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 Grenn - by Andreia Ugrai, © FFG | ||||
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| Alias | Aurochs | |||
| Allegiance | Night's Watch | |||
| Culture | Westeros | |||
| Born |
281 AC or 282 AC[1] Westeros[2] | |||
| Books |
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| Played by | Mark Stanley | |||
| TV series |
Game of Thrones: Season 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
Grenn is a recruit of the Night's Watch and friend of Jon Snow. He is given the nickname Aurochs by Ser Alliser Thorne.[3]
In the television adaptation Game of Thrones, Grenn is portrayed by Mark Stanley.
Appearance and Character
[edit]Stocky and strong,[4] Grenn is thick of neck[3] and can grow a thick brown beard.[4] He is a head taller than Jon Snow, at the age of sixteen.[3]
Jon's original impression of Grenn is that he is slow and clumsy.[3] Even his friends in the Night's Watch often mock him for his looks and for not being the smartest.[5][6][7]
Grenn follows the Faith of the Seven.[4]
Recent Events
[edit]A Game of Thrones
[edit]Grenn is one of the recruits at Castle Black when Jon Snow comes to join the Night's Watch. They are trained together by Ser Alliser Thorne, with Alliser deriding Grenn as "Aurochs". While training with blunted swords, Jon defeats Grenn and causes an injury to his hand. Grenn, Todder, and two other recruits confront the younger Jon, but Donal Noye prevents further violence and reminds Jon of his advantageous upbringing.[3] After he has received news that his brother Bran has woken from his coma, Jon is conciliatory towards Grenn, offering to teach him how to defend against the move that has caused his injury.[3]
Grenn trains with Jon Snow and his sword fighting soon improves, now able to hold his own against a more adept recruit such as Halder. As a result, Pypar also asks Jon for help.[8]
Alliser picks on Samwell Tarly when he arrives at the Wall, commanding Halder, Rast, and Albett to fight the inept youth. Grenn, Jon, and Pyp defend Sam, however. Because Rast is still willing to hurt Sam for Alliser, he is visited in the night by Grenn, Jon, and Pyp and threatened by Jon's direwolf, Ghost. Sam joins Grenn, Jon, Pyp, and Halder during meals and eventually shares in their jests.[9]
When a new group of recruits heads toward Castle Black, Alliser names eight of his novices ready to join the Night's Watch. Grenn celebrates with wine.[10] Grenn is happy to be assigned to the rangers, while Jon is assigned to the stewards.[11]
Following the arrest of Lord Eddard Stark, Jon's father, in King's Landing as a traitor, Grenn is among those who lend support to Jon, telling him that the accusation is a lie. He and others stop Jon from attacking Alliser with a knife when the master-at-arms calls Jon "not only a bastard, but a traitor's bastard".[12]
Jon saves the life of Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, when he is attacked by a wight. Out of gratitude, the Old Bear gives Jon his family sword, Longclaw, as a gift. Afterwards, Pyp joins others who ask Jon to show them the Valyrian steel blade, explaining that they knew about the present before Jon did.[5]
Grenn is among the group of friends who stop Jon from abandoning the Wall and forswearing himself following the execution of his father in King's Landing. When Jon declares he needs to be with his brother Robb, Grenn says that those of the Night's Watch are his brothers now. He goes on explaining that, while everyone is sorry about Lord Eddard's fate, Jon cannot go back once he has made the vow.[13]
A Clash of Kings
[edit]
Grenn participates in the great ranging led by Lord Commander Mormont. Before it starts, Pyp, Toad, and Halder bring Grenn to Mole's Town to buy him his first woman in celebration of his first ranging.[14]
During the ranging beyond the Wall, Grenn serves as an outrider and is usually paired with Dywen. The gnarled, veteran ranger takes on a mentor role; clouting Grenn on the ear and advising the young ranger. When the group approaches Craster's Keep, Dywen tells Grenn that Craster was born of a wildling woman and a ranger. Dywen warns Jon and others to not look after Craster's wives. Grenn later challenges Dywen's boast that he slept with three of Craster's daughters during the night, explaining that he would have noticed that.[6]
Dywen declares there is a strange smell around the Fist of the First Men, explaining to Grenn that it smells cold.[15] Jon makes daggers from the stash of dragonglass he has found at the Fist, keeping one for himself and giving others to Grenn, Sam, and Lord Commander Mormont.[16][17] Grenn also takes dragonglass arrowheads from the cache.[17]
When Jon kills Qhorin Halfhand in the Skirling Pass on his command to prove that he has forsaken the Night's Watch so that he can infiltrate the camp of Mance Rayder, Jon wonders whether he has lost his friends.[18]
A Storm of Swords
[edit]
While the Night's Watch is encamped at the Fist of the First Men, Grenn tries to help Samwell Tarly with his archery.[19] Grenn survives the fight at the Fist, in which the Watch is attacked by wights. Grenn and Small Paul encourage the dispirited Sam during the retreat south through the haunted forest, with Grenn beginning to sing "The Bear and the Maiden Fair".[4] When the trio become separated from the rest of the survivors, an Other emerges from the wood. Grenn tries to ward it away with fire, but the Other extinguishes his torch and kills Paul. While the Other is distracted, Sam stabs it in the back with a dragonglass dagger.[4]
Grenn is among those who make it back to Craster's Keep, and he splits wood at a firepit. Grenn praises Samwell for killing the Other by calling him Sam the Slayer, but disbelieving members of the Watch use the nickname to mock Sam.[17] After Craster is murdered and Jeor Mormont is stabbed during the mutiny at Craster's Keep, Grenn slaps and shouts at Sam in an attempt to rouse the shocked youth. Sam is unresponsive, however, so Grenn and others leave him behind with the dying Lord Commander.[17][20]
