Game of Thrones Symbolism: The Mormonts

We continue our Game of Thrones House Symbolism series with House Mormont, looking at how Jorah, Jeor and Lyanna Mormont all embody the fierce loyalty of the Mormont bear.

Transcript provided by Youtube:

00:01
The Mormont sigil is a black bear on a white field surrounded by green — some versions
00:06
include green trees.
00:08
On the simplest level, the sigil refers to the Mormonts’ home, Bear Island, and its
00:12
vast forests with a large bear population.
00:15
On the deeper level, it embodies the ferocity, loyalty, strength, and warrior spirit within
00:20
House Mormont.
00:21
[We are not a large House, but we’re a proud one. And every man from Bear Island fights with the strength
00:27
of ten Mainlanders.]
00:28
[If they’re half as ferocious as their Lady, the Boltons are doomed.]
00:35
In the earlier seasons, whenever the Mormont sigil was displayed, the bear stood on all
00:39
fours, but in Season 6 the
00:42
bear aggressively stands upright, a more ferocious and human version of the bear.
00:47
And this is also similar to how the sigil is described in the books.
00:50
This change reinforces the nature of House Mormont– mother bears are notable for being
00:55
ferociously protective of their young, and on Bear Island we see warrior women acting
01:00
as protectors of their homes and children.
01:02
[But House Mormont remembers. The North remembers.]
01:07
Overall the Mormonts symbolize ferocity, bravery, rough exteriors, making the best of limited
01:13
resources, pride, protectiveness and loyalty.
01:17
[You came back. Twice. And you saved my life. ]
01:26
With the male leaders gone at the start of the series — Jeor as leader of the Night’s
01:30
Watch and Jorah having fled to avoid execution — Bear Island has been ruled by Jeor’s
01:34
younger sister, Lyanna’s mother and Jorah’s aunt, Lady Maege, who fought alongside Robb
01:40
Stark.
01:41
Now that Maege’s whereabouts are unknown in the books and she is dead in the
01:43
show, Bear Island is led by the 10 year-old Lyanna Mormont who embodies the ferocious
01:48
Mormont strength, bravery and undying commitment to protect her people, and is hardly held
01:54
back by her small stature.
01:55
[Do you know this wretched girl? Lyanna Mormont?]
02:00
[The Lord Commander’s niece.]
02:01
[Lady of Bear Island, and a child of ten.]
02:05
Jeor Mormont also embodies typical Mormont qualities of strength, honor, and a fearlessness during
02:10
his time as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch,
02:12
[Honor made you leave. Honor brought you back.]
02:17
[My friends brought me back.]
02:21
[I didn’t say it was your honor.]
02:23
But he meets a sad end when he was
02:25
killed and betrayed by his own men.
02:27
Meanwhile, the Mormont that we’ve actually spent the most time with is Jorah, the Black Sheep
02:33
of the Mormont family who has been absent from their island going through trials and tribulations with Daenerys.
02:38
[The first time I went North of the wall was with your father.]
02:41
[He was a good man. He deserved a better son.]
02:45
At first glance, the Mormonts that we meet seem pretty disparate in personality, and
02:49
it’s a little hard to think of Jeor, Jorah and Lyanna as family members since we meet
02:53
them in such different contexts.
02:55
But while he doesn’t think himself worthy of the Mormont name, over time Jorah’s Mormont
03:00
qualities come out more and more clearly.
03:02
[Long, sullen silences, and an occasional punch in the face. The Mormont way.]
03:16
[Does loyalty mean nothing to you?]
03:18
[It means everything to me.]
03:20
[And yet here you stand!]
03:22
[And yet here I stand…]
03:26
The Mormont motto “Here we stand” speaks to their perseverance and the difficulties
03:31
that have shaped them.
03:33
They are still standing despite great hardships and very unfavorable odds.
03:37
The change to the sigil of making the bear standing quite literally visualizes their
03:42
motto, “here we stand.”
03:44
And the words also reflect their unwavering dedication to their allies and loved ones.
03:48
The Mormonts pledge allegiance to the Starks — both in the War of the Five Kings and
03:52
in the Battle of the Bastards — and they promise to stand with the Starks unconditionally, because
03:57
[We know no king but the king in the north whose name is Stark.]
04:01
The Mormonts will stop at nothing to defend the north and the Starks.
04:04
[knows no king but the king in the north, whose name is Stark]
04:07
While fighting Ramsay in the Battle of the Bastards, Jon drops his sword, Longclaw,
04:12
and picks up the Mormont shield which symbolically represents that the Starks are always protected by
04:17
the Mormonts.
04:18
Jorah, while he’s not in the north, also embodies the Mormont motto through his determination
04:23
to stand with Daenerys.
04:24
He’s survived being beaten, enslaved, and banished repeatedly, and even overcame a supposedly
04:30
incurable illness to return to Daenerys’ service.
04:33
To quickly recap the story of how Jorah brought shame to the Mormonts originally: Jorah distinguished
04:38
himself fighting to defeat the Greyjoy Rebellion
04:41
[it was a bitch of a seige]
04:43
[Mm. You were first through the breach at Pike.]
04:45
[The second. Thoros of Myr went in alone, waving that flaming sword of his]
04:51
[Thoros of Myr. Bloody madman. Robert knighted you after the battle? ]
04:56
[Proudest moment of my life.]
04:58
and he was rewarded with marriage to
05:00
Lynesse Hightower from the Reach.
05:02
But Jorah’s new wife became miserable on the desolate Bear Island.
05:06
[I had no money… and an expensive wife.]
05:09
He attempted to satisfy her expensive tastes, falling deeply into debt,
