Luwin

Luwin
Biographical information
Died	299 AC at Winterfell Speared in the abdomen by Dagmer; later euthanized by Osha at his own request
Political information
Affiliation(s)	Order of Maesters House Stark House Greyjoy
Title(s)	Maester
World of Westeros
Series	Game of Thrones
Season(s)	1 · 2
Appeared in	14 episodes (see below)
First seen in	"Winter Is Coming"
Last seen in	"Valar Morghulis"
Died in	"Valar Morghulis"
Portrayed by	Donald Sumpter

"I pulled you into the world. Both of you. I've seen both your faces almost every day since, and for that I consider myself very, very lucky."

―Maester Luwin to Bran and Rickon Stark

Luwin was the maester of Winterfell and a loyal servant to House Stark. He acted as a surrogate parent to Bran Stark and Rickon Stark in the absence of their family.

Biography

Background

Luwin is a maester, a learned man of science and medicine, and serves House Stark of Winterfell. Luwin is very loyal to the Starks and they value his wise counsel and experience. He delivered all five of Lady Catelyn's children. He serves as a tutor to the male children.

Game of Thrones: Season 1

Catelyn organizes the royal reception with Luwin.

Luwin organizes the preparations for a royal visit with Catelyn. Catelyn spots Bran climbing Winterfell's walls and scolds her son in front of Luwin. Luwin stands behind the Starks as King Robert arrives. The next night Luwin delivers a letter from Lysa Arryn to Catelyn and Eddard. He discusses its content with them, and counsels that given Lysa's claims that the Lannisters killed Jon Arryn it is important that Eddard take up Robert's offer to make him Hand of the King.

Luwin cares for Bran during his prolonged unconsciousness.

Luwin tends to Bran's injuries and predicts that he will survive. Eddard goes to King's Landing to serve as hand and takes many of his retainers with him. Luwin goes to Catelyn to discuss finances and appointing replacements. Catelyn is distraught over Bran's condition and refuses to participate. Robb agrees to work with Luwin instead. An assassin attempts to kill Bran but is foiled by Bran's direwolf Summer. Luwin meets with Catelyn, Robb, Theon, and Rodrik Cassel in the Gods Wood of Winterfell to discuss the circumstances of Bran's injury. Catelyn reveals that she found a blond hair inside the tower where he was found.

Bran revises geography with Luwin.

Luwin cautions restraint and Catelyn plans to go south personally to deliver the news to Eddard. Bran awakens after she leaves but is paralyzed from the waist down. Luwin meets with Tyrion in the main hall of Winterfell alongside Robb. They offer a cool reception until Tyrion provides plans for a saddle that would allow Bran to ride. Luwin tutors Bran on the regions and families in the Seven Kingdoms and notes that amongst House Greyjoy's noted skills is a tendency towards failed rebellions. Bran is upset at the continued absence of his parents and sullenly tries to provoke Luwin.

Maester Luwin defends Osha from Theon.

Luwin warns off Theon from Osha, then questions Osha himself. She claims that the White Walkers are on the move. He dismisses this as a fable, but Osha tells him that the Walkers were not wiped out thousands of years ago, but have merely been asleep. She claims that they are not asleep any more.

Eddard is arrested for treason after the death of Robert. A letter from Sansa reaches Winterfell, pleading with a disbelieving Robb to bend the knee to Joffrey. Luwin correctly identifies the letter as the work of Cersei. Robb refuses to consider the request and sends out ravens, summoning Eddard's lords bannermen to assemble their armies at Winterfell. Robb marches south leaving Luwin to care for Bran. Luwin tells Bran and Rickon the news of their father's death.

Game of Thrones: Season 2

As maester at Winterfell, he becomes ever more of a father-figure to Bran and Rickon, with their father dead and their mother away. He provides council to Bran as he acts as Lord of Winterfell. Bran questions Luwin about his strange dreams, and Luwin reveals to him the valyrian steel link in his Maester chain, the sign that he studied the "higher mysteries" - magic - and asserts that if magic ever existed it has left their world long ago (unaware of Daenerys Targaryen's dragons in the east).

Luwin warns allies that Winterfell has fallen to the Ironborn.

Theon returns to Winterfell with a crew of fellow Ironborn. They lure the garrison of Winterfell away by feinting at Torrhen's Square and then seize the poorly defended castle. Luwin is able to send word to Robb before being captured. Theon assembles Luwin and the rest of Winterfell's inhabitant in the courtyard where he has Bran publicly surrender the castle to him. He then turns to Luwin and orders him to send ravens to his father and sister, informing them of his victory.

Upon noticing Luwin's icy stare, Theon asks Luwin if he remembers his oath to serve the Lord of Winterfell, no matter their family name. Luwin grudgingly replies he does, and Theon reminds him that he is now the Lord of Winterfell and repeats his order. Luwin walks off to do as he is told but then Ser Rodrik Cassel is forcefully brought forward to Theon by Black Lorren and another Ironborn. When Theon sentences Ser Rodrik to death after the latter openly spits in his face, Luwin tries to convince Theon not to make a hasty decision and that Ser Rodrik is worth more to him alive than dead. Theon briefly considers Luwin's advice but ultimately dismisses him, due to Dagmer's influence, threatening to have him executed as well if he doesn't back down. Theon executes Ser Rodrik to the horror of Bran, Luwin, and the rest of Winterfell's inhabitants.

Theon takes Luwin on the hunt for Bran and Rickon.

After Osha frees the boys and flees the castle, Theon has Luwin accompany him as he attempts to hunt the escapees down. Luwin begs him to spare them. They lose their scent at a nearby farm. Theon has Luwin sent home and then later returns to Winterfell with the burned corpses of two children, publicly claiming that they are Bran and Rickon. The citizens of Winterfell scream and sob at the sight, but Luwin's scream of anguish is the loudest and most painful to hear.

