Grotesquerie
A grotesquerie is a collection of "grotesques", deformed or freakish people,[1] and occasional curious specimens.[2] Grotesqueries are often owned by slavers.[3]
Contents
Culture
Smallfolk often quietly kill dwarf infants, or sell them to a slaver's grotesquerie.[3][4]
Purported "centaur skeletons" occasionally turn up in grotesqueries.[2]
One of the triarchs of Volantis has a grotesquerie.[5]
Yezzan's grotequerie
Yezzan zo Qaggaz, a Wise Master of Yunkai and an extremely wealthy slave trader, is obsessed with grotesques. He often purchases slaves with physical deformities to add to his "collection". Yezzan's grotequerie includes a boy with hairy, deformed legs resembling a goat's legs, a bearded woman, a feeble-minded two-headed girl from Mantarys, and a hermaphrodite named Sweets, who also sleeps with him.[1][6] Yezzan used to own a giant, who he would make copulate with slave women so he could watch. However, the giant died, and Yezzan would pay much gold to acquire a new one.[1] The slaves in Yezzan's collection wear gilded iron collars, with his name incised in Valyrian glyphs; a pair of tiny bells are affixed below the ears, so the wearer produces a tinkling sound with every step.[6]
Recent events
A Game of Thrones
When talking to Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister reflects on his dwarfism, and states that had he been born a peasant, he might have been sold to some slaver's grotesquerie.[3]
A Clash of Kings
When meeting Tyrion Lannister during the tourney on King Joffrey's nameday, Sansa Stark muses that Tyrion walks like something out of a grotesquerie.[7]
After Queen Cersei tells Tyrion she has found his mistress, Tyrion tells himself he must be hard and unmoving to pass this test, or else he had better seek out a grotesquerie.[8]
A Dance with Dragons
When Haldon challenges Qavo Nogarys to a game of cyvasse with Tyrion, Nogarys asks if Tyrion is for sale, as one of the Triarchs of Volantis is seeking to purchase a cyvasse-playing dwarf for his grotesquerie.[5]
During the Windblown's march to Meereen, Dick Straw tells Quentyn Martell some of the gossip about Yezzan zo Qaggaz and his passion for grotesques.[1]
After Tyrion, Penny, and Jorah Mormont are captured by slavers, they are bought by Yezzan outside of Meereen. The dwarfs Tyrion and Penny are added to Yezzan's grotesquerie, and are made to perform before his guests.[6]
Yezzan becomes deathly ill from the pale mare epidemic, and Tyrion, Penny, and Jorah escape to the camp of the Second Sons during the chaos.[9] Afterwards, when Penny listlessly says they were better off with Yezzan, Tyrion lies to her about the rest of Yezzan's "treasures", saying that all of them fell victim to the pale mare, though he does not know their actual fate.[10]
Quotes
Jaime: Even if the boy does live, he will be a cripple. Worse than a cripple. A grotesque. Give me a good clean death.
Tyrion: Speaking for the grotesques, I beg to differ. Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.[11]—Jaime and Tyrion Lannister
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.[3]
—Tyrion Lannister, to Jon Snow
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.[4]
—thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
Sweets: You are trying to decide if I'm a man or woman. I'm both, and master loves me best.
Tyrion (thinking): A grotesquerie. Somewhere some god is laughing.[6]—Sweets and Tyrion Lannister
See also
- Menagerie, a collection of animals, often exotic ones.
Behind the scenes
In the real world, since at least the medieval period, deformed people have often been treated as objects of interest and entertainment, and have been collected by royalty or exhibited to crowds.[12][13]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 25, The Windblown.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Beyond the Sunset Kingdom: Beyond the Free Cities (The Grasslands).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 13, Tyrion II.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 14, Tyrion IV.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 22, Tyrion VI.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 47, Tyrion X.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 2, Sansa I.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 54, Tyrion XII.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 57, Tyrion XI.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 66, Tyrion XII.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 9, Tyrion I.
- ↑ Wikipedia: Freak show
- ↑ Lo the Lynx: The Grotesqueries of Planatos