05:13
and in desperation, he participated in the illegal slave trade.
05:17
[I suffered for a reason, I sold men into slavery]
05:20
Ned Stark came to bring him to justice
05:23
[Now Ned Stark wants my head, he drove me from my land]
05:27
but Jorah fled into exile with Lynesse, who eventually
05:30
left him for a wealthier man.
05:32
[Where is she now?]
05:33
[In another place, with another man]
05:37
In the events of the show, Jorah shames himself again by betraying Daenerys.
05:42
[You told them I was carrying Drogo’s child? Yes or no? ]
05:47
[Khaleesi…]
05:47
[Don’t call me that. Did you tell them I was carrying Drogo’s child?]
05:54
Yes.
05:55
Yet even if he begins as a family embarrassment and still seems uncomfortable anytime anyone
06:00
mentions his father, Jorah can’t escape his Mormont nature.
06:03
Samwell Tarly cures his grayscale out of respect for Jeor, so even when it’s unasked
06:08
for, Jorah is protected by his family.
06:10
[I knew your father, I was with him when he died.]
06:18
[You are not dying today, Ser Jorah.]
06:20
and in the present events, Jorah is currently redeeming himself and embodying
06:24
the Mormont loyal perseverance through serving his queen.
06:27
[I command you to heal yourself]
06:32
[and then return to me.]
06:35
Even if their loyalties manifest in different ways, the Mormonts all embody this eagerness
06:39
to fight and willingness to sacrifice themselves in standing
06:42
for the cause that means everything to them.
06:45
[He’s my king, from this day until his last day.]
06:49
The Mormont black and green symbolize their outer seriousness combined with their inner
06:53
warmth.
06:54
Black is usually associated with the darkness of winter, which relates to the Mormonts’
06:57
identity as northerners through and through.
07:00
Black is also an authoritative and dignified color, and the Mormonts approach life with
07:05
a serious, weighty attitude.
07:07
Black also makes us think of taking the black, like Jeor does as Lord Commander, and we also
07:11
know that in the books, in Jeor’s final moments, he reveals to Sam his final wish–for
07:16
Jorah to take the black.
07:18
As yet, this desire has been left unfulfilled.
07:20
Jeor instead passes down the family’s Valyrian steel sword, Longclaw, to Jon Snow, who is
07:25
something of a surrogate son to him.
07:29
[This is Valyrian steel]
07:32
[It was my father’s sword, his father before him. The Mormonts have carried it for five centuries]
07:39
[It was meant for my son, Jorah. He brought dishonor to our house]
07:44
[but he had the grace to leave the sword before he fled from Westeros]
07:50
Jorah refuses to take Longclaw back, still harboring shame for disappointing his father.
07:56
[It broke my father’s heart]
08:00
[I’ve forefitted the right to claim this sword]
08:05
[It’s yours.]
08:06
Green is a calming color that promotes growth like the abundance of forests on Bear Island.
08:10
It evokes connection with nature.
08:12
[What do you pray for, Ser Jorah?]
08:16
[Home.]
08:17
Like the green of their sigil, the Mormonts, while they seem at first to be emotionally
08:21
distant mirroring the sparseness of their Bear Island, are inwardly nurturing and warm.
08:26
Lyanna is driven by a strong familial bond and fierce love of her home in the North.
08:31
Even the gruff Jeor reveals that, under his rough outer shell, he is actually protective
08:35
and loving.
08:37
[Tarly I forbid you to die.]
08:43
[Do you hear me?]
08:46
The bear on the Mormont sigil embodies that the Mormonts fiercely look after their own,
08:50
but are deadly to anyone who goes after their cubs.
08:53
The Bear also refers to Bear Island and how the Mormonts are shaped by their bare environment.
08:58
Sparse in natural resources (apart from trees), Bear Island has made the Mormonts good at making the
09:03
most of what they have.
09:04
They are a fairly poor house, which was the source of all Jorah’s trouble with his wife.
09:08
Jeor Mormont is often known as the Old Bear, Lady Maege is known as the She Bear, and fans
09:14
call Lyanna little bear.
09:15
In the books, Daenerys occasionally refers to Jorah as her bear (her great bear and her
09:20
old sweet bear).
09:21
Like a bear with its cubs, Jorah would do anything to serve and defend his queen.
09:26
In the books, Maege has five daughters, but in the show Lyanna appears to be the only
09:30
one remaining.
09:31
Dacey Mormont, the eldest, fought valiantly as Robb Stark’s personal guard and was killed
09:35
during the Red Wedding.
09:37
The second eldest, Alysane, known as the Young She-Bear, is described as short, chunky, and
09:42
muscular with big callused hands.
09:44
An unwed mother of two, Alysane claims her children were fathered by a bear and that
09:48
Mormont women are skinchangers who turn into bears.
09:52
In the books, one of the titles associated with Tormund, “Husband to Bears” may hint
09:57
that he could be the father of some Mormont children.
09:59
The fighting Mormont woman is echoed in the carving on the gate to their hall, of a woman
10:04
with a nursing child in one arm, and an axe in the other.
10:07
Unlike most women in Westeros, the warrior women of Bear Island are well-equipped and
10:11
well-trained to defend themselves.
10:13
[I don’t plan on knitting by the fire while men fight for me.]
10:16
They didn’t have the luxury of choosing whether to fight because
10:19
of constant threats to their survival.
10:21
Lyanna is the ultimate symbol of this warrior woman who’s strong because she needs to
10:25
be and fights with her heart.
10:28
[and I don’t need your permission to defend the North]
10:33
[We’ll begin training every man, woman, boy and girl on Bear Island]