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| “ | Fine little blade. Maybe I'll pick my teeth with it. | „ |
| ~ Polliver stealing Arya Stark's sword Needle. |
Polliver is a minor antagonist in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and its television adaptation, Game of Thrones. He is a man-at-arms in service of House Clegane. He serves under Ser Gregor Clegane as part of the men who are mostly referred to as "the Mountain's Men".
He is a grim and methodical fighter, but Arya Stark does not believe him to be as evil as his more violent comrades.
In the television series, he was portrayed by Andy Kellegher.
Appearance[]
Polliver is nearly as tall as Sandor Clegane, but not as heavily muscled. He is mostly bald, and has a thick, black, spade-shaped beard that is neatly trimmed so he can cover his jaws and jowls.
Ironically, his television counterpart is very short.
Personality[]
In the novels, Polliver is a serious and grim official who only smiles occasionally. His fighting movements are precise and well-calculated, always ready to anticipate his opponent's next move. Arya notes that he fights well. Although Polliver is cruel and torments people, Arya does not believe him to be as cruel as his more violent and unhinged comrades. Perhaps because he is more disciplined, Ser Gregor Clegane tends to have Polliver as his second-in-command. He is also known as "Polly" by his comrades. Shitmouth never liked Polliver. Sandor Clegane is acquainted to Polliver and many of the older Mountain's men since he was younger. Polliver's main weapon is a longsword.
In the television series, Polliver is more sadistic and violent, as his character was given personality traits of his comrades Raff the Sweetling and Chiswyck, although they are both still far more cruel than the show version of Polliver.
Biography[]
A Song of Ice and Fire[]
A Game of Thrones[]
As a commanding officer of the Mountain's Men, Polliver serves with Ser Gregor Clegane in the Riverlands, presumably participating in the brutal raids that are the very first blows of the War of the Five Kings. Under the guise of common brigands, carrying no banners, the warband ravages the towns and holdfasts of Sherrer, Wendish Town, and the Mummer's Ford, which belong to lands of the Houses Piper and Vance.
After the ill Lord Hoster Tully sends his vassals and the raids' survivors to King's Landing, to petition the King himself and denounce the crimes of the Mountain's band, King Robert I's Hand, Lord Eddard Stark, sentences Ser Gregor Clegane to die and dispatches a royal party led by Lord Beric Dondarrion to execute the men guilty for the atrocities. After Robert's death and during the very early stages of the War of the Five Kings, the Mountain's Men take Beric's host in the rear, after Lord Tywin Lannister's army ambushed them at the Mummer's Ford. Polliver presumably participates in this battle. Their victims include Ser Raymun Darry, Lord Lothar Mallery, Ser Gladden Wylde, Lord Beric Dondarrion, and most of Ned Stark's own household men.
After defeating the Iron Throne force of the previous king, the Mountain's men join Tywin's host as it marches through the Riverlands, sacking and besieging towns and castles. Polliver is likely part of the Mountain's men who invade and ravage the lands of the Houses Bracken and Piper, burning Stone Hedge and Pinkmaiden Castle. Later, after the North and House Stark enter the war on the side of House Tully, Gregor's warband is put in the vanguard of the army of the Westerlands, on the left flank of the Battle on the Green Fork, alongside Tyrion Lannister and his own warband of Vale Mountain Clansmen. After defeating Lord Roose Bolton's army in this battle, and after the destruction of Ser Jaime Lannister's army in Riverrun and the Whispering Wood, Tywin withdraws to Harrenhal but leaves the Mountain and his men, and other foraging parties, to keep raiding in the Riverlands.
A Clash of Kings[]
Polliver is presumably part of Ser Gregor Clegane's warband and a host of Lannister soldiers when they descend to Castle Darry and sack it, a fortnight after the Darrys recaptured it from the westermen who occupied it. The Mountain's men put all the castle's defenders to the sword, including the eight-year-old Lord Lyman Darry, who is killed by Gregor himself, extinguishing House Darry from the male line.
