ââSummerhall.â The word was fraught with doomâ. It ended at Summerhall, with âsorcery, fire,
and griefâ. The âtragedy at Summerhallâ was a mysterious
disaster that happened forty years before the main story of Game of Thrones. It was a fire that killed a king, and birthed
a prince, and is tied to dragons, magic, prophecy, and the destiny of Westeros. So what happened at Summerhall? A hundred years ago, King Daeron Targaryen
peacefully unified Dorne with the rest of Westeros. To celebrate, he built a castle called Summerhall,
near the borders of the Reach, stormlands, and Dorne. It was a âlightly fortifiedâ castle, more
of a âpalaceâ â used as a home for Targaryen princes. In the time of the Dunk and Egg stories, Daeronâs
son Maekar and some of his family lived there. And eventually, Maekarâs son Aegon, or Egg,
became king. In his adventures with Dunk, Egg learned to
respect the smallfolk â the.. peasants, or common people â and to care for the âpoor
and weakâ. So as king, Egg made laws to help the smallfolk,
giving them new rights and protections, and limiting the power of the lords. Many lords hated this, and some rebelled against
him, so Egg spent much of his reign fighting rebellions [including a rebellion by the Laughing
Storm, Lyonel Baratheon!]. Even Eggâs children were rebellious. Egg and his wife Betha arranged marriages
for their kids that would help build alliances with other powerful houses, but their sons
refused these arranged marriages. Eggâs eldest son and heir Prince Duncan
gave up his claim to the throne and married a mysterious common woman called Jenny of
Oldstones. Eggâs son Jaehaerys and daughter Shaera
fell in love with each other, and got married. They had two kids, Aerys and Rhaella, who
also married each other and had kids, which is, like, super.. double.. incest. Thatâs where Rhaegar Viserys and Daenerys
come from. Eggâs youngest son Daeron was meant to marry
a young Olenna Redwyne, the Queen of Thorns. But Daeron refused the marriage, and instead
had a relationship with a knight called Ser Jeremy, before they died together in a battle. Since Prince Duncan broke a betrothal with
a Baratheon, his sister Rhaelle married a Baratheon instead â which led to birth of
Robert Baratheon, who would later overthrow the Targaryens. So King Egg was frustrated with his disobedient
children, and rebellious lords, and he also faced the threat of the Blackfyres â he
defeated the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion, but a fifth rebellion loomed, with Maelys the
Monstrous and the Ninepenny Kings gathering in the east. All Egg wanted was to bring âpeace and prosperity
and justiceâ to Westeros, but he couldnât do it when everyone fought against him, and
forced him to compromise. Egg came to believe that the only way he could
get enough power to bring justice to the realm was with dragons. For the first hundred years of their dynasty,
the Targaryens could crush any enemy with their dragons. But after the Targaryen civil war, the Dance
of the Dragons, the dragons went extinct, and the Targaryens werenât as powerful. They still had dragon eggs, and they tried
everything to make them hatch â King Aegon the Third got nine mages to work spells over
the eggs, Baelor the Blessed prayed over the eggs, maesters pored over the eggs, Eggâs
brother Aerion drank wildfire to transform himself into a dragon â but they all failed. Every time the Targaryens tried to hatch dragons,
they just âmade fools of themselves, or corpsesâ. But still â Eggâs brother Daeron, and
his uncle Aerys, even Daemon Blackfyre the Second all said that dragons would return
â they saw it in prophetic dreams, and read of it in prophecy. Soon, King Egg too dreamed of dragons. He became obsessed with ancient Valyrian dragon
lore, sending people searching as far east as Asshai for lost books and knowledge on
dragon breeding. He was desperate for the power that he believed
could bring peace to Westeros. And this dream of dragons led to the tragedy
at Summerhall. The books only give us tiny hints of information
what happened, but hereâs what we know â King Egg gathered his family together, to celebrate
