TANSELLE
TANSELLE
Real Name: Tanselle
Identity/Class: Alien world/Earth-like realm human
Occupation: Puppeteer
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Dunk (aka Sir Duncan the Tall), Egg (Aegon Targaryen), Steely Pate
Enemies: Prince Aerion
Brightflame (son of Maekar, prince of Summerhall of House Targaryen) and
his royal guard
Known Relatives: Unidentified uncle
Aliases: "Tanselle Too-Tall"
Base of Operations: Presumably a home in the vicinity of Ashford Meadow.
First
Appearance: Legends: The Hedge Knight (August, 1998);
(Marvel) George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight (Marvel;
2006)
Powers/Abilities: Tanselle is a skilled puppeteer and painter.
History:
(George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue One)
- At Ashford Meadow, Tanselle conducted a puppet show, with a knight
battling a dragon. Hedge knight Dunk watched the show, although he watched
the puppeteer more than show. He would have tossed her a copper, but at
the moment, he needed every coin. 
(George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue Two)
- As Dunk watched, Tanselle and her associate performed a puppet show
involving a knight battling a dragon. Dunk complimented her show and gave
her two coppers, including one for last night's shows.
She smiled in appreciation, but Dunk wondered whether
it was for him or for the coins. He invited her to have a horn of ale or a
sausage with him, but she thanked him and told him that she had another
show. He considered that she was both pretty and tall, and that he would
not have to kneel to kiss her.
(George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue
Three) - After another puppet show, Dunk approached with his squire Egg
(secretly prince Aegon), and they both complimented Tanselle, Egg on how
well she moved the puppets and Dunk on how well they were carved.
At Dunk's query, she told him that her uncle carved
the puppets but that she painted them. As he had to cover his former
master's crest, he asked her to paint his shield, but when she asked what
he wanted over it, he was not sure, and he told her that she must think
him a fool. She playfully quoted a line from her show, "All
men are fools...and all men are knights."
Following instruction from Dunk and Egg, she agreed to
paint it, with the field the color of sunset, with a large elm tree and a
shooting star above, assuring him she could do it that night and have it
back for him in the morning.
Dunk introduced himself as Ser Duncan the Tall, and she told him that she was Tanselle, and that the boys used to call her "Tanselle Too-Tall." Dunk assured her that she was not too tall, but rather just right for..." When he paused, she queried, "For?" and he shyly replied, "Puppets."
(George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue Four)
- Tanselle continued to perform puppet shows, featuring a battle involving
Nymeria. As Egg was distraught after watching Prince Aerion kill a horse
during a joust, Dunk took him to the puppet show, and while Egg was not
cheered by this, Dunk was cheered by seeing Tanselle.
Dunk intended to ask Tanselle if she had finished his shield, but he was pressed to step away to take a drink with Raymun Fossoway.
(George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue Four (fb) - BTS) - Apparently believing that the puppet show involving the slaying of a dragon was an insult to the House Targaryen, Prince Aerion, backed by some royal guards, assaulted Tanselle, her puppeteering partner and her stage/set-up. Seeing this, Egg rushed to alert Dunk.
(George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue Four - BTS) - After Egg informed Dunk that the Aerion was hurting "the puppet girl," he followed Egg to the site.
(George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue Four) - As Dunk arrived, Aerion held the kneeling Tanselle by the arm, with her older female puppeteer partner on the ground, holding her nose (in which she had presumably been punched), while other guards torched her puppets and dumped the contents of her chest on the ground.
Despite
Tanselle's pleas, Aerion apparently snapped her wrist, and she cried out
in agony and dropped to the ground, holding her wrist. Dunk then walked
toward and punched out Aerion, tossing aside a guard in his path. Aerion
pulled out his dagger, but Dunk stomped his wrist to the ground and kicked
him in the face.
Dunk may have kicked Aerion to death, but the guards then piled on him and eventually brought him down (it took all five of them).Aerion asked Dunk why he had thrown his life away " for this whore? She's scarcely worth it. A traitor." Aerion planned to kill Dunk, but Egg rushed forward, revealing that he was Aerion's brother, and stopped this.
(George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue Four - BTS / George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue Four - BTS) - Dunk was imprisoned for striking a prince, and he was subsequently put on trial, where Aerion demanded a trial by combat (there's a lot more to that, but it's not relevant to Tanselle).
(George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue Five (fb) - BTS) - Tanselle left the painted shield with Steely Pate, Dunk's armorer. Her uncle took her away, both hoping to prevent further assaults by Aerion and his associates and to spare her from seeing Dunk die. Supporting Dunk's struggle against Aerion, Steely Pate further augmented the shield.
(George R.R, Martin's The Hedge Knight: Issue Six - BTS) - Dunk ultimately defeated Aerion in combat, forcing him to withdraw his complaint, although multiple people perished in the conflict, notably including Prince Baelor.
(Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword#4 - BTS) <Two years later> - After encountering the infamous "Red Widow," Lady Rohanne, dreamed of her and also fondly recalled Tanselle.
(Hedge Knight III: Mystery Knight - BTS) - Dunk continued to remember
Tanselle, considering that she was not too tall for him, and he wondered
if he would ever find her again.
Comments: Created
by George R.R. Martin;
adapted into comic form by Ben Avery and Mike S.
Miller.
Marvel stories done in conjunction with the Dabel
Brothers
The Hedge Knight was a very
enjoyable story. Tanselle and Steely Pate were notable minor characters
who were very likable.
