The title of this page is conjecture based on information revealed in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels or related material and may be subject to change.
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- "Rip her! Rip her! Rip her!"
- ―Ramsay Bolton to his hounds as they rip apart Tansy.
The bastard's girls[a] are a pack of vicious dogs bred by Lord Ramsay Bolton.
Biography[]
Background[]
The bastard's girls is the name of the pack of dogs bred by Ramsay Snow at the Dreadfort to serve as hunting dogs, trackers, and, on occasion, executioners. The pack is made up solely of bitches, as per their nickname. Myranda, a servant of House Bolton, and later Ramsay's bedwarmer and lover, was the daughter of the Dreadfort's kennelmaster. Ramsay would later remark of how she had stunk of dog.
Following the captive Theon's torture and breaking at Ramsay's hands, and adoption of the identity of "Reek", a meek and submissive servant of House Bolton, he is transferred from the dungeons to the kennels, where he dwells and sleeps alongside the hounds.
The pack comprises at least two different breeds of dog, the more common a large, muscular, black-haired dog commonly used for killing, and a smaller, more slender brown-haired dog typically used for tracking.
Ramsay often starves his hounds as to increase their aggression and sate them with his human victims, who are devoured alive for his amusement.
Game of Thrones: Season 4[]
Theon accompanies the pack, Ramsay, and Myranda, as they hunt down Tansy, a serving girl in the Dreadfort who had caught Myranda's ire. As the hounds chase after her, Ramsay and Myranda take shots at her with their bow, and Theon struggles to keep up with his limp. After Myranda severely injures Tansy with an arrow to the thigh, Ramsay has the dogs kill Tansy, tearing her apart before Theon's eyes as she screams.[1]
When Yara Greyjoy attempts to rescue Theon from the Dreadfort, she finds him being kept in the castle's kennels rather than dungeons. After most of Yara's comrades are killed in the ensuing skirmish and Theon bites her to return to his cage, Ramsay releases the hounds, which had grown restless and agitated because of the fighting. Given up on Theon as already dead, the Ironborn flee the hounds and return to their ships.[2]
The girls are moved to Winterfell along with the rest of House Bolton, and take up residence in Winterfell's kennels.[3]
Game of Thrones: Season 5[]
Myranda directs Sansa to the kennels, where she finds Theon, passing the hounds in the process, who regard her viciously.[4]
Myranda later tells Sansa of the various women in Ramsay's life who he had grown bored of and disposed of in one way another, including Tansy. She glibly regards Tansy's fate, boasting of how Ramsay had let her come along for that hunt.[5]
Game of Thrones: Season 6[]
Two tracking hounds are sent with a group of Bolton men to find and retrieve Sansa and Theon after they escape Winterfell. Though Sansa and Theon cross the river to throw off their scent to stop the hounds tracking them, they are found regardless, but Brienne and Pod intervene and rescue Sansa and Theon. The hounds, not bred for combat like their larger and more muscular counterparts, are either killed or driven off by the fighting.[6]
In Winterfell, after finding Myranda's corpse, Ramsay has Maestee Wolkan feed it to the hounds, not wanting to waste "good meat".[6]
Immediately after murdering his father Roose, Ramsay lures his stepmother and newborn brother to the kennels, where he has them torn apart by his loyal hounds, leaving him the sole surviving member of House Bolton.[7]
At the conclusion of their parley the day before they go into battle, an overconfident Ramsay tells Jon Snow and his men that his hounds are desperate to meet them as he has not fed them for seven days, and ponders which of their parts they will try first. However, after Ramsay is defeated in the Battle of the Bastards and taken into custody, he is locked inside the kennels with his hounds freed from their cages. Despite being confident that his dogs are loyal and will never harm him, Sansa reminds Ramsay that he has not fed them for seven days. Eventually, the hounds' hunger ultimately overcomes their loyalty, and after a brief moment of hesitation, they savagely devour their master alive. This occurs ironically at the same place where he killed his stepmother and brother.[8]
Game of Thrones: Season 8[]
In the celebrations that followed the defeat of the Night King and his forces in the Battle of Winterfell, the Hound and Sansa speak about how Sansa killed Ramsay by feeding him to his own hounds.[9]
Quotes[]
Spoken about the bastard's girls[]
- Roose Bolton: "Where is your prize?"
