The Summer Sea

"The Summer Sea" is the third short of the sixth season of Histories & Lore. It is the ninety-second short of the series overall. It was released on November 15, 2016 in Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season. It was narrated by Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy and written by Dave Hill.
==Premise==
==Narration==
Euron Greyjoy: Circling the Jade Sea is the dream of every merchant. On the other side is the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, which was ancient when the Valyrians were still fucking goats.
Even its ruins dwarf every city in Westeros and its princes are said to live in houses of solid gold and feast on meat powdered with pearls and jade.
Foolish talk! If it were true, I would have visited long ago.
But a bold merchant will risk two years for one voyage to fatten his holds with spices, gems, and silks so that he never wants for anything again. To be fair, many never do, because my ship, Silence, finds them on their return. Their merchant dreams look so pitiful poured on my decks. Not enough for any lifetime but their own.
Traders from the Summer Islands make tougher prey. Not even the Silence could run down their swan ships on the open sea.
When we take them by surprise, our rams splint and crack against their hulls, carved from rare hardwoods of the Summer Islands, and fitted together without a single nail. Worse, every swan ship carries a company of archers armed with goldenheart bows, which can hurl the shaft hard enough to pierce steel plate.
After all that trouble, we often find their holds filled only with maps, fruit, and wooden trinkets. Hardly worth our time and blood, except for their women. To worship their god, all women of the Summer Islands learn to fuck.
It's enough to make a man devout.
Ibbenese whalers are the most worthless of prizes. The men of Ib are short, thick, and hairy. So are their women. Not even tales of their six breasts can tempt men to take them. But the Ibbenese know how to build ships. Their great bellied whalers can weather any storm and withstand assaults of the largest beasts.
In battle, Ibbenese are incredibly strong and even their blood reeks of blubber and oil and their holds are rarely worth scrubbing our decks free of the stench.
When our holds were full or needed repair, we set a course for the greatest safe harbor of the Summer Sea: the Basilisk Isles, Port Plunder, Sty, Whore's Gash. No map can find these towns, nor can the laws of men.
The slavers keep their captives in caves in the Isle of Tears, pirates trade their goods on Barter Beach and hire fresh crews from the murderers filling every inn.
Great piles of old yellow skulls line the shores of one deserted island, offerings from captains who have fresh heads pinned to their masts.
Once every generation, the Free Cities send fleets to destroy the towns and hang every man they find. They do, and the towns are abandoned to rot and sink back into the slime.
But come the next year, another "Port Plunder" sprouts up somewhere else in the isles, like a toadstool from a new pile of shit.
For many years, I brought Silence to the Summer Sea. But when I close my eyes, I hear the waves breaking below the bridges of Pyke. I hear the kingsmoot chanting my brother's name.
Merchants pay the gold price, buying their desires with coin. Reavers pay the iron price, taking what we want from the corpses of the men who had it.
But for what I dream, no gold can buy and no iron can take. I must pay with fire and blood.
==Appearances==
===Individuals===
*Euron Greyjoy
*King Balon Greyjoy (mentioned)
=== Locations ===
*Jade Sea
*Yi Ti
*Ib (mentioned)
*Summer Sea
**Summer Isles (mentioned)
**Basilisk Isles
***Port Plunder
***Sty
***Whore's Gash
***Isle of Tears
***Barter Beach
***Skull Island (not mentioned by name)
*Free Cities (mentioned)
*Westeros
**Iron Islands
***Pyke
===Races===
*Valyrians (mentioned)
*Summer Islander
*Ibbenese
===Miscellaneous===
*Yi Ti
*Silence
*Swan ships
*Goldenheart
*Iron price
==Cast==
*Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy
==Behind the scenes==
*The Ibbenese aren't actually "from" the Summer Sea - though it is not uncommon to encounter them there (they wouldn't have fit very easily in another short). Their homeland, Ib, is the second largest island in the world, but located far up in the Shivering Sea, roughly north from Vaes Dothrak. Ibbenese whaling ships, however, travel vast distances for years at a time, and are a common sight in most of the ports across the Narrow Sea and Sunset Sea, including all the Free Cities and King's Landing itself; they are mentioned as a common sight as far west as Oldtown and as far east as Volantis, and even across the Summer Isles themselves (it is unclear if they are often seen as far west as Lannisport or as far east as Slaver's Bay and Qarth).
*In case it was unclear from Euron's wording, the "tales of Ibbenese women having six breasts" are just that, "tales", with no basis in reality.
*Euron says that the Summer Islanders worship "their god" by having sex. The Summer Islander religion does indeed consider sex to be a joyous, holy act, but they actually worship a pantheon of multiple gods. It's possible that Euron in the short is unfamiliar with this, or is just speaking loosely, or referring to one specific god. In their culture both men and women when they come of age spend a year serving as temple prostitutes, gaining skill in the art of lovemaking. This is considered a very honorable position and the most skilled voluntarily stay on as priests and priestesses.
*Note that the commander of the Summer Islander archers (possibly captain of their entire ship) is depicted as a woman: the Summer Islanders consider women to be equal to men, and they are frequently encountered as ship captains and warriors.
==References==
Category:Shorts narrated by Euron Greyjoy
 03
B.15C
Category:Shorts written by Dave Hill
fr:La Mer d'Été (Histoires & Traditions)
pt-br:O Mar de Verão