Difference between revisions of "Samwell Tarly"

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Revision as of 01:03, 26 September 2012

Tarly.png
Samwell Tarly
Minigdn.png
Samwell Tarly.jpg
Portrait by Amoka©

Alias Sam
Ser Piggy
Lord of Ham
Sam the Slayer
Black Sam
Allegiance Night's Watch
Culture Westeros
Born Horn Hill
Book A Game of Thrones (Appears)
A Clash of Kings (Appears)
A Storm of Swords (POV)
A Feast for Crows (POV)
A Dance with Dragons (Appears)

Played by John Bradley
TV series Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3

Samwell Tarly is the eldest son of Lord Randyll Tarly and his wife Melessa Florent. He is popularly called 'Sam', and disparagingly as 'Ser Piggy.' He is a steward of the Night's Watch. He becomes a POV Character in A Storm of Swords. In the TV series he is played by John Bradley.[1]

Character and Appearance

Samwell is very fat, with dark hair, pale eyes with a large moon-shaped face.[2] He is fond of music and songs, prefers books over weapons and soft fabrics over armor. He is also a craven, afraid of blood and violence. Although fat, timid, and unsure of himself, he is intelligent and thoughtful.

History

Samwell was the first child of Lord Randyll Tarly and his wife Melessa Florent. Lord Randyll, who was regarded as one of the finest military commanders in the Seven Kingdoms, did everything in his power to raise his son into what he deemed a proper heir, but Samwell frustrated him at every opportunity. Sam failed miserably at every attempt to change his nature. He was sent to the Arbor as a page, but the Redwyne twins bullied him and Lord Paxter sent him back to Horn Hill. A dozen masters-at-arms failed to toughen him. Attempts such as dressing him in his mother's clothes, forcing him to sleep in chainmail, and even being bathed in aurochs blood by Qartheen warlocks failed to raise his valor. He wept even to see a chicken slaughtered.

After Lady Melessa bore her husband three girls, Samwell's brother Dickon was born. Dickon showed all of the physical vigor that Samwell lacked, and Randyll's attentions turned to raising his more promising younger son to take his place. For a time Sam was left to enjoy his music, food, and other soft pursuits, though Randyll forbade Samwell from traveling to Oldtown to become a Maester, horrified at the notion of a member of his house wearing a chain.

When Sam reached maturity, his father bluntly told him that he was not worthy of their house's ancestral sword, and that he must join the Night's Watch and renounce his family name so that he would not stand in the way of his younger brother's inheritance. Failing that, Randyll promised that he would suffer an unfortunate hunting accident on the morrow. Sam chose to take the black.[2]

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Sam training with the new recruits at Castle Black.
Sam and others are sworn to the Night's Watch

Samwell arrives at Castle Black, to the disdain of the master-at-arms Ser Alliser Thorne and many of the other recruits. Alliser nicknames him "Ser Piggy" and does nothing to stop the recruits from bullying and hurting him. Miserable, Samwell finds a friend in Jon Snow, who defends him, and to Alliser's annoyance takes it upon himself to persuade (and threaten, when necessary) his fellow recruits to stop their abuse.[2]

Samwell is not helped by any of Ser Alliser's training and remains an incompetent warrior. As such he is initially deemed not ready to take his vows and become a man of the Night's Watch with Jon and the others, but Jon, fearful for what will happen to Sam once he is no longer able to protect him, persuades Maester Aemon to allow him to join the Stewards. Aemon agrees, and gives Samwell a position assisting him in the rookery and library. Despite having been born and raised into the Faith of the Seven, Samwell decides to take his Night's Watch vow with Jon Snow at a Heart Tree. He is able to impress Lord Commander Mormont by noting some of the odd details of the corpses of Othor and Jafer Flowers. He is among the group of friends who stop Jon from abandoning the Night's Watch and forswearing himself.[3]

A Clash of Kings

Sam joins the Great Ranging to the Far North and is placed in charge of the ravens as Lord Commander Mormont's aide.[4] When the expedition stays a night at Craster's Keep he is befriended by Gilly, one of daughter-wives of Craster, who is pregnant and fearful that if she has a boy, Craster will sacrifice it to the Others. Samwell, unsure of what to do, turns to Jon for help, but there is nothing that Jon can do.[5]

