A Westeros Pantheon: the mistresses and bastards of Aegon IV

[Seams]

We know that there were repercussions from the legitimization of Daemon, son of Aegon IV and his cousin, Daena who had been sister-wife of Baelor the Blessed. Aegon IV gave Daemon the Targaryen ancestral sword, Blackfyre, conferring a special status on this son that stoked the flames of the civil wars known as the Blackfyre rebellions. Daemon was empowered and encouraged in his claim to the throne by his half-brother, Aegor Rivers, known as Bittersteel. He and his descendants were opposed by a different half-brother, Brynden Rivers, known as Bloodraven.

Those three of Aegon IV's "Great Bastards" are relatively well-known and readers who haven't dug deeply into Targaryen history have at least some sense that there is an important "missing" sword and that there were Blackfyre Rebellions that may have implications for the events now playing out in ASOIAF.

If we stop after examining Daemon, Bittersteel and Bloodraven, however, I believe we have barely scratched the surface in understanding the influence and foreshadowing of the Great Bastards. For a long time, I was impatient with the vast Targaryen backstory attached to ASOIAF. Once I started to pay attention to that backstory, I found that the author deliberately used Aegon's offspring to create a "pantheon" of god-like characters who continue to manipulate events in and around Westeros. I'm not an expert on classical Greek or Roman mythology, but I know that there were a lot of marriages between brothers and sisters, affairs, demi-gods born to Zeus and mortal women, special weapons and unusual or unexpected "births" such as Aphrodite emerging from the sea and Athena springing full grown from her father's forehead. The detailed stories of the Aegon IV mistresses and their bastards give us a similar set of characters and situations. If we can follow the trails of breadcrumbs GRRM leaves for us, we can use these characters from the past to better understand people and situations in the "current" stories.

The author went into great detail in describing nine (mostly highborn) mistresses of Aegon IV. Their bloodlines, vocations, descendants and reputations of their Houses are specific. GRRM tells us how Aegon IV met each woman and how each lost favor and lost her status as the king's mistress. In several cases, he indicates where the woman went (who was her new partner) after she left the king's bed.

Missing Information?

While stories of Bloodraven, Bittersteel and Daemon are fairly well known, there are some mysteries attached to them. We are told that Bloodraven had an ongoing affair with his half-sister, Shiera Seastar, but we are not told whether the two had any children. We know that Shiera declined to marry Bloodraven, but we are not told the identities of other lovers she may have had.

Bittersteel desired Shiera but married his niece, Calla, daughter of Daemon. We are not given an indication that Calla had any children, but nothing in the story rules it out.

Others among Aegon IV's bastard offspring are described in even less detail - sometimes we know only their names.

Bloodraven had two sisters by the same mother, Mya and Gwenys. Why does the author name these characters but provide no other information about them? Maybe the names are the only things we need to know to connect their stories to events still playing out in the ASOIAF novels.

An example of a Bastard echo

For instance, Mya would be part of the Blackwood bloodline along with Bloodraven and Gwenys. Sansa Stark (as Alayne) meets another bastard named Mya who guides her down the mountain on which the Eyrie castle has been built. Mya Stone is the first illegitimate child of Robert Baratheon. We don't know much about the mother of Mya Stone, but she is not related to the Blackwood family. The only connection to the bastard Pantheon is that she has the same name as Bloodraven's sister and that her father was also a king.

Also descending the mountain with Sansa is Myranda Royce, the legitimate daughter of Nestor Royce, head of a minor branch of House Royce. Myranda would not be connected to this bastard Pantheon except that she makes a point of talking about her breast size and comparing her ample bosom to Sansa's smaller chest. Breast size was a major contrast between Aegon IV's Blackwood and Bracken mistresses, with his first Bracken mistress (mother of Bittersteel) having the larger breasts. The rivalry between the two mistresses continues to play out in a feud between House Bracken and House Blackwood over ownership of two hills known as The Teats.

To complicate matters further, Robert "Sweetrobin" Arryn, heir to the Eyrie, descends the mountain with Sansa, Mya and Myranda. Although he is sickly and bratty, Robin's features are similar in some ways to those of Bloodraven. Mya says that the mountain is her father. We are told in several arcs that climbing or descending a mountain is made easier if the traveler thinks of the mountain as his or her mother, and presses his or her face to her breast. Sweetrobin nuzzles Sansa's breasts and Myranda's breasts at different points during the descent.

