wild wolf who led them, the quiet wolf beside him, and the pup who was youngest of the four. A Storm Of Swords- Bran II


Even though Brandon was never married we know he was no maiden,

"...Brandon was never shy about taking what he wanted. I am old now, a dried-up thing, too long a widow, but I still remember the look of my maiden’s blood on his cock the night he claimed me. I think Brandon liked the sight as well. A bloody sword is a beautiful thing, yes. It hurt, but it was a sweet pain."  A Dance With Dragons  The Turncloak


But just because Brandon died before he could marry Catelyn Tully doesn't mean he died childless.
So could Brandon have left any bastards?

“Does it matter? If you bed enough women, some will give you presents..." A Game Of Thrones Eddard IX

I think it's more than likely. To me Brandon seems more like Robert than Ned. In fact that may be what made Robert and Ned such good friends. Ned may have seen his brother in Robert.

 I don't think any discovery of Brandon's (potential)bastard(s) will be flat out revealed  to us as part of the story, but i think if we look hard enough we may find GRRM pointing to some person or persons who could possibly be Brandon's son or daughter. And i'm sure it will be done in a very GRRM way.

The one person we know Brandon slept with is Lady Barbrey Dustin. We find out about this in A Dance With Dragons- The Turncloack, when Theon shows Lady Dustin down to the Winterfell crypts.

“You knew him,” Theon said.
The lantern light in her eyes made them seem as if they were a fire. “Brandon was
fostered at Barrowton with old Lord Dustin, the father of the one I’d later wed, but he
spent most of his time riding the Rills. He loved to ride. His little sister took after him in
that. A pair of centaurs, those two. And my lord father was always pleased to play host to
the heir to Winterfell. My father had great ambitions for House Ryswell. He would have
served up my maidenhead to any Stark who happened by, but there was no need.
Brandon was never shy about taking what he wanted. I am old now, a dried-up thing, too
long a widow, but I still remember the look of my maiden’s blood on his cock the night he
claimed me. I think Brandon liked the sight as well. A bloody sword is a beautiful thing,
yes. It hurt, but it was a sweet pain."


The whole scene when the four of them go down into the crypts is intersesting.

The way was narrow and steep, the steps worn in the center by centuries of feet. They
went single file—the serjeant with the lantern, then Theon and Lady Dustin, her other
man behind them.

The people who go down to the crypts, the memories that Theon recalls and the conversation the he and Lady Dustin have are all very...illuminating.

On the way down to the crypts Theon has forgotten some of the names of the Stark Kings who are buried there.

“So many,” Lady Dustin said. “Do you know their names?”
“Once … but that was a long time ago.” Theon pointed. “The ones on this side were
Kings in the North. Torrhen was the last.”
“The King Who Knelt."

He doesn't know all their names anymore but he remembered Torrhen Stark without really thinking about it.

“Aye, my lady. After him they were only lords.”
“Until the Young Wolf. Where is Ned Stark’s tomb?”
“At the end. This way, my lady.”

Theon starts to remember some of the names that go with the statues,


Their footsteps echoed through the vault as they made their way between the rows of
pillars. The stone eyes of the dead men seemed to follow them, and the eyes of their stone
direwolves as well. The faces stirred faint memories. A few names came back to him,
unbidden, whispered in the ghostly voice of Maester Luwin. King Edrick Snowbeard, who had ruled the north for a hundred years. Brandon the Shipwright, who had sailed beyond the sunset. Theon Stark, the Hungry Wolf. My namesake. Lord Beron Stark, who made common cause with Casterly Rock to war against Dagon Greyjoy, Lord of Pyke, in the days when the Seven Kingdoms were ruled in all but name by the bastard sorcerer men called Bloodraven.


The names that Theon recalls are just random memories coming back to him. recounted in Maester Luwin's voice.
And to Theon, they are just that.
But for the reader if you look closer at the names(in that GRRM way i was talking about) they could be revealing something else.

The Stark kings that Theon remembers are -

King Edrick Snowbeard

Brandon the Shipwright

Theon Stark 

Lord Beron Stark



Edric, Brandon, Theon and Beron

or if you allow that Edrick would have been called Ned...

 "Who are you?"
"My lady?" Ned looked embarrassed. "I'm Edric Dayne, the . . . the Lord of Starfall." A Storm Of Swords Arya VIII

...then thats Ned, Brandon, Theon and Beron

So what???

In the conversation that Theon and Lady Dustin have in the crypts, Lady Dustin mentions two people with the same names as the kings Theon recalls - Eddard(Ned) and Brandon,

"...Afterward my father nursed some hope of wedding me to Brandon’s brother Eddard, but
Catelyn Tully got that one as well..."

Theon, who is (obviously) right there, thinks of Theon Stark as his 'namesake'

and Beron...?


“It is a long way down, my lady,” Theon cautioned.
Lady Dustin was undeterred. “Beron, the light.”


One of the men that accompanies Theon and Lady Dustin down into the crypts is named Beron.
Beron may just be a common Northern name but of all the names GRRM could have picked for this man, he chose to name him after one of the Stark kings that Theon recalls AND he is the one holding the lantern. The only source of light in the crypt.

So was Lady Dustin just paying her respects to the dead Starks or was she showing a son his fathers final resting place?

Now answer my question. Why do you love the Starks?”
“I …” Theon put a gloved hand against a pillar. “… I wanted to be one of them …”
“And never could. We have more in common than you know, my lord



Valonqar- High Valyrian Or Bastard Valyrian?

Coin Well Spent

Davos's Thumb

Aerys, Tywin and a Bride for Rhaegar

The Trident Has Three Heads.

Who's Looking Through The Black Gate?

