Varamyr

Varamyr was a Free Folk chief and a powerful skinchanger. Also called Varamyr Sixskins, he got abandoned by his parents after they learned his true nature of being a warg. As his power grew, Varamyr indulged in many taboo practices, including using his animals to taste the flesh of humans. Eventually, he tried a forbidden warging technique involving skinchanging into a conscious human. However, it backfired, making him live a second life as a beast. Though he desperately wanted to become the King-Beyond-the-Wall, he joined Mance Rayder, who planned to bring down the Wall and invade the Seven Kingdoms.

Varamyr Details

• Name: Varamyr.
• Allegiance: Mance Rayder.
• Aliases: Lump, Haggon, Varamyr Threeskins, Varamyr Fourskins, Varamyr Sixskins.
• Titles: Warlord, Chief.
• Culture: Free Folk.
• Religion: Old Gods of the Forest.
• Year of Death: 300 AC.

Appearance

Varamyr is a little man with round shoulders, a bald head, and a grey face. He is a sadistic and almost mental person whose mental decapitation came from indulging in the wild activities of some of his beasts. He has various beasts he wargs into, including a huge snow bear, an eagle, a Shadowcat, and three wolves named One Eye, Stalker, and Sly.

History

Varamyr was born as the second child of a Free Folk family and named Lump by his older sister Meha, according to wildling tradition. He came out fragile because he was born a month premature. Worried he may not live long, Lump’s mother waited till he was four to name him. However, before then, everyone knew him by Lump. 

Some months later, Lump had a new baby brother named Bump. However, he got jealous because his brother was healthier. Lump skinchanged into one of his family’s dogs, Loptail, Growler, and Sniff, and killed his brother. When his father saw Bump’s body, he took all the dogs down, but as he split Loptail’s head with an axe, Lump screamed as he witnessed the brutality of death in the dog; this made his parents realize he was a warg.

As it was forbidden to have a warg in the village, Lump’s father realized he would have to send his son away, and on seeing his mother cry for Bump instead of him, Lump developed hatred towards her. Two days after the incident, his father took him to an elderly warg named Haggon so he could be with his kind. 

The experienced warg taught Lump the rules of becoming a skinchanger. He advised him to avoid animals and gave the reasons why. For wild beasts, Haggon told Lump that skinchanging into one would make him a rudimentary being. The warg also advised him that cats were cruel, entering prey led to weakness, and once a person warged in a bird, they would no longer want to return to the ground.

As Haggon traded with the Night’s Watch, Lump began dreaming of the lands beyond the Wall. He imagined the Greenlands of the Seven Kingdoms and became desperate to travel there. At age ten, Haggon took Lump to a meeting of skinchangers, where he met some special skinchangers like Orell, Borroq, Grisella, and Briar. He changed his name to Varamyr. 

When Haggon was on his deathbed, Varamyr stole one of his wolves, Greyskin, and began calling himself Varamyr Threeskins. He got killed eight times in the skins of other creatures and got a tall female snow bear. With his power increase, he became a lord and had villagers paying him homage. 

Varamyr began indulging in raping women. He would use his shadow cat to stalk a woman he wanted till she came to him, and if anyone challenged him, they got killed. Some women got pregnant, but Varamyr’s children were weak, and none could skinchange, canning all hopes of him having a successor. Eventually, he became a part of Mance Rayder’s army.

Relevance in A Song of Ice and Fire

A Storm of Swords

Varamry takes Orell’s eagle after his death even though the beast still has some of its former master’s consciousness. When Jon Snow meets Mance, Orell’s eagle shows disdain towards him as he is the one who killed his master. Varamyr recognizes Jon is a warg when he sees him and his direwolf Ghost. Later, Jon learns the warg wanted to take his direwolf but got stopped by Mance.

Varamyr scouts Castle Black with Orell’s eagle during the Battle Beneath the Wall. Though the Free Folk army with giants and mammoths tries to destroy the Wall, they get held back by the brothers of the Night’s Watch. Varamyr spots Stannis Baratheon using his eagle’s gaze. However, Melisandre destroys the animal with her magic, causing him to briefly go insane and lose control of his animals, making them escape the camp.

A Dance with Dragons

After losing control of some of his animals, Varamyr flees with a small group and hides his real identity, changing his name to Haggon. The group thins as people leave until only he and the spearwife Thistle remain. 

Varamyr gets stabbed by a boy when he tries to take the squirrel-skin cloak off the boy’s mother, and Thistle treats him. While recovering, he considers skinchanging into the body of a human. When the spearwife returns to tell him of an army of Others and wights, he tries entering her, but she kills herself, expelling him. He quickly enters the body of one of his wolves, One Eye, and watches from a distance as Thistle becomes a wight. Back at Castle Black, a rat-faced Son of Varamyr gets held hostage.

Varamyr: The Powerful Warg

Varamyr was no ordinary skinchanger as he showed he could control many animals. He was like an entire army. However, his strength was also his weakness. He had much resentment for many people and ignored the advice from Haggon; this made him have a broken mind as continually indulging in the beastly activities of his animals fragmented his brain.

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