Is Ned's mother a commoner?

[Free Northman Reborn]

I never thought Ned's mom could be a Skagosi because the appear to be savage cannabilistic self-governing isolated tribals, potentially worse than wildlings, Vale clansmen, and even Dothraki.Why'd Rickard reach out to them? Unless he fell in love with a hot tribeswoman riding a unicorn while eating a liver. Crackpot: She's some granddaughter of Aegon V, who'd be Aerys' second cousin.

To settle the remaining grudges from the Skagosi rebellion that was put down 100 years ago?

[Waylin Stark]

To settle the remaining grudges from the Skagosi rebellion that was put down 100 years ago?

If something that important did happen, we'd surely have heard something about it 5 books in.

[Ser Eric]

I never thought Ned's mom could be a Skagosi because the appear to be savage cannabilistic self-governing isolated tribals, potentially worse than wildlings, Vale clansmen, and even Dothraki.

Why'd Rickard reach out to them? Unless he fell in love with a hot tribeswoman riding a unicorn while eating a liver.

Crackpot: She's some granddaughter of Aegon V, who'd be Aerys' second cousin.

All that is speculation built on rumours though. For all we know Skagos might be the complete opposite.

[The_Crannogman]

There are several things I've thought about when considering this topic:

1) We see that the Northern lords with Robb all try and use all they can to get in his favour, we also see Rickard Karstark referencing the blood tie between Karstark and Stark, considering how far back this link is it clearly shows that people in the north value blood. Now from what we know none of the Northern lords have gone to Robb and said 'listen, we're family, you're grandma is my aunt so give me the vanguard because we have the same blood'. As none of them reference being family to Robb I think we can assume none of them are relatively close family to Robb, this leads onto the family not being there.

2) The family not being there points to one of two things. The first is that she came from outside the North, this means possibly any of the other seven kingdoms or the targaeryns. However I think that she did not come out of the north due to the fact that Lord Rickards Southron ambitions were a noted event. If he had also married a Southron Lady on his Fathers orders then Lord Rickard wanting his children to marry into Southron houses and strengthen alliances would not have been such an event as to still be remembered. The fact that Lady Hornwood does still bring this up shows it was not a common occurrence for the Lord of Winterfell to marry another great house.

3) The other option with regards to the family of Neds mother not being present with Robb is of course that she belongs to a Northern house who have not sent soldiers to Robb. In my opinion this points in one direction, Skagos or the Neck.

From the story of the knight of the laughing tree we get no indication that Howland Reed is related to the Starks. If the Neds mother came from the Neck she would most likely be a member of house Reed and related to Howland Reed, most probably his aunt. As Lyanna goes 'that's my fathers banner man you're attacking' and not 'that's my cousin you're attacking' this would again suggest that Lady Stark is not from the Neck.

This leaves Skagos. We know that 100 hundred years ago Skagos rose up in rebellion and killed the Lord of Winterfell, so this is roughly 200 AC. We know that around this time period Stark Lords have a tendency to bite the dust. We know that Willam died in 184 AC, Artos took over from him and then in between Artos dying and Edwyle becoming Lord of Winterfell there were Donnor, Rodwell and Beron Stark all as Lord of Winterfell. Then after this quick changing of Lords the She-Wolves ruled for roughly 10 years before Edwyle Stark came of age, who Edwyle married is unknown. It could have been one of his bannerman to secure their loyalty to him so no other Stark could rise up against him and get the support of another house (this suggest it was a powerful northern house) or it could have been a female stark relation of some variety (possibly a cousin) to secure his position.

With all this internal struggle sorted the most obvious thing is to do is to look at where the major invasion recently have come from and how they can be stopped and Edwyle Stark most likely realised this. The iron born are their own kingdom so they won't be kept in line by the Starks (Only the kings of Westeros have managed to subdue the iron born) but the place where the other major event happened was Skagos. The skagosi are northern vassels so the north can deal with them. Fighting them will achieve nothing against them as the skagosi are a wild people who pretty much rule themselves and don't recognize the power of Winterfell that much. However they might recognize Winterfell if they were brought into the fold. Edwyle Stark may have realized this and done a move similar to what Baelor the blessed did with Dorne. Rather than marry some obscure Stark to them he wanted them to feel important and so he promised to marry his heir to the daughter of the main lord on Skagos, (We know that Neds Grandma on his mothers side was a flint, this could suggest that other northern families were trying to create family ties to skagos to try and bring them into the north as part of the province and the flints are one of the major mountain clans and so are relatively important). This marriage brought Skagos firmly into the North and secured the eastern coast of the north all in one. When Rickard Stark came of age he married the daughter of the skagosi lord.

