House Toland of Ghost Hill is one of the older noble houses of Dorne, seated at the chalk-white castle of Ghost Hill on the southern shore of the Sea of Dorne near the Broken Arm. The origins of the house are uncertain — whether they descend from First Men who crossed the Arm before it shattered, or from Andal adventurers who carved holdings from the ancient Dornish realm in the centuries that followed — though the Tolands were already a lordly house of some strength by the time of Nymeria's Conquest. Their sigil, a green dragon biting its own tail on a golden field, is one of the more philosophically charged in all of Westeros; the ouroboros device is said to represent the Toland belief that time has no beginning and no end.
The device was not always thus. The Tolands' original banner depicted a ghost, and it was during the First Dornish War that the house earned the right to mock the Conqueror in perpetuity. When Aegon I Targaryen came to Ghost Hill, Lord Toland sent forth a champion to meet him in single combat. Aegon slew the man with Blackfyre, only to learn afterward that the fallen champion was in truth the house's mad fool — Lord Toland and his kin had already slipped away to safety. In memory of that jest, the house changed its banner to a dragon devouring itself, the green and gold recalling the motley of their brave fool and the futility of Targaryen ambition in the sands of Dorne.
At the time of A Game of Thrones, Ghost Hill is ruled by Lady Nymella Toland. The castle's square towers rise white against the deep blue of the Sea of Dorne, and Lady Nymella's hall remains a hospitable stopping place on the eastern Dornish coast. House Toland is a loyal bannerman of House Martell of Sunspear, and Lady Nymella plays her part in the careful diplomatic maneuvers Prince Doran undertakes in the years that follow King Robert's death.