Though he was dressed very plainly, in green doublet, brown mantle, and scuffed boots, there was a weight to him, a sense of power and certainty.
Iâve been thinking about the significance of the green and brown outfit Baelor wears during his first appearance in the novella. To start, while the elm at the center of Dunkâs sigil is obviously a metonym for its bearer (ââDo all the oaks grow so tall there?â [Rohanne] said, as her fingers traced a tree limb around his heart. / âItâs meant to be an elm, mâladyââ), there is another association at play here. The creation of this sigil is set into motion by a particular exchange between Dunk and Baelor at the end of their initial interaction:
âSer. One thing more. You are not of Ser Arlanâs blood?â
âYes, mâlord. I mean, no. Iâm not.â
The prince nodded at the battered shield Dunk carried, and the winged chalice upon its face. âBy law, only a trueborn son is entitled to inherit a knightâs arms. You must needs find a new device, ser, a sigil of your own.â
âI will,â said Dunk. âThank you again, Your Grace. I will fight bravely, youâll see.â As brave as Baelor Breakspear, the old man would often say.
Dunkâs fumbling answer to the question about his paternity has the effect of introducing a degree of slipperiness where this is concerned, and his looking to Baelor as a role modelââI will fight bravely. . . . As brave as Baelor Breakspearââis juxtaposed with the necessity of acquiring âa sigil of [his] own.â He bears some similarity to a particular character type present in medieval Arthurian literature:
The âFair Unknownâ is a universally popular folk motif with strong Arthurian connections in which a young man of questionable lineage becomes an integral part of society. Initially appearing in court without an established identity, the Fair Unknown nevertheless boldly demands to be knighted. He tends to be markedlyâalbeit amusinglyâuninhibited because of his isolated upbringing, and frequently knows little of his own paternity. Although he is quickly knighted, the Fair Unknown must prove his worth through an extended series of adventures before finally cementing his position within society through continued proof of his prowess and, ultimately, through marriage and the acquisition of property. Within the Arthurian tradition specifically, the Fair Unknown is usually discovered to be a relative [specifically, a son] of Gawain and, thus, related to Arthur himself. He must, therefore, prove himself worthy of being not only an Arthurian knight, but also Gawain and Arthurâs kinsman.
(Leah Haught, âThe Fair Unknownâ)
Dunk is only sixteen or seventeen in the novella, and while at times Baelorâs manner with him does arguably carry a suggestion of the fatherly (it is perhaps worth noting as well that during one of Gawainâs most famous literary escapades he wears at one point a brown mantle, albeit of much more elaborate make, and later a green girdle which protects the wearer from harm; the second garment is all the more evocative in this context given that Baelor trades his green doublet for black armor before his death), Dunk is certainly no âtrueborn sonâ of his either and thus could never replace Arlanâs sigil with that of House Targaryen. But Baelor is notably not dressed in his house colors here, and what heâs wearing instead resembles somewhat the aforementioned central figure of Dunkâs ânew deviceâ:
âAn elm tree,â said Egg. âA big elm tree, like the one by the pool, with a brown trunk and green branches.â
The first sighting of the tree itself from Dunkâs POVââa tall, leafy elm presided over allââgives it a regal air, too; an impression which, as we will see, is later reinforced by its painted representation. In the midst of Dunkâs initial uncertainty in regard to Baelorâs identity the latter is also described as âthe tall manâ two times, and right before his death we get âa tall knightâ and âa tall tall prince.â Thus thereâs some foreshadowing in the following passage, but not in the way Dunk thinks:
Even by lantern light, the sunset colors were rich and bright, the tree tall and strong and noble. The falling star was a bright slash of paint across the oaken sky. Yet now that Dunk held it in his hands, it seemed all wrong. The star was falling, what sort of sigil was that? Would he fall just as fast? And sunset heralds night. âI should have stayed with the chalice,â he said miserably. âIt had wings, at least, to fly away, and Ser Arlan said the cup was full of faith and fellowship and good things to drink. This shield is all painted up like death.â
âThe elmâs alive,â Pate pointed out. âSee how green the leaves are? Summer leaves, for certain. And Iâve seen shields blazoned with skulls and wolves and ravens, even hanged men and bloody heads. They served well enough, and so will this. You know the old shield rhyme? Oak and iron, guard me well . . .â
The shield ends up destroyed by Aerionâs lance . . . while Baelorâs skull receives a similar treatment from Maekarâs mace. And about that meteor:
The stars were everywhere, thousands and thousands of them. One fell as he was watching, a bright green streak that flashed across the black and then was gone.
