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Chapter 20: Eddard
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Game of Thrones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics and Power
Climate Change and Collective Action
Gender and Power
Honor and Integrity
Identity
Summary
Analysis
Tyrion eats dinner with officers of the Night’s Watch and confirms that he plans to leave the next day. Commander Mormont says that two or three members of the Night’s Watch will escort him as far as Winterfell. Tyrion thanks the men for their hospitality, and Mormont says Tyrion can repay them by talking to his sister, brother, and father about the needs of the Night’s Watch. The number of people on the Watch has dwindled, while more people continue to go missing, including Ben Stark. Mormont sent Ben to find Waymar Royce when Royce didn’t return from beyond the Wall. Now, Ben has gone missing too.
Commander Mormont directly links the lack of recruits in the Night’s Watch to the recent spate of Night’s Watchmen going missing. Mormont’s description of the issue is perhaps more apt than he knows. The necessity of more men on the Night’s Watch is especially dire because the Others (who are causing men on the Night’s Watch to disappear) are on the rise. People in power, like the Lannisters, can meet the need for collective action by helping to send more people to the Night’s Watch, though it’s not clear if they will make any attempt to do so.
Themes
After dinner, Tyrion decides to go to the top of the Wall to look out from it one last time. At the top of the Wall, he finds Jon Snow, who is on the night guard. Tyrion says he’ll be going to Winterfell and asks if Jon would like him to pass any messages on to his siblings. Jon says that Tyrion has shared words that have helped him, and he asks Tyrion to do the same for Bran. Tyrion says he’s not sure what good he will do, but he agrees to try and find some way to help Bran. Jon then says that if his uncle Ben doesn’t return, he’ll go with his direwolf Ghost to try and find him.
Away from the Wall, the Starks suspect that Tyrion conspired to kill Bran. At the Wall, Jon asks Tyrion to help Bran if he can, showing how much Jon has come to trust Bran. This section implicitly asks which version of Tyrion is accurate. Is he guilty of conspiring to kill Bran, or is he worthy of the trust that Jon places in him? With that in mind, Tyrion’s assent to Jon’s request to help Bran reinforces the question by suggesting that he (Tyrion) is either callously duplicitous or has genuinely good intentions.
Themes
