Wenches, or serving girls, are serving women of common origin.[1] They are usually young women, though there are some older wenches.[2]
The term can also refer to young women regardless of their profession[3][4] or upbringing,[5][6][7][8] sometimes in a derogatory sense.[9][10]
Culture
[edit]Some highborn ladies look down upon wenches because of their lower birth.[11][12] The term can have a connotation of promiscuity.[13]
The Salty Wench is a longship captained by Quenton Greyjoy.[14] Warrior Wench is a longship of the Iron Fleet.[15]
History
[edit]The author of A Caution for Young Girls claimed to have spent part of her life as a serving wench in Myr.[16]
Viserra Targaryen was taken by her friends to see inns along Eel Alley and River Row where serving wenches danced on tables.[17]
Munkun alleged that Alys Rivers was a serving wench who dabbled in potions and spells.[18]
King Aegon IV Targaryen legitimized all of his bastards on his deathbed, even those he had fathered on tavern wenches.[19][20]
Cotter Pyke is the son of a tavern wench.[21] Lynora Hill is the daughter of Ser Jason Lannister and a serving girl.[22]
Cersei Lannister once dressed as a simple serving wench to meet with her brother, Ser Jaime Lannister, at an old inn on Eel Alley.[23]
King Robert I Baratheon fathered Gendry on a tavern wench.[24] He is also alleged to have fathered twins on a serving wench at Casterly Rock; when Queen Cersei found out, she had the babes killed and the mother sold to a slaver.[25]
Recent Events
[edit]A Game of Thrones
[edit]Tobho Mott employs a slim serving girl in his shop.[24]
A Clash of Kings
[edit]
During the harvest feast of Winterfell, Mors and his brother Hother Umber play a drinking game, and when a spinning skirl is started, Mors tosses an embarrassed serving girl in the air.[26]
During the feast at Bitterbridge, Lord Varner dandles a serving girl.[1]
Tyrion Lannister catches Grand Maester Pycelle abed with his serving girl, who earns the interest of Shagga, but the young girl is scared by the clansman.[27]
Arya Stark overhears Maester Tothmure's serving girl tell her brother about the letter concerning the illegitimacy of Queen Cersei's children with King Robert.[28]
To better protect Shae, Tyrion suggests having his concubine serve at the Red Keep. Shae objects to becoming a kitchen wench, however, and Varys instead arranges for her to become a maidservant to Lollys Stokeworth.[29]
The Kettleblack brothers get on well with the serving wenches at the Red Keep.[30]
A Storm of Swords
[edit]Ser Jaime Lannister denigrates Brienne of Tarth by repeatedly referring to her as a wench.[9][23] While traveling through lands of House Bracken, Ser Cleos Frey points out tavern wenches hanged by a burned inn for having slept with westermen during the War of the Five Kings.[9]
Tansy, the innkeep at the Peach in Stoney Sept, teases Gendry by saying that Alyce, a serving girl, would take his virginity.[31]
Tyrion Lannister considers having his lover, Shae, who is disguised as a serving girl, wed Tallad in order to protect her from his sister, Queen Cersei.[32]
A Feast for Crows
[edit]All of the serving wenches at the Quill and Tankard dote on Alleras.[2]
During the dinner held at Darry for Jaime, Kennos of Kayce pulls a serving girl into his lap.[33]
While Arianne Martell is confined in the Spear Tower, she convinces the young serving girl Cedra to help smuggle a letter to Lord Franklyn Fowler by telling her that she worries about Garin during his imprisonment.[34]
A Dance with Dragons
[edit]Lord Wyman Manderly reveals to Lord Davos Seaworth that Ramsay Bolton hunts wenches in the woods near the Dreadfort, with only a few women managing to escape.[35]
When a Bolton guard asks Theon Greyjoy what happened to the usual servant girls like Jez and Maisie, Theon says they are not attending Lady Arya Stark because they did not keep her water warm.[36]
Quotes
[edit]I am planning to make you run the kingdom and fight the wars while I eat and drink and wench myself into an early grave.[13]
I am not accustomed to being summoned like a serving wench.[37]
Two serving wenches stood beneath the sign of the Smoking Log, the local alehouse. When Theon Greyjoy called out to them, the younger girl turned red and covered her face.[38]
—thoughts of Bran Stark
Cletus: This will be a tale to tell our grandchildren.
Willam: A tale to tell tavern wenches, you mean, in hopes they'll lift their skirts. For grandchildren, you need children. For children, you need to lift some skirts.[40]
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 22, Catelyn II.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Feast for Crows, Prologue.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 32, Reek III.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 15, Tyrion III.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, Aftermath - The Hour of the Wolf.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 35, Catelyn IV.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 48, Jaime I.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 56, The Iron Suitor.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 1, Jaime I.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 4, Brienne I.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 28, Catelyn V.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 65, Cersei II.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 4, Eddard I.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 26, The Wayward Bride.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 63, Victarion I.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, A Surfeit of Rulers.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - A Son for a Son.
- ↑ The Sworn Sword.
- ↑ The Mystery Knight.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 19, Jon III.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Appendix: Lannister Lineage.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 11, Jaime II.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 27, Eddard VI.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 35, Eddard IX.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 21, Bran III.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 25, Tyrion VI.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 30, Arya VII.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 44, Tyrion X.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 60, Sansa VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 29, Arya V.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 58, Tyrion VII.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 30, Jaime IV.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 40, Princess In The Tower.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 29, Davos IV.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 51, Theon I.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 18, Catelyn IV.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 37, Bran V.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 68, Sansa VI.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 6, The Merchant's Man.