[Ygritte — Characters]
Qhorin leads his men into the pass, and they locate and ambush the wildling watchers. Jon realizes his opponent is a young woman and hesitates to kill her. She introduces herself as Ygritte , but does not give away details of Mance's plans. Qhorin leaves Jon alone to execute Ygritte. Jon is unable to do it and she escapes. He pursues and recaptures her, but they become separated from Qhorin's group. Jon decides they cannot regroup with Qhorin due to the approaching night. Ygritte convinces Jon to sleep next to her to share body heat and keep warm, and then makes sexual advances towards him. Jon rejects the temptation to break his oath.
Jon unties Ygritte's legs, while keeping her hands bound, as he continues his search for the rest of the raiders. She tells him that she knows that he is a virgin. As they walk, Ygritte questions Jon as to why the men of the Night's Watch hate the wildlings. She explains that both the Free Folk and the Northmen like the Starks are descendants of the First Men , and the wildlings just happened to be on the wrong side of the Wall when it was built. She urges him to forget about his oath and live free. Another sexual advance from Ygritte prompts him to reach for his sword. She backs away and trips him with the rope, when he is caught off guard.
He pursues her but is ambushed and taken captive. Ygritte tells him that he should have taken her when he had the chance. Ygritte brings Jon to the Lord of Bones , and convinces him that Mance will want to question Jon. The Lord of Bones has a prisoner of his own; Qhorin. The Halfhand tells Jon that the rest of the men were killed while they searched for him. He urges Jon to make their deaths meaningful and become a spy within the wildling ranks. He then feigns anger with Jon until he is restrained after managing to knock Jon over.
As they make their way to Mance, Ygritte continues to playfully mock Jon by tapping him on the head with the flat of Longclaw. Qhorin uses the distraction to advance his plan to portray Jon as a traitor to the Night's Watch. He attacks Jon, and the Lord of Bones allows them to fight. Jon is initially reluctant until Qhorin calls his "father" a traitor and his mother a whore. Jon slays Qhorin, who whispers a line from the Night's Watch oath to Jon with his dying breath, stunning Ygritte and the rest of the band. Jon's hands are freed, and Ygritte leads him to the crest of the mountain to look over the massive wildling encampment.
As Jon is led by Ygritte and the Lord of Bones into the main wildling camp in the Frostfang mountains , he discovers that almost all of wildling society is on the move to escape the White Walkers, including the women and children. As they enter the camp, Jon is shocked to see a real-life giant walk past. Many of the wildlings are surprised to see Jon in his all-black Night's Watch clothing and shout "crow!" at his approach. Several young boys pelt Jon with ice and small stones but Ygritte shoos them away.
Jon and Ygritte then walk away, but she steals his sword Longclaw, making him chase her to get it back. She leads him into a nearby cave. Ygritte starts disrobing, and says that she wants to make sure Jon has truly come over to the wildlings' side and broken his Night's Watch vows - by making him break his oath of celibacy with her. She quickly shucks off all of her clothes and walks up to him naked. Jon is very hesitant at first, but they soon end up having sex in the cave. Afterwards, Jon and Ygritte lay together in a naked embrace, and Ygritte tells Jon she wishes they could stay in this cave forever.
He joins a wildling party led by Tormund Giantsbane to climb the Wall. Beforehand, he is questioned by Ygritte about their relationship and his allegiance to the Night's Watch, saying that he must be loyal to her instead. During the climb, Ygritte causes part of the ice to break, leaving them hanging in the air by the rope. Orell, believing them to be lost, cuts it. Jon manages to save himself and Ygritte by climbing back to the ice. The two return to the climb and reach the top, where Ygritte gazes at the north side and the south side, before they kiss.
During the journey through the woods, a jealous Orell confronts Ygritte and says that he would be a better man for her than Jon, while continuing to express his distrust in him. Later, Jon tries to persuade Ygritte that the wildlings can't win an attack against the realms but she refuses to listen and points out that Jon is now one of them; if it fails, so does he. She restates her passion for him and tells him bluntly that if they die, they die, but before they die, they will live.
