A gentle young man, Samwell is fond of music and songs, and prefers books over weapons, and is afraid of blood and violence, which earned his father's intense contempt. After being frustrated at Samwell for years, Randyll's attentions turned to grooming his more promising younger son Dickon, who showed all of the physical vigor that Samwell lacked, and decided to have Dickon inherit the Tarly title. On Samwell's fifteenth birthday, Randyll force him to join the Night's Watch and renounce his birthright of heir to Horn Hill, threatening death if he was to refuse. After arriving at Castle Black, Samwell was bullied for being overweight and unskilled in combat, and was often called "Ser Piggy" and "Lord of Ham". However, his new-found friendship with a sympathetic Jon Snow allows his character to start unfolding positively, and earns him the position as the personal steward of Maester Aemon. While lacking his friends' fighting abilities and having self-professed cowardice, Samwell is highly intelligent, observant, resourceful and loyal, and eventually becomes Jon Snow's most trusted sidekick. In the fourth book, Sam is sent by Jon to the Citadel at Oldtown and becomes accepted as a novice trainee supervised by Archmaester Marvyn and acolyte Alleras.