Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion Lannister is a member of House Lannister and the youngest child of Lord Tywin Lannister. Tyrion got hated by his father and sister, Cersei Lannister, as his birth led to the death of Lady Joanna Lannister. Though he was a disgrace in his father’s eyes, he was among the most intelligent people in the Seven Kingdoms; this led to him becoming the Master of Coin and the acting Hand of the King.

Tyrion Lannister Personal Details

• Name: Tyrion Lannister.
• Year of Birth: 273 AC at Casterly Rock.
• Personal Arms: A golden hand in a circle of golden lions on a red background.
• Parents: Lord Tywin Lannister and Lady Joanna Lannister.
• Titles: Acting Hand of the King, Master of Coin.
• Aliases: Halfman, The Imp, Boyman, Lord Imp, Lord Tywin’s Bane, Giant of Lannister, Lord Tywin’s Doom, Yollo, No-Nose, Freak, Redhands, Hugor Hill, Hugor Halfwit, Ser Imp, The Bloody Hand, Monkey Demon, The Demonic Dwarf.
• Allegiances: House Lannister, Second Sons.
• Wives: Tysha, Sansa Stark.
• Lover: Shae.
• Culture: Westermen.
• Religion: Faith of the Seven.
• Eye Color: Black and Green.
• Hair Color: Blond.

Appearance and Personality

Tyrion is an ugly dwarf with mismatched green and black eyes. He has a protruding forehead and short fingers. As his eyes do not match, there are rumors that his black eye is evil. Tyrion has blond-white hair with black strands, and when he grows out his beard, it is a mix of yellow, white, and black. Though mocked for his appearance, Tyrion is intelligent and well-read. Though he is not a knight, he has experience with weapons and shows bravery during battles.

As the scorn of House Lannister, Tyrion gets no respect from his father and sister. His brother, Jaime, respects and cares about him, but he still craves his father’s approval and love. Cersei’s hatred for Tyrion worsened when Maggy the Frog told her a prophecy of a Volonquar ending her life. When she learned the word meant little brother in High Valyrian, her brother became her sworn enemy.

Biography

Early Life

Tyrion was born in Casterly Rock as Tywin Lannister and Lady Joanna Lannister’s third child. His mother died during his birth, leading his father to hate and blame him for what happened. After his birth, many rumors spread through Westeros, with tales of him being a monster with thick black hair, a tail, a huge head, and male and female generals circulating Oldtown. King Aerys II Targaryen mocked Tywin for his son’s birth, claiming it was a punishment from the gods. 

Shortly after Tyrion’s birth, the Princess of Dorne traveled to Casterly Rock to seek a match for her children, Oberyn Martell and Elia Martell. Cersei showed the Martell siblings her infant brother and stated he would die soon. When Tywin refused the Princesses’ proposal to wed Cersei or Jaime to her children, he offered Tyrion to Elia. However, the proposal got rejected.

Childhood

Tyrion suffered from extreme loneliness as a child. As his father was the Hand of the King, he served in King’s Landing with Cersei in the royal court, and Jaime served as a squire at Crakehall. When he was six, Tyrion learned tumbling from one of his uncles. However, his father forbade him from doing it. Due to loneliness, Tyrion heavily fantasized about having a dragon. He started fires pretending they were dragonflame and acted like he were a dragonlord or Targaryen princeling from Valyria. 

In 281 AC, Lord Tywin and Lord Hoster Tully agreed to wed their children Jaime and Lysa. However, Cersei told Jaime, her lover, and concocted a plan for him to be with her. When Jaime joined the Kingsguard to be with his sister, his father got furious and resigned from being the Hand of the King. He also proposed that Tyrion could replace Jaime, but Lord Hoster Tully stated his daughter needed a whole man instead. For more years, Tyrion’s father tried wedding him to daughters of lords and knights, including Lord Yohn Royce, Leyton Hightower, and Ser Colin Florent. However, his proposals got rejected.

