Nitpicking: Lyanna Stark's Death and the Hypothetical Maester

And Now it Begins...

In discussions of the widely accepted fan-theory that Jon Snow is the son of Rheagar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, I'm having trouble with a couple of small components. I'm not rejecting the general R+L=J theory. I think it's probably right, but I wonder if some of the details need adjusting. Truth be told, the simplest answer here is authorial oversight on a couple of fairly small details, and the sensible thing would be to leave it at that...But I'm a sick person, and no one can stop me!

One assumption I'd question (A) is that Lyanna died giving birth to Jon Snow, or immediately afterwards. The other (B) is that Howland Reed is the only remaining person who knows that Rheagar left an heir at the Tower of Joy. Let's take each in turn, trying to explain how the first ties into the second. Then (C) I'll mention a few alternative interpretations we might go with instead.

A. The Fever

Some of the imagery suggests that Lyanna died of injuries sustained during childbirth: She is described as being found in a "bed of blood," in a "room [that] smelled of blood and roses." However, one of the first passages about Lyanna also indicates that she died of a fever, rather than directly from childbirth: "The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister’s eyes." If Lyanna died of a fever as a result of birthing Jon, she can't have died immediately afterward. Any infection needs some time to gestate, and (if Wikipedia is to be believed), infections resulting from childbirth generally require between one and ten days before the onset of symptoms.

Ergo, at least one day has passed between Jon's birth and Lyanna's discovery by Eddard. If the fever is solely responsible for Lyanna's death, then presumably it has been more than one day, since it would have taken some time for the fever to develop to the point where it was fatal. Alternatively, if the fever were exacerbated by physical trauma from Jon's birth, Lyanna's illness might have become fatal more quickly -- but still not immediately.  

On the basis purely of common sense, it would also seem like quite a coincidence if Eddard just happened to show up at the very time Lyanna was finished giving birth. Of course, in works of fiction coincidences like this can happen, but Martin tends to strive for gritty realism.

We might wonder why, if time has elapsed since Lyanna gave birth to Jon, she was still lying in a "bed of blood." Surely she would have been moved or given fresh bedding in the intervening days or hours. The continued presence of blood in Lyanna's bed might be accounted for in a few ways: It could simply be that the physical trauma from birthing Jon hasn't healed and she continued to bleed. Perhaps she couldn't be moved from her bed afterwards because there was concern that the movement would worsen her physical trauma. Finally, it's possible that the infection itself caused abscesses which bled onto the sheets.

B. A Most Hypothetical Maester

Something else I've wondered about since the first time I read the books is why there is no mention of servants attending Lyanna during the Tower of Joy event. In particular, why is there no midwife or maester if Lyanna has just given birth? Since Rhaegar seems to have believed that his son would be the Prince that was Promised, ostensibly a messianic figure, it's a little odd to imagine him not leaving anyone behind to oversee the birth. Even if he's trying to act with some degree of secrecy, it would be strange if one of the most powerful (and beloved) individuals in Westeros couldn't find a single maester whom he could trust to deliver the child; even Eddard Stark, in all his honorable obliviousness, was able to keep some faithful retainers, like Jory, Rodrik, and Luwin. It's certainly possible that Lyanna gave birth with the help only of three Kingsguard, but it's pretty counter-intuitive that this would be allowed to happen. The fact that Maester Luwin has delivered all of Catelyn's children suggests that it's standard for the highborn to be assisted by a maester during births.

So how does this fit with my hypothesis that some time elapsed between Jon's birth and Lyanna's death? Well, the elapsed time allows us to explain why we don't see any servants in the Tower of Joy when Eddard gets there, without forcing us to the odd conclusion that Lyanna delivered the baby on her own (or only with the help of Dayne, Whent, and Hightower). I suggest the following sequence of events:

1. Lyanna gives birth to Jon

2. Jon is fine, but Lyanna's condition deteriorates.

3. It becomes clear that the maester need not stay for Jon's sake and can do nothing more for Lyanna.

4. Lyanna sends the maester away, since there is nothing more he can do, and there is no reason to put him in harm's way. (With Rhaegar dead, Lyanna presumably has the authority to order their servants away, even if they originally served Rhaegar.) 

Why does this matter to the ASoIaF universe? Because it means that there could be a maester out there who knows that Lyanna and Rhaegar produced a child. Maybe nobody told him that this child would be the Prince that was Promised, or filled him in on all the details, but a maester could presumably put two and two together, at least enough to realize whose child he was helping to birth. Even if Rhaegar didn't recruit him directly, he could deduce a lot from the fact that he was at Rhaegar's tower, where Lyanna Stark was giving birth while being watched over by the finest of the Kingsguard.

