Ironrod

Ironrod was the name by which the smallfolk knew Jasper Wylde, master of laws on King Viserys I Targaryen’s small council. Its competing explanations turn the nickname into a contrast between public reputation and courtly mockery: Septon Eustace connected it to Wylde’s rigid legal principles, while Mushroom offered a ribald alternative.

Identity and Use

Wylde held the office of master of laws as the realm approached the events of 129 AC. The nickname was sufficiently familiar to be noted alongside his formal title and place on the council, identifying him not simply by rank but by a reputation attached to his conduct.

Competing Explanations

Septon Eustace explained Ironrod as a reference to Wylde’s unbending attitudes on questions of law. In this account, the name characterizes his severity and inflexibility in office. Mushroom instead claimed that it alluded to Wylde’s having fathered twenty-nine children by four wives, offering a bawdy interpretation rather than a judgment of his legal temperament.

The accounts do not resolve which explanation gave rise to the nickname. Their disagreement preserves two sharply different portraits of the same councillor: a rigid upholder of law in Eustace’s explanation, and the subject of a crude courtly joke in Mushroom’s.