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Chapter 55: Catelyn
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Game of Thrones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics and Power
Climate Change and Collective Action
Gender and Power
Honor and Integrity
Identity
Summary
Analysis
Tyrion travels with about 300 people from various mountain clans. He’s not sure whether he’s their captive or commander. Often, it feels like a little bit of both. On a mountain ridge, they spy an army of about 20,000 men holding banners adorned with lions. It’s a Lannister battalion. Tyrion says that as soon as they find his father, everything he promised the mountain clans will be theirs. He goes on horseback with Bronn and three representatives from different mountain clans to try and find his father, Tywin. Everyone Tyrion meets is surprised to see him. They have heard he was either Catelyn’s captive or that he had died. When Tyrion finds Tywin at a nearby inn, Tywin tells Tyrion everything that has happened since Tyrion’s arrest, including Robert’s death, Ned’s imprisonment, and the mobilization of the Stark army
If the Stark family is largely defined by their commitment to honor and integrity, the Lannisters display a propensity for ingenuity. Tyrion used his cunning first to escape from Catelyn and Lysa and then to traverse miles of dangerous terrain, amassing a small battalion of his own in the process. The novel suggests that honor and integrity are required to be a good leader, while ingenuity is required to get ahead in politics and achieve power. With that in mind, the novel ultimately suggests that the most successful leaders are those who possess both integrity and ingenuity.
Themes
Tyrion tells Tywin that he has debts to settle. He needs weapons and armor, along with wagons to carry it all, for 3,000 people of the mountain clans so they can stage a war in the Vale. Just then, the representatives from the mountain clans, Ulf and Shagga, barge into the room with Bronn. Tywin then receives a message that the Stark army is moving from Cailin’s Moat. Tywin tells Ulf and Shagga that if they and their men join his army, they’ll get everything Tyrion promised them and more—that is, unless they’re afraid of the Starks, Tywin says. Ulf and Shagga say they and their forces will join the Lannister army, and Tyrion’s life will belong to them until the Lannister promises are fulfilled.
Tywin displays the same kind of ingenuity as Tyrion. When approaching a potential confrontation with the representatives from the mountain clans, Tywin uses his cunning (and the promise of money) to enlist the mountain clans in his fight against the Starks. The fact that both Tywin and Tyrion promise money to get what they want shows why they use the phrase, “A Lannister always pays his debts.” That phrase also suggests a kind of integrity—never stealing from another person—though that version of integrity differs from the more all-encompassing kind of integrity practiced by Ned.
Themes
