Who is the Lady of the Leaves? (Spoilers Extended)

One of the lesser known characters that I rarely see discussed is the Lady of the Leaves, who Arya and the Brotherhood without Banners meet in ASOS, Arya IV and is never mentioned again, before or after.

So I gathered as much info about the Lady of the Leaves to theorize about, outside of the very possible answer that she is who she is and she exists for world building and exposition.

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#ASOS, Arya IV

The Brotherhood take Arya along after capturing her and they look to the Lady of the Leaves for Beric's whereabouts:

"And a hard man to find, it would seem," the maester said. "Have you asked the Lady of the Leaves?"

"We shall," said Greenbeard.

We then get get Anguy being "secretive/close lipped":

"What did the maester mean, about asking the Lady of the Leaves?" Arya asked Anguy as they rode.

The archer smiled. "Wait and see."

We then finally meet her and she lives in this tree town:

Three days later, as they rode through a yellow wood, Jack-Be-Lucky unslung his horn and blew a signal, a different one than before. The sounds had scarcely died away when rope ladders unrolled from the limbs of trees. "Hobble the horses and up we go," said Tom, half singing the words. They climbed to a hidden village in the upper branches, a maze of rope walkways and little moss-covered houses concealed behind walls of red and gold

Her description (the wiki lists her as old, but I don't think this requires her to be "old"):

and were taken to the Lady of the Leaves, a stick-thin white-haired woman dressed in roughspun. "We cannot stay here much longer, with autumn on us," she told them. "A dozen wolves went down the Hayford road nine days past, hunting. If they'd chanced to look up they might have seen us."

And they discuss Beric/death/etc.:

"You've not seen Lord Beric?" asked Tom Sevenstrings.

"He's dead." The woman sounded sick. "The Mountain caught him, and drove a dagger through his eye. A begging brother told us. He had it from the lips of a man who saw it happen."

"That's an old stale tale, and false," said Lem. "The lightning lord's not so easy to kill. Ser Gregor might have put his eye out, but a man don't die o' that. Jack could tell you."

...

"You swear he's not dead?" The woman clutched Lem's arm. "Bless you, Lem, that's the best tidings we've had in half a year. May the Warrior defend him, and the red priest too."

They then depart and move on and the Lady of the Leaves is never mentioned again. They go to her to get info about Beric, and not only does she not give them any, they give her some.

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#Description

• a stick-thin white-haired woman dressed in roughspun

• follower of the Seven

• seems to be the leader/Lady of a village in the trees in the Riverlands

• is known to Maester Lychester

• a friend of the Brotherhood

• sounds sick

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#Thoughts/Theories

So why does she exist and who might she be?

House Blackwood

Numerous members of House Blackwood are described as thin/gaunt and while she has white hair, there is no mentioned of her being albino (Arya notices the Ghost of High Heart's albinism).

If the small chance that she is a member of House Blackwood, I would assume theories for Mya/Gwenys Rivers would probably work best.

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Beric/Resurrection reveal

Its quite possible that GRRM was just trying to build up Beric and his life status ambiguity for the reveal after the Trial by Combat with Sandor Clegane.

Adding a mysterious character (who adds to the robin hood theme of the BWB with the tree towns, etc.) that has "info" about him. My small problem with this is that she doesn't actually give them any info about her, they give her info.

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Worldbuilding

As I mentioned, its quite possible that she was included for just building the world in the riverlands and for another small detour in Arya's plotline.

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Saving for Later

She could be a character that GRRM created and decided to put on the shelf for a bit until necessary. This has been seemingly done with some characters we haven't met like Leyton Hightower or ones we have like Rickon Stark.

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Gods/Goddesses

The name Lady of the Leaves automatically brings up connections to the Old Gods/trees/weirwoods, but it also should be noted that she thanks the Warrior for protecting Beric/Thoros.

Unless you want to get tinfoily and think that she is some goddess like the Lady of the Waves to her village tree town.

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Im sure someone could come up for a theory involving anyone from Joanna Lannister, to Ashara Dayne to Jenny of Oldstones to Shiera Seastar or Alys Rivers but I couldn't really find anything from the limited information that we receive on her appearance.

Please share your thoughts and any theories on her character.

TLDR: Thoughts and theorization on the Lady of the Leaves.