Wyl of Wyl

Wyl of Wyl, known as the Widow-lover, was a Dornish mountain lord whose capture of Orys Baratheon and later attack on a wedding made him one of the most notorious figures in the fighting between Dorne and the Iron Throne. His story is marked by retaliation: Orys escaped Wyl’s captivity without his sword hand, then years later took revenge on Wyl’s son.

Lord of the Mountains and Captor of Orys

During King Aegon I Targaryen’s invasion of Dorne, Orys Baratheon led an assault through the Boneway. The Stormlanders were caught in a carefully prepared ambush: defenders attacked from above, archers fired as the column crossed a bridge over the river Wyl, and a rockfall blocked the retreat. Orys and a dozen other lords were spared and taken captive by Wyl, who was described as a savage mountain lord.

In 7 AC, Wyl returned his captives to King’s Landing after receiving their ransom in gold. Before releasing them, however, he had each man’s sword hand cut off, ensuring they could no longer fight with swords. Orys’s loss became the defining mark of his later career; he was thereafter known as Orys One-Hand.

The Wedding Attack

In 12 AC, Wyl arrived uninvited at the wedding of Ser Jon Cafferen, heir to Fawnton, and Alys Oakheart, daughter of the Lord of Old Oak. A servant admitted Wyl’s attackers through a postern gate. They killed Lord Oakheart and most of the guests, then assaulted the bride and her handmaids and carried them away to be sold to a Myrish slaver. The attack extended Wyl’s violence beyond the battlefield, turning a wedding into one of the most infamous atrocities of the war.

Retaliation Against His Family

The conflict carried into the next generation. During the Vulture King’s rebellion, Orys rode from Storm’s End to defeat the Dornish force besieging Stonehelm. Walter Wyl, the Widow-lover’s son, was captured wounded but alive. Orys retaliated for his own lost hand by mutilating Walter, taking his sword hand as well as his other hand and both feet.

Orys himself died on the march back to Storm’s End from wounds received in the battle. His son Davos later said that Orys died content, looking at the severed limbs displayed in his tent. The account closes the cycle of revenge between the two houses with Orys’s death, but offers no report of Wyl’s own fate.