This hypothetical maester wouldn't be able support Jon's legitimacy all on his own, but he could contribute significantly. Howland Reed probably knows Jon's parentage, but Reed's claims would need a lot of corroboration, since he's an ally of House Stark and would be seen as having an interest in trying to put a Stark on the iron throne. If (as other commentators have suggested) Rhaegar and Lyanna were married on the Isles of Faces, then the priests there could testify that any child produced by the couple would be legitimate. Add to this the testimony of a maester on hand with Lyanna Stark, and you start of have some good corroboration for Jon's claim to the throne. It wouldn't be perfect, but it's already harder evidence than that offered by Ned and Stannis to support Stannis' claim to the throne.

I mentioned earlier that a midwife could have been present, but it seems to me like a maester's testimony would be especially influential. Maesters' words command respect comparable to that of the highborn, hence the presence of a maester on the high council. At the same time, maesters are sworn to the realm, rather than to a faction, so if a maester says that Lyanna and Rhaegar had a child, they are less likely than Howland Reed to be suspected of political machination. A midewife could offer testimony, but given Westeros' feudal politics (and feudal gender politics) it's likely that a maester's word would carry more weight.

So here's my case in a nutshell: If Lyanna died of an infection, rather than immediately after Jon's birth, this makes it pretty plausible that a maester was on hand for Jon's birth. If so, the maester's testimony could help corroborate Jon's claim to power.

C. Alternative Possibilities

1. Lyanna was already suffering from an infection before Jon's birth. The birth by itself didn't kill her, but between birth and illness, Lyanna dies nearly immediately of a fever in a bed of blood. Ned shows up and finds her that way. This is self-consistent, but it doesn't explain the remarkable coincidence of Ned's timing, nor does it explain why no maester or midwife was present. Also, an isolated royal tower should be one of the more sanitary places in Westeros, and someplace you're relatively unlikely to get a random illness.

2. Maybe there were servants present when Eddard arrived. I can think of no point in Ned's dreams or memories where he says explicitly "The Tower of Joy was empty besides Lyanna." He doesn't mention anyone else at the tower, but, to be fair, he was pretty focused on his dying sibling. Technically it's possible that one or more servants remained at the Tower of Joy when Eddward arrived. That leaves us with the question of what happened to them, though. It would be very un-Eddard-like to kill them, but it would also be risky to let them wonder off with a secret that could get Jon killed, threaten House Stark, and once again destabilize Westeros.

3. We could explain the absence of maester as an accident. Maybe Rhaegar or Lyanna had recruited a maester to arrive closer to Jon's birth, but the maester was unable to get to the Tower of Joy, either because of the chaos of civil war, or because of the collapse of House Targaryen. It would still strike me as unusual for Lyanna to be left with only the Kingsguard at the Tower. She's pregnant with messiah/potential heir to the throne, and it doesn't seem like the highborn of Westeros settle anywhere without a servant or two to scrub their backs. (Catelyn did go to King's Landing with just Rodrik, but (a) she was going for optimal secrecy, (b) Eddard already had a household established at King's Landing, and (c) Catelyn wasn't pregnant, and being pregnant is hard).

4. Here's the darkest alternative I can think of: Neither the birth, nor the fever killed Lyanna. She committed suicide when her bodyguards were overcome. Strictly speaking, Eddard never says that the fever killed her, or that the birth killed her. He just says that the bed was bloody and that she was weakened by fever. After Ned makes his promise, all we know is that, "He remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief." Maybe she had a fever, from the birth or otherwise, and then killed herself, producing blood. Maybe she took a poison that caused bleeding and fever-like symptoms. That sounds fast-acting, but she could have also taken poison at the start of the fighting, or when she realized the Targaryens had lost the war. At any rate, we also know that ASoIaF poisons can work quickly, as with the Strangler poison on Cressen near the beginning of A Clash of Kings. This would help to explain Eddard's grief: By trying to "rescue" his sister, he had, in effect, killed her; that could also be part of how she pressured him into taking Jon. It makes some sense for Lyanna too. If "rescued," she would have had to go back to King Robert, who had personally killed her prince, and who would probably kill Jon if he got half a chance. She would then have to keep up the farce by claiming that Rhaegar abducted her, or face some serious punishment. Add to this that Lyanna doesn't seem as impressed with Robert as he is with her --the only thing we know she said about Robert is that she expected him to be unfaithful-- it's not absurd to think that she'd rather not leave the Tower of Joy.

5. As I said at the start, it's more than likely that GRRM just didn't think about the onset-time for fever, and didn't find it counter-intuitive for Lyanna to give birth alone. I have, nevertheless, valiantly pursued these details in the interest of retentive nitpicking. 

Now it ends...