Game of Thrones Symbolism: The Martells

The House Martell sigil is a red sun pierced by a golden spear on an orange field. It dates back to the warrior-princess Nymeria, who fled Essos and led the Rhoynish people across the Narrow sea. She landed in Dorne, where she married Mors Martell, and together, Nymeria and Mors united the warring petty Dornish houses under Martell rule.

Nymeria’s red sun emblem joined with the Martells’ yellow spear to signify the merging of the two peoples. And they called their capital Sunspear (which boasts both the Spear Tower and Tower of the Sun). The Martells and the Dornish people are unlike the rest of the Westerosi, which makes sense given that they were the last to join the Seven Kingdoms, and they entered it via marriage, not defeat.

They reject many of the north’s values. Unlike in King’s Landing they support the heir who comes first in birth order regardless of gender. Their leaders use the titles of Prince and Princess, not King and Queen, adding to the sense of equality in their society.

Dornish blood runs hot. They openly accept promiscuity, instead of denying and concealing lust as the rest of Westeros does. [Everyone has a preference.

] [And everyone is missing half the world’s pleasure. ] And they see no stigma in being a bastard. [I can’t say I’ve ever met a Sand before.

] [We are everywhere in Dorne. I have ten thousand brothers and sisters. ] [Bastards are born of passion, aren’t they?

We don’t despite them in Dorne. ] Though they occupy a peripheral storyline in the show, in the books House Martell has a rich history, complex plot, and well-developed characters. Showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff have said that, whereas other subplots on the show were constructed years prior to filming, the Dornish thread was developed only after season 4, as the creators were impressed with Indira Varma’s performance as Ellaria Sand.

[Oberyn is dead and this Lannister girl skips about the Water Gardens eating our food, breathing our air. ] So this might explain why the Dorne plots feel less polished and stray considerably from the source material. Still, while what we do see of Dorne in the show points to the society’s complexities and how fascinatingly different it is to other parts of Westeros.

Overall, House Martell represents independence and self-governance, strength in the feminine, instinct, skillful violence, hot-blooded action with abandon, all-consuming vengeance, short-sighted hubris, lust and passion. [I fight for Dorne. Who do you fight for?

] The Martell motto, “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” speaks of their history of independence and fending off being conquered. House Martell ruled Dorne for a thousand years and never bent the knee, not even during Aegon Targaryen’s conquest. They only joined the Seven Kingdoms approximately a century before the events we see in the show.

Daeron Targaryen, Daeron the Good, married the Dornish Prince’s sister; while the Dornish Prince married Daeron’s sister, who incidentally was named Daenerys. Because the Martells voluntary joined with the Throne, they were allowed to keep their titles as “princes” and “princesses,” rather than adopting the titles of lords and ladies Paramount. The Martells’ history of making alliances through marriage goes back to Nymeria.

Forseeing that she would seize control of Dorne, the Martells made her an ally through marriage, thus cementing their place as future rulers of a unified Dorne. In turn, Nymeria’s Rhoynish culture is the source of many of the values that live on in Dorne -- their gender equality, their titles of Prince and Princess, their tolerance of homosexuality, and their belief in equal primogeniture. The strong Nymeria was succeeded by her daughters, not her sons.

[And weak men will never rule Dorne again. ] Fast-forward a thousand years and the influence of women in Dornish culture is still key -- the Sand Snakes are skilled and intelligent warriors, though the show doesn’t always reflect this. [You’re a greedy bitch, you know that?

] The beloved bastard daughters of Oberyn Martell take their bastard nature with pride, using the Dornish surname “Sand” and their father’s nickname, “The Red Viper. ” [The Red Viper of Dorne — you don’t get a name like that unless you’re deadly, right? ] The books feature eight Sand Snakes (four or five mothered by Oberyn’s love Ellaria Sand), but they’re condensed into three in the show -- Nymeria, Obara and Tyene.

In the show we do see strong females dominating Dorne, but in the book we get a picture of true gender equality. The head of House Martell, Doran, comes across in the show as a feeble, incompetent leader who fears the horrors of war. [You must choose — Doran’s way and peace, or my way and war.

