Dareon

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Dareon
Alias The Black Singer
Allegiance Night's Watch
Died 300 AL
Braavos
Books

Dareon is a steward of the Night's Watch, known primarily for his excellent singing voice. He deserts the Watch in Braavos before ultimately being slain by Arya Stark.

History

Dareon was an apprentice singer in the Reach, before being caught in bed with a daughter of Lord Mathis Rowan. Though he maintains that she was waiting for him naked, and helped him into her room, under her father's eye she named it rape. For this he was sent to join the Night's Watch.[1]

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Dareon is a recruit in the same "class" as Jon Snow; Jon describes him as "quick, but afraid of being hit."[2] He is an excellent singer, and is known to sing for the Watch at dinner. Maester Aemon describes his voice as "honey poured over thunder."[3] He is raised to a man of the Night's Watch at the same time as Jon, named to the Stewards, and sent to Eastwatch-by-the-sea.[4]

A Feast for Crows

Jon Snow, after being named Lord Commander, sends Dareon south with Samwell Tarly, Maester Aemon, and Gilly, with the idea that his singing could bolster recruitment to the Night's Watch.[5] They sail for Braavos. On the way Dareon sings the sad song, Autumn of My Day.[5] Maester Aemon's condition worsens and they are forced to spend their coin on a healer and an inn. With their money running low, Dareon is sent to sing for coin, with which to buy food and passage. Instead, he becomes increasingly distant and desultory, and sings largely for wine and trade from the city's whores. Samwell finds him in a whorehouse called the Happy Port, where Dareon has wed a whore called the Sailor's Wife, who only beds the men she weds. Samwell confronts him for this and accuses him of breaking his vows, and Dareon responds by throwing his cloak in Samwell's face and announcing that he's done with black. Samwell punches him[6] and eventually finds passage and leaves Braavos without him.[7]

After his desertion, Dareon is successful for a time as a singer in Braavos, bragging that in time he will be playing in the Sealord's Palace. He is known to Arya Stark, who, under the guise of her most recent identity Cat of the Canals, sells oysters for the Braavosi fishmonger Brusco in the same areas where Dareon sings. She recognizes him as a deserter of the Night's Watch and one night lures him into an alley where she slits his throat as punishment for his desertion and dumps his body into a canal, though she keeps his boots.[8]

References and Notes