A great pack of wolves roams the riverlands.[1] The pack consists of hundreds of wolves[2] and is led by a fearsome she-wolf,[1] Nymeria, the direwolf companion of Arya Stark.[3]
Recent Events
[edit]A Game of Thrones
[edit]After Nymeria bites Prince Joffrey Baratheon in Arya's defense during an altercation,[4] Arya is forced to chase Nymeria away with rocks out of fear for her life. Nymeria is last seen in the riverlands,[5] somewhere in the vicinity of the inn at the crossroads, the ruby ford,[4] and Darry.[6]
A Clash of Kings
[edit]While at an ivy-covered inn Arya overhears that wolves around the Gods Eye have grown bolder than anyone can remember. The wolves kill cows, dogs, and sheep without fear of humans. The pack supposedly consists of hundreds of man-killing wolves, led by a she-wolf from the seventh hell. One tale claims the she-wolf tore a baby from his mother's arms. Lord William Mooton and his sons tracked the wolf to her lair and barely escaped alive. Arya wonders if the wolf could be Nymeria, but protests that wolves don't eat babies.[1]
While standing watch for their party south of the Gods Eye Hot Pie hears wolves howling. When Arya goes in the woods to make water, she encounters a pack of about six wolves. When she tries to sleep after returning to camp, she hears the wolves howling in the distance.[7]
Near the Gods Eye village, Arya, Hot Pie, and their companions hear the howling of wolves.[8]
While at Harrenhal, Arya dreams of wolves running wild through the woods.[9]
A group of the Brave Companions led by Septon Utt are attacked by wolves at their camp. The wolves come near the campfire and kill two horses. Three days later, after holding council with the Freys, Lord Roose Bolton sets out to hunt the wolves. He finds it strange that a pack of common wolves in the south is so numerous and fearsome. Lord Bolton's party returns with nine dead wolves, seven large and savage adults and two pups. That night, Arya hears the sound of a great pack of wolves. They sound close to Harrenhal, and she thinks they are calling to her.[10]
A Storm of Swords
[edit]
After escaping from Harrenhal, Arya spies a pack of wolves crossing a valley stream. She howls at them, and the largest of the pack lifts its head and howls back. Soon after, Arya has a wolf dream where she is a huge and powerful wolf. She and a great pack of wolves fight a group of Brave Companions who are pursuing Arya and her companions. When a Dothraki sellsword's horse kicks in the head of one of her wolf sisters, Arya-as-Nymeria tears off his arm in rage.[11]
While traveling near Maidenpool, Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth hear the howling of many wolves during the nights.[12]
At Stoney Sept, Arya dreams of wolves stalking through a wet wood. She is surrounded by her pack, and together they run down a horse and feast on it. When the moon breaks through the clouds, she howls at it.[13]
When Jaime and Brienne dine at Harrenhal with Lord Bolton, he reports that packs of wolves are among the threats prowling the riverlands.[14]
Sheltering in the stables of a burned septry with the brotherhood without banners, Arya hears the howling of many wolves all around the stable. They sound very close, numbering the dozens or possibly hundreds. In the morning, the brotherhood's scouts do not find any wolves.[15]
After escaping the Red Wedding with the Hound, Arya dreams of wolves almost every night. In the dreams, she leads a great pack of wolves and is the biggest and fastest of them all. She outmaneuvers and fights horses and lions and even scares off men. The many brothers and sisters of her pack are fierce and hers. While with her pack in another dream, she catches the scent of her mother. Following the scent, she finds her body and pulls her from the river. She urges her to rise and run with her pack. When a group of men approaches, some of her younger brothers bare their teeth at them, but she snaps at them, and the wolves run away.[16]
After the fight at the inn at the crossroads, Arya has another dream where she chases a riderless horse with her pack behind her.[3]
A Feast for Crows
[edit]After reaching the House of Black and White in Braavos, Arya dreams she is a wolf, running through a moonlit forest with her great pack howling behind her.[17]
Septon Meribald reports to Brienne and Podrick Payne that the wolves have grown terrible lately, to the point that men would do well to find a tree for sleeping. In his nearly forty years roaming the region, the biggest pack he ever saw had fewer than a dozen wolves, but the great pack that roams along the Trident has hundreds. Though he hasn't encountered the pack, he has heard the pack more than once. The sound frightens even Dog, who's killed a dozen wolves before. According to Meribald, it's said the pack's leader is a monstrous she-wolf, grim and grey and huge. She is the subject of many fearsome tales and supposedly slays any wolf that tries to mount her.[2]
