Nymeria (direwolf)

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House Stark.svgNymeriaHouse Stark.svg
Borja Pindado Nymeria.jpg
Nymeria and her wolfpack, by Borja Pindado © Fantasy Flight Games

Aliases
  • The little sister[1]
  • The night wolf[2]
Owner Arya Stark
Species Direwolf
Born In 298 AC[3], the north[3]
Books

TV series Game of Thrones:
Season 1 | 7

Nymeria is a direwolf bonded to Arya Stark. She is a litter-mate of Grey Wind, Lady, Summer, Shaggydog, and Ghost. She is named after Princess Nymeria of the Rhoynar.[4]

Appearance and Character

Nymeria has dark golden eyes[5] and grey fur.[6]

The direwolf loves Arya Stark and trusts the girl.[4][7] The direwolf is trainable and learns from Arya's instructions.[5][6]

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Nymeria is found with her litter-mates near their dead mother in the snow by Jon Snow and Robb Stark as they return from the hills near Winterfell. Lord Eddard Stark allows his children to each adopt a direwolf.[3] Eddard's younger daughter, Arya Stark, names her new pet after the famous Nymeria of the Rhoynar.[4] The girl keeps Nymeria as close as possible in Winterfell, even allowing the direwolf to sleep at the foot of her bed.[4] Eddard accepts King Robert I Baratheon's offer to become Hand of the King, and Arya has Nymeria help her pack when she prepares to leave Winterfell for the journey south to King's Landing.[5]

Nymeria defends Arya Stark from Prince Joffrey Baratheon, by Rafal Hrynkiewicz © Fantasy Flight Games

Near the crossroads inn, Arya cleans dried mud from Nymeria and brushes her tangles by the banks of the Trident. Arya and her new friend Mycah then hunt for rubies at the ruby ford. When Prince Joffrey Baratheon and Arya's sister Sansa stumble upon Arya and Mycah playing at swords, Joffrey challenges the butcher's boy to a duel and cuts him in the process. Joffrey refuses to relent, which leads Arya to hit the prince with her stick. When Joffrey attacks Arya with his sword, Lion's Tooth, Nymeria lunges at Joffrey, biting his arm and knocking the prince to the ground. After letting him go, Nymeria flees with Arya.[6]

Jory Cassel finds Arya and Nymeria in the woods. Fearing for Nymeria's life, Arya and Jory chase her away by shouting and throwing rocks at her.[7] After bringing Arya to Darry, Jory tells King Robert that no trace was found of her direwolf. Queen Cersei Lannister, angry that her son Joffrey had been attacked, convinces Robert to order the death of Sansa's innocent direwolf, Lady.[8]

In King's Landing, Eddard reveals to Arya he knew that she and Jory had lied about Nymeria running off, and Arya admits that they had to force the wolf away.[7]

A Clash of Kings

On her march north with Yoren and his recruits for the Night's Watch, Arya hears talk of a huge female wolf who leads a pack around the Gods Eye that has no fear of men. Lord William Mooton and his sons ride out from Maidenpool to hunt her, but are forced to retreat from the wolf's lair, losing their wolfhounds in the process. Arya disputes the storyteller's claim that the wolf took a baby out a mother's arms, insisting that wolves do not eat babies.[9]

When Arya is introduced to Lord Roose Bolton after the fall of Harrenhal, she identifies herself as "Nymeria".[10]

A Storm of Swords

Nymeria finds the body of Catelyn Stark, by GibiLynx ©

Arya sees a pack of wolves in the distance after escaping from Harrenhal, and the largest of them returns her call when she howls at them.[11] Arya then has a wolf dream in which she is hunted by four Brave Companions sent from Harrenhal. Nymeria kills Iggo, and her wolves kill the other three sellswords.[11]

After escaping the Red Wedding with Sandor Clegane, Arya has nightly dreams of leading a wolfpack. In one of them she retrieves a woman's body from a river and tries to wake it, but then flees from the body when she sees unknown men approaching.[12] In another dream, Arya leads her pack in running down a riderless horse.[13]

A Feast for Crows

Arys begins serving as "no one" at the House of Black and White in Braavos. When the kindly man asks about the candles burning in the temple, Arya thinks to herself that they remind her of her wolf. Arya dreams at night of leading a great pack in a forest.[14] Arya continues the dreams while acting as "Cat of the Canals", and Brea claims that the girl growls in her sleep.[15]

Septon Meribald reports that a great pack of hundreds of wolves prowls the Trident. He has not seen them himself, but he and Dog are scared by their howls.[16]