Wedding

At age thirteen, Tyrion and his brother Jaime rescued a girl, Tysha, from some bandits. After caring for her, she fell in love with Tyrion, and they made love. Tyrion bribed a septon to wed him and Tysha, and they lived in a small cottage by the sunset sea. 

Two weeks later, the septon told Lord Tywin what had happened. Tywin forced Jaime to accuse Tysha of being a prostitute he hired to take his brother’s virginity. He then ordered Lannister guards to rape her for a silver coin. After the guards finished, Tyrion got forced to rape his wife with a gold coin, and his father had the septons nullify the marriage.

Though broken by what happened to Tysha, life continued as Tywin chased the young girl from Casterly Rock. When Tyrion clocked sixteen, he wanted to tour the Free Cities of Essos, but his father refused because of his previous wedding.

Relevance in A Song of Ice and Fire

A Game of Thrones

When Lord Jon Arryn suddenly dies, King Robert Baratheon travels to Winterfell to ask Lord Eddard Stark to be the Hand of the King. During the feast for the King’s arrival, Jon Snow, Lord Stark’s bastard son, gets mocked for wanting to join the Night’s Watch. Tyrion meets him and advises him to prevent others’ insults from becoming his weakness. When Bran Stark falls from a tower, Tyrion watches his siblings’ reactions as he suspects them. 

When the royal family leaves for King’s Landing, Tyrion joins Benjen Stark and Jon on a journey to the Wall. On seeing the poor state of the Watch, he agrees to appeal to the King on Lord Commander Jeor Mormont’s behalf. After promising to help Bran, Tyrion travels back to Winterfell, where he receives a hostile welcome from Robb Stark. He gives Maester Luwin plans for a special saddle to help Bran ride a horse and leaves for the Inn at the Crossroads. 

Tyrion meets Lady Catelyn Stark, who asks the men at the Inn to help her arrest him for allegedly trying to kill her son. Lady Stark takes Tyrion to the Eyrie, but on the way, they get attacked by members of the Mountain Clan. On reaching the Eyrie, Lady Lysa Arryn accuses Tyrion of killing her husband and locks him up in one of the sky-cells. After bribing Mord, Tyrion asks for a trial by combat. With help from Bronn, Lysa’s champion, Ser Vardis Egen, gets killed, and Tyrion is set free. 

Tyrion recruits the men of the Mountain Clans to his cause. He joins his father’s host and gets a new squire Podrick Payne. he also meets Shae, a whore. After the Battle of the Green Fork, Tyrion learns his brother got captured at the Battle of the Whispering Woods. On learning of Lord Ned Stark’s death, Tywin sends Tyrion to King’s Landing to serve as the acting Hand of the King as he does not trust the people on the small council, Lord Petyr Baelish, Varys, and Grand Maester Pycelle. 

A Clash of Kings

Tyrion and his sister struggle for power when he reaches King’s Landing. He moves into the Tower of the Hand and joins Lord Varys to replace Lord Janos Slynt with Ser Jacelyn Bywater as Commander of the City Watch. He also creates a plot to discover Cersei’s informant on the small council and arrests Pycelle when the plan succeeds. Tyrion then sends his niece Princess Myrcella Baratheon to Dorne to get betrothed to Tyrstane Martell. He offers Doran Martell a position on the small council. 

While returning from Myrcella’s send-forth, a riot occurs, and the High Septon gets killed. When Joffrey orders the members of his kingsguards to beat Sansa for her brother’s actions, Tyrion orders his men to protect her. With Shae following him to King’s Landing, Tyrion hides her and threatens his sister. When Ser Cleos Frey brings peace terms from Robb Stark, Tyrion rejects them and sends an envoy to free his brother. However, his plans fail. 

When Renly Baratheon gets murdered by a mysterious assassin, his brother Stannis Baratheon takes Storm’s end and sails for King’s Landing. To secure an alliance with the Tyrells, Tyrion sends Petyr, Littlefinger, with an offer of wedding Margaery Tyrell to Joffrey. Stannis then attacks King’s Landing as the Battle of the Blackwater begins. 