] But in the books, Doran carefully plots the Lannisters’ demise -- he wants to marry off his eldest daughter Arianne (who’s not seen in the show) to Viserys Targaryen and restore the Targaryens to the Iron Throne. Later he sends another son Quentin (also not seen in the show) to try to marry Daenerys in Meereen. In the books, Ellaria and the Sand Snakes support Doran’s endeavors, rather than murdering him and his heir Trystane for being weak, ineffectual male leaders.

So arguably the book’s take is more interesting for showing us not just a female-led family similar to the Tyrells, but also what it looks like for both men and women to be strong together. [It’s against my code to hurt a woman. ] [It’s amazing how many men we beat seem to have this code.

] In the series’ histories & lore, Oberyn says that their motto “unbowed, unbent and unbroken” is “a promise to our enemies and a challenge to our lovers. ” Their faithful bonds (and apparently their sex drive) are never broken. We see this unyielding will in both their passionate loves and their insatiable quests for vengeance.

But the inability to bend contributes to their downfall. Not long before the events of the show, the “Mad King” married his heir Rhaegar Targaryen to the Dornish Princess, Elia Martell -- snubbing Cersei Lannister in the process. While the pair have two children, we’ve recently learned that Rhaegar’s marriage to Elia was later annulled so that he could secretly marry Lyanna Stark and father Jon Snow, or Aegon Targaryen.

But during Robert’s Rebellion, Gregor Clegane (known as the Mountain) raped Elia and killed her and her children -- on Tywin Lannister’s orders. [They butchered those children, carved them up and wrapped them in Lannister cloaks. ] Enduring hatred for the Lannisters after the brutality of Elia’s death explains and drives all of the Martells’ behavior that we see in the show.

[The Lannisters aren’t the only ones who pay their debts. ] To avenge Elia, her brother Oberyn volunteers as Tyrion’s champion against the Mountain. After he assumes too soon that he’s won and dies, Ellaria carries on the quest for revenge against the Lannisters, now for Oberyn’s sake.

Doran tries to keep her in line, but Ellaria kills Cersei’s beloved daughter Myrcella with a poison kiss and, together with the Sand Snakes, executes Doran and his son, Myrcella’s betrothed. This action renders House Martell legally extinct, although Martell bloodline still continues through the Sand Snakes, until they, too, are wiped out by Euron Greyjoy and Cersei. The story of the Martells shows the ruin that comes of allowing hubris to cloud your judgment.

Oberyn dies because he’s arrogant in his fight; Doran dies because he’s too confident in his seat, forgiving Ellaria and the Sand Snakes without punishing their rebellion; and even Ellaria is short-sighted, unprepared for the pain of suffering Cersei’s revenge, even though she should have expected this after her cruel murder of Cersei’s only daughter. [Myrcella was innocent. ] [She was a Lannister — there are no innocent Lannisters.

] All three of the Sand Snakes on the show are actually killed with their own weapons -- Nymeria with her own whip, Obara with her spear, and Tyene with poison like she uses to help Ellaria kill Myrcella. So the symbolism reinforces that the Dornish provide the weapons for their own undoing. The Martell red, gold and orange reflect the hot, arid location of Dorne.

The red alludes to the Red Mountains, which form the northwest border of Dorne, and the orange field makes us think of the uninterrupted sand of their deserts. Red symbolizes the power and energy of Nymeria. After crossing the Narrow Sea, Nymeria burned her 10,000 ships so none of her people could change their minds and go back.

And of course, the emotional red is the color of blood, reflected in Oberyn’s quest for avenging his sister’s murder. Red reflects the passionate, lustful, hot-blooded character of many Martells, and their culture embraces these qualities. “The Red Viper” Oberyn is famous for sleeping around and rumored to have more bastards than Robert Baratheon.

Orange is also tied to sexual potency, fitting for the sexually open-minded Dornish. The vitality of orange shows in the strong spirit of the Sand Snakes. In Alchemy, Gold is one of the seven planetary metals, and it represents the Sun, linked to intelligence.

While training to be a maester, Oberyn learned how to create poisons, and he uses them in battle so that’s where he gets the nickname “The Red Viper. ” He later taught his daughter Tyene Sand how to use poisons -- and she uses them in battle, coating her daggers in them. The people of Dorne aren’t like the other Westerosi in many ways, and fittingly the Martells break the mold in not using an animal or plants on their sigil like most of the Great Houses -- instead they use the warrior’s instrument, a spear, and the natural source of light and heat on earth, the sun.

