Jon Snow (A Song of Ice and Fire)

Jon Snow is a fictional character from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Parts of the first three books (at least) in the series are told from his point of view.

Jon Snow is the bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark ("Snow" being a surname given to illegitimate children in the north of Westeros). He grew up with his half-brothers and half-sisters at the Stark ancestral home of Winterfell.

In A Storm of Swords, Edric Dayne identifies Jon's mother as Wylla, Dayne's wetnurse. When his father travels to King's Landing to assume the office of King's Hand, Jon "takes the black," joining the Night's Watch, a brotherhood sworn to defend the Wall and "the realms of men." In A Clash of Kings he takes part in Jeor Mormont's expedition to find his uncle, Benjen Stark, and Waymar Royce, both highborn rangers unreturned from expeditions of their own. Acting under orders from Qhorin Halfhand, Snow joins an army of Wildings heading south to breach the Wall, but later abandons an advance party led by Styr, the Magnar of Thenn, to assist in the defense of Castle Black against the Wildings.

At the end of A Storm of Swords, Jon is voted Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, at least in part to frustrate the ambitions of Janos Slynt, a Lannister lackey sent to the Wall during Mormont's expedition.

Jon's direwolf, Ghost, is white with red eyes. He inherited Longclaw, a bastard sword of Valyrian steel, from Jeor Mormont.

Theories about Jon's mother

There are several fan theories regarding Jon Snow's mother. Three of the most prominent are:

• Ashara Dayne is Jon's mother. The servants at Winterfell think so, and Catelyn Stark and Cersei Lannister both consider it a possibility. Meera Reed says in her story of the tournament at Harrenhal that Ashara and Eddard were in love.
• Wylla, Edric Dayne's wetnurse, is Jon's mother. Eddard Stark mentions Wylla to Robert Baratheon at Winterfell, and Edric tells Arya that Wylla is Jon's mother.
• Lyanna Stark is Jon's mother, and Rhaegar Targaryen is his father, a secret kept by Eddard for Jon's safety. Much of the support for this theory comes from flashbacks in A Game of Thrones, a failure to account for Eddard Stark's behavior or secrecy otherwise, and predictions based upon conventions of genre. Sometimes referred to as R+L=J.