The island is ruled over by House Tarth and the Lord is known as The Evenstar. Which has always been a title that has grabbed my attention. Even though Selwyn is never seen on page and he seems unimportant and Brienne is a support character that title is portentous. It feels mysterious and significant.
We learn through The World of Ice and Fire that the title goes back to the Dawn of Days. Yet we are told they are a house of Andal ancestry? That's a bit peculiar. It is a theme which pops up again when looking at the Islands other Noble house Morne. House Tarth were once Kings, residing over the island from Evenfall Hall, but the Storm King Durran "The Fair" Durrandon waged war against them and took the island into the Stormlands marrying Edwyn Evenstar's daughter to seal the peace. This sounds like a House of First Men blood not Andal heritage.
The content of this post came about when I was looking into the sword Nightfall. I thought it was perhaps the sword of House Tarth lost and claimed by the Iron Born in much the same way as they hold Red Rain. Which is clearly very likely to be the sword of House Reyne.
Dalton Greyjoy is said to have claimed the sword from a dead Corsair in the stepstones when he was 15. Which would be in the year 128 AC. This doesn't rule it out as the Tarths sword, as the stepstones are very close to Tarth and Corsairs can as easily attack Tarth and take a sword won in battle as Dalton can claim it from a Corsair in the Stepstones. The name of the sword and that Moonstone in it's hilt just scream Tarth. However we are told Dalton named the sword. So I've had to accept this theory might not be solid. He could say he named it or perhaps the Corsair told him its name. But we're getting into very sketchy stretchy territory there.
However what this theory did do was lead me to consider the duality of Tarth and a whole lot of symbolism that ties them to House Dayne.
Evenfall Hall seat of house Tarth lies upon the westward side of the Saphire Isle. And the Lord of House Tarth is known as The Evenstar. The East side of the island used to be the home of a House called Morne. Who claim a legendary perfect Knight Galladon of Morne, who wielded a sword of great renown The Just Maid. This figure ties into Arthurian legends of perfect knights such as Galahad. Which ties to Arthur Dayne; who is also a perfect Knight figure, and the legendary sword Dawn. Which of course also ties to Brienne herself who is a perfect Knight figure too.
Brienne ties into the perfect knight mythos as she like Galahad is seeking to be the embodiment of chivalric ideals. And is on a quest which symbolises those ideals: the rescuing of maidens; just as the attainment of the Holy Grail symbolises reaching perfection in the Arthurian myths.
"Every place has its local heroes. Where I come from, the singers sing of Ser Galladon of Morne, the Perfect Knight."
When she receives Oathkeeper she thinks of him and deems herself unworthy though we know she is. She also receives along with the sword her quest to find the Stark girls.
" Brienne's breath caught in her throat. Black and red the ripples ran, deep within the steel. Valyrian steel, spell-forged. It was a sword fit for a hero. When she was small, her nurse had filled her ears with tales of valor, regaling her with the noble exploits of Ser Galladon of Morne, Florian the Fool, Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, and other champions. Each man bore a famous sword, and surely Oathkeeper belonged in their company, even if she herself did not."
Day(ne) and Morn(e) of course both essentially mean the same thing and Dawn again is a word for the beginning of the day, which is observed from the east; where the ruins of Morne's castle lie. Where as nightfall or Evenfall is observed from the west. Where Evenfall Hall sits.
Which brings us back to the Tarths title of Evenstar, Venus is known as the Evenstar and it is both the first star seen at night and is seen in the morning just prior to the dawn. So is also called the Morning Star. It has a duality; it is both Morning Star and Evening Star. House Tarths coat of arms are the sun and moon quartered so perhaps they are now both? Since Morne no longer exist on Tarth? More about that later.
This all hints towards them as a house holding some special office which sounds suspiciously like it could be related to the Long Night. The story of Galladon of Morne is recounted as that of an Andal knight and involves the Maid of the Seven gifting the sword to Galladon. But what if that is just a bastardisation of an older tale? Whenever the Maesters insist on something in the world book it can be pretty much guaranteed they are wrong. It is a running theme in the book.
