Osmund Kettleblack

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Osmund Kettleblack
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Osmund Kettleblack.jpg
Osmund Kettleblack - by Pojypojy ©.

Alias Oswald Kettleblack[1]
Title Ser
Allegiances
Culture Crownlands
Father Oswell Kettleblack
Books

Ser Osmund Kettleblack is a member of House Kettleblack who claims to be a hedge knight. He is the son of Oswell Kettleblack and he has two brothers, Osfryd and Osney. In A Storm of Swords, he is mistakenly called Oswald Kettleblack in chapter 67 and chapter 70.

Appearance and Character

See also: Images of Osmund Kettleblack

Osmund stands six feet and six inches, most of it muscle. He has a hook nose, bushy eyebrows, and a triangular brown beard.[2] Osmund has narrow cheeks. His chest is covered with black hair.[3] Like his two brothers, he is illiterate.[4]

History

Ser Osmund served in the Stepstones and the Disputed Lands with the Gallant Men fighting for Lys and then Tyrosh. He claims to have been knighted on a battlefield by Ser Robert Stone, who is now dead.[5]

Recent Events

A Clash of Kings

In order to match her brother Tyrion's personal power base of sellswords, Queen Cersei Lannister secretly tries to hire her own sellsword force through her cousin Lancel. Since he has forced Lancel to spy on Cersei for him, Tyrion learns about this and orders Bronn to find sellswords who he can plant as double agents around Cersei.[6] However, Lord Petyr Baelish finds out about the inquiries of Bronn and decides to use the mistrust between the Lannister siblings to his own advantage by planting men loyal to himself around the queen while making both Cersei and Tyrion believe they are working for them. For this, Littlefinger uses the three sons of his servant Oswell Kettleblack, namely Osmund, Osney and Osfryd. He orders the three Kettleblack brothers to go to King's Landing, where they are hired by Bronn with Tyrion's money before being hired by Cersei through Lancel.[7] Cersei uses calls on the High Septon at the Great Sept of Baelor as cover for her meetings with the Kettleblacks, who are supposed to hire other sellswords for her. Ser Osmund and his brothers, in turn, provide Bronn with information about Cersei's moves.[6]

Osmund is soon named to the Kingsguard by Cersei when Ser Boros Blount is stripped of his white cloak for cowardice on the Rosby road. Tyrion thinks it ironic that Cersei replaces Blount with a man just as hollow, but he is glad that the appointment supposedly gives him another agent close to King Joffrey I Baratheon and admits that Kettleblack cannot be any worse than Blount.[2] Osmund eventually takes the position next to King Joffrey that used to be reserved for Sandor Clegane.[8] Both Petyr Baelish and Tyrion soon come to realize that the new position has gone to Osmund's head and makes him firmly a man of the queen and thus unreliable for Littlefinger's and Tyrion's individual schemes.[9][7]

Osmund and his brothers become great favorites in the Red Keep, getting along with both servants and highborns with their easygoing manner and their humor. It is rumored that they get best along with the serving wenches, although Osmund's position in the Kingsguard implies celibacy.[8]

Together with Ser Meryn Trant, Osmund personally guards King Joffrey during the Battle of the Blackwater. When Joffrey goes off to catapult the Antler Men into the Blackwater Rush, Tyrion warns him to keep the king safe under any circumstance but to also keep him among the defenders of the city.[10] However, Cersei is informed about the progress of the battle by Osmund's brothers. When Osney tells her that the Mud Gate has come under attack by a ram, she issues an order for Osmund to bring the king back to the Red Keep. When Osney points out Tyrion's diametrically opposite orders, Cersei threatens that she will command the Kettleblacks into the middle of the battle if they do not do as told.[8] The Kettleblacks oblige. The flight of the king from the battlefield provokes some members of the City Watch to mutiny in the midst of fighting. However, Osmund is also the one who first conveys the news that the defenders have been saved by the combined forces mastered by the Lannisters and Tyrells.[11]

After the battle, Osmund and the other remaining members of the Kingsguard spend hours knighting more than six hundred men.[12]

A Storm of Swords

Ser Osmund is one of the Kingsguard assigned to bring Sansa Stark to the sept for her marriage to Tyrion Lannister; unlike his counterpart, Ser Meryn Trant, whose mere look promises violence, Osmund speaks to Sansa kindly and convinces her to come along quietly. Osmund is called as a witness for the prosecution during the trial of Tyrion for the death of King Joffrey, but his testimony is made up.[13]

The absentee Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Jaime Lannister, returns to the city and calls a meeting of the Sworn Brothers in the White Sword Tower. Discussing Joffrey's murder, Osmund jokingly accuses the new High Septon of the murder. Jaime asks why he has never heard of Osmund in all of his tourneys and battles, and presses him on how he came by his knighthood, not quite believing that Ser Robert Stone ever existed. Jaime wonders why Cersei named him to the order, but takes some solace in Osmund's skill at arms.[5]

When Jaime helps Tyrion escape from the black cells, Tyrion learns from Jaime that his first wife, Tysha, was not a whore, but was as she had said - an innocent, orphaned crofter's daughter. In his fury, one of the things that Tyrion tells Jaime is that Cersei has been having sex with Osmund.[14]

A Feast for Crows

Ser Osmund and Ser Boros Blount bring the news to Queen Regent Cersei that Lord Tywin Lannister is dead. Osmund and his brothers are ordered by the queen to dispose of the corpse of Shae. What they do with the corpse was of no concern to Cersei, only that her presence at the Tower of the Hand is to be kept secret.[15]

A Dance with Dragons

Ser Osmund, as well as his brother Ser Osfryd, are thrown into a dungeon by Ser Kevan Lannister when Cersei admits to bedding all three of the Kettleblack brothers. Kevan plans to send them to the Wall, if they plead guilty. If they plead not guilty, they will face Ser Robert Strong in trial by combat.[16]

Family

 
Oswell
 
Unknown
wife
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Osmund
 
Osfryd
 
Osney
 
 
 
 
 


Quotes about Osmund

Osmund has become especially unreliable since he joined the Kingsguard. That white cloak does things to a man, I find. Even a man like him.[7]

References