Snow bear

The snow bear was a creature of the northern wilds, a great white-furred predator that stood thirteen feet tall at the shoulder. Varamyr Sixskins, the most powerful skinchanger among the free folk, rode this beast into battle, sitting at the right hand of Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall. The bear was the largest and most fearsome of Varamyr's bonded animals, a living symbol of his power and a weapon of war that no ordinary man could face.

Bondage and Hatred

Unlike his wolves, whom Varamyr called his brothers and who slept piled around him for warmth, the snow bear was never truly tamed. It raged each time he wore its skin or climbed upon its back, and the hatred it bore him was deep and implacable. This was a bond of force, not affection, and the bear's fury only grew with each violation of its will. When Varamyr's eagle was killed by fire—the flames consuming him from within as he soared above the Wall—the agony of that death shattered his control over all his beasts. The snow bear, freed from his grip, turned her claws on those around her, ripping apart four men before a spear brought her down. She would have slain Varamyr himself had he come within her reach, so complete was her enmity.

Narrative Significance

The snow bear's fate illustrates the limits and dangers of skinchanging power. Haggon, Varamyr's mentor, had warned that some skins should never be worn—bears, boars, badgers, weasels—because the wearer would not like what he became. The snow bear's rebellion and death serve as a concrete example of this principle, foreshadowing Varamyr's own failed attempt to seize a human body and his final dissolution into the pack of wolves. The creature is never given a name or individual personality; it exists entirely as an extension of Varamyr's will and a measure of his dominance, and its loss marks the beginning of his decline from a feared lord to a dying fugitive.