Mummer

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A mummer is an actor and entertainer in Westeros and the Free Cities. A mummer is usually part of a troupe of fellow actors who travel from place to place or perform at a playhouse. They entertain at various feasts and functions performing plays[1] and shows.[2] Because mummers' performances are often comical, a bungled, unbelievable, or manufactured event can be referred to as a mummer's farce.[3][4][5][6]

Traditions

A master mummer is in charge of each troupe,[7] which often have a dwarf[8] or a dancing bear.[9] Some mummers own monkeys.[10]

Mummers can be accomplished at manipulating their face,[11] while others wear masks.[12] Many performers shave their head, the so-called mummer's cut, to allow wigs to fit better.[13] Some mummers hide within a hollow horse and tumble from it for the amusement of patrons.[14] A mummer's dragon is a cloth dragon on poles which heroes fight during performances.[15]

During peacetime, gaily painted mummer's boats with quilted sails of half a hundred colors make their way up the forks of the Trident, visiting villages and castles.[16] The Mummer's Ford is a crossing of the Red Fork.[17] There is a mummers hall in White Harbor where bawdy entertainments can be had for a few pennies.[18]

Mummers in Braavos perform written stories instead of making up farces.[19] Braavosi playhouses include the Blue Lantern and the Ship.[1] Mummers perform during the elections for triarchs of Volantis.[20]

History

Ser Humfrey the Mummer, a hedge knight, was among the first Kingsguard of Aegon I Targaryen.[21] Queen Rhaenys Targaryen and her son, King Aenys I Targaryen, sponsored many mummers.[22]

Mummers and singers heralded the birth of King Viserys I Targaryen's children.[23] During the Dance of the Dragons, some mummers offered to attempt to tame dragons on Dragonstone.[24]

Prince Aegon Targaryen "wed" Megette with the aid of a mummer who portrayed a septon.[25] He also fathered bastards on mummer's maidens.[26]

Varys claims to have been born a slave in Lys that was sold and apprenticed to a traveling folly, a troupe of mummers who worked the Free Cities, Oldtown, and occasionally King's Landing, by means of a fat little cog owned by the troupe's master.[14]

The tourney at Harrenhal included a mummer show.[27]

Lady Ellyn Reyne sponsored mummers when she held court at Casterly Rock.[28] Mummers that featured dwarfs in their troupes learned to stay away from Lannisport and the Rock, because Lord Tywin Lannister dislikes his dwarf son, Tyrion.[29]

Before coming to the Wall, Pypar traveled the Seven Kingdoms with a mummers' troupe. He can imitate a hundred different voices and loves to act.[3] The Brave Companions, a sellsword company, are pejoratively called the Bloody Mummers.[30] Archmaester Marwyn is said to consort with mummers and others with questionable reputations.[31]

Hop-Bean was a famous dwarf mummer who bought his freedom.[29] His children, Oppo and Penny, became accomplished at jousting while on animals.[32] Izembaro calls himself the King of the Mummers.[8]

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Lord Eddard Stark sees a mummer on stilts along the Street of Steel in King's Landing.[33] A dozen troupes come to the capital for the Hand's tourney.[2] Arya Stark listens to two unidentified men—actually Varys and Illyrio Mopatis—conspiring in the Red Keep, but Eddard thinks they are mummers.[2]

A Clash of Kings

A mummer is among four agents, disguised as House Lannister guards, sent by Tyrion Lannister to free Ser Jaime Lannister at Riverrun.[34] The mummer impersonates Ser Edmure Tully's voice, but they are eventually caught and hanged by House Tully guards.[35]

Within the House of the Undying, Daenerys Targaryen has a vision of a mummer's dragon on poles among a cheering crowd.[36]

A Storm of Swords

Mummers are hired to perform at the royal wedding of King Joffrey I Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell.[37]

A Feast for Crows

Mummers perform at Margaery's court.[38]

Arya, calling herself Cat of the Canals, befriends mummers in Braavos.[1] Mummers are sometimes used to officiate "weddings" involving the Sailor's Wife.[1]

A Dance with Dragons

Quaithe warns Daenerys against a mummer's dragon.[39]

While at Volon Therys, Jon Connington notices a gaily painted mummers' barge next to the Shy Maid.[40]

When Arya Stark's eyes are taken at the House of Black and White, the waif also shaves her head in a mummer's cut.[13]

Tyrion, Penny, and Ser Jorah Mormont are forced to become mummers when enslaved and added to Yezzan zo Qaggaz's grotesquerie.[41]

Quotes

Pyp had traveled the Seven Kingdoms with a mummers' troupe, and bragged that he could tell what you were and where you'd been born just from the sound of your voice.[3]

—thoughts of Jon Snow

When I was a young boy, before I was cut, I traveled with a troupe of mummers through the Free Cities. They taught me that each man has a role to play, in life as well as mummery.[42]

Varys: Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less.
Tyrion: So power is a mummer's trick?
Varys: A shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill.[43]

I have taught my Margaery what comely is worth, I hope. Somewhat less than a mummer's fart.[44]

Tywin: What is it you would have of me? Lands, castle, some office?
Tyrion: A little bloody gratitude would make a nice start.
Tywin: Mummers and monkeys require applause.[44]

The mummers were a loud and lively lot, always quoting speeches at each other and drunk more oft than not.[40]

—thoughts of Jon Connington

The north remembers, Lord Davos. The north remembers, and the mummer's farce is almost done.[6]

Mummers change their faces with artifice, and sorcerers use glamors, weaving light and shadow and desire to make illusions that trick the eye.[45]

Plays

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 34, Cat Of The Canals.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 32, Arya III.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 26, Jon IV.
  4. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 31, Catelyn III.
  5. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 77, Tyrion XI.
  6. 6.0 6.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 29, Davos IV.
  7. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 14, Tyrion IV.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 The Winds of Winter, Mercy
  9. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 47, Tyrion X.
  10. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 33, Jaime V.
  11. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 22, Arya II.
  12. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 25, Brienne V.
  13. 13.0 13.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 45, The Blind Girl.
  14. 14.0 14.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 44, Tyrion X.
  15. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 63, Daenerys V.
  16. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 2, Catelyn I.
  17. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 43, Eddard XI.
  18. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 15, Davos II.
  19. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 15, Samwell II.
  20. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 27, Tyrion VII.
  21. The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon I.
  22. The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aenys I.
  23. The Rogue Prince.
  24. The Princess and the Queen.
  25. The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon IV.
  26. The Sworn Sword.
  27. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 42, Daenerys IV.
  28. The World of Ice & Fire, The Westerlands: House Lannister Under the Dragons.
  29. 29.0 29.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 33, Tyrion VIII.
  30. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 30, Arya VII.
  31. A Feast for Crows, Prologue.
  32. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 40, Tyrion IX.
  33. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 27, Eddard VI.
  34. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 25, Tyrion VI.
  35. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 39, Catelyn V.
  36. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 48, Daenerys IV.
  37. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 59, Sansa IV.
  38. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 28, Cersei VI.
  39. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 11, Daenerys II.
  40. 40.0 40.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 24, The Lost Lord.
  41. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 47, Tyrion X.
  42. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 58, Eddard XV.
  43. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 8, Tyrion II.
  44. 44.0 44.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 4, Tyrion I.
  45. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 64, The Ugly Little Girl.