Yandel

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Maester.svg Maester
Yandel
Maester.svg
Title Maester
Allegiance The Citadel
Culture Reach
Born In 272 AC[1]
Book The World of Ice & Fire (mentioned)

Yandel is a maester of the Citadel. He wrote the book The World of Ice & Fire.[2]

History

A foundling from his birth, left in an empty stall in the Scribe's Hearth of the Citadel, Yandel was found by an acolyte who took him to the Seneschal of that year, Archmaester Edgerran. Edgerran announced that Yandel might prove of use, which when Yandel first heard the story, he believed to mean that Edgerran foresaw his destiny as a maester. It would be only later that Yandel would discover that Edgerran had been writing a treatise on the swaddling of infants at the time, and had wished to test certain theories.[2]

Yandel was given to the care of servants, and received the occasional attention of maesters. He was raised as a servant amongst the halls, chambers, and libraries. Archmaester Walgrave taught him how to read and write. Yandel desired nothing more than to become one of the maesters. He wanted to read about faraway places and long-dead men, to gaze at the stars and measure the passing of the seasons. At the age of thirteen, in 285 AC, Yandel forged the first link of his chain, and other links would follow, until he completed his studies in 292 AC.[2]

Having finished his studies, Yandel remained at the Citadel, serving the archmaesters and aiding them in all that they required. Meanwhile, he set about completing his work, The World of Ice & Fire.[2]

Archmaester Perestan reminded Yandel that Archmaester Gyldayn was working on a history of the Targaryen kings, namely, Fire & Blood, Being a History of the Targaryen Kings of Westeros. Yandel persuaded Gyldayn to permit him to use fragments of the uncompleted Fire & Blood in his The World of Ice & Fire.[3][4]

Yandel dedicated The World of Ice & Fire to King Robert I Baratheon. Upon Robert's death, however, someone had his name replaced with Joffrey's and later Tommen's. Yandel himself, for fear of angering the Lannisters, also cut out the vast majority of material on Eddard Stark, Stannis and Renly Baratheon, and several others.[5]

Behind the Scenes

In the real-world book The World of Ice & Fire, Yandel's words were written by Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson, in the same way that anything attributed to Gyldayn was directly written by George R. R. Martin.[6]

In the original texts, Yandel discovered a long but incomplete history of House Targaryen in the papers of Archmaester Gerold, written by Archmaester Gyldayn. Yandel used Gyldayn's work as a major source for his book The World of Ice & Fire, including a complete history of Aegon's Conquest. He has discovered other manuscripts by Gyldayn, but many pages have been misplaced or destroyed, and still others have been damaged by neglect and by fire. Still, Yandel hopes that more pages will be found one day, and Gyldayn's lost masterwork will be published, as the maesters of the Citadel are greatly excited by what Yandel has found so far.[3]

However, George R. R. Martin later decided to let Gyldayn live into Robert I Baratheon's reign, so his history book could cover the entire Targaryen Dynasty.[7] Hence in latest prints, Gyldayn shared his uncompleted work with Archmaester Perestan, who then informed Yandel. And Yandel persuaded Gyldayn to permit the use of passages from Gyldayn's work in Yandel's book.[4]

References