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“ | Why be a lord when you can be a King? | „ |
~ Hugh Hammer |
Lord Hugh Hammer (born simply as Hugh), also known as Hugh the Hammer and Hard Hugh, is a supporting character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series.
He is a blacksmith's bastard who claims Targaryen descent. During the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, he became one of the many dragon seeds who sided with the Blacks, supporters of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. However, he later betrayed her during the First Battle of Tumbleton as he sought to be king. His dragon mount was Vermithor.
In the second season of the television adaptation House of the Dragon, Hugh Hammer will be portrayed by Kieran Bew.
Appearance[]
He was a very tall and huge man who was so powerful that he could twist steel bars with his bare hands.
Personality[]
Hugh Hammer was a very loathsome, manipulative, power-hungry, and traitorous fallen knight, with the egotistical intention of reigning over Tumbleton alongside Ulf. He was also a sadistic man who enjoyed not only burning innocent people alive and destroying their homes, but killing unarmed men and raping women as well. He was also fond of brutal and harsh punishments, having nailed three horseshoes to Ser Roger Corne's skull because the latter disrespected him. In fact, he was so evil that a secret conspiracy between the two sides was formed for the sole purpose of eliminating him and Ulf during the war.
Biography[]
During the Dance of the Dragons, as there are many riderless dragons on Dragonstone, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon, Rhaenyra's eldest son, promised lands, knighthood, and wealth to anyone who could master a dragon, which was a way to bring more Dragonriders to his mother's cause. This event will be remembered in history as the Sowing of the Seeds. In response to Jacaerys' offer, a score of people from Dragonstone, alongside sailors, scullions, mummers, squires, and men-at-arms, came forward, with Hugh Hammer among them. Vermithor, the dragon of the late King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, Rhaenyra's great-grandfather, accepted Hugh as his rider, making him a dragonseed.
Hugh fought at the Battle of the Gullet alongside Prince Jacaerys and other dragonseeds against the Triarchy, who support the Greens, the supporters of King Aegon II Targaryen. In the aftermath of the battle, which resulted in Jacaerys' death, Hugh and another dragonseed, Ulf White, made themselves drunk in a tavern beneath Dragonstone. There, the former drunkenly declared that they were knights, causing Ulf to amusingly insist that they should be lords instead.
Later, after Rhaenyra captured King's Landing and seized the iron throne, both Hugh and Ulf were made knights and were given small holdings on Driftmark. According to a tale by court fool Mushroom, Hugh celebrated by beating one of Rhaenyra's household knights in a brothel after they got into a quarrel over the maidenhood of a young virgin.
He and Ulf White were sent on their dragons by Queen Rhaenyra to defend the market town of Tumbleton from Ormund Hightower's host. However, during the First Battle of Tumbleton, the two dragonseeds, after the Hightower host was defeated, proceeded to betray the Blacks by setting Tumbleton ablaze, scorching the town from end to end, and killing those caught up in the conflagration. The sack of Tumbleton soon followed after landed knight Ser Roger Corne and his men opened the town's gates to the Greens. For their betrayal, Hugh Hammer and Ulf White infamously became known as the Two Betrayers. It was believed that the treachery of the two dragonseeds was out of avarice, as they both resent the lands that Rhaenyra gave them and that Hugh and Ulf, who have a lust for power and wealth, desired to become lords.
Because of their actions, this made Rhaenyra paranoid, and she came to distrust all the dragonseeds. This was mirrored by her small council, who were also angered by the sack of Tumbleton, and they began questioning the dragonseeds' loyalty. As an insult to injury, the smallfolk became consumed with fear that the army of House Hightower would soon attack King's Landing, causing many to try and flee from the capital only for the Gold Cloaks to bar the gates. Eventually, King's Landing was overcome with terror and paranoia until they eventually rose in riot, which was instigated by The Shepherd, who would use the smallfolk's fear to his advantage to launch the Storming of the Dragonpit, which resulted in the killing of all the dragons inside.
Rhaenyra's half-brother Aegon II was missing; his children were infants; his next brother, Aemond, had died in battle with Daemon Targaryen; and the youngest brother, Prince Daeron the Daring, was still a young man. Hugh said he should be King, his right being a dragon. Prince Daeron threw wine in his face, and Hugh threatened to beat the boy. When Hugh appeared with a crown of black iron, Ser Roger Corne knocked it off, and Hugh nailed three horseshoes to his skull. The ensuing fight between Hugh's and Roger's supporters led to three deaths and twelve wounded. This caused several Green Commanders, known as the Caltrops, to conspire to kill the Two Betrayers, which Prince Daeron Targaryen allowed.
Death[]
When Addam Velaryon launched the Second Battle of Tumbleton at night, taking the Greens by surprise, one of the Caltrops, Ser Jon Roxton, spied on Hugh Hammer before seizing the opportunity to kill him. Approaching Hugh, Ser Roxton offered the Dragonseed his condolences, and when demanded on this, Jon responded by saying that "he died in battle." Unsheathing Orphan-Maker, the Valyrian steel longsword of House Roxton, Ser Jon immediately betrayed Hugh Hammer by stabbing him in the belly before opening him up from the groin to the throat. Immediately, a dozen men loyal to Hugh arrived in time to see their leader as he died. In retaliation, they immediately killed Jon Roxton, who managed to slay three of the men. It was said that just before Jon died, he slipped on a coil of Hugh's own entrails, though this is believed to be too ironic to be confirmed.
External Link[]
- Hugh Hammer on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire.