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Ned Stark's mother


BeWareOfMyHouse

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This might or might not have been mentioned at some point (knowing these boards, it most definitely has) but I find it curious that Ned's mother is never mentioned in the story. Not rarely, but seriously, never.

We know for a fact that Lord Rickard Stark was executed shortly before Robert's Rebellion, a decade and a half before the events of the main series. In Ned's chapters, we never hear much internal thought about his parents. It's only from other characters that we learn about Lord Rickard's fate. Again, there's no mention of Ned's Mom, or what her reaction was to losing her late lord husband.

Even the older POV Stark children, like Sansa and Jon, never have internal thoughts about their paternal grandmother, DESPITE THE FACT THAT SHE MOST LIKELY LIVED IN WINTERFELL CASTLE FOR YEARS AFTER THEY WERE BORN. As the Lady Stark, her home would still be Winterfell, even after Rickard's death.

Hell, we don't even get anything from Catelyn, a POV with many chapters. We have tons of internal thoughts about her husband, her children, her parents, her siblings, her uncle Brynden, but never a stinking word about Ned's mother. HER OWN MOTHER-IN-LAW.

We have detailed lineages of Targaryen kings and children we never met. We have the names of long-dead Stark kings who lived a thousand years ago (Bran the Builder, etc.). Why don't we even have the name of Ned's mother, or even what house she came from? Wouldn't some of the older lords in the North (like Rickard Karstark, or others) say to Robb "I knew your grandmother, and...", or something like that?

And even if something macabre happened to her, like dying in childbirth while giving birth to Lyanna, wouldn't that at least be mentioned? Tyrion Lannister's mother died giving birth to HIM, and it's one of the more major plot points in the series.

My conclusion is that there are only two options:

1) Lady Stark's identity means absolutely nothing, and doesn't even warrant a mention.

2) Lady Stark's identity is INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT, IN SOME EARTH-SHATTERINGLY SIGNIFICANT WAY. In which case we'll most likely have to wait for TWOW or ADOS to find out.

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i dunno why but im more inclined to believe it doesnt mean anything. she wasnt very important. but what makes you think she was alive after roberts rebellion? she could have died sometime after benjen's birth..

I suppose that's a possibility, but she would've been rather young; probably only in her late 20s at that point. Assuming she was as healthy as any other normal adult female, her death would've had to have been caused by something unnatural in that case. Murder, or some sort of horrible sickness. That's why I'm wondering why it isn't even mentioned; she either had to have died very early in her life, or survived until after Catelyn was married to Ned.

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This might or might not have been mentioned at some point (knowing these boards, it most definitely has) but I find it curious that Ned's mother is never mentioned in the story. Not rarely, but seriously, never.

We know for a fact that Lord Rickard Stark was executed shortly before Robert's Rebellion, a decade and a half before the events of the main series. In Ned's chapters, we never hear much internal thought about his parents. It's only from other characters that we learn about Lord Rickard's fate. Again, there's no mention of Ned's Mom, or what her reaction was to losing her late lord husband.

Even the older POV Stark children, like Sansa and Jon, never have internal thoughts about their paternal grandmother, DESPITE THE FACT THAT SHE MOST LIKELY LIVED IN WINTERFELL CASTLE FOR YEARS AFTER THEY WERE BORN. As the Lady Stark, her home would still be Winterfell, even after Rickard's death.

Hell, we don't even get anything from Catelyn, a POV with many chapters. We have tons of internal thoughts about her husband, her children, her parents, her siblings, her uncle Brynden, but never a stinking word about Ned's mother. HER OWN MOTHER-IN-LAW.

We have detailed lineages of Targaryen kings and children we never met. We have the names of long-dead Stark kings who lived a thousand years ago (Bran the Builder, etc.). Why don't we even have the name of Ned's mother, or even what house she came from? Wouldn't some of the older lords in the North (like Rickard Karstark, or others) say to Robb "I knew your grandmother, and...", or something like that?

And even if something macabre happened to her, like dying in childbirth while giving birth to Lyanna, wouldn't that at least be mentioned? Tyrion Lannister's mother died giving birth to HIM, and it's one of the more major plot points in the series.

