Val is the sister of Mance Rayder's late wife Dalla, and the Seven Kingdoms' men have taken to calling her a wildling princess despite the fact that the free folk recognize no such title and would find the whole idea faintly absurd. She carries herself with a self-possession that unsettles the southron lords who try to court or command her, refusing every overture — including a royal offer of marriage meant to bind the wildlings and the North together — on terms other than her own. Skilled enough in the woods to be trusted with an errand as dangerous as treating directly with Tormund's raiders, Val is no ornamental hostage, whatever the men holding her may prefer to believe. A maester notes, with some evident amusement, that a captive audience calling a woman a princess against her own people's customs says considerably more about the captors than about her.
Val
the wildling princess
- Life
- no fixed AC year given; a young woman, sister to Mance Rayder's wife Dalla, when introduced
- House
- none — sister to Dalla, Mance Rayder's late wife
- Titles
- called the 'wildling princess' by the Seven Kingdoms, a title the Free Folk do not themselves recognize
- Allegiance
- the Free Folk
- Culture
- Free Folk (wildling)
- Religion
- the Old Gods, as understood among the Free Folk
- Notable for
- Sister to Mance Rayder's late wife Dalla, held at Castle Black and courted for a political marriage she has refused
Held at the Wall under Night's Watch protection, in circumstances the chronicle keeps largely veiled.
Where they appear
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.
Key events
- no fixed yearLives among the Free Folk as sister to Dalla, who becomes Mance Rayder's wife
- 299 ACPresent at Mance Rayder's camp during the assault on the Wall, alongside her sister and infant nephew
- 299 ACTaken into custody at Castle Black following the Free Folk's defeat
- 299-300 ACIs courted for a political marriage meant to bind the Free Folk and the North together, refusing every offer on terms other than her own
- 300 ACSent briefly to treat directly with Tormund's people on the Night's Watch's behalf
- 300 ACLeft waiting at the Wall while a supposed rescue mission is dispatched on her behalf, its true nature veiled from her
Reading the character
Val's refusal to be married off for the sake of political convenience, even while held as an honored hostage, cuts against nearly every assumption the Seven Kingdoms' men bring to her — including the very title, 'wildling princess,' that the Free Folk themselves would find faintly absurd. Her insistence on terms of her own making, in a story that spends a great deal of time on women married for alliance rather than choice, makes her refusal one of the more pointed comments the books offer on the difference between Free Folk and southron customs around marriage and consent.
Her situation at the Wall, one of the more complex political entanglements left hanging in the published books, keeps her fate bound up with decisions largely made by others — a dynamic the story returns to often for women whose value to powerful men lies chiefly in who they might be married to.
The arc of Val
This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
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
Is Val alive?
Yes, alive as of A Dance with Dragons, held at Castle Black — the chronicle keeps the fuller particulars of her circumstances veiled.
Who is Val?
A wildling woman, sister to Mance Rayder's late wife Dalla, held at the Wall and courted for a political marriage she has so far refused on her own terms.