Keith Munro

Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont)

"*There's a beast in every man, and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand.*"
―Jorah Mormont to Daenerys Targaryen[src]
Ser **Jorah Mormont** was an exiled Northern lord from Westeros, previously living in Essos. He had sworn fealty to his fellow exile Daenerys Targaryen, the Targaryen claimant to the Iron Throne, and was the first to help her adapt to life as a *khaleesi* of the Dothraki.

Originally, Jorah was working as a spy for Varys, King Robert Baratheon's spymaster, sending him information about Viserys Targaryen's efforts to reclaim the throne. However, he grows to respect and admire Daenerys, serving her in earnest. After preventing an assassination attempt on Daenerys, he stops sending reports to Varys, ignoring an official royal pardon that would allow him to return to Westeros. He also developed strong, but unrequited, feelings for his queen.

When Daenerys learns of his past espionage, he is dismissed from her service and ordered to leave her presence. He later captures Tyrion Lannister in the hope of winning his way back to her, an endeavor that leads to him contracting the deadly greyscale. On his way back to Daenerys, this time with Tyrion, the pair are captured by slavers and sold into the fighting pits of Meereen. After he helps save her life from both the Sons of the Harpy and the Dothraki, Daenerys accepts him back into her service, and orders him to come back to her after he finds a cure to his disease, which he eventually does at the hands of Citadel acolyte Samwell Tarly at Oldtown.

Following their reunion on Dragonstone, he aids Daenerys further in order to provide proof to Cersei Lannister of the threat of the army of the dead, after which he joins the northern cause at Winterfell following a parley in King's Landing. Participating in the Battle of Winterfell, Jorah dies protecting his queen.

## Contents

* 1Biography
	+ 1.1Background
	+ 1.2Game of Thrones: Season 1
	+ 1.3Game of Thrones: Season 2
	+ 1.4Game of Thrones: Season 3
	+ 1.5Game of Thrones: Season 4
	+ 1.6Game of Thrones: Season 5
	+ 1.7Game of Thrones: Season 6
	+ 1.8Game of Thrones: Season 7
	+ 1.9Game of Thrones: Season 8
* 2Personality
* 3Quotes
	+ 3.1Spoken by Jorah
	+ 3.2Spoken about Jorah
* 4Family
* 5Behind the scenes
* 6In the books
* 7Gallery
* 8Appearances
* 9References
	+ 9.1Notes
* 10External links

## Biography

### Background

Jorah Mormont is the son of Jeor Mormont of House Mormont, the Lords of Bear Island and vassals of House Stark in the North. Jorah had a distinguished early career, and participated in the Siege of Pyke during the Greyjoy Rebellion, for which he was knighted by King Robert Baratheon. His father later voluntarily joined the Night's Watch in favor of Jorah becoming Lord of Bear Island and head of House Mormont.*[citation needed]*

Jorah married Lynesse Hightower, but his new wife had expensive tastes that Jorah struggled to fund. Ultimately, he resorted to selling poachers into slavery, which has been illegal in the Seven Kingdoms for millennia and is a great taboo throughout Westeros. Jorah was eventually caught and disgraced. He was stripped of his Lordship and fled to the Free Cities to avoid being executed by Eddard Stark, though he decided to leave his family's ancestral Valyrian steel sword, Longclaw, behind, which Jeor would pass down to Jon Snow. He served in mercenary companies such as the Golden Company. However, his income would not be enough to satisfy Lynesse, and she eventually left him and became a concubine for a richer man.

He is called "Jorah the Andal" by the Dothraki, as they assume that all people from Westeros are Andals. However, Jorah is actually a Northman, descended from the First Men.*[citation needed]*

Besides the Common Tongue of Westeros, Ser Jorah is fluent in the Dothraki language.

## In the books

In the *A Song of Ice and Fire* novels, Jorah is described as balding and hairy but still fit, though "not a handsome man." He is the son of Lord Jeor Mormont of Bear Island.

Jorah is not a POV character in the novels; his actions are witnessed and interpreted through the eyes of Daenerys (in the first three novels) and Tyrion.

Jorah won honor in the Greyjoy Rebellion when he was one of the first through the breach during the storming of Pyke. For his valor, he won praise from King Robert Baratheon and a knighthood. With a strong, vigorous son ready to take over the lordship, Jeor decided to join the Night's Watch, where he rapidly rose to the rank of Lord Commander, leaving Jorah as Lord of Bear Island. Jorah found the island quite suitable for him, and never lacked for women; he had his share of fishwives and crofter's daughters, before and after he was first wed.

