Jon Snow and Ygritte

Jon Snow and Ygritte are star-crossed lovers from the Night's Watch and wildlings.

Appearances together
Copy-pasted from "Drogo and Daenerys", this listing is inaccurate.

In the books
When a wildling man wants a wife (wildling or non-wildling), he must kidnap her, while risking severe injury or even death by the woman and her relatives, and the woman must fight back. As a rule, the wildlings do not kidnap married women. Ygritte explained to Jon that if the man succeeds, it shows that he is strong, brave and cunning, and this is what wildling women seek in men. If the man turns out to be an abusive husband, the wife can always slit his throat. Because Jon succeeded in chasing down and capturing Ygritte, and later had sex with her, she subsequently points out to him that they could be considered technically married (according to loose wildling customs, which are not strictly defined "laws"), although Jon insists that capturing her was not for sex.

At first Jon rejects Ygritte's advances, not only due to his vows, but also since he does not wish to dishonor her and hurt her feelings, for sooner or later he'd have to abandon her (Sam felt bad about having sex with Gilly for the same reasons). Morever, he may get her pregnant. He discusses this with Tormund, who fails to understand why Jon kidnapped Ygritte if he does not want her. He explains to Jon that there is nothing dishonorable about free folk laying together, and in case Ygritte becomes pregnant - she can drink moon tea or give birth to a strong son or a lively laughing girl kissed by fire, and where's the harm in that? Jon has no answer. Later, when Mance grows suspicious of Jon's true motives, Ygritte assures him that they sleep together. This convinces Mance. Afterwards, Jon has no choice but to have sex with Ygritte.

It wasn't clear who shot the arrow that mortally wounded Ygritte. She was not shot in front of Jon Snow, but when the wildings and Night's Watch were trading arrow fire back and forth. When Jon found her, for a frantic moment he feared that he was the one who shot her - but when he checked the arrow in her he recognized that the fletching on it was different from the arrows he was using. Ygritte dies in Jon Snow's arms, with essentially the same dialogue as in the TV series. Afterwards, Jon decides that he'd rather not know which of his sworn brothers fired the arrow that killed Ygritte, so he makes no attempt to check.