Jon and the wildling party prepare to raid an elderly horse breeder's home for his horses and gold; Jon insists that the old man is no threat to them, but Orell and Tormund Giantsbane intend to kill the man so as to stop him from alerting the Night's Watch to their presence. However, when the party attacks the farmstead, Jon surreptitiously hits a rock with his sword, alerting the old man who flees; Jon also distracts Ygritte when she tries to shoot the fleeing man with an arrow. Outside, Tormund moves to kill the old man, but Orell tells him to have Jon do it instead to prove his loyalty. Jon is ultimately unable to kill the innocent man, and instead, Ygritte kills the man with an arrow.
Realizing that Jon is still loyal to the Night's Watch, Tormund orders his men to kill Jon; Tormund restrains Ygritte to stop her trying to help Jon, and soon after Jon battles with Orell. In the nearby Queenscrown , a hidden Bran enters the mind of Summer to aid Jon. as he battles to the death with Orell and finally kills him. With the last of his strength Orell wargs into the mind of his pet eagle, which swoops down and attacks Jon, clawing him badly about the face before he fights the bird off. Jon then steals a horse and escapes, leaving a heartbroken Ygritte and heading back to the Wall.
Stopping to rest and tend to his injury, Jon is confronted by a furious Ygritte, who has an arrow ready to shoot him. Jon tries to talk Ygritte out of shooting him, insisting that he still loves her. Though his feelings are clearly reciprocated Ygritte is still angered by his betrayal and shoots Jon three times with her bow as he flees from her. Jon is badly injured, but his horse manages to carry him the rest of the way to Castle Black, as he hovers in and out of consciousness. Having reached safety, Jon is brought inside the castle by the guards, where he encounters Sam and Pypar, who are overjoyed to see him and insist that his injuries be taken care of.
Upon killing him, Jon turns around to find Ygritte pointing her bow at him with an arrow drawn. He smiles at her, causing her to hesitate. Before either can say anything, Ygritte is shot through the heart by Olly. Jon holds her in his arms as she tells him that they should have never left the cave, and they lament circumstances that prevented them from being together as she succumbs to her wound.
Jon introduces himself to Stannis as Ned Stark's son, and suggests that Stannis arrest Mance instead of executing him, reasoning that Mance had the chance to kill him, but chose not to. Out of respect for Ned, Stannis accepts, and Jon also advises Stannis to burn the bodies of the dead in order to prevent them from returning as wights. During the funeral, Jon notices Melisandre staring at him through the flames. Later, Jon visits Tormund, who tells Jon that Ygritte truly loved him, and asks him to lay Ygritte to rest north of the Wall. Jon later takes his love's body into the woods and burns it, weeping as he walks away.
Ygritte begs Jon to get it over with and awaits the stroke from his sword, but he hesitates and Ygritte seizes the opportunity to escape. Jon recaptures her, becoming isolated from his brothers in the process. With night approaching, Jon refuses to make a fire, forcing them to sleep out in the cold. Ygritte convinces him to huddle next to her to share body warmth but then makes sexual advances towards him as they fall asleep, which he rebuffs.
After a cold night, Ygritte awakens, still a prisoner of Jon. She turns the conversation to his virginity, during which Jon presses his loyalty to the Night's Watch. Jon leads Ygritte along as he tries to find Qhorin Halfhand. On the way she argues with Jon, saying that the North belonged to the Free Folk long before the coming of the Andals . Ygritte tells Jon that, as both Northerners and the Free Folk are descendants of the First Men , there is no sense in the two constantly fighting. After luring Jon off his guard by attempting to seduce him, she manages to escape again and lead him into a wildling ambush.
Ygritte brings Jon to the Lord of Bones , who orders him executed. She convinces Rattleshirt that Mance will want to question Jon because of his Stark blood. The Lord of Bones presents Qhorin, whom he had captured. The Halfhand openly blames Jon for the deaths of his men, and this discord intrigues Ygritte. Unbeknownst to Ygritte, Qhorin's outward rage toward Jon is actually a plan to install Jon as a spy within Mance Rayder's army.