4) Lady Stark being a skagosi also gives reason for Rickon to go to Skagos. From what we know of Northen houses they view family as important and the skagosi may view Rickon as family as he has skagosi blood in him. Osha and Maestar Luwin may have also talked about this and Luwin may have recommended Skagos as it is a place where Rickon would be safe and no-one else would think to look due to the rumours about Skagos being an island of cannibals. (A rumour I don't believe due to the fact that the nights watch trades with skagosi and has had people from skagos man the wall).

For these reasons I believe Rickard Stark married the heir to the most important house of Skagos and she in turn gave birth to Brandon, Eddard, Lyanna and Benjen.

[Free Northman Reborn]

There are several things I've thought about when considering this topic:

1) We see that the Northern lords with Robb all try and use all they can to get in his favour, we also see Rickard Karstark referencing the blood tie between Karstark and Stark, considering how far back this link is it clearly shows that people in the north value blood. Now from what we know none of the Northern lords have gone to Jon and said 'listen, we're family, you're grandma is my aunt so give me the vanguard because we have the same blood'. As none of them reference being family to Robb I think we can assume none of them are relatively close family to Robb, this leads onto the family not being there.

2) The family not being there points to one of two things. The first is that she came from outside the North, this means possibly any of the other seven kingdoms or the targaeryns. However I think that she did not come out of the north due to the fact that Lord Rickards Southron ambitions were a noted event. If he had also married a Southron Lady on his Fathers orders then Lord Rickard wanting his children to marry into Southron houses and strengthen alliances would not have been such an event as to still be remembered. The fact that Lady Hornwood does still bring this up shows it was not a common occurrence for the Lord of Winterfell to marry another great house.

3) The other option with regards to the family of Neds mother not being present with Robb is of course that she belongs to a Northern house who have not sent soldiers to Robb. In my opinion this points in one direction, Skagos or the Neck.

From the story of the knight of the laughing tree we get no indication that Howland Reed is related to the Starks. If the Neds mother came from the Neck she would most likely be a member of house Reed and related to Howland Reed, most probably his aunt. As Lyanna goes 'that's my fathers banner man you're attacking' and not 'that's my cousin you're attacking' this would again suggest that Lady Stark is not from the Neck.

This leaves Skagos. We know that 100 hundred years ago Skagos rose up in rebellion and killed the Lord of Winterfell, so this is roughly 200 AC. We know that around this time period Stark Lords have a tendency to bite the dust. We know that Willam died in 184 AC, Artos took over from him and then in between Artos dying and Edwyle becoming Lord of Winterfell there were Donnor, Rodwell and Beron Stark all as Lord of Winterfell. Then after this quick changing of Lords the She-Wolves ruled for roughly 10 years before Edwyle Stark came of age, who Edwyle married is unknown. It could have been one of his bannerman to secure their loyalty to him so no other Stark could rise up against him and get the support of another house (this suggest it was a powerful northern house) or it could have been a female stark relation of some variety (possibly a cousin) to secure his position.

With all this internal struggle sorted the most obvious thing is to do is to look at where the major invasion recently have come from and how they can be stopped and Edwyle Stark most likely realised this. The iron born are their own kingdom so they won't be kept in line by the Starks (Only the kings of Westeros have managed to subdue the iron born) but the place where the other major event happened was Skagos. The skagosi are northern vassels so the north can deal with them. Fighting them will achieve nothing against them as the skagosi are a wild people who pretty much rule themselves and don't recognize the power of Winterfell that much. However they might recognize Winterfell if they were brought into the fold. Edwyle Stark may have realized this and done a move similar to what Baelor the blessed did with Dorne. Rather than marry some obscure Stark to them he wanted them to feel important and so he promised to marry his heir to the daughter of the main lord on Skagos, (We know that Neds Grandma on his mothers side was a flint, this could suggest that other northern families were trying to create family ties to skagos to try and bring them into the north as part of the province and the flints are one of the major mountain clans and so are relatively important). This marriage brought Skagos firmly into the North and secured the eastern coast of the north all in one. When Rickard Stark came of age he married the daughter of the skagosi lord.

4) Lady Stark being a skagosi also gives reason for Rickon to go to Skagos. From what we know of Northen houses they view family as important and the skagosi may view Rickon as family as he has skagosi blood in him. Osha and Maestar Luwin may have also talked about this and Luwin may have recommended Skagos as it is a place where Rickon would be safe and no-one else would think to look due to the rumours about Skagos being an island of cannibals. (A rumour I don't believe due to the fact that the nights watch trades with skagosi and has had people from skagos man the wall).

