| Miller's wife | |
|---|---|
 The miller's wife, holding the skulls of her dead sons. Art by Wodania © | |
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| Allegiance | House Stark |
| Culture | Northmen |
| Born | North |
| Died |
299 AC Mill by the Acorn Water |
| Spouse | Miller of Acorn Water |
| Lover | Theon Greyjoy |
| Issue | Two young sons |
| Books |
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The miller's wife from Acorn Water[1] is the wife of a miller in the lands near Winterfell. She has two young sons and resides at a mill by the Acorn Water.[2]
Appearance and Character
The woman has big soft pillowy breasts with wide dark nipples, stretch marks on her belly, a sweet mouth, and a merry laugh.[3][4]
History
Theon Greyjoy has known her for years[4] and bedded her several times, and thinks there was nothing special about her.[2] However, he later recalls her features, and the way she would claw at his back while they had sex, but he cannot recall her name.[3]
Recent Events
A Clash of Kings
After Ser Rodrik Cassel captures "Reek", his party stops at the mill by the Acorn Water for a while before continuing to Winterfell. The miller's wife sells them hay for their horses, and Rodrik speaks with her sons.[2]
When Theon Greyjoy leads ironborn raiders to capture Winterfell, Bran and Rickon Stark become his prisoners and hostages. '"Reek", freed from Winterfell's dungeons, swears himself to Theon.[5]
Bran and Rickon apparently escape Winterfell. Theon gathers a search party, including Reek, Maester Luwin, and the kennelmaster Farlen and his dogs, but fails to track them down in the wolfswood. However, Reek tells Theon he has a feeling that the Stark boys are hiding at the mill, and secretly presents Theon with the boys' fine clothing he had brought along in a bag. Theon sends the rest of the search party back to Winterfell, except for Reek and three ironborn, Aggar, Gelmarr, and Gynir.[2]
At the mill, Reek kills the miller's two sons, and when their mother begs Theon for mercy, Gelmarr cuts her down with one blow of his axe. The dead children are decapitated and their heads skinned and dipped in tar by Reek, and Theon dresses their bodies in the Stark children's finery. Theon returns to Winterfell and presents the heads and headless bodies as Bran and Rickon. Theon mounts their heads on the castle walls, and he burns the bodies and clothing to bones and ashes.[3]
Reek kills Aggar, Gelmarr, and Gynir to keep the deception a secret.[3] Theon has a nightmare that he is having sex with the miller's wife again, but she has teeth below, and she both tears out his throat and bites off his manhood. Theon also dreams of the feast in honor of King Robert's visit to Winterfell, but soon realizes he is dining with the dead, including the miller's wife.[3]
A Dance with Dragons
Having returned to Winterfell for Ramsay Bolton's wedding, a regretful Theon feels that the castle is full of ghosts for him.[6][7][1] He thinks of the old ghosts from the crypts and the younger ones that he had made himself, including the miller's wife from Acorn Water and her two young sons.[7]
In the godswood of Winterfell, Theon sees Bran's face in the weirwood and momentarily thinks he is being haunted by his ghost, before recalling that they had not actually killed Bran and Rickon, but instead only miller's sons. He speaks aloud that he had to have two heads or he would have been mocked, and is overheard by Holly and Rowan.[1] Rowan accuses Theon of being a kinslayer, and Theon denies any relationship to Bran and Rickon while thinking to himself that the two children he killed were just some miller's sons. He thinks that he had known the miller's wife for years, and remembers that she had big heavy breasts, a sweet mouth, and a merry laugh, pleasures that he can never again experience.[4]
Quotes
"Reek": You know that old mill, sitting lonely on the Acorn Water? We stopped there when I was being dragged to Winterfell a captive. The miller's wife sold us hay for our horses while that old knight clucked over her brats. Might be the Starks are hiding there.
Theon: Why there? There are a dozen villages and holdfasts just as close.
"Reek": Why? Now that’s past knowing. But they’re there, I have a feeling.[2]— "Reek" and Theon Greyjoy
Theon had forgotten her name, but he remembered her body, soft pillowy breasts and stretch marks on her belly, the way she clawed his back when he fucked her. Last night in his dream he had been in bed with her once again, but this time she had teeth above and below, and she tore out his throat even as she was gnawing off his manhood. It was madness. He'd seen her die too. Gelmarr had cut her down with one blow of his axe as she cried to Theon for mercy. Leave me, woman. It was him who killed you, not me. And he's dead as well.[3]
— thoughts of Theon Greyjoy
He was trapped here, with the ghosts. The old ghosts from the crypts and the younger ones that he had made himself, Mikken and Farlen, Gynir Rednose, Aggar, Gelmarr the Grim, the miller's wife from Acorn Water and her two young sons, and all the rest. My work. My ghosts. They are all here, and they are angry.[1]
— thoughts of Theon Greyjoy
The two we killed were just some miller's sons. Theon did not want to think about their mother. He had known the miller's wife for years, had even bedded her. Big heavy breasts with wide dark nipples, a sweet mouth, a merry laugh. Joys that I will never taste again.[4]
— thoughts of Theon Greyjoy
Theories
It has been speculated that Theon fathered the miller's wife's sons, or at least the youngest one, as he bedded the miller's wife several times. However, this conjecture is disputed: Theon never considers the possibility that the children are his, which may imply that he had sex with the woman after they were already born; a proof of this may be Theon remembering "stretch marks on her belly",[3] that could have come from childbirth.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 46, A Ghost in Winterfell.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 50, Theon IV.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 56, Theon V.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 51, Theon I.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 46, Bran VI.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 37, The Prince of Winterfell.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 41, The Turncloak.