Sam


 * This page is about the child of Gilly and Craster. For other uses, see Sam (disambiguation).

Sam is a character in the third season. He's the son of Craster, a wildling who marries his daughters, and Gilly, one of his daughter-wives, being his mother/sister. He was named after Samwell Tarly, who saved the lives of Gilly and her son.

Season 3
Two of Craster's wives delivers him in a birthing hut. At the same time the Night's Watch survivors of the Battle of the Fist of the First Men take shelter at Craster's Keep. After Gilly and Samwell Tarly notice he's a boy, they realize that Craster will want to sacrifice him to the White Walkers.

Sam visits Gilly, who is deeply distraught about the fate of her newborn son. She is frantic, and yells at Sam not to draw attention to the fact that it's a boy by calling it a "he" so loud, as Craster will want to offer it up as a sacrifice when he finds out it's a son. He asks her if she's decided on a name, but she responds that there's no point in naming her baby if he's only going to be offered up as a human sacrifice. She gives Sam back his mother's thimble and says she doesn't care about such stupid things, all she's focused on is protecting the life of her baby.

When a mutiny breaks out that results in the deaths of Craster and Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, Sam rushes to Gilly's hut and orders her that they have to escape now or they never will. Sam runs out of Craster's Keep with Gilly and her baby, as loyal Night's Watch members fall to the mutineers, who also kill or rape Craster's other wives. Gilly leads the way into the night because she knows the woods around her home.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Gilly's child actually does not possess a name. The inhabitants of the Seven Kingdoms south of the Wall are named in a ceremony on the same day they are born, which becomes known as a "nameday". A "nameday" is functionally equivalent to a "birthday", hence the phrase "naked as my nameday", it is just a quirk of their culture that the act of naming, not the birth itself, is what is signified.

However, due to the harsh conditions Beyond the Wall, the wildlings have a high infant mortality rate and believe naming a baby after birth is an ill-omen. Therefore, they do not give their babies names at all until they have survived to fully two years of age. Gilly follows that custom, and for that reason she has not given any name to her baby yet. Wildlings do sometimes give their babies nicknames in the meantime, but Gilly hasn't called her baby "Sam" in the books.

Some people in Castle Black call the baby "Monster" affectionately, while others call him "Abomination" because he is born of incest.