Game Of Thrones Season 7 Premiere: 9 Things You Might've Missed In 'Dragonstone'

6. Ed Sheeran's Song Meaning

Ed Sheeran's cameo has dominated a lot of the conversation, with plenty of criticism for it (and to be fair, it was pretty distracting). So distracting, in fact, that it was easy to overlook the actual lyrics he was singing:

"He rode through the streets of the city / Down from his hill on high / O'er the wynds and the steps and the cobbles / He rode to a woman's sigh / For she was his secret treasure/ She was his shame and bliss / And a chain and a keep are nothing / Compared to a woman's kiss / For hands of gold are always cold / But a woman's hands are warm."

That is, one the one (gold) hand, a reference to Tyrion (the hands of gold is about the Hand of the King chain), and while Ed refers to it as a new song, it comes from the books. The original is performed by a singer called Symon Silver Tongue, who has discovered Tyrion's love affair with Shae, and he attempts to blackmail the Imp with it. In turn, Tyrion has Bronn dispose of the singer, who ends up butchered into a 'bowl of brown'.

The other potential meaning for the song, given it's supposed to be new (and therefore probably not about Tyrion and Shae in the show), is that it does refer to Jaime and Cersei. Of course, no one is supposed to know about them, but if you mention a 'hand of gold' on the show he is what comes to mind, and Cersei could be described as his 'shame and bliss', and could play into the fact he can't stop loving her or being loyal to her (something he will probably have to do eventually).