Polliver and his comrades continue foraging and raiding across the eastern Riverlands, mainly within the lands of the Gods Eye. They keep going back and forth as they sack various towns and forts, then bring captives, spoils and cattle back to Harrenhal. During one of these foraging raids, Polliver, Ser Gregor and the other Mountain's men capture Gendry while they temporarily made residence in a sacked village near the Gods Eye. They question Gendry, who snuck into the village in the attempt to find medical aid for Lommy Greenhands, whose leg was previously injured by Ser Amory Lorch's foraging party a few days prior.
Polliver and his comrades then capture Arya Stark (while being oblivious of her identity) and Hot Pie, who snuck into the village to rescue Gendry. Polliver takes Needle from Arya, and for this she adds his name to her prayer kill list. Coerced by Gregor himself, Hot Pie leads him and other Clegane men-at-arms, including Polliver, to Lommy and the girl toddler Weasel, who are hidden near the woods. While Lommy let Weasel run away in the woods, he ends up getting stabbed in the throat by Raff the Sweetling's spear.
The Cleganes force Arya and Hot Pie to join Gendry and numerous other prisoners within a storehouse of the village, which is used as a cell. During their stay in the village and all throughout the march back to Harrenhal, the Mountain and his men cruelly abuse their prisoners and daily hand one of them to the Tickler for questioning through torture, with none of them surviving, no matter the age. After hard days of rape, torture, and executions, the Clegane warband reaches Harrenhal and hands the prisoners over to Lord Tywin Lannister.
Polliver is part of Gregor's warband when they are sent along with Vargo Hoat and the Brave Companions to destroy the northern-Frey army of Lord Roose Bolton, who has occupied the ruby ford, but their attempts are unsuccessful. Furthermore, both Gregor and Vargo's bands suffer constant harassment by Lord Beric Dondarrion's outlaw warbands of the Brotherhood Without Banners, who fight to defend the smallfolk. They also fight other skirmishes against parties sworn to the Houses Stark and Tully. The Mountain's men skirmish several times with the Brotherhood, losing four men to Lord Beric's night raids. After the last raid of the Brotherhood, the Mountain and his men return to Harrenhal, taking up residence in the Wailing Tower.
As the war progresses, Tywin eventually decides to have his host depart from Harrenhal, intending to march back to the Westerlands to end King Robb Stark and his invading army there, after receiving word that King Stannis Baratheon is still besieging Storm's End in the south, which leaves King's Landing safe. Polliver is part of the army departing Harrenhal and he serves in the vanguard, unknowingly putting himself out of Arya's reach to choose him as her next target for Jaqen H'ghar. He serves as Gregor's standard bearer and is also wearing Gendry's bull helm when leaving, supposedly having taken it from Dunsen.
Polliver participates in the Battle of the Fords under Gregor's command, while Tywin's host is attempting to march back to the Westerlands, only to be surrounded and attacked by the army of the Riverlands, led by Ser Edmure Tully, Lord Jason Mallister, and Lord Karyl Vance. Polliver manages to cross the Red Fork as one of Gregor's best men, but the Cleganes are repeatedly ambushed by the Tullys at Stone Mill. Polliver survives the Battle at Stone Mill, which is one of the many battles taking place in the Battle of the Fords, and where Edmure and his men kill so many Mountain's men that the river is nearly dammed by the bodies. After being defeated by Edmure's counter-attacks with his reserve, Polliver successfully retreats with Gregor and his surviving comrades.
A Storm of Swords[]
Following the Battle of the Blackwater, and after hearing that Ser Jaime Lannister has escaped from Riverrun, Tywin has Gregor's warband discretely search for his eldest son in the Riverlands, along with the bands of Ser Samwell Spicer and the brothers Plumm.
Polliver possibly fights with his comrades as part of Gregor's host when they harry the northern survivors of the Battle at Duskendale, who were led by Robett Glover and Ser Helman Tallhart and were defeated by Lord Randyll Tarly, who was sent by Tywin from King's Landing to intercept them. The Mountain's warband cut the northmen's retreat along the kingsroad, killing or capturing them.
