A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object called a puppet.
Culture
Puppeteers often travel from place to place in Westeros and Essos.[1] While singers often travel alone,[2] mummers and puppeteers travel in troupes, performing their acts wherever they go.[1][3][4]
History
Queen Rhaenys Targaryen was a great supporter of artists, including many singers, mummers, and puppeteers.[5]
The Goodwife, the first fool at King Jaehaerys I and Queen Alysanne Targaryen's court in the Red Keep, would say ribald, shocking things with his wooden "children", a pair of carved puppets.[6] When Alysanne relocated to Dragonstone for her second pregnancy, she brought her lady companions and the Goodwife to entertain them.[7]
In 209 AC at the tourney at Ashford Meadow, a troupe of Dornish puppeteers, including Tanselle and her her uncle, came to perform for the crowd with their wooden puppets, which had been carved by Tanselle's uncle and painted by Tanselle. The puppeteers performed several puppet shows, including the stories of Florian and Jonquil, Nymeria and her ten thousand ships, Symeon Star-Eyes, and a knight defeating a dragon.[1]
The first night of the tourney, Prince Aerion Targaryen saw the puppeteers and took issue with the dragon's death, calling it treason, an instigation against the royal House Targaryen (whose sigil is a dragon). Aerion had the puppets destroyed by his men-at-arms, and attacked the puppeteers, including Tanselle, breaking her fingers. Tanselle was saved by Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight, but he was imprisoned for striking a royal prince, and had to face a trial of seven. The puppeteers, including Tanselle and her uncle, left for Dorne before the trial started.[1]
After the trial, Ser Duncan and his squire Egg sought Tanselle by visiting "a hundred" puppet shows in Dorne for about a year, but to no avail.[8]
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
When Catelyn Stark visits Lysa Arryn's apartments in the Eyrie just before Tyrion Lannister's trial by combat, the young Lord Robert Arryn is in a chair on an elevated platform being entertained by a puppeteer making wooden knights fight.[9]
A Feast for Crows
Queen Regent Cersei Lannister is informed by her Master of Whisperers Qyburn of a puppet show that has recently become popular amongst the smallfolk of King's Landing depicting a dragon devouring a pack of greedy and arrogant lions. Cersei commands Qyburn to check the audience, fine any wealthy attendees, have poor ones lose an eye for watching treason, and execute the four puppeteers. Upon Qyburn's request, Cersei allows him to take two female puppeteers for research purposes in the black cells where he has been experimenting on the body of Gregor Clegane.[10] Qyburn later tells Cersei the puppeteers have been "quite used up".[11]
Puppeteers are among the entertainers at Queen Margaery Tyrell's court in the Maidenvault of the Red Keep.[12]
Known puppeteers
Quotes
As he ate he watched a painted wooden knight battle a painted wooden dragon. The puppeteer who worked the dragon was good to watch too; a tall drink of water, with the olive skin and black hair of Dorne. She was slim as a lance with no breasts to speak of, but Dunk liked her face and the way her fingers made the dragon snap and slither at the end of its strings.[1]
—thoughts of Duncan the Tall
Dunk stopped to watch the wooden dragon slain. When the puppet knight cut its head off and the red sawdust spilled out onto the grass, he laughed aloud and threw the girl two coppers.[1]
—thoughts of Duncan the Tall
They wandered for a time, listening to a sprightly air on pipes and drums and watching a puppet show about Nymeria, the warrior queen with the ten thousand ships. The puppeteers had only two ships, but managed a rousing sea battle all the same.[1]
—thoughts of Duncan the Tall
Dunk: I have never been over the Red Mountains. Would you like to have a look at Dorne?
Egg: I hear they have good puppet shows.[1]—Duncan the Tall and Egg
Lord Robert shrieked with delight as one of the puppet knights sliced the other in half, spilling a flood of red sawdust onto the terrace.[9]
—thoughts of Catelyn Stark
Qyburn: The puppet lions grow greedy and arrogant as this treasonous tale proceeds, until they begin to devour their own subjects. When the noble stag makes objection, the lions devour him as well, and roar that it is their right as the mightiest of beasts.
Cersei: And is that the end of it?
Cersei: Witless fools. Only cretins would hazard their heads upon a wooden dragon.[10]
Qyburn: No, Your Grace. At the end a dragon hatches from an egg and devours all of the lions.
—Qyburn and Cersei Lannister
Behind the Scenes
George R. R. Martin grew up watching classic television puppet shows, including Howdy Doody and Andy's Gang.[13] A puppet character from Andy's Gang, Froggy the Gremlin, whose catchphrase was "Hiya, kids! Hiya, hiya, hiya!" was used by Martin as a "userpic" on his LiveJournal Not A Blog, and became a symbol for him to give casting clues for Game of Thrones.[14][15] Even after Martin's blog moved to his own website, he continued to use the Froggy profile picture for occasional casting announcements, such as for House of the Dragon.[16]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 The Hedge Knight.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 10, Sansa I.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 44, Tyrion X.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 33, Tyrion VIII.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, Aegon's Conquest.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Fire & Blood, A Time of Testing - The Realm Remade.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, Jaehaerys and Alysanne - Their Triumphs and Tragedies.
- ↑ The Sworn Sword.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 40, Catelyn VII.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 24, Cersei V.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 32, Cersei VII.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 28, Cersei VI.
- ↑ Martin, George R. R. (September 18, 2008). "The Light of Distant Stars". Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective. Orion. ISBN 978-0-575-08612-8.
- ↑ Martin, George R. R. (May 9, 2010). "And Now For Something Completely Different...". Not A Blog. https://grrm.livejournal.com/152578.html.
- ↑ Martin, George R. R. (July 16, 2010). "Two Out of Three". Not A Blog. https://grrm.livejournal.com/164317.html.
- ↑ Martin, George R. R. (April 15, 2021). "Comes A Swordsman". Not A Blog. https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2021/04/15/comes-a-swordsman/.