Brynden Rivers: Difference between revisions
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===''A Dance with Dragons''=== | ===''A Dance with Dragons''=== | ||
[[File: Three eyed crow Marc Simonetti. | [[File: Three eyed crow Marc Simonetti.jpg|thumb|350px|[[Bran Stark]] and the [[three-eyed crow]], by Marc Simonetti ©]] | ||
[[Bran Stark]] discovers that Brynden is still alive as the [[three-eyed crow]], the last [[greenseer]] living with [[children of the forest]] in a [[Cave of the three-eyed crow|cave]] found [[beyond the Wall]].{{Ref|AWOIAF|Brandon (Bran) Stark}}{{Ref|AWOIAF|Brynden Rivers}}{{Ref|ADWD|13}} Brynden becomes Bran's mentor in the art of [[greensight]] and [[skinchanging]].{{Ref|ADWD|34}} | [[Bran Stark]] discovers that Brynden is still alive as the [[three-eyed crow]], the last [[greenseer]] living with [[children of the forest]] in a [[Cave of the three-eyed crow|cave]] found [[beyond the Wall]].{{Ref|AWOIAF|Brandon (Bran) Stark}}{{Ref|AWOIAF|Brynden Rivers}}{{Ref|ADWD|13}} Brynden becomes Bran's mentor in the art of [[greensight]] and [[skinchanging]].{{Ref|ADWD|34}} | ||
Revision as of 18:20, 13 August 2026
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 Brynden Rivers with his weirwood longbow, art by Amok © | ||||
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| Aliases | ||||
| Titles | ||||
| Allegiances | ||||
| Culture | Crownlands and Riverlands | |||
| Born |
175 AC[8] King's Landing[9] | |||
| Father | King Aegon IV Targaryen | |||
| Mother | Lady Melissa Blackwood | |||
| Lover | Lady Shiera Seastar (paramour) | |||
| Coat of arms |
A white dragon on black, breathing red fire (Sable, a dragon argent flammant gules) | |||
| Books |
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| Played by |
Struan Rodger (Game of Thrones: Season 4) Max von Sydow (Game of Thrones: Season 6) Joshua Ben-Tovim (House of the Dragon: Season 2) | |||
| TV series |
Game of Thrones: Season 4 | 6 House of the Dragon: Season 2 | |||
Brynden Rivers, called Lord Bloodraven, was the bastard son of King Aegon IV Targaryen by his sixth mistress, Lady Melissa Blackwood. He had two older sisters, Mya and Gwenys, and numerous half-siblings.[8] As his mother was highborn, Brynden was counted among the Great Bastards. Like his bastard siblings, Brynden was legitimized by King Aegon IV in 184 AC. Brynden's personal arms were a white dragon with red eyes breathing red flame on a black field.
Brynden was a Targaryen loyalist during the Blackfyre Rebellions.[10] He served as the Hand of the King to King Aerys I Targaryen[1] and King Maekar I Targaryen.[7] He was eventually sent to the Night's Watch by King Aegon V Targaryen, where he rose to the position of Lord Commander.[2]
In the television adaptation Game of Thrones, Brynden is portrayed by Struan Rodger (Season 4) and Max von Sydow (Season 6). In House of the Dragon, he is portrayed by Joshua Ben-Tovim.[N 1]
Appearance and Character
Brynden was an albino, and thus had milk-white skin, long white hair, and red eyes.[13] On the right side of his face he had a red winestain birthmark, that extended from his throat up to his right cheek. The birthmark was the reason why he was called "Bloodraven", as it was said to look somewhat like a raven drawn in blood. However, Ser Duncan the Tall thought the birthmark just a blotch.[1] According to George R. R. Martin, it is more a suggestion of a raven shape, like an ink blot.[14]
Brynden was not as tall or muscular as his half brothers, Daemon and Aegor,[13] but he was considered more cunning.[1] A shade under six feet tall, Brynden was thin and gaunt. He had a grim forbidding aspect, and sharp, vaguely sinister features.[13][15] He typically wore the colors of scarlet and smoke, a dark grey mottled and streaked with black.[13] For instance, one of his outfits included a scarlet tunic with black boots and a smoke-colored cloak.[16] Because his skin was sensitive to light, Bloodraven usually went about cloaked and hooded.[1][13]
Brynden lost an eye during the First Blackfyre Rebellion, and rarely covered the empty socket with a patch, preferring to display his scar and empty socket to the world.[14] He wore his white hair straight and to his shoulders, with the front brushed forward to cover his missing eye.[16][13] Although Brynden carried the Valyrian steel longsword Dark Sister and was a good swordsman, he was also an expert bowman who preferred to use his tall weirwood longbow.[15]
Brynden was rumored to be a sinister sorcerer and spymaster,[13][16] who effectively ruled the kingdom "with spies and spells" and as "Lord Bloodraven".[1] A popular riddle asked was, "How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have? A thousand eyes, and one".[16] The song "A Thousand Eyes, and One" was written about Brynden.[2]
History
Youth