Male And Female In The Vale Of Arryn

Swords of Ice and Fire

Valonqar- High Valyrian Or Bastard Valyrian?

"And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." A Feast For Crows Cersei VIII

Valonqar (High Valyrian) - Little brother

According to septa Saranella anyway.

But could it mean something else?

I believe it does.

"...What fools we were,who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation..." A Feast For Crows Samwell IV

The word Valonqar appears nine times in the story so far. Its used eight times before we find out what it means (to Cersei at least) from Septa Saranella.

"The maegi." The words came tumbling out of her. She could still hear Melara Hetherspoon insisting that if they never spoke about the prophecies, they would not come true. She was not so silent in the well, though. She screamed and shouted. "Tyrion is the valonqar," she said. "Do you use that word in Myr? It's High Valyrian, it means little brother." She had asked Septa Saranella about the word, after Melara drowned. AFFC Cersei IX


The Tyroshi man that brings Cersei what he believes is Tyrion's head uses the word to describe Tyrion,

"Your Grace," the Tyroshi murmured, bowing low, "I see you are as lovely as the tales. Even beyond the narrow sea we have heard of your great beauty, and the grief that tears your gentle heart. No man can restore your brave young son to you, but it is my hope I can at least offer you some balm for your pain." He laid his hand upon his chest. "I bring you justice. I bring you the head of your valonqar."  AFFC Cersei VIII

When Cersei confides in Taena Merryweather about Maggi the Frog's prophecy, Taena does not correct her about the word's meaning,


 "Tyrion is the valonqar," she said. "Do you use that word in Myr? It's High Valyrian, it means little brother." She had asked Septa Saranella about the word, after Melara drowned.
Taena took her hand and stroked it. "This was a hateful woman, old and sick and ugly. You were young and beautiful, full of life and pride. She lived in Lannisport, you said, so she would have known of the dwarf and how he killed your lady mother. This creature dared not strike you, because of who you were, so she sought to wound you with her viper's tongue." AFFC Cersei IX

With these three examples we assume Cersei is correct that Valonqar means 'little brother' because...


Why would Septa Saranella lie to Cersei about what the word means?


Why would the Tyroshi man call Tyrion 'your Valonqar' if this was not what the word meant?


Why would Taena not correct Cersei if it meant something else?


I believe 'Valonqar' is actually the High Valyrian word for 'Bastard' or more accurately 'Half Brother'


Septa Saranella

So why would a Septa lie to a young Cersei?

When Septa Saranella was asked by a young Cersei what 'Valonqar' meant, she may have been shocked to hear the Old Valyrian word for bastard spoken at Casterly Rock. She may have thought that Cersei had overheard some kitchen gossip about Tyrion possibly being the issue of Mad King Aerys.

Ned would not speak of the mother, not so much as a word, but a castle has no secrets, and Catelyn heard her maids repeating tales they heard from the lips of her husband's soldiers. A Game of Thrones Catelyn II

And not wanting to hurt the child's feelings,told her it meant 'little brother' in the same way Ned told Cat-

"...He is my blood, and that is all you need to know..."

The Tyroshi Man

"I bring you justice. I bring you the head of your valonqar." A Feast for Crows  Cersei VIII


Why would the Tyroshi use the word 'valonqar' to describe Tyrion if it meant bastard or half brother?

"King's Landing!" his men cried raggedly, and "Halfman! Halfman!" He wondered who had taught them that.  A Clash of Kings  Tyrion XIV

When the Tyroshi told Cersei  "I bring you the head of your valonqar" he was saying

"I bring you the head of your half brother".

He meant 'half brother' in the same way Tyrion is called 'Halfman' - Halfbrother.

Cersei hears what she thinks is the old Valyrian word for little brother-

The old Valyrian word sent a chill through her, though it also gave her a tingle of hope. "The Imp is no longer my brother.......

If she stopped there, the Tyroshi man may have.....'educated' her (in the most respectful and nicest possible way i'm sure) that the word actually meant 'half brother' but Cersei goes on...

... if he ever was," she declared. "Nor will I say his name. It was a proud name once, before he dishonored it." A Feast for Crows  Cersei VIII

Cersei declares Tyrion a possible bastard. The Tyroshi man would have heard this and realized that there was no need for the Queen to be 'educated' in high Valyrian.


Taena Merryweather

"She?"
"The maegi." The words came tumbling out of her. She could still hear Melara Hetherspoon insisting that if they never spoke about the prophecies, they would not come true. She was not so silent in the well, though. She screamed and shouted. "Tyrion is the valonqar," she said. "Do you use that word in Myr? It's High Valyrian, it means little brother." She had asked Septa Saranella about the word, after Melara drowned.

Taena took her hand and stroked it. "This was a hateful woman, old and sick and ugly. You were young and beautiful, full of life and pride. She lived in Lannisport, you said, so she would have known of the dwarf and how he killed your lady mother. This creature dared not strike you, because of who you were, so she sought to wound you with her viper's tongue." A Feast for Crows - Cersei IX


Taena Merryweather seems like a friend to Cersei so if Cersei is wrong about the meaning of 'Valonqar', why wouldn't she tell her that it actually meant 'bastard' or 'half brother' if this is indeed what it meant?

Cersei may believe Taena is her best friend...

"My queen?" said Taena Merryweather. "You have a strange look in your eyes. Are you unwell?"
"I was just . . . remembering." Her throat was dry. "You are a good friend, Taena. I have not had a true friend in . . ."
Someone hammered at the door. A Feast for Crows - Cersei VII

...but I wouldn't trust her as far as i could throw her. She seems to be manipulating  Cersei and actually aiding in her descent into madness. If she is and Cersei believes her little brother is the valonqar of Maggy's prophecy, hiding in every shadow and behind every bad thing that happens to her and House Lannister then why correct her?


