| Note: The title of this article is conjecture and may be subject to change. |
| Mutiny at Craster's Keep | |||||||||||||
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 Mutiny at Craster's Keep, by Victor Garcia © Fantasy Flight Games | |||||||||||||
| Conflict | Conflict beyond the Wall | ||||||||||||
| Date | late 299 AC | ||||||||||||
| Place | Craster's Keep | ||||||||||||
| Result | mutineer victory, loyalist retreat | ||||||||||||
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The mutiny at Craster's Keep is a rebellious engagement involving the Night's Watch. After the crushing defeat in the fight at the Fist, the Night's Watch are forced to retreat and seek shelter at Craster's Keep in the haunted forest.
Background
The Night's Watch has been losing strength for years with fewer volunteers every season, so it increasingly relies on the dungeons of the Seven Kingdoms to fill the ranks. Many disreputable individuals are selected for the great ranging, and the forced march further beyond the Wall makes them even more disgruntled.[1]
Chett and a few other brothers plan to betray Jeor Mormont, the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, and his senior commanders so they can escape the Watch, but the combination of the heavy weather and the assault from wights at the Fist of the First Men make this plan redundant.[1] Around sixty men[2] retreat from the fight at the Fist, but some die from wounds, wander off, or are attacked by wights or Others.[3]
Forty-four men reach Craster's Keep, but their morale is low and certain brothers start being more vocal with their criticism. After several days, Bannen and three others have died, leaving thirty-two men capable of fighting and eight incapacitated by wounds or illness.[2]
Mutiny
Trouble begins when Ulmer asks for more bread, as Craster's wives have brought only two loaves for the starving men to eat. Clubfoot Karl and Dirk demand more food, but are rejected by Craster, and Karl defies Jeor Mormont order to be silent. Samwell Tarly thinks that Karl is about to sit, but Craster, interrupting the standoff with the axe gifted to him by Jeor,[4] states any who disrespect him in his home must sleep outside in the cold without food.[2]
Losing his temper when called a bastard, Craster vaults his table but has his throat slit by Dirk. Craster crashes face first across the wounded Ser Byam Flint and drowns in his own blood. Dirk shoves a knife under the chin of one of Craster's wives, demanding that she show them where the food is or he will kill her. Lord Commander Mormont tells Dirk to unhand her, but Garth of Greenaway blocks his path and Ollo Lophand stabs Jeor's belly, mortally wounding him.[2]
Aftermath
Fearing they will be killed by mutineers, Grenn, Dolorous Edd, Bedwyck, Dywen and other outnumbered loyalists admit defeat and retreat back to Castle Black to report on the disastrous expedition. Grenn urges Samwell Tarly to come with them but he does not move. Of note, Sweet Donnel Hill was complicit in Chett's plan to betray their brothers on the Fist of the First Men, but it appears after the fight at the Fist he decided to remain loyal to the Watch. Approximately a dozen men return to the Wall before the attack on Castle Black.[5] Other men, such as Jarman Buckwell, also return to Castle Black from beyond the Wall.[5]
Rolley of Sisterton breaks his neck after falling from the loft while chasing after Craster's wives, and Garth of Greenaway kills Garth of Oldtown, though Sam does not remember why.[2] Dirk and Ollo Lophand tear up the walls of Craster's Keep looking for food,[5] and Ollo rapes one of the wives on a table.[2] While mutineers gorge in Craster's cellar or rape his younger wives, the shocked Sam sits with the dying Jeor Mormont's head in his lap. Jeor tells Sam to make for the Wall, instructing him to inform Castle Black of what happened. The Lord Commander's dying wish is for his exiled son, Ser Jorah Mormont, to take the black. Encouraged to escape by Ferny and Gilly's mother, Sam flees Craster's Keep with Gilly and her baby.[2] Nine betrayers remain at Craster's Keep with his food and wives.[6][7]
While guiding Bran Stark and his friends toward the cave of the three-eyed crow, Coldhands detects the presence of men in the haunted forest; the ranger hunts them down and kills them with his ravens. Summer, Bran's direwolf, then finds One Eye, Stalker, and Sly—all once members of Varamyr's wolfpack—trying to eat five black-clad bodies, one of which has a severed hand. Summer forces the three wolves to submit and join his pack. As Summer begins eating from the corpses, Bran wakes from his skinchanging to find that Coldhands has returned with meat; the ranger claims to have found a sow in the forest.[8]
Participants
Loyalist casualties
Loyalist casualties include but are not limited to:
- Lord Commander Jeor Mormont[2]
- Byam Flint[2]
Confirmed loyalist survivors
Loyalists confirmed to survive and return to the Wall:
Craster's family
Betrayers
Quotes
—Craster and Clubfoot Karl
Jeor: The gods will curse us. There is no crime so foul as for a guest to bring murder into a man's hall. By all the laws of the hearth, we—
Dirk: There are no laws beyond the Wall, old man. Remember?[2]—Jeor Mormont and Dirk
Ollo had only one hand, but that was quick. He twisted free of the old man's grasp, shoved the knife into Mormont's belly, and yanked it out again, all red. And then the world went mad.[2]
—thoughts of Samwell Tarly
Aemon: Jon ... it grieves me to say, but Lord Commander Mormont was murdered at Craster's Keep, at the hands of his Sworn Brothers.
Jon: Bro ... our own men? Who was it? Who turned on him?
Aemon: Garth of Oldtown, Ollo Lophand, Dirk ... thieves, cowards and killers, the lot of them. We should have seen it coming. The Watch is not what it was. Too few honest men to keep the rogues in line.[5]
Men. The stink of them filled the world. Alive, they had been as many as the fingers on a man's paw, but now they were none. Dead. Done. Meat. Cloaked and hooded, once, but the wolves had torn their clothing into pieces in their frenzy to get at the flesh. Those who still had faces wore thick beards crusted with ice and frozen snot. The falling snow had begun to bury what remained of them, so pale against the black of ragged cloaks and breeches. Black.[8]
—thoughts of Bran Stark while skinchanging into Summer
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 A Storm of Swords, Prologue.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 33, Samwell II.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 18, Samwell I.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 23, Jon III.
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 48, Jon VI.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 A Feast for Crows, Appendix.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Appendix.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 4, Bran I.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 5, Samwell I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 75, Samwell IV.