The Song of the Hope

The Song of the Hope is a fragmentary song that recurs as a leitmotif in Tyrion Lannister's narrative arc throughout A Dance with Dragons, serving as a bitter commentary on love, betrayal, and the irredeemable nature of his past. The lyrics, which Tyrion recalls in fragments, tell of a man who rode through a city to a woman's sigh, valuing a kiss over a chain and a keep. The refrain, "Hands of gold are always cold, but a woman's hands are warm," becomes a haunting, ironic counterpoint to Tyrion's own history of violence against the women he loved.

Origin and Context

The song is first introduced in Tyrion's memory as he flees Westeros after killing his father, Tywin Lannister, and his former lover, Shae. Drunk and despairing aboard a ship, he breaks into song, recalling the words: "He rode through the streets of the city, down from his hill on high, O'er the wynds and the steps and the cobbles, he rode to a woman's sigh. 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." The song is immediately juxtaposed with the memory of Shae's death: Tyrion remembers strangling her with a chain of golden hands, the very image of the song's "hands of gold." The narrative then explicitly connects the song to his first wife, Tysha, as he recalls their first kiss, which was sweet and innocent, before his father's men raped her. The song thus becomes a vessel for the memory of both women, conflating the idealized love of Tysha with the purchased affection and violent end of Shae.

Thematic Significance: Betrayed Love and Guilt

The Song of the Hope functions as a leitmotif of betrayed love and the impossibility of redemption. The refrain "Hands of gold are always cold, but a woman's hands are warm" is a direct inversion of Tyrion's experience. He killed Shae with golden hands, and the warmth of her living hands was extinguished by his own. The song's promise of a love that transcends material wealth is cruelly mocked by Tyrion's actions: he valued a chain and a keep (his Lannister inheritance and his position) over the lives of the women who loved him, or whom he believed loved him. The song haunts him precisely because it represents an ideal of love that he has irrevocably destroyed. It is a constant reminder of his own culpability, not just in Shae's murder, but in the destruction of his marriage to Tysha, a crime for which he holds his father and brother responsible, but which he also internalizes as his own failure.

Recurrence and Narrative Function

The song recurs at key moments of Tyrion's despair and self-loathing. After killing his father, he hears Tywin's last words, "Wherever whores go," and the song's refrain becomes intertwined with this question, which Tyrion repeats obsessively. The song is not just a memory; it is a psychological wound that reopens whenever Tyrion confronts his past. On the Shy Maid, as he travels down the Rhoyne, the memory of the song surfaces again, and he thinks of Tysha, wondering "where whores go." The song's association with hope is deeply ironic; for Tyrion, it is a song of lost hope, a reminder of a happiness that was stolen and a love he himself destroyed. It serves as a narrative device to externalize his internal torment, allowing the reader to access the depth of his guilt and the corrosive effect of his past on his present. The song is never sung in full, only in fragments, mirroring the fragmented and incomplete nature of Tyrion's own sense of self and his inability to find closure or peace.