Bran knew all the stories. Their names were like music to
him. Serwin of the Mirror Shield, Sir
Ryan, Red Wine, Prince Eamon the Dragon Knight, the twins Sir
Eric and Sir Eric, who had died on one another's swords hundreds
of years ago when brother fought Sister and the Wall the singers
called the Dance of the Dragons, the White Bull, Gerald
Hightower, Sir Arthur Dean, The Sword of the Morning, Barristan
the Bold. Bran thinks of all these
legendary Knights because he's fascinated by the Kingsguard and
had wanted to join their ranks. Of those named in this Daydream,
several had famous blades, many were named Lord Commander, and
all who were great warriors with fascinating and unique stories.
Well, perhaps not Eric and Eric, whose stories are nearly mirror
images of each other because, well, so are they.
Despite the notion that these are all heroic figures, none of
these men were free from controversy.
Prime red wine was made hand to the king and was a complete and
utter failure at it. Prince Eamon the Dragon Knights
legend is tarnished by rumors of improprieties with his sister
Queen Nerys. Eric and Art killed each other,
making them kinslayers. Gerald Hightower and Arthur
Dayne were arguably more loyal to Prince Rhaegar than to King
Aries. Embarrassed in Selmy.
His switch sides multiple times and may again.
Only one of them is free from controversy surrounding his
deeds. Serwin of the Mirror Shield, but
he's a world apart for other reasons too.
The rest of the listed men died within the last 200 years or are
still alive. Sirwin lived during the Age of
Heroes, thousands of years ago, when there were not only no
King's Guard at all, there were no Targaryens either.
In fact, there weren't even Knights.
Sirwin was said to live during the time of the earliest
Gardener kings, and the Andals didn't come to Westeros in large
numbers until much later. This means Sirwin is most surely
a figure of First Man heritage. Thus he can't easily be a
knight. It's not that First Men can't be
Knights, they can. There are plenty of examples.
It's that they probably didn't exist in Westeros or at all when
Serwin was alive, knighthood being an and all institution.
Another case is John the Oak, legendary founder of House
Oakhart and the man credited with bringing chivalry to
Westeros. He's called the First Knight,
but this is likely a nickname given well after he lived.
John the Oak was apparently the son of Garth Greenhand and a
giant. Thus, he's another figure from
well before the and Alls came. We'd guessed that he upheld the
kind of values now associated with chivalry, but was likely
never called knight in his own lifetime.
House Oakhart of Old Oak is deep in knightly honor, and they've
produced multiple members of the Kingsguard over the years, so
they'd prefer we not explore this contradiction over much.
At the very least, Singers and Septons and others have
rewritten history, revising it to include Sirwin where he
doesn't belong, but they never apparently tried to add a Sir in
front, despite naming him as a knight.
He is not Sir Sirwin. If we look back that opening
list of names, it seems the only one who wasn't a knight is the
one with Sir built into his name.
Maybe he really was Sir Wen, twin brother to Sir Luz.
There are several examples of Sirwin's deeds, deeds that go a
long way towards explaining why he's still so famous and beloved
to this day. The story that he's most famous
for is the slaying of a dragon named your Axe.
To do this, he used a highly polished shield.
The dragon only saw its reflection and was not alarmed
by his approach. Before Your Axe could detect the
ruse, it was too late and Sirwin became a legend.
That's impressive, but like the timeline regarding Knights, it
doesn't fit the idea of Kingsguard very well either.
Actually, it fits even less well.
The Kingsguard until Robert Baratheon only served the
Targaryens and they began under egg on the Conqueror thanks to
his sister wife, Queen Visenya. The only time in the Targaryen
reign where Kingsguard fought against Dragons was during the
Dance of the Dragons, also mentioned in Brand's quote.
Of course, the Dance and the Age of Heroes were very, very far
apart on the timeline, and we know that a knight named Sir
Byron Swan tried to note that I said tried to imitate the
legendary Sirwin of the Mirror Shields ploy during the Dance of
the Dragons. So you see, we can be sure
Sirwin was not actually a Kingsguard and pretty sure he
was not a knight, but he may have embodied the spirit of what
they now stand for. He was possibly in the Ancient
Order of the Green Hand, who stood for honor as we're told,
but since that order contained Knights, maybe not.
