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 Donal Noye by Amok© | ||||
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| Allegiances |
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| Culture | Stormlander | |||
| Born |
In or before 252 AC[1] Stormlands[2] | |||
| Died |
300 AC Castle Black | |||
| Books |
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Donal Noye is an armorer, smith, and steward of the Night's Watch.[3] He used to be a smith and armorer for House Baratheon of Storm's End.
Appearance and Character
Donal has a big gut and a barrel chest.[4][5] His nose is flat and broad, and his jaws bristle with black stubble.[4][5] He is muscular and strong, even with one hand missing.[6] Dedicated to his craft,[7] Donal is trusting,[6] brave,[8] and a good leader.[9]
To cover the stump of his left arm,[5] Donal pins the sleeve of his black wool tunic with a silver pin in the shape of a longsword.[4] He sometimes works bare-chested under a leather apron.[5]
Donal has a pair of modest rooms[10] with a narrow bed behind the armory of Castle Black. The smith's few possessions include a silver drinking cup, six pennies and a copper star, a niello brooch with a broken clasp, and a musty brocade doublet with the stag of House Baratheon.[7]
History
Before he joined the Night's Watch, Donal was in service to House Baratheon of Storm's End. He knew the late Lord Steffon Baratheon and saw his sons when they were children.[5] Donal worked as a smith at Storm's End and made the warhammer for Robert Baratheon which killed Prince Rhaegar Targaryen at the Trident,[4] as well as the first sword for Stannis Baratheon.[9]
Donal left the service of House Baratheon after Robert's Rebellion, having lost an arm which festered from an axe wound suffered during the siege of Storm's End.[4] Jon Snow thinks Donal has traveled the Seven Kingdoms and participated in many battles.[4]
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
When Donal sees Jon Snow easily beating his fellow Night's Watch recruits in training at Castle Black, he lectures Jon that the youth does not fight fair. Jon has experience from capable trainers, such as Ser Rodrik Cassel, while the other recruits have little, if any practice. Furthermore, Jon humiliates them by showing how easily he can beat them, making the recruits fear and despise him.[4] Jon is initially angered by what Donal says, but he befriends the other recruits and begins training them. He also becomes on friendly terms with the smith. Jon begins to help Donal in the armory,[11] as does Rudge.[12]
When Samwell Tarly comes to Castle Black, Donal takes apart a mail hauberk and refits it with leather panels at the sides so that it can fit the large boy.[11]
Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, is attacked by the wight of Othor but is saved by Jon. Jeor brings Longclaw, his Valyrian steel bastard sword, to Donal's armory for repairs after it is burned, and the Lord Commander then gives the blade to Jon.[12]
A Clash of Kings
Donal tells Jon about his history at Storm's End with Robert, Stannis, and Renly Baratheon, and he wishes his friend well when the youth joins the great ranging of the Watch beyond the Wall.[5]
A Storm of Swords
Donal is one of the few people to remain at Castle Black after Bowen Marsh leaves to deal with wildling raids. When Jon escapes Styr's band of wildlings and runs to Castle Black to warn of the coming assault, Donal is concerned that Jon had deserted. However, he ends up trusting the boy and brings him to Maester Aemon for treatment of his wounds and to begin preparing for the defense of the Wall. Despite having only one arm, Donal carries Jon without difficulty up the stairs and holds Jon down when Aemon cuts out the arrow piercing him.[6]
The remaining men of the Night's Watch at Castle Black retreat to the King's Tower, because the other buildings are not defensible. Donal, taking command, sends warning to Mole's Town and offers the villagers refuge in the King's Tower if they help defend it.[13]
During the attack on Castle Black, the attacking Thenns manage to claim the stairs despite severe losses and the remaining men of the Night's Watch flee to the Wall. Donal, having prepared for this by drenching the last landings with oil, has burning arrows fired, and the attacking Thenns perish to a man.[13]
Donal then leads the defense against Mance Rayder's vast army north of the Wall. The wildlings have no ladders to climb the Wall, so they attack the gate. When Mag Mar Tun Doh Weg begins to break it, Donal gives command of the Wall to Jon and leaves with a few men to save the gate. Donal succeeds in stopping the wildlings at the gate, at the cost of his life and those of the men with him.[14] Jon later finds that Mag crushed Donal's spine and that Donal impaled his sword in the giant's throat.
