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Giddon is one of King Randa's underlords. He is a friend of Katsa's and a member of the Council.

Appearance[]

Giddon has pale skin with brown hair and eyes. He has a neat brown beard and warm eyes. His face is confident and handsome. He is strong and a good horse rider. Giddon is also big, tall, and broad-shouldered. His hands are broad and as big as plates. He has a deep timbre of a voice. He is handsome in a noble sort of way.

Personality[]

Giddon is emotional. He is sympathetic towards others. At his worst, he can be cruelly sarcastic and prideful. As he gets older, he matures and grows up a bit. He takes responsibility for his behavior. He feels regret and shame about the person he was before joining the Council. He often pretends to be someone other than who he is in his Council work, but he almost always plays someone likable. He struggles to do otherwise because he feels guilt for the horrible, violent things he did when he worked for King Randa. He is quite sentimental. As a former lord, he can be quite gracious in his methods. Hava describes him as "stuffed full of manners and elegance when he needs to be." He is incredibly patient.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Lord Giddon grew up on his family's estate in the grasslands of the Middluns. His estate is a day's journey west of Randa City. His father was a great friend of King Randa's. As a boy, Giddon spent equal amounts of time at his family's estate and at Randa's court. Before his work with the Council, Giddon had been a bully on behalf of King Randa. He had been a small-minded man who did small things. He joined the Council out of fascination for Katsa and the promise of adventure. Giddon is in love with Katsa, although she is oblivious to his feelings. His estate and the immediate grounds around it house ninety-nine people, and five hundred eighty-three people live in the town and on the farms under his control.

Graceling[]

Lord Giddon, Lord Oll, and Katsa carry out the rescue mission for the Council to free Prince Tealiff of Lienid from King Murgon of Sunder's dungeons. They bring Tealiff back to the castle in Randa City and give him to Prince Raffin and Bann to nurse back to health. The trio then carry out Randa's order to punish an underlord who cheated him of three acres of forest. On the way back, they stop at an inn that is friendly to the Council. When the innkeeper's young daughter, Lanie, shows interest in Katsa, Giddon tell her that Katsa wouldn’t hurt her, but if someone were to hurt her, then Katsa would hurt that person. He then suggests they shake hands. Katsa is overcome with gladness at Giddon’s kindness, and that the girl is willing to touch her. Giddon tells her that she does nothing to “dispel her ogerish reputation.”

Giddon asks Katsa to marry him and she declines. This makes him believe that she is in love with Prince Po, who he then considers his rival.

At Bitterblue's coronation ceremony, Raffin tells Katsa that Randa keeps trying to marry Giddon off, and Giddon keeps refusing while moping about Katsa. He spends more time than he used to on his own estate but has given himself completely to the work of the Council and is invaluable.

Bitterblue[]

Giddon has become friends with Po, and the two are frequent traveling companions in their work for the Council. Currently, Giddon and Po are in Nander stirring up trouble. They are going to spring the nobles from prison. They have also been teaching the townspeople to fight. After successfully deposing King Drowden, Giddon and Po arrive in Bitterblue City.

Giddon arrives with Po in Queen Bitterblue's office just as she kills Lord Danzhol who is trying to kidnap her. As Po goes after the others involved in the plot, Giddon stays and comforts Bitterblue who is in shock and vomiting. Giddon helps clean her hands of blood and helps her to calm down until Helda arrives. He visits her in her rooms the next day and offers her sympathy about killing someone. He tells her he was fifteen the first time he killed someone. When she falls asleep, he helps her to bed and takes care of her.

Bitterblue talks to Giddon about what she's learned of Leck's thievery. Giddon offers to see if the Council can help with renumeration. They walk together to the royal smithy. Upon arriving at it, they are greeted by Ornik. Bitterblue tells him that she is looking for a sword for herself. Ornik says he knows he can help her find the perfect weapon. Before they enter the forge, Giddon reveals to Bitterblue that a popular uprising against King Thigpen of Estill is imminent, so she should attend the Council meeting scheduled for the following night.