Polliver's atrocities are recalled by Arya Stark, who tells Harwin and the Brotherhood Without Banners about her experiences. Polliver continues to be included in Arya's list, though as time goes on she struggles to remember his face as well as the other marked members of Gregor's men-at-arms.
After Roose Bolton leaves Harrenhal to Lord Vargo Hoat when he departs for the Twins to join Lord Edmure Tully's wedding, Polliver and his comrades, led by the Mountain, attack Roose's northern rearguard with heavy cavalry during the fighting at the fords of the Trident. The northmen's commander, Ser Wylis Manderly, rallies as best as he can, but the some two thousand men who have yet to cross are forced into the river by the Mountain's host that is fighting and overwhelming them. Many northerners are killed, either drowning in the river, which is overflowing due to constant torrential heavy rains, or cut down by the Mountain's men. Some northmen even manage to flee, but others are taken captive, including Wylis. The Cleganes seize the ruby ford and then lead the capture of Harrenhal.
After the Red Wedding, Tywin orders Gregor to eliminate the Brave Companions and put Harrenhal to the sword. The Cleganes retake Harrenhal, which Lord Bolton has abandoned to Vargo Hoat. After the majority of the Brave Companions disbanded and fled divided into multiple outlaw bands, the Cleganes easily enter the castle thanks to a cook who opened a gate for them, as revenge against Vargo for mutilating him. The Mountain's men slaughter nearly all the inhabitants and defenders except for the traitor cook who helped them, the castle smith Ben Blackthumb, and some women like Pia whom Gregor and his men are already acquainted with and rape repeatedly.
The Mountain and his men force their captive Vargo to suffer a brutal punishment, by having pieces of his limbs cut off one by one at a time, cooked, and then fed to Vargo himself for days. Since Ser Wylis Manderly and the other northern captives ask for food, the Mountain's men are ordered to feed them Vargo's cooked flesh as well, lying to them that it is roast goat. Gregor was allegedly saving Vargo's penis for last, but when a raven from King's Landing reaches Harrenhal, Gregor executes Vargo. Polliver is named Castellan of Harrenhal by Gregor, who is summoned to King's Landing by Queen Regent Cersei Lannister to participate in Tyrion Lannister's trial by combat.
While having gone whoring, Polliver and the Tickler bring a pimply teenage squire of House Sarsfield to the crossroads inn, so the youth can sleep with one of the newly-hired prostitutes. They encounter Arya Stark and Sandor Clegane, Gregor's younger brother. While the arrogant and overconfident pimply squire starts to mock Sandor over the fact he deserted the battlefield like a "craven" and forsook his Kingsguard vows in the Battle of the Blackwater, Polliver and the Tickler force him into silence, as they both know better than to provoke the Hound, although the squire first ignores them until the Tickler catches him by his ear. Sandor orders wine for himself and Arya, and after he is served he pays the innkeep (who is the nephew of the late predecessor innkeep Masha Heddle) and tells him that money is all he is going to see, as Polliver and the Tickler will not pay him for the customs.
When Polliver and the Tickler defend themselves and claim they are going to pay the inn's staff, Sandor dismissively responds by accusing them that when the two and the squire are done drinking and whoring, they are going to "tickle" (torture) the innkeep over any hidden valuable in the inn, then kill him instead of paying, the way they "always do", as Sandor is familiar with them. Realizing he just received a warning from Sandor that he must flee, the innkeep excuses himself under the pretext of having forgotten something being prepared in the kitchen, only for him and the prostitutes to run away from the inn.
Polliver and the Tickler talk with Sandor for a while, informing him about recent major events, such as the fact that Sansa Stark married Tyrion Lannister and that Sansa is currently missing, while Tyrion has been arrested, as the couple is allegedly guilty of regicide for having murdered King Joffrey I Baratheon. He informs Sandor that Gregor took Harrenhal and the Mountain's men are currently holding it and all the surrounding lands in his name and on behalf of the Iron Throne, including the inn. When Arya asks about any Harrenhal residents who were spared, Polliver specifies that they put the entire castle to the sword except some women, the blacksmith, the cook who helped them, and Vargo Hoat, whom Gregor kept for torment to "pass time". Although Polliver is holding the lands as Harrenhal's castellan, he omits that fact that Gregor is in King's Landing and that he personally killed Vargo after he was summoned to the capital by Queen Cersei. So Sandor and Arya are unaware about Polliver's position and are made to believe that the Mountain is currently still in Harrenhal and ruling the region.
