Elephant
Elephants are large mammals, much like the real-world creature, that dwell in Essos. They are not native to Westeros. There appears to be another species of the elephant on the eastern continent, the dwarf elephant.[1]
Contents
Geography
The Isle of Elephants is located in the Jade Sea.[2] The island has numerous elephants.[3]
In the forests south of Yeen, there are said to be apes far larger than giants, and so strong that they can slay elephants with a single blow.[4]
Culture
The ancient city of Yeen is built of massive blocks of oily black stone, so heavy that a dozen elephants would be needed to move them.[4]
Ivory, a prized material for jewelry and decoration, can come from the tusks of elephants. According to Corlys Velaryon, the shan of the Isle of Elephants has an ivory palace.[5]
The streets of Old Volantis are overrun with white dwarf elephants, which are used as a mode of transport. A single dwarf elephant pulls an ornate cart called a hathay, which is similar to a Westerosi oxcart, but far more decorative.[6] Big grey elephants are also commonly seen in the city, carrying its triarch master in a castle on its back.[1]
In Volantis, dung carts come out in the evening, attended by half naked slaves whose task it is to shovel up the steaming piles of dung from both the great and small elephants. Swarms of flies follow the carts, so the dung slaves have flies tattooed upon their cheeks to mark them for what they are.[7]
The Elephants is the name for the party of the merchants and moneylenders in Volantis.[8]
During the Volantene elections, elephants have the names of would-be triarchs painted on their sides.[1]
The outermost of the triple walls of Qarth is made of red sandstone, thirty feet high and decorated with animals: snakes slithering, kites flying, fish swimming, intermingled with wolves of the red waste, striped zorses, and monstrous elephants.[9]
Elephants are a common sight in the city of Astapor, lumbering about with latticework litters on their backs.[10]
There are no elephants in the city of Asshai, as any animal brought there soon dies.[11]
Elephants are a game piece in cyvasse.[12]
There is Lyseni pirate ship named Elephant.[13]
History
At Volon Therys in the Second Spice War between the Rhoynar and the Valyrian Freehold, the Rhoynar prince Garin the Great faced a hundred thousand men, a hundred war elephants, and three dragonlords, but prevailed, though at great cost.[14]
During the Century of Blood, the Volantene hero Triarch Horonno named himself triarch for life, but was overthrown and put to death by being tied between two elephants and torn in half.[15]
On the last of the nine voyages of the Sea Snake, Corlys Velaryon filled the ship's hold with gold, and bought twenty more ships at Qarth, loading them with spices, elephants, and the finest silk. Some of the ships were lost, and the elephants died at sea, but the wealth that remained on Corlys's return to Westeros made House Velaryon the richest in the realm.[16]
During Lord Alyn's attack in the Daughters' War in 133 AC, House Velaryon captured an elephant that had been meant for the Sealord's menagerie. On Lord Alyn Velaryon's return to King's Landing, he rode the elephant through the River Gate up to the Red Keep while thousands of people lined the streets hoping to see their new hero. Alyn gifted the elephant to King Aegon III Targaryen, but Lord Manfryd Mooton returned the elephant to the Sealord of Braavos as part of his diplomatic efforts to prevent war.[17]
When Tyrion Lannister was a boy, there was an elephant in the menagerie at Lannisport, but she died when he was seven.[1]
Someone once made off with Harry Strickland's favorite elephant.[18]
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
Daenerys Targaryen sees immense grey elephants at the Eastern Market of Vaes Dothrak.[19]
A Storm of Swords
Tyrion Lannister tries to read Beldecar's History of the Rhoynish Wars, but is too distracted to imagine the elephants.[20]
A Dance with Dragons
Quentyn Martell travels in an ornate cart called a hathay, pulled by a single dwarf elephant.[6]
The Golden Company has a number of elephants. When Jon Connington reaches the Golden Company's camp, he sees two dozen grey elephants grazing beside the water, pulling up reeds with their trunks.[21]
The first time Tyrion Lannister passes an elephant in Old Volantis, he cannot help but stare, as it is twice the size of the elephant he recalls from his childhood.[1]
While held captive by Ser Jorah Mormont, Tyrion Lannister sees an elephant lumber past with a dozen naked slave girls waving from the castle on its back, teasing passersby with glimpses of their breasts and crying, “Malaquo, Malaquo”. They make such an entrancing sight, that Tyrion almost walks right into a steaming pile of elephant dung.[1]
Four legions out of New Ghis have a hundred elephants, armoured and towered.[22]
Queen Daenerys Targaryen has acquired three elephants along with the Great Pyramid of Meereen. They remind her of hairless grey mammoths, though their tusks have been bobbed and gilded, and she feels that their eyes are sad. The elephants are stabled in the eastern walls of the pyramid. When Dany, Quentyn Martell, Ser Barristan Selmy, and her guards make their way down the pyramid to the makeshift dragon pit where her dragons Viserion and Rhaegal are kept, one of the elephants trumpets at them, and a dragon gives an answering roar.[23]
Arya Stark, blinded in the House of Black and White, learns to tell one coin from another by touch. Some of the coins she handles have elephants stamped on their sides.[13]
Tyrion tries to teach Penny how to play cyvasse, but has to frequently explain that the dragon flies, not the elephants.[24]
Daenerys Targaryen watches an elephant make short work of a pack of six red wolves in Daznak's Pit.[25]
Ser Barristan Selmy travels to a secret meeting with Skahaz mo Kandaq in the stables of the Great Pyramid, and passes the elephants and the queen's silver mare.[26]
Great cogs carry the Golden Company's elephants to Westerosi shores. A storm scatters half the fleet, but some of the elephants had last been seen at Lys. As Prince Aegon Targaryen arrives to join Jon Connington at Griffin's Roost, he rides at the head of a column of three hundred horses, with three elephants lumbering in the rear.[27]
Quotes
Unwin: You have given us a war.
Alyn: And an elephant. Pray, do not forget the elephant, my lord.[17]—Unwin Peake and Alyn Velaryon
—Jon Connington, about elephant cavalry
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 27, Tyrion VII.
- ↑ The Lands of Ice and Fire, The East.
- ↑ George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Isle of Elephants.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Beyond the Sunset Kingdom: Beyond the Free Cities (Sothoryos).
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Beyond the Sunset Kingdom: The Bones and Beyond (Leng).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 6, The Merchant's Man.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Beyond the Sunset Kingdom: The Free Cities (Volantis).
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 14, Tyrion IV.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 27, Daenerys II.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 23, Daenerys II.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Beyond the Sunset Kingdom: The Bones and Beyond (Asshai-by-the-Shadow).
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 40, Princess In The Tower.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 45, The Blind Girl.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 22, Tyrion VI.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Jaehaerys I.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Fire & Blood, Under the Regents - War and Peace and Cattle Shows.
- ↑ The Winds of Winter, Chapter , Arianne II.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 54, Daenerys VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 12, Tyrion II.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 24, The Lost Lord.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 36, Daenerys VI.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 43, Daenerys VII.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 47, Tyrion X.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 52, Daenerys IX.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 55, The Queensguard.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 61, The Griffin Reborn.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||