During their way to meet with Mance Rayder, Ygritte continues to toy with Jon. Qhorin communicates a plan to Jon, through which Jon would appear to desert the Night's Watch and join up with the wildlings. He insists that Jon and he fight and allows Jon to kill him. Ygritte and the rest of the band are stunned, but accept Jon as one of their own and free his hands.
Ygritte leads Jon Snow into Mance Rayder's camp in the Frostfang Mountains . Jon is shocked to see a giant among the tents. While the group is walking through the camp to Mance Rayder's tent, some young boys pelt Jon with ice and stones, Ygritte protects him and shoos them away. When they arrive at Mance Rayder's tent, she tells him not to look so grim, "If Mance Rayder likes you, you'll live another day. And if he don't..."
Before leaving the camp she playfully steals Jon's sword and makes him chase her into a nearby grotto. Ygritte starts undressing, and says that she wants to make sure Jon Snow has truly abandoned his vows. She stands before him naked and kisses him. Jon is hesitant at first, but loses himself in his attraction to her and performs cunnilingus on a very surprised Ygritte. After sex, Jon and Ygritte lay together in a naked embrace, and she lovingly teases him about his former virginity. They then leap into the hot springs and Ygritte expresses her reluctance to ever leave the grotto.
While climbing, Ygritte causes a massive crack, which dislodges a large sheet of ice and sends several wildlings to their deaths. She and Jon are left hanging by their safety rope. Orell decides that Tormund cannot continue climbing with the weight of Jon and Ygritte's bodies pulling them down, and begins cutting the rope. Jon barely manages to get a hold in the Wall and saves himself and Ygritte when their rope is severed. They reach the top of the Wall and share a passionate kiss, grateful to be alive after such a narrow escape.
Ygritte, Jon and the wildlings are led by Tormund Giantsbane, then make their way towards Castle Black to await Mance Rayder's signal to begin the attack on the Night's Watch. On their way there, when Ygritte mentions that they're going to take their land back. Jon tries to dissuade Ygritte of attacking the Wall, mentioning historical accounts in which all of the previous Kings-Beyond-the-Wall have failed. Ygritte protests, saying they'll be successful because Mance is leading them, but accepts that they may die. She tells Jon, "But first, we'll live."
Along the way, Ygritte is confronted by Orell, who expresses his distrust of Jon and says he would make a much better husband. However, he is flatly refused. Later, Jon tries to persuade Ygritte that the wildlings' cause is doomed to failure, but she refuses to listen. She tells him that if they die, they die, but before that, they will live. The two kiss passionately.
Later, the wildling party prepares to raid an elderly horse breeder's home. When the party attacks the farmstead, Jon surreptitiously hits a rock with his sword, alerting the old man and giving him the chance to escape. When Ygritte tries to shoot the fleeing man with an arrow, Jon causes her to miss by calling her name.
The old man is later caught in an abandoned windmill. Outside the mill, Orell suggests that Jon prove himself to the wildlings by killing the man himself. Jon is ultimately unable to kill an innocent, and Ygritte shoots him for Jon. Realizing that Jon is still loyal to the Night's Watch, Tormund orders his men to kill the Crow. He also restrains Ygritte to stop her from "getting [herself] killed" for her lover's sake. Jon defeats Tormund's men and escapes, leaving Ygritte and heading back to the Wall.
When he stops to rest, however, Jon turns to see Ygritte aiming an arrow at him from a distance. He starts telling her he doesn’t have a choice, and he has to go home . She starts to hesitate, and then says " you know nothing, Jon Snow ." Jon then smiles, and corrects her by telling Ygritte that he does know many things, and that he knows he loves her. Ygritte then starts to choke up, and begins to cry, and after he turns his back on Ygritte, she shoots three arrows into his back as he rides off on his horse. Ygritte then watches him ride away with tears in her eyes, regretting his betrayal of her and also that she could not bring herself to kill the man she loved.
Now awaiting Mance's signal south of the Wall, Ygritte and Tormund rest. Despite wanting revenge for his betrayal, Ygritte still loves Jon, a fact that Tormund picks up on. Ygritte insists that all three arrows found their mark, but says that Jon may still have survived. Knowing Ygritte's skill as a markswoman, Tormund says that if Jon is still alive, it is because she didn't want him dead. A group of Thenns led by Styr arrives, bearing food from a raid farther south. When Styr asks if Ygritte is Tormund's woman, she claims that she belongs to no one and points a threatening arrow at the Thenn. He ignores it and takes a seat next to the fire to cook his meat: a human arm.