So he just went from not actually a Kingsguard to not
actually a knight to a time before Knights even existed in
Westeros. What about killing a dragon?
Did he really do that? Let's see what the World of Ice
and Fire has to say about the time of Serwin and the Gardner
Kings during the Age of Heroes. It may help clear things up even
more. In those centuries of trial in
tumult, the Reach produced many a fearless warrior.
From that day to this, the singers celebrated the deeds of
Knights like Sirwin of the Mirror Shield, Davos, the Dragon
Slayer, Roland of the Horn and the Knight without Armour, and
the legendary kings who led them.
OK, we sought clarity, but instead we've just doubled down
twice on possible confusion alongside Serwin of the Mirror
Shield. In an era without Knights, we
have a guy called the Knight without Armor.
And in an era without Targaryens, we have Davos the
Dragon Slayer. Well, at least none of these
guys are said to be in the Kingsguard.
Why are stories of Serwin of the Mirror Shield so conflicting?
Why is he associated with modern figures at all?
And given that George RR Martin loves to use history to
foreshadow the future, what does Sirwin tell us and about who?
In A Song of Ice and Fire? One should never feel that they
have all the answers, but we definitely have some answers.
Welcome back to History of Westeros podcast.
This episode is brought to you by our dragon rider patrons like
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George RR Martin loves to use history as a device to
foreshadow the future. The concept of history repeating
itself is 1 he seems to enjoy playing with, or at least one he
feels he must include, because there are countless examples of
it in his work and in the real world.
It's more than a recurring theme, it's a constant feature.
A king who loved food and drink and women and not a lot else,
Whose bastards plagued the realm?
Who had a famous deathbed scene. Am I talking about Robert Brown
Lathian or Aegon the unworthy? Well, both.
These parallels are never exact, though some aspects are
inverted, reversed, or warped. Aegon the Unworthy was not a
fearsome warrior, but he was cruel.
Robert didn't legitimize his bastards, and he wasn't cruel so
much as dangerously indifferent. It's also all in where you're
standing. Robert was a terrible king, but
if you ask Barristan Selmy, who served him and Ares while
watching Joffrey grow up, well, a bad king can always be outdone
by a worse king. It's the same with mirrors.
It's all in where you're standing.
Mirrors can maintain much of the original while distorting or
seemingly changing other parts or reversing them entirely.
Consider that when you raise your right hand in a mirror, it
can appear that your reflection is raising their left.
It's as if George R Martin is holding a mirror up to history,
or perhaps several mirrors, and the various reflections and
distortions that result from the original are what follow through
the years. The portrayal of Sermon of the
Mirror Shield is itself a reflection from a real world
myth. The Greek hero Perseus slew the
Gorgon Medusa, a creature whose gaze turned who met it into
stone. He used a mirror shield trick of
his own. No one could look directly into
the eyes of Medusa, but her reflection was safe from the
effect. Her face when seen in his shield
was harmless. And like your axe, the dragon
Medusa the Gorgon was felled with one sure strike.
In that first quote, which is in Brands second ever chapter, we
can see that Sirwin is mentioned early in A Game of Thrones.
He's mentioned again in Sansa's first chapter, and we get our
first example of a reflection, as well as some of George RR
Martin's sense of humor, because here she's thinking of Joffrey.
He was so gallant, she thought, the way he had rescued her from
Sir Ellen and the Hound. Why, it was almost like the
songs like the time Sirwin of the Mirror Shield saved the
Princess Teresa from the giants, or Prince Eamon the Dragon
Knight championing Queen Mary's honor against evil Samorgal
slanders Sansa. 1A Game of Thrones.
So we have Sirwin rescuing a very Targaryen sounding Princess
from giants. The name Darissa never appears
again, including on the Targaryen family tree.
Nor does Joffrey really save anyone from anything, especially
giants. Closer to the opposite really.
He repeatedly orders men, especially his Kingsguard, to
beat his Princess. So when Sirwin's name is
mentioned, it's it's clearly not Joffrey casting his reflection.
A few paragraphs later, however, we get the first appearance of a
man who absolutely does Barristan Selmy.