She gave a bitter laugh. "Whatever they call him, he is my brother's catspaw. Tyrion has friends amongst the Dornish. The Imp planned this all along. It was Tyrion who betrothed Myrcella to Prince Trystane. Now I see why."
"You see Tyrion in every shadow."
"He is a creature of the shadows. He killed Joffrey. He killed Father. Did you think he would stop there? I feared that the Imp was still in King's Landing plotting harm to Tommen, but he must have gone to Dorne instead to kill Myrcella first." Cersei paced the width of the cell. "I need to be with Tommen. These Kingsguard knights are as useless as nipples on a breastplate." She rounded on her uncle. "Ser Arys was killed, you said." A Dance with Dragons - Cersei I


So if the word Valonqar does mean Bastard or Half Brother what does that mean for theories on the prophecy?

Well actually it doesn't really mean anything for the main candidates in the fandom- Tyrion and Jaime

As I've said, Tyrion can be seen as the 'half brother'

Jaime could also been seen as a half brother.

Cersei refers to Jaime as her other half,

"I love you too, sweet sister."
How could I ever have loved that wretched creature? she wondered after he had gone. He was your twin, your shadow, your other half, another voice whispered. Once, perhaps, she thought. No longer. He has become a stranger to me. A Feast for Crows - Cersei III


"I am surrounded by enemies and imbeciles," she said. She could not even trust to her own blood and kin, nor Jaime, who had once been her other half. He was meant to be my sword and shield, my strong right arm. Why does he insist on vexing me? AFFC Cersei VII


For me personally, neither Jaime or Tyrion is the Valonqar. I think Taena Merryweather was right about Maggy the Frog,

Taena took her hand and stroked it. "This was a hateful woman, old and sick and ugly. You were young and beautiful, full of life and pride. She lived in Lannisport, you said, so she would have known of the dwarf and how he killed your lady mother. This creature dared not strike you, because of who you were, so she sought to wound you with her viper's tongue." AFFC Cersei IX

Maggy wanted to poison Cersei's life with fear. If Cersei believed that she and her children were destined to die at the hands of this valonqar, it would fill her with mistrust her whole life. And it did,

"Forever. See that they sleep forever, ser. I will not suffer guards to sleep on watch." He is in the walls. He killed Father as he killed Mother, as he killed Joff. The dwarf would come for her as well, the queen knew, just as the old woman had promised her in the dimness of that tent. I laughed in her face, but she had powers. I saw my future in a drop of blood. My doom. Her legs were weak as water. Ser Boros tried to take her by the arm, but the queen recoiled from his touch. For all she knew he might be one of Tyrion's creatures. "Get away from me," she said. "Get away!" A Feast for Crows - Cersei I


Cersei's belief in Maggy's power to see her future has haunted her whole life since she walked out of that tent. The threat of the Valonqar hangs over Cersei  like the sword of Damocles. Its made her distrust, fear and despise Tyrion when she was told the word meant little brother. Making her believe he was behind everything bad that happened to her,causing her spiral into madness and where she is now in the story.

Tyrion cocked his head sideways. "Did you mean to answer your damned riddle, or only to make my head ache worse?"
Varys smiled. "Here, then. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less."
"So power is a mummer's trick?"
“A shadow on the wall,” Varys murmured, “yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow. A Clash of Kings - Tyrion II


Having said all that...

I believe that when the story is finally finished, GRRM will have shown us, the readers, a situation that fulfills the words of the valonqar prophecy.

Prepare for tinfoil

"And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you."

Either way If the Valonqar means Little brother like Cersei believes or Half brother/ bastard like I believe, there is someone who could fulfill the prophecy-

Aurane Waters the Bastard of Driftmark

Margaery was dancing with her cousin Alla, Megga with Ser Tallad the Tall. The other cousin, Elinor, was sharing a cup of wine with the handsome young Bastard of Driftmark, Aurane Waters. It was not the first time the queen had made note of Waters, a lean young man with grey-green eyes and long silver-gold hair. The first time she had seen him, for half a heartbeat she had almost thought Rhaegar Targaryen had returned from the ashes. It is his hair, she told herself. He is not half as comely as Rhaegar was. His face is too narrow, and he has that cleft in his chin. The Velaryons came from old Valyrian stock, however, and some had the same silvery hair as the dragonkings of old. A Feast for Crows - Cersei III

Aurane Waters is a Bastard member of house Velaryon and the half brother of Monford Velaryon Lord of the Tides and Master of Driftmark.
The Bastard of Driftmark has abandoned Cersei and taken all her new ships with him.
I'm not saying that he will kill Cersei by wrapping his hands about her neck but he could use his stolen fleet(and any other ships he may have acquired) to blockade the Gullet like his ancestor Corlys Velaryon did during the Dance of the Dragons,

Even as he spoke, the Dance began. On Driftmark, the Sea Snake’s ships set sail from Hull and Spicetown to close the Gullet, choking off trade to and from King’s Landing. The Princess and the Queen


As for the hands around this 'gullet'

The flagship of Aurane's stolen fleet is a huge drummond he named Lord Tywin,

Her flagship would dip twice as many oars as King Robert's Hammer. Aurane had asked her leave to name her Lord Tywin, which Cersei had been pleased to grant. AFFC Cersei VI

Thats one hand.


"...What fools we were,who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation..." A Feast For Crows Samwell IV


Swords of Ice and Fire

Male And Female In The Vale Of Arryn

Who's Looking Through The Black Gate?

The Trident Has Three Heads.

