A Song of Ice and Fire questions.

[Darklance]

A Song of Ice and Fire.

I was rereading the second book today but it's been awhile since I've read the first. There are a few things I can't remember.

1. Why did the river lords go to war originally? The Northmen certainly had a reason but I can't recall why the lords of the trident would.

2.Who is the "Magister Illyrio" Who sent the ships for Daenerys?

Thanks.

 

[GreyOne]

The River Lords joined because of their alliance by marriage (Catelyn Tully was married to Eddard). I think.

Illyrio was the guy in the Free Cities (is that right?) who arranged the marriage of Dany to Drago, I think. I don't know if he was working for the Baretheons or the Targryns.

Bear in mind, its been ages since I read them too.

 

[Avarice]

Actually, I think the river lords joined forces with the northmen because Tywin Lannister had turned the Mountain that Rides loose in their lands for a bit of old fashioned raping and pillaging. He did this, IIRC, because Catelyn had kidnapped his son Tyrion.

 

[Mystic Eye]

Actually, The river lords may have been spurred to quick action by the raids in their lands but they were the banner men of the Tully's and Riverrun, who in turn were the sworn banner men of Winterfell.

They, technically, had obligations to come when Rob Stark and Edmund Tully called for them to rally.

 

[Avarice]

I realize it should be pretty obvious from the thread title, but maybe one of the mods should add a 'spoilers' tag to it just in case? At any rate, big time SPOILERS are found in my comments below.

Actually, The river lords may have been spurred to quick action by the raids in their lands but they were the banner men of the Tully's and Riverrun, who in turn were the sworn banner men of Winterfell.

They, technically, had obligations to come when Rob Stark and Edmund Tully called for them to rally.

I hate to disagree with you Mystic Eye, but the Tullys of Riverrun are one of the great houses. They owe fealty only to the king. They are bound to the Starks by blood (the marriage of Catelyn and Ned) and by their past cooperation in the rebellion against the mad king Aeris (sp?) so its certainly understandable that the two would cooperate, but the Tullys didn't have to throw their lot in with the northmen. It wouldn't have made much sense not to, though, as both houses had been wronged by the Lannisters, and both were going to go to war with them anyway.

Of course, they did swear fealty to Rob later on (proclaiming him the King in the North), but only after events were well under way.

 

[KnowTheToe]

When is the next book coming out?

 

[Velenne]

"A Feast For Crows" is due in April, I believe.

 

[Brudewollen]

ASoIaF

Avarice is correct, though he spelled Aerys wrong .

Someone got it mostly right about Magister Illyrio (Illyrio Mopatis is his full name). Illyrio was a super wealthy merchant of the Free Cities and presumably a Magister is also some sort of official title of that place, though this is never said expressly. I always reconed it was sort of like the powerful merchants of Venice who were often accorded various titles and positions of power and prominence in that city state's government. But Magister Illyrio did not work for the Targaryans, Baratheons or anyone else, at least not on the surface. There are a lot of theories about Illyrio and a lot of very subtle clues throughout the books that he may have deeper plans and purpose, but what that could be is very murky at this point in the series. One scene, I won't say which, might suggest that he and Varys are in kahoots...but this is left intentionally very unclear.

According to Amazon.com, A Feast for Crows (book 4) is slated to come out in April, as was stated, but from what I understand Martin still has not delivered the manuscript, and typically it takes quite a while for a book to go through the editing process - though for a book as big as this will surely be, they will no doubt work overtime to get it done ASAP. The series has become a full fledged phenomenon with the third book.