Polliver tells Sandor and Arya that Riverrun remains held by Ser Brynden Tully, the Blackfish, but the castle is currently under siege again and is expected to yield soon, or else the Freys will hang Edmure Tully. Polliver adds that the real fighting is currently around Raventree Hall, between the Blackwoods and the Brackens, the latters now loyal to the Iron Throne again and submitting Blackwood lands in King Tommen I Baratheon's name.
While discussing Sansa Stark again, Sandor tells Polliver that she is a proper corteous lady, unlike her sister. Upon the mention of Arya Stark, Polliver informs Sandor that she has also been found (actually Jeyne Poole) and that she has been sent back to the North to marry the Bastard of Bolton. While the real Arya only drinks wine to hide her confused reaction, Sandor bursts out laughing loudly. When Polliver asks what's so funny about this, Sandor refuses to elaborate and asks for any news about Saltpans and if there are currently any ships at its port. Polliver tells him that he has not heard any recent news about the town and that the trading ships are all sailing to the larger port town of Maidenpool, which is being repopulated and under reconstruction, and is currently under the rule of Lord Randyll Tarly, who previously took the castle of House Mooton and locked Lord William Mooton in a cell for his allegiance to the Starks and the Tullys.
Polliver and the Tickler become suspicious, as the two realize that Sandor and "his girl" are likely planning to take a ship, possibly for Essos. As Sandor is a traitor to the Crown, a deserter of the Kingsguard, and an oathbreaker, the Tickler (while still pretending to affable, but being still blatantly threatening) asks Sandor to come back with them at Harrenhal, and perhaps even be brought back to King's Landing to face judgement. When Sandor rudely turns him down, the Tickler shrugs him off and pretendes to scratch his back, only to treacherously throw a knife at him, which is dodged by Sandor, who was expecting that and promptly draws his sword at the same time.
As Polliver and the Tickler intend to capture Sandor and bring him back with them to Harrenhal, a bloody fight breaks out. The teenage Sarsfield squire tries to join in, but Arya throws a wine cup at his white pimple and knocks him down. Unfortunately, because of his addiction to alcohol, Sandor quickly drank a lot of wine cups with an empty stomach while he was talking with Polliver and the Tickler, which now makes him slower in combat and struggle to stand on his feet. When Arya tries to aid Sandor, the squire interrupts her, so she stabs him in the belly with his own knife, while Polliver and the Tickler fight and injure Sandor. As Sandor is bleeding and struggling to breath, Polliver and the Tickler corner him against a wall, then Polliver offers to stop the fight by ordering the Hound to drop the sword, so all of them can go back to Harrenhal together. When Sandor expresses his refusal to let his brother Gregor kill him, the Tickler suggests that perhaps himself will be the one who will be allowed to killed the Hound, after torturing him.
Still trying to be more diplomatic than the Tickler, Polliver tells Sandor that he is drunk, so it is best if he yields, but the Hound throws a bench at him and continues fighting. Finally, Sandor manages to kill Polliver by stabbing his face, and when he wrenches the blade loose half Polliver's head comes with it, causing the Tickler to back away in fear. The emotional Arya takes her chance by sneaking behind the unarmored Tickler and brutally killing him by repeatedly stabbing him with the pimply squire's knife. After the fight, Arya retrieves her sword Needle from Polliver's corpse and uses it to mercy kill the dying squire.
A Feast for Crows[]
Long after the fight, the innkeep and his whores eventually return at the Crossroads Inn and clean up the bodies. After Polliver's death, while in the capital Ser Gregor is facing a slow and painful death by the hands of Prince Oberyn Martell, the leaderless Mountain's men continue to hold Harrenhal in King Tommen I Baratheon's name, but they do not bother naming a new castellan. The Mountain's men ask about what happened to Polliver and his two comrades, and the innkeep tells them that the infamous Hound and a young "boy" (Arya) killed them in a fight.