For these reasons I believe Rickard Stark married the heir to the most important house of Skagos and she in turn gave birth to Brandon, Eddard, Lyanna and Benjen.

And there we have the best possible analysis of the situation.

It is not a definitive answer, but a better theory can not be devised, given the facts at hand.

[Jaime FTW]

There are several things I've thought about when considering this topic:

1) We see that the Northern lords with Robb all try and use all they can to get in his favour, we also see Rickard Karstark referencing the blood tie between Karstark and Stark, considering how far back this link is it clearly shows that people in the north value blood. Now from what we know none of the Northern lords have gone to Jon and said 'listen, we're family, you're grandma is my aunt so give me the vanguard because we have the same blood'. As none of them reference being family to Robb I think we can assume none of them are relatively close family to Robb, this leads onto the family not being there.

2) The family not being there points to one of two things. The first is that she came from outside the North, this means possibly any of the other seven kingdoms or the targaeryns. However I think that she did not come out of the north due to the fact that Lord Rickards Southron ambitions were a noted event. If he had also married a Southron Lady on his Fathers orders then Lord Rickard wanting his children to marry into Southron houses and strengthen alliances would not have been such an event as to still be remembered. The fact that Lady Hornwood does still bring this up shows it was not a common occurrence for the Lord of Winterfell to marry another great house.

3) The other option with regards to the family of Neds mother not being present with Robb is of course that she belongs to a Northern house who have not sent soldiers to Robb. In my opinion this points in one direction, Skagos or the Neck.

From the story of the knight of the laughing tree we get no indication that Howland Reed is related to the Starks. If the Neds mother came from the Neck she would most likely be a member of house Reed and related to Howland Reed, most probably his aunt. As Lyanna goes 'that's my fathers banner man you're attacking' and not 'that's my cousin you're attacking' this would again suggest that Lady Stark is not from the Neck.

This leaves Skagos. We know that 100 hundred years ago Skagos rose up in rebellion and killed the Lord of Winterfell, so this is roughly 200 AC. We know that around this time period Stark Lords have a tendency to bite the dust. We know that Willam died in 184 AC, Artos took over from him and then in between Artos dying and Edwyle becoming Lord of Winterfell there were Donnor, Rodwell and Beron Stark all as Lord of Winterfell. Then after this quick changing of Lords the She-Wolves ruled for roughly 10 years before Edwyle Stark came of age, who Edwyle married is unknown. It could have been one of his bannerman to secure their loyalty to him so no other Stark could rise up against him and get the support of another house (this suggest it was a powerful northern house) or it could have been a female stark relation of some variety (possibly a cousin) to secure his position.

With all this internal struggle sorted the most obvious thing is to do is to look at where the major invasion recently have come from and how they can be stopped and Edwyle Stark most likely realised this. The iron born are their own kingdom so they won't be kept in line by the Starks (Only the kings of Westeros have managed to subdue the iron born) but the place where the other major event happened was Skagos. The skagosi are northern vassels so the north can deal with them. Fighting them will achieve nothing against them as the skagosi are a wild people who pretty much rule themselves and don't recognize the power of Winterfell that much. However they might recognize Winterfell if they were brought into the fold. Edwyle Stark may have realized this and done a move similar to what Baelor the blessed did with Dorne. Rather than marry some obscure Stark to them he wanted them to feel important and so he promised to marry his heir to the daughter of the main lord on Skagos, (We know that Neds Grandma on his mothers side was a flint, this could suggest that other northern families were trying to create family ties to skagos to try and bring them into the north as part of the province and the flints are one of the major mountain clans and so are relatively important). This marriage brought Skagos firmly into the North and secured the eastern coast of the north all in one. When Rickard Stark came of age he married the daughter of the skagosi lord.

4) Lady Stark being a skagosi also gives reason for Rickon to go to Skagos. From what we know of Northen houses they view family as important and the skagosi may view Rickon as family as he has skagosi blood in him. Osha and Maestar Luwin may have also talked about this and Luwin may have recommended Skagos as it is a place where Rickon would be safe and no-one else would think to look due to the rumours about Skagos being an island of cannibals. (A rumour I don't believe due to the fact that the nights watch trades with skagosi and has had people from skagos man the wall).

For these reasons I believe Rickard Stark married the heir to the most important house of Skagos and she in turn gave birth to Brandon, Eddard, Lyanna and Benjen.

