78 pages • 2 hours read
George R. R. MartinA Dance With Dragons
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 55-60Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 55 Summary: “The Queensguard”
Barristan Selmy, Daenerys’s Queensguard, plots with Shavepate, captain of the Brazen Beasts, now dismissed because Hizdahr doesn’t want Daenerys’s old councilors around. Shavepate tells Selmy that Hizdahr meant to poison Daenerys with the locusts and open the gates to Volantis. Shavepate and the other Brazen Beasts know slavery will resume as soon as Volantis arrives, so they want to overthrow Hizdahr. They need Selmy’s help to enter Hizdahr’s rooms in the pyramid. He agrees to help them out of loyalty to Daenerys. While everyone assumes she is dead after having been burned by Drogon, he holds out hope she is alive. He feels some disquiet with his new role as conspirator. When he read about Kingsguard who played politics instead of sticking to their stated task of protecting their king or queen, he despised such men. Now, he finds himself becoming one of them.
Chapter 56 Summary: “The Iron Suitor”
Victarion Greyjoy is headed to Meereen at Euron’s request to claim Daenerys for him, but Victarion intends to have Daenerys for himself. He rescues the red priest Moqorro from the sea. Moqorro gains Victarion’s trust when he heals Victarion’s festering hand wound, which neither Victarion’s lover nor the maester on the ship have been able to heal. Moqorro accurately predicts clear weather ahead. The crew members distrust and despise Moqorro for his faith and his dark skin, however. Moqorro prophesies that Daenerys is already married, but this prophecy doesn’t faze Victarion.
Chapter 57 Summary: “Tyrion”
The Yunkish enslaver of Tyrion, Penny, and Mormont is almost dead of the bloody flux. To save himself and his companions, Tyrion helps them run away to the Second Sons by pretending to fetch water for their enslaver; people ignore them because enslaved people and servants are invisible to them. Tyrion deals with Ben Plumm, whom he convinces to take them to Daenerys or Westeros in exchange for claiming the bounty on Tyrion’s head. Plumm’s Second Sons are fighting on the side of Yunkai.
Chapter 58 Summary: “Jon”
Jon brings over 3,000 wildings through the Wall and takes 99 child hostages to ensure their good behavior. The men of the Night’s Watch are furious, and discontent with his leadership grows because wildlings and the Night’s Watch have long been enemies. Jon receives bad news from Hardhome: There are undead in the woods and water, and they are killing the free folk he hopes to rescue.
Chapter 59 Summary: “The Discarded Knight”
The peace in Meereen begins to crumble without Daenerys ruling beside Hizdahr. The Yunkai kill one of the Meereenese hostages as retaliation for their hostage that died during the stampede at the fighting pits. Their envoy delivers the news in a way calculated to cause offense to Hizdahr. Since Daenerys is apparently dead, the Yunkai also demand that Hizdahr kill the two remaining dragons, knowing that the request alone is likely to lead to a resumption of the war. Selmy is at court as a protector, one of the few allowed to wear a blade in Hizdahr’s presence. Selmy is surprised to see Quentyn at court. He believes the Martells miscalculated in sending the stolid, average-looking prince. Like any young woman, Daenerys wanted “fire, and Dorne sent her mud” (914). Selmy warns Quentyn and his companions to leave the court and go home. He suspects that it is just a matter of time before Hizdahr takes it into his head to blame the Dornish, known for using poison to assassinate troublesome political allies, for the poisoned locusts.
Chapter 60 Summary: “The Spurned Suitor”
Instead of going home as advised, Quentyn dickers with the Tattered Prince (head of the Windblown) for help in stealing Daenerys’s dragons before the Yunkai force Hizdahr to kill them. The Tattered Prince agrees to help, but he wants the Free City of Pentos in payment. Quentyn is out of his depth and likely to die at the hands of the ruthless Tattered Prince if he doesn’t deliver Pentos, but he agrees anyway.
Chapters 55-60 Analysis
In this action-packed section, Martin spends some time pulling together plot lines from previous volumes. He also gives the reader the chance to see the cost of Revenge and Betrayal in earlier volumes playing out. Martin re-introduces Victarion, who is on his way to claim Daenerys for himself. After having lost the election to become king in the Iron Islands in a previous volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, Victarion is out for revenge. Marrying Daenerys represents for him the possibility of finally outdoing his brother Euron. Victarion is an unreliable narrator who glosses over his own betrayals of others. Taking Daenerys for himself will be a betrayal of the deal he made with his brother, and he already abandoned Asha and the others at Moat Cailin in pursuit of his own power. The series of double-crosses in the Greyjoy family is more evidence of how the desire for power can even shred foundational relationships like those that exist within families.
Hizdahr’s life after Daenerys flies away on Drogon’s back is a study of what happens when a weak leader achieves power through betrayal. Hizdahr was a means to an end for the masters—getting rid of Targaryen power and dragons in the Free Cities because they upset the balance of power. This end becomes obvious when the Yunkai demand that Hizdahr kill the remaining two dragons. Because Hizdahr is an ineffective strategist, he considers complying with their wishes, not realizing that the threat of Daenerys returning and unleashing her dragons is the only thing keeping his coalition together. When even loyal, conservative Barristan Selmy is willing to conspire to remove him, Hizdahr’s failure to lead becomes obvious.
What looks like betrayal from one perspective may be loyalty from another. Barristan emerges from his role as Queensguard to become a conspirator. Barristan experiences internal conflict over what is right and what is wrong in his role as Queensguard. His old compass was rooted in the idealized tradition of the Kingsguard and his oath of loyalty to the rulers he served. The White Book, which serves as the history of the Kingsguard, provides a realistic primer on the ways a Kingsguard can fulfill the role. Barristan Selmy has always believed that the “worst [Kingsguard] were those who played the game of thrones” (855), but here he is playing the game. Even though Daenerys may be dead, Barristan believes loyalty to her requires betraying the trust Hizdahr continues to put in him, given that Selmy is allowed to carry a sword in the king’s presence. Like many before him, he rationalizes moving against the current king because that king gained power through betrayal.
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