Widow's Wail

The second sword cut from Ice, named by a boy king who had it for a day.

The blade itself

WidowÔÇÖs Wail is the twin of Oathkeeper and came off the same anvil in the same week: a longsword of dark steel banded with red, rippled in tight restless waves, lighter in the hand than its size suggests and sharp in the way only Valyrian steel is sharp ÔÇö not honed to an edge but simply possessing one, permanently, without being asked. The hilt is gold and shaped as a lionÔÇÖs head with rubies set for eyes, matching its brother almost exactly. Only the size differs, very slightly, and only if the two are laid side by side.

Both swords exist because there is no other way to get a Valyrian blade. New ones cannot be made ÔÇö the craft went into the ground with Valyria and the handful of Qohorik smiths who claim any part of it can only rework what already exists. So a man who wants one either inherits it, buys it from a family who will almost never sell, takes it, or melts down someone elseÔÇÖs. That is the entire market, and it explains a great deal about the behaviour of everyone in this collection.

Named at a wedding

Joffrey Baratheon received the sword as a wedding gift, unwrapped it in front of the hall, and named it WidowÔÇÖs Wail ÔÇö a joke about killing husbands, delivered with enormous satisfaction, in a room full of men whose husbands and sons he had already made widows of. He then used it to butcher a book that had been given to him by his uncle, hacking the thing apart on the table while the guests worked out what expression to wear. It is a remarkable piece of characterisation: the boy gets an irreplaceable object and immediately finds something to ruin with it.

Back to the Lannisters

The blade did not stay with him long. It returned to his uncle Jaime, who by then had one hand and could do little with a sword beyond wear it, and who seems to have found the thing an embarrassment rather than a prize. He carried it through the riverlands without drawing it in anger. A sword named as a boast by someone who never used it, worn afterwards by a man who no longer could, is about as neat a summary of the Lannister position in those years as an object can manage.

There is a small irony in the name. It was chosen as a threat and reads, later, as a description ÔÇö though not in the direction its owner intended.

What became of it ÔÇö if an ending is written, it is here. Spoilers.

Joffrey was dead before the wedding feast ended, poisoned in front of several hundred witnesses, and the sword he had owned for a matter of hours went back into his familyÔÇÖs armoury. He remains the only person in this collection to name a Valyrian blade and never once carry it out of a room.