Maggy the Frog
| Maggy the Frog | |
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 Maggy the Frog, by Matt Olson © | |
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| Alias | Maggy the Frog |
| Allegiance | House Spicer (ancestor) |
| Culture | Westermen |
| Died | or after 276 AC |
| Spouse | Unknown spice trader |
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| Played by | Jodhi May |
| TV series | Game of Thrones: Season 5 |
Maggy the Frog was a reputed sorceress[1] who dealt in fortunes, cures, and love potions at Lannisport.[2] Her true name has been forgotten, with "Maggy" likely being a bastardization of the word maegi.[1]
In the television adaptation Game of Thrones, Maggy is portrayed by Jodhi May.
Contents
Appearance
Maggy was squat, with warty greenish skin,[1][3] crusty yellow eyes, a toothless mouth, and jowls.[1] She spoke in a deep,[1] croaking,[4] accented voice.[5] She had a bent-back,[5] and pendulous breasts.[1][3] Her breath smelled strangely, strong and foul, and her body odor smelled of sickness.[1]
Westerosi could not pronounce her real name,[2] which was long and foreign sounding.[1] Some considered her a priestess[2] or a half-mad witch woman.[6]
Maggy conducted business in a dark tent with a tall peaked roof. The inside of the tent smelled of cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, almond milk, onions, cloves, lemongrass, and saffron, as well as even stranger and more rare spices. The only light was provided by an iron brazier shaped like a basilisk's head, which Cersei Lannister recalls producing a dim green light that made the walls of the tent look sick, and made red blood look black.[1]
History
"Maggy", whose real name is unknown, came to Lannisport as a young, beautiful woman,[1] who may have been a priestess.[2] She was brought to Westeros by her husband, who had been trading saffron and pepper in Essos.[2] Some claim that she enchanted him with a spell, though more likely she only needed her sexual charms.[1] Many people of Lannisport visited her for her cures and love potions, calling her "Maegi", as no one could pronounce her real name.[2] It was said that Maggy could curse a man or make him fall in love, summon demons and foretell the future.[1] She eventually lost her beauty through old age and reportedly by the practice of her evil sorcery.[1]
Maggy and the trader's wealthy merchant son was ennobled by Lord Tytos Lannister, founding House Spicer.[1] Through her son, the petty lord, Maggy was the grandmother of Ser Rolph and Sybell Spicer. She was also the grandmother of Ser Samwell Spicer through another of her children.[7]
Cersei Lannister's prophecies
When Cersei Lannister was a little girl, her father, Lord Tywin Lannister, promised her that she would marry Prince Rhaegar Targaryen.[8] In 276 AC, when Cersei was ten years old,[9] she met Rhaegar for the first time during the the tourney her father hosted in Lannisport in honor of Prince Viserys's birth, and became enamored with him. Her aunt, Lady Genna Lannister, informed Cersei that her betrothal to Rhaegar would be announced during the final feast of the tourney. Cersei was so happy that she decided to visit Maggy's tent with her bedmaids, Jeyne Farman and Melara Hetherspoon, to have their fortunes told,[8] after Melara told them tales of Maggy's powers she had heard from the Casterly Rock serving girls.[1] Cersei has since thought that she would not have normally been bold enough to go, but believing that she was to be queen made her want to show her friends that she had no fears, certainly not of an ugly old woman.[8]
That night, Cersei and her friends sneaked out of their beds to seek Maggy's tent on the tourney grounds, and entered it to find that the sorceress was sleeping. Cersei kicked her bed and demanded she wake up and tell their fortunes. After Maggy opened her yellow and crusted eyes, the sight of them caused Jeyne to flee in fear. However, Cersei and Melara stayed, asking to know their futures and what men they would marry, despite Maggy ordering them to leave. After Cersei threatened to tell her father to have Maggy whipped for insolence, Maggy grudgingly agreed, saying she must taste their blood. She provided a twisted iron dagger, which Cersei used to prick her thumb and Melara's. Maggy sucked the blood with her toothless mouth, then told the girls they had three questions.[1]
Cersei inquired when she would marry Rhaegar, and Maggy correctly prophesied Cersei would never marry "the prince", but rather "the king" (Robert Baratheon), though at the time Cersei believed the answer meant she would marry Rhaegar only after King Aerys II Targaryen had died. When Cersei asked whether she would still be queen, Maggy answered that she would be, until another queen, "younger and more beautiful", would cast Cersei down and take all she held dear. Cersei then asked if she and the king would have children, and Maggy predicted that he would have sixteen children, and Cersei would have three. Maggy went on to prophesy that Cersei would outlive her children, who would die crowned, and that afterwards the valonqar would come to "choke the life from [her]." Cersei wanted to leave after this, but Melara then demanded her own questions, asking if she would marry Jaime Lannister, Cersei's twin. Maggy prophesied that Melara would not marry anyone and die a maiden, and that her death was very close, close enough to "smell her breath". Cersei followed this by throwing a jar of potion into Maggy's eyes, and the girls fled the tent while Maggy screamed and cursed at them in a foreign language.[1]
Afterwards, Cersei and Melara laughed at the "stupid", nonsensical prophecies, until the end of the tourney, when Cersei learned that King Aerys had refused to consider Tywin's proposal and that she would not marry Prince Rhaegar.[8] After that, Melara insisted that if they never spoke about the prophecies, they would be forgotten and would not come true.[4][1][9] However, Melara soon died, drowned in a well.[1] After Melara's death, Cersei asked her septa, Saranella, the meaning of the word valonqar, who told her it was High Valyrian for "little brother", which Cersei took to mean her younger dwarf brother, Tyrion Lannister.[9] Cersei never spoke about Maggy to anyone, even to her twin brother, Jaime, or to her father, Lord Tywin, who would have cut out Maggy's tongue.[4] Since then, Cersei has often dreamed of Maggy and her prophecies.[1]
