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LChris24

Harma Dogshead is a Skinchanger (Spoilers Extended)

EXTENDED

Harma Dogshead aka Harma the Dogshead is a female wildling raider who leads Mance's most seasoned raiders in the van:

Harma had five hundred in the van, every one ahorse." -ASOS, Prologue

I had two thoughts regarding her:

1) Why does she hate dogs?

2) What happened to her pigs?

Which due to some proximity/circumstances led me to believe she could potentially be a skinchanger:

Background

She once warred with Rattleshirt:

Mance had spent years assembling this vast plodding host, talking to this clan mother and that magnar, winning one village with sweet words and another with a song and a third with the edge of his sword, making peace between Harma Dogshead and the Lord o' Bones -ASOS, Jon II

and is later slain by Stannis:

It was from them that he learned about the battle beneath the Wall. "Stannis landed his knights at Eastwatch, and Cotter Pyke led him along the ranger's roads, to take the wildlings unawares," Giant told him. "He smashed them. Mance Rayder was taken captive, a thousand of his best slain, including Harma Dogshead. -ASOS, Samwell IV

Hatred of Dogs

Harma hates dogs and is constantly killing them:

There was Harma Dogshead, a squat keg of a woman with cheeks like slabs of white meat, who hated dogs and killed one every fortnight to make a fresh head for her banner -ASOS, Jon II

and:

"Kill him," urged Harma. "Send his body back up in that cage o' theirs and tell them to send us someone else. I'll keep his head for my standard. A turncloak's worse than a dog." -ASOS, Jon X

To kill a new dog every (fort)night is some deep seeded hatred and while it could be for a variety of reasons, the best "in world" reason I could come up with was ties to warging.

In the ADWD, Prologue we see Varamyr shunned after using a dog to attack/kill his little brother bump. I am not arguing it was varamyr, just that a similar warging into a dog and attacking a family member of Harma's is possible.

Its also possible that it has something to do with her/pigs. For some reason Harma is never mentioned with pigs (that I can find), yet after she dies, all of a sudden she has these "evil" (according to Edd) pigs that her family leads south of the wall.

  • It should be noted that its possible she is never mentioned with these pigs due to the fact she is leading the van, but we get no association of her/pigs (afaik) until her brother leads them south of the wall after her death.

Pig Army?

Harma's brother Halleck leads her pigs south of the wall:

Lesser leaders followed. Two clan chiefs of the Hornfoot men, whose feet were black and hard. An old wisewoman revered by the peoples of the Milkwater. A scrawny dark-eyed boy of two-and-ten, the son of Alfyn Crowkiller. Halleck, brother to Harma Dogshead, with her pigs. Each took a knee before the king. -ADWD, Jon III

Cousins and others follow as well (Halleck is a man of note among the wildlings).

Edd's dream (is he a treasure or what?):

"It was a relief to see that horn burn, my lord," Edd said. "Just last night I dreamt I was pissing off the Wall when someone decided to give the horn a toot. Not that I'm complaining. It was better than my old dream, where Harma Dogshead was feeding me to her pigs."

"Harma's dead," Jon said.

"But not the pigs. They look at me the way Slayer used to look at ham. Not to say that the wildlings mean us harm. Aye, we hacked their gods apart and made them burn the pieces, but we gave them onion soup. What's a god compared to a nice bowl of onion soup? I could do with one myself." -ADWD, Jon III

But then the pigs disappear a few chapters later:

Not all the fighting men were broken, though. Half a dozen Thenns in bronze scale armor stood clustered round one cellar stair, watching sullenly and making no attempt to join the others. In the ruins of the old village smithy Jon spied a big bald slab of a man he recognized as Halleck, the brother of Harma Dogshead. Harma's pigs were gone, though. Eaten, no doubt. Those two in furs were Hornfoot men, as savage as they were scrawny, barefoot even in the snow. There are wolves amongst these sheep, still. -ADWD, Jon V

  • Its quite possible these pigs were just eaten due to hunger

But the point in me saying this is: Let's look at some quotes about Borroq and his boar:

Amongst the riders came one man afoot, with some big beast trotting at his heels. A boar, Jon saw. A monstrous boar. Twice the size of Ghost, the creature was covered with coarse black hair, with tusks as long as a man's arm. Jon had never seen a boar so huge or ugly. The man beside him was no beauty either; hulking, black-browed, he had a flat nose, heavy jowls dark with stubble, small black close-set eyes.

"Borroq." Tormund turned his head and spat.

"A skinchanger." It was not a question. Somehow he knew. -ADWD, Jon XII

and:

And so long as Borroq and his boar are about, I dare not let him loose." The skinchanger was to accompany Soren Shieldbreaker to Stonedoor once the wayns carrying the Sealskinner's clan to Greenguard returned. Until such time, Borroq had taken up residence in one of the ancient tombs beside the castle lichyard. The company of men long dead seemed to suit him better than that of the living, and his boar seemed happy rooting amongst the graves, well away from other animals. "That thing is the size of a bull, with tusks as long as swords. Ghost would go after him if he were loose, and one or both of them would not survive the meeting." -ADWD, Jon XIII

and:

As for Borroq, Othell Yarwyck claimed the woods north of Stonedoor were full of wild boars. Who was to say the skinchanger would not make his own pig army? -ADWD, Jon XIII

Even her wiki page doesn't even mention pigs (its not perfect, but just showing how little of an association exists).

This isn't meant to be a super strong theory, just some connections between some things that I've always found to be a little "intentionally off" when I read it.

TLDR: Is Harma a skinchanger? No actual evidence exists, but Harma Dogshead's hatred of dogs may have resulted due to issues with a warg attacking/killing a family member or one killing one/some of her pigs (that she is never mentioned with). These same pigs have "disappeared" south of the wall.

Posted Apr 30, 2021, 1:03 PM UTC · edited

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