Fire wight

Note: The title of this article is conjecture and may be subject to change.

Beric Dondarrion, by Rafal Hrynkiewicz © Fantasy Flight Games

Fire wight is a term used by fans to refer to wights animated by fire magic instead of the ice magic of the Others. The revival of fire wights may be related to the red god R'hllor.

Known fire wights

• Beric Dondarrion, reanimated by Thoros of Myr
• Lady Stoneheart, reanimated by Beric Dondarrion

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Thoros of Myr and Beric Dondarrion, at the Hand's Tourney and after Beric's resurrection. Art by Amuelia ©

The Hand of the King, Lord Eddard Stark, appoints Lord Beric Dondarrion to be in charge of an expedition to bring the king's justice to Ser Gregor Clegane, who has been raiding the riverlands after the capture of Tyrion Lannister. Among Beric's men are Thoros of Myr, a red priest, and Harwin, a member of Eddard's household guard. However, Beric's party is ambushed in the battle at the Mummer's Ford, where many are killed, and Beric himself is impaled by Gregor's lance. Though Thoros tries to treat Beric's wound, he dies, and Thoros gives Beric the last kiss, traditional burial rites of the faith of R'hllor. He breathes fire into Beric's lungs, and Beric rises from the dead, much to the shock of Thoros, who had never seen such an occurrence before and attributes the resurrection to R'hllor.

A Clash of Kings

After the execution of Eddard Stark on the orders of King Joffrey Baratheon and the start of the War of the Five Kings, the remainder of Beric's party become the outlaw band known as the brotherhood without banners. They continue to fight the Lannister incursion in the riverlands while trying to protect the smallfolk. Beric is killed multiple times while fighting, but Thoros continues to revive him with the same method of a fiery kiss.

A Storm of Swords

Arya Stark, Arya's companion Gendry, and the outlaw Sandor Clegane are captured by the brotherhood. Sandor is put on trial by the brotherhood, and faces Beric in a trial by battle. Beric slices his own hand open, coating his sword with his blood, and the sword takes fire with magical flame. Despite Sandor's fear of fire, he is able to slay Beric, cleaving him from shoulder to breastbone. However, Beric is revived by Thoros, much to the shock of the captives.

Thoros and Beric explain to Arya the history of Beric's six deaths and resurrections. Arya asks if Thoros could revive a man without a head, thinking of her father, Eddard Stark, but Thoros explains he only prays to R'hllor, and it is the god that raises Beric. The weary Beric has become a scarecrow of a man, his battered body bearing all the wounds of his previous deaths. He is missing an eye, in its place a raw red pit. His head is broken, caved in at the temple. There is a dark ring around his throat from being hanged, and there is a terrible gash in his chest from where the Hound killed him. Arya has never seen Beric eat or sleep, though he occasionally drinks wine. Beric's memory is impaired, having forgotten details about his castle and the woman he was pledged to marry. Beric tells Thoros that six deaths is too many, that the fire has consumed him until there is nothing left.

At the Red Wedding, King Robb Stark is betrayed by Lord Walder Frey, and he and his men are slaughtered. Robb's mother, Lady Catelyn Stark, is one of those killed, her throat slit by the Freys after she goes mad and tears at her face when Robb is killed. Catelyn's body is dumped naked into the Green Fork of the Trident. Arya Stark wolf dreams that her direwolf, Nymeria, finds her mother's body in the river and drags it to the shore, where it is found by the brotherhood. Harwin begs Thoros to revive Catelyn, but he refuses, as she has been dead for three days and he feels that is too long. However, Beric kisses Catelyn, passing on the flame of his life, and he dies for the last time while Catelyn rises.

The revived Catelyn, now the leader of the brotherhood, presides over the execution of Merrett Frey, who is stunned to see her alive, though her body is in terrible condition from the wounds of her death and afterwards, and she cannot speak.

A Feast for Crows

Lady Stoneheart, as depicted by Arantza Sestayo for the 2022 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar

Catelyn is now known as Lady Stoneheart, who is only spoken of in rumor as the leader of the outlaw band, some claiming she was Beric's lover. Death has changed Catelyn; Lady Stoneheart is less gracious and forgiving than in life, and is consumed with a desire for vengeance on anyone she thinks betrayed her and her son, Robb. She hangs any man associated with the Freys, Boltons, or Lannisters, even if they had nothing to do with the Red Wedding or even if they are boys, as is the case of Podrick Payne.

Brienne of Tarth is captured by the brotherhood, and Thoros explains to her how Catelyn was brought back from the dead by Beric Dondarrion. Brienne is shocked to see Catelyn's condition. Due to her corpse being submerged in river water for days, her flesh has become soft as pudding and turned the color of curdled milk, with grey-green mottling and brown blooms of decay. Half of her hair is gone, and the rest is white, dry and brittle. Her eyes look like two red pits, burning in the shadows. Additionally, her wounds have not healed; her face is shredded, hanging in ragged strips from her eyes to her jaw, either crusted with dried blood or gaping open to reveal the skull beneath. Her throat is still slit open. To speak, she must pinch closed her slashed throat; even then her voice is difficult to understand, sounding like a combination of a croak, wheeze, and death rattle.

