(note, this was written before the Game of Thrones confirmed the HOund's Return last Sunday/Monday.)
Spoilers from A Feast For Crows
When Brienne, led by her fruitless quest to locate the missing Sansa Starks to the monastary at the Quiet Isle, talks to the Elder Brother there, she notices a tall man, hooded and cloaked, digging a grave. The dog she is with(called Dog), approaches the man, who stops his work to let the dog nuzzle his hand. GRRM’s prose definitely emphasizes this moment. No other character in the monastery, other than the Elder Brother himself, seems to make much impression on Brienne’s (admittedly slow) mind.
The Elder Brother mentions that the Hound’s horse, Stranger, is in the stable. Remarks on the sacrilege of the name. (How does he know the HOund’s horse’s name?)
He says that the Hound has died; that he came upon him in the woods and heard his dying confession.
Brienne again asks if Sandor Clegane is dead. He says : “He is at rest.”
The Hound is dead.Sandor Clegane is at rest. Get it?
Later, she sees the same man, the tall gravedigger enter the dining hall and notes that he has a limp. She notes the broadness of his shoulders and seems to feel that he would be tough in a fight even with his messed up leg.
In A Storm of Swords, Arya left him ranting and raving at her, propped up against a tree, refusing to give him the gift of mercy. Unable to walk due to a leg wound picked up in the brawl at the Crossroads Inn.
It’s like GRRM put five 2s in a row. He left it for the reader to add them up to 10. An unlike many clues that are spread out hidden in five thousand pages of books, all of these clues take place in one point of view chapter in one book.
When you combine all that with the fact that the Hound, who is one of A Song of Ice and Fire’s greatest characters, not at ALL a minor character, has a story arc that doesn’t seem to be properly finished, you got yourself as close to obvious as the cagey, sneaky George RR Martin gets.
Less evidence in the show proper other than the fact that we didn’t see him die; and the feeling that his story isn’t finished.
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