When Jon goes north of the Wall to treat with Mance, he is met by Tormund Giantsbane. Jon tells his wildling friend about the fates of Donal and Mag, and the two share mead in their honor.[15] Stannis Baratheon appears with his army and defeats Mance's host.[15] According to Stannis, this may not have been possible if the wildlings had already taken the gate, and he praises Donal's memory.[9]
While rallying support for Jon in the choosing of the next Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Samwell Tarly reminds Ser Denys Mallister and Cotter Pyke that Donal had trusted the youth.[16]
A Feast for Crows
Because Stannis is residing in the King's Tower, Jon Snow, now Lord Commander, moves into Donal's modest room behind the armory.[17]
A Dance with Dragons
Jon has a nightmare in which he cuts down Donal and other former companions.[18] Jon later thinks that the Night's Watch needs leaders with the compassion of Donal Noye.[19]
Quotes by Donal
The yard is for fighting. Keep your quarrels out of my armory, or I'll make them my quarrels. You won't like that.[4]
—Donal to recruits
Robert was the true steel. Stannis is pure iron, black and hard and strong, yes, but brittle, the way iron gets. He'll break before he bends. And Renly, that one, he's copper, bright and shiny, pretty to look at but not worth all that much at the end of the day.[5]
—Donal to Jon Snow
—Donal to Aemon
Donal: Jon, you have the Wall till I return.
Jon: My lord?
Donal: Lord? I'm a blacksmith. I said, the Wall is yours.[13]
—Donal Noye to Jon Snow
Quotes about Donal
The armorer could talk about life. He'd had one. He'd only taken the black after he'd lost an arm at the siege of Storm's End. Before that he'd smithed for Stannis Baratheon, the king's brother. He'd seen the Seven Kingdoms from one end to the other; he'd feasted and wenched and fought in a hundred battles. They said it was Donal Noye who'd forged King Robert's warhammer, the one that crushed the life from Rhaegar Targaryen on the Trident. He'd done all the things that Jon would never do, and then when he was old, well past thirty, he'd taken a glancing blow from an axe and the wound had festered until the whole arm had to come off. Only then, crippled, had Donal Noye come to the Wall, when his life was all but over.[4]
—Jon Snow's thoughts
Tormund: Some great lord was he, this Donal Noye? One of your shiny knights in their steel smallclothes?
Jon: A blacksmith. He only had one arm.
Tormund: A one-armed smith slew Mag the Mighty? Har! That must o' been a fight to see. Mance will make a song of it, see if he don't. This will warm us some. To Donal Noye, and Mag the Mighty.[15]
His treasures were his tools, and the swords and knives he made. His life was at the forge.[7]
—Jon Snow's thoughts
Noye made my first sword for me, and Robert's warhammer as well. Had the god seen fit to spare him, he would have made a better Lord Commander for your order than any of these fools who are squabbling over it now.[9]
—thoughts of Jon Snow
References
- ↑ See the Donal Noye calculation.
- ↑ George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Donal Noye.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Appendix.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 19, Jon III.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 6, Jon I.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 48, Jon VI.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 3, Jon I.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 10, Jon III.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 76, Jon XI.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 31, Melisandre I.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 26, Jon IV.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 60, Jon VIII.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 55, Jon VII.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 64, Jon VIII.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 73, Jon X.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 78, Samwell V.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 5, Samwell I.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 58, Jon XII.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 69, Jon XIII.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 28, Jon VI.