At the Council meeting, Giddon explains how the overthrow of Drowden in Nander began with the dissatisfaction of the nobility. But in Estill it will be a popular revolution. The people are starving and the world’s most overtaxed by King Thigpen and by their lords. The Council has recruited army deserters to join with the rebels, which has made Thigpen frightened. He has tightened the screws on his own soldiers, making the army further unhappy. The problem is the people don’t know what they want. In Nander, a coalition of nobles chosen beforehand slipped into place. In Estill, people with no power know that they don’t want King Thigpen, but don’t know what they do want. The Council unanimously votes to involve itself in the Estillan people’s overthrow of their king. The Council wants to use Lord Piper’s estate, which has the entrance to secret underground tunnels, as their base for the Estillan uprising. Bitterblue says they can use her city as their base temporarily, but that she won’t provide soldiers or let them employ Monsea’s craftworkers to make weapons.

Giddon attends Katsa's sword training sessions when he is available to train with Po. One day, Bitterblue coms across Giddon who is talking with Dyan while she is pruning the shrubbery in thee great courtyard with Fox. Bitterblue asks to speak with Giddon. She tells him that she would like to have someone she never lies to and wants Giddon to be that person. She tells him she won’t even equivocate with him, she will either tell him the truth or say nothing at all. Giddon promises to faithfully guard anything she tells him as secret. She asks Giddon if can think of any reason why Leck would have chosen four healers as his advisers. Giddon says that Leck is well known for his behavior with torturing animals and asks her what if Leck liked to hurt people, then let them heal. She quietly responds by informing Giddon that her advisers have lied to her and told her they don’t know the secret things Leck did, but if they were healing his victims then they did know. Bitterblue tells Giddon her problem, that she doesn’t know how to help anyone now if she doesn’t understand what happened in the past.

A few days later, Po and reveals to Giddon the truth about his Grace and his blindness. Giddon punches him in the face. At Po's request, Bitterblue arrives at Giddon's rooms to offer her support and comfort. While's they're talking, Bitterblue asks if he is in love with Katsa. He tells her that he was rather obsessed with Katsa for a long time, and he said some wrong-headed things he’s ashamed of now and Katsa won’t forgive him. In the meantime, he’s recovered from his obsession. She asks Giddon to tell her if he learns anything about the people trying to kill the truthseekers.

Before leaving for Estill, Giddon delivers Bitteerblue her sword from Ornik. When he returns, he and Po reconcile. Randa has convicted Giddon of treason, on the basis of both his participation in the overthrow of the King of Nander and his continued monetary contributions to the Council. Giddon's been stripped of his title, land, and fortune. If he returns to the Middluns, he'll be executed. Just because he can, Randa has burned Giddon's estate and leveled it to the ground. After Raffin informs Bitterblue of these events, she immediately goes to Giddon and tries to comfort and support him. Giddon is catastrophically grief-stricken.

While trying to comfort and distract him from his pain, Bitterblue asks him about his life and childhood. Giddon reveals that he had a twin brother named Arlend who died in a fall from a horse when he was fifteen. Giddon had goaded him to ride his horse, even though they knew Giddon's horse didn't like anyone else ridding him. They never anticipated the consequences. Giddon and Arlend had fought incessantly, and Giddon thinks they probably would have fought over their father's estate had Arlend lived. After Randa's punishments, Giddon wishes Arlend had lived and won that fight. Arlend might not have been a fair landlord, but he wouldn't have provoked Randa. After Arlend's death, every time his mother looked at him, she saw a ghost. She never openly blamed Giddon, but he could see it in her face. She didn't live long after Arlend's death. A few days later, Bitterblue quietly tells him that he is always welcome in Monsea and at her court, and that if any of his people have no employment or wish to leave the Middluns, they're all welcome in Monsea.