- Ramsay Bolton: "With the hounds."
- — Ramsay to Roose Bolton[src]
- "You've got bigger balls than he ever did. But with those big balls of yours, how fast can you run?"
- ―Ramsay to Yara Greyjoy as he sets his hounds on her.
- "Have you ever seen a body after the dogs have been at it? Not so pretty."
- ―Myranda to Sansa Stark
- "I've seen what his hounds do to a person! This way is better!"
- ―Theon Greyjoy to Sansa as he leads her into a freezing river.
- "Buried, burned? This is good meat. Feed it to the hounds."
- ―Ramsay decides to feed Myranda's corpse to the hounds.
- "And you're all fine-looking men. My dogs are desperate to meet you. I haven't fed them in seven days. They're ravenous. I wonder which parts they'll try first. Your eyes? Your balls? We'll find out soon enough."
- ―Ramsay to Jon Snow and his men before the Battle of the Bastards.
- Ramsay Bolton: "My hounds will never harm me."
- Sansa Stark: "You haven't fed them in seven days, you said it yourself."
- Ramsay Bolton: "They're loyal beasts."
- Sansa Stark: "They were. Now they're starving."
- — Ramsay and Sansa following the Battle of the Bastards.[src]
- "Sit down! Down! Down! Down! Down!"
- ―Ramsay's final order to his hounds before they devour him alive.
Behind the scenes[]
Iwan Rheon, the actor who portrays Ramsay Bolton, first confirmed their appearance in the television series when he tweeted a set photo of them in their kennel.
In the books[]
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the "bastard's girls" are how Theon refers to Ramsay Bolton's pack of hunting dogs.
Ramsay uses the hounds to partake in his sick practice of releasing women naked into the Bolton Forests where he hunts them for sport after giving them half a day's head start. The pack is made up of all vicious, mean tempered bitches. The dogs are looked after by the kennelmaster Ben Bones of the Dreadfort who under Ramsay's instructions also trained them to kill wolves. It is implied that he forced his wife to engage in bestiality with them.
Those women he hunts that give him good sport are given a quick death (after being raped) and in "honor" of the hunt, Ramsay names a new bitch pup after the woman. Those women that do not give him good sport are still raped, but are not given a quick death: Ramsay subsequently flays them alive, and they do not get a dog named after them. His current pack consists of:
- Grey Jeyne
- Helicent
- Jez
- Alison
- Kyra
- Maude
- Red Jeyne
- Sara
- Willow
Following the siege of Moat Cailin, Ramsay gives Theon a "promotion": instead of being taken back to the dungeons of Dreadfort, Ramsay announces that Theon will become a dog. The kennelmaster Ben Bones makes a collar for Theon, and he is allowed to sleep with the bastard's girls. Theon befriends the dogs and finds their company much better than in the dungeons.
During a feast held in Barrowton, two of the dogs - Maude and Grey Jeyne - provide Ramsay and his men the night's best entertainment, by fighting against one of Lord Stout's hounds over a bone. The fight ends quite expectedly: Ramsay's savage dogs tear the old hound apart.
Appearances[]
- – "The Lion and the Rose"
- – "The Laws of Gods and Men"
- – "Kill the Boy"
- – "The Red Woman"
- – "Home"
- – "Battle of the Bastards"
- – "The Last of the Starks" (mentioned)
References[]
- ↑ Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 2: "The Lion and the Rose" (2014).
- ↑ Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 6: "The Laws of Gods and Men" (2014).
- ↑ Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 8: "The Mountain and the Viper" (2014).
- ↑ Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 5: "Kill the Boy" (2015).
- ↑ Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 6: "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" (2015).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Game of Thrones: Season 6, Episode 1: "The Red Woman" (2016).
- ↑ Game of Thrones: Season 6, Episode 2: "Home" (2016).
- ↑ Game of Thrones: Season 6, Episode 9: "Battle of the Bastards" (2016).
- ↑ Game of Thrones: Season 8, Episode 4: "The Last of the Starks" (2019).
Notes[]
- ↑ Conjecture based on information from A Song of Ice and Fire; may be subject to change.