Tysha

Tysha

First wife of Tyrion Lannister

House / Order	None (a crofter's daughter)
Race / Culture
Status	Unknown (in the novels)
Origin	The Westerlands
Born	Unknown
Died	—
Weapon
Fate	Annulled marriage to Tyrion; sent away after a cruel deception by Tywin Lannister; her later whereabouts unknown
Portrayed by

Wherever whores go.

Tysha was a common-born girl, the daughter of a crofter, who became the first wife of Tyrion Lannister. Though she appears only in memory, never on the page in the present narrative, Tysha is one of the most consequential figures in Tyrion's life, and the truth of what was done to her becomes a devastating revelation that helps drive him to commit kinslaying and murder.

Background

When Tyrion was about thirteen, he and his brother Jaime Lannister came upon a girl being assaulted by robbers on a road in the Westerlands. Jaime drove off the attackers while Tyrion stayed to comfort the frightened girl, Tysha. The two spent time together, and the lonely, unloved Tyrion fell deeply in love. Within a fortnight he bribed a hedge knight and a drunken septon and secretly married her, and for a brief time the two lived together as husband and wife, the happiest period of Tyrion's young life.

Tywin's cruelty

When Tywin Lannister learned that his dwarf son had wed a lowborn girl, he was enraged. As a lesson to Tyrion about the difference between a Lannister and a commoner, Tywin told him that Tysha had been no innocent girl at all but a prostitute, that the whole encounter had been arranged by Jaime to give the boy his first experience of a woman, and that her supposed love had been bought and paid for. To drive the lesson home with monstrous cruelty, Tywin had Tysha given over to his guardsmen, each of whom used her in turn and paid her a silver coin, while Tyrion was forced to watch and, finally, made to take his own turn. The marriage was annulled.

The revelation

For years Tyrion believed his father's version, that Tysha had been a hired whore, and the memory poisoned his relations with women and deepened his self-loathing. Only on the night he escaped his own execution, freed by Jaime Lannister, did Jaime confess the truth: Tysha had never been a prostitute. She had been exactly what she seemed, a crofter's daughter who genuinely loved Tyrion, and the cruel story had been Tywin's invention. Devastated and enraged by this revelation and by his brother's complicity, Tyrion turned on Jaime, then sought out his father, whom he killed with a crossbow. When Tyrion demanded to know where Tysha had been sent, Tywin answered dismissively, "wherever whores go," and Tyrion shot him.

Character

Tysha represents lost innocence and the casual cruelty of the powerful toward the powerless. Though she never appears directly in the story, her memory haunts Tyrion Lannister, shapes his bitterness, and ultimately becomes the wound that breaks him. His repeated, anguished question of "where do whores go" echoes through his later chapters as he wanders in exile, half-hoping to find her again.

In the television series

In HBO's Game of Thrones, Tysha appears briefly in flashback dialogue, portrayed by an uncredited actress in early references. The series largely sets aside the later revelation of Jaime's confession and Tyrion's hunt for the truth.

Appearances

• A Game of Thrones (mentioned)
• A Storm of Swords (mentioned)