My conclusion is that there are only two options:

1) Lady Stark's identity means absolutely nothing, and doesn't even warrant a mention.

2) Lady Stark's identity is INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT, IN SOME EARTH-SHATTERINGLY SIGNIFICANT WAY. In which case we'll most likely have to wait for TWOW or ADOS to find out.

Search function?

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Q) Who is Jon's mother, and what happened to her?

A) Some woman. She died.

Sometimes simple answers aren't really meant to stay simple.

Since you asked, it's my pleasure to provide you the answers from GRRM that I read in the SSM. Coincidentally, I read most of them last night so not really hard to find them. Here they go:

5- Will we know in time, with certainty, the identity of Jon Snow's parents (I don't believe Edric Dayne's tale)? Personally, I really hope he's Lyanna and Rhaegar's son, despite looking so much like Eddard.

Jon's parentage will be revealed eventually, yes.

Last one about Ned's mom:

3) Speaking about women there's is a hidden figure: Ned's mother, you only say "she was Lady Stark and she died". Nothing more? Nothing important or something too important? (please at least choose one hypothesis).

If there is anything important, I will reveal it in due time.

(Did Tolkien ever get letters asking about Aragorn's mother, I wonder?)

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2) Lady Stark's identity is INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT, IN SOME EARTH-SHATTERINGLY SIGNIFICANT WAY. In which case we'll most likely have to wait for TWOW or ADOS to find out.

I lean toward this option whenever GRRM is asked he avoids it like the plague. he says oh Neds mother she's dead. That tells me their is something Epic in store. When robert and ned talk about the IT and who should have sat Ned said he had the better claim meaning that some how they might be related, through ancestry. Ive looked at some of the Baratheon lineages mostly Targs, wouldnt that be something.

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I lean toward this option whenever GRRM is asked he avoids it like the plague. he says oh Neds mother she's dead. That tells me their is something Epic in store. When robert and ned talk about the IT and who should have sat Ned said he had the better claim meaning that some how they might be related, through ancestry. Ive looked at some of the Baratheon lineages mostly Targs, wouldnt that be something.

That is something to think about, for sure. Robert won the throne via conqest, but he claimed it on the basis that his grandmother was a Targaryen princess. Wouldn't it be a doozy if one of the Stark children also had a Targaryen grandmother in their own family? Hah.

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Honestly I don't think her identity will end up being all that important at the end of the day, but I had a theory that she may have been a member of House Ryswell, based on a comment by Roose Bolton that Lyanna Stark was "half a horse", using the "horse" in the context of heraldry as opposed to an actual affinity for heraldry.

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Ran has confirmed that the identity of Ned's mother will be revealed in the Stark gentree that will pbe published in the upcoming "A World of Ice and Fire".

So we can conclude that her identity is not a huge thing. If it was, George wouldn't want the revelation to appear in a companion book instead of the novels.

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Ran has confirmed that the identity of Ned's mother will be revealed in the Stark gentree that will pbe published in the upcoming "A World of Ice and Fire".

So we can conclude that his identity is not a huge revelation. If it was, George wouldn't want the revelation to appear in a companion book instead of the novels.

Is "Ran" some sort of pseudonym for GRRM?

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Don't cry about it.

Also search has been off 50% of the time on these forums since the premiere of season 3 of the HBO show. I hope people will be forgiven for not using a function that appears to be disabled from Saturday to Tuesday of each week.

We're between books so I'm sure that our discussions will be somewhat repetitive until WoW or the next sample chapter at least! Personally I don't think there's anything wrong with that although maybe the mods do.

Back OT, it would surprise me if Ned's mom was important. That trope seems a bit played out what with Jon's parents and (f)Aegon's parents being true mysteries & and many more (crackpot, IMO) discussions about secret parents of other characters (like Tyrion, Cersei & Jaime)

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  • 10 months later...

According to the fact that all of the Stark kids from Ned's generation are described as having "the Stark look", which is to say grey eyes and dark brown hair, along with a wild "wolf" temper for Lyanna and Brandon, I'd be willing to bet Ned's mom was a lady from the North. Hence probably not very important at the moment but it might be in the future, like if, for example, Rickon's grandmother has been from a skagosi house.


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