When Sandor Clegane, the Hound, leaves the battlefield, Tyrion leads the men instead. He almost gets killed by Ser Mandon Moore, who slices off his nose, but Podrick Payne saves him. The Tyrells and Tywin come to the rescue, and Stannis gets defeated.

A Storm of Swords

After the Battle of the Blackwater, Tyrion gets forced to marry Sansa Stark to prevent the Tyrells from wedding her to Willas Tyrell. He refuses to consummate the marriage and becomes a laughingstock. When Symon Silver Tongue tries blackmailing him, Tyrion orders Bronn to kill him. 

The royal wedding gets held in the Great Sept of Baelor, and when Tyrion gives Joffrey a rare book, the King carves on the book with his Valyrian steel sword, the Widow’s Wail. During the wedding feast, Joffrey mocks his uncle, telling him to sing with the dwarves, and when he dies from getting poisoned, Tyrion gets accused of murder. 

Shae testifies against Tyrion, and in anger, he requests a trial by combat. Oberyn Martell agrees to be Tyrion’s champion and fights against Ser Gregor Clegane but loses. The night before he gets executed, Jaime visits him and tells him of a plan to leave Westeros. 

Jaime reveals to his brother how their father forced him to lie that Tysha was a prostitute. In retaliation, Tyrion tells his brother of all the men Cersei slept with. While leaving the Red Keep, Tyrion sneaks into the Tower of the Hand and sees Shae in his father’s chambers. He strangles her and confronts his father about his wife, Tysha. When Tywin mocks her, Tyrion shoots him with a crossbow.

A Feast for Crows

After Tywin’s death, Cersei offers a lordship reward to anyone that brings her brother’s head; this leads to the massive murders of many male dwarves throughout the Seven Kingdoms.

A Dance with Dragons

Tyrion travels to Pentos, where he meets Magister Illyrio Mopatis. The magister tells him of joining Daenerys Targaryen’s cause and puts him on a ship headed for Meereen. Tyrion meets Griff and Young Griff and deduces that Griff is Jon Connington. Jon tells Tyrion that Young Griff is Aegon Targaryen, Rhaegar’s son. 

When some stone men attack the ship, Tyrion almost drowns but gets saved. When he tries gaining some information in Selhorys, he gets captured by Jorah Mormont. Jorah takes Tyrion to Volantis, where they meet the Widow of the Waterfront. Before sailing out of the city, a female dwarf attacks Tyrion. She introduces herself as Penny and narrates how her brother Oppo got killed because of Cersei’s bounty. 

Tyrion becomes friends with Penny, and on the way to Meereen, they get captured by Yunkish slavers. Tyrion and Penny become performers and get taken to the fighting pits of Meereen. Daenerys stops the show when she learns they will get eaten by lions. When their master dies from the bloody flux, Tyrion, Jorah, and Penny try to escape by joining the Second Sons.

Appearance in Adaptation

In HBO’s Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage portrayed Tyrion Lannister. He appeared in seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 and starred in 67 episodes. After arriving at King’s Landing, Tyrion tries to fix the terrible mistakes made by his sister. He protects Sansa in the throne room when Joffrey orders she gets stripped and beaten. After almost getting killed for allegedly killing Joffrey. 

Tyrion leaves Westeros and eventually joins Daenerys. He becomes the Hand of the Queen and advises Dany on how to take the Seven Kingdoms. Varys later warns Tyrion of Daenerys Targaryen, telling him she shows the same symptoms of madness as her father. Dany gets killed by Jon Snow after King’s Landing’s destruction, and Bran becomes King. He makes Tyrion the Hand of the King.

Tyrion Lannister: The Rejected Son

Tyrion Lannister is one of the most unfortunate people in A Song of Ice and Fire. Though he did not cause his mother’s death, his father and sister hated and blamed him for it. He got mocked by everyone and became a monster in the eyes of many simply because he was different. Because he yearned for loved, he softened to anyone that showed an iota of care, leading to a massive betrayal from Shae. However, Forged by difficulty and hardship, Tyrion used his shape wits and continued to push the narrative in his favor.

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