The Song of the Lions

The Song of the Lions is a piece of music that haunts Tyrion Lannister throughout his journey in A Dance with Dragons. It is a song he once knew, a tune that surfaces in his memory at moments of profound despair and self-loathing, becoming a leitmotif for his shattered sense of love, honor, and identity. The song's lyrics, which he recalls in fragments, tell a story of a man who rides through a city to a woman's sigh, a secret treasure who is both his shame and his bliss. The refrain, "Hands of gold are always cold, but a woman's hands are warm," becomes a bitter, ironic mantra for Tyrion, a man who has killed the woman he loved with a chain of golden hands.

Origin and Context

The song is first mentioned in the context of Tyrion's confession to Penny, the dwarf girl who blames him for her brother's death. When she asks if he truly cooked a singer in a stew, Tyrion admits it was a lie, but explains that the singer, Symon Silver Tongue, wrote a song about him. The song in question is "The Song of the Lions." Tyrion recalls the words: "For she was his secret treasure, she was his shame and his bliss. And a chain and a keep are nothing, compared to a woman's kiss." This memory is immediately followed by the brutal recollection of Shae's death, as he twisted the golden chain around her throat. The song thus becomes a direct link between the idealized, romanticized version of love and the horrific, violent reality of his actions.

Thematic Significance

The Song of the Lions functions as a powerful symbol of Tyrion's internal conflict and his corrupted worldview. The song's romantic ideal—that a woman's love is worth more than any material wealth—is brutally subverted by his own experience. The "hands of gold" that are "always cold" refer both to the literal golden hands of the chain he used to kill Shae and to the cold, transactional nature of the relationships he has known. The song's promise of warmth and love is a lie, just as he believes Tysha's love was a lie. It encapsulates his cynicism and his despair, a constant reminder of the gulf between the songs he heard as a boy and the grim reality of his life as a kinslayer and a murderer. The song is not just a memory; it is a wound that will not heal, a tune that plays in the background of his darkest thoughts as he wanders across the world, asking the question that defines his quest: "Where do whores go?"