Howland’s Great Lie: The Myth of the Laughing Tree

“Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.”
^{— ALAN MOORE, V FOR VENDETTA}

I’m quite certain that readers of A Song of Ice and Fire have been misled regarding one of the central mysteries of the entire series: the story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree. The misdirection was intentionally executed by our dear author George R.R. Martin and willfully consumed by his audience.

In particular I believe in the following ideas:

There was no Knight of the Laughing Tree.