Tywin Lannister's Attempts to Purchase Valyrian Steel (Spoilers Extended)
Thrice at least Lord Tywin had offered to buy Valyrian longswords from impoverished lesser houses, but his advances had always been firmly rebuffed. The little lordlings would gladly part with their daughters should a Lannister come asking, but they cherished their old family swords. -ASOS, Tyrion IV
From the limited information available, I would like to theorize that its possible that the Valyrian swords that Tywin attempted to purchase were from: House Drumm, House Corbray and House Mormont.
It is well known that the Lannister's previously had a Valyrian Sword named Brightroar:
At long last, Father? Valyrian steel blades were scarce and costly, yet thousands remained in the world, perhaps two hundred in the Seven Kingdoms alone. It had always irked his father that none belonged to House Lannister. The old Kings of the Rock had owned such a weapon, but the greatsword Brightroar had been lost when the second King Tommen carried it back to Valyria on his fool's quest. He had never returned; nor had Uncle Gery, the youngest and most reckless of his father's brothers, who had gone seeking after the lost sword some eight years past. -ASOS, Tyrion IV
but they only had one for about a century:
The sword Brightroar came into the possession of the Lannister kings in the century before the Doom, and it is said that the weight of gold they paid for it would have been enough to raise an army. But it was lost little more than a century later, when Tommen II carried it with him when he sailed with his great fleet to ruined Valyria, with the intention of plundering the wealth and sorcery he was sure still remained. The fleet never returned, nor Tommen, nor Brightroar. -TWOIAF, The Westerlands
But Tywin considered attempts to find it a "fool's quest":
"I know some sailors say that any man who lays eyes upon that coast is doomed." He did not believe such tales himself, no more than his uncle had. Gerion Lannister had set sail for Valyria when Tyrion was eighteen, intent on recovering the lost ancestral blade of House Lannister and any other treasures that might have survived the Doom. Tyrion had wanted desperately to go with them, but his lord father had dubbed the voyage a "fool's quest," and forbidden him to take part.
And perhaps he was not so wrong. Almost a decade had passed since the Laughing Lion headed out from Lannisport, and Gerion had never returned. The men Lord Tywin sent to seek after him had traced his course as far as Volantis, where half his crew had deserted him and he had bought slaves to replace them. No free man would willingly sign aboard a ship whose captain spoke openly of his intent to sail into the Smoking Sea. "So those are fires of the Fourteen Flames we're seeing, reflected on the clouds?" -ADWD, Tyrion VIII
There have been numerous posts about the fallacy between the number of Valyrian swords available in Westeros and Tywin's inability to purchase one and the whole dagger situation:
Valyrian steel blades were scarce and costly, yet thousands remained in the world, perhaps two hundred in the Seven Kingdoms alone. -ASOS, Tyrion IV
and then GRRM doubled down on it:
The Valyrian steel blades that remain in the world might number in the thousands, but in the Seven Kingdoms there are only 227 such weapons according to Archmaester Thurgood's Inventories, some of which have since been lost or have disappeared from the annals of history.-TWOIAF, Ancient History: Valyria's Children
Which also means there are a ton of blades we don't know about since we have received names for about 20 blades in total so far.
That said, the quote:
Thrice at least Lord Tywin had offered to buy Valyrian longswords from impoverished lesser houses -ASOS, Tyrion IV
means that Tywin attempted to buy these swords at some point during his lifetime and limits us to very few available blades and several of them are not impoverished lesser houses:
-
Ice (House Stark)
-
Heartsbane (House Tarly)
-
Unnamed Valyrian Steel Axe (House Celtigar)
-
Nightfall (House Harlaw)
#Red Rain (House Drumm)
House Drumm was rich/powerful long ago:
It was a good beginning. Aeron heard shouts of approval, but they dwindled as the old man began to tell of the glory of the Drumms. He spoke of Dale the Dread, Roryn the Reaver, the hundred sons of Gormond Drumm the Oldfather. He drew Red Rain and told them how Hilmar Drumm the Cunning had taken the blade from an armored knight with wits and a wooden cudgel. He spoke of ships long lost and battles eight hundred years forgotten, and the crowd grew restive. He spoke and spoke, and then he spoke still more. -AFFC, The Drowned Man
and even kings at some point:
Many years later, when Urras Ironfoot died of wounds sustained whilst reaving, his eldest son seized his crown and proclaimed himself King Erich I. Though half-blind and feeble with age by that time, Galon nonetheless arose in fury at these tidings, declaring that only the kingsmoot could make a king. The "captains and the kings" assembled once more on Old Wyk and Erich the Ugly was unmade and condemned to death, a fate he avoided by breaking up his father's crown and casting it into the sea as a sign of his submission to the Drowned God. In his place the kingsmoot raised up Regnar Drumm, called Raven-feeder, the rock king of Old Wyk. -TWOIAF, The Iron Islands: Driftwood Crowns
But at the Kingsmoot it shows the current wealth of House Drumm:
And when Drumm's chests were thrown open, the captains saw the niggard's gifts he'd brought them. No throne was ever bought with bronze, the Damphair thought. The truth of that was plain to hear, as the cries of "Drumm! Drumm! Dunstan King!" died away. -AFFC, The Drowned Man
#Lady Forlorn (House Corbray)
Lady Forlorn belongs to Lyn not his brother Lord Lyonel
