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Do we know why Jeor Mormont took the black?


Direwolfsigil

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I have been trying to figure out if Jeor went to the wall because of his son, but details are scarce.

Please note the search function is not available.

From the wiki:

As Lord of Bear Island, Jeor marched to war under Lord Eddard Stark's banner during Robert's Rebellion. Within the next six years, he abdicated his seat in favor of his son, Ser Jorah Mormont, and joined the Night's Watch. He rapidly rose through the ranks and was elected Lord Commander in relatively short order.

this clearly misses out on the WHY.

I know the man is dead, but I wondered this through all the books and never found out..

anyone got any ideas?

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Because he had to take the fall for Jorah to restore the honor of his house. Jorah had shamed them all by selling poachers into slavery, and then fleeing into exile with his wife instead of taking the black. So Jeor had to take the black in his son's place.

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Because he had to take the fall for Jorah to restore the honor of his house. Jorah had shamed them all by selling poachers into slavery, and then fleeing into exile with his wife instead of taking the black. So Jeor had to take the black in his son's place.

I think Jeor took the black before Jorah shamed himself - Longclaw was with Jorah at Bear Island but when he was found guilty and ran in shame he send the blade to his father.

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We never get an explicit answer in the books other than what someone wrote up in the wiki. My own speculation is that he was just tired of the politics of lordship in Westeros proper and chose to remove himself to the politics of the NW.

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Yeah I think one of the reasons was that Jeor was getting older and he knew that he had a strong son and sister and probably felt he could leave Bear Island to them. As a northman joining the NW is a great honour, House Mormont would gain much respect for it. Of course Jorah's actions negated this somewhat..

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Jeor joined the Watch long before Jorah shamed himself. In fact, he probably joined the Watch before Roberts Rebellion since I have no idea how that wiki article is sourced. Probably not at all, pure speculation as most of the time. But what we know is that he left for the Wall early in Jorah's first marriage, which was childless for ~10 years and preceded the Greyjoy Rebellion.

As to the reasons for him joining the Watch, he was an old widower with a full-grown son. Maybe he wanted Jorah to come into his rights as a Lord. Maybe he missed his wife and saw no purpose iin their home anymore.

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He didn't plan to face them at the Fist, he planned to use his elite forces for hit-and-run attacks on numerically superior, but unorganized, underarmed and underequipped enemy (preferably slaying their king in the process). That is a sound strategy - high chance of success or at least of weakening enemy significantly before arriving to the Wall. Battle of the Wall shown that even relatively weak garrison can defend it against attack from the North.

Wildlings had 5000 riders in the van, about same with rearguard and about same strung along the sides of the column - VERY long column at that. Plenty of opportunities for hit-and-run, esp. if you have steel armor and steel weapons, and discipline at your side. At the Wall, Wildlings were concentrated, partially formed for battle and still Stannis' 2000 went through them like a hot knife through the butter.

Bowen Marsh was dumb. Mormont was considering his options and he wasn't the only one to see that assymetric attacks are the best course of action - against Wildlings.

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Wouldn't be AS easy - Mormont and attack proponents didn't hide that the entire force may perish in the fight, but the gain was worth the risk.

BTW as for motivation for NW, I think it was "working retirement" and allowing Jorah to come into inheridance earlier.

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Well Mormont is a house of the North. In the North, it's considered a great honor to take the black, and it's known that many highborns chose to join the Watch out of their own free will, Benjen Stark for example. Perhaps The Old Bear was one of those as well.

While your reasoning is most likely correct:

There is no evidence that's why Benjen took the black either, its just a more frequently discussed topic here.

In fact to some, why Benjen is in the Night's watch to start the series is one of the bigger mysteries.

We ( as readers) have no definitive clues about Benjen's reason, we know he was the stark in Winterfell while Ned was at war in RR, but not much else. At least we have hints to Jeor.

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He didn't plan to face them at the Fist, he planned to use his elite forces for hit-and-run attacks on numerically superior, but unorganized, underarmed and underequipped enemy (preferably slaying their king in the process).

Where do you get that from? I just checked the relevant passages in the books and I didn't see anything about such a plan.

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