And Barristan the Bold does save a Princess from a guy named the
Titans. Bastard giants.
Titans. Not too far off.
Darissa and Daenerys also kind of sound similar, and it's
definitely like a song. When Barristan saves Daenerys,
he was pretending to be a Squire named Whitebeard, and while
wielding only a staff, he defeated Mero of Bravos, A
notorious cell sword captain who was armed with a sword.
Barristan also tries to save Daenerys from Drogon in Daznac's
Pit by trying to get his attention, but that wasn't
necessary. Danny had that handled all on
her own. Maesters of all sorts agree the
giants were not uncommon back in the Age of Heroes, so the
reference to them in Princess Darissa is no stretch, at least
in that regard. Dragons are less clear, but
there's some evidence of Dragons in Westeros long ago, such as at
Battle Isle where the Hightower now lies.
And well, if Sir, when in Davos the Dragon Slayer are accurately
placed in the Age of Heroes, then they're part of the
evidence, each having slain at least one.
Ancient Dragons are mentioned in the Hedge Night as well, but the
biggest piece of evidence comes from George RR Martin himself,
who flat out says in response to that reference of ancient
Dragons in the Hedge Night quote, there were Dragons all
over once. Of course, in A Song of Ice and
Fire, animals, especially those found on sigils, are often
metaphorical representations. Like how Mira of Braavos isn't
really a Titan, but a large man from a city that built a huge
Titan. We must consider that Davos the
Dragon Slayer slew A metaphorical dragon instead of a
real one. Maybe, but even Sirwin himself
could be explained this way, though his deed is so much more
specific. The dragon is even named and
sounds so authentic. Your axe.
But so does Derisa sound Valyrian yet?
Probably isn't since Daenerys is so distanced from her family's
history. Much of what we know about
Dragons early in A Song of Ice and Fire comes from Tyrion's
chapters. Later, that knowledge is filled
out by in world historical sources like The World of Ice
and Fire also discuss these apparent conundrums.
And besides the legendary Kings and the hundreds of kingdoms
from which the Seven Kingdoms were born, stories of such as
Simeon, Star Eyes, Serwin of the Mirror Shield, and other heroes
have become fodder for septons and singers alike.
Did such heroes once exist? It may be so, but when the
singer's number Serwin of the Mirror Shield as one of the
Kings Guard, an institution that was only formed during the reign
of Egg and the Conqueror, we can see why it is that few of these
tales can ever be trusted. The septons who first wrote them
down took what details suited them and added others, and the
singers changed them, sometimes beyond all recognition for the
sake of a warm place in some Lords hall.
In such a way to some long dead first man, become a knight who
follows the Seven and guards the Targaryen kings thousands of
years after he lived, if he ever did.
It almost doesn't matter if he was real or exaggerated to the
point that the stories bear little resemblance to the truth,
because whether he lived or not, his name has power.
That alone can explain why Servant of the Mirror Shield is
spoken of to this day. It is not a new phenomenon or
product of the current era. Many of the same names are
mentioned in generations past, as we see in the Hedge Night,
which is 90 years before the events of A Game of Thrones.
He fought back on all the songs he had heard, songs of blind
Simian, Star Eyes and Noble Sirwin, of the Mirror Shield, of
Prince, Eamon the Dragon Knight, Sir Ryan, Red Wine, and Florian
the Fool. They had all won victories
against foes far more terrible than any he would face, but they
were great heroes, brave men of noble birth.
Except for Florian and what am I dunk, Flea Bottom or Sir Duncan
the Tall? The names of these heroes mean a
lot. They give legitimacy to whatever
'cause they lend themselves. This is something Cersei forgot
when she dismissed Sir Barristan, as Tyrion points out
after the fact. Sir Baraston was the Lord
Commander of Robert Baratheon's Kings Guard, Tyrion reminded her
pointedly. He and Jamie are the only
survivors of Varus Targaryen 7. The small folk talk of him in
the same way they talk of Sir One of the Mirror Shield and
Prince Amon the Dragon Knight. Tyrion one The Clash of Kings.
Cersei admits she didn't think of this.
Of course it was Varus's idea to have Barristan leave, but that's
because he wanted to sabotage Joffrey's regime.
