A Game of Thrones: Chapter 27: Eddard Summary & Analysis

The tournament has led countless people to stream into King’s Landing, which has led to an uptick in crime. This frustrates Ned even more. Though the tournament is supposed to be in his honor, he wants nothing to do with it, and it keeps leading to more and more headaches. Ned promises 20 of his men to help patrol the city. He then goes to talk to Jory, the captain of the Stark guards. Jory has been looking into the leads that Littlefinger gave to Ned regarding Jon Arryn’s death.

Based on what Jory has found out, Ned goes to visit an armorer in King’s Landing. The armorer boasts of his skill and the knights whose armor he supplies, but Ned says he wants to know about a visit that Jon Arryn paid to the armorer months ago. The armorer answers reluctantly. He says that Jon Arryn wanted to see “the boy.” Ned isn’t sure what that means, but he says he wants to see the boy, too. The armorer takes Ned to the workshop and calls over to a boy named Gendry. The boy is the spitting image of King Robert, and Ned thinks that he must be Robert’s child born out of wedlock. But Ned doesn’t know why Jon Arryn would have been interested in the boy.