:bowdown:

you just solved the case

[Lady Blizzardborn]

The_Crannogman, great analysis but I disagree that House Reed is the only option from the Neck. Most likely certainly, but House Marsh is also from the Neck and that would make Bowen a (potential) kinslayer. Not a major story point, but it would be a nice tiny twist.

As to Skagos, the houses are Crowl, Magnar, and Stane. I will rank them here.

Magnar being "lord" or equivalent in the Old Tongue puts it in first position for this, IMO. Arms are a green lobster holding a black harpoon (useful for dealing with krakens?) on white. House Magnar has Kingshouse as their seat. Another point, as Starks were once Kings. No Skagosi house has had any members appear in the books thus far, but Donal Noye heard some Skagossans speak of Lord Magnar when he was at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. I award House Magnar 4 points.

Crowl has lovely, Targaryen-ish arms described as ply "flame and black." May mean nothing but they could have just said red and black. Their seat is Deepdown. I award 2 points, just because I like the extremely thin possibility of a Targ connection.

Stane's arms are a brown driftwood tree on pale green. Their seat is Driftwood Hall. Rickon could maybe be described as drifting, without his family, but other than that nothing really screams Stark Connection here. It's possible Mel misread that part about waking dragons from stone and it's actually waking a dragon from Stane. A stretch, but I'll give it half a point. House Stane's score is thus 1.5 points.

So based on my very incomplete analysis, House Magnar seems the most likely of the Skagosi houses. What do you think?

[bloodsteel bitterraven]

I think she's from an extinct house.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

I think she's from an extinct house.

Ok. Which one?

[KING-OF-WINTERFELL]

There are several things I've thought about when considering this topic:

1) We see that the Northern lords with Robb all try and use all they can to get in his favour, we also see Rickard Karstark referencing the blood tie between Karstark and Stark, considering how far back this link is it clearly shows that people in the north value blood. Now from what we know none of the Northern lords have gone to Jon and said 'listen, we're family, you're grandma is my aunt so give me the vanguard because we have the same blood'. As none of them reference being family to Robb I think we can assume none of them are relatively close family to Robb, this leads onto the family not being there.

2) The family not being there points to one of two things. The first is that she came from outside the North, this means possibly any of the other seven kingdoms or the targaeryns. However I think that she did not come out of the north due to the fact that Lord Rickards Southron ambitions were a noted event. If he had also married a Southron Lady on his Fathers orders then Lord Rickard wanting his children to marry into Southron houses and strengthen alliances would not have been such an event as to still be remembered. The fact that Lady Hornwood does still bring this up shows it was not a common occurrence for the Lord of Winterfell to marry another great house.

3) The other option with regards to the family of Neds mother not being present with Robb is of course that she belongs to a Northern house who have not sent soldiers to Robb. In my opinion this points in one direction, Skagos or the Neck.

From the story of the knight of the laughing tree we get no indication that Howland Reed is related to the Starks. If the Neds mother came from the Neck she would most likely be a member of house Reed and related to Howland Reed, most probably his aunt. As Lyanna goes 'that's my fathers banner man you're attacking' and not 'that's my cousin you're attacking' this would again suggest that Lady Stark is not from the Neck.

This leaves Skagos. We know that 100 hundred years ago Skagos rose up in rebellion and killed the Lord of Winterfell, so this is roughly 200 AC. We know that around this time period Stark Lords have a tendency to bite the dust. We know that Willam died in 184 AC, Artos took over from him and then in between Artos dying and Edwyle becoming Lord of Winterfell there were Donnor, Rodwell and Beron Stark all as Lord of Winterfell. Then after this quick changing of Lords the She-Wolves ruled for roughly 10 years before Edwyle Stark came of age, who Edwyle married is unknown. It could have been one of his bannerman to secure their loyalty to him so no other Stark could rise up against him and get the support of another house (this suggest it was a powerful northern house) or it could have been a female stark relation of some variety (possibly a cousin) to secure his position.

