Growing Strong

Growing Strong is the official motto of House Tyrell of Highgarden, one of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms. The words appear in the appendix of A Game of Thrones, where they are listed alongside the Tyrell sigil of a golden rose on a grass-green field. Unlike the martial boasts of other houses, the Tyrell words evoke patient, organic growth—a promise of power accumulated not through sudden conquest but through steady cultivation of alliances, wealth, and influence. The motto reflects the house's historical rise from stewards to lords paramount and its characteristic strategy of indirection and long-term consolidation.

Origin and Historical Context

House Tyrell did not begin as kings. During the Age of Heroes, the Tyrells were stewards to the Kings of the Reach, the Gardeners, who claimed descent from Garth Greenhand. When King Mern IX of House Gardener perished with all his line on the Field of Fire during Aegon the Conqueror's wars, his steward, Harlen Tyrell, surrendered Highgarden to the Targaryens. Aegon rewarded him with the castle and dominion over the Reach, making the Tyrells lords paramount of a region they had served but never ruled. The motto "Growing Strong" thus encodes a memory of this ascent: power that grows from service and patience rather than from ancient royal blood.

Thematic Significance

The Tyrell words stand in deliberate contrast to the aggressive slogans of other Great Houses. Where House Lannister declares "Hear Me Roar!" and House Baratheon proclaims "Ours is the Fury," the Tyrells offer an image of slow, deliberate increase—a rose spreading its roots and branches. This botanical metaphor aligns with the house's sigil and with the fertile lands of the Reach, the breadbasket of the Seven Kingdoms. The motto also captures the Tyrells' preferred mode of operation: they wield influence through marriage, trade, and careful political maneuvering rather than through open military confrontation. In the narrative, the Tyrells' most prominent representative, Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers, embodies this cultivated elegance, while his father Mace Tyrell and grandmother Olenna Redwyne pursue power through strategic betrothals and courtly intrigue.

Narrative Role

Though the words themselves appear only in the appendix, the philosophy they encode shapes the Tyrells' actions throughout the story. When Renly Baratheon claims the crown after Robert's death, the Tyrells ally with him, wedding Margaery Tyrell to Renly and providing the military and financial backing of Highgarden. After Renly's death, they pivot swiftly to an alliance with the Lannisters, arranging Margaery's betrothal to King Joffrey. This flexibility—the ability to adapt and grow stronger regardless of which king sits the throne—is the practical expression of "Growing Strong." The motto thus functions as a key to understanding the Tyrells' distinctive political identity: they are not conquerors but cultivators, and their power, like their sigil's rose, is rooted in the soil of patience and strategic patience.