Ygritte participates in the attack on Mole's Town . She is ambushed by a whore in the Mole's Town brothel, but swiftly kills her with a spear thrust into her gut. Ygritte then discovers Gilly and her son in hiding, but spares their lives and motions for them to be quiet so they will not be found by other and less merciful wildlings.
When Jon and Qhorin Halfhand capture Ygritte and her fellow wildlings during their ranging, Jon is unaware of this custom and didn’t even know Ygritte was a woman at the time - believing her and her fellow wildlings to be men until he sees her face after the capture. When the rangers want to execute her, Jon objects and wants to spare Ygritte, saying that she surrendered. However, when a ranger draws his dagger, Qhorin gives the task to Jon and simply tells him "to do what needs to be done." Jon can't bring himself to go through with it and he saves Ygritte's life, letting her go. Because Jon captured Ygritte and later saved her life, Ygritte - who is attracted to Jon - explains the aforementioned wildling marriage custom to him and insists that they might be considered technically married because of it (according to loose wildling customs, which are not strictly defined "laws") and this stuns Jon. Jon disapproves of the custom, since, in his eyes, it is similar to a rape, and insists this was not his intent and his capture of her/saving her life was not for sex. Ygritte, however, does not change her mind and explains how this custom is actually practiced with the free folk and why, revealing some of their ways. When Jon asks Ygritte what if the man is cruel, Ygritte answers, "I'd cut his throat while he slept. You know nothing, Jon Snow."
At first, Jon rejects Ygritte's advances, not only due to his vows, but also because he does not wish to hurt Ygritte's feelings, being aware that sooner or later - he'd have to leave her and return to the Night's Watch (likewise, Sam felt bad about having sex with Gilly for the same reasons). Moreover, he may get her pregnant. He discusses this with Tormund, who fails to understand why Jon captured Ygritte if he does not want her. He explains to Jon that there is nothing dishonorable about free folk laying together and, in case Ygritte becomes pregnant - she can either drink moon tea, give birth to a strong son, or a lively laughing girl kissed by fire, and where's the harm in that? Jon has no answer. Later, when Mance grows suspicious of Jon's true motives, Ygritte assures him that they sleep together. This convinces Mance. Afterwards, Jon has no choice but to have sex with Ygritte. However, Jon and Ygritte fall in love and share a deep affection.
Unlike in the TV series, Ygritte is not shot in front of Jon. After the first stage of the battle is over, Jon finds the dying Ygritte and, for a frantic moment, he fears that it was his arrow which shot her - but he checks the fletching, then realizes it was not his arrow. Ygritte dies in Jon's arms, with essentially the same dialogue as in the TV series. Jon is certain he can save her and insists she is not going to die. Ygritte smiles at this, remembers the cave they spent their first night in together, and Jon promises they will go back to that cave and again tells her she isn’t going to die. Ygritte cups Jon’s face, as Jon remains unable to accept her impending death, and she passes away in Jon’s arms. Jon is deeply grieved by her death. He does not know which of his sworn brothers killed her, and hopes he'll never learn this information.
When Alliser Thorne and Janos Slynt interrogate Jon roughly, they accuse him, among other charges, of oathbreaking by having sex with "the unwashed whore." Jon knows well that many of the sworn brothers often visit the brothel at Mole's Town , and for a moment, he ponders claiming that he only did what Qhorin commanded him to do, which was to do anything he could to gain the wildlings' trust, and that having sex with Ygritte was just part of his ploy. However, he does not want to dishonor Ygritte's memory, so he admits that he truly fell in love with her, even though this angers his superiors further because it is a more serious breach of his vows (even though Ygritte is dead by this point).
When Tormund escorts Jon to Mance's tent, Jon tells him about Ygritte's death. Tormund says sorrowfully "A waste. If I'd been ten years younger, I'd have stolen her meself. That hair she had. Well, the hottest fires burn out quickest." They share Tormund's skin of mead in her memory.