Aerys, Tywin and a Bride for Rhaegar

Davos's Thumb

Coin Well Spent

Brandon's Bastards

Coin Well Spent

When a man of the Night's Watch stands before the Black Gate he is asked a question,

The door opened its eyes.
They were white too, and blind. “Who are you?” the door asked, and the well whispered, “Whowho-who-who-who-who-who.”
“I am the sword in the darkness,” Samwell Tarly said. “I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men.”
“Then pass,” the door said.


"Who are you?" The Black Gate asks when a man of the Night's Watch wishes to pass beyond the wall.

 At the House of Black and White, Arya is often asked the same question,

"Who are you?"  plague face asked when they were alone.
"No one."

The answer to this question may be different for A servant of the Many Faced God and A brother of the Night's Watch but in essence they are the same.


When Jon Snow asks to serve in the Night's Watch, he is told that he doesn't know the cost,

"I forget nothing," Jon boasted. The wine was making him bold. He tried to sit very straight, to make himself seem taller. "I want to serve in the Night's Watch, Uncle."
He had thought on it long and hard, lying abed at night while his brothers slept around him. Robb would someday inherit Winterfell, would command great armies as the Warden of the North. Bran and Rickon would be Robb's bannermen and rule holdfasts in his name. His sisters Arya and Sansa would marry the heirs of other great houses and go south as mistress of castles of their own. But what place could a bastard hope to earn?
“You don’t know what you’re asking, Jon. The Night’s Watch is a sworn brotherhood. We have no families. None of us will ever father sons. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor.”
“A bastard can have honor too,” Jon said. “I am ready to swear your oath.”
“You are a boy of fourteen,” Benjen said. “Not a man, not yet. Until you have known a woman, you cannot understand what you would be giving up.”
“I don’t care about that!” Jon said hotly.
“You might, if you knew what it meant,” Benjen said. “If you knew what the oath would cost
you, you might be less eager to pay the price, son.” AGOT Jon I

When Arya wishes to serve in the House of Black and White she is told of the price,

“Valar dohaeris.” All men must serve.
“You know the words, but you are too proud to serve. A servant must be humble and
obedient.”
“I obey. I can be humbler than anyone.”
That made him chuckle. “You will be the very goddess of humility, I am sure. But can
you pay the price?”  ADWD The Ugly Little Girl


The price of service in both the Night's Watch and the House of Black and White are very similar.

To serve, both orders require giving up everything you once were.

"At evenfall, as the sun sets and we face the gathering night, you shall take your vows. From that moment, you will be a Sworn Brother of the Night's Watch. Your crimes will be washed away, your debts forgiven. So too you must wash away your former loyalties, put aside your grudges, forget old wrongs and old loves alike. Here you begin anew. A Game of Thrones - Jon VI


and become no one,

“You need to rid yourself of all this,” he said of her treasures.
Arya felt stricken. “They’re mine.”
“And who are you?”
“No one.”
He picked up her silver fork. “This belongs to Arya of House Stark. All these things belong to her. There is no place for them here. There is no place for her. Hers is too proud a name, and we have no room for pride. We are servants here.” AFFC Arya II



Everything you hoped to achieve in life is given up in service to the order you serve,

. "They will garb your brother Robb in silks, satins, and velvets of a hundred different colors, while you live and die in black ringmail. He will wed some beautiful princess and father sons on her. You'll have no wife, nor will you ever hold a child of your own blood in your arms. Robb will rule, you will serve. Men will call you a crow. Him they'll call Your Grace. Singers will praise every little thing he does, while your greatest deeds all go unsung. Tell me that none of this troubles you, Jon . . . and I'll name you a liar, and know I have the truth of it." ACOK Jon I


All the potential of your life is theirs,

The waif showed ten fingers. Then ten again, and yet again. Then six. Her face remained as smooth as still water. She can't be six-and-thirty, Arya thought. She's a little girl. "You're lying," she said. The waif shook her head and showed her once again: ten and ten and ten and six. She said the words for six-and-thirty, and made Arya say them too.
The next day she told the kindly man what the waif had claimed. "She did not lie," the priest said, chuckling. "The one you call waif is a woman grown who has spent her life serving Him of Many Faces. She gave Him all she was, all she ever might have been, all the lives that were within her."  AFFC Arya II


Jon says he can pay that price,

Jon drew himself up, taut as a bowstring. "And if it did trouble me, what might I do, bastard as I am?"
"What will you do?" Mormont asked. "Bastard as you are?"
"Be troubled," said Jon, "and keep my vows." ACOK Jon I

and so does Arya,

“What price?”
“The price is you. The price is all you have and all you ever hope to have. We took your
eyes and gave them back. Next we will take your ears, and you will walk in silence. You
will give us your legs and crawl. You will be no one’s daughter, no one’s wife, no one’s
mother. Your name will be a lie, and the very face you wear will not be your own.”
She almost bit her lip again, but this time she caught herself and stopped. My face is a
dark pool, hiding everything, showing nothing. She thought of all the names that she had worn: Arry, Weasel, Squab, Cat of the Canals. She thought of that stupid girl from Winterfell
called Arya Horseface. Names did not matter. “I can pay the price. Give me a face.” ADWD The Ugly Little Girl




Jon wants to become a Ranger,

Three days after their arrival, Jon had heard that Benjen Stark was to lead a half-dozen men on a ranging into the haunted forest. That night he sought out his uncle in the great timbered common hall and pleaded to go with him. Benjen refused him curtly. "This is not Winterfell," he told him as he cut his meat with fork and dagger. "On the Wall, a man gets only what he earns. You're no ranger, Jon, only a green boy with the smell of summer still on you." A Game of Thrones - Jon III


Arya wants a face,


She almost bit her lip again, but this time she caught herself and stopped. My face is a dark pool, hiding everything, showing nothing. She thought of all the names that she had worn: Arry, Weasel, Squab, Cat of the Canals. She thought of that stupid girl from Winterfell called Arya Horseface. Names did not matter. "I can pay the price. Give me a face."
"Faces must be earned." ADWD The Ugly Little Girl


Both have to be earned


Jon and Arya are pledged to their Orders.  Both of them SAY they are faithful servants, but...

