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Serwyn of the Mirror Shield


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Serwyn of the Mirror Shield is a legendary character from the Age of Heroes. Per the Wiki:

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According to songs, Serwyn once saved Princess Daeryssa from giants. He slew the dragon Urrax by approaching the beast behind his shield so the dragon only saw its own reflection, then spearing Urrax through the eye. Serwyn was haunted by ghosts of all the knights he killed.

Bran thinks of him as a member of the kingsguard, which is odd given that he definitely lived long before Aegon's Landing if ever, and he tends to be thought of with other legendary kingsguards Ser Ryam Redwyne and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight. But the world book tells us he was indeed a First Man, who probably served a Gardener king in the Reach.

What recently brought him to my attention was the similarity of his name to Selwyn (Tarth) and (House) Cerwyn. The L and R sound are conceivably interchangeable so Selwyn could easily be a bastardization of Serwyn. In my reading, I always pronounced Cerwyn with an S sound like Serwyn, rather than a K sound like they did on the show. Either way, could this point toward parallels between a Cerwyn or Selwyn and Serwyn of the Mirror Shield?

House Tarth is an old family, and so far as we know have always lived on the island of Tarth off the coast of the Stormlands. It ultimately doesn't matter, I don't think, whether they got their name from the island got its name from them. Could this Tarth connection point to maybe Brienne saving Jaime from something like Serwyn saved a princess from giants? Or does she slay a dragon? Or does it mean Selwyn himself has a part to play?

On the other hand, another Age of Heroes figure Symeon Star-Eyes also has a connection to Tarth symbolism through the sapphires in his eye sockets.

There's not a lot of history for House Cerwyn. Their castle is very close to Winterfell right on the White Knife. We know Lord Medger marched south with Robb and died. We know his heir Cley is killed by the Bolton's outside Winterfell, and that his sister Jonelle is the new Lady Cerwyn. I don't know that we know much more about House Cerwyn aside from that Jonelle nominally swears to Roose, but he is suspicious of their loyalty, and that Stannis numbers them with his allies.

Does the Serwyn/Cerwyn connection mean anything here? Does a Cerwyn succeed where Brandon Snow failed and kill a dragon? Is there something to do with the Umbers in reference to the giants Serwyn saved the princess from? But the Cerwyn forces and Umber forces both seem to be on Stannis' side.

It's probably nothing, but does anybody have any other thoughts?

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You definitely gave me food for thought, and your arguments do make sense, especially knowing how in George R. R. Martin's universe history often repeats itself. I like the parallel between the Umbers and giants, and also Jaime being a princess :D But then again, when writing such a massive series of books with thousands of characters, you soon run out of names and either way some will sound similar to others. For example, Aegon/Aeron/Aerion.

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