A Game of Thrones

Tyrion dines with the men of the Night’s Watch on his last night at the Wall. He mocks Thorne, amusing Commander Mormont. The blind and very old maester Aemon compliments Tyrion as being a “giant come among us” (212), and Tyrion is taken aback by the old man’s earnest praise. After dinner, Tyrion talks to Mormont in private. Mormont discusses the men he has lost on scouting missions beyond the Wall, including Benjen Stark. Mormont is worried that “the Night’s Watch is dying” (213) and that a long, dangerous winter is coming. He wants Tyrion to petition the king on his behalf for urgently needed funding for the Night’s Watch. He warns that a long summer matches the length of the winter to come; this summer has lasted nine years, but the winter is setting in. Once winter comes, frightening beasts will roam further south than before. Mormont tells him that men in the east have seen white walkers, though Tyrion does not believe in them. The wildlings above the Wall are running south, but it isn’t clear what they are running from. Mormont presses Tyrion to make his family believe this and that the only thing standing between the Seven Kingdoms and the terrors of winter is the Night’s Watch. Tyrion agrees to help where he can. On his way to his chambers, Tyrion decides to take in the view from the top of the Wall one more time, so he rides the elevator cage to the top of the Wall, where he finds Jon Snow on guard duty. Jon mentions Bran’s accident, and he asks Tyrion to help Bran since he will be traveling through Winterfell on his way back to King’s Landing. Tyrion, claiming to understand brotherly love better than most, agrees to do what he can. Jon states that if Benjen doesn’t come back he will go out and find him, though Tyrion wonders who will go out to find Jon after that. Jon and Tyrion part company as friends.

Ned endures another argumentative small council meeting and then returns to the Tower of the Hand to eat dinner with his daughters. Sansa is excited about the tourney, but Arya doesn’t care, and Sansa makes a snide comment about no one wanting her there anyway. Ned angrily tells them to behave like sisters should, then leaves without eating. Arya thinks about how dinners at Winterfell were full of fellowship, which makes her think about Mycah. She feels betrayed that her father’s men, who are supposed to protect her and her family, allowed Lady and Mycah to be killed. She loses her appetite and leaves without permission. Ned finds her holding Needle in her bedroom, her cheeks stained with tears. Ned tells Arya that she reminds him of his sister Lyanna and that she has the wildness of both his siblings, who met early deaths, and he should snap the sword in half. He understands that she blames herself for Mycah’s death, and he knows that she drove Nymeria into the forest to protect the direwolf from punishment. Rather than criticize Arya, Ned praises her for lying to protect her sister. However, he warns her, she must learn to live with her sister, as family is the only thing they can truly trust in this “dark, dangerous place” (229). To Arya’s surprise, Ned allows her to keep Needle and tells her it’s time for her to leave the games of childhood behind. Three days later, she is summoned to the Small Hall and finds all the tables and benches shoved aside. She meets her new “dancing” instructor, the former “first sword to the Sealord of Braavos” (231), Syrio Forel. He is there to teach her the light and elegant fighting of the Braavos swordsmen.

Daenerys accompanies Khal Drogo as he leads his khalasar away from the city and into the “immense and empty” (232) grassy plains known as the Dothraki Sea. As they ride, she learns about the Dothraki culture and language from her handmaids and Drogo’s trusted lieutenants, known as his bloodriders. They are traveling to the settlement Vaes Dothrak, where the separate groups of Dothraki (each under the command of a different Khal) meet. Daenerys is struck by how beautiful the land is. She orders the khalasar to stop so she can dismount and explore. Viserys approaches, furious that she cannot “command the dragon” to do anything (236). He insults her and roughly handles her breast. Daenerys pushes her brother away for the first time in her life, and he is indignant. Before he can beat his sister, one of Drogo’s bloodriders uses a whip to pull Viserys away from Daenerys. Daenerys sees how weak her brother truly is. The bloodrider offers to kill him, but Daenerys chooses to have him walk behind them back to the group without his horse, which is a profound dishonor among the Dothraki. When Viserys calls on Jorah to defend him and attack Daenerys, Jorah refuses. After, Jorah and Daenerys talk in private. He reveals that the people of Westeros do not really care about Viserys taking back his throne. To them, one king is mostly the same as any other. They want to be left in peace while “the high lords play their game of thrones” (239). Jorah reveals his desire to return home and Daenerys assures him that she has a similar dream, even if she does not know where home truly is. She begins to realize that Viserys “will never take back the Seven Kingdoms” (239). That night, Daenerys takes a more active role in lovemaking with her husband and takes him out under the sky since that is where all important things must take place in the Dothraki tradition. Soon after, on her 14th birthday, one of the handmaids realizes Daenerys is pregnant.

