The Merchant's Man: CHOW

[Ben]

This is a Chapter of the Week for George R. R. Martin's A Dance With
Dragons

This is chapter The Merchant’s Man (Quentyn I)

The POV for this chapter came rather out of the blue at this point, so
this chapter has quite a bit of backstory and introduction, not
something we have done much of lately in aSoIaF.

The introduction starts with the stinky ship Adventure, an
inexplicably vile smelling ship which it is impossible to determine
how it got that way. We can only be certain that it would be more at
home in the Bog of Eternal Stench than in Braavosi harbor. Quentyn
(whose last name is not given for a bit but his distinctive first name
reveals him as Doran Martell’s son from the first book or second who
was on a mysterious mission, here revealed) and his companion Gerris
Drinkwater are introduced to us.

Quentyn is “short-legged and stocky, thickly built… His forehead too
high, his jaw too square, his nose too broad” The kind of guy that a
girl would love to have as a friend, particularly the apparent hottest
woman in all the world, but I am getting ahead of myself. Quentyn’s
friend Drinkwater is indeed a tall drink of water, tall and fair and
swaggering, comfortable in any situation. Apparently this was why he
was sent with Quentyn, who seems at this point a bit socially
uncomfortable. A third companion, Cletus Yronwood is revealed to have
been slain earlier.

They engage the captain of the stink-ship that they want to travel to
Mereen, under the dubious cover story that they want to open a market
for Dornish wine. Apparently they have been refused by close to a
hundred captains already, none of whom want to go into a war zone.
What they estimated as three days has taken more than twenty. The
backstory states that Volantis is hiring every mercenary company they
can to head there, the Long Lances, the Windblown, and the Company of
the Cat as well as the Golden Company.(1)

Quentyn thinks it would have been better to buy a ship in Planky town,
but that the Spider had informants everywhere and their purpose must
not be revealed. So the fact that they have asked a hundred ship
captains for passage will probably never got back to Varys, right?

Drinkwater turns on the charm and offers to pay three times the usual
price to the smuggler captain (2) who agrees to leave in the morning.
Quentyn figures out that this fellow will kill them and take their
gold so they keep searching. They take a ride on a hathay (elephant)
back to their inn, which apparently is the only way that worthies
travel. Quentyn flashes back to corsairs swarming aboard his ship
Meadowlark and killing his companions Maester Kedry, William Wells,
and the aforementioned Cletus Yronwood, who was close to a brother to
him.

Maester Kedry apparently was familiar with the tongues and customs of
the area, and his loss had put them back quite a bit, as none of the
three survivors had more than a small amount of the language and none
knew more than what they had been told about the ways to get things
done. The men argue about what they will do, mentioning that the third
survivor of the trip, the “big man” would rather travel afoot down the
Dragon Roads, or specifically the road they would use called the demon
road. Quentyn fears that Lannister men hunting Daenerys will come upon
them as they will travel this way. (3)

Quentyn believes that the whole hopes of Dorne rest on him (unlikely)
and in any case he can’t handle the derision of Oberyn’s daughters so
he soldiers on. He flashes back to all the girls he’s loved before
while imagining Dany. We get some visions of the old Valyrian
architecture of the Black Wall, beyond which lie the scions of
Volantis who trace their blood back to Valyria themselves. (4) They
pass a couple of dwarfs doing a joust on a pig and a dog (brownie
points if you remembered these two from Joffrey’s wedding five books
and fifty years ago).

They encounter a group of Windblown mercenaries, who ask them to join
up and “ride to battle with the Tattered Prince”. When Quentyn and
Gerris decline, they curse them and go back to drinking. Reaching
their inn, they are joined by Ser Archibald Yronwood, Cletus’ cousin,
the mentioned “big man” who is quite tall, bald and very fat. They
briefly debate, then a light bulb appears of Gerris’ head and he has
an idea…

(1) Okay, so every mercenary company is headed to Mereen, apparently
thousands of foreign soldiers. The ship captains have laughed at the
wine-seller story, but these dolts stick with it rather than doing the
obvious and joining a mercenary company to get paid and presumably go
there for free? This is our first sign that Quentyn does not share his
father’s intelligence.

(2) What does he smuggle? Shit? Presumably it is slaves, but I am
curious why a slave smuggler would be needed in an area where slavery
is part of the economy. Also who would use a slave smuggler whose boat
smelled like shit? Not too many other things he could be doing with
it.

(3) Tywin Lannister was such a bad-ass that virtually everybody in the
whole freaking world assumes that he is coming to get them all the
time. His name struck fear in everybody, which is what he wanted. Most
of the stuff people worry about he doesn’t appear to give a shit
about, but that makes it all the more impressive, the fear factor.

(4) This is the first of many vivid hints about the structure and
society of Valyria, which for me was perhaps the best thing about this
book. I am absolutely down to read more about the goings on there and
what happened, which I am sure we will get more of.

============

No sex other than passing mention of a whorehouse and the Windblown
stating they “fuck the goddess slaughter up her arse” Call it half a
carafe out of a winestall. No gore at all or comedy for that matter.
Just like last chapter we do get a bit of history and some brief
mentions of characters who later become important.

Ben

[Jenny Chase]

On Sep 15, 6:28 pm, Ben <frodolives11...@aol.com> wrote:
> This is a Chapter of the Week for George R. R. Martin's A Dance With
> Dragons
>
> This is chapter The Merchant’s Man (Quentyn I)
>
> The POV for this chapter came rather out of the blue at this point, so
> this chapter has quite a bit of backstory and introduction, not
> something we have done much of lately in aSoIaF.

Thank you for leading us through this pointless diversion. (Sorry -
the thank you was genuine).

Hah, indeed.