Jorah's first wife was an unnamed woman of House Glover, who was unable to carry a child to term in ten years of marriage and died after a third miscarriage. Jorah describes her as a plain-faced woman, but not unkind. He came to love her after a fashion, though their relations were dutiful rather than passionate. She has not been referred to in the TV series.

Jorah later married Lynesse Hightower, of the extremely powerful House Hightower of Oldtown, after winning a tournament to celebrate the victory of King Robert against the Greyjoy Rebellion in which Jorah wore Lynesse's favor. Lynesse was used to the riches and luxury of the second-largest city in Westeros and found Bear Island primitive and crude. Jorah's attempts to please his wife led to him spending all of his money. He disgraced himself through behavior unbefitting a lord by arresting poachers and selling them to slavers. Slavery is illegal in the Seven Kingdoms and has been for millennia. When Eddard Stark came to arrest Jorah, he and Lynesse fled across the Narrow Sea to the Free City of Lys, leaving his aunt Maege to become the ruling Lady of Bear Island. Jorah attempted to make his living as a sellsword but was unable to provide an income acceptable to Lynesse. She left him and became a concubine to the merchant lord Tregar Ormollen, who then exiled Jorah from the city.

Daenerys learns of Jorah's past spying for Varys earlier in the book narrative, before she conquers Meereen. Ser Barristan initially conceals his true identity from her, claiming to be a squire named Arstan Whitebeard (this storyline was omitted from the TV series) and when he finally reveals himself, he also tells her of Jorah's treachery, which Barristan knew from attending Robert's Small Council meetings (in the series, Barristan was not a member of the Small Council, and thus he knew nothing of Jorah's spying). She initially dismisses both and assigns them a suicide mission to conquer Meereen by entering the city via its sewers. To her surprise and disappointment, both survive the mission and help her capture the city.

She forgives Ser Barristan and re-admits him into her service. She intends to pardon Jorah too, but is angered by his attitude: he remains defensive and lacks contrition when she thinks he ought to be begging for her forgiveness, so she dismisses him although she fights back tears as she does so. Daenerys tells Jorah that if she sees him again, she will order Strong Belwas (who does not appear in the TV series) to wrench his head off. Daario Naharis offers to kill Jorah for her but Daenerys decides to spare him and he is allowed to leave the city. Daario warns that it would have been wiser to kill Jorah or otherwise keep him close.

There is no mentioning in the books that Jorah ever served in the Golden Company, though it is said that after Lynesse left him he scraped by as a sellsword for years until he came to Pentos to spy on the Targaryens. At first, he fought as a sellsword for Lys but after Lynesse's new lover exiled him from the city, he drifted to Volantis where he spent the better part of a year working as a sellsword and owning nothing but his sword.

Jorah is never attacked by Stone Men or infected with Greyscale. Instead, Tyrion was attacked by Stone Men earlier in his journey, in the ruins of Chroyane instead of Valyria. It is a man named Griff (actually, the presumed-dead Jon Connington), one of Tyrion's companions at the time, who gets infected with Greyscale instead.

Jorah, Tyrion, and their dwarf companion Penny board a ship at Volantis, heading for Qarth. The ship is badly damaged in a storm. After drifting for at least nineteen days, slavers from Yunkai appear. Tyrion and all the rest of the passengers yield without fight, but Jorah resists fiercely and kills three of the slavers before he is overcome. As a result, the slavers treat him much more harshly than their other captives: he is chained to an oar, beaten within an inch of his life, starved and branded with a tattoo of demon's mask on one cheek. His face becomes so bruised and swollen, that he is almost unrecognizable. Although Jorah has treated Tyrion very brutally, Tyrion takes no pleasure from Jorah's miseries.

The slavers who capture Jorah and Tyrion have no idea who Jorah is. He is introduced by the auctioneer simply as "big and strong" man. He is nearly bought by Zahrina for the fighting pits, but Tyrion intervenes and persuades the overseer of Yezzan's slaves to buy Jorah too, claiming that he takes part in the show that Tyrion and Penny play for entertainment. Jorah does not try to escape or resist his captors; he simply ignores their commands with muttered curses, so he is locked in a cage and beaten severely every evening to the point that he hardly looks human. He is kept naked except for a breechclout, a filthy bit of yellow rag. He never gets to see Daenerys, let alone speak with her, and she has no idea he is nearby.

Following Daenerys's departure from Meereen, Tyrion, Jorah and Penny escape from Yezzan to the camp of the Second Sons, who betrayed Daenerys and joined the Yunkai. Brown Ben Plumm, the company leader, is astonished to see Jorah. He accepts them to the company.

