Tower cell
A tower cell is a location where highborn captives can be held.
Contents
Culture
Rather than in an unpleasant dungeon, highborn captives can be given nicer accommodations in a tower cell.[1]
Many castles have tower cells, such as the Red Keep,[2] Winterfell,[3] Riverrun,[1] the Gates of the Moon,[4] and Ashford.[5]
History
After Aegon II Targaryen fed his half-sister Rhaenyra to Sunfyre during the Dance of the Dragons, her ladies-in-waiting were confined to cells in Sea Dragon Tower at Dragonstone to await ransom.[6]
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
Lord Nestor Royce has Tyrion Lannister confined to a tower cell and given meat and mead when he is brought to the Gates of the Moon by Catelyn Stark.[4]
A Clash of Kings
During Lord Tywin Lannister's stay at Harrenhal, three dozen northmen and rivermen captured in the battle on the Green Fork are held in the upper chambers of the Tower of Dread. Arya Stark, disguised as a peasant at Harrenhal, learns that the captive Lord Medger Cerwyn is being treated in a tower cell, where he dies from his wounds.[7]
After forcing Lady Donella Hornwood to marry him, Ramsay Snow locks her in the room of a tower (not a cell) on Hornwood, where he fails to feed her. When Ser Rodrik Cassel eventually smashes down the door to her room in the tower, he finds Donella dead with blood around her mouth and her fingers chewed off.[8]
While the War of the Five Kings rages around him, Ser Jaime Lannister is kept imprisoned in a comfortable tower cell at Riverrun.[1] His brother Tyrion, the acting Hand of the King, orchestrates a plot to free him, during which a thief opens Jaime's cell with a bit of wire.[9] He is soon recaptured, but this time, he is thrown into a dark cell in the dungeons of Riverrun, while Cleos Frey, who was ignorant of the plot, is imprisoned in Jaime's old tower cell.[9]
A Storm of Swords
Lord Rickard Karstark has his men fight their way into one of Riverrun's towers and kill the captive squires Tion Frey and Willem Lannister in their cell.[10]
Following the death of King Joffrey I Baratheon at his royal wedding, Queen Regent Cersei Lannister places Sansa Stark's maids in a tower cell of the Red Keep, while her brother Jaime has Brienne of Tarth thrown in a tower cell for her own protection from Ser Loras Tyrell, who still believes Brienne guilty of Renly Baratheon's regicide.[11]
When Tyrion is imprisoned in a tower cell of the Red Keep for Joffrey's murder, Ser Kevan Lannister allows Podrick Payne to serve Tyrion, and later Podrick brings Tyrion's sellsword friend, Ser Bronn of the Blackwater.[2]
Lord Randyll Tarly takes Maidenpool and locks Lord William Mooton in a tower cell.[12]
A Feast for Crows
After being caught stealing Princess Myrcella Baratheon from Sunspear to crown her Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, Arianne Martell is walked into a pleasantly-appointed cell in the Spear Tower, where she spends several weeks in confinement, condemned to solitude and silence.[13]
Quotes
She did remember Lord Cerwyn, though. His lands had been close to Winterfell, so he and his son Cley had often visited. Yet as fate would have it, he was the only captive who was never seen; he was abed in a tower cell, recovering from a wound. For days and days Arya tried to work out how she might steal past the door guards to see him.[7]
—thoughts of Arya Stark
Catelyn: We granted you the comfort of a tower cell befitting your birth and station. You repaid us by trying to escape.
Jaime: A cell is a cell.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 55, Catelyn VII.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 66, Tyrion IX.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 46, Bran VI.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 34, Catelyn VI.
- ↑ The Hedge Knight.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 30, Arya VII.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 35, Bran V.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 39, Catelyn V.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 20, Catelyn III.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 62, Jaime VII.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 74, Arya XIII.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 40, Princess In The Tower.