What may have happened at Summerhall

Potential Spoilers Below

The Game of Thrones:  An Event that brought down a kingdom

The Tragedy at Summerhall was a fire at Summerhall, a pleasure castle of House Targaryen in the Dornish Marches, in 259 AC. The conflagration caused the deaths of, among others, King Aegon V Targaryen, his eldest son, Prince Duncan Targaryen, and Ser Duncan the Tall, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

Tragedy at Summerhall

Aegon V Targaryen

Prince Duncan Targaryen

Ser Duncan the Tall

The cause of the fire is as yet unknown, but was connected with King Aegon's desire to restore dragons to the Seven Kingdoms. The last years of his reign were consumed by a search for ancient lore about the dragon breeding of Valyria, and it was said that Aegon commissioned journeys to places as far away as Asshai, with the hopes of finding texts and knowledge that had not been preserved in Westeros.

The Seven Kingdoms

Valyria

Asshai-by-the-Shadow

In 259 AC, Aegon summoned many of those closest to him to Summerhall to celebrate the impending birth of his first great-grandchild to Aerys and Rhaella, the children of Aegon's heir Prince Jaehaerys.

King Aerys

Rhaella

King Jaehaerys

A page from Archmaester Gyldayn's history of House Targaryen hints at the events of the tragedy, but a mishap led to ink blotting out much of the information:

“the blood of the dragon gathered in one …

… seven eggs, to honor the seven gods, though the king's own septon had warned …

… pyromancers …

… wild fire …

… flames grew out of control … towering … burned so hot that …

… died, but for the valor of the Lord Comman …”

Many died, and fire destroyed the castle, leaving it a ruin. According to Ser Barristan Selmy, sorcery was involved.

Barristan Selmy

Known attendees

Known deaths

King Aegon V Targaryen

Prince Duncan Targaryen

Ser Duncan the Tall, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard

Known survivors

Princess Rhaella Targaryen

Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, born during the Tragedy

Archmaester Gyldayn

A woods witch dear to Jenny of Oldstones. Ser Barristan Selmy believes she died; however, his description of her matches the appearance of the ghost of High Heart, who speaks of having "gorged on grief at Summerhall" and mentions "my Jenny" with grief.

Jenny of Oldstones

Aftermath

The tragedy that transpired at Summerhall left very few witnesses alive, and those who survived would not speak of it. The death of King Aegon brought Jaehaerys II Targaryen to the throne, but he had to put aside his grief and make immediate plans for the War of the Ninepenny Kings. The young Ser Gerold Hightower became the new Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

Gerold Hightower

Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, who was born at Summerhall amongst the flames, often returned there alone, with not even the Kingsguard for company. He would sleep under the stars in the ruined hall, and would be inspired to compose songs for his harp, about "twilights and tears and the death of kings."

Rhaegar Targaryen

The Game of Thrones: What I believed also took place

I believe that Jenny of Oldstones was pregnant.  I believe that the woods witch that Arya encounters is truly Jenny’s mother.  The following from the books explains why I think so:

Arya

“The dwarf woman studied her with dim red eyes. “I see you,” she whispered. “I see you, wolf child. Blood child. I thought it was the lord who smelled of death . . .” She began to sob, her little body shaking. “You are cruel to come to my hill, cruel. I gorged on grief at Summerhall, I need none of yours. Begone from here, dark heart. Begone!”

“Oh, aye. My Jenny’s song. Is there another?”

“Jenny of Oldstones was accompanied to court by a dwarfish, albino woman who was reputed to be a woods witch in the riverlands. Lady Jenny herself claimed, in her ignorance, that she was a child of the forest.”

If you replace the word woods with forest and if the woods witch is indeed her mother then she would be a child of the forest.  Maybe it wasn’t ignorance at all but simply a misunderstanding by those around her.  I believe that she was indeed the daughter of the woods witch and the reason she accompanied Jenny to court.

If what Ser Barristan Selmy said is true concerning sorcery then couldn’t it be possible that it was carried out by the woods witch herself?  Then couldn’t it be possible that Jenny trying to save her beloved Prince Duncan Targaryen was overcome with the flames and was burned horribly and because of that left carrying what I believe was a son.  I then believe she left the Seven Kingdoms to be as far away from the woods witch as possible because of her own grief.  The grief that the woods witch speaks to Arya of gorging on was due to the loss of her daughter who was no longer in her life.  Could it then not be plausible that it was the woods witch herself who caused the fire as payback for the slight of her daughter not being good enough to be queen?  Hence she was the one to make the prophecy of the Prince that was Promised coming from the union from the line of Prince Aerys and Princess Rhaella’s marriage out of spite.  Forcing Aery’s to be miserable in that marriage because it wasn’t for love and causing misery in how everything played out ending the Targaryen Dynasty as the ruling family in Westeros.  The union creates Rhaegar who falls in love with Lyanna Stark which started Robert’s Rebellion that left King Aerys and Prince Rhaegar, Lyanna, his wife and their children dead.  Could it have been Jenny that put her mother up to using sorcery to put an end to Rhaella’s pregnancy in a most cruel fashion?  The question then remains; who was her son?  I’ll go into that a bit.  Now I will explain to you how I came to this in the first place.