During the battle between Yunkai and the defenders of Meereen, Jorah tries to persuade the Second Sons to switch sides. He promises that "Find her hostages [Daario, Hero and Jhogo] and free them. And I will swear on the honor of my house and home that this was Brown Ben's plan from the beginning." One of the sellswords says that it is for Ben Plumm to say. Shortly afterwards, a messenger arrives to deliver new orders. Suddenly he recognizes Tyrion as an escaped slave of Yezzan and orders surrender him. Jorah responds by killing the messenger.

By the point the books reached, Jorah is still alive.

Jeor Mormont, in his last breath, told Sam Tarly: "Tell my son. Jorah. Tell him, take the black. My wish. Dying wish. Tell Jorah. Forgive him. My son. Please." So far in the novels, Jorah has not been informed about his father's death and his last wish.

According to the TV series official pronunciation guide developed for the cast and crew, "Jorah Mormont" is pronounced "JOR-uh MORE-mont."

## Personality

"*You're an awful traveling companion, do you know that? Possibly the least charming man I’ve ever met*"
―Tyrion Lannister to Jorah Mormont[src]
Jorah is a complex character. He was Daenerys Targaryen's most loyal advisor and a formidable warrior. Jorah had a deep respect, loyalty and love for Daenerys, and has always tried to give her reasonable, practical, and effective advice. While Jorah was a moral person and always tried to be honorable, he had done several dishonorable acts out of love or for his own survival. He sold poachers into slavery to pay for his wife's spending habits, fled Westeros to escape execution, and briefly spied on Daenerys in the hope of receiving a royal pardon, though he stopped spying on her after becoming her advisor. Jorah was Daenerys's most level-headed advisor, at least until the arrival of Barristan Selmy.

Jorah was intelligent, literate, and well traveled, knowing the histories of Essos and speaking several tongues, including Dothraki.

His relationship with his father, and likely the rest of his family, wasn't approached until the fifth season. Although he never showed any feelings towards Jeor, once he was given the news about his death, Jorah was visibly shaken and deeply upset, even angrily demanding to know the details of his father's death. This was most likely because he was still feeling guilty about bringing his family shame and never fully reconciling with Jeor.

Although stoic, short-spoken and sometimes cold, Jorah does have the ability to warm up to people once they earn his respect. At first, he treated Tyrion like a hostage, but later, after the two barely survived the sinking of their boat, he started to trust Tyrion enough to leave him untied and later the two men shared their life stories and freely discussed Daenerys and her claim to the throne, although their newfound trust was shattered when Tyrion convinced Daenerys to exile Jorah from Meereen again (which he did to spare him Daenerys's wrath). However, after reuniting on Dragonstone, their relationship seems to be repaired, as Tyrion gives Jorah the coin that the slaver Yezzan had given him, with the promise to bring it back after returning from the wight hunt beyond the Wall. Both of them recognize each other's value to Daenerys, and Jorah even convinced her to keep Tyrion as her Hand even though he had made costly mistakes while counseling her.

He was also a skilled warrior, though he does have a honor code, and tries not to kill his opponent if such option was possible. This was shown in the fighting pit, where every other warrior was brutally slaughtering one another, but Jorah came victorious without any loss of life in his hands. This worked in his favor since he was aware that Daenerys was becoming increasingly appalled by the needless violence happening in the pit right before Jorah got into the skirmish. And even after using brute force to harm another person, he did seem to try compensate for his actions, as he did give some money to a knocked out fisherman for his stolen boat. Also, Jorah had an immense tolerance for pain as he managed to stay silent during Sam's procedure to cure him of the greyscale even though the Citadel apprentice was effectively cutting off much of Jorah's skin. Jorah was also able to sustain multiple severe wounds inflicted by the wights during the Battle of Winterfell, including one stabbing him in the chest, and kept getting back on his feet to protect Daenerys until the fight was ended.

Although he was initially willing to betray Daenerys's trust in order to return to his home of Bear Island, Jorah fully accepted the consequences of the crime that had led him into exile. He admitted that even though he hated Eddard Stark for wanting to execute him, the then Warden of the North was in his right as Jorah had violated the laws of Westeros. Even when he returned to Westeros, Jorah did not attempt in any way to restore his former position as head of House Mormont. Instead, he fully recognized his much younger cousin Lyanna Mormont as the future of their family, and refused to be given back the family sword Longclaw by Jon, claiming that his father Jeor's wishes have to be respected. Jorah also recalls to Daenerys that he betrayed her even long after she had forgiven him. This demonstrates how humble Jorah could be and his willingness to accept the consequences of his actions instead of trying to cover up his misdeeds.