Recent Events
A Storm of Swords
Robb Stark marries Jeyne Westerling, daughter of Sybell Spicer[10] and Maggy's great-granddaughter. At a meeting of the small council in the Red Keep in King's Landing, Lord Tywin Lannister informs his son Tyrion of the marriage of Robb and Jeyne. Ser Kevan Lannister explains that he once rejected Jeyne as a match for one of his sons because of her family's "doubtful blood", her great-grandfather the spice trader and his foreign wife "Maegi" who sold potions in Lannisport. Kevan assumes that Maggy must be long dead.[2]
A Feast for Crows
Queen Regent Cersei Lannister is reminded of Maggy whenever she sees the elderly Lady Olenna Tyrell in the Red Keep.[5]
Maggy and her prophecies are much on Cersei's mind after the murders of her son, King Joffrey I Baratheon, and of her father, Lord Tywin.[11][5][4][8][12][9][13] Believing she was cursed by Maggy,[8] Cersei fears that Tyrion, who she believes killed them both, will soon come to kill her as well.[12][9] Cersei also believes that Queen Margaery Tyrell, Joffrey's widow and the new wife of her second son, King Tommen Baratheon, is the "younger and more beautiful" queen, and attempts to cast Margaery down instead.[5][1][13]
Cersei again dreams of her visit to Maggy's tent, although she recognizes that some details may have changed from how they happened in life.[1] She mentions the dream and Maggy's prophecies to her advisor Qyburn[1] and to her new bedmaid Taena of Myr.[9] Qyburn recognizes that the name "Maggy" likely comes from the word maegi, and tells Cersei that even true prophecies can be forestalled.[1] Taena tells Cersei that Maggy was jealous of her youth and beauty, and her prophecy was false, only meaning to hurt her. When Cersei insists that Tyrion did kill Joffrey, Taena reassures her that she still has Tommen, who will never come to harm.[9]
A Dance with Dragons
Cersei, imprisoned by the Faith of the Seven in the Great Sept of Baelor, agrees to perform a walk of atonement naked through the streets of King's Landing, as it is the only way to leave her imprisonment and return to her son, King Tommen Baratheon. During the humiliating walk, Cersei tries to hold on to her pride, but eventually begins to hallucinate. She sees Melara looking at her accusingly, and also sees Maggy in the leering crowd. After she hears Maggy speak the words of the prophecy once more, Cersei begins to cry, and she breaks and runs the rest of the way to the Red Keep.[3]
Quotes by Maggy
Three questions may you ask. You will not like my answers.[1]
—Maggy in the dream of Cersei Lannister
Cersei:: When will I wed the prince?
Maggy: Never. You will wed the king.
Cersei: I will be queen, though?
Maggy: Aye. Queen you shall be... until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.
Cersei: If she tries I will have my brother kill her. 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. And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.
Cersei What is a valonqar? Some monster? You're a liar and a warty frog and a smelly old savage, and I don't believe a word of what you say.[1]—Cersei Lannister and Maggy in Cersei's dream
Melara: Will I marry Jaime?
Maggy: Not Jaime, nor any other man. Worms will have your maidenhead. Your death is here tonight, little one. Can you smell her breath? She is very close.[1]—Melara Hetherspoon and Maggy in the dream of Cersei Lannister
Quotes about Maggy
A frightening old crone, supposed to be a priestess. Maegi, they called her. No one could pronounce her real name. Half of Lannisport used to go to her for cures and love potions and the like.[2]
In Lannisport it was said that she had been young and beautiful when her husband had brought her back from the east with a load of spices, but age and evil had left their marks on her.[1]
—thoughts of Cersei Lannister
Cersei: I don't recall the woman's name. Something long and eastern and outlandish. The smallfolk used to call her Maggy.
Qyburn: Maegi?
Cersei: Is that how you say it? The woman would suck a drop of blood from your finger, and tell you what your morrows held.
Qyburn: Bloodmagic is the darkest kind of sorcery. Some say it is the most powerful as well.[1]—Cersei Lannister and Qyburn
The maegi knew how many children I would have, and she knew of Robert's bastards. Years before he'd sired even the first of them, she knew.[1]
—Cersei Lannister, to Qyburn
It was a pity that Maggy the Frog was dead. Piss on your prophecy, old woman. The little queen may be younger than I, but she has never been more beautiful, and soon she will be dead.[9]
—thoughts of Cersei Lannister
This was a hateful woman, old and sick and ugly. You were young and beautiful, full of life and pride. She lived in Lannisport, you said, so she would have known of the dwarf and how he killed your lady mother. This creature dared not strike you, because of who you were, so she sought to wound you with her viper's tongue.[9]
And suddenly the hag was there, standing in the crowd with her pendulous teats and her warty greenish skin, leering with the rest, with malice shining from her crusty yellow eyes.[3]
—hallucination of Cersei Lannister
Family
| Maggy the Frog's husband | Maggy the Frog | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| House Spicer founder | Unknown wife | Sibling(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rolph | Sybell | Gawen Westerling | Samwell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Raynald Westerling | Jeyne Westerling | Robb Stark | Eleyna Westerling | Rollam Westerling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 36, Cersei VIII.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 19, Tyrion III.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 65, Cersei II.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 17, Cersei IV.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 12, Cersei III.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 44, Jaime VII.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Appendix.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 24, Cersei V.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 39, Cersei IX.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 14, Catelyn II.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 3, Cersei I.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 32, Cersei VII.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 43, Cersei X.