by Amal Prashanth Charles
"A lion doesn't concern himself, with the opinions of a sheep!"
-Tywin Lannister
-Tywin Lannister
This has been a long week hasn’t it? It is very frustrating and unfair when shows like ‘Game of Thrones’ decide to take a week off, especially after they end the previous episode with two very intense scenes. Firstly with Prince Oberyn Martell standing up to be Tyrion’s champion, this particular scene holds a lot of significance for the rest of the season and trust me the clash of the Red Viper and the Mountain is one that TV viewers will not want to miss! So just wait and watch. And Secondly we see Littlefinger push Lysa Arryn through the moon door. This is the first time we saw Lord Baelish actually do something by himself, instead of being the puppet master that he usually is, preferring to lurk in the shadows while pulling all the strings. And this Is when they decided to take a break! ANYWAY we have to move on and today I am going to tell you a little something about the history behind the notoriously political family of House Lannister of Casterly Rock.
The Lannisters are definitely one of the most important houses of Westeros. They are the principle house of the Westerlands and the seat Lannister is in Casterly Rock. Their other important city is the city of Lannisport which is the largest settlement in the Westerlands. If you were a true GOT fan you should know by now that the ever repeated sentence “A Lannister always pays his debts." is not their official motto. In fact their official motto is “Hear Me Roar”.The Lannisters derive their ancestry from the Andals who invaded Westeros. But the founder of the House - Lann the Clever was a descendant of the First Men. It is said that one of Lann’s female descendant married into an Andal family during the invasion of the Andals. Lann the Clever was an important hero from the Age of Heroes. He was a legendary trickster known for his wit and cunning. It is believed that Lann once tricked the members of House Casterly into giving him Casterly Rock and all their gold, thereby making him the King of the Rock. The keep at Casterly Rock literally sits on top of a gold mine. Thanks to all this gold, House Lannister became the wealthiest house in all of Westeros. They ruled over the entire Westerlands, but their influence doesn’t stop there. Their continuous funding of the king always made sure that they wielded enormous power and held favour with the king.
When Aegon the Conqueror swept through Westeros during the Wars of Conquest, King Loren I, the last King of the Rock sided with King Mern IX of the Reach to take on the Mighty Targaryens. This mighty coalition known as “The Host of the Two Kings” raised an army of 55000 soldiers of which 5000 were mounted knights. Aegon’s army was only made up of about 10000 soldiers. The combined might of the Rock and the Reach broke Aegon’s army and Aegon fearing defeat deployed all the three Targaryen dragons on the armies of the Rock and the Reach, including Balerion the Black dread. This was the only time all three dragons went to war at the same time, and with the combined might off all their fires, they burned over 4000 men, including King Mern, and for this reason this battle came to be known as the Field of Fire. King Loren was eventually captured and bent the knee to Aegon Targaryen; he was allowed to remain as the Lord of Casterly Rock and the Warden of the West.
The Lannisters were very active during the Targaryen Civil war (The Dance of Dragons) as well as the Blackfyre Rebellion. But let’s look at more recent history, particularly during the reign of Lord Tytos Lannister (Lord Tywin’s Father). Tytos Lannister was known as the Toothless Lion and it was during his reign that the Lannisters fell upon some very hard times. In fact even his own banner men did not fear him or even respect his authority. The Lannisters lost a lot of money to Lords who borrowed from Tytos and never repaid the money. House Tarbeck and House Reyne were two of the most influential houses that were Lannister banner men. At some point Tytos Lannister imprisoned Lord Tarbeck for disloyalty and as revenge, lady Tarbeck captured and held 3 Lannisters hostage and demanded that her husband be returned unharmed. At this point Tytos’ son Tywin Lannister suggested that they send back Lord Tarbeck’s body in 3 pieces, 1 piece for every Lannister that had been captured. But Tytos returned Lord Tarbeck unharmed and contributed even more to his reputation of being a weak and ineffectual Lord.It was this sort of spineless behaviour that led to the joint rebellion of House Reyne and House Tarbeck against the Lannisters. House Reyne was the richest and most powerful house of the Westerlands except for House Lannister and their sigil was similar to that of the Lannisters except that their Lion was red. They believed that they will be able to defeat the Lannisters. But it was Tytos’ son and heir Tywin Lannister that commanded the Lannister armies. Tywin, unlike his father, was extremely ruthless and crushed the rebellion. After the rebellion, the seats of both the rebellions were destroyed and all traces of House Reyne and Tarbeck were exterminated. The devastation brought by Tywin Lannister was so legendary that it inspired songs such as “The Rains of Castemere” which are still sung by Lannisters just to remind other houses of their bloody past or just for fun! In fact the Frey bards play this song during The Red Wedding.
Tywin Lannister was able to return his house to its previous glory and even served as the Hand of the King to the Mad King Aerys. He had 3 Children, the twins Cersei and Jaime (Cersei is technically considered as the First born) and the dwarf Tyrion. His wife Joanna died when giving birth to Tyrion and Tywin was very much saddened by that. He wasn’t able to control the happenings of his own household as much as he wanted. At a very young age Cersei and Jamie started an incestuous relationship while Tyrion even got married to a 13 year old girl named Tysha. That ofcourse did not end well for the girl when Tywin came to know of their union.