The innkeep of the inn at the crossroads also retells the story about Polliver and his comrades' deaths to a large band of outlaws (all former Brave Companions), while on their way to Saltpans, before he is killed by Rorge, while all the prostitutes are surprisingly left alive after being raped.
Upon arriving at Harrenhal with his army, to sort the castle out and release Ser Wylis Manderly and other northern captives, Ser Jaime Lannister learns from Shitmouth and Raff the Sweetling that Gregor had named Polliver as Harrenhal's castellan after his departure, but Polliver was killed by Sandor, leaving no one in charge at the castle. When Jaime confronts the Mountain's men by asking them why no one bothered to chase Sandor and the "little boy" accompanying him, Shitmouth answered that he never liked Polliver anyway and that he and his comrades found it unwise to just kill Ser Gregor's brother, having feared that Gregor might have gotten upset over it.
Game of Thrones[]
In the TV series Game of Thrones, Polliver is not a Mountain's man but a man-at-arms in service of House Lannister. He serves under Ser Amory Lorch. During the ambush at the Gods Eye, Polliver takes Arya Stark's sword, Needle, and says he will pick his teeth with it. He then approaches Lommy Greenhands, who has been shot with an arrow during the fight, and claims that he might need to be carried. Polliver initially lifts him up, but as he does, he skewers Lommy through the neck with Needle.
At Harrenhal, Polliver beats an old woman prisoner for asking him for a crust of bread. Gendry is selected to be tortured, while Polliver stands guard. Lord Tywin Lannister arrives during the torture and asks Ser Gregor Clegane what is going on. Gregor says that they were not expecting Tywin for another day. Tywin asks why the prisoners are not in their cells. Gregor says that their cells are overflowing. Polliver interjects that the prisoners will not be there long. Tywin asks if they are so well manned that they can afford to discard able and skilled prisoners. Polliver catches Arya looking at Needle in his sword belt and orders her to kneel, calling her a boy. Tywin immediately realizes that she is a girl and calls Polliver an idiot. He asks why she has dressed as a boy, and she says that it is safer to travel. He says that she is smart and orders the prisoners to be put to work. He says that Arya will be his new cupbearer.
Polliver doesn't make another appearance until Season 4, when Arya and Sandor Clegane encounter him at a tavern with four other kingsmen, including Lowell, where they are preparing to rape the innkeeper's daughter. Polliver recognizes Sandor, asks the innkeeper to give him an ale, and offers to have him join him and his cohorts in raping, pillaging, and plundering. The Hound refuses, saying, "Fuck the King." Insulted, Polliver insults the Hound for abandoning King's Landing at the Battle of the Blackwater. The Hound counters by demanding that they give him a chicken.
Polliver asks the Hound if he has money to pay for a chicken, to which the Hound replies that Polliver and his men didn't pay for theirs; Polliver counters by saying that he is a kingsman, so he has the right to do that. He once again demands a chicken; Polliver tells him he'll give him one if he gives Arya to Lowell to be raped. The Hound then steals Polliver's drink and downs it, then demands two chickens. Polliver is confused as to why he wants the chickens so badly, but the Hound rebukes him, saying he'll eat every chicken in the room if Polliver doesn't shut up. Polliver figures out that it is a euphemism that he kills all of them because of their disgusting actions and tells the Hound that he lives to serve the king, and he asks him if he is willing to die for a few chickens. Chaos then erupts as Polliver and his men fight the Hound and Arya.
Towards the end of the skirmish, Arya takes back Needle and slashes Polliver's hamstring. She stands over him as he lays on his back and recreates Lommy's death scene, taunting him with the same words Polliver had used prior to killing Lommy: "something wrong with your leg boy? Can you walk? I've got to carry you?" She then repeats what he said to her when he stole Needle, "fine little blade; maybe I'll pick my teeth with it." A look of recognition comes over Polliver's face as he finally remembers her and what she is referring to. She slowly sheaths Needle into his neck, completing Lommy's death scene down to the gurgling of arterial blood from Polliver's mouth. As she watches him choke on his own blood, a look of deep fascination and satisfaction resides on her face.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the TV series, Polliver received the same death as Raff the Sweetling, who is the one who killed Lommy Greenhands in the novels. Raff is the one who gets stabbed in the throat by Arya in her own room in Braavos, which is featured in a sample chapter of the unreleased installment The Winds of Winter.