A rivalry is building between Sweetrobin and his distant cousin, Harrold Hardyng, for inheritance of the Vale and control of House Arryn. If the foreshadowing of the Blackwood / Bracken rivalry applies to the developing story, the Teats could symbolize the Eyrie. Daemon could symbolize Harry the Heir and King Daeron II (acknowledged heir of Aegon IV) could symbolize Sweetrobin. This might mean that Littlefinger represents Bittersteel, the manipulator who encouraged Daemon to challenge Daeron for the throne. Since Sweetrobin physically resembles Bloodraven, though, could he be both Daeron II and Bloodraven at the same time? Both have those bird-themed nicknames, and Sweetrobin manipulates a doll as a puppet "giant" similar to the manipulation of marionettes by Tanselle, a puppeteer I see closely associated with Bloodraven in the Dunk & Egg stories.

If the comparisons are correct, the earlier story may tell us that Harrold will never become Lord of the Eyrie, just as Daemon failed in his attempt to occupy the Iron Throne. It may also tell us that Sweetrobin will grow up to be a major behind-the-scenes power player in Westeros, with a long life ahead of him.

Where does Myranda Royce fit in? We know that Barbra Bracken was sent away from King's Landing after too openly expressing her ambition to marry the king while the king's wife was ill. There was a Bracken revival when Barbra's younger sister, Bethany, later became Aegon IV's mistress. She was executed after she had an affair with a member of the kingsguard. If these precedents tell us something about Myranda's fate, she is likely to suffer a fall in status and exile from the Vale, if not violent death. What we don't know is what kind of action by Myranda will bring about her fate.

To perfect this theory, do we need to find a parallel for the third bastard child of Melissa Blackwood? In addition to Brynden and Mya, she had a daughter with the unusual name Gwenys. That doesn't seem to match another character in the books. It's hard to guess when GRRM is tossing in an anagram, but it's possible that this name is a thinly-disguised anagram for "wings" (wynges) or "sewing" (sewyng). Both of these symbolic motifs are important in the books and could tell us about the methods or goals of the characters associated with the Blackwood symbolism.

I have to take a break but I have another example of a bastard echo that needs input to see if it's valid. I would also like help creating a better list of the great bastards and other bastards of Aegon IV. The wiki entry seems incomplete (no mention of the Black Pearl, no mention of Lady Jeyne Lothston) although the list in the "Mistresses and Bastards" section of the Aegon IV profile is fuller.

[LiveFirstDieLater]

I’ll try and come back when I find the list I made once... but I think you might take a look at the Twelve Labors of Heracles as a parallel for Aegon’s 9 mistresses and the 3 Targaryen’s rumored to be the mothers of his children...

Off the top of my head you have:

Blackwood: Stymphalian Birds (Bloodraven)

Bracken (mother of Bittersteel): Steal the Mares of Diomedes (take a look at them and BitterSTEEL’s coat of arms)

Naerys - Nemean Lion (who lured brave warriors to their death, Dragonknight’s duel)

Daena - Hydra (new heads spring up after each is cut off, many blackfyre rebellions)

 

[Vaedys Targaryen]

The parallel between Sweetrobin, Myranda, Mya and Alayne and the Great Bastards is nicely noticed.

But in regards to Melissa Blackwood's bastards and their names; many fans believe that Gwenys was given her name as a clue from GRRM that she favours her father's looks and not her mother's; in order to get this, you have to subscribe to the belief that whenever a Targaryen man has children with a non-Targaryen woman, the first child's looks always favours the mother and the subsequent children will favour the father. Examples of these weird genetics is Daeron II's sons, where his oldest son, Baelor, looked like his Dornish mother, Mariah Martell, and his other sons looked just like himself and Rhaegar's daughter and first child, Rhaenys, also favoured her Dornish mother and his son looked like himself.

We don't really know much about Melissa's children other than Brynden was her youngest and he was an albino, which means that he would've had pale skin and white hair, but considering the fact that no matter where you read of her children the order always goes Mya, Gwenys and Brynden, which makes most fans believe that Mya is the oldest. This also causes some people to believe that Mya is named after Mya Stone by GRRM, because Mya Stone has blue eyes and black hair and when you read the name Mya, you instantly think of Mya Stone and what she looks like.

But back to Gwenys; now that it is established that she is the second child of Melissa by Aegon IV and if the pattern for the inherited genetics applies to her children, Gwenys looks like a Targaryen. Gwen is Welsh and means 'white, fair, holy, blessed'. It is the 'white' part that you really notice, because many Targaryens have white or very pale hair and fair skin. Also there is the ending of her name; 'ys' is a common ending in the names for many Targaryens.

