Mors Umber
Mors Umber, known throughout the north as Crowfood, is the elder of the Greatjon’s two uncles and a man shaped by a lifetime of loss and violence. A crow once took him for dead and pecked out his eye; he caught the bird in his fist and bit its head off. His sons died on the Trident, his wife in childbed, and his only daughter was carried off by wildlings thirty years ago. These griefs have left him a hard, flinty man, but one whose loyalty to House Stark runs deep and whose hatred of the wildlings who stole his daughter is personal and unyielding.
Role in Stannis’s Northern Campaign
When Stannis Baratheon sends out ravens demanding homage from the northern lords, Mors Umber is one of the first to respond, but his allegiance comes at a price. He wants Mance Rayder’s skull for a drinking cup and a pardon for his brother Hother, called Whoresbane, who has ridden south to join Roose Bolton. Stannis is reluctant to grant these terms, but Jon Snow advises him to accept, warning that Umber will not fight Umber for any cause and that Mors should be placed on the opposite end of the line from Hother if it comes to battle. The king eventually agrees, and Mors brings his strength to Stannis’s cause.
The Siege of Winterfell
During the siege of Winterfell, Mors Umber plays a crucial role in the deception that keeps the Bolton forces inside the castle. He beats drums and blows horns outside the walls, creating the impression that Stannis’s entire host is approaching, when in fact the king’s army is snowbound and starving. This ruse buys time and keeps the Boltons from sallying forth. When the Braavosi banker Tycho Nestoris arrives seeking Stannis, he finds Mors Umber with a troop of raw green boys waiting for the king’s coming beneath the walls of Winterfell. It is Mors who delivers Theon Greyjoy and Jeyne Poole into the banker’s hands, sending them to safety with Stannis’s camp.
Narrative Significance
Mors Umber embodies the stubborn, honor-bound ethos of the old north. His demand for Mance Rayder’s skull is not mere cruelty but a symbolic act of vengeance for his stolen daughter and his murdered kin. His willingness to fight alongside Stannis despite his brother’s defection to the Boltons illustrates the fractured loyalties of the northern houses after the Red Wedding. Crowfood’s actions—both his drumming deception and his delivery of Theon and Jeyne—prove decisive in the struggle for Winterfell, even as the king’s own army teeters on the brink of destruction.
