Dareon

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Night's Watch.svgDareonNight's Watch.svg
Dareon by Amuelia.png
Dareon by Amuelia

Aliases
Allegiance Night's Watch
Culture Reach
Born Westeros[3]
Died 300 AC
Braavos
Books

Played by Unidentified
TV series Game of Thrones: Season 1

Dareon is a recruit of the Night's Watch, known primarily for his excellent singing voice. Ser Alliser Thorne refers to him as Lover.[1]

Appearance and Character

A handsome[2] young man, Dareon has fair hair and hazel eyes.[4] The singer is a lothario, and Samwell Tarly thinks Dareon has "a loose tongue and quick temper".[5] He is a better singer than a fighter.[6][4]

Dareon is an aspiring songwriter who plays the fiddle and woodharp.[4] His voice is "honey poured over thunder", according to Maester Aemon.[7] Dareon knows numerous songs, including "The Day They Hanged Black Robin", "The Mermaid's Lament", "Autumn of My Day", "Iron Lances", "Seven Swords for Seven Sons," "Milady's Supper", "Her Little Flower", "Meggett Was a Merry Maid, a Merry Maid Was She", "The Bear and the Maiden Fair", and "A Thousand Eyes, and One".[4] He is also familiar with songs about Skagos.[4]

History

While an apprentice singer in the Reach, Dareon he was caught in bed with a daughter of Lord Mathis Rowan of Goldengrove. Though Dareon maintains that the girl was waiting for him naked and helped him into her room, under her father's eye she named it rape. Dareon was sent to the Wall,[7] though he maintains his innocence.[8][4]

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Dareon is in the same group of recruits as Jon Snow when he comes to the Wall,[6] and he sings sometimes at dinner.[7] According to Jon, Dareon is "quick, but afraid of being hit" during their training.[6]

Dareon is raised to a man of the Watch at the same time as Jon, with both named to the stewards. Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, sends Dareon to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, hoping the singer can aid Cotter Pyke when dealing with merchant ships.[8]

A Clash of Kings

Dareon serves as a steward and singer at Eastwatch.[9]

A Feast for Crows

Jon Snow, after being chosen Lord Commander, names Dareon as a replacement for Yoren, a missing wandering crow.[4] He sends Dareon south with Samwell Tarly, the elderly Maester Aemon, and Gilly, with the idea that his singing could bolster recruitment in southern Westeros for the Night's Watch.[10]

While sailing from Eastwatch to Braavos, Dareon sings numerous songs to the oarsmen of Blackbird, and they join him in singing "The Bear and the Maiden Fair".[4] The singer dislikes the wildling Gilly and the baby with her,[4] and he is often drunk on firewine.[4]

Aemon's condition worsens in Braavos, and they are forced to spend their coin on a healer and an inn. With their money running low, Dareon is sent to sing for coin, with which to buy food and passage. Instead, he becomes increasingly distant and desultory, and sings largely for wine and trade from the city's whores. He prefers to perform at the Inn of the Green Eel, the Black Bargeman, and Moroggo's, establishments along Ragman's Harbor where the Common Tongue is more likely to be spoken. He also sings at the Moon Pool, where the Moonshadow gives him a kiss on one occasion.[5]

Sam finds Dareon in a whorehouse called the Happy Port; Dareon has wed a whore called the Sailor's Wife, who only beds the men she weds. Sam confronts him for this and accuses him of breaking his vows, and Dareon responds by throwing his cloak in Sam's face and renouncing the Night's Watch. Sam begins pummeling Dareon,[5] so Meralyn has Sam tossed out of the brothel into the canal.[5] Sam, Gilly, and Aemon find passage on Cinnamon Wind and leave Braavos without the singer.[11]

After his desertion, Dareon is successful for a time as a singer in Braavos, visiting the Cattery, the Happy Port, and the House of Seven Lamps. The whores call him the black singer, though he begins wearing fancy clothing with only his boots remaining black.[2] He sleeps at the Happy Port, where Lanna often asks him to sing love songs.[2]

Dareon is recognized as a deserter of the Night's Watch by Arya Stark, who, under her guise of "Cat of the Canals", sells oysters for the Braavosi fishmonger Brusco in the same areas where Dareon sings. Arya accompanies Dareon when he departs the Happy Port one night, and he brags he will one day perform in the Sealord's Palace. The singer also admits he remained behind when Sam left Braavos. Arya lures Dareon into an alley and slits his throat as punishment for his desertion. She dumps his body into a canal, though she keeps his boots.[2]

Quotes by Dareon

Dareon: The stewards are fine for the likes of you and me, Sam, but not for Lord Snow.

Jon: I'm a better swordsman and a better rider than any of you. It's not fair.

Dareon: Fair? The girl was waiting for me, naked as the day she was born. She pulled me through the window, and you talk to me of fair?[8]

—Dareon and Jon Snow

Samwell: You should have asked her for silver. It's coin we need, not kisses.
Dareon: Some kisses are worth more than yellow gold, Slayer.[5]

Samwell Tarly and Dareon

Dareon: Have a girl or go away, Sam. You're ruining my wedding.

Samwell: I'll go, but you'll come with me.

Dareon: No. I'm done with you. I'm done with black.[5]

—Dareon and Samwell Tarly

Hard beds, salt cod, and endless watches, that's the Wall. Besides, there's no one half as pretty as you at Eastwatch. How could I ever leave you?[2]

—Dareon to Blushing Bethany

Quotes about Dareon

Dareon, I am told that you sang at many a high lord's table and shared their meat and mead. We are sending you to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. It may be your palate will be some help to Cotter Pyke when merchant galleys come trading.[8]

Jeor Mormont to Dareon

Gilly: That was pretty, Sam. You sing good."
Samwell: You should hear Dareon. His voice is sweet as mead.[12]

Dareon was supposed to be his brother. Ask him to sing, and no one could be better. Ask him to do aught else ...[5]

—thoughts of Samwell Tarly

The whores called him the black singer, but there was hardly any black about him now. With the coin his singing brought him, the crow had transformed himself into a peacock. Today he wore a plush purple cloak lined with vair, a striped white-and-lilac tunic, and the parti-colored breeches of a bravo, but he owned a silken cloak as well, and one made of burgundy velvet that was lined with cloth-of-gold. The only black about him was his boots. Cat had heard him tell Lanna that he'd thrown all the rest in a canal. "I am done with darkness," he had announced.[2]

—thoughts of Arya Stark

He sings a pretty song. The gods must have loved him to give him such a voice, and that fair face as well.[2]

Dareon had been a deserter from the Night's Watch; he had deserved to die.[13]

—thoughts of Arya Stark

Behind the scenes

Dareon may be a reference by George R. R. Martin to Daeron, an Elvish minstrel from The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien, who is a known influence to Martin.[14]

References