"The Sapphire Isle, as some call it, is ruled by House Tarth of Evenfall Hall—an old family of Andal descent that boasts of ties to the Durrandons, the Baratheons, and more recently to House Targaryen. Once kings in their own right, the Lords of Tarth still style themselves "the Evenstar," a title that they claim goes back unto the dawn of days.
Many of the folk of Tarth, highborn and low alike, claim descent from a legendary hero, Ser Galladon of Morne, who was said to wield a sword called the Just Maid given to him by the Seven themselves. Given the role that the Just Maid plays in Ser Galladon's tale, Maester Hubert, in his Kin of the Stag, has suggested that Galladon of Morne was no rude warrior of the Age of Heroes turned into a knight by singers a thousand years later, but an actual historic figure of more recent times. Hubert also notes that Morne was a royal seat of petty kings on the eastern coast of Tarth until the Storm Kings made them submit, but that its ruins indicate that the site was made by Andals, not First Men."
Another curiosity is that Maesters claim the ruins at Morne are Andal in origin yet history records Tarth as falling to Durran Durrandon and there after being under the Kingship of the Stormlands, revolting thrice before the Andal invasion. So we have a hero who is said to be from the Age of Heroes turned into a knight by singers and a castle which is said to be Andal yet belonged to petty Kings at a time before they even came to Westeros?. All tied together with Houses who seem to embody both sunrise & sunset who definitely pre-date the Andals but who the Maesters refer to as Andal? Most peculiar. There is much and more in the histories of ASOIAF which the Maesters are seemingly ill-informed or deliberately misleading about.
We then separately have another house who also carry a famous "invincible" sword whose name correlates with morning & sunrise. One of the things I looked at whilst I was investigating Nightfall was that Moonstone Pommel, and I theorised that any corresponding sword held by House Morne would have a Sun Stone in it's pommel. This was prior to me daring to propose that there may be a connection between Morne & Dayne.
I was struck by the idea that these "proto" Valyrians of Westeros may have found their way there much earlier than the Targaryens. And that a sun stone might have been what led them there; I was thinking about the theory that Vikings sailed to the Americas using a sun stone for navigation. House Dayne being the House most often proposed as this proto valyrian family; given their tendency towards purple eyes. So when I looked at references to Dawn and The Sword of the Morning in the books I was interested in this quote from Jon.
"The Sword of the Morning still hung in the south, the bright white star in its hilt blazing like a diamond in the dawn,"
Which does imply that there may be a diamond like stone in Dawns hilt. Sun stones come in a clear diamond like colouring or in a red colouring. The ones used by the Vikings are proposed to be the clear ones. So if these proto Valyrians travelled to Westeros using a sun-stone they might well mount it in the hilt of their amazingly effective Sword, a sword which is named for the break of day, the return of the sun, the end of the Long Night maybe even.
If Morne & Dayne & Tarth all came to Westeros from the Great Empire of the Dawn. And are in some way interconnected perhaps even being the same family essentially then this is an interesting idea indeed. All three are associated with the cycle of night & day and perfect knights. This association lends itself very well to the legend of the Long Night and the Battle for the Dawn. Additionally they all have or do live on islands. Which may itself be significant in terms of the Long Night. Due to defensibility. I guess that all depends upon the nature of those dead things in the water Cotter Pyke reports at the end of A Dance With Dragons.
Though it is worth noting that House Hightowers; another house some believe to be of possible proto-Valyrian type origin, seat is built upon an island too. Atop a defensive fortress built from that very same Oily Black Stone which crops up in the most magical of places. A fortress which seems to pre-date much of Westerosi history on an island known as Battle Isle. Though no one remembers why?
And whose house words might pertain to the Long Night rather than the seemingly obvious: a guide for ships entering the harbour of Old Town. We even have stories of Dragons roosting there in a time before Targaryens came to Westeros and being ousted by the early Hightowers.
Most telling of all, Septon Barth; whose word is basically law, claims the Valyrian priests prophesiesed the Doom of Man would come from the land beyond the narrow sea. This little gem of information is included in the segment of the world book pertaining to the fortress.
This seems to me to allude to the Prince that was Promised Prophesy/Azor Ahai Reborn.