Grenn is among a dozen who reach the safety of Castle Black. When Jon Snow returns to the Wall, he is informed by Grenn, Pypar, and Maester Aemon about the supposed deaths of his half brothers, Bran and Rickon Stark.[20] Grenn helps villagers from Mole's Town seek shelter atop the Wall prior to the attack on Castle Black by Styr.[21]
During the battle beneath the Wall, Grenn wields a bow and rolls barrels of burning oil from the Wall to attack the wildlings of Mance Rayder, King-Beyond-the-Wall.[22] Jon leaves command of the Wall to Grenn when he descends to Castle Black.[22] Grenn later helps roll barrels of crushed stone to destroy the wildlings' turtle.[23]
Grenn greets Sam warmly when he returns to Castle Black, grinning and hugging him so hard Sam thinks his ribs might break. In conversation with Pyp and Grenn, Sam starts to think he should convince one of the candidates in the Night's Watch election to withdraw to support the other.[7] When Jon Snow is elected the new Lord Commander to succeed Jeor Momront, Grenn is among those who congratulate him.[24]
A Feast for Crows
[edit]
Grenn and Pypar practice with longbows. Grenn complains that Jon has not been the same since being chosen the new Lord Commander.[25]
A Dance with Dragons
[edit]Jon sees Grenn eating with Pyp and his other friends in the cellar below the armory. They invite Jon to sit with them, but he refuses. Afterward, Lord Commander Snow reluctantly assigns Grenn and Pyp to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.[26]
Quotes by Grenn
[edit]Grenn: Nobody likes cravens. I wish we hadn't helped him. What if they think we're craven too?
Pypar: You're too stupid to be craven.
Grenn: I would not. I'd run away faster than you.[9]
Grenn: I am not.
Pypar: Yes you are. If a bear attacked you in the woods, you'd be too stupid to run away.
—Grenn and Pypar
Pypar: We're not all as dumb as Grenn.
Grenn: You are so. You're dumber.[5]—Grenn and Pypar
Todder: This is so stupid, it's like something the Aurochs would do.
Grenn: I would not. I'm no oathbreaker. I said the words and I meant them.[13]—Todder and Grenn
Samwell: They're mocking me, the same way they mock Bedwyck by calling him 'Giant.'
Grenn: He's not a giant, though, and Paul was never small. Well, maybe when he was a babe at the breast, but not after. You did slay the Other, though, so it's not the same.
Grenn: He was saying I was big and stupid. If Pyp wanted to call me Aurochs, though, he could. Or you, or Jon. An aurochs is a fierce strong beast, so that's not so bad, and I am big, and getting bigger.[17]
Samwell: I just ... I never ... I was scared!
Grenn: No more than me. It's only Pyp who says I'm too dumb to be frightened. I get as frightened as anyone. I used to be scared of Jon, whenever I had to fight him. He was so quick, and he fought like he meant to kill me. I never said, though. Sometimes I think everyone is just pretending to be brave, and none of us really are. Maybe pretending is how you get brave, I don't know. Let them call you Slayer, who cares?
Samwell: You never liked Ser Alliser to call you Aurochs.
—Samwell Tarly and Grenn
Jon: Grenn, you have the Wall.
Grenn: Me?
Jon: Stop them.[22]
Pypar: Him?
Grenn: But, b-but what do I do if the wildlings attack again?
Quotes about Grenn
[edit]The night before they left the Wall, Pyp had teased Grenn the way he did, Sam remembered, smiling and saying how Grenn was a good choice for the ranging, since he was too stupid to be terrified. Grenn hotly denied it until he realized what he was saying. He was stocky and thick-necked and strong—Ser Alliser Thorne had called him "Aurochs," the same way he called Sam "Ser Piggy" and Jon "Lord Snow"—but he had always treated Sam nice enough.[4]
—thoughts of Samwell Tarly
Grenn had changed a great deal from the big, clumsy, red-necked boy Jon had first befriended. He had grown half a foot, his chest and shoulders had thickened, and he had not cut his hair nor trimmed his beard since the Fist of the First Men. It made him look as huge and shaggy as an aurochs, the mocking name that Ser Alliser Thorne had hung on him during training.[23]
—thoughts of Jon Snow
I am the shield that guards the realms of men, he remembered. He wondered what those men would say if they realized their realms were being guarded by the likes of Grenn, Pyp, and Dolorous Edd.[25]
—thoughts of Samwell Tarly
References
[edit]- ↑ See the Grenn calculation.
- ↑ George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Grenn.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 19, Jon III.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 18, Samwell I.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 60, Jon VIII.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 23, Jon III.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 75, Samwell IV.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 21, Tyrion III.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 26, Jon IV.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 41, Jon V.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 48, Jon VI.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 52, Jon VII.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 70, Jon IX.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 6, Jon I.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 34, Jon IV.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 43, Jon V.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 33, Samwell II.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 68, Jon VIII.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Prologue.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 48, Jon VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 55, Jon VII.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 64, Jon VIII.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 69, Jon IX.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 79, Jon XII.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 5, Samwell I.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 10, Jon III.