A few days later, Luwin spots Osha sneaking into the catacombs. He realizes that the corpses must be Jack and Billy, the two orphans whom Bran had assigned to assist a kindly shepherd, and follows her to confirm his suspicion. She tells him they doubled back through a stream to mask their scent. Luwin urges her to keep the truth of Theon's actions from the boys, saying Bran specifically would blame himself. Unbeknownst to Luwin, however, Bran overhears everything.

Winterfell is later surrounded by Northmen under the command of Ramsay Snow, who infuriates Theon by blowing a horn all through the night. Despite acknowledging how kind his captors were to him, Theon tearfully vents his anguish over being constantly reminded by everyone, including Luwin, how lucky he was to be a prisoner of the Starks. Assuming a much more sympathetic tone, Luwin advises Theon to flee to the Wall and join the Night's Watch so that he might save his life and redeem himself, adding he knows Theon is not the ruthless man he is pretending to be. Theon owes to Luwin that he has done terrible things but refuses to deviate from the course he has set, saying that is too late and he has gone too far to ever pretend to be anyone else, and also fearing that Jon Snow will most likely kill him for his actions. He tries to rally his men for battle, not knowing they plan to hand him over to the Northmen in exchange for their own lives. When Theon concludes his speech to his fellow Ironborn, they immediately initiate their plan and knock him out. Despite Theon's betrayal, Luwin is visibly mortified when he sees what the Ironborn are doing and tries to intervene, but ends up fatally stabbed by Dagmer, who then has Theon dragged away.

Luwin expresses his pride in Bran and Rickon during his final moments.

Despite his injury, Luwin escapes from Winterfell before she is sacked by Ramsay and makes his way to the godswood, where he lies bleeding by the pool. Near death, he is found by Bran, Rickon, Osha, and Hodor. He insists that the boys go north to the Wall, as there are too many enemies in the south. He tells them that Jon will be able to keep them safe and tell their mother of their survival. Luwin affirms his pride at having served the Starks, particularly in raising their children. He sends them away and asks Osha to give him a quick death; having grown to greatly respect the Starks and their fellows, Osha does so.

Game of Thrones: Season 7

Following House Bolton's extinction after the Battle of the Bastards, Maester Wolkan is appointed to serve as House Stark's new maester to replace Luwin. While discussing food rations for the North, Wolkan promises to refer to Luwin's old notes for information regarding the century's longest winter, as Luwin kept records of every raven scroll.

When Arya returns to Winterfell, she asks for Luwin and Ser Rodrik to prove her identity to two disbelieving guards, but is informed that the maester at Winterfell is now Wolkan, meaning that Luwin cannot prove her identity.

Quotes

Spoken by Luwin

"You must protect them. You're the only one who can."

―Maester Luwin's last wish for Bran and Rickon Stark to Osha.

Behind the scenes

• Actor Anton Lesser, who eventually was cast for the third season as Qyburn, originally auditioned to play Luwin.

In the books

Maester Luwin by Roman "Amok" Papsuev.©

In A Song of Ice and Fire, Luwin's role as the maester to House Stark is the same. Luwin has forged several links of his maester's chain, showing areas where he has interest and expertise, such as herblore and astronomy. He is also one of the few maesters to have studied the so-called 'higher mysteries', meaning magic. This study is theoretical, and meant to demonstrate to those who show an interest in it that magic, if it ever existed in the first place, is dead and gone from the world. Luwin lives in the maester's tower in Winterfell.

When Bran tells Luwin about his dream that his father was in the crypts, it is Luwin, not Osha, who takes him down into the crypts to show him that Eddard is not there. Shaggydog surprises and bites him. Bran and Rickon go back with him to his tower and are there when word comes that their father is dead. They are talking about the Children of the Forest when the wolves start to howl and the raven arrives with the letter.

Luwin sees through Theon's deception, noticing the leg muscles of one of the corpses. He does not tell that to anyone, for the safety of the boys.

Luwin is fatally injured during the Sack of Winterfell, but not by Dagmer (who is not in Winterfell but in Torrhen's Square at that point). Before Theon is knocked unconscious, he sees a Bolton knight on a warhorse planting a spear between Luwin's shoulders. The Stark boys find him near death on the edge of the black pool, beneath the shelter of the heart tree. Luwin advises them to split up and take different roads, which they do.

Gallery

Luwin stands behind the Stark family as they await the arrival of the king in "Winter Is Coming".

Luwin and Robb Stark receive Tyrion Lannister at Winterfell in "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things".

Luwin and the rest of Winterfell gather when Bran surrenders Winterfell to Theon.

Appearances

• – Pilot (unreleased) (non-canonical appearance)
• – "Winter Is Coming"
• – "The Kingsroad"
• – "Lord Snow" (mentioned)
• – "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things"
• – "The Wolf and the Lion"
• – "You Win or You Die"
• – "The Pointy End"
• – "Fire and Blood"
• – "The History of the Night's Watch - House Stark" (voice)
• – "The Order of the Maesters" (voice)
• – "Mad King Aerys - House Stark" (voice)
• – "The Sack of King's Landing - House Stark" (voice)
• – "The North Remembers"
• – "What Is Dead May Never Die"
• – "The Ghost of Harrenhal"
• – "The Old Gods and the New"
• – "A Man Without Honor"
• – "The Prince of Winterfell"
• – "Valar Morghulis"
• – "Wargs and the Sight" (illustrated)
• – "The Spoils of War" (mentioned)
• – "Eastwatch" (mentioned)

External links

• Luwin on A Wiki of Ice and Fire
• Maester Luwin on HBO