Deer
Deer are hoofed ruminant mammals similar to real-life deer.
Contents
Breeds and terms
Different species of deer exist in the known world, such as: elk,[1][2] great elk,[3] moose,[4][5] red deer,[2][3] and reindeer.[6] White harts are considered rare and magical.[7]
Depending on the species, females are called does or hinds, whereas males are referred to as bucks, harts, or stags. Their young are called fawns.[8][9][10]
Culture
Several Westerosi Houses use deer or deer attributes on their coat of arms; stags for the Baratheons, Bollings, Durrandons, and Wensingtons; brown deer for the Hunts, fawns for the Cafferens, antlers for the Buckwells, and harts for the Hartes.[11]
In the wild, deer are hunted by wolves[12] and direwolves.[13] In Westeros, they are hunted for sport and game by men of noble birth.[14] Smallfolk are not allowed to hunt deer in a lord's woods, however. Being sent to the Wall is a common punishment for poaching.[15][16][17][3]
Red Deer Island is an island in the Red Fork of the Trident.[18]
Silver stags are coins used in the Seven Kingdoms.[19]
Kin of the Stag is a book written by Maester Hubert.[20]
Some of the men of the Frozen Shore wear antlers on their hats.[6] Elk and deer are prey whose skins can cause a man to become cowardly.[21]
Great elk and deer can be found in great numbers in the Forest of Qohor.[22]
History
Great elk have gone extinct south of the Wall, just like giants, children of the forest, and direwolves.[3]
By royal decree, Lord Wyman Webber and his descendants were granted the right to hunt red deer in the Osgrey-owned wood.[3]
Wenda the White Fawn, an outlaw of the Kingswood Brotherhood, would brand a fawn on the buttocks of her highborn captives, such as Merrett Frey.[23][24]
King Aerys II Targaryen granted the smallfolk of the kingswood the right to hunt a few deer during the autumn.[17]
Will, a poacher, was sent to the Night's Watch after being caught skinning a buck in House Mallister's woods.[25]
Lord Yohn Royce brought back a buck to Winterfell after a hunt in the wolfswood with Lord Eddard Stark.[14]
Prince Tommen Baratheon once adopted a fawn, but his elder brother, Prince Joffrey Baratheon, skinned it for a jerkin.[26]
While skinning a deer, Lord Randyll Tarly confronted his son, Samwell, about his view on the inheritance of their house, and forced him to join the Night's Watch.[27]
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
When a white hart is sighted in the kingswood, King Robert I Baratheon goes to hunt it with his royal retinue, including his brother Renly and Ser Barristan Selmy.[28] Sansa Stark wishes that Joffrey Baratheon would be the one to kill the deer, noting that white harts are believed to be rare and magical.[7] Robert does not find the hart until it is too late; wolves kill and devour it before the hunters arrive, leaving behind little more than hooves and horns. Robert is infuriated, until scouts bring word that a monstrous boar was sighted deeper in the forest, so Robert goes off to pursue it.[29]
Syrio Forel teaches Arya Stark multiple phrases of animals she should try to be like, including "Swift as a deer."[30] After the arrest of her father, Eddard Stark, Arya has to flee King's Landing, and she frequently repeats the phrases to strengthen herself.[31][32][33]
A Clash of Kings
Patchface wears a mock helm fashioned from an old tin bucket strapped with a rack of deer antlers.[34]
Yoren commands the former poachers, Koss and Kurz, to go hunt in the woods to feed their group marching towards the Wall. They come back with deer or quails.[16]
The lands on Cape Wrath given to Ser Davos Seaworth by Lord Stannis Baratheon include woods containing red deer.[35]
While confined to Rosby, Prince Tommen Baratheon adopts a fawn brought back from the hunt by Ser Jacelyn Bywater's men.[26]
Summer and Shaggydog kill and eat a young elk in the wolfswood.[2]
The White Hart and Stag of the Sea are both destroyed by wildfire during the Battle of the Blackwater.[36]
A Storm of Swords
The roof of Mance Rayder's tent is crowned with a set of a great elk's antlers.[37]
Bran Stark hunts a deer while skingchanging Summer.[38]
Coldhands travels the lands beyond the Wall on a great elk.[39]
References
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 23, Daenerys III.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 50, Theon IV.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 The Sworn Sword.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 53, Bran VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 41, Jon V.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 58, Jon XII.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 44, Sansa III.
- ↑ Wikipedia: Deer
- ↑ Wikipedia: Hart (deer)
- ↑ Wikipedia: List of animal names
- ↑ The Citadel. Heraldry
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 2, Sansa I.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 46, Bran VI.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 23, Alayne I.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Prologue.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 9, Arya III.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 30, Jaime IV.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 11, Jaime II.
- ↑ The Hedge Knight.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Stormlands: The Men of the Stormlands.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Prologue.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Free Cities: Qohor.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Epilogue.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 49, Jon X.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Prologue.
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 49, Tyrion XI.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 26, Jon IV.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 35, Eddard IX.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 45, Eddard XII.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 32, Arya III.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 50, Arya IV.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 38, Arya VIII.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 17, Arya III.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Prologue.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 10, Davos I.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 58, Davos III.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 7, Jon I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 9, Bran I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 46, Samwell III.