"Lord Lyonel Corbray is well disposed toward my rule," said Petyr, "but his brother goes his own way. On the Trident, when their father fell wounded, it was Lyn who snatched up Lady Forlorn and slew the man who'd cut him down. Whilst Lyonel was carrying the old man back to the maesters in the rear, Lyn led his charge against the Dornishmen threatening Robert's left, broke their lines to pieces, and slew Lewyn Martell. So when old Lord Corbray died, he bestowed the Lady upon his younger son. Lyonel got his lands, his title, his castle, and all his coin, yet still feels he was cheated of his birthright, whilst Ser Lyn . . . well, he loves Lyonel as much as he loves me. He wanted Lysa's hand for himself." -AFFC, Alayne I
And while Lyn is always short on coin, he still owns Lady Forlorn:
Littlefinger laughed aloud. "With gold and boys and promises, of course. Ser Lyn is a man of simple tastes, my sweetling. All he likes is gold and boys and killing." -AFFC, Alayne I
and:
"He might, for a plump bag of gold." Ser Lyn Corbray was forever desperately short of coin, all the Vale knew that. -TWOW, Alayne I
#Longclaw (House Mormont)
Jorah impoverished his House for Lynesse Hightower:
"Would that I might forget him," Ned said bluntly. The Mormonts of Bear Island were an old house, proud and honorable, but their lands were cold and distant and poor. Ser Jorah had tried to swell the family coffers by selling some poachers to a Tyroshi slaver. As the Mormonts were bannermen to the Starks, his crime had dishonored the north. Ned had made the long journey west to Bear Island, only to find when he arrived that Jorah had taken ship beyond the reach of Ice and the king's justice. Five years had passed since then. -AGOT, Eddard II
and:
"I lived for her smiles, so I sent all the way to Oldtown for a new cook, and brought a harper from Lannisport. Goldsmiths, jewelers, dressmakers, whatever she wanted I found for her, but it was never enough. Bear Island is rich in bears and trees, and poor in aught else. I built a fine ship for her and we sailed to Lannisport and Oldtown for festivals and fairs, and once even to Braavos, where I borrowed heavily from the moneylenders. It was as a tourney champion that I had won her hand and heart, so I entered other tourneys for her sake, but the magic was gone. I never distinguished myself again, and each defeat meant the loss of another charger and another suit of jousting armor, which must needs be ransomed or replaced. The cost could not be borne. Finally I insisted we return home, but there matters soon grew even worse than before. I could no longer pay the cook and the harper, and Lynesse grew wild when I spoke of pawning her jewels.
"The rest . . . I did things it shames me to speak of. For gold. So Lynesse might keep her jewels, her harper, and her cook. In the end it cost me all. When I heard that Eddard Stark was coming to Bear Island, I was so lost to honor that rather than stay and face his judgment, I took her with me into exile. Nothing mattered but our love, I told myself. We fled to Lys, where I sold my ship for gold to keep us." -ACOK, Daenerys I
but he didn't sell Longclaw:
"My son brought dishonor to House Mormont, but at least he had the grace to leave the sword behind when he fled. My sister returned it to my keeping, but the very sight of it reminded me of Jorah's shame, so I put it aside and thought no more of it until we found it in the ashes of my bedchamber. The original pommel was a bear's head, silver, yet so worn its features were all but indistinguishable. For you, I thought a white wolf more apt. One of our builders is a fair stonecarver." -AGOT, Jon VIII
#Bonus
Sandoq the Shadow used a "great curved sword of Valyrian steel with a dragonbone hilt".
its possible that it is the same weapon that Caggo uses:
The rest was butchery, but this time it was the Butcher King on the wrong end of the cleaver. Caggo was the one who finally cut him down, fighting through the king's protectors on his monstrous warhorse and opening Cleon the Great from shoulder to hip with one blow of his curved Valyrian arakh. Frog did not see it, but those who did claimed Cleon's copper armor rent like silk, and from within came an awful stench and a hundred wriggling grave worms. Cleon had been dead after all. The desperate Astapori had pulled him from his tomb, clapped him into armor, and tied him onto a horse in hopes of giving heart to their Unsullied. -ADWD, The Windblown
and:
"No. You die." Caggo took the man's head off with one swipe of his arakh, the Valyrian steel shearing through flesh and bone and gristle as if they were so much suet. "Too much noise," he complained. "Any man with ears will have heard." -ADWD, The Dragontamer
Especially because of how rare valyrian arakh's are:
Denzo D'han was there as well, with Caggo huge beside him. Caggo Corpsekiller the men were calling him now, though not to his face; he was quick to anger, and that curved black sword of his was as nasty as its owner. There were hundreds of Valyrian longswords in the world, but only a handful of Valyrian arakhs. Neither Caggo nor D'han was Westerosi, but both were captains and stood high in the Tattered Prince's regard. His right arm and his left. Something major is afoot. -ADWD, The Windblown
With so many (at one point ~227) Valyrian Steel swords available, it cannot even be close to being confirmed, but from the swords we know of, these seem to be the most likely so far. It also should be noted that Tyrion said "thrice at least" so its possible there are more than 3 that Tywin attempted to acquire.
TLDR: Its possible that Tywin Lannister tried to buy Valyrian Steel swords from House Drumm, House Corbray and House Mormont but was turned away
Posted Dec 28, 2019, 4:13 PM UTC · edited