SPOILER ALERT: Warning, this article contains spoilers from the Season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones, entitled Dragonstone. Proceed at your own risk.
Yes, your eyes and ears don’t deceive you. That was Ed Sheeran playing a singing soldier in the Season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones.
As Arya Stark makes her way to King’s Landing, she hears a beautiful melody and is drawn to a group of soldier who have camped for the night. They are dressed in Lannister armor.
The soldier who provides the melody? Sheeran himself. Naturally the song is a ballad.
The song, titled A Storm of Swords, is actually from the books, sung by a character named Symon Silver Tongue.
The full lyrics are below:
He rode through the streets of the city,
down from his hill on high,
O’er the wynds and the steps and the cobbles,
he rode to a woman’s sigh.
For she was his secret treasure,
she was his shame and his bliss.
And a chain and a keep are nothing,
compared to a woman’s kiss
For hands of gold are always cold
but a woman’s hands are warm
“For hands of gold are always cold but a woman’s hands are warm,” Sheeran’s character repeats the chorus, as his comrades bemoan the fact they are away from women. Since he is not named, it’s not clear if Sheeran is Silver Tongue.
Another soldier explains their purpose in the woods. “There’s been some trouble with the Freys up at the Twins, we’re part of the army that’s been sent to keep the peace,” he explains to Arya.
Of course, Arya is the source of the “trouble” herself, having mass poisoned the Freys in the shocking opening scene.
It’s unclear whether Sheeran will appear outside the season premiere, but his cameo was unexpected. He’s not the only celebrity in the episode; sharp-eyed viewers will recognize Jim Broadbent as the archmaester at The Citadel conducting the autopsy.
