| The Direwolf Mother | |
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.jpg) The Direwolf Mother, by Tommy Patterson for Issue 1 of the A Game of Thrones comic adaption. | |
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| Species | Direwolf |
| Died | In The Wolfswood, the north, 298 AC |
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Game of Thrones: Season 1 |
The Direwolf Mother is a dead direwolf which birthed a littler of six pups that would latter be adopted and named by the children of House Stark.[1] Her children are: Ghost which bonded with Jon Snow, Grey Wind which bonded with Robb Stark, Lady which bonded with Sansa Stark, Nymeria which bonded with Arya Stark, Summer which bonded with Bran Stark, and Shaggydog which bonded with Rickon Stark.
Appearance and Character
The Direwolf Mother's fur was shaggy and grey. It was bigger than Bran Stark 's pony and twice the size of the largest hound in Lord Eddard Stark's kennel. Her teeth were yellow and by the time she was discovered her eyes crawled with maggots. [1]
History
According to Theon Greyjoy, direwolves have not been sighted south of the Wall for two hundred years.[1] It's unclear then where the direwolf mother came from. It is possible that direwolves like the mother and whichever mate fathered her pups survived south of the Wall in small numbers, undetected by men. It is also possible that the direwolf mother moved south from Beyond-the-Wall, throught the Gorge or the Bridge of Skulls which bypass the Wall. At some point the heavily pregnant direwolf was struck by a stag and ended with it's antler embedded in her throat, perhaps while trying to hunt it. The direwolf managed to give birth before succumbing to her injuries or immediately after. By the time the direwolf is found, her eyes filled with maggots and only one of her pups had opened her eyes a quiet albino pup that crawled or was driven away from the others.[1]
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
While racing his bastard half-brother Jon Snow in their horses Jon Snow, Robb Stark, son of Lord Eddard Stark, comes across the body of the direwolf and her pups while they are travelling south back to Winterfell with their father's party after the execution of the Night's Watch deserter Gared. Robb grabs one of her pups while Jon calls to the rest of the party, the boys excited to show them the discovery after realizing what she was. The boys have found five pups with the dead mother, their eyes still closed and give their brother Bran Stark another pup to hold.[1]
Several of the Stark guards worry about the presence of direwolves south of the Wall, thinking it might be a sign. Lord Eddard, at Roob's direction, pulls the antler from her throat for all to see and expressed surprised she lived enough to give birth. When Jory Cassel brings up the possibility of her pups being born from a dead mother the men grow worried it might be an omen of bad luck. Theon Greyjoy excitedly offers to kill the pups and tries to take Bran's but Robb insist that they keep them. When Eddard starts to agree with his men that it would be better to kill them quickly than to leave them to die of cold and hunger, Jon Snow points to his father that the direwolf had five puppies: three male and two female for Eddard Stark's three trueborn sons and two trueborn girls and that House Stark has a direwolf in their sigil, claiming Eddard's children trueborn children were meant to have the pups, purposely excluding himself so that Eddard may be convinced to take them in.[1]
Eddard relents on the condition that his children train them well and feed them and orders his men to gather the pups. As the party is about the leave the dead direwolf and return home, Jon hears and finds a sixth puppy no one else could hear, an albino pup that opened his eyes before his litter mates and crawled away. Jon claims the outcast for himself, and the party, now with all the pups, leaves the carcass of the mother behind.[1]
Along with his litter-mates, Ghost is discovered by the Stark children after his mother was killed by a stag. Ghost was the first pup to open his eyes and had wandered off unnoticed by the time the Starks arrived. Jon Snow convinces his father, Lord Eddard Stark, to allow his children to keep the pups by noting that the five remaining pups match the five Stark children, excluding himself. Only afterwards does Jon hear Ghost nearby, the only one of the humans to do so. Theon Greyjoy wants to kill the albino pup, but Jon claims him.[1]
Latter that same day when Eddard's wife Catelyn Stark informs him of the visit of his old friend King Robert I Baratheon she worries about the omen of the dead animal in the snow with a broken antler in its throat,[2] as while the direwolf is the sigil of House Stark, the stag is the sigil of House Baratheon.[3] Yet Catelyn keeps her worries to herself, as she knows Eddard puts no faith in signs.[2]
Quotes about the Direwolf Mother
Once they had been six, five whimpering blind in the snow beside their dead mother, sucking cool milk from her hard dead nipples whilst he crawled off alone. Four remained...[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 1, Bran I.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 2, Catelyn I.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 4, Eddard I.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 7, Jon II.