Courtesy of Loki, who recommended I profile Tanselle to represent the Hedge Knight series and guided me to all of her appearances/references:
Per the
books, Dunk was 6'11", and Tanselle only half a head shorter, making her
around 6'6" to 6'7"
--I went just a little bit under
that.--Snood
The Hedge Knight comics are based on the "A Tale of Dunk and Egg" novella series from George R.R. Martin, and are set in the same world as his Game of Thrones (A Song of Fire and Ice) and House of the Dragon stories. There's a TV adaptation for the Hedge Knight stories coming this year too. There are three novellas currently, with more promised - but only after the next book in the Song of Fire and Ice series, and that's been promised for a couple of decades now. All three novellas have been turned into comics by the same writer/artist team, not just the first two. It's just that they've jumped around from publisher to publisher, and the last volume wasn't released as individual issues as far as I can see.
The
stories are set on a fantasy world that doesn't seem to be an alternate
Earth, not unless the divergence goes far enough back to give different
continent shapes. We don't have an overall name for the world, just two of
the continents, Westeros and Essos, and islands around them. Westeros is
roughly the size of South America, Essos the size of Europe and Asia, and
since Martin has stated that his world is likely somewhat larger than
Earth there are almost certainly other continents that have never been
mentioned. Or else a very, very large ocean.
Westeros is dominated by different rival noble Houses,
and internecine conflict is so common with different claimants using war,
subterfuge and treachery in attempts to claim the throne that it has
become known as a "Game of Thrones", where participants "either win or
they die." For roughly three centuries the Seven Kingdoms that make up
Westeros were held together and ruled by House Targaryen because they were
Dragonlords, but their control waned when the dragons died out.
Anyway, all of that's only really relevant in terms of
it perhaps not being right to call it "Earth-xxx" when it comes to a
reality designator. But it's also not likely to be a dimension or alien
planet within 616, so a reality designator is probably still required.
The different series within the overall world are set
at different points in the history - for the purposes of Hedge Knight,
while Westeros' history goes back thousands of years the dating system
being used sets year zero as the date that Aegon Targaryen conquered the
continent. Hedge Knight is set in 209 AC (Aegon's Conquest), and the
subsequent two tales are 211 AC. For contrast the novels and TV show House
of the Dragon are set circa 129-131 AC and the main novel series A Song of
Fire and Ice and it's TV counterpart A Game of Thrones starts in 298 AC.
The world/realm first appeared in the novel A Game of Thrones (first book in A Song of Fire and Ice), first published 1st August 1996. The Hedge Knight was first published in the anthology Legends, 25th August 1998; Sworn Sword (Hedge Knight II) in Legends II, 30th December 2003, and Sworn Sword (Hedge Knight III) in the anthology Warriors, 16th March 2010.
To me, I don't see that this realm
has to be anything different than Polemachus or Perrinois or some other
Earth-like realm that is not Earth, and so I won't assign a reality
designation at this time.
I asked "Other than Aerion just being a psycho jerk, was he punishing Tanselle for some perceived slight against his House of Targaryen by the slaying of the dragon in one of her puppet shows?"
Loki replied:
Yes. Aerion is both a jerk and considers the slaying of
dragons in a puppet show as a slight against his house. There are several
factors playing into this that heighten why he overreacts so badly. Many
Houses have their own associated animal, and in the case of House
Targaryen, that's the dragon. Additionally, while the associated creatures
are largely symbolic for the other Houses (e.g. just because House
Lannister has a lion on its banister does not mean the Lannisters keep pet
lions, not least because the lions might attack them), it's not the case
for the Targaryens. House Targaryen were relative latecomers to the
western continent, Westeros, and proceeded to unite via conquest the
already present inhabitants, and in large part this conquest was
facilitated by them riding and controlling literal dragons - hard to fight
back against an invader when your most advanced weapons are bows and
swords, and they can strafe you from the skies with living flamethrowers
whose breath is capable of turning stone molten. The Lannisters are never
to my knowledge called the House of the Lion, but the Targaryens are
frequently called the House of the Dragon, and members of the House
sometimes literally consider themselves dragons in human form - this isn't
quite as insane as it might sound, as many of the family are completely
immune to fire. So an insult to dragons could be seen as an insult to
them. Heightening this is that by the time of this tale the Targaryen
dragons have inexplicably died out decades ago - recent enough to still be
in living memory and a severe sore point for the Targaryens, and obviously
this has weakened their ability to handle any challenges to their rule,
making crushing any perceived dissent more important - the strong can
afford to ignore mockery, but the weak can't, because mockery is usually
the first step prior to a greater challenge.
Throw in
the fact that the Targaryens have a tendency towards insanity, usually
expressed in the form of paranoia and murderous rage. As one character
notes:
"Half the Targaryens went mad, didn't they? What's the saying? 'Every
time a Targaryen is born the gods flip a coin.'"
The fact
that inbreeding was considered completely acceptable to keep their
bloodline "pure" didn't help with this problem. Aerion marries his first
cousin, and his wife's brother and sister were married to each other! Two
of Egg's future kids also married each other, themselves had two kids, and
THOSE two also married each other. I should note that the other Houses
didn't share this pro-incest viewpoint.
Lastly, there's just the fact that the nobles in Westeros could and frequently did consider themselves innately superior to anyone lower ranking than themselves, and so felt they could do whatever the heck they wanted to the common people without facing consequences. Not every noble was like that, but a good percentage were, even outside the Targaryens.
This profile was completed 01/30/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Tanselle should be distinguished from:
First posted: 09/28/2026
Last updated: 06/28/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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