Quotes

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  Catelyn Stark, before and after her resurrection into Lady Stoneheart. Art by Denis Maznev ©

There was always talk of Beric Dondarrion. A fat archer once said the Bloody Mummers had slain him, but the others only laughed. "Lorch killed the man at Rushing Falls, and the Mountain's slain him twice. Got me a silver stag says he don't stay dead this time neither."

—conversation overheard by Arya Stark

Arya: Could you bring back a man without a head? Just the once, not six times. Could you?
Thoros: I have no magic, child. Only prayers. That first time, his lordship had a hole right through him and blood in his mouth, I knew there was no hope. So when his poor torn chest stopped moving, I gave him the good god's own kiss to send him on his way. I filled my mouth with fire and breathed the flames inside him, down his throat to lungs and heart and soul. The last kiss it is called, and many a time I saw the old priests bestow it on the Lord's servants as they died. I had given it a time or two myself, as all priests must. But never before had I felt a dead man shudder as the fire filled him, nor seen his eyes come open. It was not me who raised him, my lady. It was the Lord. R'hllor is not done with him yet. Life is warmth, and warmth is fire, and fire is God's and God's alone.

—Arya Stark and Thoros of Myr

Beric: Fire consumes. It consumes, and when it is done there is nothing left. Nothing.
Thoros: Beric. Sweet friend. What are you saying?
Beric: Nothing I have not said before. Six times, Thoros? Six times is too many.

—Beric Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr

She don't speak. You bloody bastards cut her throat too deep for that. But she remembers.

—Lem, to Merrett Frey

But her eyes were the most terrible thing. Her eyes saw him, and they hated.

—thoughts of Merrett Frey

And there's this other band, led by this woman Stoneheart... Lord Beric's lover, according to one tale. Supposedly she was hanged by the Freys, but Dondarrion kissed her and brought her back to life, and now she cannot die, no more than he.

—Hyle Hunt, to Brienne of Tarth

Brienne: Lady Catelyn? They said... they said that you were dead.
Thoros: She is. The Freys slashed her throat from ear to ear. When we found her by the river she was three days dead. Harwin begged me to give her the kiss of life, but it had been too long. I would not do it, so Lord Beric put his lips to hers instead, and the flame of life passed from him to her. And... she rose. May the Lord of Light protect us. She rose.

—Brienne of Tarth and Thoros of Myr

Death does change a person. No, I do not think Catelyn is as she was, no more than Lord Beric... And by the way, there will no Catelyn POVs in future volumes, which may tell you something.

—George R.R. Martin

My characters who come back from death are worse for wear. In some ways, they’re not even the same characters anymore. The body may be moving, but some aspect of the spirit is changed or transformed, and they’ve lost something. One of the characters who has come back repeatedly from death is Beric Dondarrion, The Lightning Lord. Each time he’s revived he loses a little more of himself. He was sent on a mission before his first death. He was sent on a mission to do something, and it’s like, that’s what he’s clinging to. He’s forgetting other things, he’s forgetting who he is, or where he lived. He’s forgotten the woman who he was once supposed to marry. Bits of his humanity are lost every time he comes back from death; he remembers that mission. His flesh is falling away from him, but this one thing, this purpose that he had is part of what’s animating him and bringing him back to death. I think you see echoes of that with some of the other characters who have come back from death.

—George R.R. Martin

In my version of the story, Catelyn Stark is re-imbued with a kind of life and becomes this vengeful wight who galvanizes a group of people around her and is trying to exact her revenge on the riverlands. [...] And poor Beric Dondarrion, who was set up as the foreshadowing of all this, every time he’s a little less Beric. His memories are fading, he’s got all these scars, he’s becoming more and more physically hideous, because he’s not a living human being anymore. His heart isn’t beating, his blood isn’t flowing in his veins, he’s a wight, but a wight animated by fire instead of by ice.

—George R.R. Martin

Behind the Scenes

The term "fire wight" has not yet been used in the books. In an interview regarding the Game of Thrones TV series' omission of Catelyn Stark's resurrection into Lady Stoneheart, George R.R. Martin described Beric Dondarrion as "a wight animated by fire instead of by ice". Actor Richard Dormer, who played Beric Dondarrion in Game of Thrones Season 3 and onwards, has referred to Beric as a "fire wight" in several interviews during the run of the show. In the Blu-ray commentary for his final episode in Season 8, Dormer recalls how he discussed Beric's resurrected nature with George R.R. Martin. Dormer says he was the one who came up with the detail that Beric would never be seen eating, drinking, or sleeping on-screen, because he isn't truly "alive" anymore; according to Dormer, Martin said he thought this was a great idea. The origin of the term "fire wight", however, is ambiguous. After mentioning that he had this conversation with Martin, Dormer then shifts topics, then comes back to saying "Beric is a fire wight", without specifying if that's a term he came up with on his own, or whether it's a term Martin himself used in their discussion.

Theories

Many readers speculate that since Lord Commander Jon Snow was killed in a mutiny by other members of the Night's Watch, he will be revived as a fire wight by the red priestess Melisandre, who is also present at Castle Black, similar to yet different from the way Jon's resurrection was managed in Game of Thrones. Some fans also theorize about Beric's ability to light his sword aflame and how it may connect to the legend of Lightbringer.