"... It's like Mance said. Deeds is truer than words." ASOS Jon II


The "Deeds" in which both Jon and Arya prove the truth of their words are very similar. If you look closely.

Both start with a gathering,

Jon's begins on the Fist of the First men with the arrival of Qhorin Halfhand and the men from the Shadow Tower in A Clash of Kings Jon V


At the ringwall, he found the guards sliding spikes from the half-frozen earth to make an opening. It was not long until the first of the brothers from the Shadow Tower began wending their way up the slope. All in leather and fur they were, with here and there a bit of steel or bronze; heavy beards covered hard lean faces, and made them look as shaggy as their garrons. Jon was surprised to see some of them were riding two to a horse. When he looked more closely, it was plain that many of them were wounded. There has been trouble on the way.
Jon knew Qhorin Halfhand the instant he saw him, though they had never met. The big ranger was half a legend in the Watch; a man of slow words and swift action, tall and straight as a spear, long-limbed and solemn. Unlike his men, he was clean-shaven. His hair fell from beneath his helm in a heavy braid touched with hoarfrost, and the blacks he wore were so faded they might have been greys. Only thumb and forefinger remained on the hand that held the reins; the other fingers had been sheared off catching a wildling's axe that would otherwise have split his skull. It was told that he had thrust his maimed fist into the face of the axeman so the blood spurted into his eyes, and slew him while he was blind. Since that day, the wildlings beyond the Wall had known no foe more implacable.

Arya's begins in the temple beneath the House of Black and White in A Dance With Dragons The Ugly Little Girl,

Eleven servants of the Many-Faced God gathered that night beneath the temple, more than she had ever seen together at one time. Only the lordling and the fat fellow arrived by the front door; the rest came by secret ways, through tunnels and hidden passages. They wore their robes of black and white, but as they took their seats each man pulled his cowl down to show the face he had chosen to wear that day.

Both are serving as stewards/cupbearers at these meetings and both hear what is being discussed.

Jon,

“Best talk of this inside. Jon will fetch you a horn of ale. Or would you prefer hot spiced
wine?”
“Boiled water will suffice. An egg and a bite of bacon.”
“As you wish.” Mormont lifted the flap of the tent and Qhorin Halfhand stooped and stepped
through.

Arya,

One of the other acolytes stood across the room with a flagon of dark red wine. She had
the water.

They both have a little trouble hearing some of the conversation

A noisy raven and quiet tones hinder Jon,

Restless, Jon squatted by the fire and poked at it with a stick. He could hear the Old Bear ’s
voice inside the tent, punctuated by the raven’s squawks and Qhorin Halfhand’s quieter tones, but he could not make out the words. Alfyn Crowkiller dead, that’s good . He was one of the bloodiest of the wildling raiders, taking his name from the black brothers he’d slain. So why does Qhorin sound so grave, after such a victory?

 Arya is hindered by soft voices,

The priests used the language of Braavos, though once for several minutes three spoke
heatedly in High Valyrian. The girl understood the words, mostly, but they spoke in soft
voices, and she could not always hear. “I know this man,” she did hear a priest with the
face of a plague victim say. “I know this man,” the fat fellow echoed, as she was pouring
for him. But the handsome man said, “I will give this man the gift, I know him not.” Later
the squinter said the same thing, of someone else.


When agreement has been reached, Jon is asked to serve,


“Belike we shall all die, then. Our dying will buy time for our brothers on the Wall. Time to
garrison the empty castles and freeze shut the gates, time to summon lords and kings to their aid, time to hone their axes and repair their catapults. Our lives will be coin well spent.”
“Die,” the raven muttered, pacing along Mormont’s shoulders. “Die, die, die, die.” The old Bear sat slumped and silent, as if the burden of speech had grown too heavy for him to bear. But at last he said, “May the gods forgive me. Choose your men.”
Qhorin Halfhand turned his head. His eyes met Jon’s, and held them for a long moment. “Very well. I choose Jon Snow.”

and so is Arya,

“Our brother would have words with you, child,” the kindly man told her. “Sit, if you wish.” She seated herself in a weirwood chair with a face of ebony. Bloody sores held no terror for her. She had been too long in the House of Black and White to be afraid of a false face.
“Valar dohaeris.” All men must serve.
“You know the words, but you are too proud to serve. A servant must be humble and
obedient.”
“I obey. I can be humbler than anyone.”
That made him chuckle. “You will be the very goddess of humility, I am sure. But can
you pay the price?”
“What price?”
“The price is you. The price is all you have and all you ever hope to have. We took your
eyes and gave them back. Next we will take your ears, and you will walk in silence. You
will give us your legs and crawl. You will be no one’s daughter, no one’s wife, no one’s
mother. Your name will be a lie, and the very face you wear will not be your own.”
She almost bit her lip again, but this time she caught herself and stopped. My face is a
dark pool, hiding everything, showing nothing. She thought of all the names that she had worn: Arry, Weasel, Squab, Cat of the Canals. She thought of that stupid girl from Winterfell
called Arya Horseface. Names did not matter. “I can pay the price. Give me a face.”
“Faces must be earned.”
“Tell me how.”
“Give a certain man a certain gift. Can you do that?”


