WHO ARE JON'S PARENTS?
1.) Rhaegar & Lyanna:
One of the most popular theories is that Jon's parents are Prince Rhaegar Targaryan and Lyanna Stark. Here is the timeline for what they believe happened:
1.) Rheagar and Lyanna fall in love (At the tourney maybe)
2.) Rheagar "kidnaps" Lyanna
3.) Rheagar takes Lyanna to the Tower of Joy where they are
married and Lyanna becomes pregnant
4.) Brandon Stark finds out and he and his father go to King's
Landing
5.) Mad King Aerys has them killed
6.) Robert Baratheon then goes to war against the crown
7.) This forces Rhaegar to leave Lyanna (with three of his
Kingsguard to protect her)
8.) Rhaegar is killed at the Trident
9.) Jon is born
10.) Lord Eddard goes to fight the remainder of the Kingsguard at
the Tower of Joy
11.) When the fighting is done, he finds Lyanna in the Tower dying.
12.) He promises to take care of her son.
13.) He sends Jon north, saying that Jon is his bastard, to save him
from Robert's anger
Parts of the book point fingers towards proving that this theory may be true. Though, I think that it has been proven that Lyanna and Rhaegar had a child together, it does not prove that this child is Jon.
Here are some passages from the book that support this theory: "I was with her when she died," Ned reminded the King. "She wanted to come home, to rst beside Brandon and Father." He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes. Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightl her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black.
A Game of Thrones
p. 35 This passage speaks of a promise Lyanna asks of Eddard. It seems very important to her. More important than just having her bones returned to Winterfell. Here is the first mention of roses in the book (perhaps those the Rhaegar gave her). "Robert will never keep to one bed," Lyanna had told him at Winterfell, on the night long ago when their father had promised her hand to the young Lord of Storm's End. "I hear he has gotten a child on some girl in the Vale. ...he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his hear. Lyanna hed only smiled. "Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man's nature."
A Game of Thrones
p. 318
Lyanna knows that Robert will never be faithful to her. Rhaegar on the other hand was not the type of man that would go out whoring. Perhaps, then, Lyanna found in Rhaegar a faithfulness that she would never get out of Robert....but Ned Stark kept his vows. He thought of the promises he'd make Lyanna as she lay dying, and the price he'd paid to keep them.
A Game of Thrones
p. 318
What price did Eddard have to pay for keeping Lya's secret? The loss of his honor from claiming a bastard?...he could hear screaming. "Eddard!" she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.
"Lord Eddard," Lyanna called again.
"I promise," he whispered. "Lya, I promise..."
A Game of Thrones
p. 355
Another reference to blood. Perhaps it's the blood from a difficult delivery that would end up killing her. And, again, another reference to blue rose petals....Last of all, he came to the tomb where his father slept, with Brandon and Lyanna beside him. "Promise me, Ned," Lyanna's statue whispered. She wore a garland of pale blue winter roses, and her eyes wept blood.
A Game of Thrones
p. 419 Why would Lya's statue be weeping? For the death of Rhaegar? Or for the loss of her son?...Ned remembered the moment when all the smiles died, when Prince Rhaegar Targaryen urged his horse past his own wife, the Dornish princess Elia Martell, to lay the queen of beauty's laurel in Lyanna's lap. He could see it still: a crown of winter roses, blue as frost.
Ned Stark reached out his hand to grasp the flowery crown, but beneath the pale blue petals the thorns lay hidden. He felt them clawing at his skin, sharp and cruel, was the slow trickle of blood run down his fingers, and woke, trembling, in the dark.
Promise me, Ned, his sister had whispered from her bed of blood. She had loved the scent of winter roses.
A Game of Thrones
p. 526 Rhaegar must have know of Lyanna's love for winter roses. He probably arranged for the queen of beauty's laurel to be made of blue winter roses. This passage indicates that her death had something to do with Rhaegar.