And of course his partner in crime Illyrio, recruited him as
Arson Whitebeard shortly after, which was surely planned in
advance as well. Virus being virus, another top
level schemer weighs in here. This is Littlefinger telling
Sansa how he encouraged the Tyrells to put Loris up for the
Kingsguard, in part using the power of these legendary names.
I also planted the notion of Sir Laurus taking the white, and not
that I suggested it, that would have been too crude.
But men and my party supplied grisly tales about how the mob
had killed Sir Preston Greenfield and raped the Lady
Lollis and slipped a few silvers to Lord Terrell's army of
singers to sing of Ryan red wine, Serwin of the Mirror
Shield, and Prince Eamon the Dragon Knight.
A harp can be as dangerous as a sword in the right hands.
Sons of Five Storm of Swords. These are among the same names
and brands quote. Well, not lollies or Sir
Preston, but Rhyme Redwine and Amon.
The Dragon Knights names are coming up a lot.
They were Lord Commanders of the Kingsguard whose lives were
separated by a mere few generations.
Amon only died about 120 years before the start of the books,
while Sirwin may not have ever lived, and if he did, it was
thousands of years before he and Rhyme Redwine.
It's a long time to stay famous, but Westeros has held the near
exact same chivalric codes of behavior for just as long.
Roughly speaking, in between the lives of Amon the Dragon Knight
and Rhyme Redwine was the Dance of the Dragons, where the
aforementioned Sir Byron Swan was roasted while taking his
shot at being the new Sirwin. How did Sirwin of the Mirror
shield play the dragon? Your axe.
He approached behind his shield. Your axe?
Only his reflection until Sirwin had plunged his spear through
his eye. Halden was unimpressed.
Even Duck knows that tale. Can you tell me the name of the
knight who tried the same ploy with Vega during the Dance of
the Dragons? Tyrion grinned.
Sir Byron Swan. He was roasted for his trouble.
Only the dragon was Cyrax, not Vega.
I fear that you're mistaken in the Dance of the Dragons, a true
telling, Mr. Muncan writes. That it was Vega, Grandmaster
Monkin heirs. Sir Byron Squire saw his master
die and wrote his daughter of the manner of it.
His account says it was Cyrax Rainier's She Dragon, which
makes more sense than Monkin's version.
Swan was the son of a martyr Lord and Storm's End was for
Aegon. Vega was ridden by Prince Amond,
Aegon's brother. Why should Swan want to slay
her? I must say, how this debate is
given to readers the first time is quite an inside joke.
It's highly meta that Tyrion argues the same position of
Mushroom, a dwarf, while the half maester Halden argues the
same position of that of Monken, a Grand Maester.
As Tyrion points out, there are flaws with the idea it was
Vergar, but Tyrion's arguments have flaws too.
How Swan was sworn to Storms End.
True, but the Dance of the Dragon saw many Lords go against
their Liege and many change sides, some more than once.
Cyrax was inaccessible to enemies of the Blacks.
She never left the Red Keep, never fought in battle.
There would be no chance for Sir Byron to make this attempt on
her life, unless he, say, declared his allegiance to the
Blacks as a ruse and then, once he gained their trust, made his
attempt to kill her. Infiltrating the Red Keep to
kill a dragon in the guise of an ally would mirror several other
events during the Dance, including another one we'll
discuss, but this remains a fairly narrow possibility for
this theory, contradicting Byron's own Squire plus Tyrion
and Halden Halfmeister both, and Mushroom and Monkin Septon
Eustis presents 1/3 option that Swan was after Sunfire.
This makes a lot of sense, as Sunfire was badly wounded after
the Battle of Rooks Rest and for a long time incapable of flight.
This would seem to be a good opportunity to slay a dragon if
there ever was one. The counter argument here is
that no one knew where Sunfire spent his time recovering, but
this is not a very overwhelming point.
This is a dragon we're talking about.
Just because the sources do not know where the beast was, maybe
some locals did. Swan could have found her.
It's possible the sigil of how Swan is 2 Swans mirror images of
one another, one black, the other white.
Sir Balon Swan joins Joffrey's Kingsguard and I'll agree he's a
great knight. Probably why Varus was against
him. That aside, Jamie confronts him
regarding the Swan family splitting their loyalty during
the War of 5 Kings. Though Balon fought for Joffrey,
his elder brother Donnell fought for Renly and then Stannis.