Jon agrees,

Mormont blinked. “He is hardly more than a boy. And my steward besides. Not even a ranger.” “Tollett can care for you as well, my lord.” Qhorin lifted his maimed, two-fingered hand. “The old gods are still strong beyond the Wall. The gods of the First Men… and the Starks.”
Mormont looked at Jon. “What is your will in this?”
“To go,” he said at once.
The old man smiled sadly. “I thought it might be.”

so does Arya

“What man?”
“No one that you know.”
“I don’t know a lot of people.”
“He is one of them. A stranger. No one you love, no one you hate, no one you have ever
known. Will you kill him?”
“Yes.”


The following morning both set out to serve their Orders,


Jon sets out with Qhorin to find out what Mance is up to,

Dawn had broken when Jon stepped from the tent beside Qhorin Halfhand. The wind swirled around them, stirring their black cloaks and sending a scatter of red cinders flying from the fire.
“We ride at noon,” the ranger told him. “Best find that wolf of yours.”

Arya returns to Brusco to begin watching the Man at the soup shop,

 “Then on the morrow, you shall be Cat of the Canals again. Wear that face, watch,
obey. And we will see if you are truly worthy to serve Him of Many Faces.”
So the next day she returned to Brusco and his daughters in the house on the canal.
Brusco’s eyes widened when he saw her, and Brea gave a little gasp. “Valar morghulis,” Cat
said, by way of greeting. “Valar dohaeris,” Brusco replied.


In A Clash of Kings Jon VIII, when only Jon and Qhorin are left and are being pursued by the wildlings, it looks like the end.

The flames were burning low by then, the warmth fading. “The fire will soon go out,” Qhorin
said, “but if the Wall should ever fall, all the fires will go out.”
There was nothing Jon could say to that. He nodded.
“We may escape them yet,” the ranger said. “Or not.”

Jon is willing to die. He may be scared but he is willing to die for the Night's Watch,


“I’m not afraid to die.” It was only half a lie.
“It may not be so easy as that, Jon.”

But that isn't what is required of him.


He did not understand. “What do you mean?”
“If we are taken, you must yield.”


Arya is willing to kill anyone to get to the man in the soup shop,

“The guards go with him even when he slips out to make water,” she said, “but he
doesn’t go when they do. The tall one is the quicker. I’ll wait till he is making water, walk
into the soup shop, and stab the old man through the eye.”
“And the other guard?”
“He’s slow and stupid. I can kill him too.”

but that isn't what is required of her.

“Are you some butcher of the battlefield, hacking down every man who stands in your
way?”
“No.”



When Qhorin tells Jon what he must do Jon realizes that this is the price that must be payed to be a man of the Night's Watch. This is what the oath he has sworn means.

“Yield?” He blinked in disbelief. The wildlings did not make captives of the men they called
the crows. They killed them, except for…“They only spare oathbreakers. Those who join them,
like Mance Rayder.”
“And you.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Never. I won’t.”
“You will. I command it of you.”
“Command it? But…”
“Our honor means no more than our lives, so long as the realm is safe. Are you a man of the
Night’s Watch?”
“Yes, but—”
“There is no but, Jon Snow. You are, or you are not.”
Jon sat up straight. “I am.”


Arya also realises what it means to serve the God of Many Faces.


“I would hope not. You are a servant of the Many-Faced God, and we who serve Him of
Many Faces give his gift only to those who have been marked and chosen.”
She understood. Kill him. Kill only him.


To serve, both Jon and Arya will have to become someone they are not. Jon will have to yield and turn his cloak


“Then hear me. If we are taken, you will go over to them, as the wildling girl you captured
once urged you. They may demand that you cut your cloak to ribbons, that you swear them an oath on your father ’s grave, that you curse your brothers and your Lord Commander. You must not balk, whatever is asked of you. Do as they bid you… but in your heart, remember who and what you are. Ride with them, eat with them, fight with them, for as long as it takes. And watch.”
“For what?” Jon asked.
“Would that I knew,” said Qhorin. “Your wolf saw their diggings in the valley of the
Milkwater. What did they seek, in such a bleak and distant place? Did they find it? That is what you must learn, before you return to Lord Mormont and your brothers. That is the duty I lay on you, Jon Snow.”
“I’ll do as you say,” Jon said reluctantly, “but… you will tell them, won’t you? The Old Bear, at least? You’ll tell him that I never broke my oath.”

Arya will have to become the Ugly Little Girl,

“Him of Many Faces will be pleased.” The kindly man rose. “Cat of the Canals is known
to many. If she is seen to have done this deed, it might bring down trouble on Brusco and
his daughters. It is time you had another face.”


The "journey" to these new identities for The Crow Come Over and  The Ugly Little Girl are very similar....
....if you look closely


Jon travels through the mountain....

The farther in they went, the closer the cliffs pressed to either side. They followed the moonlit ribbon of stream back toward its source. Icicles bearded its stony banks, but Jon could still hear the sound of rushing water beneath the thin hard crust.
A great jumble of fallen rock blocked their way partway up, where a section of the cliff face
had fallen, but the surefooted little garrons were able to pick their way through. Beyond, the walls pinched in sharply, and the stream led them to the foot of a tall twisting waterfall.

....Arya travels to the lower levels beneath the House of Black and White,

With every step the air seemed to grow a little colder. When her count reached thirty she knew that they were under even the canals. Three-and-thirty four-and-thirty. How deep were they going to go?
She had reached fifty-four when the steps finally ended at another iron door. This one was unlocked. The kindly man pushed it open and stepped through. She followed, with the waif on her heels. Their footsteps echoed through the darkness. The kindly man lifted his lantern and flicked its shutters wide open. Light washed over the walls around them.
A thousand faces were gazing down on her.