A queer troubled look passed across Baelor Breakspearâs face, like a cloud passing before a sun. He raised his hand and touched the back of his head with two fingers, oh so lightly. And then he fell.
Moving on to other considerations regarding the symbolism of Baelorâs green garment in particular. As alluded above, another consequence of foregoing his house colors and dressing âvery plainlyâ is that, in the absence of the coronet he later dons for the tourney (Joffrey wears one as heir to the throne as wellââaround his brow a slim coronet made of gold and sapphiresââso this must be an established practice), he is liable not to be recognized on sight as a Targaryen:
Sunlight flashed golden off the shoulder clasp that held his cloak and the slim coronet about his temples, but otherwise he dressed far more simply than most of the other lords. He does not look a Targaryen in truth, with that dark hair. Dunk said as much to Egg.
âItâs said he favors his mother,â the boy reminded him. âShe was a Dornish princess.â
In contrast, Dunk is able to immediately discern Aerionâs precise status on the basis of the latterâs hair and eye color:
That the beautiful stripling was a prince he had no doubt. The Targaryens were the blood of lost Valyria across the seas, and their silver-gold hair and violet eyes set them apart from common men.
Baldness and circumstance conspire to prevent this in Eggâs case, of course, despite the fact that he has the exact same coloring as Aerion. Affiliation with a particular house can be visually enhanced as well as downplayed; if Baelor so desired, he could wear the finest black and red fabrics and cover himself in dragons 24/7. That he does not suggests both humility (âhe dressed far more simply than most of the other lordsâ) and self-assurance, his âsense of power and certaintyâ undiminished by the plainness of his wardrobe. These somewhat opposing characteristics united in a single Targaryen are reminiscent of the two sharply contrasting descriptions of literal dragons in the novella. One dragon, from Daeronâs dream, unambiguously represents Baelor, while the other is . . . green:
Ser Arlan had been just a little boy when his grandfather had taken him to Kingâs Landing, and how theyâd seen the last dragon there the year before it died. Sheâd been a green female, small and stunted, her wings withered.
I dreamed of you and a dead dragon, you see. A great beast, huge, with wings so large they could cover this meadow.
Thus the novella deploys the color green to several purposes; it is associated with death and endings in addition to life and new beginnings. This aligns with the polarized views of green which arose during the time period which served as a primary inspiration for the series:
At the end of the Middle Ages, green, so admired in the time of chivalry and courtesy, began to lose standing. As a chemically unstable color, both in painting and dyeing, it was henceforth associated symbolically with all that was changeable or capricious: youth, love, fortune, fate. By the same token it tended to have a split personality. On the one hand there was good green, associated with gaiety, beauty, and hope, which had not disappeared but had become more subdued; on the other there was bad green, associated with the Devil and his creatures, witches, and poison, which had expanded its territory and henceforth brought misfortune into many domains.
(Michel Pastoureau, Green: The History of a Color (trans. Jody Gladding))
A fitting heritage, given the consequences of Dunk and Baelorâs brief acquaintanceship. Baelorâs death is a tragedy, but it sets Egg on the path to becoming a Westerosi monarch like none before due to his time spent among the common people with Dunk (who, on the more personal side, comes to regard Egg âalmost as a little brotherâ). The bittersweetness persists, naturally, as Egg, stymied by the nobilityâs self interest, ultimately chooses âhis favorite castleâ as the site for an attempt to bring back the dragons, which ends in yet another tragedy. Perhaps it is significant that the color green appears prominently on his own cradle egg, particularly in light of another dimension of this color:
The polished golden field remained the same, and the Fossoway apple, but this apple was green instead of red. âI fear I am still not ripe . . . but better green than wormy, eh?â
The time is not yet right; it isnât until almost half a century later that âthe night [comes] alive with the music of dragonsâ once more.