In 175 AC, Brynden was born in King's Landing[9] as the bastard son of King Aegon IV Targaryen and his sixth mistress, Lady Melissa Blackwood, who had replaced the king's fifth mistress, Lady Barba Bracken.[17] He was named Brynden as an infant by his mother.[3] Brynden's older sisters were Mya and Gwenys Rivers.[8] Although Melissa was eventually dismissed by Aegon IV in favor of his seventh mistress, Lady Bethany Bracken, Brynden was able to maintain close relations at court because of Melissa's popularity.[10] He learned how the fight under the tutelage of Ser Quentyn Ball, who also taught the other Great Bastards and the sons of their half-brother Daeron.[16]
Brynden was resented by Barba's bastard son, Aegor Rivers, nicknamed "Bittersteel". At some point, Brynden became a lover to his half-sister, Shiera Seastar. As Aegor desired her as well, Shiera became another point of rivalry between the two half-siblings.[18] Brynden would become Shiera's most ardent admirer.[19]
Like his other bastard siblings, Brynden was legitimized by his father Aegon IV in 184 AC, when the king was on his deathbed.[8] After succeeding as king, Brynden's half-brother King Daeron II maintained all the incomes that King Aegon had bestowed upon the Great Bastards.[10]
Reign of King Daeron II Targaryen
First Blackfyre Rebellion
Ahead of their half-brother Daemon Blackfyre declaring himself king, King Daeron II Targaryen sent the Kingsguard to arrest him. Though it was unclear how word reached King Daeron that Daemon intended to make a bid for the throne within the turn of the moon, Grand Maester Merion would later suggest in his unfinished 'The Red Dragon and the Black that Brynden was involved. During the First Blackfyre Rebellion that followed, Brynden remained loyal to his trueborn half-brother King Daeron II against Daemon I Blackfyre.[10] Brynden commanded his private guards, a group of longbowmen called the Raven's Teeth.[1][10][5]
At the Battle of the Redgrass Field in 196 AC, the Raven's Teeth gained the Weeping Ridge and rained arrows down onto the Blackfyres from three hundred yards away, killing first Daemon's eldest son Aegon, then Daemon himself, and finally Aegon's twin, Aemon.[1] The arrows are said to have been driven by Brynden's sorcery,[1] and people later named Brynden a kinslayer.[1][16] Daemon's death led the rebels to rout, but some were rallied by Aegor Rivers in a mad charge.[1] The resulting duel between the rival half brothers left Brynden blinded in one eye and Aegor retreating. With Daemon and his eldest sons dead, Aegor fled into exile in the Free Cities with Daemon's wife, daughters, and remaining sons.[10]
Later Reign of Daeron II
After the war, Brynden would continue to serve the victorious King Daeron[1] and rose to prominence at court.[6] By 205 AC, Brynden was known to the commons as "the king's sorceror."[1] In the years preceding 209 AC, Brynden served on Daeron's small council, although it's unknown if he held an official position.[N 2] During small council meetings, Brynden would debate matters including how best to deal with defeated rebels. While the Hand of the King and heir, Prince Baelor Targaryen, advocated for clemency, Brynden argued against pardons out of concern they would only help to stoke the next rebellion.[1]
Reign of King Aerys I Targaryen
Although Brynden had risen to a place of prominence at court by the end of King Daeron II's reign, few anticipated that his nephew, King Aerys I Targaryen, would name him his Hand of the King upon taking the throne in 209 AC. At the time of his appointment, Brynden's studies of the higher mysteries were an open secret and suggested by some as the reason Aerys chose him, for he shared that interest. He would also serve as Aerys's master of whisperers for the duration of his reign.[6] His first major trial was the Great Spring Sickness, an epidemic that had killed King Daeron II Targaryen, Princes Valarr and Matarys Targaryen, and tens of thousands more. Seeing the corpses pile up in the streets of King's Landing, Brynden ordered the pyromancers of the Alchemists' Guild to burn them in the Dragonpit. At night, the green glow of the wildfire pyres could be seen throughout the whole city.[1]
Around the same time, a drought began that lasted a little more than a year,[N 3] causing many smallfolk to leave their lands in search of somewhere the rain still fell. Brynden ordered them to return to their own lands but few obeyed. Indeed they blamed Brynden, cursing him as a kinslayer. Many of them became robbers. Prices increased as trade dwindled, and it was widely held that travel was less safe under Aerys's reign than it had been under that of his father.[1] Some people alleged that Brynden and his paramour, his half-sister Shiera Seastar, used sorcery to uncover secrets.[6] Brynden proposed to Shiera numerous times, but she always refused his offers of marriage.[19]
