Ygritte

"You know nothing, Jon Snow."

- Ygritte

Ygritte was 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 was a woman of the Free Folk who lived north of the Wall. She was part of the force under the leadership of Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall.

Background
Ygritte is a cunning Free Folk spearwife with quick wit and a resilient attitude. She has long red hair and is an incredibly accomplished archer. 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.

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 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 walks 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 has 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.

Ygritte is with Jon and a group of twenty wildlings lead by Tormund, sent ahead by Mance Raider and his army to scale the wall and attack Castle Black from behind. She and Jon are gathering firewood and she hears him and Orell's conversation where they discuss how many brothers of the Night's Watch are stationed at Castle Black.

After the conversation, Ygritte steal Jon's sword Longclaw, which makes him chase it. She leads him into a nearby cave, which is heated by natural hotsprings, which form a waterfall and a pool. Ygritte starts disrobing, and says that she wants to make sure Jon Snow has truly come over to the wildlings' side and broken his Night's Watch vows - by making him break his oath of celibacy with her. She quickly shucks off all of her clothes and walks up to him naked. Jon is very hesitant at first, but they soon end up having sex in the cave. Afterwards Jon and Ygritte lay together in a naked embrace and Ygritte tells Jon she wishes they could stay in this cave forever.

At camp at the base of the Wall, the wildling party led by Tormund Giantsbane prepare to climb. Ygritte and Jon talk about their impending climb and their relationship. Ygritte reveals she is aware that Jon is still loyal to the Night's Watch, but tells him he must be loyal to each other instead. While climbing, Ygritte strikes the Wall and causes a massive crack, which dislodges a large sheet of ice which sends several wildlings to their deaths and leaves herself and Jon hanging by their safety rope. Orell decides that Tormund cannot continue climbing with the weight of Jon and Ygritte's bodies pulling them down, and begins cutting the rope. Jon sees this and barely manages to hang onto the wall and saves himself and Ygritte. They reach the top of the wall, and Ygritte is awed by the view of both beyond the wall and south of the wall, before she and Jon share a passionate kiss.

After surviving the perilous climb of the Wall, Ygritte, Jon Snow and the wildlings led by Tormund Giantsbane make their way towards Castle Black to await Mance Rayder's signal to begin the attack on the Night's Watch.

During the journey through the woods, Ygritte is confronted by a jealous Orell who says that he would be a better man for her than Jon Snow, whilst continuing to express his distrust in Jon. Jon also tries to persuade Ygritte that the wildlings' cause is doomed to failure, but she refuses to listen and points out that Jon is technically one of them; if it fails, so does he. She renews her passion for him and tells him bluntly that if they die, they die, but before they die they will live.

Ygritte along with Jon and the wildling party prepare to raid an elderly horse breeder's home for his horses and gold. When the party attacks the farmstead, Jon surreptitiously hits a rock with his sword, alerting the old man who flees. When Ygritte tries to shoot the fleeing man with an arrow, she is disctracted by him.

The old man tries to flee from the wildlings, but is later caught in a abandonded windmill somwhere in The Gift. Outside the mill, Tormund moves to kill the old man, but Orell tells him to have Jon do it instead to prove his loyalty. Jon is ultimately unable to kill the innocent man, and instead Ygritte kills the man with an arrow. Realizing that Jon is still loyal to the Night's Watch, Tormund orders his men to kill Jon; Tormund restrains Ygritte to stop her trying to help Jon, and soon after Jon battles with Orell. After he killed Orell, Jon jumps to mount a nearby horse and escapes, leaving Ygritte and heading back to the Wall.

Ygritte confronts Jon as he take care of his wounds beside a pond, after fleeing the wildlings in The Gift. Furiously she aims her arrow ready to shoot him. He tries to talk Ygritte out of shooting him, insisting that he still loves her but that she should have known his loyalty to the Night's Watch was never gone. After telling this, Ygritte is still angered by Jon's betrayal. As he gets up on his horse saddle, she shoots him three times with her bow as he flees from her, watching him ride away 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.

Ygritte and other wildlings attack a village killing almost all of its residents. Ygritte kills one man with an arrow, whose son Styr orders to run to Castle Black to warn crows about wildlings and get them to leave their castles.

Ygritte participates in the attack on Mole's Town. She is ambushed by a whore in the Mole's Town brothel, but swiftly kills her with a spear thrust through her stomach. Ygritte then discovers Gilly and her son in hiding, but urges them to remain quiet so they will not be found by the other wildlings, sparing their lives. Just outside Castle Black, Ygritte gets into a fierce argument with Styr. The wildlings then receive Mance Rayder's signal to attack Castle Black. During the battle, she kills numerous member of the Night's Watch, including Pypar. When she encounters Jon Snow, Ygritte draws her bow and arrow directly at Jon. She hesitates, which results in Olly shooting her through the heart with an arrow from behind. She dies in Jon Snow's arms after they lament the circumstances that prevent them from being together.

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.

It is unknown who shot the arrow that killed Ygritte. Jon noticed it was not one of his arrows (by the color of the feathers), but felt as if it was.

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".