## Quotes

### Spoken by Jorah

"*The common people pray for rain, health and a summer that never ends. They don’t care what game the high lords play.*"
―Jorah Mormont to Daenerys Targaryen[src]
"*Gods be good, I hope to always serve the rightful king.*"
―Jorah to Viserys and Daenerys when he meets them for the first time.[src]
**Viserys Targaryen**: "*Does loyalty mean nothing to you?*"
**Jorah Mormont**: "*It means* everything *to me.*"
**Viserys Targaryen**: "*And yet here you stand.*"
**Jorah Mormont**: "*And yet here I stand.*"
— Jorah shows his loyalty to Daenerys Targaryen when he stops her brother Viserys from stealing her dragon eggs.[src]
"*You have a gentle heart. There are times when I look at you and I still can’t believe you're real.*"
―Jorah Mormont to Daenerys Targaryen[src]
"*No one can survive in this world without help.*"
―Jorah Mormont to Daenerys Targaryen[src]
"*Even the bravest men fear death.*"
―Jorah Mormont.[src]
"*There is a beast in every man, and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand.*"
―Jorah Mormont.[src]
"*Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly. And Rhaegar died.*"
―Jorah Mormont to Daenerys Targaryen[src]
"*It's tempting to see your enemies as evil, all of them, but there is good and evil on both sides of every war ever fought*"
―Jorah advises Daenerys on war.[src]
**Jorah Mormont**: "*Forgive me. I never meant--please, Khaleesi, forgive me.*"
**Daenerys Targaryen**: "*You sold my secrets to the man who killed my father and stole my brother's throne...*"
**Jorah Mormont**: "*I have protected you, fought for you, killed for you...*"
**Daenerys Targaryen**: "*...and you want me to forgive you!?*"
**Jorah Mormont**: "*I have loved you.*"
— Jorah begs Daenerys to forgive him for previously spying on her.[src]
"*I'm taking you to the queen.*"
―Jorah abducts Tyrion Lannister[src]
"*Tyrion Lannister was right. I love you. I'll always love you. Goodbye, khaleesi.*"
―Jorah confesses his love for Daenerys before leaving her due to his greyscale[src]
"*I'm hurt.*"
―Jorah's last words, to Daenerys.[src]
### Spoken about Jorah

**Varys**: "*No rumor, my lord. The princess is with child.*"
**Eddard**: "*Based on whose information?*"
**Varys**: "*Ser Jorah Mormont. He is serving as advisor to the Targaryens.*"
**Eddard**: "*Mormont? You bring us the whispers of a traitor, half a world away, and call it fact?*"
— Varys and Eddard Stark about Jorah's information of Daenerys.[src]
**Petyr**: "*Jorah Mormont's a slaver, not a traitor. Small difference, I know, to an honorable man.*"
**Eddard**: "*He broke the law, betrayed his family, fled our land. We commit murder on the word of this man?*"
— Petyr Baelish and Eddard Stark[src]
"*You'll never be alone with her again.*"
―Barristan Selmy after discovering that Jorah had previously spied on Daenerys.[src]
"*Love? Love!? How can you say that to me? Any other man and I would have you executed, but you, I don't want you in my city dead or alive. Go back to your masters in King's Landing, collect your pardon if you can.*"
―Daenerys to Jorah[src]
"*Don't* ever *presume to touch me again or speak my name. You have until dusk to collect your things and leave this city. If you are found in Meereen past break of day, I'll have your head thrown into Slaver's Bay. Go...*now*.*"
―Daenerys to Jorah[src]
"*Whomever Ser Jorah was when he started informing on you, he is no longer that man. I can't remember ever seeing a sane man as devoted to anything as he is to serving you. He claims he would kill for you and die for you, and nothing I have witnessed gives me reason to doubt him....and yet, he* did *betray you....he worships you. He is in love with you, I think. But he did not trust you with the truth; an unpleasant truth, to be sure, but one of great significance to you. He did not trust that you would be wise enough to forgive him.*"
―Tyrion Lannister's thoughts on Jorah while conversing with Daenerys Targaryen.[src]
"*I banished you twice. You came back to me twice.*"
―Daenerys to Jorah[src]
**Jon Snow**: "*I didn't know Ser Jorah well, but I know this. If he could have chosen a way to die, it would have been protecting you.*"
**Daenerys Targaryen**: "*He loved me. And I couldn't love him back. Not the way he wanted.*"
— Jon and Daenerys discuss Jorah after his death.[src]