With all this internal struggle sorted the most obvious thing is to do is to look at where the major invasion recently have come from and how they can be stopped and Edwyle Stark most likely realised this. The iron born are their own kingdom so they won't be kept in line by the Starks (Only the kings of Westeros have managed to subdue the iron born) but the place where the other major event happened was Skagos. The skagosi are northern vassels so the north can deal with them. Fighting them will achieve nothing against them as the skagosi are a wild people who pretty much rule themselves and don't recognize the power of Winterfell that much. However they might recognize Winterfell if they were brought into the fold. Edwyle Stark may have realized this and done a move similar to what Baelor the blessed did with Dorne. Rather than marry some obscure Stark to them he wanted them to feel important and so he promised to marry his heir to the daughter of the main lord on Skagos, (We know that Neds Grandma on his mothers side was a flint, this could suggest that other northern families were trying to create family ties to skagos to try and bring them into the north as part of the province and the flints are one of the major mountain clans and so are relatively important). This marriage brought Skagos firmly into the North and secured the eastern coast of the north all in one. When Rickard Stark came of age he married the daughter of the skagosi lord.

4) Lady Stark being a skagosi also gives reason for Rickon to go to Skagos. From what we know of Northen houses they view family as important and the skagosi may view Rickon as family as he has skagosi blood in him. Osha and Maestar Luwin may have also talked about this and Luwin may have recommended Skagos as it is a place where Rickon would be safe and no-one else would think to look due to the rumours about Skagos being an island of cannibals. (A rumour I don't believe due to the fact that the nights watch trades with skagosi and has had people from skagos man the wall).

For these reasons I believe Rickard Stark married the heir to the most important house of Skagos and she in turn gave birth to Brandon, Eddard, Lyanna and Benjen

:agree:i'll wait to its confirmed but yea this makes sense to me.

[Kienn]

Anything other than Jenny and Duncan is crackpot to me at this point. Nothing else fits everything we know.

[Waylin Stark]

All that is speculation built on rumours though. For all we know Skagos might be the complete opposite.

While the opposite could be true, it's far more unlikely, because the rumors exist for a reason.

While I do think cannibals might be a stretch, I do believe they are wild violent tribals. Else why would they be so feared without reason?

[The_Crannogman]

The_Crannogman, great analysis but I disagree that House Reed is the only option from the Neck. Most likely certainly, but House Marsh is also from the Neck and that would make Bowen a (potential) kinslayer. Not a major story point, but it would be a nice tiny twist.

As to Skagos, the houses are Crowl, Magnar, and Stane. I will rank them here.

Magnar being "lord" or equivalent in the Old Tongue puts it in first position for this, IMO. Arms are a green lobster holding a black harpoon (useful for dealing with krakens?) on white. House Magnar has Kingshouse as their seat. Another point, as Starks were once Kings. No Skagosi house has had any members appear in the books thus far, but Donal Noye heard some Skagossans speak of Lord Magnar when he was at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. I award House Magnar 4 points.

Crowl has lovely, Targaryen-ish arms described as ply "flame and black." May mean nothing but they could have just said red and black. Their seat is Deepdown. I award 2 points, just because I like the extremely thin possibility of a Targ connection.

Stane's arms are a brown driftwood tree on pale green. Their seat is Driftwood Hall. Rickon could maybe be described as drifting, without his family, but other than that nothing really screams Stark Connection here. It's possible Mel misread that part about waking dragons from stone and it's actually waking a dragon from Stane. A stretch, but I'll give it half a point. House Stane's score is thus 1.5 points.

So based on my very incomplete analysis, House Magnar seems the most likely of the Skagosi houses. What do you think?

Yeah I have to agree with you on who are the main lords of skagos

Whilst it could be house Marsh I said house Reed due to the fact they are the chief house of the neck

[BRANDON GREYSTARK]

My guess is Eddard mother is either Tallhart , Royce or Wull.

[Bael's Bastard]

I think someone speculated once that she was a Ryswell, which I kind of thought would work. I don't think she was a commoner, and I think she was from south of the Wall.

[bloodsteel bitterraven]

Ok. Which one?

I have no idea, but if she was a commoner we would certainly know due to the scandal. If she was from a powerful house, her house would have close ties to the Starks and assist them in the war.

[Bael's Bastard]

I don't think it is odd that the details of Ned's mother are not given. The same is true of Tywin's mother, Tytos' brothers, Robert's paternal grandfather (husband of Egg's daughter), Jaehaerys II's wife, Egg's younger son, Egg's wife, or the parents of Doran, Oberyn, and Elia. The missing identities mostly seem to take place in the same time frame in the decades between where we currently are in Dunk and Egg and Robert's Rebellion.

[analeigh]

There are several things I've thought about when considering this topic:

1) We see that the Northern lords with Robb all try and use all they can to get in his favour, we also see Rickard Karstark referencing the blood tie between Karstark and Stark, considering how far back this link is it clearly shows that people in the north value blood. Now from what we know none of the Northern lords have gone to Robb and said 'listen, we're family, you're grandma is my aunt so give me the vanguard because we have the same blood'. As none of them reference being family to Robb I think we can assume none of them are relatively close family to Robb, this leads onto the family not being there.