In 211 AC, Ser Otho Bracken, known as the Brute of Bracken, was expected to succeed to the lordship of Stone Hedge. Not wanting to see such a man in power, the traditional Bracken rivals of House Blackwood were expected to start a war to root him out. It was suggested that Brynden, being half-Blackwood himself, would not be inclined to hear any complaints of a member of House Bracken. Septon Sefton believed that Brynden would most likely do nothing, and that if he did decide to act, it would only be to help his Blackwood cousins to bring Otho to bay.[1]
In 211 AC Lord Dagon Greyjoy raided the western coast, including Fair Isle, the shipping of the Arbor, and the village of Little Dosk in the Reach.[1] By 212 AC, Lord Beron Stark had called his banners to repulse the ironmen from the Stony Shore, while House Lannister was building ships to strike at the Iron Islands.[16] During all of this Brynden kept his eye on Tyrosh, where his half-brother Aegor Rivers remained with the surviving sons of Daemon Blackfyre in exile.[16] However, Victarion Greyjoy recalls that, "...even Dagon could not defeat the dragons",[20] suggesting that the Targaryens eventually intervened.
Second Blackfyre Rebellion
During the wedding tourney at Whitewalls in 212 AC, Ser Maynard Plumm defended Brynden's actions as Hand to Ser Kyle the Cat.[16] Through his informants,[6] including a Vyrwel man-at-arms and a troupe of comic dwarfs, Brynden was aware of a plot at Whitewalls to put Daemon II Blackfyre forward as the legitimate Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Brynden marched on the tourney with three hundred Raven's Teeth, three brothers of the Kingsguard, five hundred other knights, and five thousand infantry drawn from the crownlands and the riverlands. In the face of such a force Daemon tried to rally the tourney-goers to battle, but found little support. Daemon then challenged the Hand to single combat; Brynden refused and arrested the pretender, thus containing the Second Blackfyre Rebellion.[16] Daemon was kept in captivity rather than executed with the other rebel leaders, ensuring that Aegor Rivers could not name his brother Haegon as a serious pretender.[6]
Third Blackfyre Rebellion
In the aftermath of the Third Blackfyre Rebellion, Brynden argued that the captive Aegor Rivers should be put to death, but King Aerys I Targaryen decided to send Aegor to the Night's Watch instead. However, Aegor Rivers escaped back to Essos when his ship was intercepted en route to Eastwatch.[6]
Reign of King Maekar I Targaryen
Despite their history of frequent quarrels, when Maekar I Targaryen succeeded his brother[9] in 221 AC,[7] Brynden's history of success as Aerys's Hand made him grudgingly accept him as his own.[9]
Great Council of 233 AC
After Maekar's death in 233 AC, Brynden, as the Hand of the King, called a Great Council in King's Landing to discuss the disputed matter of succession. Aenys Blackfyre wanted to peacefully participate in the Great Council, and Brynden offered him safe conduct to King's Landing from Tyrosh. Once Aenys arrived in the capital, however, he was arrested by the gold cloaks and then beheaded in the Red Keep.[7]
The Great Council chose Maekar's youngest son to succeed as King Aegon V Targaryen, whose first act was to arrest Brynden for the murder of Aenys.[5] It is suggested by Maester Aemon that Brynden was imprisoned in the Red Keep's dungeons.[2] Brynden argued that he had sacrificed his honor for the good of the realm, but Aegon refused to set Brynden free. He instead offered the option of taking the black instead of death, which Brynden accepted.[5]
Night's Watch
When Maester Aemon sailed for the Wall in 233 AC, he was escorted by King Aegon V's friend, Ser Duncan the Tall of the Kingsguard, and accompanied by an honor guard of recruits for the Night's Watch. These were two hundred men and prisoners, including Brynden Rivers. Many of the men were archers from Brynden's Raven's Teeth.[2][5] According to a semi-canon source, Brynden took Dark Sister with him when he went to the Wall.[21]
Brynden was elected as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch in 239 AC.[5][2] However, in 252 AC, he disappeared while ranging beyond the Wall.[5]
Recent Events
A Feast for Crows
Maester Aemon tells Samwell Tarly that Brynden accompanied him to the Wall when he joined the Night's Watch, with Ser Duncan the Tall as an escort. The singer Dareon remarks that he knows a song about Bloodraven, "A Thousand Eyes, and One".[2]
A Dance with Dragons
Bran Stark discovers that Brynden is still alive as the three-eyed crow, the last greenseer living with children of the forest in a cave found beyond the Wall.[22][9][4] Brynden becomes Bran's mentor in the art of greensight and skinchanging.[3]
Quotes by Brynden
Treason is no less vile because the traitor proves a craven.[16]
—Brynden to Ambrose Butterwell
There have always been Targaryens who dreamed of things to come, since long before the Conquest.[16]
—Brynden to Duncan the Tall and Aegon Targaryen
Brynden: I wore many names when I was quick, but even I had a mother, and the name she gave me at her breast was Brynden.
