This analysis explores the fan theory that Sandor Clegane, "The Hound," is still alive in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books, despite being left for dead by Arya Stark, presenting evidence and implications for his future arc.
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Is Sandor Leane the Hound still alive?
Arya left him to die, but many fans
think there's enough evidence to be
pretty sure he is still alive in the
books. Let's take a look. Hi everyone,
this is Robert. Welcome to InDeepge
Geek. If you like theories, background,
history, and lore about A Song of Ice
and Fire, the Lord of the Rings, and The
Witcher, then this is the channel for
you. Welcome.
Towards the end of a storm of swords,
Sandor Clelegane, the Hound, and Arya
get into a fight with some Lannister
soldiers at the inn at the crossroads.
They are triumphant, and Arya gets to
cross another name off her list, but the
Hound suffers a number of wounds, some
of which become infected. Arya dresses
the wounds for him, but to no avail,
they keep getting worse. And after
traveling a little way, they have to
stop. The Hound, sensing the end is
near, begs Arya to give him the gift of
mercy. This is foreshadowed quite a lot
in their story, by the way. Putting
someone out of their pain is shown as a
way to give someone a good death, to be
kind to them in their last hours. We
read this. The hounds eyes opened. You
remember where the heart is? He asked in
a horse whisper. As still as stone, she
stood. I I was only Don't lie, he
growled. I hate liars. I hate gutless
frauds, even worse. Go on, do it. When
Arya did not move, he said, "I killed
your butcher's boy. I cut him near in
half and laughed about it after."
At this point, the Hound is clearly
trying to go Arya. He throws cruel words
at her to try to make her angry enough
to end his life. But then we get this.
Arya stepped away from him. You don't
deserve the gift of mercy. The hound
watched her saddle craven through eyes
bright with fever. Not once did he
attempt to rise and stop her. But when
she mounted, he said, "A real wolf would
finish a wounded animal." "Maybe some
real wolves will find you," Arya
thought. "Maybe they'll smell you when
the sun goes down. Then he would learn
what wolves did to dogs."
And ya rides off, leaving him to die.
And that's the last official look we
have of the Hound in A Song of Ice and
Fire. Now, clearly he does return in the
TV show. But what about the books? Well,
all goes quiet for nearly a book.
Intriguingly, we hear several reports of
him still being in the Riverlands, most
notably attacking the Salt Pans and
committing some atrocities there. How do
people know it is the Hound? He's
wearing his distinctive houndshaped
helmet, of course. One of the rumors we
get or Brienne gets is that the Hound
has Sansa or possibly Arya. So she sets
off in search of him. She is led by
Septton Merbold to the Quietile, a faith
of the seven commune on a river island
in the estie of the river Trident,
accessible only by those who know the
route. Which is where this all gets
interesting because the elder brother
there tells Brienne that he personally
found the hound as he was dying crying
and begging for the gift of mercy. He
says that the hound died there under
that tree that he buried him in a can
placing his helm at top it. Sandor Leane
is now at rest. He says someone else
must have found that helmet and worn it
while attacking the salt pans, which
should end things, but not everything
stacks up on the quietile. First, there
is stranger, the hound's horse, which is
in the stables on the quietile. Fair
enough. They might have brought it there
after the hound died, you might think.
But it is well established that only he
can ride or handle stranger. It starts
attacking anyone else who approaches.
So, how is that horse there, unless the
hound is also there? Then there is the
gravedigger. Brienne is taken up to see
the elder brother, and along the way,
there is this encounter.
They passed a liyard where a brother
bigger than Brienne was struggling to
dig a grave. From the way he moved, it
was plain to see that he was lame. As he
flung a spadeful of the stony soil over
one shoulder, some chance to spatter
against their feet. Be more watchful
there, chided brother Narut. Septton
Maribold might have gotten a mouthful of
dirt. The gravedigger lowered his head.
When dog went to sniff him, he dropped
his spade and scratched his ear. There
are lots of clues there. Brienne is big,
so if someone is bigger than her, they
are massive and rare, like the Hound.
The Hound is also likely to be lame in
some way given the injuries he
sustained. Being a novice and
inexperienced fits the timeline here as
well. And him stooping to scratch the
ear of a dog, a hound seems like a bit
of a nod to the careful reader. And in
case you were wondering, he wore a scarf
across his face, so there was no chance
Brienne or anyone would recognize him.