The combination represents a warrior’s will and determination, mixed with blessings from and respect for natural power and life. The sun on the Martells’ sigil shows respect for what is natural and given to us by the universe. The Dornish people understand their environment.

They resisted Aegon Targaryen’s conquest through guerilla warfare, hiding in camouflage, and using the hot and hostile environment of the deserts to their advantage. The Martells’ respect for the natural is also reflected in their acceptance of all kinds of sexuality and the priority they place on instinct. As the center of our solar system, the sun symbolizes the self.

And House Martell is all about independence and self-rule. Because the Martells view themselves as the center of our universe, though, they also exude self-importance and hubris. [I don’t see many Dornish men in the capitol.

] [We don’t like the smell. ] The spear is a common weapon of choice for members of House Martell -- both Oberyn and Obara Sand use a spear. Spears are symbolic of single-mindedness and tunnel vision -- when using a spear, a soldier must focus his attention on one target.

Likewise, Oberyn and the Sand Snakes focus on avenging their fallen relatives, regardless of the consequences. The single-mindedness of Ellaria and the Sand Snakes brought House Martell to extinction on the show. Of course, there are more Martells in the books but it seems unlikely they’ll be introduced on the show at this late hour.

Apart from the individual significance of the sun or the spear, it’s hard not to notice the relationship between the two objects -- the spear is piercing the sun in what looks very much like a phallic masculine symbol thrusting into a symbol of the feminine. (Like a sperm and an egg, perhaps? ) It fits the Martells to be so openly sexual and frank about where life comes from, and again it represents their strong union of equal men and women.

House Tyrell also doesn’t feature an animal on their sigil -- but a rose -- and both houses are full of strong women. Yet it’s notable that the two are opposite in a crucial way. House Tyrell is all about the long game, while House Martell is motivated by small, satisfying victories in the moment.

The death of both extremes in the show demonstrates that in order to last in this game, one must have a combination of short-term vitality and long term strategy. While it’s not on the sigil, unofficially Oberyn and his bastards are associated with a particular animal: snakes. Though intimidating and deadly, snakes symbolize fertility, cunning, awareness.

Just as the Martells have gender equality, snakes also connect to both the masculine and feminine according to different traditions. The Cadeceus, a symbol of medicine, is a winged staff with two winding snakes. So snakes’ venom has the power to either heal as well as poison, depending on usage.

While closely associated with wisdom, snakes are also vengeful creatures. They're defensive and often give deadly bites without warning if they feel threatened. Snakes tend to be hated and feared.

In Westeros, like in our Western world, the snake is used as shorthand to symbolize the untrustworthy and treacherous. [Are you men or snakes that you would threaten a child? ] So it’s fitting that Oberyn’s family embraces the snake, just as they embrace many aspects of life and sexuality that others represses and condemn.

Many audience members, too, are likely to have an automatic dislike of snakes, so the Dornish characters are most interesting when they’re able to transcend our default readiness to dislike these snakes. Perhaps the most meaningful difference between these characters in the book and in the show is that -- while the series does allude to the power of these women and their different outlook -- it doesn’t have enough time in Dorne to make us like, invest in and truly care about the Sand Snakes. [Do shut up dear.

Anything from you? No? Good.

] who have the chance to inspire deeper admiration and fascination in Martin’s more extensive Dorne plots. So when Cersei gets her revenge on Ellaria we’re kind of enjoying her satisfaction -- which says something, given that Cersei is one of the leading villains on the show. [You chose to murder my daughter.

You must have felt powerful after you made that choice. Do you feel powerful now? ] Though many argue the show didn’t do justice to this great House, within the series House Martell leaves us with the takeaway that being short-sighted does not pay off.

Playing their cards too early, believing themselves to be on top, and not planning far enough ahead brings down this great House of Dorne. House Martell overall has been a wild card in the game, introducing us to an alternative, fiercely independent society which refuses to play by any of the same rules. [And did you?

] [Did I what? ] [Fuck him like it was his last night in this world.