So if you aply the theory of the Targaryen male/non-Targaryen female looks, a second child with a name that means 'white' and has the 'ys' ending in a family where white or pale hair is the norm, you get that theory. Mya and Gwenys could be GRRM hinting to us of the genetics of the Targaryens.

[Seams]

The other "bastard echo" I see is embodied by Salladhor Saan. Three days ago, I thought he might be an echo of Shiera Seastar, based on evidence like this:

Though she never wed, she had many offers, and several lovers through the years. Duels were fought over the right to sit beside her, men killed themselves after falling from her favor, poets outdid each other writing songs about her beauty. Her most ardent admirer was her half-brother, Bloodraven, who proposed marriage to her half a hundred times. Shiera gave him her bed, but never her hand. It amused her more to make him jealous.

As to how to paint her... she was fond of ivory and lace and cloth-of-silver (but not gold, which she considered too vulgar). Her favorite piece of jewelry was a heavy silver necklace of emeralds and star sapphires, alternating.

(SSM, March 7, 2006)

Salladhor Saan "wore flashing cloth-of-silver, with dagged sleeves so long the ends of them pooled on the floor. His buttons were carved jade monkeys, and atop his wispy white curls perched a jaunty green cap decorated with a fan of peacock feathers."

"... I have been too long away from my wives ..."

"Pirate," said Davos. "You have no wives, only concubines .."

(ACoK, Davos I)

In addition to their shared association with the sea and with Lys (Shiera's mother was Lady Serenei of Lys), the cloth-of-silver and never-married clues seemed like good evidence to me. Shiera's mismatched blue and green eyes and her emerald/sapphire necklace could be a match for the peacock feathers in Salladhor's cap. I thought GRRM was so clever to hide his Shiera operative in the guise of a flamboyant, swaggering male pirate.

And then I took a fresh look at the details. Salladhor Saan started to look like a match for a different bastard among Aegon IV's Great Bastards.

... Salladhor Saan sat eating grapes from a wooden bowl. When he spied Davos, he beckoned him closer. 'Ser knight, come sit with me. Eat a grape. Eat two. They are marvelously sweet.' ... He dangled the grapes before Davos and smiled.

'It's ale I need, and news.'

... 'The Lord of Casterly Rock has sent his dwarf to see to King's Landing. Perhaps he hopes that his ugly face will frighten off attackers, eh? Or that we will laugh ourselves dead when the Imp capers on the battlements, who can say? The dwarf has chased off the lout who ruled the gold cloaks and put in his place a knight with an iron hand." He plucked a grape, and squeezed it between thumb and forefinger until the skin burst. Juice ran down between his fingers."

(ACoK, Davos I)

Janos Slynt is the lout who was exiled to the Wall after carrying out Cersei's order to kill Robert Baratheon's illegitimate children. Jacelyn Bywater, who lost a hand in combat during the Greyjoy Rebellion, is the knight with the iron hand who replaces Slynt. At the upcoming Battle of the Blackwater, Bywater will be killed by an arrow shot into his throat.

Defense of King's Landing interests me, but the grapes really grabbed my attention in that excerpt. In addition to Littlefinger's breakfast with Sansa, where he explains that he doesn't like getting juice on his hands, Saan's treatment of the grape evoked this moment where Brienne's ancestor, Ser Duncan the Tall, fights Prince Aerion Targaryen, the selfish and mean older brother of the future Aegon IV:

The prince had all but ceased to struggle. His eyes were purple and full of terror. Dunk had a sudden urge to grab one and pop it like a grape between two steel fingers, but that would not be knightly. "YIELD!" he shouted.

(The Hedge Knight)

If destruction of grapes is a metaphor for destruction of eyes, maybe this scene is also an apt comparison:

The rebellion ended at the Redgrass Field ... Bittersteel's mad charge, with Blackfyre in his hand ... Meeting with Boodraven in the midst of the charge, a mighty duel ensued, which left Bloodraven blinded in one eye and sent Bittersteel fleeing.

(TWOIAF, Daeron II)

Instead of Shiera Seastar, it appears that Saan may be leading us back to Bloodraven and Bittersteel. The peacock feathers do seem like a better match for Bloodraven, who is famously described as having "a thousand eyes and one." Lately I've been exploring the idea that Dunk is a puppet in the hands of Egg / Aegon IV, put in that position by Bloodraven and Prince Baelor Targaryen. So Saan popping the grape could be an allusion to Dunk's urge to pop an eyeball like a grape -- but possibly this urge was conveyed to him by one of his Targ puppet masters.

