Ygritte

"You know nothing, Jon Snow."

- Ygritte

Ygritte is a major character in the third and fourth seasons. She initially appeared as a recurring character in the second season and debuted in "The Old Gods and the New." She is played by Rose Leslie. Ygritte is a woman of the Free Folk who lives north of the Wall. She is part of the force under the leadership of Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall.

Background
Ygritte is a beautiful and cunning Free Folk spearwife with a quick wit, and resilient attitude. Her most distinctive physical feature is her long red hair. Living north of the Wall, she is well skilled in survival and is loyal to the cause of Mance Rayder. She values her status as a free woman, and disparages those that live south of the Wall for swearing oaths of fealty. Having a keen understanding of men, she is not hesitant to turn things in her favor using her sexuality.

Ygritte believes that because wildlings and Northerners are both descended from the First Men, there is no need for them to be fighting, and that only the Wall divides them. As with other Wildlings, Ygritte understands that the real threat lies with the impending invasion of the White Walkers.

Season 2
Ygritte is captured by Jon Snow and Qhorin Halfhand as the sole survivor of their assault on her watchpost. She instructs her captors to burn the bodies, but Qhorin questions her motives, he then instructs Jon to execute her telling him to catch up with them after the deed is done. Calling Jon a bastard to agitate him, Ygritte begs Jon to get it over with and awaits the stroke from his sword, but he cannot bring himself to do it. His hesitation allows her to escape, but Jon recaptures her, separating from his brothers in the process. With night approaching, Jon refuses to make a fire, forcing them to sleep out in the cold. Ygritte convinces him to huddle next to her to share body warmth. She then unsuccessfully makes sexual advances towards Jon.

After a cold night, Ygritte and Jon continue on to catch up with Qhorin Halfhand. On the way she argues with Jon about who invades whose lands, saying that the Wildlings were here long before the southerners (the Andals) came. Jon proclaims that being Ned Stark's son, he has the blood of the First Men, whom the Northerners and Wildlings are both descended from. Ygritte counters that it therefore doesn't make sense for the people of the North to fight the Wildlings, and the only difference between them is that the Northerners "put up a big Wall" and said the land was theirs, and the Wildlings just happened to be living North of the Wall at the time. She furthermore mocks Jon's sexual inexperience and the oath of the Night's Watch, and taunts him by offering to teach him how to have sex. She manages to escape again, and leads him into an Wildling ambush.

Ygritte brings Jon to the Lord of Bones who orders him executed. She convinces him that Mance will want to question Jon because of his Stark blood. The Lord of Bones has a prisoner of his own; Qhorin. The Halfhand tells Jon that the rest of the men were killed while they searched for him and angrily knocks Jon over. Ygritte is intrigued by the bad feelings between them.

During their way to meet with Mance Rayder, Ygritte playfully mocks Jon by tapping him on the back of the head with the flat side of his sword, Longclaw. Jon responds by saying she looks like a "baby with a rattle" and that she has "never swung a sword". Qhorin advances his plans of portraying Jon Snow as a traitor to the Night's Watch by attacking him. The Lord of Bones allows them to battle, and Ygritte passes Jon his sword. During the exchange, Jon slays Qhorin, who recites the oath of the Night's Watch to Jon in his last breath. Ygritte and the rest of the band are stunned. Jon's hands are freed, and he and Ygritte stand before Mance Rayder's encampment.

Season 3
Ygritte and the Lord of Bones leads Jon Snow into the main wildling camp in the Frostfang Mountains. There she walk with Jon Snow through the huge camp, when a giant is coming towards them carrying supplies, Jon is shocked to see a real-life giant. Ygritte then tells him that giants are very shy, and from that shyness turns into rage. She also tells Jon that she have seen a giant smash a man straight into the ground like a hammer does to a nail. While the group is walking through the camp to Mance Rayder's tent, some young boys pelt Jon with ice and small stones, Ygritte stops this by shooing them away. When they arrive and are inside Mance Rayder's tent, she stands besides with the Lord of Bones when he tells Tormund Giantsbane that Jon is the bastard son of Ned Stark. Tormund then says he don't care about that but is piqued to hear that Jon killed Qhorin Halfhand. As they talk, Jon kneels before Tormund, whom he assumes to be Mance Rayder, and calls him "your grace". This caused all the wildlings including Ygritte in the tent to laugh as their society does not bother with such ceremony.

Ygritte later travels with Jon and Mance as they march slowly south towards the wall until they are met by one of his scouts, Orell. When Mance explains to Jon that he is a warg, Ygritte is surprised that Jon doesn't know what a warg is.

While marching south towards the Wall, Ygritte and the rest of the Free Folk arrive at the Fist of the First Men. They survey the bloody aftermath of the assault on the Night's Watch by the White Walkers and their army of undead wights.

Stopping to rest and tend to his injuries after fleeing the wildlings, Jon Snow finds himself confronted by a furious Ygritte, who has an arrow ready to shoot him. Jon tries to talk Ygritte out of shooting him, insisting that he still loves her but that she should have known his loyalty to the Watch was never gone. Though his feelings are clearly reciprocated Ygritte is still angered by his betrayal and shoots Jon three times with her bow as he flees from her, watching him go with tears in her eyes.

Season 4
Now in the North, and waiting for Mance's signal, Ygritte and her leader Giantsbane, are hidden inside a crag of rocks. She still has hard feelings towards Jon for his betrayal and Giantsbane questions her on that fact. She insists that she stuck three arrows in him, but still has doubts. Tormund decides that if Jon is still alive, the only reason for that would be that Ygritte "let him go". A group of Thenn arrive, lead by Styr who have come from the South and they've brought food with them. When Styr asks whether Ygritte is Tormund's woman, she claims that she belongs to no one and points a threatening arrow at the Thenn leader. He ignores it and takes a seat next to the fire for his food: a dismembered arm.

Quotes
"If we die we'll die, but first we'll live."

- Ygritte to Jon Snow'''

Behind the scenes

 * Actress Rose Leslie is Scottish and has a received pronunciation accent in real life, but uses a Northern English accent when playing Ygritte. Leslie was cast partially because the producers, having already decided on this manner of speech for the wildlings, were impressed with her performance on Downton Abbey, where she likewise had to affect a Northern accent.
 * On the Season 2 Blu-ray, Rose Leslie as Ygritte narrates the Histories & Lore videos "The Free Folk" and "The Night's Watch."

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Ygritte is a wildling spearwife in the force led by Mance Rayder. She is described as skinny, but well-muscled with a round face and a pug nose. Due to the rough life north of the Wall she has crooked teeth (as do many wildlings). Her most distinctive feature is her fiery red hair. The wildlings consider red hair and those who have it to be "kissed by fire", a sign of great luck and fortune.

Ygritte's name did not appear in the Season 1 Pronunciation guide, but the phonetic pronunciation of her name was later seen written out in a behind-the-scenes short video: "EE-grit".