White ravens must be rare, and you couldn't assume that there would be white ravens born in every castle (or even the castles of the wardens or important castles of each region). But I don't see how the white ravens that announce the onset of winter could be like pigeons that are simply returning home. For the most part, ravens seem to be like homing pigeons that fly back to the rookery where they were born, explaining why people transport ravens from place to place in cages. Ravens may still have a magical aspect that the Citadel does not acknowledge. The glass candle at the Citadel is in the hands of Marwin, the maester who is kind of an outcast among his colleagues, it seems, because of his interest in the higher mysteries. two main things I associate the citadel with, ravens and the glass candles, are firmly in the realm of magic. All things that Nan has described to Bran and things that are present or will soon be seen by POV characters. Of course, all of this is irony as Luwin lists the things that have disappeared from the world: dragons, giants, the children of the forest. Valyria was the last ember, and Valyria is gone." What little remains is no more than the wisp of smoke that lingers in the air after a great fire has burned out, and even that is fading. Perhaps magic was once a mighty force in the world, but no longer. Oh, to be sure, there is much we do not understand. This signifies that I have student what the Citadel calls the higher mysteries - magic, for want of a better word. "Only one maester in a hundred wears such a link. "This is Valyrian steel," he said when the link of dark grey metal lay against the apple of his throat. At heart is was only a different sort of knowledge." Luwin: "Call it that for want of a better word, if you must. 28, Maester Luwin tries to explain to Bran the place of magic and the higher mysteries, including greenseers, in the context of other learning. This conversation is confusing because of the ambiguity of the words. This could symbolize the uniting of magic and science, dragonglass and a handle. Jon makes an ugly wooden hilt for the dragonglass blade he keeps from the obsidian cache. Dalla warns Jon about prophecy being a blade without a hilt that is difficult to grasp. In a primitive or medieval society, science and magic may be the same thing. Maybe the point is not that science and magic are opposing forces, but that both are needed and both are mysterious. I concede, these situations are not described as science, but we have been told that there is a tension between the Maesters and the Alchemists, with the alchemists associated with the "magic" of wildfire and maesters associated with "learning." Perhaps the tension is more subtle than direct: for instance, whenever the word "dragonglass" is used in the books, it is almost always accompanied by someone saying out loud, "The maesters call it obsidian." Meanwhile we do see vaguely "sciency" things such as the mixing of medicines and poisons (Sweetrobin can handle only so much sweetsleep, for instance) Maester Luwin's use of a far-eye (telescope) and some medical treatments such as the use of tansy to induce abortion or Maester Aemon and Clydas treating Jon Snow's bleeding leg (from Ygritte's arrow) by washing him and applying the hot blade of a dagger to cauterize the artery. We will see more of the Citadel, and its approaches to learning and science, in the next book, I think.
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