Bran is paralyzed and confined to his rooms, and he watches jealously from his window as Rickon plays with the direwolves in the courtyard. He’s angry that the crow lied to him about flying. Old Nan, who watches over him, tells him all crows lie, but Bran doesn’t want to hear any more of her “stupid stories” (243). She reminds him the stories have been around long before any of them. She talks about one particularly long and brutal winter when white walkers, sometimes called the Others, came south. The white walkers “were cold things, dead things, that hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun, and every creature with hot blood in its veins” (244). The First Men had to seek help from the children of the forest, whose lands they had taken, to defeat the Others. The story is interrupted by Maester Luwin, who tells Bran that he must greet visitors. Bran is carried out of the bedchamber by the “simpleminded giant” (244), Hodor, Old Nan’s last blood relative reveals that his name is actually Walder and no one knows what “Hodor” means, except that it is the only word he is able to say. Bran finds Robb in his lord’s chair with an unsheathed sword across his lap, a sign of distrust, glowering at Tyrion Lannister, newly arrived from the Wall. Tyrion offers up a gift, the designs for a special saddle that will allow Bran to ride a horse. When asked why he would bother for Bran, he admits that Jon asked him to help and that he has “a tender spot in [his] heart” (250) for people in difficult situations. When Rickon comes in with the direwolves, they flank Tyrion and snap at him, but Bran calls them off. That evening, Robb hears from Yoren that Benjen has disappeared beyond the Wall. While Robb insists that his uncle is too experienced to be harmed, Bran wonders aloud whether the children of the forest could help him. Luwin dismisses the idea, saying the children of the forest disappeared thousands of years ago. Yoren, however, says that there is no way to be sure what is beyond the Wall.

Ned visits Grand Maester Pycelle to learn more about the death of Jon Arryn. According to Pycelle, Arryn spent his last days researching the lineages of noble houses. When he died, his last words were “the seed is strong” (257). Pycelle is uncomfortable with Ned’s suggestion that Arryn was poisoned, and says his death was not unusual. This makes Ned doubt whether Pycelle can be trusted. He asks to see the book Jon Arryn requested just before his death.

Ned finds Arya, who is following Syrio’s unconventional training regimen, balancing on the steps of the Tower of the Hand. She asks if Bran will come to King’s Landing now and what he’ll do now that he cannot be a knight. Ned recalls keeping vigil with Arya and Sansa after they received the good news about Bran’s survival Ned assures his daughter that Bran has many options, even if his injuries limit what he can do. He returns to his chambers, and Littlefinger asks to speak to him. Littlefinger gives Ned a list of people he should question, all of whom were members of Jon Arryn’s household staff but did not leave with his widow. Littlefinger points out the spies sent by the Lannisters and Varys to watch Ned’s every movement. When Ned thanks Littlefinger for his help and suggests his judgment of him was too hasty, Littlefinger warns Ned that “distrusting” (263) him was Ned’s wisest decision since arriving in King’s Landing.