the pregnancy of his granddaughter Rhaella. And there, King Egg performed some kind of
ritual involving seven dragon eggs, pyromancers, and wild fire. The fire got out of control, and people died. The books donât actually say who died. But itâs implied, and the official app confirms,
that King Egg, his son Duncan, and his Kingsguard Dunk died in the fire. Rhaella survived, and as Summerhall burned,
she gave birth to Prince Rhaegar. The book hints that Dunk saved people from
the fire before he died, so maybe Dunk saved Rhaella and Rhaegar. Back in The Hedge Knight, Dunk thinks that
the realm might need his foot one day â so maybe he.. kicks down a door to save the princess. Then goes back into the fire to save King
Egg, and dies with him, perhaps. It sounds like Jenny of Oldstones may have
died in the fire. And possibly Queen Betha, and Eggâs sisters
and their families, and Eggâs brothersâ children. Summerhall explains why there are so few Targaryens
left in the story â this disaster wiped out a generation of them. It was a catastrophe for the royal family. So what caused this fire? We know King Egg was trying to hatch dragons
â he had seven dragon eggs and âwild fireâ. So maybe he thought the eggs would hatch if
he put them in a really hot fire. Which isnât a bad idea. The Targaryens used to hatch their dragon
eggs in the fires of the volcanic island Dragonstone â some said that the eggs needed that heat
to hatch. So maybe King Egg was just cooking up some
googs, and things got out of hand. Cause Egg was using wildfire, with the pyromancers
of the Alchemistsâ Guild. And wildfire is super dangerous, it can easily
get out of control â âany little mistake can bring catastropheâ. In Book 2, we learn that the pyromancers make
wildfire in rooms rigged with sand held above, so if the wildfire gets out of control, the
sand falls down and smothers the flame â and kills any people inside. And in Dunk & Egg, Dunk has a dream where
he and Egg are suffocated in sand. So some fans think this sand system was set
up at Summerhall, and killed Dunk and Egg. Whatever the details, playing with fire is
dangerous, so maybe Summerhall was just a terrible accident. But if thatâs true, why all the secrecy
and mystery around Summerhall? The survivors would not speak of what happened,
and this part of the worldbook is âblotted out by inkâ so we canât see the details
of what happened. Whatâs the author hiding here? There are theories that Summerhall was not
an accident. That death was part of the plan. Cause in this story, human sacrifice has magical
power â âOnly death can pay for lifeâ, and âA great gift requiresâ âgreat sacrificeâ. Like, Daenerys tries putting her dragon eggs
in a fire, and that doesnât make them hatch. They hatch when she burns Mirri Maz Duur and
the body of Khal Drogo in a big funeral pyre with her eggs. That sacrifice hatches her dragons, cause
âOnly death can pay for lifeâ. In Book 2, Melisandre tries to wake a dragon
by burning a bastard son of King Robert. She says âOnly a kingâs blood can wake
the stone dragonâ. By âstone dragonâ, she seems to think
she can transform the stone dragon statues on Dragonstone into living dragons, but âstone
dragonsâ can also refer to dragon eggs that have petrified into stone over time. The point is, weâve twice seen the idea
that human sacrifice in a fire can wake dragons. So maybe the fire at Summerhall was a sacrifice
to hatch dragon eggs, and King Egg deliberately burned people. Since âkingâs bloodâ has special power
to wake dragons, King Egg mightâve sacrificed himself, walking into the fire like Daenerys. In Book 5, Melisandre wants to sacrifice a
king, and then his son, so that âboth die kingsâ to maximise the magical power to
âwake the dragonâ. Maybe King Egg tried the same thing, burning
himself and then his son Duncan. Or since Duncan abdicated, he couldâve tried
to burn Jaehaerys instead. Maybe Egg tried to sacrifice Rhaella, and
her unborn child Rhaegar, as the ultimate terrible sacrifice to wake the dragons, but
Dunk intervened and stopped him. We can only speculate about the details, but
