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| “ | She wants her son alive, or the men who killed him dead. She wants to feed the crows, like they did at the Red Wedding. Freys and Boltons, aye. We'll give her those, as many as she likes. All she asks from you is Jaime Lannister. | „ |
| ~ Lem reveals Stonehearts motivation to Brienne |
Lady Stoneheart is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin. She is a revived Lady Catelyn Stark (née Tully). After her death she can barely speak properly due to the cut on her throat.
History
Early life
Catelyn Tully is the eldest daughter of Lord Hoster Tully and Lady Minisa Whent. She's the elder sister of Lysa and Edmure.
She lived in Riverrun during her childhood and also travelled outside the castle with her family. Her mother died giving birth to a fourth son, who also died shortly after like two other male sons before him. During her childhood she befriended Hoster's ward, Petyr Baelish, who fell in love with her and desired to marry her, but Catelyn never shared his feelings, seeing him nothing more than a brother. When they were children Catelyn and Lysa played at kissing with Baelish, who also tried to use his tongue. During her childhood Catelyn used to wait for her father to return alive at Riverrun, after fighting his wars. Hoster Tully took part in the War of the Ninepenny Kings, where he befriended Petyr's father. Catelyn's uncle Brynden "Blackfish" Tully never wanted to marry Bethany Redwyne or any other woman for unknown reasons. This led to years of nasty quarrels and fight. A very long feud that ended only after Robert's Rebellion, when Brynden left Riverrun to serve Jon Arryn at the Vale, as Knight of the Bloody Gate.
At the age of 12 Catelyn was betrothed to Brandon Stark, heir of Lord Rickard Stark, to strenghten the ties of friendship between House Tully and House Stark. Brandon came at Riverrun to meet his future bride, and there Petyr challenged him to a duel for her hand. Baelish was weak and Brandon easily won. He wanted to kill Petyr but Catelyn begged him to spare his life. After the duel she never comforted Petyr, who had sex with her sister Lysa for the second time. Shortly after the duel Lord Hoster sent Petyr back to the Fingers, and later forced Lysa to abort her child. Catelyn was idolized by Lysa for her betrothal to Brandon Stark, and hoped to one day marry a man as noble and handsome as him.
Catelyn's bretothal ended when shortly after Prince Rhaegar Targaryen disappeared with Lyanna Stark, and Lord Rickard Stark was imprisoned by Mad King Aerys II Targaryen. Later Rickard and Brandon were both killed by King Aerys, setting off Robert's Rebellion. Catelyn's father allied himself with the rebels and called his banners. However some river lords remained loyal to Iron Throne and House Targaryen, like houses Darry and Mooton, while Lord Walder Frey never answered Hoster's call until it was sure that Robert was going to win the war.
During the rebellion Lord Hoster married Catelyn to Brandon's younger brother, Lord Eddard Stark, while Lysa had to marry Lord Jon Arryn. Shortly after the dual wedding night were Jon and Ned married the Tully sisters, Ned and the rebels left Riverrun to keep fighting the war, and Catelyn waited for Eddard and Hoster to return home.
After Robert's Rebellion and the defeat of House Targaryen, Eddard returned to Riverrun and met his son, Robb. However Ned also returned with another child: Jon Snow. Ned claimed that the child was his bastard son. This act of faithlessness was a source of friction between her and her husband, until Catelyn saw that Ned was actually a man of honor. She understood that during that time she and Ned didn't actually knew each other much and a man has his needs, especially with the perspective of dying at war. So Catelyn tried to raise Jon and Robb together when she moved to Winterfell. Catelyn was willing to tolerate Jon, but when she tried to ask Ned who was Jon's mother, Ned would become aggressive and protective. He did not allow Catelyn to speak about it anymore. She heard once a rumor that Jon was the son of Ashara Dayne and Eddard Stark. Ashara was known as a beautiful woman who killed herself after the death of her brother, Ser Arthur Dayne. Ever since Catelyn became jealous of Ned's mysterious lover, and hated the mere sight of Jon Snow ever since. It didn't help the fact that Jon looked more like a Stark than her other children, who looked more like Tullys, with the exception of Arya. A few years after the rebellion, Ned left Winterfell to fight with King Robert I against King Balon Greyjoy. After that he returned with another boy, Theon Greyjoy, the last living son of Balon, captive, and ward of Eddard.
