Bran attends the execution of Gared, who ran away after Will and Waymar died but was caught and condemned as a deserter . Ned Stark, the Lord of Winterfell, performs the execution himself, using the greatsword Ice to behead Gared. Robb Stark argues that Gared died bravely, while Jon Snow, Ned’s bastard son, believes that Gared was terrified. Ned explains to Bran that a man can only truly be brave when he is in fact afraid. Ned also explains his belief that the man who passes a death sentence ought to perform the execution himself. On the ride back to Winterfell, home of the Stark family, the party discovers a dead direwolf with five live pups. Ned’s men are about to kill the animals when Jon points out that the pups are the same in number and gender, three male and two female, as Ned’s trueborn children. He says it’s a sign that the Starks were meant to have them. As the party rides away, Jon discovers a sixth male pup with white fur and red eyes and takes it for himself.
Arya used to think her nickname of “Arya Horseface” was bad, until the orphan boy Lommy Greenhands named her “Lumpyhead” because of her lumpy, uneven haircut. Her head actually feels lumpy when she touches it. When Yoren dragged her into an alley after her father’s execution, Arya was sure he meant to kill her. Instead, the smelly old black brother had only cut her hair and promised to deliver her to her home at Winterfell when he and his new recruits pass by. However, Yoren insisted that she pretend to be an orphan boy named Arry because half of the new recruits would turn her over to Queen Cersei quick as spit for a pardon and a few silvers, and the other half would do the same but rape her first. Yoren claimed it should not be too hard to pass as a boy; the hardest part would be passing her water in the woods alone. There are 30 of them; some of the recruits are orphan boys recruited with promises of food and clothing, but others are criminals from the dungeons under the Red Keep. The most frightening are the three from the black cells, whom Yoren keeps chained in the back of a wagon. The five wagons contain supplies for the Wall: hides, bars of pig iron, a cage of ravens, cloth, books, paper, ink, sourleaf, oil, medicine, and spices.
Chett is a disenfranchised steward of the Night’s Watch, and he has decided to kill his commanders and flee the service. He was sentenced to the Night’s Watch after he murdered a girl named Bessa, who insulted him. Chett watches over the kennels, but he is tired of the cold and hard work, and he has a premonition that the ancient fort where they've set up, called the Fist of the First Men, will be attacked. He has conspired to desert with a number of others, and Chett is specifically assigned the task of killing Samwell Tarly, the clumsy and overweight keeper of the ravens. But before he can execute the plan, he hears three horn blasts, which signal an invasion by the Others. The Others are ghostly corpses that have not been seen for centuries. The Night’s Watch prepares for battle, and Chett’s plan is foiled.
A novella originally published August 25, 1998 in the Legends anthology, edited by Robert Silverberg. Set in the world of the Song of Ice and Fire series eighty-nine years before the events of the main cycle, the story relates the adventures of Dunk (eponymously called Ser Duncan the Tall) and his squire, Egg.
Pate sits with his fellow students, Mollander, Alleras, Armen, and Roone, at the Quill and Tankard in Oldtown. He yearns for Rosey, the pretty daughter of a serving maid, a fifteen-year-old girl whose maidenhead can only be had for a gold coin. The other students discuss dragons, and whether there are still any in existence. Pate is waiting for an alchemist who has promised to meet him there that evening. The Alchemist has offered to change iron into gold, requesting that Pate steal a particular iron item in exchange for some gold, and said he would be back in three days to make the exchange. Mollander and Armen continue their argument about dragons. Mollander says that sailors' tales speak of dragons in far places, often accompanied by a young queen. Alleras keeps splitting thrown apples with his arrows. After the last, he brings up the Targaryens, telling the others that Viserys Targaryen's sister Daenerys is still alive. Mollander drunkenly toasts her, only to be shushed by Armen.
Gared, Will, and Ser Waymar Royce, three rangers from the Night's Watch, are tracking a band of wildling raiders in the haunted forest. Will has reported on wildlings that he found, claiming they are all dead. Gared, an older man who has been in the Night's Watch for decades, is uneasy, and insists that they turn back to the Wall; they have eight or nine days of travel ahead of them, which can turn into a fortnight if it snows. Waymar, a noble born youth of eighteen, however, has the command, and after making light of Gared's fears asks Will again for the details of what he saw. Will explains that he saw the wildlings' encampment. Their lean-to was covered by snow, they had no fire, and none of the wildlings moved the entire time he was watching. They were lying on the ground as if dead, but no blood was visible. Waymar suggests they might have been sleeping, but Will insists they are dead. There was also a woman up in a tree, but she did not move either. Gared suggests the wildlings must have been killed by the cold, but Waymar points out that the weather has not been cold enough to freeze men like that. He asks Will to lead them to the dead wildlings.
The events of The Mystery Knight take place several months after the events of The Sworn Sword in 212 AL, approximately eighty-six years before the events of A Game of Thrones. The Seven Kingdoms are officially at peace, but there is disquiet at the rule of King Aerys I Targaryen and his Hand, Brynden Rivers. The ironborn are raiding the western coastlands and there are rumors of a fresh threat from the Blackfyre Pretenders. Dunk and Egg are travelling north from Standfast, hoping to see the Wall, when they are diverted to Whitewalls by reports of a great tourney being held there.
A Dance with Dragons is the fifth of seven planned novels in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by American author George R. R. Martin. Despite original predictions of possible completion in late 2006, the novel was released on July 12, 2011. Martin officially finished the book April 27, 2011 by delivering the 1,500+ page manuscript into the hands of book editor Anne Groell while completing it at her office in New York City. [1
When King Viserys I Targaryen dies, his widow Queen Alicent has their eldest son Prince Aegon crowned King Aegon II before Viserys' daughter Rhaenyra, the only surviving child of his first marriage, can claim the Iron Throne herself. Though Rhaenyra is the king's oldest child and had been named his successor years before, Alicent and her supporters declare Rhaenyra unfit to rule and argue that, as a woman, Rhaenyra should be placed after Alicent's own male children in the line of succession. After Rhaenyra declares herself Queen at the Targaryen ancestral seat of Dragonstone, her middle son Lucerys Velaryon and King Aegon's younger brother Aemond take their dragons to seek the support of Lord Borros Baratheon of Storm's End. However, Lucerys and his dragon are killed there. Rhaenyra's husband Prince Daemon has Aegon II's son and heir Jaehaerys murdered in revenge. Soon both branches of the Targaryen royal line are at war, with dragons on both sides. The people of King's Landing, tired of the constant conflict and fear of dragons destroying their city, storm the Dragonkeep, destroying it and a large portion of the dragon population in Westeros. Eventually, all of Rhaenyra's children, except for Aegon and Viserys, are killed and she herself is captured by Aegon II and fed to his dragon, Sunfyre, though the war continues.
It tells the story of the years leading up to the calamitous events of The Princess and The Queen during the reign of King Viserys I Targaryen, with particular attention to the role played by the king’s brother, Prince Daemon Targaryen, as written by Archmaester Gyldayn. The novella gives an account of the lives at the court of King Viserys I Targaryen in King's Landing, and about the lives of those connected to House Targaryen, paying special attention to Prince Daemon Targaryen, his niece, and later third wife, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her children, King Viserys I Targaryen and his second wife and the children from his second marriage. The story takes off in 103 AC with the death of King Jaehaerys I, after shortly describing his final two years, and ends in 129 AC, just mere hours before The Princess and the Queen takes off.