A Storm of Swords

When the Others attacked the Watch camp at the Fist of the First Men, Sam managed to send word of the attack to castle black and was able to escape with a group of about fifty survivors led by Jeor Mormont. The march was hard on Sam and he was helped by his friends Grenn and Small Paul, eventually they got separated from the majority of the men. Paul, who carried Sam for much of the journey, is attacked and killed by an Other, but the weight of his body disarms it as he dies. Samwell, who is carrying a dragonglass dagger that was among the cache found by Ghost, uses the opportunity to attack, and blindly stabs the Other, who dies instantaneously from the dragonglass blade. Killing the Other earns him the nickname "Sam the Slayer".[6]

He and Grenn rendezvous with the remaining survivors at Craster's Keep, where Gilly gives birth to a son. Shortly thereafter, violence erupts in the keep, with some Night's Watch men believing that Craster was holding out on the food he provided for him, and others still harboring mutinous intentions toward Commander Mormont. Craster and Mormont are both killed in the fighting, Before Mormont dies he gives Sam his dying wish, that Jorah his son, join the Watch.[7]

Sam is forced to flee, joined only by Gilly and her newborn. They make it as far as a village Sam believes to be Whitetree but are then attacked by wights, including a reanimated Small Paul, who attackes Sam first. Sam fights him off and stabs him with the dragonglass dagger, but it proves ineffective. Desperately, Sam strikes him with a piece of charred wood, which catches him on fire, killing him. They run, but are beset by additional wights, and are saved at the last moment by Coldhands.[8]

Gilly and Sam are led back to the wall by Coldhands, who has informed them that there will be one in the Nightfort that must be sent to him. Entering the Nightfort through the castle's Black Gate, Samwell encounters Bran Stark, along with Hodor and Meera and Jojen Reed, whom he leads back to Coldhands.[9]

Sam returns to Castle Black following the events of the Battle of Castle Black, with Stannis Baratheon present and urging the swift election of a new Lord Commander and threatening to name one himself if none can achieve the required two-thirds majority. In the voting, Janos Slynt is gaining ground on the leading candidates Cotter Pyke and Denys Mallister. Believing Slynt would be a disastrous Lord Commander, Sam approaches Pyke and Mallister independently, and lies to each regarding Stannis's intentions to name the other to the office, thus convincing them both to support Jon Snow as a compromise candidate, leading to Jon's election.

A Feast for Crows

Sam and Gilly: "I would sooner have you than any princess..., but I can't". Art by cabepfir

One of Jon Snow's first acts as Lord Commander is to send Samwell South to Oldtown so that he might study there as a maester for Castle Black. With him he sends Dareon, whom he appoints as a recruiter for the Night's Watch, as well as Maester Aemon and the infant son of Mance Rayder, so as to deprive Melisandre of the chance to sacrifice them for their king's blood. He also sends Gilly, separating her from her child, so that she might nurse Rayder's son. Maester Aemon falls ill on the voyage, however, and stopping in Braavos they are forced to spend their coin on an inn and a healer. Aemon's condition worsens nonetheless, though he briefly wakes and wishes to hear the stories of Daenerys's dragons that are spreading throughout the city, having the revelation that Daenerys may be the true fulfillment of the prophecy of the Prince who was Promised.

Samwell urges Dareon to sing at the local taverns to earn money so that they might buy passage on a ship to Oldtown, but Dareon spends most of what he earns on wine and trade from the city's whores. Samwell confronts Dareon in a brothel and accuses him of breaking his vows, and Dareon responds with his intention to abandon them and desert the Night's Watch, resulting in a fight whereupon Samwell is pulled off of Dareon and thrown into a canal. He is pulled out by Xhondo, who heard him speaking of dragons and had seen them in Qarth. Xhondo offers them passage on his ship, the Cinnamon Wind, in exchange for work and for some of the last of their possessions.

Maester Aemon dies early in that journey, and in mourning for his death Gilly briefly becomes a lover to Samwell. She names the child after Aemon, and upon landing at Oldtown is sent to Samwell's childhood home of Horn Hill with the story that her child is a bastard fathered by Sam. Samwell continues to the Citadel, where he encounters Alleras, who has sought him out and brings him straight to Archmaester Marwyn, who asks Samwell to repeat for him Aemon's final words. Upon hearing the story, Marwyn immediately departs the city with the stated intention of going to Daenerys and becoming her maester.

Family

 
 
 
 
Randyll
 
Melessa
Florent
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Samwell
 
Talla
 
Two
daughters
 
Dickon
 
Eleanor
Mooton
 
 


See also

References and Notes

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Minor houses in A Song of Ice and Fire. The list of authors can be seen in the page history of Minor houses in A Song of Ice and Fire. As with A Wiki of Ice and Fire, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.