A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Samwell I
The shattered Watch retreats from the Fist through snow and dead men; Sam the Slayer earns his name with a dragonglass dagger in an Other's throat.
The chapter retold
The shattered remnant of the Night's Watch expedition falls back from the Fist of the First Men through a killing snowstorm with the dead on its heels, and Samwell Tarly ÔÇö fat, frightened, certain of his own uselessness ÔÇö becomes, in one desperate motion, the man who ends an Other. Cornered and carrying Small Paul's failing body through the drifts, Sam drives a dragonglass dagger into the creature bearing down on them and watches it come apart like smoke and frost; the name Sam the Slayer, half-mocking when it starts, will follow him for the rest of the book whether he wants it or not.
Small Paul does not survive the retreat ÔÇö he dies giving Sam the chance to strike, one more nameless casualty of a battle the Seven Kingdoms south of the Wall still refuses to believe is happening. The chapter is the book's proof of concept for its own prologue: dragonglass kills Others, ordinary men can do it, and the Watch's survival now depends on getting that fact south before winter arrives to make the argument moot.
This movement: Dracarys
- In Astapor Dany trades Drogon for the Unsullied ÔÇö then speaks Valyrian, and the whip changes hands: Dracarys.
- Jaime loses his sword hand to Vargo Hoat's Brave Companions and learns what he is without it.
- Arya falls in with the Brotherhood Without Banners and watches a dead man rise from his seventh death.
- Tywin re-arranges the realm at his table: Tyrion to Sansa, Cersei to Willas ÔÇö the children object; the Hand doesn't care.
The fallen ÔÇö spoilers
- Small Paul ÔÇö Carried Sam through the snow and was killed by the Other for it.