Leathers
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Master-at-arms at Castle Black | |||
| Allegiances | ||||
| Culture | Free folk | |||
| Born | before 259 AC[1] | |||
| Issue | Sons[2] | |||
| Book | A Dance with Dragons (appears) | |||
Leathers is a member of the free folk of the haunted forest who joins the Night's Watch.[2]
Contents
Character
Well past forty, Leathers has sons and grandsons.[2] Despite his age, Lord Commander Jon Snow considers him to still be in his prime.[3] A savage warrior, Leathers is as dangerous with a stone axe as most knights are with castle-forged steel. Not a patient tutor, he scares some of the younger recruit of the Night's Watch.[4]
Leathers speaks both the Old Tongue and the Common Tongue.[2]
Recent Events
A Dance with Dragons
Leathers is part of Mance Rayder's host,[5] but they are defeated in the battle beneath the Wall. He is one of the sixty-three free folk that Jon Snow takes to Castle Black from Mole's Town. He and Jax are the first of them to join the Night's Watch. They swear their vows with four other recruits (Horse, Satin, Arron, and Emrick) at the grove of weirwoods north of Castle Black, inside the haunted forest. They are escorted by Jon and ten rangers.[2]
Scouting ahead, Tom Barleycorn finds nine wildlings in the weirwood grove, including the giant Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun. Leathers helps Jon calm them by talking to the giant in the Old Tongue. Jon, Iron Emmett, and Bowen Marsh weigh each recruit and assigned them to an order, with Leathers assigned to the rangers.[2]
Jon appoints Leathers as master-at-arms at Castle Black, over the objection of the Lord Steward, Bowen Marsh.[4] Leathers serves as a translator for Jon and Wun Wun, teaching the Old Tongue to Jon and the Common Tongue to the giant.[6]
Quotes by Leathers
Cellador: Even in the south the treachery of wildlings is renowned.
Leathers: That battle down below? I was on t'other side, remember? Now I wear your blacks and train your boys to kill. Some might call me turncloak. Might be so ... but I am no more savage than you crows. We have gods too. The same gods they keep in Winterfell.[5]—Cellador and Leathers
Quotes about Leathers
Bowen: Is it true that you mean to replace Emmett with this savage Leathers as our master-at-arms? That is an office most oft reserved for knights, or rangers at the least.
Jon: Leathers is savage. I can attest to that. I've tried him in the practice yard. He's as dangerous with a stone axe as most knights are with castle-forged steel. I grant you, he is not as patient as I'd like, and some of the boys are terrified of him ... but that's not all for the bad. One day they'll find themselves in a real fight, and a certain familiarity with terror will serve them well.[4]—Bowen Marsh and Jon Snow
References
- ↑ See the Leathers calculation.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 35, Jon VII.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 58, Jon XII.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 39, Jon VIII.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 53, Jon XI.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 44, Jon IX.