given what we know about magic and sacrifice and dragons, Summerhall looks a lot like a
magic sacrifice to hatch dragons. But is Egg the kind of person who would burn
his own family alive? In the Dunk & Egg stories, Egg is a sweet
kid, heâs not mad or cruel. He only occasionally gets angry and Targaryeny. But being king changes people. You have to be ruthless to rule. When Egg became king, his brother Aemon told
him that âIt takes a man to rule. An Aegon, not an Eggâ. âKill the boy within youâ, âand let
the man be bornâ. Maybe King Egg tried to âkill the boyâ
at Summerhall, to let dragons be born. Itâs a similar story to Stannis, a king
with good intentions who burns people alive as sacrifices. He argues that the sacrifice of one child
is worth it if it saves the kingdom. Maybe King Egg thought the same thing. When Stannis considers burning Mance and his
baby to wake a dragon, Aemon says âThere is power in a kingâs bloodâ âand better
men than Stannis have done worse things than thisâ. Maybe Aemon is talking about his brother Egg,
a good man who did a terrible thing, sacrificing his family to wake dragons for the realm. But what couldâve convinced Egg that a magic
sacrifice would work? King Eggâs family was really into prophecy. Prince Duncanâs wife, Jenny of Oldstones,
brought a âwoods witchâ to court â a âdwarfishâ âalbinoâ woman who was
connected to the magic of the old gods. We meet this this witch forty years later
in the main series, where sheâs called the ghost of High Heart. And she has accurate visions of the future,
foreseeing the Red Wedding, and Joffreyâs poisoning, before they happen. So this witch is legit â she can see the
future. And she was influential in King Eggâs court
â Prince Aerys and Rhaella got married because this witch said that the prince that was promised,
or Azor Ahai, would be born of their line. Which means that Daenerys or Jon might be
the prophesied heroes to save the world from the white walkers. Maybe thatâs why Prince Duncan abdicated
the Throne â so his nephew Aerys, and the line of Azor Ahai, would inherit the Throne
instead. Some fans suspect that Bloodraven, also connected
to the old gods, had something to do with this. So.. thatâs a whole thing, but we also know
that Eggâs brother Aemon and his uncle Aerys were also interested in prophecy, as well
as Daeron with his dragon dreams, and Aerion with his delusions. So just like your auntie whoâs like a little
bit too into astrology, King Eggâs family were heavily influenced by prophecies and
dreams of the future. So maybe Egg did Summerhall because he or
the ghost of High Heart or Daeron, had a prophetic dream that dragons would hatch from fire at
Summerhall. Problem is, relying on prophecy in this story
is dangerous â âProphecy will bite your prick off every timeâ. Many characters have dreams of the future,
especially Targaryens. And especially dreams about terrible destructive
events, like the Doom of Valyria.. and the Red Wedding â the ghost of High Heart, Daenerys,
Patchface, even Theon all have dreams and visions of the Red Wedding before it happens. But dreams of the future are often symbolic
and abstract, and are often misinterpreted by the dreamer â like, Melisandre constantly
misinterprets her visions to convince herself that Stannis is the prophesied hero. She once has a vision of Alys Karstark and
convinces herself it's Arya Stark. The visions are true, but she twists the meaning
to see what she wants to see. Misinterpreting a dream can lead to a characterâs
downfall â like, in The Mystery Knight, Daemon dreams of a hatching dragon, so he
thinks heâll get a dragon and win the Throne, but he misinterpreted the dream, so Daemon
fails. Aemon says that his brothers Egg Daeron and
Aerion were all killed by their dreams of dragons. Cause Aerion dreamed of transforming into
a dragon by drinking wildfire. Daeronâs dragon dreams drove him to self-destructive
drinking. Maybe Eggâs dragon dreams killed him because,
like Daemon and Melisandre and others, he misinterpreted his visions, and saw what he
