Ramsay Bolton

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  In 2016, The New York Times called Ramsay Bolton arguably the most hated man on television. The paper also named him the signature Game of Thrones villain, a position that Joffrey Baratheon had held before him.

  Ramsay is a fictional character created by the novelist George R. R. Martin and played on screen by the Welsh actor Iwan Rheon. He begins as a bastard with no name worth speaking and ends up ruling the North of Westeros. Critics praised the performance. Audiences recoiled from the man it portrayed.

  Three questions run through his story. Who was the child born into such circumstances, and what did he want from his father? Why does the television Ramsay loom so much larger than the one in the novels? And what could possibly stop a man who answered to nobody?

  1856

• 2. Born of a Hanging

  ›

  Along the Weeping Water, Lord Roose Bolton once spotted a miller's wife while out hunting. He decided to claim the banned custom of the first night, which gave a lord the right to bed a commoner's bride. The miller had never told his lord about the marriage, so Roose hanged him from a tree. He then raped the woman beneath the swinging body.

  A year later she came to the Dreadfort, the Bolton fortress, carrying a newborn named Ramsay. Roose very nearly killed them both. Then he saw that the baby had his own pale, cold eyes, and the taboo against killing kin stayed his hand.

  The woman had told people that her husband's brother stole the mill and cast her out. Angered by the story, Roose had that man's tongue removed so he could never tell the truth to Rickard Stark, Roose's own liege lord. Roose then gave the woman the mill, a pig, several chicks and a bag of coin every year. In return she had to promise never to tell Ramsay who his father was.

  Years afterward, Ramsay's mother returned to the castle and said the boy had grown wild and unruly. Roose answered by sending a servant known as Reek. The nickname came from a smell that no amount of washing could remove, blamed on an unknown condition from birth. Roose meant the gift as a cruel joke. Instead, Ramsay and Reek became inseparable.

  Someone eventually told Ramsay the truth about his father, and Roose suspects either his mother or Reek. Roose believes both of them kept urging the increasingly violent boy to claim his rights. He has also wondered whether Ramsay corrupted Reek or Reek corrupted Ramsay.

  Roose's elder, trueborn son Domeric tried to build a brotherly bond with Ramsay. Domeric then died of a mysterious sickness, and Roose came to believe that Ramsay had poisoned him to deprive their father of his heir. The death earned Ramsay the hatred of House Dustin, because Lady Barbrey Dustin had been fond of her nephew Domeric.

  Two years before the War of the Five Kings began, Roose brought Ramsay to the Dreadfort, since he had no other sons. It was there that the boy learned to read and write. The men who ride with him are called the Bastard's Boys, and they are as cruel as he is but serve his father in the end.

  1011

• 3. A Wormy Smile

  ›

  Two features mark Ramsay out in Martin's description. His eyes are small, close-set, pale and icy like those of his father Roose. His mouth is made of two wide, fleshy lips that curl into what the books call a wormy smile.

  The rest of him is unlovely. He has the sloping, big-boned frame of a man who will grow fat in later life, with blotchy pink skin and long, brittle black hair. In battle he wears red and black armor shaped like a flayed man opening his mouth to scream. At his side hangs a flaying knife made from yellow bone.

  Flaying captives alive is an old Bolton custom, and Ramsay practises it with enthusiasm. He also keeps a pack of female hunting dogs. He names each one after a woman he has killed and hunts stripped, terrified young women with the pack before raping and killing them. The flayed skin of his victims comes home as a trophy.

  Yet he is no fool. Ramsay is a cunning tactician who thinks quickly on his feet, and a skilled manipulator who can play at charm when it suits him. Roose sees another side. He calls his son rash and foolish at times and says that such violent amusements would make him a poor ruler of the North.

  His fighting shows the same wildness. Nobody ever trained him properly, so he swings his sword, in the books' phrase, as if it were a butcher's cleaver.

  1011

• 4. Seen Through Other Eyes

  ›

  Ramsay never narrates a chapter of Martin's novels. Readers watch him directly through Theon Greyjoy, and indirectly through stories that reach Bran Stark and Davos Seaworth. He is introduced in 1998 in A Clash of Kings, mentioned again in A Storm of Swords in 2000 and A Feast for Crows in 2005, and returns in person in A Dance with Dragons in 2011.

  In A Clash of Kings, Roose is away at war, and Ramsay is named castellan of the Dreadfort. Lord Hornwood and his heir are killed fighting for Robb Stark. Ramsay forces Lady Hornwood into marriage to seize her lands, then starves her to death.