When Arya dons her new face, blood flows down her own face in a "red curtain",

The cut was quick, the blade sharp. By rights the metal should have been cold against her flesh, but it felt warm instead. She could feel the blood washing down her face, a rippling red curtain falling across her brow and cheeks and chin, and she understood why the priest had made her close her eyes.


John also passes through a "curtain",

“Quickly now,” the Halfhand commanded. The big man on the small horse rode over the iceslick stones, right into the curtain of water, and vanished. When he did not reappear, Jon put his heels into his horse and went after.
His garron did his best to shy away. The falling water slapped at them with frozen fists, and the shock of the cold seemed to stop Jon’s breath. Then he was through; drenched and shivering, but through.

The experience of this "curtain" causes Jon to shiver and lose his breath.

Arya has a similar experience,

When it reached her lips the taste was salt and copper. She licked at it and shivered....

....She could feel her heart fluttering beneath her breast, and for one long moment she could not catch her breath. Hands closed around her throat, hard as stone, choking her.


After donning the face of the Ugly Little Girl, Arya suffers nightmares,

Sleep did not come easily that night. Tangled in her blankets, she twisted this way and
that in the cold dark room, but whichever way she turned, she saw the faces. They have no
eyes, but they can see me. She saw her father’s face upon the wall. Beside him hung her lady mother, and below them her three brothers all in a row. No. That was some other girl. I am no one, and my only brothers wear robes of black and white. Yet there was the black singer, there the stableboy she’d killed with Needle, there the pimply squire from the crossroads inn, and over there the guard whose throat she’d slashed to get them out of Harrenhal.
The Tickler hung on the wall as well, the black holes that were his eyes swimming with
malice. The sight of him brought back the feel of the dagger in her hand as she had
plunged it into his back, again and again and again.


Jon has the same problem

Sleep came at last, and with it nightmares. He dreamed of burning castles and dead men rising unquiet from their graves. It was still dark when Qhorin woke him. While the Halfhand slept, Jon sat with his back to the cave wall, listening to the water and waiting for the dawn.


The next day Jon and Qhorin set out to make their stand,

“Here is as good a place as any to make a stand,” he declared. “The mouth of the cave shelters us from above, and they cannot get behind us without passing through the mountain. Is your sword sharp, Jon Snow?”
“Yes,” he said.
“We’ll feed the horses. They’ve served us bravely, poor beasts.”
Jon gave his garron the last of the oats and stroked his shaggy mane while Ghost prowled
restlessly amongst the rocks. He pulled his gloves on tighter and flexed his burnt fingers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men.
A hunting horn echoed through the mountains, and a moment later Jon heard the baying of
hounds. “They will be with us soon,” announced Qhorin. “Keep your wolf in hand.”


 Arya settles in to watch her target,

By the time she reached the Purple Harbor, the old man was ensconced inside the soup
shop at his usual table, counting a purse of coins as he haggled with a ship’s captain. The
tall thin guard was hovering over him. The short thick one was seated near the door,
where he would have a good view of anyone who entered. That made no matter. She did
not intend to enter. Instead she perched atop a wooden piling twenty yards away as the
blustery wind tugged at her cloak with ghostly fingers.



At the moment when Rattleshirt and his wildings catch up with Jon and Qhorin......

The wildlings came boiling over a ridge not half a mile away. Their hounds ran before them,
snarling grey-brown beasts with more than a little wolf in their blood. Ghost bared his teeth, his fur bristling. “Easy,” Jon murmured. “Stay.” Overhead he heard a rustle of wings. The eagle landed on an outcrop of rock and screamed in triumph.

.....and the shipowner walks past the Ugly Little Girl.....

It was almost noon before she saw the man she wanted, a prosperous shipowner she
had seen doing business with the old man three times before. Big and bald and burly, he
wore a heavy cloak of plush brown velvet trimmed with fur and a brown leather belt
ornamented with silver moons and stars. Some mishap had left one leg stiff. He walked
slowly, leaning on a cane.

....both plans are set in motion. And if you look closely, both plans are very similar.

“They would shame us into folly.” Qhorin gave Jon a long look. “Remember your orders.”
“Belike we need to flush the crows,” Rattleshirt bellowed over the clamor. “Feather them!”
“No!” The word burst from Jon’s lips before the bowmen could loose. He took two quick steps forward. “We yield!”

Both plans are executed with a sharp blade and a slash that would not be felt,


Arya with her fingerknife,

He would do as well as any and better than most, the ugly girl decided. She hopped off
the piling and fell in after him. A dozen strides put her right behind him, her finger knife
poised. His purse was on his right side, at his belt, but his cloak was in her way. Her
blade flashed out, smooth and quick, one deep slash through the velvet and he never felt
a thing. Red Roggo would have smiled to see it. She slipped her hand through the gap, slit
the purse open with the finger knife, filled her fist with gold …    (notice the "red smile" of Roggo in this scene after Arya's 'slash')

Jon with Longclaw,

“I’ll do whatever you ask.” The words came hard, but Jon said them.
Rattleshirt’s bone armor clattered loudly as he laughed. “Then kill the Halfhand, bastard.”
“As if he could,” said Qhorin. “Turn, Snow, and die.”

