A Storm of Swords ÔÇö Samwell IV
The election for Lord Commander stalls while Janos Slynt gathers votes; Sam the Slayer discovers that courage comes in more shapes than swords.
The chapter retold
At Castle Black, the election for the Night's Watch's new Lord Commander bogs down in factional stalemate, with Janos Slynt ÔÇö disgraced former commander of the City Watch, no friend to Jon Snow ÔÇö working the room for votes with a politician's shameless persistence despite having no real qualification for the post beyond ambition.
Samwell Tarly, watching the process unfold, discovers that courage in this contest looks nothing like the swordplay he has spent the book being praised for ÔÇö it looks like speaking up in rooms that intimidate him, maneuvering quietly against a bully with words instead of dragonglass. The chapter reframes the entire idea of heroism the book has been building around Sam, setting up the more consequential political courage he shows in the chapters immediately following.
This movement: Gold, Ice, and the Hanged Woman
- Jaime frees his brother; Tyrion detours through the Tower of the Hand: Shae in the bed, Tywin on the privy, a crossbow for both.
- Lysa Arryn flies from the Moon Door screaming about tears and dark words; Littlefinger blames a singer.
- Jon Snow is elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch on Sam's clever tongue.
- Epilogue at the Twins: the Brotherhood hangs Freys for a hooded woman whose throat gapes ÔÇö Lady Stoneheart remembers.