Balon, given the Kingsguard raiment and a record of loyalty,
well, he's clearly the White Swan.
Donald is clearly the Black Swan of that family.
Point being, it could be that Sir Byron Squire is also doing a
bit of playing both sides on behalf of his dead master.
But if so, why then did Byron Squire not simply tell the
truth? Then the blacks came out ahead
in the end. So an attempt on Sunfire, a
dragon on the green side, would be a good deed in the eyes of
the winners. Ditto an attempt on Vergar.
This would seem to tilt the argument back in favor of an
attempt on Cyrax's life. But then we come right back into
the problem of no access to Cyrax for Sir Byron.
Thus, all these theories are flawed.
So while Sir Byron Swan did not duplicate Sirwin's feet of
killing a dragon, he did duplicate Sirwin's feet of
creating historical mystery containing elements that appear
together while also completely contradicting each other.
No matter what side you take, you're accepting A flawed
position. It's a bit like choosing sides
in the Dance of the Dragons itself.
Both sides are quite problematic.
Choosing sides isn't just a challenge for us readers, it was
a challenge for the characters in World.
With that, we have one final example.
Or is it 2? That's for you to judge.
It's another philosophical mirror style question, and it
involves that very same difficult choice of blacks or
greens while staying white. Indeed, we're staying in the
Dance of the Dragons. And why not?
Sirwin was a dragon Slayer, and this was one of the very few
times in Westerosse history where people were actively
trying to kill Dragons. We now turn to a man from the
same region as the Swans and Selmies, another legend from the
Stormlands. Also a Lord Commander of the
Kingsguard. Also the finest night of his
era. But unlike Ryan Redwine aiming
the Dragon Knight and Barristan Selmi, and unlike other famous
Lord Commanders, he is not mentioned alongside the name of
Sirwin the Mirror Shield, even though he is literally the man
who replaced. Or Ryan.
It's not that he wasn't their equal in battle, he certainly
was that. Rather, it's because his
reputation was ruined. Thus, it's that he is not their
equal in honor. There are several reasons for
this, but one is that he set into motion a plan that was
ironically closer to Serwin's great deed than any performed by
these other illustrious names. As we alluded to earlier,
sometimes dragon is metaphorical.
Not all would be. Dragon slayers target real
Dragons. Sometimes, for example, it's a
dragon queen thereafter, And not to be outdone by Dragons,
mirrors have their share of metaphorical comparisons as
well. Sir Kristen Cole, the kingmaker,
didn't make the assassination attempt himself.
After all, he and Queen Rainier had a famous falling out, and
the only way he'd ever get near her again would be by force.
He was death with a Morning Star in his hand, but he was capable
of dealing death through intrigue as well.
Though this plan did not succeed, it was fiendishly
clever in its intricacies and he would also inadvertently launch
another legend for the singers to sing of, though without his
name attached to it. When the Dance of the Dragons
truly heated up, very few could get away with not taking a side.
Though earlier in life he had been Rainier's greatest
champion, those days were long gone and Sir Kristen of course
chose the Green faction. The rest of the Kingsguard also
had to choose, and unlike others who could perhaps deliberate for
a time, they had to choose quickly.
One of the more heart rending decisions came down to two men.
The two men were brothers, and like the Swans they wound up on
opposite sides of the war. Like the Swans sigil, they were
twins presented as mirror images, but they were not of
House Swan, they were of House Cargill and even their names
give off that mirror image feel Eric and Arik.
And so it was that in a war of dragon versus dragon, brother
versus sister, black versus green, 1 white knight was sent
to impersonate his twin. Sir Eric was sent by Sir Kristen
to impersonate his brother and slay either the Queen or the
Queen's children. The sources differ on this.
Even like Sir, when holding out his mirror shield, the Dragons
would not perceive any threat as they would only see a familiar
face. Sir Eric did not undertake this
mission happily. Indeed, Septon Eustace tells us
the troubled knight visited the Red Keep Sept on the night he
was to sail to pray for forgiveness to our Mother above.
One could see why this plan might succeed.