Jon and the other recruits train at the Wall. Their session is interrupted by the arrival of an overweight, high-born boy named Samwell Tarly. Thorne immediately begins bullying “Ser Piggy” (265), who is visibly scared. As Thorne calls on the recruits to beat Sam, Jon intervenes. He is joined by Grenn and Pyp, the recruits he has been training. They defend Sam against men sent at him by Thorne. After the fight, Sam confesses to Jon that he is “a coward” (268). Jon, however, praises Sam’s honesty. Later that day, Jon describes a recurring dream to his new friend in which he wanders through an empty Winterfell to the crypts below the castle, but he does not know what it means. Sam reveals that he was sent to the Night’s Watch by his father. Sam is the firstborn son, but his father hates him for being “plump, soft, and awkward” (272) and wants Sam’s younger, less cowardly brother to inherit the estate. He delivered an ultimatum to Sam: Join the Watch or be murdered. Later, Jon suggests to the other recruits that they go easy when training with Sam. When Sam thanks Jon for his help, Jon tells Sam that they are joined in brotherhood.

The tournament to celebrate Ned becoming Hand is set to go ahead regardless of the cost and Ned’s disapproval. The sudden influx of people to King’s Landing has caused public disorder. Ned follows up on Jon Arryn’s research by reading the book he requested before his death: The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms, With Descriptions of Many High Lords and Noble Ladies and Their Children. The reading is tedious and nothing important has come to his attention so far. Jory investigated Jon Arryn’s former staff and learned that Lord Arryn was healthy before his death. Jory also reports that Arryn commissioned a new suit of armor and Robert’s “stern, humorless, unforgiving” (281) brother Stannis went with him to the armorer. Jon Arryn and Stannis later visited a brothel together, which seems out of character for them both. Ned sends Jory to find the brothel. Meanwhile, Ned goes to the armorer who tells him Arryn and Stannis asked to see his apprentice, Gendry. Gendry is an orphan and his only memory of his mother is that she was blonde. Staring at Gendry and his dark features, Ned realizes that the blacksmith’s apprentice is Robert’s illegitimate son, and the armorer reveals that some unknown lord gave him twice the usual apprentice fee to take Gendry in and to remain silent.

Catelyn and Rodrik travel back to Winterfell and try to remain as inconspicuous as possible. They ride along the kingsroad, the main route up and down the Seven Kingdoms. Many people are on the road, traveling to King’s Landing for the tourney. While passing through the Riverlands, Catelyn’s childhood home, they stop at an inn and pose as commoners. Tyrion Lannister enters the inn while Catelyn is eating. He immediately recognizes her, and the people are shocked that someone as highborn as Catelyn Stark would be in such an establishment. With “no time to think it through” (295), Catelyn stands up and asks anyone loyal to the Tullys, her family’s house, to prove themselves to her. Catelyn accuses Tyrion of trying to murder Bran and asks the loyal bannermen to arrest Tyrion so he can be taken “to Winterfell to await the king’s justice” (296).

The tournament begins. Sansa enjoys herself. The pageantry of the occasion is everything she had hoped for. Even the violent death of a young knight does not hinder her enjoyment. That knight is later revealed to be Jon Arryn’s former squire Hugh, and he is brutally killed by Gregor Clegane, a giant, “ferocious” man known as the Mountain and the brother of the Hound (299). At the end of one joust, the “beautiful” and victorious Loras Tyrell gives Sansa a red rose to mark her as his queen of beauty. After the tournament, Sansa is introduced to Littlefinger, who praises her beauty and mentions that Sansa’s mother was once his own “queen of beauty” (301). Joffrey flirts with Sansa during the feast, seeming “the soul of courtesy” compared to his previous angry outburst (303). Robert drinks heavily and boasts to Cersei that he plans to ride in the tournament. Cersei storms off away from the feast, and Robert threatens Jaime when he tries to calm the king down. Joffrey sends the Hound to take Sansa back to her quarters. The Hound, who is very drunk, walks Sansa to her rooms. When she tries to compliment his performance in the tournament, he laughs and reminds her that he is not a knight. He hates knights because men like his brother become knights, and his brother killed the young Hugh on purpose during the joust. He forces her to look at him and explains that his face was scarred when Gregor held his face in burning coals as a child for stealing a toy. After he returns her to her rooms, the Hound tells Sansa he will kill her if she ever tells anyone what he told her that night.