wanted to see YouTuber JoeMagician argues that Egg may have had visions of the future
of Daenerys hatching dragons from fire, and Summerhall was Eggâs attempt to recreate
this dream, thinking that the vision was about him. Because the sacrifices at Summerhall mirror
the sacrifices at Daenerysâ fire â King Egg parallels Khal Drogo, cause a Khal is
symbolically like a king. Princess Rhaella Targaryen mirrors Princess
Daenerys Targaryen. And Rhaellaâs baby Rhaegar mirrors Daenerysâ
baby Rhaego, who dies shortly before this funeral pyre. The witch Mirri Maz Duur mirrors the woods
witch, the ghost of High Heart. Maybe through the symbolic language of prophetic
dreams, Egg saw a king and a princess and a baby and witch burning on a fire, and saw
dragons hatching from the ashes. He thought this was his destiny, and tried
to make it happen by burning himself and his family, to hatch dragons and save the realm,
tragically misled by prophecy like so many others before him. JoeMagician speculates that other Targaryens
might also have had the same dream of Daenerysâs fire. Mad King Aerys tried to burn Kingâs Landing
in a great âfuneral pyreâ, thinking he would rise again as a dragon â which sounds
a lot like Daenerys rising from her funeral pyre with dragons. Aerion mightâve had the same dream to convince
him that fire would make him a dragon. All these Targaryens destroyed themselves
thinking that fire would give them dragons â maybe they all dreamed of Daenerys. Cause the rebirth of dragons is a powerfully
significant magical event, so just like the Doom of Valyria and the Red Wedding â and
Euron Greyjoyâs coming apocalypse â it sent shockwaves through time, ripples in the
dreamscape, bringing prophetic visions to sensitive individuals, and causing generations
of Targaryen madness and fiery catastrophe. Thatâs one theory, anyway. We donât know if King Egg had visions of
the future. We donât even know for sure if he deliberately
sacrificed people. But whatever he did to hatch dragons, it failed. And House Targaryen was left weaker than before. Eggâs sickly second son Jaehaerys inherited
the Throne, then came King Aerys, who was mad, possibly because of the fire and trauma
of Summerhall, then the Targaryens were overthrown in Robertâs Rebellion. So was Summerhall just a giant meaningless
fuckup that led to the end of the Targaryens? Or did this death and disaster birth some
hope? In Dunk & Egg, Eggâs brother Daeron has
a dream of a dragon dying. But in the end, itâs not a literal dragon
that dies, itâs a metaphorical dragon, Baelor Targaryen. Then in The Mystery Knight, Daemon Blackfyre
has a dream that a dragon will hatch from an egg. But in the end, itâs not a literal dragon
that hatches, itâs a metaphor for Egg becoming a more confident Targaryen prince. So in prophetic dreams, a dragon doesnât
always mean a literal dragon, it can mean a Targaryen. And in the same way, the fire at Summerhall
didnât hatch a literal dragon, but it did lead to the birth of Rhaegar Targaryen, who
is sometimes called a âdragonâ. So in a way, King Egg succeeded in hatching
a dragon at Summerhall â just not in the way he expected. Author George Martin says he likes prophecies
that come true, but in an unexpected way. And even though Summerhall was a disaster,
that sacrifice at the birth of Rhaegar mightâve set events in motion for Westeros to be saved. Like his ancestors, Rhaegar was very into
prophecy. At one point, he and Aemon believed that Rhaegar
was the prince that was promised, or Azor Ahai. Cause the hero is prophesied to be born âamidst
smoke and saltâ. Aemon said the smoke was from the fire at
Summerhall, and the salt was from the tears shed for the people who died there. So maybe the tragedy at Summerhall fulfilled
the prophecy to make Rhaegar the hero to save the world. Of course, Rhaegar did not save the world. He got killed by Robert Baratheon. But Rhaegar did probably father Jon Snow,
who along with Daenerys, probably will be the heroes whoâll save the world from the
white walkers. By some interpretations, Rhaegar was the hero
Azor Ahai, but Jon and Daenerys and her dragons are Lightbringer, the fiery sword that will
