Free Folk



"They're not your lands! We've been here the whole time! You lot came along and just put up a big Wall and said it was yours!"

- Ygritte, of the Free Folk

The Free Folk is the name used to refer to themselves by the people who live in the lands beyond the Wall, still on the continent of Westeros but beyond the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. The name they employ makes reference to their society, which recognizes no political authority and no claim of ownership over the land. The people of the Seven Kingdoms refer to the Free Folk derogatorily as wildlings.

The term "wildlings" is sometimes also employed to refer to the members of the hill tribes of the Vale that defy the rule of House Arryn, but out of context the term is usually understood to refer to the peoples living beyond the Wall.

History
The Free Folk are descended from the First Men, as are the inhabitants of the North. They were, essentially, the people unlucky enough to be living north of the Wall when it was constructed eight thousand years ago. Besides this shared ethnic heritage, their common descent means that there are also many cultural similarities between the wildlings and the Northerners. The wildlings are much closer in lifestyle and habits to how the First Men lived thousands of years ago, as the North has come under some cultural influence from their Andal neighbors who invaded southern Westeros six thousand years ago, and particularly since the Seven Kingdoms were united into a single realm by the Targaryen Conquest three hundred years ago.

Over the ages, the people of the Seven Kingdoms to the south largely forgotten why the Wall was constructed in the first place and came to believe that it exists to protect the realm from the wildlings, whom they regard as primitive savages and barbarians. However, the Night's Watch knows it was originally constructed to defend against the possible return of the near-mythical White Walkers. Since the White Walkers did not return for the past eight thousand years, the Night's Watch has mostly shifted its focus to preventing the wildlings from crossing south of the Wall, and sending out patrols into the wilderness to keep track of wildling movements. The shift of focus also reduced the Night's Watch from a band of honorable warriors into largely a dumping ground for exiled criminals.

Culture
The wildlings consist of a wide variety of many fractious tribes and village-dwellers, some reasonably cultured, others savage and hostile. Different wildling factions may actually have very different cultures and practices. They spend much of their time fighting one another, aside from the times when they are unified by a King-Beyond-the-Wall - as they are now under Mance Rayder.

The Free Folk worship the Old Gods of the Forest, like their distant cousins in the North. Even in the lands of House Stark, there are a few followers of the Faith of the Seven, often southern noblewomen who come to the north to secure marriage alliances. Beyond the Wall, however, the Old Gods are the only gods.

Women also partake in raids south of the Wall along with their male counterparts. These women warriors are known as spearwives.

Prominent wildlings

 * Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, a former sworn brother of the Night's Watch.
 * Tormund, called "Tormund Giantsbane", one of Mance Rayder's lieutenants.
 * Orell, another of Mance Rayder's followers.
 * The Lord of Bones, a renowned leader of a raiding warband now aligned with Mance Rayder.
 * Ygritte, a young woman encountered by Jon Snow and the scouting party led by Qhorin Halfhand and member of the Lord of Bones' warband.
 * Craster, an unsavory collaborator of the Night's Watch with a sordid reputation.
 * Gilly, one of his many daughter-wives.
 * Osha, a former spearwife and now a loyal servant of House Stark and protector of Bran and Rickon Stark.

Tribes
Among the Free Folk there are different clans or tribes, some of which are enemies with each other. Some of these are:


 * Thenn
 * Hornfoot
 * Ice-river clans

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels the Free Folk consist of various factions, such as the people of Thenn, raiders from the Frozen Shore, and settlers and woodsmen in the Haunted Forest. At the time of the books they are unified under a King-Beyond-the-Wall, Mance Rayder, a former member of the Night's Watch who fled the Wall and betrayed the Sworn Brothers. With the Wall grievously under-strength, there are fears that the wildlings may try to invade and that Lord Eddard Stark might have to lead his banners against them in a punitive strike.