A dwarf is a person with dwarfism.
Culture
Some cultures, both in Westeros and Essos, do not suffer dwarfs to live, such as the Dothraki and the free folk.[citation needed] In the past, this also included the people of the Three Sisters, but the Faith of the Seven halted the Sistermen's practice of casting dwarfs into the Bite as sacrifices to their gods.[1] Smallfolk often quietly kill dwarf infants, or sell them to grotesqueries.[2][3] The dwarfs that survive often end up in cities like King's Landing, Oldtown, or Lannisport.[3]
Dwarfs are often employed as motleyed fools and jesters.[4] Dwarfs are sometimes featured in grotesqueries.[2][3] Mummer's troupes are expected to have a dwarf.[5] Comical combats at fighting pits, called follies, often feature dwarfs.[6]
Some dwarfs refer to people of standard stature as "big folk" or "big people",[7] and to themselves as "little people".[8]
History
When Jenny of Oldstones came to court after marrying Prince Duncan Targaryen, she was accompanied by her friend, a dwarf albino woman who was reputed to be a woods witch in the riverlands.[9][10]
In 273 AC, Tyrion Lannister was born to Lord Tywin and Lady Joanna Lannister. Joanna died giving birth to him, and as a result, his father blames him for her death.[11] It was said that Tyrion's birth was an omen to famine, plague and war, and the smallfolk named him "Lord Tywin's Doom"[12] and "Lord Tywin's Bane". King Aerys II Targaryen stated that Tyrion was a punishment for Tywin's arrogance.[13]
Hop-Bean was sold by his father to a slaver when he was three, but he grew up to be such a famous mummer that he was able to buy his freedom, traveling to all of the Free Cities and Westeros, before fathering two children, Penny and Oppo, also dwarfs.[8]
Recent Events
A Feast for Crows
Tyrion Lannister is unjustly found guilty of killing King Joffrey I Baratheon and sentenced to death.[14] However, he escapes the black cells, murdering his father, Tywin Lannister, on the way.[15] Queen Cersei Lannister offers a lordship to anyone who brings her Tyrion's head.[16] Her bounty results in the murder of a number of innocent dwarfs and children throughout Westeros and the Free Cities, including the dwarf brother and the dwarf juggler. Cersei refuses to execute these murderers, for fear it will discourage other such bounty hunters and allow Tyrion to escape,[17] though she does eventually punish those who attempt to defraud her, such as a Tyroshi bounty hunter.[18]
A Dance with Dragons
In Volantis, Tyrion encounters Penny, a dwarf woman whose brother Oppo was murdered by Westerosi sailors who thought he was Tyrion.[19]
The Winds of Winter
| Warning This information has thus far been released in a sample chapter for The Winds of Winter, and might therefore not be in finalized form. Keep in mind that the content as described below is still subject to change. |
As the mummers prepare to perform The Bloody Hand at the Gate in the Free City of Braavos, Mercy helps them with their wardrobe, including Bobono, a dwarf mummer.[5]
Known Dwarfs
- Bobono, a Braavosi mummer at the Gate[5]
- Hop-Bean, a mummer[8]
- Mushroom, a fool in the courts of Viserys I Targaryen, Rhaenyra Targaryen, Aegon II Targaryen, and Aegon III Targaryen[20][21]
- Oppo, a mummer[8]
- Penny, a mummer[8]
- Tyrion Lannister, son of Lord Tywin Lannister[11]
- the ghost of High Heart, a woods witch
- the dwarf brother, a holy brother[22]
- the dwarf juggler in Tyrosh[8]
- dwarf agents of Brynden Rivers[23]
- a dwarf maester in service on the Fingers[8]
- a dwarf whore in King's Landing[8]
- a dwarf jester in service at Skyreach[8]
- a female dwarf amongst the silent sisters[8]
- small dwarfs in the House of the Undying, including a servitor
Quotes
Did I offend you? Sorry. Dwarfs don't have to be tactful. Generations of capering fools in motley have won me the right to dress badly and say any damn thing that comes into my head.[4]
—Tyrion Lannister, to Jon Snow
—Tyrion Lannister, to Jon Snow
Had I been born a peasant, they might have left me out to die, or sold me to some slaver's grotesquerie. Alas, I was born a Lannister of Casterly Rock, and the grotesqueries are all the poorer.[2]
—Tyrion Lannister, to Jon Snow
Cersei: Father, I beg you to put him in fetters, for your own protection. You see how he is.
Oberyn: I see he's a dwarf. The day I fear a dwarf's wrath is the day I drown myself in a cask of red.[24]
If she [executed the killers], the next man might hesitate and let the Imp slip the net. She would pile dead dwarfs ten feet high before she let that happen.[17]
—thoughts of Cersei Lannister
You are insolent. I like that in a dwarf.[25]
When there were kings on the Sisters, we did not suffer dwarfs to live. We cast them all into the sea, as an offering to the gods. The septons made us stop that. A pack of pious fools. Why would the gods give a man such a shape but to mark him as a monster?[1]
Cities were where most dwarfs ended up, even those whelped by Goodwife Bumpkin in the turnip patch. The countryside had no grotesqueries or mummer shows... though it did have wells aplenty, to swallow up unwanted kittens, three-headed calves, and babes like him.[3]
—thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
—Tywin Lannister, to a young Tyrion Lannister
You mustn't mock him. Don't you know anything? You can't talk that way to a big person. They can hurt you. Ser Jorah could have tossed you in the sea. The sailors would have laughed to see you drown. You have to be careful around big people. Be jolly and playful with them, keep them smiling, make them laugh, that's what my father always said. Didn't your father ever tell you how to act with big people?[7]
—Penny, to Tyrion Lannister
You're brave. Little people can be brave.[26]
—Penny, to Tyrion Lannister
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 9, Davos I.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 13, Tyrion II.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 14, Tyrion IV.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 3, Daenerys I.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Winds of Winter, Mercy
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 52, Daenerys IX.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 40, Tyrion IX.
- ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 33, Tyrion VIII.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon V.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 23, Daenerys IV.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 4, Tyrion I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 38, Tyrion V.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 70, Tyrion X.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 77, Tyrion XI.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 7, Cersei II.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 17, Cersei IV.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 36, Cersei VIII.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 27, Tyrion VII.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Viserys I.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon - A Question of Succession.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 9, Brienne II.
- ↑ The Mystery Knight.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 66, Tyrion IX.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 1, Tyrion I.
- ↑ The Winds of Winter, Chapter , Tyrion.