Which itself likely pertains to the original Long Night and the Bloodstone Emperor of the Great Empire of the Dawn doing some seriously fucked up shit. As argued very convincingly by Lucifer Means Lightbringer.
Maybe a group of people left the lands of the Bloodstone Emperor and travelled to where the meteor impacted in Westeros, battled the Long Night then remained there to guard from its return. Then after the empires collapse other people from there settled in Valyria that would explain this prophesy Barth speaks of. That the Doom of Man would come from Westeros. Because those now Valyrians would know their ancestors set out to save the world from the Long Night which originated in Westeros and may one day return from there too.
This all works rather well for there being a few key houses in Westeros whose job it is to make sure the Long Night never returns. Watching for each sunrise, keeping watch over each evening, passing along the crucial sword to the one most able/worthy to wield it. Should the need arise. And lighting the way to what must be done. Remembering how to do it. Warning that Winter is Coming ie: the threat is always there when winter comes so might the Others.
I think these few people from the Great Empire might have worked alongside the First Men. With the Children eventually helping too; The Last Hero is clearly another telling of the same tale. To beat back the Long Night and contain the Others behind the wall.
But Back to Tarth!
The head of house Morne perhaps might have been titled The Morning Star which isn't far from the Sword of the Morning when you consider the sword is supposed to be made from a star, you could flip the words to get Star of the morning or Morning Sword. Who simply became Dayne through translation once the common tongue took over from the Old Tongue? If members of House Morne removed themselves from Tarth upon the islands fall to the Durrandons & took the very important legendary sword with them settling in Dorne. Then the House could be seen as extinct on the island leading to the next idea in this theory.....
Brienne claims blood ties with the famous Galladon of Morne and her elder brother who died is named for him. Given their coat of arms is the sun and moon quartered and how quartering usually signifies a marriage to an heiress ie: last member of a noble family who is female; after her death her son takes her arms and may display his coat of arms as his deceased mothers and his fathers quartered. Which is exactly what we see with Brienne's coat of arms. A sun and moon quartered. One presumes the moon must come from her Tarth ancestry as their entire house is associated with the evening/nightfall. And that the sun was adopted into their arms when a daughter of the Morne's was married into their house and was the heiress, thus gifted her arms to her son. Who will of course have become the head of House Tarth and thus this is how they came to bear both the sun & the moon.
We see this in A Feast For Crows when Lancel Lannister marries Amerei Frey, who is the heiress to House Darry. After the last of the male line is killed, she as the eldest child of Mariya Darry inherits. Lancel now lord of Darry takes his wife's arms and quarters them with that of his own.
Starfall is said to be built where that star landed but if this were the case there would be a crater on the island surely and building a castle in a crater might be difficult & defensibly is a bad idea. Not to mention that a meteor landing on such a small island as that which Starfall is built upon would probably destroy it.
However Dawn is real and really is made from some mysterious material which is pale as milk glass and is said to have come from a fallen Star. This Star/Meteor may have something to do with the second moon; which as I've said I think the oily black stone is the remnants of and which holds immense magical power.
Maybe the heart of the falling star that became Dawn was the heart of that moon? The Oily Black stone is considered in some corners of the fandom to be a possible source of the magic in world, it is certainly to be found at important geographical points and en masse in Asshai a city state renowned for the strength of magic in it's vicinity.
If it is indeed the fragmented second moon then Dawn being formed from its heart - a metal which is imbued with the same magical capacity as the black stone then this once again becomes embroiled with the idea of Dayne/Morne/Tarth as guardians standing watch over the night and day cycle. Keeping the magic sword which played a pivotal part in beating back the Long Night safe, handing it not to the eldest male of the House but to the one most worthy and skilled to use it.
In conclusion I think that the Tarths/Mornes travelled from the Great Empire of the Dawn to Westeros using their Sun-stone following the trajectory of the Star/Meteor. That they found the metal that became Dawn there and built their castle in Westeros. Not specifically on that exact spot that the star fell on as we are told; all the myths of early Westerosi life are bastardised and misleading in so many ways so why should this one from House Dayne be any different? But on the land mass where it fell & the metal heart of that meteor was found. And that they fought in the Long Night alongside the first men of Westeros and hold an important office as do other families which will be essential in the upcoming battle against the Others.
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