Tony Black on what Samwell Tarley may find at the Citadel when Game of Thrones returns…
You almost forgot about good old Samwell Tarly, didn’t you? Be honest. Season six of Game of Thrones has been stocked so heavy with major plot developments, changing geopolitical situations and lots and lots of characters meeting untimely ends, that if there’s one character who got lost a little in the melee, it was good old Sam. He’s the dependable Samwise Gamgee of George R.R. Martin’s franchise, easily the single loveliest person in the whole of Westeros, and the only character truly who deserves to remain standing when the dust settles.
Sam is also potentially a great deal more important than people think to how A Song of Ice & Fire may end, both in the books and on TV, where he has now effectively caught up with himself. In season six’s epic finale, ‘The Winds of Winter’, Sam, after a season’s travelling, finally arrived at the legendary, never-before-seen southern city of Oldtown to begin his training as a Maester of the Citadel, having been sent there by Lord Commander (at the time) Jon Snow of the Night’s Watch. Why? That’s the important question, and the answer–what Sam may discover at the Citadel–could explain why he’s a very key player to the upcoming end of this entire saga.
Oldtown, then. Much talked about in the books and occasionally on the show, it’s surprising we’ve never actually been there before, but before Sam rocked up for his Jedi–err Maester–training, we never had occasion to visit what is known as the oldest city in Westeros, founded by the First Men, the Andals, around 12,000 years ago – though evidence in underground caves suggests the area at the mouth of the River Honeywine was settled long before men came. Even the wisest and oldest Maester’s aren’t quite sure how old Oldtown actually is, or who truly built it. All they know is that it was for a long time the heart of Westerosi civilisation, only unseated three centuries ago when the Aegon the Conqueror of the Targaryens seized control of Westeros and named Kings Landing–only marginally bigger than Oldtown–as his capital.
Where Kings Landing is the seat of royalty, commerce and pomp, Oldtown is a beautiful city much more concerned with research, history and learning, thanks to the Citadel – the oldest and biggest library in the world, many would claim. A storehouse of ancient knowledge unlike any other, and a place where Maesters go to forge the links on their chain before serving royal houses. Our only experience of Maesters has largely been the crafty Pycelle, or homely Luwin, or indeed slithering Qyburn. Maester Samwell Tarly could be an entirely different kind of learned man. There is loads more lore about Oldtown online, in the books or in A World of Ice & Fire, the great Martin-penned historical resource to compliment the novels, but it’s the Citadel that’s important to Sam, and precisely what the role of a Maester is supposed to be.
The Citadel is home to the Order of Maesters governed by the Conclave, a group of wizened old Archmaester’s who help train Maesters to come. Maesters have been termed as ‘knights of the mind’ by many, given their great scientific and medical knowledge which they learn being exposed to the wisdom of the Citadel during their training. They are meant to give up any family or political allegiances when they become a Maester, but while they may sound like priests giving up their lives to the cloth, they are not religious men. Maesters are secular, believing more in science than magic, hence why they use the closest thing to technology in Westeros (such as the astrolabe Sam witnesses when he enters the Citadel library) to determine, for instance, the length of the seasons and send out ravens to signal the birth of summer or, as they do in ‘The Winds of Winter’, the coming of winter.
This all sounds a lot like Sam when you lay it out; though it’s a sore subject, he’s given up the Tarly name before when he was sent to the Watch and having stolen a bloody huge Valyrian steel sword from his nasty old man Randyll in ‘Blood of My Blood’, it seems like any allegiances he did have to his noble house are very much put to bed. The difference with Sam, and why he may be a Maester like no other before, is because of what he’s seen, and the essential duality of his nature.
You see in many respects Sam is as much a warrior as his old friend Jon. He’s one of the few people to use dragon glass to kill a White Walker, not simply a wight, which is no mean feat. Sam has fought alongside the Watch beyond the Wall, saved a woman and her child in Gilly & ultimately seen her fall in love with him, and he’s now taken up a noble calling at the behest of his friend and commander. While Sam knows he’s no Jon or Jaime Lannister, or even a young Randyll, he’s also made of much greater steel than most people give him credit for, and it’s this lived experience that most Maester’s lack which could not only make him a very unusual candidate in training, but equally open certain Citadel doors to arcane knowledge the Seven Kingdoms will need in the coming war against the dead.
In the books, Sam tells Archmaester Marwyn (who may yet turn up in Season Seven, no doubt played by a British thespian legend) about all of the mythical horrors he’s seen beyond the Wall and let’s not forget, Jon has effectively sent him to be trained as a Maester in order to explore the mountain of knowledge in the Citadel for a way to defeat the Walkers. To have Sam undergo this training, have him explore Oldtown, cannot just be for his continued character development; Sam is going to find something in that Citadel, something ancient, something important, something groundbreaking and game changing. But what? More Valryian steel. More dragon glass, or the secret of what it does. He pretty much knows that already, so what is left about the White Walkers for Sam to uncover, to make him crucial in the battle for the next dawn?
The answer could well be in an arcane object that should have turned up by now, and feels conspicuous by its absence: Euron Greyjoy’s dragon horn.
In my previous article discussing Euron and the impact he may have on the narrative, the existence and purpose of the dragon horn Euron sports in the books is a hugely significant one to precisely how he, or anyone with command over it, may potentially defeat Daenerys Targaryen’s seemingly unstoppable army. We’ve only seen Euron briefly in the show, and admittedly he hasn’t had much chance to unveil his horn (oo er!) with any sort of context yet, but what if in the show Euron didn’t pick it up while on his travels on the Silence, but it’s rather sitting in the Citadel for Sam to find? This would be an artifact ancient and powerful enough to change the game, especially if someone more dramatically interesting got hold of it.
Euron isn’t as effective a character thus far in the show as he is in the books, and to an extent the idea of him turning Dany’s dragons on her feels a bit wasted. How much more exciting would it be if the dragon horn made its way into Cersei Lannister’s hands instead? Remember, Sam’s angry dad Randyll is going to no doubt rock up in Oldtown looking for his sword, so what if he ends up delivering Sam and the dragon horn to Cersei as punishment and to swear fealty? If Cersei had that weapon, essentially, it would potentially deal Dany a crippling blow when she moves to take Kings Landing, and level the playing field. It wouldn’t take a massive tweak of the narrative for Sam to end up in this position, squaring off perhaps against evil Maester Qyburn in the process.
It’s admittedly a reach, and it’s more likely Sam is going to discover secrets more directly connected to the White Walkers than the dragons given his own personal connection to the North, but the possibilities are open and endless. We have no idea where this is leading in the books either, as we last saw Sam in A Feast For Crows quite possibly palling up with an in-disguise Faceless Man (maybe even Jaqen H’ghar) as he begins his training. Chances are the show may not go down the same route, but who knows?
All we can be certain of is that Samwell Tarly is not a character to let slip past you as Game of Thrones rapidly approaches its endgame, because the podgy little unlikely hero may end up being more significant than anyone can imagine. Just don’t kill him, guys. Seriously.
Tony Black is a freelance film/TV writer & podcaster & would love you to follow him on Twitter.
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