Meribald

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Star of the Faith.svg Septon
Meribald
Star of the Faith.svg
Septon Meribald TheMico.jpg

Title Septon
Allegiance Faith of the Seven
Culture Rivermen
Born In 247 AC or 248 AC[1], the riverlands
Book A Feast for Crows (appears)

Played by Ian McShane (as Brother Ray)
TV series Game of Thrones: Season 6

Meribald is a wandering septon of the riverlands. In the television adaptation Game of Thrones, Ian McShane portrays a similar character named Brother Ray.

Appearance and Character

See also: Images of Meribald

Meribald is six feet tall and walks with a slight hunch. He has large, leathery hands and large, bare, weathered feet. His face is lined and windburnt with thick grey hair.[2]

Meribald's usual path takes him around most of the countryside, circling the region from Maidenpool to Maidenpool, and is said to take no less than half a year per circuit. Because he usually ministers to the smallfolk in market towns, small villages, and holdfasts, he is not as familiar with the Trident and its castles as he is with the smallroads, tracks, hedges, and unmapped rills and caves.[2]

Meribald travels alone in most of his walks with only his dog, Dog, as his companion. Normally, he also takes a donkey to carry his heavy load, including packs of food and goods he means to give to the hungry and poor of the villages he passes by.[2]

History

Meribald was born and has lived his entire life in the riverlands. As a boy, Meribald went to fight in the War of the Ninepenny Kings with his brothers. His older brother, Willam, agreed to jokingly take Meribald as his squire. During the war, however, both Willam and another brother, Robin, died from a fever. His last brother, Owen, was killed in battle and Owen's friend, Jon Pox, was hanged for rape. Meribald may have become a broken man because of this. When he returned to the riverlands, he joined the Faith of the Seven, but used his position as a world-savvy septon to convince young women to have sex with him. He now walks barefoot as penance for these sins he committed as a youth.[2]

He cannot read or write, but he knows The Seven-Pointed Star by memory which seemed to make him capable enough to minister the Faith to smallfolk. He has been walking the countryside of the riverlands as a wandering septon in exchange for food and shelter for nearly forty years.[2]

Recent Events

A Feast for Crows

Septon Meribald guides Brienne of Tarth, Podrick Payne, and Ser Hyle Hunt through the riverlands to Saltpans, where he took his first stop on his circuit. Along the way, he spooks Podrick with stories of mud along the Trident's mudflats that can swallow up ignorant travelers and tales of a large, monstrous, man-eating, demon-like she-wolf that leads a pack of savage wolves prowling throughout the Trident. Meribald also tells his own story, explaining how he came to be a septon and his duties to the smallfolk of the riverlands.[2]

Meribald guides Brienne and her companions to the Quiet Isle to meet the Elder Brother.[3] The brotherhood without banners allows Meribald to continue his journey[4] after Brienne's battle with Biter at the inn at the crossroads.[5]

Quotes

Hyle: The War of the Ninepenny Kings?
Meribald: So they called it, though I never saw a king, nor earned a penny. It was war, though. That it was.[2]

Hyle Hunt and Meribald

References

  1. See the Meribald calculation.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 25, Brienne V.
  3. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 31, Brienne VI.
  4. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 42, Brienne VIII.
  5. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 37, Brienne VII.