Septa Mordane

Septa Mordane is the stern, devout septa who serves as the governess and needlework instructor to Sansa and Arya Stark at Winterfell and later in King's Landing, embodying the restrictive feminine ideals of the Faith of the Seven against which Arya's wildness rebels and Sansa's courtliness is measured.

Identity and Role

Septa Mordane is a bony-faced woman with sharp eyes and a thin lipless mouth made for frowning, a figure of relentless propriety who presides over the girls' education in the womanly arts. She is deeply invested in the Faith of the Seven, the dominant religion of the south, and measures her charges against its standards of feminine decorum. At Winterfell, she presides over the sewing sessions where Sansa's needlework is praised as "exquisite" while Arya's is dismissed with the sniff that she "has the hands of a blacksmith." When Princess Myrcella joins the sewing circle, Septa Mordane is all smiles and admiration, delighted at the privilege of instructing a royal princess. She enforces the social hierarchy of the court, reminding Sansa that "a noble lady does not feed dogs at her table" when Sansa gives bacon to Lady under the table, and she scolds Sansa for discussing the beheading of Ser Gregor Clegane over porridge, declaring that "a lady does not discuss such things."

Conflict with Arya

Arya's rebellion against Septa Mordane's lessons is a running thread of the early narrative. When Arya's stitches prove crooked, Septa Mordane examines the fabric and pronounces, "This will not do. This will not do at all," while everyone stares. Arya bolts from the room, and when the septa calls after her, Arya turns back and says sweetly, "I have to go shoe a horse," taking a brief satisfaction in the shock on the septa's face. Later, when Arya refuses to eat her dinner in King's Landing, Septa Mordane commands her to sit down and clean her plate, and Arya retorts, "You clean it!" before bolting for the door. Septa Mordane rages outside Arya's locked bedchamber, threatening that "the Hand will hear of this!" Arya screams back, "I don't care. Go away." After her father's intervention, Arya apologizes to Septa Mordane and asks for her pardon, and the septa peers at her suspiciously before accepting.

Journey to King's Landing and Death

Septa Mordane accompanies the Stark household south to King's Landing, where she continues to supervise the girls' education. She informs Sansa that the king has sent for Eddard Stark for another hunt, and she insists that the girls dress nicely to ride with the queen and Princess Myrcella in the royal wheelhouse. She is present in the throne room gallery when Eddard Stark sits the Iron Throne to hear petitions, and she stands in the gallery all day until her feet are sore. After the coup that results in Eddard Stark's imprisonment, Septa Mordane is killed. Her severed head is later mounted on a spike on the battlements of the Red Keep alongside the other traitors. When Joffrey Baratheon forces Sansa to walk along the ramparts and view the heads, he points to one and says, "That's your septa there," but Sansa cannot even tell that it was a woman, as the jaw has rotted off and birds have eaten one ear and most of a cheek. Sansa asks, "Why did you kill her? She was god-sworn…" Joffrey replies, "She was a traitor."