To be fair, he is a good lad and doesn't like the idea of signing a
contract for something he doesn't plan to go through with.

>
> (2)     What does he smuggle? Shit? Presumably it is slaves, but I am
> curious why a slave smuggler would be needed in an area where slavery
> is part of the economy. Also who would use a slave smuggler whose boat
> smelled like shit? Not too many other things he could be doing with
> it.

I assumed he was both a slaver and a smuggler, and didn't allow his
(legal) charges much by way of modern facilities en voyage. The stink
would also allow him to have illegal items on board, safe from
extensive searches by the port authorities.

Is his one of the ships Victarion breezily captures later?

Best wishes,

Jenny

[John Vreeland]

On Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:12:14 -0700 (PDT), Jenny Chase
<pavann...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Sep 15, 6:28 pm, Ben <frodolives11...@aol.com> wrote:
>> This is a Chapter of the Week for George R. R. Martin's A Dance With
>> Dragons
>>
>> This is chapter The Merchant’s Man (Quentyn I)
>>
>> The POV for this chapter came rather out of the blue at this point, so
>> this chapter has quite a bit of backstory and introduction, not
>> something we have done much of lately in aSoIaF.
>
>Thank you for leading us through this pointless diversion. (Sorry -
>the thank you was genuine).

I must admit the entire POV seems rather pointless. It would have been
more convenient if Doran Martell had no son., .. ah, but then his
daughter would not have tried to attempt that little rebellion of
hers, providing a rationale for Myrcella's injury and Darkstar's
infamy.

So Quentin needed to exist. And if Quentin existed then he needed to
go to Dany. Still, this all seems somehow cumbersome. I have an idea
that the real purpose of Quentin Martell was to show us that the
dragons do not suffer fools.

>> The introduction starts with the stinky ship Adventure, an
>> inexplicably vile smelling ship which it is impossible to determine
>> how it got that way.

Slavers. I thought that was pretty much made clear.

>> We can only be certain that it would be more at
>> home in the Bog of Eternal Stench than in Braavosi harbor. Quentyn
>> (whose last name is not given for a bit but his distinctive first name
>> reveals him as Doran Martell’s son from the first book or second who
>> was on a mysterious mission, here revealed) and his companion Gerris
>> Drinkwater are introduced to us.

Third book, I think. Near the end, after his sister's rebellion failed
and Myrcella was attacked. "To bring us our heart's desire," Prince
Doran said.

>> Quentyn is “short-legged and stocky, thickly built… His forehead too
>> high, his jaw too square, his nose too broad” The kind of guy that a
>> girl would love to have as a friend, particularly the apparent hottest
>> woman in all the world, but I am getting ahead of myself. Quentyn’s
>> friend Drinkwater is indeed a tall drink of water, tall and fair and
>> swaggering, comfortable in any situation. Apparently this was why he
>> was sent with Quentyn, who seems at this point a bit socially
>> uncomfortable. A third companion, Cletus Yronwood is revealed to have
>> been slain earlier.

I believe he grew up with Yronwood, so the loss would have been great.

>> They engage the captain of the stink-ship that they want to travel to
>> Mereen, under the dubious cover story that they want to open a market
>> for Dornish wine. Apparently they have been refused by close to a
>> hundred captains already, none of whom want to go into a war zone.
>> What they estimated as three days has taken more than twenty. The
>> backstory states that Volantis is hiring every mercenary company they
>> can to head there, the Long Lances, the Windblown, and the Company of
>> the Cat as well as the Golden Company.(1)

>> Quentyn thinks it would have been better to buy a ship in Planky town,
>> but that the Spider had informants everywhere and their purpose must
>> not be revealed. So the fact that they have asked a hundred ship
>> captains for passage will probably never got back to Varys, right?
>
>Hah, indeed.

He is just some idiot with a couple of companions looking for passage
to Meereen. He's not announcing, "I am rebelling against King Joffrey
of Westeros." Still, it is interesting that either Viserys cannot be
trusted or Doran Martel does not know about Viserys. Probably both.

Did Viserys know about the proposed Viserys-Martell marriage? I think
he must have in order to avoid accidentaly screwing it up. He was
willing to have Dany murdered at the time because she was considered a
throwaway.

I must admit to not having read this chapter very carefully. Who the
heck is the big bald fat man?

>> (1)     Okay, so every mercenary company is headed to Mereen, apparently
>> thousands of foreign soldiers. The ship captains have laughed at the
>> wine-seller story, but these dolts stick with it rather than doing the
>> obvious and joining a mercenary company to get paid and presumably go
>> there for free? This is our first sign that Quentyn does not share his
>> father’s intelligence.
>
>To be fair, he is a good lad and doesn't like the idea of signing a
>contract for something he doesn't plan to go through with.

Mercenary companies tend to take offence at this. Yes, desertion is
even a serious crime among mercs. But I also think Quentin is a few
arrows short of a full quiver.

>> (2)     What does he smuggle? Shit? Presumably it is slaves, but I am
>> curious why a slave smuggler would be needed in an area where slavery
>> is part of the economy. Also who would use a slave smuggler whose boat
>> smelled like shit? Not too many other things he could be doing with
>> it.
>
>I assumed he was both a slaver and a smuggler, and didn't allow his
>(legal) charges much by way of modern facilities en voyage. The stink
>would also allow him to have illegal items on board, safe from
>extensive searches by the port authorities.

He is obtaining slaves from the source, which means he is an enemy
there. Sourced slaves are not worth very much on the beach where you
pick them up, thus the slight regard they are shown on the voyage.
This crew is a mean bunch.

>Is his one of the ships Victarion breezily captures later?

--
Some aspects of life would be a lot easier if Creationists were required to carry warning signs. Fortunately, many of them already do.