Marillion

Marillion is a Westerosi singer and songwriter. He is a handsome man who travels to King’s Landing After Lord Eddard Stark becomes the Hand of the King. Though he makes a ton of fortune, he loses everything after placing a wrong gamble on Ser Jaime Lannister. After the tourney, he travels to an inn, where he meets Lady Catelyn Stark. After Cat arrests Tyrion Lannister for the attempted assassination of Bran Stark, the singer asks to follow her and learn of the outcome. He then stays back at the Eyrie and becomes friends with Lysa Tully.

Marillion Details

• Name: Marillion.
• Occupation: Musician.
• Culture: Andal.
• Religion: Faith of the Seven.
• Year of Birth: 279 or 280 AC. 
• Year of Death: 300 AC at the Eyrie.
• Hair Color: Brown.

Appearance and Personality

Marillion is a slender-framed man with long, brown curled hair, good looks, and a beautiful smile. He looks boyish with a slightly protruding mustache, and his skin is smooth as silk. His tenor voice is riveting and commanding, and he plays the woodharp. Though good-looking, Marillion has a vain sense of humor and could come off as arrogant or condescending to many.

Biography

Though there is little about Marillion’s childhood, he became a famed singer and stayed at King’s Landing for Prince Joffrey Baratheon’s name day tourney. Though he amassed a fortune by singing at the event, he lost everything when he gambled on Ser Jaime Lannister beating Ser Loras Tyrell in a joust.

Relevance In A Song of Ice and Fire

A Game of Thrones

After the sudden death of Lord Jon Arryn, King Robert Baratheon travels to Winterfell and asks Eddard Stark to become the Hand of the King. Upon agreeing to the request, Robert throws the Hand’s tourney and invites many nobles to the event. While traveling to King’s Landing for the tourney, Marillion meets Lady Catelyn Stark and Ser Rodrik Cassel in the Inn at the Crossroads. He tells Cat he is friends with her brother Edmure Tully and says a chamber for kept for him at Riverrun.

When Tyrion Lannister arrives at the Crossroads Inn from Castle Black, he meets Catelyn, who accuses him of attempting to assassinate her son. She asks the men around her to aid in arresting him, and Marillion asks to follow the group. Realizing Winterfell would not be ideal, Catelyn takes Tyrion to the Vale of Arryn. En route to the Vale, the group gets attacked by the Mountain Clans, and during the conflict, Marillion gets into an accident, breaking his ribs and four fingers. 

To ensure he does not get killed, Tyrion tells him to play dead. After the battle, the singer collects a shadowskin cloak from the deaf chief of the clan. However, he later lost it to Tyrion in a dice game. He continues the journey with Catelyn, arriving at the Eyrie. When Tyrion asks to pick a champion and gets denied, he asks Marillion to sing a song about the event forcing Lady Lysa to let him choose his fighter. Bronn wins the trial, and the Lannister gets freed.

A Storm of Swords

Though Catelyn leaves the Eyrie, Marillion remains at the castle. He becomes Lady Lysa and her son, Lord Robert Arryn’s favorite. For his services, the Lady of the Vale gives him a gold arm ring, a fine horse, a belt laced with moonstones, costly clothes, and the favorite falcon of Lord Jon Arryn. Because his songs mock other lords, he gets disliked at court. 

Marillion attends the wedding of Lysa and Lord Petyr Baelish at the Baelish tower in the Fingers. He sings many songs, including ‘Two Hearts that Beat as One,’ ‘The Vow Unspoken,’ and ‘Milady’s Supper.’ At the event, he tries seducing Alayne Stone, Littlefinger’s bastard daughter. However, he did not know she was Sansa Stark and got injured by Ser Lothor Brune, who defended the girl. After the incident, Sansa notices the singer focuses on her while making music. When two serving girls accuse him of improper conduct, Lysa sends the maids away, saying they told lies.

When Lysa sees Petyr kissing Sansa, she orders Marillion to bring the girl to her. The Lady of the Vle tells Sansa she knows who she is and reveals how she and Petyr planned the conflict between the Lannisters and Starks. She accuses Sansa of being interested in Marillion and tries to harm her by pushing her through the Moon Door. She asks the singer to perform a song to stop anyone from hearing them. Before Sansa gets pushed, Petyr comes in and saves her. He then throws Lysa through the Moon Door and tells Sansa to lie that Marillion did it.

A Feast for Crows

After his arrest, Marillion gets tortured by Mord. He gets blinded, and three of his fingers get cut off. With the intense torture, he agrees to admit to killing Lysa. While in the sky cells, he sings sad songs that haunt Sansa. Lord Robert Aryyn asks for the singer to get killed as he develops a hatred for music after his mother’s death.

When some lords arrive to investigate Lysa’s death, Marillion confesses to killing her after learning of her plans to send him away. His wounds get covered up to prevent anyone from seeing the severity, and after the questioning, Sansa reveals to young Robert that the singer had died by walking out of the sky cells. However, the young lord protests, saying he still hears him. Myranda Royce later reveals she slept with Marillion because she liked him.

Relevance in Adaptation

In HBO’s Game of Thrones, Emun Elliot portrayed Marillion. He was a singer in the Seven Kingdoms who got his tongue cut out by Ser Ilyn Payne on Joffrey’s orders for singing about King Robert and Queen Cersei. He appeared in season 1 and starred in 4 episodes.

Marillion: An Unfortunate Musician

Though Marillion was arrogant and vile, he did not deserve the level of suffering he got. He was an innocent bystander who got caught in the crossfire of the Game of Thrones. After watching Petyr throw Lysa through the Moon Door, he could not defend himself because the words of a lord are always supreme to that of a commoner; this showed just how skewed politics was in the Seven Kingdoms.

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