Bran: I have an uncle Brynden. He's my mother's uncle, really. Brynden Blackfish, he's called.
Brynden: Your uncle may have been named for me. Some are, still. Not so many as before. Men forget. Only the trees remember.[3]—Brynden and Bran Stark
I have my own ghosts, Bran. A brother that I loved, a brother that I hated, a woman I desired. Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them. The past remains the past. We can learn from it, but we cannot change it.[3]
—Brynden to Bran Stark
Quotes about Brynden
The Mother marked Lord Rivers on the day that he was born, and Bittersteel marked him once again upon the Redgrass Field.[1]
How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have? the riddle ran. A thousand eyes, and one. Some claimed the King's Hand was a student of the dark arts who could change his face, put on the likeness of a one-eyed dog, even turn into a mist. Packs of gaunt gray wolves hunted down his foes, men said, and carrion crows spied for him and whispered secrets in his ear. Most of the tales were only tales, Dunk did not doubt, but no one could doubt that Bloodraven had informers everywhere.[16]
—thoughts of Duncan the Tall
Before them a pale lord in ebon finery sat dreaming in a tangled nest of roots, a woven weirwood throne that embraced his withered limbs as a mother does a child.[4]
—thoughts of Bran Stark
Family
Theories
Notes
- ↑ In Game of Thrones the character is called the Three Eyed Raven and is just loosely based on by his book counterpart (it is said he is over a thousand years old),[11] whereas in House of the Dragon he is officially presented as Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers.[12]
- ↑ Brynden was master of whisperers for Daeron II's successor, Aerys I,[6] but it's unclear if he held that office in Daeron II's reign or if he held an advisory role without official title.
- ↑ At the time of The Sworn Sword, the drought enters its second year. By the end of The Sworn Sword, it begins to rain, ending the drought.
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 The Sworn Sword.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 15, Samwell II.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 34, Bran III.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 13, Bran II.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon V.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aerys I.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Maekar I.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon IV.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Brynden Rivers.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Daeron II.
- ↑ Three-Eyed Raven on the Wiki of Westeros
- ↑ Variety: "' ‘House of the Dragon’ Boss Breaks Down Daemon’s Vision in Season 2 Finale: We’re ‘Not Trying to Make Any Kind of Specific Interpretation of a Prophecy’ " (August 6, 2024)
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 So Spake Martin: The Great Bastards (December 26, 2005)
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 So Spake Martin: More Targaryen Descriptions (December 24, 2005)
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 So Spake Martin: Concerning the Great Bastards (April 06, 2004)
- ↑ 16.00 16.01 16.02 16.03 16.04 16.05 16.06 16.07 16.08 16.09 16.10 16.11 16.12 16.13 The Mystery Knight.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 48, Jaime I.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 67, The Kingbreaker.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 So Spake Martin: Shiera Seastar (March 07, 2006)
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 63, Victarion I.
- ↑ Twitter: @WesterosHistory: Bloodraven confirmed to have taken Dark Sister to the Wall, August 15, 2018
- ↑ George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Brandon (Bran) Stark.
- House Blackwood
- House Targaryen
- 175 AC births
- Albinos
- Bastards
- Centenarians
- Characters from the Crownlands
- Characters from the Riverlands
- Characters with birthmarks
- Characters with red eyes
- Characters with white hair
- Five-footers
- Great Bastards
- Greenseers
- Hands of the King
- Lords without lands
- Kinslayers
- Knights
- Legitimized bastards
- Lords Commander of the Night's Watch
- Members of the Night's Watch
- Magic practitioners
- Masters of whisperers
- Members of Aegon IV Targaryen's court
- Members of Daeron II Targaryen's court
- Members of Aerys I Targaryen's court
- Members of Maekar I Targaryen's court
- Nobles
- One-eyed characters
- Skinchangers
- Spymasters
- Veterans of the First Blackfyre Rebellion
- Veterans of the Third Blackfyre Rebellion
- Wielders of Dark Sister