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Jeor Mormont: "The Gods will curse us for this! By all the laws--"
Karl: "There are no laws beyond the Wall!"
— Jeor Mormont fails to restore order.[src]

The Mutiny at Craster's Keep is an event during the Conflict Beyond the Wall.

History

Prelude

Craster's Keep is the nickname for the homestead of Craster, a powerful wildling who is despised by the rest of his people while having a strained alliance with the Night's Watch.[1]

Following the Night's Watch retreat in the Battle of the Fist of the First Men, the survivors arrive at Craster's Keep seeking shelter. Craster begrudging allows them into his homestead to avoid it being seized by force, although he continues his verbal abuse and threats while the rangers are both starving and their spirits broken.[2]

Events

The tensions between the rangers and Craster are at their highest following the death of a ranger named Bannen who dead from starvation. Many of the rangers increasingly lament that Craster is keeping his food stored away. During another round of Craster's verbal abuse, Karl decries that the bread Craster's daughter-wives make is fulled with sawdust and demands to be taken to his food storage. Rast joins Karl and Jeor Mormont is removing Rast when Karl stabs Craster with a knife through his chin and into his mouth. As Craster falls over dying, Jeor Mormont attempts to restore order and subdue Karl only to have Rast stab him in the back. Grenn rushes at Karl while the other ranger rape Craster's daughter-wives.

Samwell Tarly fled immediately with Gilly who had only just given birth to a son.

Aftermath

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the mutiny is not only the result of the rising tensions between Craster and the black brothers, but also of a prior plot by a group of Night's Watchmen to murder Lord Commander Mormont, Sam and several other individuals so they could ensure the end of the Ranging and desert the Watch. However, their plot is foiled by the sudden snowfall and the subsequent attack of the Others. A few men who had been discussing betrayal before the massacre at the Fist ultimately stay loyal during the mutiny, while some other men who weren't part of the earlier plot spontaneously join the mutiny when it breaks out.

The retreat to Craster's Keep had brought down their down morale further down and certain brothers, most notably Dirk, Clubfoot Karl, Ollo Lophand, Garth of Oldtown and Garth of Greenaway, become more vocal with their frustrations. Craster contributes to the hostile atmosphere by making it clear his guests are not wanted in his place and suggesting to slay the critically injured brothers rather than treating and feeding them.

Sam and Giant had done their best to treat the wounded, but the medicine bags had been lost during the battle and Craster had been giving them scant food, so all they could do was to keep the wounded dry and warm and feed them. Due to lack of medicinal treatment and scant food, four of the twelve injured men perish, among them Bannen.

After couple of days, Mormont decides it is time to leave, although the injured men hadn't gotten any better, and they had only twenty-two horses - half of them would probably not make it to the Wall. Craster is glad to see his unwelcome guests depart, and throws a feast for them.

The trouble begins when Clubfoot Karl complains they need more bread and Dirk suggests that Craster has a secret larder. Karl calls Craster "niggard and liar". As the would-be mutineers speculate what food Craster might have hidden and Craster grows furious, Mormont orders the men to silence, and nearly manages to control the situation. But Craster waves his axe menacingly and expels Karl, Dirk and both Garths. One of the Garths calls Craster "bloody bastard", and the brawl breaks out. Craster vaults across the table axe in hand. Some of the brothers draw knives. Dirk grabs Craster by the hair and slits his throat. Mormont cries in anger at the violation of guest right but gets stabbed in the stomach by Ollo Lophand. It seems to Samwell Tarly that everything goes mad after that.

Grenn and about dozen others remain loyal to Mormont, but the Betrayers outnumber them 2:1, thus the loyalists have no choice but to retreat to Castle Black. Grenn urges Sam to come, but Sam is in shock. Grenn tries to shake him back to reality, but for no avail. The Loyalists escape, reluctantly leaving Sam behind. The Betrayers help themselves with the food, some of them rape Craster's wives. They do not pay attention to Sam. Sam sits on the floor, trying to comfort Mormont in his last moments. Mormont tells Sam to go to the Wall, and to tell them "All. The Fist. The wildlings. Dragonglass. This. All. Tell my son. Jorah. Tell him, take the black. My wish. Dying wish. Tell Jorah. Forgive him. My son. Please. Go".

Sam has no idea what to do. He continues to sit on the floor, waiting for the betrayers to kill him. Three of Craster's wives approach him, one of them is Gilly, carrying her baby. Gilly tearfully begs Sam to take her away. Sam is hesitant. The other two wives urge him to before "they" will come. At last Sam and Gilly leave, riding on two horses. Before leaving, Sam takes from Mormont's body the Dragonglass dagger Jon made for him, to replace the one Sam used earlier to kill the Other and gave to Grenn.

Only twelve men survived the Mutiny and managed to return alive to the Wall. Out of the three hundred men that Mormont led beyond the Wall in his expedition (out of only one thousand current Night's Watch members), this means that only thirteen men ever return to the Wall - given that Jon Snow wasn't present at the Mutiny because he infiltrated Mance Rayder's camp, but later managed to return to Castle Black. A handful of other men sent out in scouting parties who weren't present at the Fist of the First Men may have also survived, but even so, the entire expedition was a complete disaster.

See also

References

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