In the past, even their fellow Kingsguard Knights could not
tell them apart. Who would know Sir Eric was
actually Sir Eric? Well, exactly one person, Sir
Eric himself. The twins chanced upon each
other, and it said Sir Eric knew immediately what his brother was
up to. They drew their swords.
Prince Eamon, the Dragon Knight, cried the day Princess and Aries
went, his brother Aegon Sansa Stark said, and the twins, Sir
Eric and Sir Eric died with tears on their cheeks after each
had given the other a mortal wound.
Tyrion 9A Clash of Kings. But even this story is disputed.
1 version says they cursed each other, that there were no tears
of sorrow. One says they fought for an hour
and that no onlooker could step in because they didn't know who
to step in for. One says it was over in seconds.
One account says they did not die together at all.
That Eric died right away, and Eric four days later from the
horribly painful gut stabbing given to him by his brother.
Like so many of these related stories, this tale has multiple
reflections sections, and we cannot say which is true.
And it could be that there are elements of truth in several.
Eric and Ark have been reborn, and they guard a queen, the
Queen of Thorns, that is. You may remember them as left
and right, named so because she famously cannot tell them apart.
They too were party to the assassination of a king at the
Purple Wedding, though perhaps only by association.
Will their story end with them in opposition?
Will they die together as their legendary namesakes did?
Cole's dishonorable attempt on Rainier his life has another
mirror image in A Song of Ice and Fire.
Sir Barrison the Bolt AKA the King Breaker was a man from the
Stormlands, as was Cole AKA the Kingmaker.
Barrison was named to the Kings Guard at the same age of 23 that
Cole was. Selmy is a man deeply tied to a
young and powerful dragon writer queen who may yet prove
problematic like Cole was. However, as we've seen, mirrors
don't just reflect, they oppose. Bearson was called to vote on
the assassination of Daenerys Targaryen in A Game of Thrones.
He stood with Lord Eddard Stark in dissenting.
He would not do it. Did the Serwin of the Mirror
Shield face a similar challenge or two?
If not asked to weigh in on assassinations?
Did he perhaps live during a civil war or two where choosing
sides was difficult? Did Serwin receive dishonorable
orders like those given by Cole to Sir Eric or by Aries to
Barristan? It's entirely possible, perhaps
probable. They still argue over dissent
from Garth Greenhand even now and back then.
I'm sure that mirror casts many reflections.
Serwin may owe a crucial portion of his legacy to simply having
chosen the winning side. Selmy was no king himself, but a
warrior in service to such. He had little control over
politics, it would seem. Thus, it is hard to imagine that
Serwin of the Mirror Shield went through a full career without
any such conflicts. Surely the Age of Heroes wasn't
that perfectly heroic. 1 cannot always predict how these
reflections, especially those with long shadows, will look to
future generations. For example, is Barrison on the
winning side now? And later, had Sir Kristen Cole
been on the winning side, he might be recognized as a hero
now. He might be a paragon of Sirwin,
of the Mirror Shield, after all. And that's something to keep in
mind for Barristan the Bold, a man who has switched sides as
many times as Sir Kristen. A Queen's hand instead of a
King's hand. And of course, a king breaker
instead of a king maker. Daenerys tells Dario that Sirwin
was troubled by the ghosts of the men he slew.
Barristan's chapters feature him thinking of his own ghosts, men
and women he failed to protect like Rhaegar and his children
and the three dead kings he served prior to Daenerys and
Ashara Dane, who embarrassed and loved but never told her.
Ghost haunts him too, while Kristen Cole may have been
haunted by a confession of love, either by him to Rainiera or the
other way around. Likewise, we wonder, did Sirwin
have a love of his own? George RR Martin will likely
tell us more. But for in world characters
themselves, these stories are in the past and recorded as much as
they ever will be. Except who yet knows how history
will remember Barristan the Bold?
His story is not fully written, it's still in progress.
That is one factor separating him from the rest of these
legends like the reborn Eric and Arc.
Will Barristan remain a mirror image to Sir with himself?
Will he stay with Daenerys? Will he fight for friends in the
Reach? The new Greens with their male
claimant? Will his reflection and
reputation be blackened like Cole?
Or both? Thanks for listening slash
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