  He escapes punishment by trading places with Reek, the servant, who is killed in his stead. Rodrik Cassel takes the false Reek to Winterfell, meaning to make him testify against Ramsay before an execution. But Theon Greyjoy and the Ironborn capture Winterfell first, and they free the prisoner in return for a vow of service to Theon.

  When Theon's hostages escape, Ramsay murders two peasant boys and talks Theon into displaying the corpses as Bran and Rickon Stark. As the Northerners close in to retake Winterfell, he persuades Theon to let him ride to the Dreadfort for reinforcements. He comes back with a Bolton army and massacres the relief force. Then he kills the Ironborn, burns Winterfell and takes Theon prisoner.

  Before the Red Wedding, Roose shows Robb Stark a piece of Theon's skin as proof that Ramsay has been flaying him. Robb is disgusted but allows the captivity to continue. Theon's father Balon has just died, and Theon's absence leaves the Ironborn facing a succession crisis.

  After Robb's death, King Tommen Baratheon legitimizes Ramsay as a Bolton. The Lannisters pass off Jeyne Poole as Arya Stark and send her north to be betrothed to him. Only the Lannisters and the Boltons know the girl is a fake.

  By A Dance with Dragons, Ramsay has tortured and mutilated Theon in the Dreadfort dungeons until Theon is broken and has taken on the identity of Reek. Ramsay forces him to help end the Ironborn siege of Moat Cailin. He then breaks his promise of safe passage and has the garrison flayed.

  Stannis Baratheon takes Deepwood Motte, and the wedding to the false Arya moves from Barrowton to a rebuilt Winterfell. After the ceremony Ramsay repeatedly abuses Jeyne. Shortly afterward Jeyne and Theon escape with help from Mance Rayder.

  At Castle Black, Jon Snow then receives a letter, presumably from Ramsay. It claims that Mance is captured and Stannis, who was besieging Winterfell, is dead. It threatens the Night's Watch unless Jon hands over Theon, Jeyne and several members of Stannis's court. Jon decides to hunt Ramsay down and kill him himself, but his own men stab him before he can leave.

  1011

• 5. The Boy Called Boy

  ›

  Iwan Rheon first auditioned for the role of Jon Snow in the HBO series. That part went to Kit Harington, and Rheon eventually became the man who would hunt Jon's family instead. Critics acclaimed his work, although opinion of the character himself was far more divided.

  Awards listings reflect the attention. The Screen Actors Guild ensemble category for a drama series appears for the show in 2014 and again in 2016. In 2015 the IGN Awards listed Best TV Villain and the IGN People's Choice Award for Best TV Villain.

  The television version keeps the circumstances of Ramsay's conception and acknowledgement. What it drops is his childhood, which is never examined. His mother raised him at first, as in the books, but she died while he was young. The role of primary antagonist is also greatly enlarged compared with the novels.

  On screen, Ramsay delivers a line while torturing Theon: "My mother taught me not to throw stones at cripples. But my father taught me to aim for their head!" He also recalls meeting the Dreadfort kennelmaster's daughter, Myranda, when he was eleven. He was drawn to her fearlessness and later took her as his mistress. He told her he would marry her, but he dismissed the idea once he was legitimized. His own dog appears to be a Cane Corso.

  Viewers met him slowly. Ramsay is first mentioned in the second season and first appears in the third, with Rheon credited only as Boy. The credit changed when the third-season finale, titled Mhysa, revealed who the boy really was.

  1214192021

• 6. Making Reek

  ›

  The second season of the show begins his career with a trade. After Theon Greyjoy and his forces capture Winterfell, Roose Bolton offers Robb Stark a solution. Ramsay and the men left at the Dreadfort could lift the occupation. Robb agrees, with orders to spare any Ironborn who surrender and to bring Theon back alive.

  The Ironborn subdue Theon and hand him to Ramsay, who takes him prisoner. Ramsay then sacks Winterfell and flays the Ironborn garrison purely for his own amusement.

  In the third season, Ramsay sends word to the Stark forces at Harrenhal, claiming that the Ironborn sacked Winterfell and fled before the Boltons arrived. Down in the Dreadfort dungeons, his men torture Theon while Ramsay watches in the guise of a cleaning boy. Posing as a servant of Theon's sister Yara, he frees Theon, sends men after him, and then kills those men when they recapture him.

  Theon confesses that he used two farmer's boys to fake the murders of Bran and Rickon Stark. Ramsay pretends to guide him to Deepwood Motte, the castle Yara holds. He actually leads Theon in a circle back to the dungeon and reveals that he was behind the suffering all along.