defeat the darkness, born of sacrifice. So the prophecy works out âthe tragedy at
Summerhall might have been a necessary sacrifice to birth the heroes whoâll save Westeros. Death did pay for life, though the price was
terrible. Rhaegar was âhauntedâ by the tragedy of
Summerhall. âHe was born in griefâ, âand that shadow
hung over him all his daysâ. He would go alone to the ruins of Summerhall,
his birthplace, and write sad songs of sorrow and death. Some fans speculate that he may have met the
ghost of High Heart at Summerhall, and sang her songs in return for prophetic visions. Cause in Book 3, the ghost wants music in
return for her dreams. And she always asks for the same song â Jennyâs
song, that sad, longing song that Podrick sings in the tv show. The song is about the ghostâs friend Jenny
of Oldstones, and she weeps as she listens â she says she âgorged on grief at Summerhallâ. If the ghostâs prophecies are what convinced
Egg to burn Summerhall, maybe the ghost feels guilt as well as grief. Some fans speculate that Rhaegar wrote Jennyâs
song for the ghost of High Heart. Rhaegar seemed to share that same sense of
sadness and doom. Maybe he understood that the tragedy at Summerhall
was a sacrifice, a terrible price to pay for life in Westeros. There are other theories about Summerhall. Like maybe there was a conspiracy, and some
other faction caused the disaster. After all, King Egg had many powerful enemies,
like all the lords who hated his laws, who viewed him as a blood-handed tyrant. Maybe they chucked some extra wildfire into
the mix to kill King Egg. In Book 4, Marwyn the Mage says that the maesters
have a conspiracy against magic, Targaryens and dragons. He claims that the maesters somehow caused
the extinction of the dragons in the first place. We know that maesters âporedâ over the
remaining dragon eggs â maybe they poisoned the eggs, to stop them from hatching. Then when King Egg tried to bring back the
dragons, maybe the maesters made sure it failed, and blew up the Targaryens once and for all. The Grand Maester at the time was a young
Pycelle, and we know heâs not trustworthy â he betrayed Mad King Aerys, he betrayed
Jon Arryn, maybe he betrayed King Egg too. At the time, a young Tywin Lannister was a
cupbearer to King Egg. And Tywin wouldâve hated Eggâs pro-peasant
laws as much as anyone. And Pycelle is loyal to Tywin â so maybe
these guys worked together to make sure the Summerhall fire killed Egg â a cheeky bit
of regicide to kick off their life-long alliance. And maybe a young Mad Aerys was in on it. He and Tywin were childhood friends. And King Eggâs death did move Aerys closer
to inheriting the Throne. Each one of this trio of villainous teenagers
had potential motives to kill Egg, and they were all in the kingâs inner circle. Maybe they worked together to cause Summerhall. Or maybe the Faceless Men did it. Itâs hinted that the Faceless Men caused
the fiery Doom of Valyria, which killed most of the dragonlords four hundred years ago
â maybe they also caused the fiery Summerhall which killed most of the Targaryens, to stop
the return of dragons. The Faceless Men are master assassins who
âtake great care to make their killingsâ look like ânatural deathsâ â maybe the
Faceless Men used the Summerhall fire to hide their murder. Maybe the Faceless Men were hired by Maelys
Blackfyre and the Ninepenny Kings. They wanted King Eggâs throne, and they
certainly didnât want him to get dragons. Or maybe Bloodraven did it, working with the
ghost of High Heart. Theyâre both connected to the magic of the
old gods. Maybe Bloodraven sent the ghost her prophetic
dreams, and made Summerhall happen, cause he wanted a sacrifice to make Rhaegar Azor
Ahai, or cause he wanted to ensure that the line of Azor Ahai would inherit the Throne. Bloodraven has repeatedly shown that heâs
willing to kill his relatives for the sake of the Targaryen bloodline. Maybe Bloodravenâs lover Shiera Seastar
started the fire, and now she wears the mask of Quaithe to hide her arson-burned face. Or maybe it was Daario disguised as Ser Pounce
