The Song of the Sea

The Song of the Sea is a piece of music performed by the singer Abel during the wedding feast of Ramsay Bolton and the false Arya Stark at Winterfell. Its appearance is brief but significant, occurring at a moment of high tension within the Great Hall. The song is one of several that Abel plays at the command of Lord Roose Bolton, who calls for the singer to provide entertainment after the discovery of the murdered squire Little Walder Frey and the subsequent bloody confrontation between the Freys and the Manderlys. The performance of The Song of the Sea is part of a sequence that includes other tunes such as "Iron Lances," "The Winter Maid," "The Queen Took Off Her Sandal, the King Took Off His Crown," and "The Bear and the Maiden Fair." The music initially serves to calm the hall, with even some northmen joining in the singing, but the noise eventually frightens the horses stabled within the hall, forcing the singers to stop and the music to die away. The song itself is not described in detail, but its inclusion in the repertoire of Abel, a singer who is secretly Mance Rayder in disguise, adds a layer of irony and hidden purpose to the festivities. The Song of the Sea, like the other songs, functions as a tool for Abel to maintain his cover as a harmless bard while he and his spearwives plot the rescue of the false Arya. The performance of this song, therefore, is a key part of the mummer's farce that plays out during the wedding, a moment of apparent levity that masks the deadly schemes unfolding beneath the surface of the feast.