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a song of ice and fire - So what was the answer to Varys' riddle?


From the answer to another question I learned the following bit from A Song of Ice and Fire:



It was from the first book of A Song Of Ice And Fire and it was Varys asking Tyrion a riddle:




A King, a priest, a rich man and a sellsword are in a room. Those three man tell the sellsword to kill the other two.
Who lives and who dies?




I'm glad that user found the quote they were looking for now, but — not having read the series yet — I'd like to know the answer to the riddle. And what is the moral of the story?



Answer



The exact quote from the book: (Tyrion talking to Varys):



"The king, the priest, the rich man — who lives and who dies? Who will the swordsman obey? It's a riddle without an answer, or rather, too many answers. All depends on the man with the sword.

"And yet he is no one," Varys said. "He has neither crown nor gold nor favor of the gods, only a piece of pointed steel."

"That piece of steel is the power of life and death."

"Just so … yet if it is the swordsmen who rule us in truth, why do we pretend our kings hold the power? Why should a strong man with a sword ever obey a child king like Joffrey, or a wine-sodden oaf like his father?"

"Because these child kings and drunken oafs can call other strong men, with other swords."

"Then these other swordsmen have the true power. Or do they? Whence came their swords? Why do they obey?" Varys smiled. "Some say knowledge is power. Some tell us that all power comes from the gods. Others say it derives from law. Yet that day on the steps of Baelor's Sept, our godly High Septon and the lawful Queen Regent and your ever so knowledgeable servant were as powerless as any cobbler or cooper in the crowd. Who truly killed Eddard Stark do you think? Joffrey, who gave the command? Ser Ilyn Payne, who swung the sword? Or ... another?"

Tyrion cocked his head sideways. "Did you mean to answer your damned riddle, or only to make my head ache worse?"

Varys smiled. "Here, then. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less"
- A Clash of Kings - Tyrion II



As people said in the comments, it is the swordsman who really decides who has the power depending on what his beliefs are and there is no answer depending only on the three "powerful" people of the riddle.


If the swordsman is religious, he will listen to the priest, and respectively for the king and the rich man. To find out who really has power, we need to find out who the people believe has the power.


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