As Jaime Lannister leads a column of men up the kingsroad, they must be wary of horses. There are no travelers, and at night the wolves reign. While most animals keep their distance, one of Addam Marbrand's outriders has his horse run off and killed after dismounting. Ser Bonifer Hasty denounces the wolves as demons in the skin of wolves sent to chastise them for their sins. When they reach Sow's Horn, Ser Roger Hogg shares that wolves ate his remaining sheep. He killed some and took their pelts, but worries that he now has little food.[18]
At Darry, Danwell Frey reports that there are more wolves about than even his grandfather[N 1] can remember. The wolves have lost all fear of men and packs of them attacked Frey baggage trains as they traveled from the Twins. The wolves only fled after a dozen were killed by their archers. Ser Addam Marbrand shares that Jaime's men have faced similar problems on their journey from King's Landing.[20]
Near Riverrun, Jaime hears wolves howling from across the river. A sentry warns him to stay vigilant with the wolves about.[21]
After assuming the identity of Cat of the Canals, Arya still has vivid dreams of the wolf pack. In the dreams, she is surrounded by her howling pack brothers, and they run down prey together.[22]
While scouting near Riverrun for Jaime, Dermot of the Rainwood's men encounter hundreds of wolves. They come out of the dark and kill two of his sentries. The wolves have no fear of armed men. Before he dies, a sentry named Jate says the pack is led by a huge she-wolf that he claims is a direwolf. The wolf pack also gets in amongst their horses and kill Dermot's favorite bay.[23]
A Dance with Dragons
[edit]In a wolf dream as Ghost, Jon Snow hears his little sister howling at the moon with a hundred smaller grey cousins howling with her. The pack is hunting and gorges on sheep, cows, horses, and sometimes even the flesh of men.[24]
After becoming "Blind Beth," Arya still has dreams of the wolf pack. In one dream, she and the pack attack a shepherd, his dogs, and his sheep, eating all three. Some of the smaller wolf cousins are afraid of men, even dead ones, but she isn't. She finds comfort in the dreams with her pack and their familiar smells.[25]
Unlike other recent travels through the region, wolves do not trouble Jaime's party on their way to Raventree Hall.[26]
The Winds of Winter
[edit]
| Warning This information has thus far been released in a sample chapter for The Winds of Winter, and might therefore not be in finalized form. Keep in mind that the content as described below is still subject to change. |
Now wearing the face of "Mercy," Arya wakes from another wolf dream where she ran after prey in a dark pine foresst with the great pack behind her.[27]
Notes
[edit]- ↑ It's unclear who Danwell Frey refers to when he speaks of his grandfather. As he seems to mean a living individual who has heard about the activities of the great pack, it is not his deceased paternal grandfather. However, his maternal grandfather is a Crakehall from the westerlands not the riverlands, and thus unlikely to be knowledgeable on historical wolf activity in the riverlands. Danwell may mean Lord Walder Frey, but Danwell is a son, not grandson, of Lord Walder.[19]
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 5, Arya II.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 25, Brienne V.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 74, Arya XIII.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 15, Sansa I.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 22, Arya II.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 16, Eddard III.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 9, Arya III.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 19, Arya V.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 30, Arya VII.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 64, Arya X.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 3, Arya I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 21, Jaime III.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 29, Arya V.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 37, Jaime V.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 39, Arya VII.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 65, Arya XII.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 22, Arya II.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 27, Jaime III.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Appendix.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 30, Jaime IV.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 33, Jaime V.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 34, Cat Of The Canals.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 44, Jaime VII.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 3, Jon I.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 45, The Blind Girl.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 48, Jaime I.
- ↑ The Winds of Winter, Mercy