Serpent boats are Braavosi poleboats similar to gondolas.
Design
Serpent boats are slender watercraft shaped like serpents and decorated with painted heads and upraised tails.[1]
Making use of the city's canals, serpent boats are the fastest means of transport in Braavos.[2] Their polemen often wear grey, brown, or green cloaks,[1] and many of these watermen patronize the Foghouse.[3] Later in the day, the Long Canal becomes choked with serpent boats and barges.[4]
History
After reading a book about Braavos as a boy, Samwell Tarly wanted to glide down the city's canals in a serpent boat.[5]
Recent Events
A Feast for Crows
Samwell Tarly sees several serpent boats tied up outside the Foghouse.[5]
The Winds of Winter
| Warning This information has thus far been released in a sample chapter for The Winds of Winter, and might therefore not be in finalized form. Keep in mind that the content as described below is still subject to change. |
Arya Stark sees a serpent boat passing under a bridge, and she worries that watermen will collide their boats in the thick fog.[6]
Quotes
Some of the houses were built above the waterways, she saw, turning the canals into a sort of tunnel. Slender boats slid in and out among them, wrought in the shapes of water serpents with painted heads and upraised tails. Those were not rowed but poled, she saw, by men who stood at their sterns in cloaks of grey and brown and deep moss green.[1]
—thoughts of Arya Stark
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 6, Arya I.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Free Cities: Braavos.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 45, The Blind Girl.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 34, Cat Of The Canals.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 26, Samwell III.
- ↑ The Winds of Winter, Mercy