with a book of matches and a can of gasoline. We can speculate all day. Thereâs lots of possibilities for elaborate
conspiracies, but thereâs little evidence in the books. Summerhall is the end of the story of Dunk
and Egg, it might be the final novella in their series. So youâd think the tragedy at Summerhall
will be about be about their character arcs, their choices. Author George Martin writes about âthe human
heart in conflict with itselfâ. Like Jon Snowâs conflict between his love
for Ygritte and his duty to the Watch. George Martin loves this kind of tragic heart-wrenching
drama, and you can imagine something similar at Summerhall. Like Egg would be conflicted between his love
for his family, and the need for sacrifice to wake dragons for the realm. And Dunk would be conflicted between his loyalty
to Egg and his duty as a knight to protect the innocent. They could have a dramatic confrontation amidst
the flames of Summerhall, the two friends divided in the end like Frodo and Sam on Mount
Doom, with Dunk desperately trying to stop Egg from sacrificing innocent lives to the
fire. Maybe in the end, Dunk has to kill Egg, to
stop the burning, like Jaime and Aerys years later. [Itâs like poetry it rhymes]. That kind of personal drama at Summerhall
could give a fitting and emotionally devastating end to The Tales of Dunk and Egg. While making the tragedy really about a maester
conspiracy or the Faceless Men instead might undermine the personal, emotional climax of
Dunk and Eggâs story. Ultimately, dragons and magic are a metaphor
for power and ambition, and the dangers of power and ambition. Like Icarus flying to the sun, too much ambition
can get you burned and cause your downfall. And thatâs what the Targaryens are all about. Their ambition and powerlust forged the Seven
Kingdoms into a united realm â but they also burned thousands of people in wars and
disasters and madness. Summerhall is a warning against the dangers
of power, ambition, and dreams, showing how even a good king like Egg, or Stannis, or
Daenerys, with the best intentions, can ultimately, tragically, end in atrocity. Fire can be the power to do great things. But âToo much light can hurt the eyesâ,
and âfire burnsâ. King Egg searched the world for knowledge
on Valyrian dragon-breeding. But we donât have to go to Asshai â cause
we can learn knowledge and skills on Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning site with
thousands of classes in art, design, business, and even cooking eggs.. with fire â no human
sacrifice required. Thereâre even classes by Kurzgesagt on video
editing in After Effects, which is what we use. Thereâs some really good stuff here. And the first thousand people to click the
link below can get a free trial of Skillshare Premium. After the trial, itâs less than ten bucks
a month for access to all these classes. So learn something new, and help Alt Shift
X, by trying Skillshare. Thanks for watching. Links to the artists and references are below. Thanks to Patrons Cami Hunt, Kyle Lim, mario_incandenza,
(at)Surdo, Blake Dale, Ashik Ishtiak, Harith Muthanna Alqurtass, and Bambuslocke. Cheers. If nothing else, the tragedy of Summerhall
is a good example of why you should never bring high explosives to a baby shower.
Another gender reveal party gone horribly wrong.
I literally spent all last night trawling YouTube for new and interesting asoiaf videos and this morning I awoke to this blessing.
Love this guy's videos, always surprised how he's still able to keep making contents without Winds
One of my favourite details:
Rhaegar Targaryen, Jon's father, was born at Summerhall
Lyanna Stark, Jon's mother, was born at Winterfell
Just one of many "Ice and Fire" references in Jon's story.
Iâm not sure Iâll be able to handle Dunc killing Egg (if that does end up happening)
I loved Dunk and Egg . This is really well done. thank you.
âBittersteel was bitterâ - Alt shift x
Always thought the tragedy that started Game of Thrones was a dinner between an author and two writers.
"Arson-burned face" sound like "arse and burned face."
That's all I have to contribute.