Gyldayn

Archmaester Gyldayn
Gyldayn, by Douglas Wheatley in Fire & Blood
Title	Archmaester
Allegiance	The Citadel
Culture	Westeros
Books	The World of Ice & Fire (mentioned) Fire & Blood (mentioned) The Rogue Prince (mentioned) The Princess and the Queen (mentioned)

Gyldayn was an archmaester of the Citadel known for his works about the history of House Targaryen.

History

Gyldayn began writing Fire & Blood, Being a History of the Targaryen Kings of Westeros, which includes The Sons of the Dragon, about Kings Aenys I and Maegor I Targaryen; The Rogue Prince, about Prince Daemon Targaryen; The Princess and the Queen, a history of the civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons; and other sections.

Currently only the first volume of Gyldayn's Fire & Blood is known to have been completed. Gyldayn shared his uncompleted work with Archmaester Perestan, however, and he permitted Maester Yandel to use fragments of his work in The World of Ice and Fire.

According to a semi-canon source, Gyldayn lived into the reign of King Robert I Baratheon.

Quotes

Who can know the heart of a dragon?

—Gyldayn writing about Tessarion

Behind the Scenes

In the real-world book The World of Ice & Fire, anything attributed to Gyldayn was directly written by George R.R. Martin, in the same way that Yandel's words were written by Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson.

In the original text of The World of Ice & Fire, Gyldayn was the last maester to serve at Summerhall before it burned down. He sent his papers to Archmaester Gerold at the Citadel, likely for his commentary and approval, where they remained until they were recently discovered by Maester Yandel. Yandel has used Gyldayn's work as a major source for his book The World of Ice & Fire, including a complete history of Aegon's Conquest. Yandel discovered other manuscripts by Gyldayn, but many pages were misplaced or destroyed, and still others were damaged by neglect and by fire. Still, Yandel hoped that more pages will be found one day, and Gyldayn's lost masterwork would be published, as the maesters of the Citadel were greatly excited by what has been discovered so far.

However, Martin later decided to let Gyldayn live into Robert I Baratheon's reign, so his history book, Fire & Blood, Being a History of the Targaryen Kings of Westeros, could cover the entire Targaryen dynasty. Hence in latest prints, Gyldayn shared his uncompleted work with Archmaester Perestan, who then informed Yandel. Gyldayn permitted the use of passages from his work in Yandel's book. Moreover, Gyldayn is no longer the last maester to serve at Summerhall, as he was replaced by Maester Corso.