On the other hand, Bittersteel is the one who destroyed Bloodraven's eye in combat. Maybe Saan is an echo of Bittersteel, reliving his small combat victory in the midst of an epic lost battle.

Dunk is wearing steel gauntlets on his hands when he thinks about popping Aerion's eye. Are we supposed to compare his steel fingers to Bywater's iron hand? Saan squeezes the grape as he describes Bywater's takeover of the Gold Cloaks, indicating his displeasure with the appointment of the new commander. If Saan dislikes Bywater, and Bywater is a parallel for Dunk, this may be a further hint that Saan represents Bittersteel, who was an enemy of Bloodraven. Bloodraven seems to be "on the same team" with Dunk.

In the same conversation, Saan has also expressed his contempt for Tyrion as the newly-appointed acting Hand of the King. Maybe it's a leap or maybe it's just a logical next step to imagine that Tyrion is also somehow on Bloodraven's "team". Does that mean that Saan is loyal to Stannis, and wants to see him succeed as King? Not if you read the subtext of this excerpt:

The red priests have a great temple on Lys. Always they are burning this and burning that, crying out to their R'hllor. they bore me with their fires. Soon they will bore King Stannis too, it is to be hoped."

(ACoK, Davos I)

"Bore" is a pun on "boar". In ASOIAF, boars are usually present (literally or figuratively) at the deaths of kings. Saan seems to be hoping that Stannis will die soon.

I think Saan is more interested in the man who declines his offer of a grape than he is in Stannis Baratheon.

If Saan just leads us back to Bittersteel and Bloodraven, then he is not a great example for the idea that there are echoes of various Great Bastards, beyond the Blackwood / Bracken bastards. I'll have to keep looking because I'm sure there's a reason for all that detail GRRM gives us about the mistresses of Aegon IV.

On 5/18/2018 at 4:54 PM, LiveFirstDieLater said:

I’ll try and come back when I find the list I made once... but I think you might take a look at the Twelve Labors of Heracles as a parallel for Aegon’s 9 mistresses and the 3 Targaryen’s rumored to be the mothers of his children...

This sounds great. I'd love to see it.

On 5/18/2018 at 5:55 PM, Vaedys Targaryen said:

The parallel between Sweetrobin, Myranda, Mya and Alayne and the Great Bastards is nicely noticed.

But in regards to Melissa Blackwood's bastards and their names; many fans believe that Gwenys was given her name as a clue from GRRM that she favours her father's looks and not her mother's; in order to get this, you have to subscribe to the belief that whenever a Targaryen man has children with a non-Targaryen woman, the first child's looks always favours the mother and the subsequent children will favour the father. Examples of these weird genetics is Daeron II's sons, where his oldest son, Baelor, looked like his Dornish mother, Mariah Martell, and his other sons looked just like himself and Rhaegar's daughter and first child, Rhaenys, also favoured her Dornish mother and his son looked like himself.

We don't really know much about Melissa's children other than Brynden was her youngest and he was an albino, which means that he would've had pale skin and white hair, but considering the fact that no matter where you read of her children the order always goes Mya, Gwenys and Brynden, which makes most fans believe that Mya is the oldest. This also causes some people to believe that Mya is named after Mya Stone by GRRM, because Mya Stone has blue eyes and black hair and when you read the name Mya, you instantly think of Mya Stone and what she looks like.

But back to Gwenys; now that it is established that she is the second child of Melissa by Aegon IV and if the pattern for the inherited genetics applies to her children, Gwenys looks like a Targaryen. Gwen is Welsh and means 'white, fair, holy, blessed'. It is the 'white' part that you really notice, because many Targaryens have white or very pale hair and fair skin. Also there is the ending of her name; 'ys' is a common ending in the names for many Targaryens.

So if you aply the theory of the Targaryen male/non-Targaryen female looks, a second child with a name that means 'white' and has the 'ys' ending in a family where white or pale hair is the norm, you get that theory. Mya and Gwenys could be GRRM hinting to us of the genetics of the Targaryens.

This does sound like persuasive evidence of a pattern. It doesn't preclude the other possibilities but it definitely presents a different interpretation.