Catelyn Stark never left Winterfell for 14 years. Her husband rarely left his land. They had other three children after Robb and Sansa: Arya, Bran, and Rickon. There was also a sept and a septon of the Seven at Winterfell for Catelyn's religion.
A Storm of Swords
Red Wedding
During the wedding feast, Catelyn remarks to herself how joyless the wedding is, and watches as Robb dances with several of the Frey maids and Edmure dotes on his soon to be wife, Roslin. Roslin has red eyes and has been crying during all the wedding. Catelyn becomes more wary when she learns that Olyvar, Perwyn, and Alesander Frey, Robb's friends, are all not in attendance at the wedding. Cat sees Merrett Frey trying to drink the Greatjon Umber under the table, and finally Lord Walder Frey calls for the bedding. Robb does not participate as the Greatjon carries a weeping Roslin to the bed chamber Frey Catelyn is taken by horror when the musicians start to play "The Rains of Castamere", the song of the Lannister's victory of the Reyne-Tarbeck Rebellion. The musicians are actually sellswords and knights and the song it's a signal for the two twin castles and the camps outside. Most of Robb's men are too drunk to fight. Things grow more ominous in the hall, Dacey Mormont asks Edwyn Frey for a dance, but he violently pushes her away. Angry, Catelyn grabs Edwyn and feels the rings of chain mail beneath his arm. Suddenly, she realizes everything, from the friendly Freys missing from the wedding to Roslin Frey crying.
The musicians are actually crossbowmen. The wedding turns into a bloody slaughter. Robb is wounded by crossbow bolts and the Frey and Bolton men turn on Robb's men. Outside the tents are collapse and are set aflame. In the main hall Catelyn sees the Smalljon Umber protecting himself from the bolts. Robin Flint is surrounded and killed by Freys with dagger, Ser Wendel Manderly is felled by a quarrel through the mouth. Smalljon bludgeons Ser Raymund Frey across the face with a leg of mutton, but when he reaches for his swordbelt, a crossbow bolt drives him to his knees. Lucas Blackwood is cut down by Ser Hosteen Frey. One of the Vances is hamstrung by Black Walder as he wrestles with Ser Harys Haigh. Crossbows take Donnel Locke, Owen Norrey, and half a dozen more. Young Ser Benfrey Frey seizes Dacey Mormont by the arm, who smashes him in the face with a wine flagon. She runs for the door, but Ser Ryman comes through with Frey men-at-arms and sinks his axe into Dacey's stomach. Northmen begin pouring through the other door, and Catelyn takes them for rescue for half a heartbeat, until one of them decapitates Smalljon. In fact it turns out that they are Bolton men, along with angry and vengeful Karstark men.
Desperate, Catelyn sees a dagger and takes it to kill Lord Walder, until she sees that Robb is still alive, with 3 arrows in his body. Walder Frey watches amused and greedily as he orders the music to stop. He laughs at Robb, when Catelyn grabs the halfwit Aegon "Jinglebell" Frey as a hostage. She cries and begs Walder to trade Robb for Jinglebell. But Walder simply replies that Jinglebell is just a grandson and was never much use. Roose Bolton appears and thrusts his longsword through Robb's heart, after saying: "Jaime Lannister sends his regards", humiliating Catelyn, who had trust the knight. Catelyn doesn't recognize the man who killed Robb, but keeps her promise and cuts Jinglebell's throat. Then she just laughs and shouts, having lost her wits and thinking that Ned, Robb, Arya, Bran, and Rickon are all dead, and Sansa probably pregnant with Tyrion Lannister's son. Walder meant to keep Catelyn as an hostage along with her brother Edmure, to force the river lords to bend the knee to King Joffrey, but with her dangerous madness, Raymund Frey appears, grabs Catelyn, and cuts her throat. Merrett and Petyr Pimple Frey failed to out-drink the Greatjon, who's now captive of the Freys.
No definitive count of the massacre is known, most of the northmen are killed while House Frey loses only approximately fifty men in the camps. The Freys kill Robb's direwolf, Grey Wind, who was locked due to the fact he acted aggressive to the Freys since Robb and his army arrived at the Twins. Outside Ser Garse Goodbrook and Ser Tytos Frey are killed by Sandor Clegane, who saves Arya Stark from captivity or possible death. Ser Benfrey Frey dies of a wound.
