Wiping out the weirwood trees had a dual purpose.
- Tactical:
The trees have eyes.
If you are fighting a war of defense against some foreign invaders, wouldn’t it be good to be able to see and hear where they were and what they were doing? Wouldn’t that be a great advantage?
Ever noticed what happens when a character prays to a heart tree?
His prayer gets answered.
The First Men weren’t just fighting the Andals with bronze swords and such. And they weren’t fighting alone. They were fighting with magic. They were fighting with the green-seers and even, at times, the Children of the Forest, who emerged from their hollow hills to fight the marauding invaders.
It probably took awhile but at some point the ancient Andals must have figured out that the weirwood trees, one way or another, were aiding the enemy. - Cultural: The second reason was cultural.Of course, the Andals mixed with the First Men, intermarried; and I would expect the majority of the inhabitants of South Westeros are very much descended from the First Men. But, culturally, they are pretty much Andal to the core.
The early Andal invaders seem to have been more fanatic than the modern Andals. They carved Seven Pointed stars on trees, rocks, caves…even their own bodies. Wiping out the weirwoods helped wipe out the religion of the First Men, which was an important step in imposing Andal culture on them.
Not much different, perhaps, in this regard than the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, or European/American conquest of the Americas.
Written Oct 26
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