Ser Jaime Lannister leads a royal host from King's Landing to bring order to the riverlands. They are forced to be wary of wolves at night, and one of Ser Addam Marbrand's outriders has his horse killed by the predators.[17] At Darry, Ser Danwell Frey complains of an unprecedented number of wolves in the riverlands and tells Jaime that packs of wolves attacked their baggage train as they traveled from the Twins.[18] While they spar at night, Jaime admits to Ser Ilyn Payne that he might have maimed or killed Arya for Cersei if he had found her near Darry instead of her father's men.[18]

Ser Dermot of the Rainwood scouts near Riverrun, and he reports to Jaime of finding hundreds of fearless wolves which killed two of his sentries and attacked his horses. One of the dying men said the pack was led by "a she-wolf of monstrous size".[19]

A Dance with Dragons

In his own wolf dream, Jon Snow senses Nymeria howling to the moon, with a hundred wolves of her pack singing with her. She was in hills warmer than the area of the Wall, and full of food. Her pack hunts sheep, cows, horses, and even men.[1]

Now serving the Faceless Men as "Blind Beth", Arya continues having wolf dreams at night, and she wants to hunt down her enemies as the night wolf. She sees snowfall in the riverlands, and understands that prey has been scarcer since the snow began. During one of these dreams, Nymeria and her pack feast on a shepherd, his dogs, and his flock.[2]

The Winds of Winter

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Warning
This information has thus far been released in a sample chapter for The Winds of Winter, and might therefore not be in finalized form. Keep in mind that the content as described below is still subject to change.

Arya, now using the identity of "Mercy", a mummer at the Gate in Braavos, wakes from a wolf dream of Nymeria running through a forest with her pack, hunting prey, and being watched by a tree.[20]

Quotes by Nymeria

Arya Stark says goodbye to Nymeria, by Daaria ©

She was no little girl in the dream; she was a wolf, huge and powerful, and when she emerged from beneath the trees in front of them and bared her teeth in a low rumbling growl, she could smell the rank stench of fear from horse and man alike.[11]

—thoughts of Nymeria/Arya Stark

She dreamed of wolves most every night. A great pack of wolves, with her at the head. She was bigger than any of them, stronger, swifter, faster. She could outrun horses and outfight lions. When she bared her teeth even men would run from her, her belly was never empty long, and her fur kept her warm even when the wind was blowing cold. And her brothers and sisters were with her, many and more of them, fierce and terrible and hers. They would never leave her.[12]

—thoughts of Nymeria/Arya Stark

Rise. Rise and eat and run with us.[12]

—thoughts of Nymeria/Arya Stark to the body of Catelyn Stark

Quotes about Nymeria

She had yellow eyes. When they caught the sunlight, they gleamed like two golden coins. Arya had named her after the warrior queen of the Rhoyne, who had led her people across the narrow sea.[4]

—thoughts of Arya Stark

Arya: Jory promised not to tell.

Eddard: Jory kept his word. There are some things I do not need to be told. Even a blind man could see that wolf would never have left you willingly.
Arya: We had to throw rocks. I told her to run, to go be free, that I didn't want her anymore. There were other wolves for her to play with, we heard them howling, and Jory said the woods were full of game, so she'd have deer to hunt. Only she kept following and finally we had to throw rocks. I hit her twice. She whined and looked at me and I felt so 'shamed, but it was right, wasn't it? The queen would have killed her.

Eddard: It was right. And even the lie was ... not without honor.[7]

There's this great pack, hundreds of them, mankillers. The one that leads them is a she-wolf, a bitch from the seventh hell.[9]

—conversation overheard by Arya Stark

They say the pack is led by a monstrous she-wolf, a stalking shadow grim and grey and huge. They will tell you that she has been known to bring aurochs down all by herself, that no trap nor snare can hold her, that she fears neither steel nor fire, slays any wolf that tries to mount her, and devours no other flesh but man.[16]

I dreamed I was a wolf again. She could remember the smells best of all: trees and earth, her pack brothers, the scents of horse and deer and man, each different from the others, and the sharp acrid tang of fear, always the same. Some nights the wolf dreams were so vivid that she could hear her brothers howling even as she woke, and once Brea had claimed that she was growling in her sleep as she thrashed beneath the covers. She thought that was some stupid lie till Talea said it too.[15]

—thoughts of Arya Stark

Could Ser Dermot's direwolf be the same beast that had mauled Joffrey near the crossroads?[19]

—thoughts of Jaime Lannister

Behind the Scenes

In an early draft of A Game of Thrones, the direwolf's name was "Nymerion," after a warrior-witch of Valyria.[21]

References