Some examples of these parallels in AGOT and ACOK are: Some of these parallels are out of order and some of them are also repeating. Arya’s story is also shown to narratively parallel the story of “The Ugly Duckling” in a symbolic manner especially in ACOK and ASOS, although the parallels are still ongoing, which we may likely see when we get TWOW and ADOS. And because she does not look like her siblings – except for her half-brother Jon Snow – and doesn’t conform to traditional femininity while being considered “ugly” and “horsefaced”, she is teased and outcasted just like the ugly duckling in the story. We find Arya in a similar situation in the books (minus the abuse aspects, at least at this point) where she is the only child of Ned who actually looks like a traditional Stark (dark coloring, grey eyes, and a long solemn face) while the rest of his children took after the Tully’s (fair coloring, auburn hair, and blue eyes).
When the eggs hatch, one of the little birds is viewed by the other birds and animals on the farm as an ugly little creature and suffers from bullying and physical and mental abuse from them. Wings are also mentioned which relates to ‘air’ as well.Īrya’s swan symbolism truly begins with “The Ugly Duckling” motif however, which is a coming-of-age story about a swan egg that accidentally rolls into the nest of a duck. ‘Aria’ also means ‘air’ and Arya expressly yearns to fly several times in her chapters. A metaphorical phrase for a Swan Song means a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement, which connects to the meaning of ‘aria’ being a solo operatic performance. The Swan Song refers to the ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful song before their deaths after spending their life in silence (swans make noise but they don’t sing, and Arya also can’t technically sing either, or at least Arya claims she can’t). And because of Arya’s many connections to swans and the root ‘aria’ we can also connect Arya to the Swan Song. So in other words, the root words for ‘Arya’ and ‘swan’ are synonyms. And the word ‘swan’ comes from the Indo-European root word *swen: “to sound or sing”. Arya is a homophone for ‘aria’, a term in opera that refers to a solo singing section usually performed by a woman. The name ‘Arya’ and the word ‘swan’ literally means “a song”.
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