And then Qhorin’s sword was coming at him and somehow Longclaw leapt upward to block. The force of impact almost knocked the bastard blade from Jon’s hand, and sent him staggering backward. You must not balk, whatever is asked of you. He shifted to a two-hand grip, quick enough to deliver a stroke of his own, but the big ranger brushed it aside with contemptuous ease. Back and forth they went, black cloaks swirling, the youth’s quickness against the savage strength of Qhorin’s left-hand cuts. The Halfhand’s longsword seemed to be everywhere at once, raining down from one side and then the other, driving him where he would, keeping him off balance. Already he could feel his arms growing numb.
Even when Ghost’s teeth closed savagely around the ranger ’s calf, somehow Qhorin kept his feet. But in that instant, as he twisted, the opening was there. Jon planted and pivoted. The ranger was leaning away, and for an instant it seemed that Jon’s slash had not touched him. Then a string of red tears appeared across the big man’s throat, bright as a ruby necklace, and the blood gushed out of him, and Qhorin Halfhand fell.
Ghost’s muzzle was dripping red, but only the point of the bastard blade was stained, the last half inch. Jon pulled the direwolf away and knelt with one arm around him. The light was already fading in Qhorin’s eyes. “…sharp,” he said, lifting his maimed fingers. Then his hand fell, and he was gone.   (and notice after Jon's 'slash',Ghosts muzzle dripping red in this scene)


After the fight the wildlings loot Qhorin's corpse,

They burned Qhorin Halfhand where he’d fallen, on a pyre made of pine needles, brush, and
broken branches. Some of the wood was still green, and it burned slow and smoky, sending a black plume up into the bright hard blue of the sky. Afterward Rattleshirt claimed some charred bones, while the others threw dice for the ranger’s gear. Ygritte won his cloak.

They gather up their loot and their newest member and head off to join up with Mance Rayder and the Free folk.

“Will we return by the Skirling Pass?” Jon asked her. He did not know if he could face those heights again, or if his garron could survive a second crossing.
“No,” she said. “There’s nothing behind us.” The look she gave him was sad. “By now Mance is well down the Milkwater, marching on your Wall.”


After Arya escapes she returns to the House of Black and White...

By now the shipowner would have gathered up coins and cane
and limped on to the soup shop. He might be drinking a bowl of hot broth and
complaining to the old man about the ugly girl who had tried to rob his purse.
The kindly man was waiting for her at the House of Black and White, seated on the
edge of the temple pool. The ugly girl sat next to him and put a coin on the lip of the pool
between them. 


....and  like Rattleshirt  and the wildlings when they "acquired" Jon,  the ship owner picked up something that wasn't his to begin with,


Arya has given the 'gift' to ONLY the man at the soup shop proving she is worthy to serve Him of Many Faces.

She did this by swapping one coin for poisoned coin with the smooth slash of a sharp blade that the shipowner didn't feel.

She is given new garb, and begins her apprenticeship,

That night they gave her back the face of Arya Stark.
They brought a robe for her as well, the soft thick robe of an acolyte, black upon one
side and white upon the other.
“Wear this when you are here,” the priest said, “but know
that you shall have little need of it for the present. On the morrow you will go to Izembaro
to begin your first apprenticeship. Take what clothes you will from the vaults below. The
city watch is looking for a certain ugly girl, known to frequent the Purple Harbor, so best
you have a new face as well.” He cupped her chin, turned her head this way and that,
nodded. “A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own. Who are you, child?”
“No one,” she replied.

This time when she says she is "no one" nobody calls her a liar.

When Jon reaches the wildling camp he is  also given  new garb,

Mance Rayder looked at Jon's face for a long moment. "I think we had best find you a new cloak," the king said, holding out his hand. ASOS Jon I


Jon wheeled and followed Tormund back toward the head of the column, his new cloak hanging heavy from his shoulders. It was made of unwashed sheepskins, worn fleece side in, as the wildlings suggested. It kept the snow off well enough, and at night it was good and warm, but he kept his black cloak as well, folded up beneath his saddle. ASOS Jon II


For Qhorin, the cost of being a Man of the Night's Watch was his life, which he gave up willingly so Jon could live and join the wildlings to find out what Mance Rayder was planning.

"We can only die. Why else do we don these black cloaks, but to die in defense of the realm? I would send fifteen men, in three parties of five. One to probe the Milkwater, one the Skirling Pass, one to climb the Giant's Stair. Jarman Buckwell, Thoren Smallwood, and myself to command. To learn what waits in those mountains." ACOK Jon V

He considers the price of his life as "coin well spent".................. I pledge my LIFE and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."

“Belike we shall all die, then. Our dying will buy time for our brothers on the Wall. Time to
garrison the empty castles and freeze shut the gates, time to summon lords and kings to their aid, time to hone their axes and repair their catapults. Our lives will be coin well spent.” ACOK Jon V

For Jon the cost was his honor. To fulfil his oath Jon had to slay his brother and become someone he was not.  A turncloak

"Our honor means no more than our lives, so long as the realm is safe. Are you a man of the Night's Watch?" ACOK Jon V

The price of his honor is the "coin" that Jon spent.................... I pledge my life and HONOR to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."


When Qhorin ordered Jon to yield and turn his cloak

You must not balk, whatever is asked of you. Do as they bid you . . . 

he knew what would happen

He knew, he thought numbly. He knew what they would ask of me.

Qhorin traded his coin(life) for Jon's coin(honor)

One coin for another.

It was gold, with a dragon on one face and a king on the other.
“The golden dragon of Westeros,” said the kindly man. “And how did you come by this?
We are no thieves.”
“It wasn’t stealing. I took one of his, but I left him one of ours.”


Davos's Thumb

Aerys, Tywin and a Bride for Rhaegar

The Trident Has Three Heads.

Who's Looking Through The Black Gate?

Male And Female In The Vale Of Arryn

Swords of Ice and Fire

Valonqar - High Valyrian or Bastard Valyrian?

Brandon's Bastards