Then when we examine what the elder
brother says, things seem less clear-cut
than they first did. Yes, he says that
the Hound is dead, but he also refers to
himself as having died before joining
the Quiet Isle community. It seems that
the elder brother was also a soldier who
reached rock bottom before finding a new
life on the aisle. He seems to draw a
distinction between the Hound, the
identity connected with Sandor's old
life and the helmet, and Sandor himself.
The Hound has died. Sandor is at rest,
he says.
Many fans, and I'm among them, have
concluded that the gravedigger is
Sandor. The elder brother happened upon
him as he was dying and saved him, and
in the process they metaphorically
buried the hound, Sandor's old life, all
the terrible things he had done, the
past life he had led. The symbol for
this past life was his hound helmet. So,
they left that on the ken. Rog that good
for little who we first met in the cage
with Jack and Hagar found it and wore it
while attacking the salt pans. Then when
later Brienne kills him, Lem Lemoncloak
picks it up. Sandor, meanwhile, traveled
with the elder brother to the quiet
alisile where he is now performing
something akin to penitence or
restitution for the sins of the hound.
He is digging graves, a very symbolic
act, perhaps even one for every person
he killed in his old life, and keeping
his head down. He is, as the elder
brother says, at rest.
We haven't got any 100% strong evidence
here, but what we do have is rather
convincing. The Hound is alive, though
checked out of the main action on an
inaccessible island and having abandoned
his old identity. Of course, this is
probably only maybe halfway or so
through the story. We have at least two
massive books left to go and a lot of
plot. And there are two important things
to remember here. First, although we may
like the idea of leaving Sandor in that
place of rest, his story arc is probably
not finished. We don't get a POV chapter
from him, but all we've heard suggests
that for true peace, he needs to somehow
come to terms with what happened in his
youth with his brother, Gregor. That's
the root of his anger towards his
brother, his fear of fire, his disdain
for the knighthood, and so much more. By
come to terms with it, I don't
necessarily mean clelegane bowl, a fight
between the two to settle old scores,
but instead some kind of reckoning or
moment of acceptance. The two of them
are very different now to when they were
young. The mountain is now Robert
Strong, the zombie mountain, and the
hound is now plain old Sandor Clegane.
Will Sandor react to Robert Strong as he
had imagined in his younger days or
perhaps show him mercy? The gift of
mercy is a strong theme in Sandor's
tale. So there is unfinished business
out there. And there is also a lot of
foreshadowing or simple practical hints
that the quiet is may not remain quiet
for much longer. It has survived this
far in the war ravaged Riverlands
because you need to know a specific
route across the mud flats in order to
get there. But realistically, a few
people now know that secret, and you can
get across at high tide on a boat, so
it's not as isolated as people might
think. We also know that many have heard
the rumor that there are rubies and
riches on the quiet aisle. And to be
fair, they aren't just rumors. The aisle
is downstream from the Ruby Ford where
Robert Baratheon smashed in Rhaegar's
ruby encrusted breastplate during the
rebellion. Six of those rubies have
washed downstream to the aisle over the
years, and they are only defended by a
peaceloving community. It must be quite
tempting for any one of the many bandit
groups currently operating in the
Riverlands. So, we can expect an attack
on the quiet Isle at some point soon by
someone, perhaps some of the remnants of
the Brave Companions. How will the Hound
respond? He is at rest, we're told. But
will he really just let the people who
saved him die? or will he find an axe
and fight back? I suspect that even if
he does return to his more violent ways,
the Sandor who emerges from the
experience will not be the hound we saw
in the first three books. He will have
grown and changed. And perhaps the
symbolic centerpiece of this shift will
be his helmet. While Sandor has been
recuperating in silence, the Hound, or
rather his helmet, has kept on
committing horrors across the
Riverlands. Such is his legend that
everyone just assumes it is him. But
what better way might there be to
establish the change in Sandor than
making him face someone else wearing the
Hound helmet? Will he need to kill the
Hound metaphorically or have the option
to take back his helmet and either
accept or reject his identity as the
Hound? There are a lot of possibilities
here. And if he is changed, how will he
react to Sansa and Arya if he meets
either of them? In particular, Arya. He
acted as a rather dark mentor for her
through a storm of swords, taking her
further down a path of normalizing
murder and vengeance. Since she left
him, she has gone even further, training
as a faceless assassin and ticking more
names off her list, a list that contains
the mountain. Will the new Sandor
actually soften her a bit? Help guide
her to understand that maybe vengeance
and death aren't the best way to go. It
would be an unexpected of light in
this grim, dark tale. But don't rule it
out. But what do you think? Do you think
the gravedigger is Sandor? And if so,
what is in store for him in the rest of
the story? Let me know in the comments
below. Did you know that these videos
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