2.) Eddard & Lyanna
This theory has been proposed on the internet, though I think that it is highly unlikely. Lord Eddard was much too honorable for such an act, but there are some indications that Jon is his.
They are:...He had a Stark face if net the name: long, solemn, guarded, a face that gave nothing away. Whoever his mother had been, she had left little of herself in her son.
A Game of Thrones
p. 103
This is perhaps the only indication that Jon is Eddard and Lyanna's son. More likely, it was just that the Stark genes prevailed against the genes of the mother, not that Ned and Lya had an inscestuous relationship....Riding through the rainy night, Ned saw Jon Snow's face in front of him, so like a younger version of his own. If the gods frowned so on bastards, he thought dully, why did they fill men with such lusts?
A Game of Thrones
p. 319 This seems like proof that Jon is Eddard's. Though, maybe, it's ons of his brother's son and he's just making a general comment.
3.) Benjen & ? :
This is another weak theory (in my opinion). And there is really one passage that has anything to do with it.
Here it is: ..."you are a boy of fourteen," Benjen said. "Not a man, not yet...If you know what the oath would cost you, you might be less eager to pay the price, son."
Jon felt the anger rise inside him. "I'm not your son!"
Benjen Stark stood up. "More's the pity."
A Game of Thrones
p. 46 l. 36This really isn't much proof, but it is just a theory.
4.) Brandon & Ashara Dayne
This theory is my personal favorite. Probably because it is the least expected. And with George R. R. Martin, it quite possibly, will be the least expected theory that wins. The timeline for this theory goes like this:
1.) Brandon falls in love with Ashara
2.) They bribe a septon to marry them
3.) Ashara becomes pregnant
4.) Brandon returns home intending to tell his family of his marriage
5.) Lord Rickard tells him of the arrangement between him and Catelyn
6.) Brandon goes to Riverrun to break off the engagement
7.) Instead he duels with Littlefinger
8.) He leaves, more confused than ever,
9.) He finds out about his sister's "abduction"
10.) Brandon and his father go to King's Landing where they are killed,
11.) Eddard marries Catelyn
12.) Eddard takes part in the war
13.) He goes to the Tower of Joy to fight the remnants of the Kingsguard
14.) He deals with Lyanna
15.) He returns Arthur Daynes sword to Ashara
16.) She gives him her son Jon to take care of and kills herself
17.) Eddard sends Jon north saying that he is his bastard (to preserve his
brother's honor)
This theory concers with the Lyanna and Rheagar theory, only Jon is not their son. Lya and Rheagar's son was probably sent elsewhere to protect his identity (Greywater Watch - another theory)
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There should be some clarification. Prince Rhaegar was already married(to Elia Martell)when he met 16 year old Lyanna Stark. The Targaryan family believes in polygamy, even if they rarely practice it. However, when the Prince met the pretty and wildspirited Lyanna he fell hopelessly in love with her. And she with him.
So, as love leads people sometimes to do impulsive&silly things, Lyanna and Rhaegar eloped, and since Rhaegar knew what bad fallout would come forth from this bigamious union, he hid Lyanna away in the Tower of Joy, on the border of Dorne. Lyanna was already engaged To Robert Baratheon of the very powerful Baratheon family, and oaths like this when broken are not taken lightly.
Indications are Rhaegars wife, Elia, might have actually encouraged this polygamous arragement, or at least she did not give a fuck. Dornish people seem to be openminded sexually, so Elia probably tolerated her husbands second marriage to the Lady Lyanna.
However, this indiscretion as acceptable as it was to some parties, was a total outrage to others and resulted in one of the bloodiest battles in Westeros(Roberts Rebellion), and would have an domino effect leading to many other tragedies down the road. All because an egomaniac named Robert Baratheon could not stand to be rejected by a woman, a woman who in reality could not stand him.
Yes, I know. Sounds very similar to the tale of Helen of Troy, but in a medieval setting.