Culture & customs

The Wall which separates the free folk from the rest of Westeros in many ways defines them. The free folk refer to themselves as such to differentiate themselves from "kneelers," the people south of the Wall subject to lords and kings. The free folk view "kneelers" as lacking freedom, whereas the people of the Seven Kingdoms to the south view "wildlings" as lawless and primitive killers, rapists, and thieves.[1][2]

Due to their isolation, the free folk remain a people free of states, nobles, kings, and laws but those of their own choosing, following whichever leader they please.[3] The free folk believe that the gods made the earth for all men to share and when the kings came with their crowns and their steel swords, they stole it by claiming it was all theirs and theirs alone.[2] There is little in the way of law or property rights in the lands of the free folk. They take what they can and keep what they can defend and have little interest in marriage.[3]

Society

Folk folk society is made of many tribes and clans, each with their own peculiarities and customs. Some recognize chieftains, while others exist in a perpetual state of conflict, warring against each other and themselves. The free folk place importance in a man keeping his word.[4] Some clans are led by clan mothers or magnars.[3]

Enmities

The free folk do not hate northmen as much as they hate the "crows" of the Night's Watch, who represent the gate keepers holding them beyond the Wall. The free folk do not spare brothers of the Night's Watch, unless they break their oaths and prove it.[8] However, the two groups are not beyond some form of cooperation. The two groups sometimes trade at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea,[5] lost brothers have been aided by free folk, and the Watch sometimes take free folk children and raise them to be members.[9]

Spearwives

In keeping with the spirit of free folk independence, women are welcome to take up arms and fight alongside men. Such women are called spearwives, and are known to be every bit as ferocious as their male counterparts.[14]

Marriage

In marriage, the men are expected to be quite forceful with women, going so far as stealing them from their home or clan. The women, in turn, are expected to put up a fight every step of the way.[3] It is believed that a true man will steal a woman from afar to strengthen the clan. Men must steal daughters, but not wives of other men. When the red wanderer is within the Moonmaid, it is considered a propitious time for a man to steal a woman.[15]

Women who wed brothers, fathers, or clan kin are believed to offend the gods, and are cursed with weak and sickly children.[16]

Naming

Because infant mortality is common in the harsh environment beyond the Wall, it is believed to be bad luck to name a child before he or she reaches two years of age.[17] A temporary milk name or nickname can be given to a child prior to the official naming.[18]

Raiding

Raiding south of the Wall is a large part of free folk culture. Raiders start at a young age, as little as twelve years.[15] Raiders either climb the Wall or use little boats to cross the Bay of Seals around it. Climbing the height of the Wall is an exercise that can take most of a day and rangers of the Night's Watch often find the broken bodies of those who have fallen.[19]

To climb the Wall, the free folk use the aid of huge ladders of woven hemp, boots of supple doeskin spiked with iron, bronze, or jagged bone, small stone-headed hammers, stakes of iron and bone and horn, and antlers with sharpened tines bound to wooden hafts with strips of hide serving as ice axes.[19]

Over the decades, with the weakening of the Night's Watch, the free folk have found it much easier to either climb the Wall or paddle small boats through the Bay of Seals, growing bolder they raid as far as the Umber lands, the northern mountain clans, or Bear Island, instead of the usual villages and holdfasts in the Gift.

Raiders cross the Wall to steal swords and axes, spices, silks, furs, and any valuables they can find. They are known to take women in any season to carry them off beyond the Wall.[2]

Armament

Most free folk warriors wield weaponry wrought of stone, wood, and bronze, such as axes and flails, fire-hardened spears and lances, and bows of wood and horn. Their bows are outranged by the yew longbows of the south, but can seemingly shoot an arrow as high as seven hundred feet.[20][7]

The free folk do not mine nor smelt and there are few smiths and fewer forges north of the Wall; the only metal armor that they wear are bits and pieces looted from dead rangers. Most will wear boiled leather or sewn sheepskins and use crude round shields of skin stretched over wicker, painting them with figures such as skulls and bones, serpents, bear claws, twisted demonic faces, and severed heads.[8][20][21]

The Thenns are more well-armed and armored than most free folk, with bronze helms, axes, short stabbing spears with leaf-shaped heads, shirts sewn with bronze discs, and plain unadorned shields of black boiled leather with bronze rims and bosses.[15][20]

Among those of the free folk to submit to Stannis is Sigorn, the new Magnar of Thenn. Jon Snow arranges the wedding of Alys Karstark of Karhold to Sigorn, with the blessing of Stannis's queen Selyse Florent, thereby creating House Thenn.[11] Jon sends Val beyond the Wall to find Tormund and bring him to the Wall to negotiate.[18] She is successful in her mission.[11] Tormund leads three or four thousand free folk through the Wall, although twice that many are said to be at Hardhome with Mother Mole and other wildlings are spotted near the Shadow Tower. Jon garrisons many of the abandoned castles of the Night's Watch with free folk.[27] Jon sends Cotter Pyke to rescue the people at Hardhome, but the free folk do not trust the expedition and Maester Harmune writes of dead things in the water.[10]

Harma, called "Harma Dogshead", an infamous female raider and cynophobe.[3] Killed during the battle beneath the Wall.[21]

The Lord of Bones, mocked by rangers (and some free folk) as "Rattleshirt", a sadistic raider who wears armor made of bone. Captured after the attack on Castle Black.

Orell, a raider and skinchanger. He was killed by Jon Snow while his mind inhabited an eagle. A part of his consciousness became permanently trapped in the eagle, causing it to hate Jon Snow.

Osha, free folk woman taken captive by forces of House Stark south of the Wall. Spared execution in exchange for service, she became a guardian and companion to Rickon Stark.

Styr, the Magnar of Thenn, chieftain of the Thenns, a warlike free folk tribe. Killed during the battle beneath the Wall.

Tormund, known as "Giantsbane", among many other things, a raider prone to tall tales.

Val, Dalla's sister. Imprisoned after the battle beneath the Wall.[29][25] Called the "wildling princess" by the brothers of the Night's Watch and the southern knights of Stannis Baratheon due to her relation to the King-beyond-the-Wall.[30]

Varamyr "Sixskins", a diminutive skinchanger who is accompanied by three wolves, a snowbear and a shadowcat. After Orell's death, Varamyr took control of his eagle and used it to scout during the battle beneath the Wall. Melisandre killed the eagle while Varamyr inhabited it, causing him to go mad.

Ygritte, red-haired lover to Jon Snow. Killed in the attack on Castle Black.

Now, a dog can heard a flock of sheep, but free folk, well, some are shadowcats and some are stones. One kind prowls where they please and will tear your dogs to pieces. The other will not move at all unless you kick them.[33]

Free folk and kneelers are more like than not, Jon Snow. Men are men and women women, no matter which side of the Wall we were born on. Good men and bad, heroes and villains, men of honor, liars, cravens, brutes ... we have plenty, as do you.[33]