Lyanna Stark

The Wheel of Time: Event that brought down a kingdom

Malkier was part of the Borderlands, lying north of Shienar. The nation was swallowed by the Blight in 955 NE, causing Shienar to become the northernmost of the Borderlands. The capital was Seven Towers.  The sign of Malkier was a golden crane. Malkieri men are recognized by a braided leather cord they wear called a hadori.

Hadori

Malkier endured against the Shadow for almost a thousand years, until it was destroyed in 955 NE.  Lain Mandragoran, the brother of King al'Akir Mandragoran, took five thousand lancers to the Blasted Lands as part of a wager laid by his wife Breyan and was killed. He was survived by his son Isam (Slayer).  Al'Akir's refusal to support Lain's foolishness saw Breyan plot to have him and his young son Lan killed so her own son Isam could take the throne. Cowin Gemallan, a Malkieri noble but also a Darkfriend, supported Breyan's plan and attempted a coup against al'Akir.

Lain Mandragoran

al'Akir Mandragoran

Cowin Gemallan

The coup failed, but the Blightborder forts were stripped bare and a major Shadowspawn invasion was able to break through the lines. Breyan and Isam were apparently killed and much of the kingdom laid waste, although the famed scout Jain Charin, already called Farstrider, was able to take Gemallen prisoner and bring him back to the Seven Towers to face al'Akir in single combat, where he was killed. Al'Akir abdicated the throne to his son Lan, anointing him a Diademed Battle Lord, and sent him south to Shienar to be raised in safety, before rallying the last of the Malkieri to fight the Shadow. Al'Akir was killed, Malkier was overrun, the Seven Towers were destroyed, and the Blightborder was pushed a hundred miles or more to the south, until troops from the other Borderlands met the Shadowspawn at the Stair of Jehaan and turned them back.

Jain Farstrider

The Wheel of Time: What happened to the son (Isam)?

When Malkier was overrun by Trollocs, Isam was one of the few Malkieri to escape. His mother Breyan Mandragoran fled with him into the blight, but they were attacked by Trollocs. Isam survived this encounter and as a child, grew up in the Town. There he lived a very dangerous life, where each day was a struggle to survive surrounded by Samma N'Sei and Myrddraal. He learned to kill very early and this upbringing is what has honed him into the hunter he is today.

The Town is a town in the Great Blight, located not far from the valley of Thakan'dar at the foot of Shayol Ghul. It is a sprawling, ramshackle settlement that has existed for over two thousand years and was constructed by forced labor.

The Town is inhabited mainly by darkfriends and the people enslaved by them.

It appears to follow some of the same rules as Shayol Ghul itself; for example, channeling can be restricted to those with the Great Lord's favor.

The Great Lord aka The Dark One

Isam was raised in the Town from a very young age, and still uses it as a "base camp" when he is in the waking world. The Town also contains a great percentage of Samma N'Sei and their relatives.

The Game of Thrones: What happened to Jenny’s son?

Following what happened in TWOT I believe that Jenny made her way to Pentos and maybe was killed and thus her son was orphaned.  So who do I believe this orphaned boy to be; why none other than Varys himself. 

Varys

Varys was born as a slave in Lys, according to Grand Maester Pycelle. Varys himself says that he was orphaned, and was apprenticed to a traveling folly, a troupe of mummers who worked the Free Cities, Oldtown, and occasionally King's Landing, by means of a fat little cog owned by the troupe's master.   I choose to believe Varys.  During their stay in Myr, a man offered a large sum of money for Varys, an offer his master found too tempting to refuse. The man gave Varys a potion that made him powerless to move or speak, but did nothing to dull his senses as his manhood was cut off at the stem, then burnt in a brazier in a Blood Magic ritual. Varys claims to have held a hatred for all things magical ever since.

Grand Maester Pycelle

Old Town

King's Landing

With the ritual complete, the man had no further use for Varys and tossed him out on the streets. Varys asked the man what he should do, to which the sorcerer replied he supposed that he should die. Varys to spite him vowed to live. By that time the mummers had sailed and Varys was left alone. He resorted to begging, prostitution and thievery and soon was as good a thief as any in Myr, eventually becoming recognized as the best thief in the city, until a rival forced him out and he fled to Pentos.

