Unaligned

Gilly

Life: no fixed AC year given; a young woman, one of Craster's daughter-wives, when the story opens
House: none — one of Craster's many daughter-wives, beyond the Wall

Alive, having escaped a grim household beyond the Wall for a new, uncertain life south of it.

Gilly grew up at Craster's Keep as both daughter and eventual wife to the same man, one of a household of women bound to a father who claims each in turn as she comes of age and sacrifices any son the union produces. That she survived to womanhood with her spirit largely intact says more about her own quiet resilience than about any mercy shown her, and when the Night's Watch's mutinous rangers finally broke apart her father's household, Gilly's chief concern was not her own escape but keeping her newborn son from the fate every boy born at Craster's Keep had met before him. Samwell Tarly's fumbling, earnest protection of her since has given Gilly something she plainly had very little of before: a companion who treats her as a person to be listened to rather than property to be used. A maester notes, with the discomfort the subject warrants, that a household built on the customs Craster's Keep practiced makes Gilly's composure afterward considerably more remarkable than it might first appear.

The arc of Gilly

This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.

Fleeing Craster's Keep during the Night's Watch mutiny with her newborn son, Gilly reaches the Wall under Samwell Tarly's protection, only to be drawn into an exchange arranged around her at Castle Black meant to protect a different infant from a red priestess's notice. Carrying that other child south toward Oldtown in her own son's place, Gilly's grief over the swap, and the uncertain welcome awaiting her at Sam's family seat, are threads the published books leave still unresolved.

Where the books leave Gilly: alive as of the published books, having fled Craster's Keep for the Wall and then sailed south toward Oldtown with Samwell Tarly, carrying — by an arrangement made without her full consent — a child that is not, in truth, her own

These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.

In the timeline

Theories about Gilly

SourcesASOS · SamwellAFFC · SamwellADWD · SamwellTWOIAF · The Wildlings

Is Gilly alive?

Yes, alive as of the published books, sailing toward Oldtown — the chronicle keeps the fuller particulars of that voyage veiled.

Who is Gilly?

One of the wildling Craster's daughter-wives, who fled her father's household during a Night's Watch mutiny and found protection, and eventually a place in the world beyond it, with Samwell Tarly.