After the battle, the Freys hack and mutilate Robb's body and cut off his head along with that of Grey Wind, Robb's direwolf. In a mockery of Robb's relationship with his direwolf, the Freys sew Grey Wind's head onto Robb's decapitated body and place his bronze crown atop the direwolf's head. Lady Catelyn Tully has her throat slit and is later thrown naked into the river in a mockery of House Tully funeral custom. After Lord Edmure was done having sex with Roslin, he's thrown into the dungeons while Roslin falls in love with him at the same time. Ser Ryman Frey takes Robb's crown and later gives him to his whore, who's named the Queen of Whores.
Resurrection and Beric Dondarrion's Death
After Catelyn's death during the infamous Red Wedding orchestrated by Walder Frey, her naked body was thrown in the river, and found by the direwolf Nymeria, who pulled it out, then the Brotherhood Without Banners. Harwin, the former Master of Horse at Winterfell, begs Thoros to revive her, but he says she has been dead to long. Catelyn is resurrected by Beric Dondarrion, who gives his life for hers through the last kiss of R'hllor.
Catelyn's mutilated body emerges as a vengeful undead-looking person. She becomes known as Lady Stoneheart, and assumes leadership of the brotherhood. Death has changed Catelyn. She is less gracious and forgiving than in life and is consumed with a desire for vengeance on anyone she thinks betrayed her and her son, Robb. She is mercilessly hunting down and hanging anyone she considers a Lannister collaborator. She hangs any men associated with the Freys, Boltons, or Lannisters, even if they had nothing to do with the "Red Wedding" or if they are boys, as is the case of Podrick Payne. Her appearance has been altered as well, with her flesh becoming soft and the color of curdled milk due to her corpse being submerged in river water for days. Half of her hair is gone and the rest is white and brittle. In addition, her wounds have not healed with her face covered in scratch marks and her throat still slit open. To speak she must cover the wound on her throat; even then she is difficult to understand.
The Brotherhood capture one of Walder Frey's great-grandsons, Petyr Frey, and demand a hundred dragons. One of Walder Frey's sons, Merrett Frey, goes to Oldstones to deliver the ransom. However by the time he's arrived Petyr Pimple has already been hanged. Merrett is told the same fate awaits him, despite his attempts to justify the Red Wedding. He claims he only drank at the wedding, that Beric always gives a man a trial, and they have no witnesses. However Stoneheart reveals himself and claims he was part of the Red Wedding, at which Merrett is hanged.
A Feast for Crows
The Freys search for the Brotherhood, but despite the efforts of Black Walder Frey they cannot find her. Lady Stoneheart appears as the true main antagonist in Brienne's POV storyline. Members of the brotherhood come Upon a small party led by Brienne,who informs her she is searching for Sansa and Arya Stark at the behest of Jaime Lannister,whom Brienne states has changed. Believing Brienne has turned traitor, she threatens to hang her,Pod,and Hyle Hunt,unless she proves her loyalty by killing Jaime. It is implied she hanged Walder Frey's grandson Ryman Frey, heir to the Twins, along with the three Knights and 12 men-at-arms accompanying him. Ryman had Robb's crown at Riverrun but later Stoneheart is shown to possess it.
Gallery
Trivia
- Although revived, she can be mistaken for an undead, due to her looking like a corpse.
- It is as of yet unknown if Lady Stoneheart will appear in the TV series adaptation.
- Even before her death and resurrection,some of Catelyn's actions could count as villainous,most notably her hatred of Jon Snow (her husband's nephew, whom he raised as his bastard son in order to hide his identity as a Targayen) because of her jealousy for his mystery mother. At one point she even wishes him dead.She also indirectly causes Tywin to wage war with her family, due to her abduction of his son Tyrion,whom she thought hired a Catspaw to kill Bran. This could ultimately be pointed to Petyr Baelish, who lied to Cat on the ownership of the dagger used for an attempt on Bran's life.
- Although she is often considered a fan villain,her actions in A Feast for Crows are on a verge of crossing the Moral Event Horizon.