Hello! I've been a silent follower of your wonderful blogs for ages, and I've wanted to ask this question for some time. Is the storyline about King Baelor I Targaryen in Dorne feasible? My question is about Aemon the Dragonknight carrying the King across half of Dorne while he himself was probably needing time to recover from his own experiences in Dorne. How is that even possible? I know it's a minor thing, but I'm trying to write a story about Aemon and Naerys, and I want to be accurate.
Thanks so much! And is the story of Baelor the Blessed in Dorne feasible? I mean, yes, the story is feasible because it did happen. (It’s fiction, remember.) Or at least the version as detailed in TWOIAF most likely happened – the version that relates that Baelor was bitten by the vipers around Aemon’s cage in Wyl, not the one that singers and septons tell about how his holiness protected him from being bitten.
For clarification, though, Aemon did not carry Baelor across half of Dorne, that would be extremely unfeasible! What TWOIAF says is that after they left Wyl, Aemon carried the unconscious Baelor “halfway down the Boneway” until he reached a mountain village where he was given clothing and a donkey. Aemon led the donkey carrying Baelor to the Dondarrion watchtowers; the Dondarrion men then conducted them to Blackhaven, where they recovered under a maester’s care until they were sent to Storm’s End for further treatment. They stayed at Storm’s End for more than 6 months before Baelor was well enough to return to King’s Landing.
So, some maps, for further clarification. Baelor’s original journey to Sunspear, on foot:
And then the detail of the return from Wyl:
Note the end point of Aemon carrying Baelor (in red) is my estimate, guessing what “halfway down the Boneway” means and where the mountain village might be. But it could be that if the Wyl river is the border of Dorne and the Stormlands, then “halfway down the Boneway” might mean, “half the distance to the border along the Boneway path”, so it might have been a shorter journey than that, even. Maybe no more than 20 miles or so (per scale) to where the mountain ridge is by Wyl. I hope that helps!
