Provoking the She-Bear: a look at Alysane Mormont

lyannamormonts:

Despite the fact that Alysane gets more page-time than any of the other female Mormonts, she’s often an afterthought, dismissed or forgotten for the more romanticized views of Dacey and the repetitive exclamations of “She told off Stannis! So fierce!!11!!” that categorize fandom’s often simplified view of Lyanna.  As with any House, where a look at each member is necessary in order to truly see the whole, I don’t think you can look at the Mormonts without considering Alysane, particularly now that she is the heir and current de facto Lady/ruler of Bear Island while Maege is away.  

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“On Bear Island every child learns to fear krakens rising from the sea.”

durrans:

she-bear and lady kraken

i cannot be the only one who ships this a little bit

lol when asha started thinking of alysane’s snores as comforting /screams internally

“We are stronger than we seem, my lady”

She-Bear

Bear Island gave birth to five daughters, as wild and unforgiving as the isle that spawned them. Dacey the heir was the warrior, as graceful and warlike as the winter winds; her sister Alysane as dangerous and maternal as the mother bear. Lyra was the dreamer, sweet and soft as the summer skies over the bay; and Jorelle was the whisperer, the persuasive fey voice in the ears of their enemies. Lyanna was the youngest, the most fiercely protected, but as dangerous and as bold as the sisters who sheltered her. The she-bears of Bear Island tempered their rage and their strength to walk behind the wolves and the stag, but any who  dares underestimate even the calmest of them is sure to learn just what sort of daughters House Mormont raises.

“There’s a carving on our gate. A woman in a bearskin, with a child in one arm suckling at her breast. In the other hand she holds a battleaxe. She’s no proper lady, that one, but I always loved her.”

 “What we are is what you made us. On Bear Island every child learns to fear krakens rising from the sea.”

Mormont women modern AU

  ↳ ‘It’s all I’ve ever known’ 

Mormont women modern AU, asked by smallcoin

11 underappreciated Northern women of ASOIAF

villainize:

(***spoilers through A Dance With Dragons & The Winds of Winter excerpt***)

Some people like to dismiss the North entirely or choose to write off Northern women as “unimportant to the storyline,” forgetting that these women, on the losing side of an endless war, have suffered just as much hardship with just as much fortitude as the few favorites who get acknowledged constantly.  

I see all of these “a woman can” and “the women are the strong ones” posts with the same three to four faces over and over again.  This isn’t to say “don’t love these popular characters” - it’s to say, here are some other women in the series who are amazing and overlooked and who you should consider.  If ASOIAF is indeed a story about the strength of women, as some claim, then it’s not only silly, but downright irresponsible, as readers, to dismiss them.

There are others, too—I’m not including every Northern woman that I could (just a few of the ones that I really love) or the women of the Riverlands, Dorne, or the Iron Islands, for instance—but I thought I’d present you with a few great Northern ladies to remember when you think about ASOIAF ladies.  

• All the Mormont women (Maege, Dacey, Alysane, Lyra, Jorelle, Lyanna) - for a fairly exhaustive list of why you should care about them, please see this post.
• Donella (Manderly) Hornwood - did everything in her (very limited, pretty much non-existent) power to stop the Bastard of Bolton from going after herself and her lands. Was forcibly married to him and starved to death.
• Eddara Tallhart - the nine-year old daughter of Ser Helman Tallhart. After the death of her father at the Battle of Duskendale, and of her older brother during the Sack on Torrhen’s Square, is now the heiress of Torrhen’s Square.
• Jeyne Poole - the daughter of Lord Eddard’s steward, Jeyne is thrust into the violent, unrelenting game of thrones the day her father is slain by Lannister men in King’s Landing.  She is further pulled into the game by Petyr Baelish, used as a pawn and married off to Ramsay Bolton under the pretense that she is Arya Stark.    
• Wylla Manderly - 15 year old granddaughter of Lord Wyman.  With no fear, shouts the truth about the Red Wedding in a room full of enemies, as well as advocating joining Stannis’ cause. (“They killed Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn and King Robb. He was our king! He was brave and good and the Freys murdered him. If Lord Stannis will avenge him, we should join Lord Stannis.”)
• Sybelle Locke - in charge of Deepwood Motte after her husband, Robett Glover, and his brother (the master of Deepwood), Galbart, went to war.  She and her young children were captured by Asha Greyjoy during the Ironborn attack on Deepwood.  When they are rescued by Stannis and the Mormonts, it is Sybelle who sends many Glover men with Stannis to march on Winterfell.  She also ransoms her Ironborn prisoners to the Iron Bank.  

‘But the ghosts that we knew

Made us black and all blue

And will live a long life’