2) The family not being there points to one of two things. The first is that she came from outside the North, this means possibly any of the other seven kingdoms or the targaeryns. However I think that she did not come out of the north due to the fact that Lord Rickards Southron ambitions were a noted event. If he had also married a Southron Lady on his Fathers orders then Lord Rickard wanting his children to marry into Southron houses and strengthen alliances would not have been such an event as to still be remembered. The fact that Lady Hornwood does still bring this up shows it was not a common occurrence for the Lord of Winterfell to marry another great house.

3) The other option with regards to the family of Neds mother not being present with Robb is of course that she belongs to a Northern house who have not sent soldiers to Robb. In my opinion this points in one direction, Skagos or the Neck.

From the story of the knight of the laughing tree we get no indication that Howland Reed is related to the Starks. If the Neds mother came from the Neck she would most likely be a member of house Reed and related to Howland Reed, most probably his aunt. As Lyanna goes 'that's my fathers banner man you're attacking' and not 'that's my cousin you're attacking' this would again suggest that Lady Stark is not from the Neck.

This leaves Skagos. We know that 100 hundred years ago Skagos rose up in rebellion and killed the Lord of Winterfell, so this is roughly 200 AC. We know that around this time period Stark Lords have a tendency to bite the dust. We know that Willam died in 184 AC, Artos took over from him and then in between Artos dying and Edwyle becoming Lord of Winterfell there were Donnor, Rodwell and Beron Stark all as Lord of Winterfell. Then after this quick changing of Lords the She-Wolves ruled for roughly 10 years before Edwyle Stark came of age, who Edwyle married is unknown. It could have been one of his bannerman to secure their loyalty to him so no other Stark could rise up against him and get the support of another house (this suggest it was a powerful northern house) or it could have been a female stark relation of some variety (possibly a cousin) to secure his position.

With all this internal struggle sorted the most obvious thing is to do is to look at where the major invasion recently have come from and how they can be stopped and Edwyle Stark most likely realised this. The iron born are their own kingdom so they won't be kept in line by the Starks (Only the kings of Westeros have managed to subdue the iron born) but the place where the other major event happened was Skagos. The skagosi are northern vassels so the north can deal with them. Fighting them will achieve nothing against them as the skagosi are a wild people who pretty much rule themselves and don't recognize the power of Winterfell that much. However they might recognize Winterfell if they were brought into the fold. Edwyle Stark may have realized this and done a move similar to what Baelor the blessed did with Dorne. Rather than marry some obscure Stark to them he wanted them to feel important and so he promised to marry his heir to the daughter of the main lord on Skagos, (We know that Neds Grandma on his mothers side was a flint, this could suggest that other northern families were trying to create family ties to skagos to try and bring them into the north as part of the province and the flints are one of the major mountain clans and so are relatively important). This marriage brought Skagos firmly into the North and secured the eastern coast of the north all in one. When Rickard Stark came of age he married the daughter of the skagosi lord.

4) Lady Stark being a skagosi also gives reason for Rickon to go to Skagos. From what we know of Northen houses they view family as important and the skagosi may view Rickon as family as he has skagosi blood in him. Osha and Maestar Luwin may have also talked about this and Luwin may have recommended Skagos as it is a place where Rickon would be safe and no-one else would think to look due to the rumours about Skagos being an island of cannibals. (A rumour I don't believe due to the fact that the nights watch trades with skagosi and has had people from skagos man the wall).

For these reasons I believe Rickard Stark married the heir to the most important house of Skagos and she in turn gave birth to Brandon, Eddard, Lyanna and Benjen.

What a well thought out, thorough analysis! I agree with everything and I think you nailed it on how the mystery of Ned's mother ties into how Rickon managed to find safety with the Skagosi, despite their shaky past with the Starks.

[Fruitcake]

there is a theory that his mother is a skagosi noble. that is why nobody mentioned it yet and the fact that rickon is safer in skagos

[unSonofStannis]

If the theory of Neds mother being a Skagg is true then I think its safe to say that the Skaggs are the Starks last hope of gaining Winterfell back, not Stannis or the other northern lords because imo they all have their own ulterior motives in this civil war and they may not all involve putting a Stark back in Winterfell, savage tribal fighters from a mysterious backwater island with extreme warrior prowess seems like a good way for the Starks to come back.