  The torture is methodical. Ramsay begins by flaying one of Theon's fingers until Theon begs him to cut it off, and he severs the pinky. He has Myranda and another servant seduce Theon, only to mock him before inflicting a worse mutilation. He sends the severed part to Theon's father Balon, along with a threat to flay the other Ironborn unless they leave the North. Balon refuses, since he now has no use for his son.

  Theon begs to be killed, but Ramsay says he is more useful alive. Noticing Theon's stench, he gives him a new name, Reek, and beats him until he answers to it.

  The fourth season opens with Roose Bolton returning to the Dreadfort and scolding his son. As castellan, Ramsay overstepped by mutilating a valuable hostage and sending terms of surrender to the Greyjoys. To prove his case, Ramsay shows how thoroughly he has broken Reek. Reek reveals that Bran and Rickon Stark are alive, then shaves Ramsay with a blade without harming him, even after being told that Roose murdered Robb Stark.

  Impressed, Roose sends the pair to lift the Ironborn occupation of Moat Cailin. First, Yara and her men sneak into the Dreadfort to rescue Theon. He refuses to leave, afraid it is another of Ramsay's tricks, and Ramsay chases the Greyjoy soldiers off with his hounds.

  At Moat Cailin, Ramsay has Reek pose as Theon to persuade the Ironborn to surrender in exchange for safe passage. Ramsay then breaks his word and flays the entire garrison. His reward is legitimization as a Bolton, and he travels with the rest of House Bolton to Winterfell.

  10111

• 7. Lord of Winterfell

  ›

  In the fifth season, Roose Bolton is furious after Ramsay flays the family of a Northern lord who refused to swear loyalty. Roose wants to calm the other Northern houses and secure Bolton control of the North. His answer is to betroth Ramsay to Sansa Stark, who is publicly believed to be the last living Stark.

  Ramsay pretends to be kind to Sansa at first. Then Myranda shows Sansa where Reek is kept in the kennels, and Ramsay turns her contempt for Reek into a weapon. He makes Reek apologise for supposedly killing Bran and Rickon. He makes Reek give Sansa away at the wedding. On the wedding night he forces Reek to watch as he rapes her.

  Sansa begs Reek to signal for help, but Reek warns Ramsay instead. Ramsay flays a maid who had tried to assist her.

  Stannis Baratheon's army is camped and ready to march on Winterfell. Ramsay convinces Roose to let him take twenty men into the enemy camp and destroy its supplies. The plan works, and most of Stannis's army deserts. The survivors still march on Winterfell, but the Bolton cavalry under Ramsay defeats them easily, and Stannis is slain.

  In the chaos of that battle, Theon kills Myranda and escapes with Sansa. Ramsay mourns Myranda, but Roose has a harder message for him. If Sansa is not recovered, and if Roose's unborn child turns out to be a son, Ramsay faces disinheritance. Ramsay's best hunters find Sansa and Theon, and then Brienne of Tarth intercepts and kills them.

  Roose's wife Walda gives birth to a boy. Ramsay immediately murders his father, then sets his hounds on Walda and his newborn half-brother. He secures his position as Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North.

  10111

• 8. The Kennels

  ›

  Smalljon Umber arrives at Winterfell wanting help to defend the North against the wildlings that Jon Snow has sheltered at the Wall. To seal an alliance, he hands over Osha and Rickon Stark. They had lived under the protection of Smalljon's father, the Greatjon, who is now dead.

  Osha tries to assassinate Ramsay, and he kills her. Rickon is thrown into the Winterfell dungeons. Ramsay then writes to Jon Snow at Castle Black. He threatens to wipe out the wildlings and to kill both Rickon and Jon unless Sansa is returned.

  Jon answers by marching on Winterfell with an army of wildlings and assorted Stark loyalists. Before the fight, he and Ramsay meet to talk. Jon proposes settling the quarrel in single combat, while Ramsay offers terms of surrender. Both men refuse.

  On the day of battle, Ramsay releases Rickon and tells him to run to his half-brother. He then kills the boy with an arrow. Jon charges out in a futile attempt to save Rickon, and his forces follow him out of their position. The Bolton phalanx closes around the Starks until the Knights of the Vale arrive and overwhelm the Boltons.

  Ramsay falls back to Winterfell and kills the giant Wun Wun when he breaks through the gate. With his men slain, he finally accepts Jon's offer of one-on-one combat. Jon overpowers him quickly, beats him savagely and orders him locked in the kennels.

  That night Sansa visits the kennels and watches as his hungry hounds eat Ramsay alive. His death ends House Bolton and its rule in the North.

  On the page, his fate is still unwritten. A released sample chapter of The Winds of Winter has Theon warning Stannis never to underestimate Ramsay or call him Ramsay Snow, and Stannis brushes the warning aside.

  1747