After studying the Rainbow Guard and some other examples of colors that come into conflict (sigils of jousting pairs), I have the beginnings of an idea about black and white in opposition to each other and red and yellow in opposition to each other (but resulting in the creation of orange). So I wonder whether the children of Melissa represent white (if so, fitting with Bloodraven's albinism and the name of Gwen but ironic with Melissa's Blackwood heritage) and Barbra's son represents black (fitting, with his Blackfyre loyalties). But GRRM's colors are still super complicated. I can't yet say whether this idea would hold up to scrutiny.

[Megorova]

From Welsh "gwenys" means "beans".

"Dick Bean was a man-at-arms in service of House Targaryen in 42 AC. He had been in service of House Targaryen since he was a boy.

When King Maegor was challenged to a trial of seven by Ser Damon Morrigen, Grand Captain of the Warrior's Sons, Dick Bean was the first to answer Maegor's call to those who would stand beside him, shaming many knights and noble lords into answering Maegor's summons. One account claimed that Dick was the first to die during the trial, cut down by Ser Lyle Bracken."

Damon Morrigen and Lyle Bracken fought against Targaryen King and Dick Bean.

Damon - Daemon. Bracken - another connection to Blackfyres.

Morrigan is a name of Welsh crow goddess and phantom queen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morrígan

Coat of arms of House Morrigen is a black crow on a green field. And their castle is Crow's Nest in Stormlands. Morrigen's sigil is black crow, and Morrigan is a crow goddess.

There's many parallels between Bloodraven and wizard Merlin (both ended their life underground, in a cave, binded to a tree. Merlin was lured in that trap by his lover, the Lady of the Lake, Nimue, who was a water fairy - another parallel to Seastar), and Bloodraven's lover and one of Great Bastards - Shiera Seastar (who I think is a shadowbinder Quaithe, and the 3-eyed-crow) and Merlin's lover Morgana. Morrigan/Morgana, "mor" in Welsh and Old English means the sea, like in Shiera's name Seastar. Also Morrigan in Irish folklore is associated with the banshee, "woman of the fairy mound" or "fairy woman". Shiera from Japanese  シエラ means "sierra" -  a long jagged mountain chain. And banshee's name is connected to barrows, burial mounds, or long barrow, which is a chain of mounds build above burials. Chain of mounds - mountain chain - banshee - Shiera. Phantom Queen Morrigan is a prophet of death, same as banshee. Phantoms are shadows, and Shiera, according to Egg, was dancing with demons, thus she was a shadowbinder, same as Quaithe.

Guyard Morrigen from ASOIAF, also known as Guyard the Green, was one of Renly's Rainbow Guards. GRRM could have used any other color for this guy, but has chosen to make Morrigen a Green Knight. There's a story from Arthurian cycle about Green Knight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight

In the end of the story, it was revealed, that Sir Gawain had to go on that journey, because events that led to it, were orchestrated by sorceress Morgan le Fay, lover of wizard Merlin. I see a parallel between this story, and how Bran was lured by 3EC and Jojen, to go beyond The Wall to Bloodraven. Sir Gawain - Bran, Green Knight - Jojen Reed, with his green dreams, Lady Bertilak, with whom Gawain fell in love - Meera Reed, Morgan le Fay - 3-eyed-crow/Shiera Seastar/Quaithe.

So this Damon Morrigen and his companion Bracken, could be a clue, that Gwenys died in a confrontation between Targaryens and Blackfyres, same as Dick Bean, who sided with a Targaryen King, and fought against those two. Maybe both of Bloodraven's sisters died in confrontations between Targaryens & Blackwoods VS Blackfyres & Brackens.

[Lost Melnibonean]

@Seams, this is an interesting idea. The two big themes are the Dragonknight versus the Unworthy, and the legacy of the four Great Bastards. (I am unsure of how Mya and Gwenys fit into our story.) 

I think the metatextual purpose of having Aemon Dragonknight and Queen Naerys love each other is to have the reader assume that Daenerys and Jon are descendants of the Dragonknight while our wee Aegon descends from Aegon the Unworthy. 

And the legacy of the Great Bastards lives on. Bloodraven is Bran's three-eyed crow, and I think Shiera Seastar is Quaithe. Daemon and Bittersteel proved to be more mortal, but Aegon appears likely to be the descendant of Daemon, and the Golden Company, wittingly or not, appears to be fulfilling the dream of Bittersteel. 

I do expect there is a role for descendants of the other named bastards, or that we should see themes that relate to them.