In Pentos, Varys was marked by his accent, and once it became known he was a eunuch, he was despised and beaten. Varys was poor, and slept in sewers during the day, whilse prowling the rooftops at night. He made an agreement with a poor sellsword named Illyrio Mopatis, and together they started a business, where Varys would steal objects from lesser thieves and Illyrio would get the objects back for their original owners for a small fee. Soon, everyone in Pentos who ever had valuables stolen from them knew who to ask to get their belongings back. In addition, the thieves in Pentos soon began to seek Varys out, half to try (and failing) to kill him, the other half to sell him the objects they had stolen in order to prevent Varys from stealing them. Varys and Illyrio quickly grew rich.

Illyrio Mopatis

Varys came to the realization that information was much more valuable than gold and gems and began training his spy network, then known as "little mice", to acquire the information, letters, ledgers and charts of the wealthy and powerful. The "mice" were orphans purchased by Varys; he chose those that were small, quick, and quiet, and taught them to read and write, as well as the skills required for sneak thievery such as climbing walls and slipping down chimneys, so that they might copy the information Varys desired without disturbing or alarming their targets.

These secrets increased Varys and Illyrio's wealth tenfold, and in time Varys became so infamous that word of his talents reached the ears of King Aerys across the narrow sea, who in his growing paranoia no longer trusted his son, his wife, or his Hand.

Like Isam each day for Varys was a struggle to survive.  Like Isam Varys also reaches back to where he grew up back in Pentos but he conducts business concerning information.

The Wheel of Time: What is an hadori?

A hadori is a thin, braided leather headband worn by Malkieri men that holds back their hair. Hadoris have not been seen very often since the downfall of Malkier. When a young Malkieri boy is given his hadori by a male relative or a Malkieri male acting in the place of a relative, it means that he has become a man among the Malkieri, more so than gaining his sword which, among the Borderlanders is a symbol of the transition from boyhood to manhood. Malkieri who wear the hadori are buried in it. After the fall of Malkier the hadori remains a symbol of the Malkieri people and their commitment to stand against the darkness.

The Game of Thrones: An anagram of hadori is hairdo

I believe that the fact that Jenny wove flowers in her hair is an homage to the hadori itself.  There are songs written about Jenny of Oldstones with the flowers in her hair. 

The Game of Thrones: Trial by battle

In TWOW there was a prisoner Gemallen was brought back to the Seven Towers to face the king al’Akir in single combat, where he was killed.  In TGOT when Prince Duncan broke his betrothal to Lord Lyonel Baratheon’s daughter it resulted in a short rebellion.  Ser Duncan the Tall fought in the name of the royal family against Lyonel in a trial by combat.  Lyonel yielded to Ser Duncan and Prince Duncan renounced his claim to the throne, and King Aegon agreed to betroth his youngest daughter, Princess Rhaelle Targaryen to Lyonel’s heir, Ormund Baratheon.

Ser Duncan and Lyonel Baratheon
Trial by Combat

The Wheel of Time:  Who exactly is Isam?

Isam was of royal blood in the Kingdom of Malkier, cousin of Lan Mandragoran, last of the Malkieri kings.

He looks very similar to Lan. He is tall and muscular with thick arms. He is tanned with dark hair and blue eyes which appear black in tel'aran'rhiod.  Perrin Aybara comments that his scent smells inhuman, like a man mixed with stone.

The Game of Thrones:  Who exactly is Varys?

If what I say holds true Varys is a Targaryen.  It would kind of explain why he was used in the Blood Magic ritual.  He reminds me of his grandfather Aegon or Egg as a boy in the “Tales of Dunk and Egg” as far as his bald head.  It would also hide his hair being bald that would bring out his Targaryen looks.

Forever I have thought of the “mummers dragon” was Aegon with Varys being the mummer.  Now that I look at it this way I see the troupe of mummers that raised Varys as the mummer and Varys himself would then be the dragon.

Where Isam looked like 2 different people because he was merged with another the reason why Varys is a mummer and able to disguise himself so well?  I could see Bran who is the Perrin Aybara character from TWOT making a similar comment about Aegon Targaryen aka “Egg” and Varys; saying they look similar to each other.

Bran

Egg

Varys as a boy in Pentos

Notes:

Both Isam and Varys are king’s brothers sons.  Both grandmothers if my theory holds were matchmakers.  I could also see Jenny of Oldstones thinking the king would restore Prince Duncan as his heir making her queen and their son the next king if his current first great grandson met an untimely demise.  Thus she was the one that put the woods witch up to burning down Summerhall.  When the plan didn’t go as planned she grew angry with her mother and left with her son after giving birth.

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.