House Heddle

Jon Heddle, known as Jon the Tall, was a knight from the Riverlands who was left crippled and took over an old inn beside the kingsroad, in the first century after the Conquest. He hung a metal sign shaped like a three-headed dragon over the door, and it rang in the wind — so the inn came to be known as the Inn of the Jingling Dragon.

When House Blackfyre rose against the Iron Throne, in 196 AC, the descendant of Jon the Tall who ran the inn was already a grown man. Lord Darry, lord of those lands and an outspoken supporter of House Targaryen, saw a resemblance between the iron dragon on the sign and the rebels' arms and flew into a rage: he had it smashed and thrown into the river. One of the dragon's heads washed up on Quiet Isle.

Generations later, Ser Tommard Heddle killed three rival suitors to win the hand of Lord Ambrose Butterwell's daughter. He married her and went on to serve as a sworn sword of House Butterwell, seated at Whitewalls.

Under the Heddles, the inn grew popular among travelers, who could catch a ferry there to Lord Harroway's Town and to Whitewalls.

After Masha Heddle's death, her nephew took over the inn and began offering whores as well, to draw in customers. One day Sandor Clegane and Arya Stark arrived and ran into three of Ser Gregor Clegane's men: Polliver, the Tickler, and a squire. Sandor warned the innkeeper that the men meant to torture him for his gold, and the conversation ended in a fight; Sandor and Arya killed all three, though Sandor himself came out of it badly wounded.

Masha Heddle's nephew ended up killed by an unnamed lord, and the inn went without an owner for a time. Later it was reopened by two of her nieces, Jeyne and Willow Heddle, who also gave shelter there to orphaned children. From then on, the inn and the family were tied to the Brotherhood without Banners.