At the age of 12 Cersei lived with Tywin who was the hand of the king. Jaime Lannister was knighted at the age 15 and Cersei convinced him to join the Kingsguard so that he will not be able to marry and he would be able to live closer to her at Kings Landing. This plan did backfire on her though as Tywin was angered when Jaime joined the kingsguard and this led to him resigning from the Handship. He took Cersei back with him to Casterly Rock, thereby separating the twins once more
This brings us to Robert’s rebellion against King Aerys. For most of the rebellion the Lannisters remained neutral and did not take any sides. But when Robert Baratheon’s victory became apparent after the Battle of the Trident where Rhaegar Targaryen was killed, Tywin Lannister decided to join the rebel’s cause and led the attack on King’s landing. Tywin Lannister sacked the city of Kings Landing while his son and Kingsguard Jaime Lannister killed the Mad King thereby ending the rebellion.
This brings us to Robert’s rebellion against King Aerys. For most of the rebellion the Lannisters remained neutral and did not take any sides. But when Robert Baratheon’s victory became apparent after the Battle of the Trident where Rhaegar Targaryen was killed, Tywin Lannister decided to join the rebel’s cause and led the attack on King’s landing. Tywin Lannister sacked the city of Kings Landing while his son and Kingsguard Jaime Lannister killed the Mad King thereby ending the rebellion.
A marriage was arranged between Robert and Cersei and she actually was pretty excited and happy about being the Queen. But all her joy evaporated when Robert called her Lyanna during their first night together. This led her to resume her incestuous relationship with Jaime and even bore 3 children with him. She also made sure that she was never impregnated by King Robert and even aborted a pregnancy that she had early on in their marriage. Nobody knew the true parentage of the royal children and it was a secret that Cersei would obviously guard carefully. But Stannis Baratheon grew curious and suspicious as none of the children had any resemblance to Robert. He confided in Jon Arryn and they began to investigate the matter. But Jon Arryn was abruptly killed and Stannis fearing his life fled king’s Landing.
This has kind of brought us to the start of events of ‘Game of Thrones’. But I am not going to end here this time. If you ever wondered why Cersei Lannister is as paranoid as she is, or if you wondered why she hated her brother Tyrion so much. The answer to that may not be as apparent as you think. Cersei derives all her paranoia from this character known as Maggy the frog. Maggy was a Fortune teller from the city of Lannisport. A young Cersei Lannister sought out Maggy having heard of her powers. She, along with a couple friends decided to go see Maggy and have their fortunes told during a tourney. Rhaegar Targaryen attended this tourney and Cersei was very infatuated with him at that time. Maggy would initially refuse to tell their fortunes but finally she agrees grudgingly. These were the 2 prophecies that Maggy the Frog gave, that would haunt Cersei Lannister for the rest of her life.
This has kind of brought us to the start of events of ‘Game of Thrones’. But I am not going to end here this time. If you ever wondered why Cersei Lannister is as paranoid as she is, or if you wondered why she hated her brother Tyrion so much. The answer to that may not be as apparent as you think. Cersei derives all her paranoia from this character known as Maggy the frog. Maggy was a Fortune teller from the city of Lannisport. A young Cersei Lannister sought out Maggy having heard of her powers. She, along with a couple friends decided to go see Maggy and have their fortunes told during a tourney. Rhaegar Targaryen attended this tourney and Cersei was very infatuated with him at that time. Maggy would initially refuse to tell their fortunes but finally she agrees grudgingly. These were the 2 prophecies that Maggy the Frog gave, that would haunt Cersei Lannister for the rest of her life.
Here Cersei asks if she will marry the prince, meaning Rhaegar Targaryen. Maggy correctly predicts that she will not marry the prince and in fact she will only marry the King i.e. Robert Baratheon. She also predicts that the downfall of Cersei will be a younger and more beautiful Queen. Cersei believes that it may be Margaery Tyrell. But it could even be Myrcella, Daenerys or Sansa.
The other prophecy is as follows.
Cersei: Will the king and I have children?
Maggy: Oh, aye. Six-and-ten for him, and three for you. Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds, she said. And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.
This prophecy clears tells Cersei that she will have only 3 children while the King will have 16! Along with the prophecy that she will outlive all her children and see them all die. One more important thing this prophecy told her is that the valonqar will be the one that kills her finally. Valonqar in high Valyrian means “Little Brother” and that is why she resents Tyrion so very much. She believes that her little brother Tyrion will be the one that kills her finally. But she may have everything completely wrong. Technically Cersei was born before Jaime even though they were twins, so even though she does not consider it, Jaime Lannister is also her Little Brother and could totally be the Valonqar that chokes the life from her. Just Saying.
Thank you for reading our third instalment about the Histories of the Houses of Westeros and until next time. Till then, read our fascinating histories on the Starks and the Targaryens.
The other prophecy is as follows.
Cersei: Will the king and I have children?
Maggy: Oh, aye. Six-and-ten for him, and three for you. Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds, she said. And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.
This prophecy clears tells Cersei that she will have only 3 children while the King will have 16! Along with the prophecy that she will outlive all her children and see them all die. One more important thing this prophecy told her is that the valonqar will be the one that kills her finally. Valonqar in high Valyrian means “Little Brother” and that is why she resents Tyrion so very much. She believes that her little brother Tyrion will be the one that kills her finally. But she may have everything completely wrong. Technically Cersei was born before Jaime even though they were twins, so even though she does not consider it, Jaime Lannister is also her Little Brother and could totally be the Valonqar that chokes the life from her. Just Saying.
Thank you for reading our third instalment about the Histories of the Houses of Westeros and until next time. Till then, read our fascinating histories on the Starks and the Targaryens.