Summerhall

[iseult]

As I was re-reading the first three books, my intrest in Summerhall was peeked. I did a search and found only a few threads about it. One thread said that Dunk and Egg had died there. I've read all the books at least twice and the Dunk and Egg stories. I don't remember ever hearing that Dunk and Egg died there. Can anyone direct me to where this information can be found?

[Jon Targaryen]

As I was re-reading the first three books, my intrest in Summerhall was peeked. I did a search and found only a few threads about it. One thread said that Dunk and Egg had died there. I've read all the books at least twice and the Dunk and Egg stories. I don't remember ever hearing that Dunk and Egg died there. Can anyone direct me to where this information can be found?

I'm not aware if GRRM has revealed anything concrete relatively recently but it has been generally accepted for awhile that Dunk and Egg died at Summerhall. Here is some conjecture to that effect.

For Egg, we know that Rhaegar was born in the year of the Summerhall tragedy, 259. Rhaegar would go to Summerhall and sing of the death of kings. We know this from Barristan in a Dany chapter. This was also the year that Egg's reign ended. It was such a tragedy because Egg and his son Duncan, who is mentioned a few times, died there. This required Jaehaerys, the second son, to become king.

For Dunk, we know that Barristan was born around the year 237. Dunk was Lord Commander of the KG when Barristan was knighted in his 16th year. Lord Commander Gerold Hightower named Barristan to the Kingsguard in his 23rd year, around 260. So Hightower is Lord Commander and he has to replace a knight of the Kingsguard. Presumably Hightower is the new Lord Commander and he has to name a KG to replace Dunk. Dunk would be in his sixties at least by this time so he could have died of old age. But it seems too coincidental that he would die around the same time as Egg. It is more likely that Dunk accompanied Egg to Summerhall and died there at the end of 259 and Barristan was named to KG in the beginning of 260.

[Prince of the North]

I'm probably stating the obvious here about Summerhall but perhaps there are those for whom it's not obvious so here goes: I think Egg (King Aegon V - The Unlikely, I think) was trying to achieve what Dany "accidentally" achieved with the hatching of the dragons. I think he figured out most of it from a prophecy (from the Jade Compendium, maybe?) but, of course, we all know it only brings tragedy when one actively tries to make a prophecy happen ;)

[Balerion the Cat]

I'm probably stating the obvious here about Summerhall but perhaps there are those for whom it's not obvious so here goes: I think Egg (King Aegon V - The Unlikely, I think) was trying to achieve what Dany "accidentally" achieved with the hatching of the dragons.

There is also the hint Maester Aemon gives when speaking to Sam, in AFfC. He says (more or less) that all his brothers were obsessed by Dragons, and this led to various tragedies.

[Scafloc]

There is another hint. When Davos is in prison for trying to assassinate Melisandre he talks to Alester Florent. Alester Florent is in prison for negotiating with Tywin Lannister about surrender term for Stannis' cause. When he proposed the (quit reasonable!) surrender terms to Stannis, there was talk (probably from Melisander) about stone dragons.

Florent then says to Davos:

This talk of a stone dragon ... madness, I tell you, sheer madness.

Did we learn nothing from Aerion Brightfire, from the nine mages, from the alchemists?

Did we learn nothing from Summerhall?

No good has ever come from these dreams of dragons, I told Axell as much

[Alinus]

There is also a hint, verry confusing for me, in the first Arya chapter from ASS:Blood of Dragons.

The old dwarf woman says to Arya:

" You are cruel to come to my hill, cruel. I gorged on grief at Summerhall, i need none of yours. Begone...."

What's anything got to do with Arya or the Starks and all the suppositons regarding what happend at Summerhall ?!

[Happy Ent]

What's anything got to do with Arya or the Starks and all the suppositons regarding what happend at Summerhall ?!

We don't know. Some people think the dwarf woman is reacting to Arya's coin, so it might have to do with the Faceless Men instead of Arya and the Starks.

By the way, we get a passage from the prophecy in the Jon sample chapter that GRRM sometimes has on his website. There's nothing in there that could be inferred from the first four books, but the formulation is crisp. I'll spoilertext it:

Spoiler

Two kings to wake the dragon, he remembered. The father first and then the son, so both die kings.

It's not complete. From the first four books we also know that the dragon or dragons will have to be woken "from stone" (which explains Mel's speculations about burning Shireen, whose face is stone), and that the birth will be announced by a red comet.

The Targaryen project at Summerhall was indeed to wake dragons, so they burned

Spoiler

Aegon V (the king) and Prince Duncan the Small (his heir),

in accordance with the spoilertexted prophecy above. I cannot imagine that these burnings happened without the consent of the "victims." I could imagine that both were marked by death anyway (from wounds or sickness), so they decided to take their own lives prematurely in the hope or restoring dragons. Other people died at the even as well, such as the lord commander of the kingsguard.

Rhaegar was born on that same day, so when he later started to read the prophecy himself, he (erroneously) concluded that he was the dragon that had been "hatched" at Summerhall. Thus, he was to save the world. Wrong, of course.

[Ran]

The ghost of High Heart is probably related to Jenny of Oldstones ("My Jenny"), an it's speculated that her love, the Prince of Dragonflies, died there along with King Aegon V (Egg). So basically she's saying that she's witnessed a great deal of grief because of what happened at Summerhall, and she needs none of Arya's grief (death of her father, loss of her family, etc.)

[Roi Woodt]

Thus, he was to save the world. Wrong, of course.

I wouldn't be too sure about that! Dracarys!

Ran,

So basically she's saying that she's witnessed a great deal of grief because of what happened at Summerhall, and she needs none of Arya's grief (death of her father, loss of her family, etc.)

Another assumption. It could very well be that there is another thing why she needn't any of Arya's kind. She called her blood child, wolf child. Her prince was a bloodchild/man as well, a dragon one to be specific. These dragonblooded men caused a gigantic catastroph, because of their blood. And now Jenny sees another of those special blooded creatures and she needs none of them, because the same sort of blood devastated her life.