Worship of the Old Gods

[Danyl Stark]

This subject has probably been covered before, but I couldn't find anything on it.

There are a few North and South whose religion is not entirely clear. The Blackwoods being (to my knowledge) the only confirmed Old Gods' worshipers south of the Neck

• House Royce - to my knowledge not confirmed either way. But their possession of First Men blood, their "magic" bronze armour may suggest a link. The fact that some of their members have Knighthoods may indicate otherwise, but knights do not always equal followers of the Faith of the Seven.
  
• House Farwynd - Rumours regarding their skinchanging & generally being thought of as strange by the other Iron Islanders.
  
• House Mormont - Jorah is a Knight, but as mentioned above this may not preclude him being a follower of the Old Gods.
  

There are plenty of others, but these were the ones that first sprang to mind.

[House Hendrix of Rock]

I don't understand why you mention House Mormont, it's as north as you can get

[MyLittleFinger]

Worshiping the Old Gods just means muttering to a tree, so you can find a lot of them outside wayside taverns.

[Julia Martell]

This subject has probably been covered before, but I couldn't find anything on it.

There are a few North and South whose religion is not entirely clear. The Blackwoods being (to my knowledge) the only confirmed Old Gods' worshipers south of the Neck

• House Royce - to my knowledge not confirmed either way. But their possession of First Men blood, their "magic" bronze armour may suggest a link. The fact that some of their members have Knighthoods may indicate otherwise, but knights do not always equal followers of the Faith of the Seven.

House Farwynd - Rumours regarding their skinchanging & generally being thought of as strange by the other Iron Islanders.

House Mormont - Jorah is a Knight, but as mentioned above this may not preclude him being a follower of the Old Gods.

There are plenty of others, but these were the ones that first sprang to mind.

Mormont was knighted on a battlefield, which is a little different. No one else in his family is a knight, that I recall, including Lord Mormont on the Wall. I do think it's a little odd that he's never mentioned following the Old Gods in all the time he's in Essos with Dany. Maybe he's an atheist.

[Inspector Javert]

You forgot about House Blackwood.

EDIT: I am blind. :(

[The Fourth Head]

errr, desperately reaching, but Domeric Bolton was sent from the "Dreadfort" to squire at the .... "Redfort", where he came to view Lord Horton's sons with brotherly affection. Otherwise, I'm stumped.

[Danyl Stark]

I don't understand why you mention House Mormont, it's as north as you can get

Mainly because of Jorah, being a Knight, though that doesn't necessarily prove anything. No mention of his faith is made.

I can't remember any reference to Jeor's faith either. This may have been show-only (I don't have aGoT book handy) but I seem to remember Jeor Mormont mentioning the Old Gods as being "your gods" (i.e. not his) when Jon Snow takes his vows under the Weirwoods.

[Danyl Stark]

errr, desperately reaching, but Domeric Bolton was sent from the "Dreadfort" to squire at the .... "Redfort", where he came to view Lord Horton's sons with brotherly affection. Otherwise, I'm stumped.

The Redforts were another I considered given their First Men origins, but all four of Lord Horton Redfort's sons are knights. Again this might not be a definite point against them worshiping the Old Gods, but Knighthoods are something they tend to avoid

[David Selig]

IIRC Jeor said to Jon something about "your gods", regarding the Old gods, which is a hint that he wasn't following them.

[House Hendrix of Rock]

Mainly because of Jorah, being a Knight, though that doesn't necessarily prove anything. No mention of his faith is made.

I can't remember any reference to Jeor's faith either. This may have been show-only (I don't have aGoT book handy) but I seem to remember Jeor Mormont mentioning the Old Gods as being "your gods" (i.e. not his) when Jon Snow takes his vows under the Weirwoods.

I think that is personal matter with Jorah who is a slaver thus an abomination.

[AryaNymeriaVisenya]

I would suspect that a lot of First Men houses have a hybrid religion like the early pagan christians. They mix symbols, see the celtic cross in our world. See Brienne burying someone beneath the weirwood and the abundance of weirwoods in the castles.

[The Fourth Head]

The Redforts were another I considered given their First Men origins, but all four of Lord Horton Redfort's sons are knights. Again this might not be a definite point against them worshiping the Old Gods, but Knighthoods are something they tend to avoid

Ser Kevan described Lord Redfort, Corbray and Royce as all dangerous in their own ways, but as yet, I can't see what makes Horton Redfort any more dangerous than the Weirwoods, or the Hunters, and what it is that makes him so uniquely dangerous.

Do we have any record of Worshippers of the Old Gods actively avoiding being Knighted as opposed to simply living in relative isolation from the South and their traditions and seeing it as a North/South thing? If your family is surrounded by this tradition, and your status and marriage prospects are affected by being a Ser, there is a possibility of families worshipping the Old Gods in the south but buying into knighthood culture. Clearly people swearing by the old gods and the new, the fact that the old gods names seem forgotten and the Knighting of Ser Jorah implies a distinction isn't religiously necessary. It hardly seemed Taboo.

[Ziriath]

Mormont was knighted on a battlefield, which is a little different. No one else in his family is a knight, that I recall, including Lord Mormont on the Wall. I do think it's a little odd that he's never mentioned following the Old Gods in all the time he's in Essos with Dany. Maybe he's an atheist.

Maybe that's because praying to Old gods is made at a weirwood tree- and the thing most similar to weirwood in Essos so far were those trees with black bark and blue leaves, in Qarth. He was talking about some gods several times, but did not name them.

As for Jeor, he can be an atheist, or maybe he learned not to show personal affection to any religion, because some followers of 7 could disrespect him. Or lost his faith as he was gifted with Jorah.

Lady Maege was praying at a weirwood tree in Riverrun, so in her case it's quite clear.

-Why would worshippers of Old gods call them like this? For them they shouldn't be old, but current. Just 'gods'. (The same by worshippers of 7, for them they shouldn't be New gods, as they were there all the time.)

-There is an undefined count of Old gods. One can say 'my gods', and 'your gods', and both people can believe in Old gods. It seems Craster believes in different Old gods than Ned, for sure. If I remember, Jeor said to Jon Snow something like: ''Craster believes in different (?) and more cruel gods than you or me.''