- However, in the show the parts involving pedophilia between Raff and Arya were cut and not given to Polliver. In the books, the 11-year-old Arya seduces Raff, has her first and even sloppy kiss with him, then injures and incapacitates him while undoing his breeches, before having him ask her to carry him like Lommy did.
- The circumstances of Sandor and Arya's fight with Polliver's group are different in the novels and the TV series:
- In the novels, Sandor is the one who insists to stop at an inn to find wine and food, mainly the former as he's pushed by his addiction to alcohol, while Arya is the one who's hesitant and tries to persuade the Hound to avoid entering. In the TV series, Arya is the one who pushes Sandor into following her to the inn, as she sees Polliver outside and wishes to avenge Lommy and reclaim Needle from him, while in the books the pair has no idea that Polliver and his friends are inside until they enter.
- Furthermore, in the novels the fight occurs in the inn at the crossroads, the most known inn of the Riverlands and the place where the incident between Prince Joffrey and Arya occured. In the TV series, the fight happens in a different inn. This change was presumably done to avoid the fact that Hot Pie went to work and live in the inn at the crossroads in the TV version, while in the novels Hot Pie went to work and live at the inn of the kneeling man, which is never featured in the show.
- In the novels, Sandor is the one who insists to stop at an inn to find wine and food, mainly the former as he's pushed by his addiction to alcohol, while Arya is the one who's hesitant and tries to persuade the Hound to avoid entering. In the TV series, Arya is the one who pushes Sandor into following her to the inn, as she sees Polliver outside and wishes to avenge Lommy and reclaim Needle from him, while in the books the pair has no idea that Polliver and his friends are inside until they enter.
- In the novels, Sandor and Arya fight only three Mountain's men: Polliver, the Tickler and the teenage pimply squire from House Sarsfield. In the TV series, they fight Polliver and four other Lannister men-at-arms, including a man named Lowell. In the latter version, all the soldiers are directly sworn to House Lannister rather than House Clegane, while the Tickler is already dead, as in the show he was killed by Jaqen H'ghar at Harrenhal in place of Chiswyck.
- Also, compared to the novels, the TV series has the encounter between Polliver and the Hound occur far earlier, in the very first episode of Season 4, while King Joffrey is still alive.
- In the TV version, the Hound doesn't get any life-threatening injuries from the fight against Polliver's band and in the following episodes he and Arya continue their journey through the Riverlands and the Vale, stopping at a farmer's house, meeting a dying man, and ultimately meeting Brienne of Tarth, who wounds and nearly kills the Hound in the Vale.
- In the novels, Sandor and Arya's journey goes similarly (but differently at the same time, and with more hostility on Sandor's part), but in a different order: they meet a dying man days after the Red Wedding, and said man is younger and a soldier who fled from the Red Wedding. After wandering through the Riverlands the pair reaches the Vale, where they take up residence for days/weeks in a village, rather than a farm in the Riverlands like in the show, only to be forced to abort the journey to the Eyrie due to the Vale Mountain Clans. Only after being forced to ride back through the Riverlands, the pair finally meets Polliver and his comrades at the inn, while on their way to the town of Saltpans. By the time they encounter Polliver, it is nearly the end of the third book and Arya's last chapter, after Joffrey died and while Sansa is in the Vale. It is Polliver and the Tickler who wound the Hound, not Brienne, who never meets Sandor in the novels and comes to a fight with the second Hound toward the last stages of the fourth book instead.
- In the novels, Sandor and Arya learn about Joffrey's death from Polliver, while in the TV series they learn it from Rorge, whom Sandor never personally meets in the novels.
External Links[]
- Polliver on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire.
- Polliver on the Wiki of Westeros.