Giddon saves Death and Lovejoy from the fire Thiel starts to destroy Leck's journals. He then leaves for Estill with Po and Katsa to help with the revolution. Afterwards, they plan to return to Monsea.

Winterkeep[]

Giddon is living in Bitterblue's castle as one of her closest friends and advisers. He is also continuing his work as a Council leader. He is part of smuggling missions for the Council. Using the secret underground tunnels connecting Estill and Monsea, Giddon brings Graceling refugees from Estill to Monsea, where they can be free.

Giddon travels to the continent of Torla with Bitterblue, Hava, and the royal retinue. While en route, Bitterblue is swept out to sea and believed to be dead. Giddon is heartbroken and grief-stricken about Bitterblue's presumed death. He blames himself for letting it happen. While mourning Bitterblue and trying to solve the various mysterious they originally came to Winterkeep for, Giddon realizes that he loves Bitterblue and wants to be her husband. After Bitterblue is reunited with the others, she and Giddon begin a romantic relationship.

Seasparrow[]

Giddon and his friends sail back to the Royal Continent on the Monsea, but they are shipwrecked in unmapped territory above Pikkia. After many days of walking through deep snow, they reach a small town on the outskirts of Pikkia. They continue their journey back to Monsea, where they are warmly welcomed back by Prince Po, Lady Katsa, King Ror, and a small group of soldiers camped at the tunnel. After a few days, Giddon and Bitterblue have a secret wedding, inviting only their friends.

Relationships[]

Bitterblue[]

Giddon and Bitterblue's relationship begins as one of friendship, Upon first meeting Giddon, Bitterblue finds him quite nice-looking and thinks a beard suits him. He is very sympathetic towards her and tells her he was in a similar state when he first killed someone. Despite just meeting her, he takes care of her, comforts her after her first time killing someone, and helps her get to bed. They quickly become true friends, and they make a promise to never lie to one another. Giddon becomes Bitterblue's confidant and counselor. Over the years, they have only continued to grow closer. Giddon has been in love with Bitterblue for about five years. He strives to be worthy of the trust Bitterblue's given him. Since he is nine years older than her, she comes to him for advice. Bitterblue looks to him for his honest opinion and likes that he can make her laugh. He also helps her care for her half-sister Hava. He believes they have no hope of a future together because he no longer has his title or fortune. After Bitterblue's apparent death at sea, Giddon realizes that he never wanted to be Bitterblue's friend and supporter while she searched for a husband. He loves her and he wants to be her husband. He cherishes her and she depends on his stability and reliability. Giddon has a fire inside him that he reserves for Bitterblue. He is incredibly patient with, and fawningly devoted to, her. When he meets her again, they start a romantic relationship on the Monsea, and when they get back to Monsea, they get married.

Katsa[]

Giddon is in love with Katsa, but Katsa is completely blind to his feelings. Katsa feels that Giddon loves to do nothing more than to point out her flaws. She feels he is always turning a kind gesture into one of his criticisms of her character. She often finds his concern smothering. Katsa can't fathom why Giddon wants to marry her, and can't truly believe it until he actually proposes. When he finally works up the courage to propose to Katsa, Katsa is shocked and declines. Giddon becomes convinced this means she is in love with Po and becomes extremely jealous. Part of the reason Katsa doesn't want to marry Giddon is that she is angry that he thinks he needs to protect her when she can clearly protect herself, and that he "considers a scratch to her face an affront to his person." But Katsa does think of him as a friend and doesn't want to hurt him. Eight years later, Giddon explains to Bitterblue that he was rather obsessed with Katsa for a long time, and he said some wrong-headed things he's ashamed of now but Katsa won't forgive him. He has recovered from his obsession and no longer loves her. They are able to work together on the Council, but their friendship has not recovered.

Hava[]

Giddon and Hava develop a close friendship. Hava is able to be herself around him. Giddon is proud and understanding of Hava.

Trivia[]

  • Giddon is left-handed, but can fight using both hands.
  • His birthday is in August.
  • Cats love Giddon.
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