Game of Thrones as Myth: Osha as the Archetypal Protector
What is an archetype? In fantasy and myth, certain types of characters constantly reappear: stalwart Heroes, odd Mentors offering talismans, Threshold Guardians and their tests, and more. In this series, we take a fast and fun look at Game of Thrones characters and what traditional archetypes they fall into. This time: Osha the wildling.
In fiction, the Protector is one of the most omnipresent archetypal characters, although it is often mixed with more dominant archetypes like the Hero and Warrior. The Protector usually appears in the guise of a parent, guardian, or soldier, and is an element of many Game of Thrones characters.
For example, the Protector can be part a pure warrior, such as Bellona, a Roman Goddess of War, or a nature-oriented huntress, such as Artemis (seen above), who is also a protector of the vulnerable and young girls. In a more modern example, we can look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a warrior-defender who resolves to protect Dawn (the Key) even when she learns Dawn is not her sister in Season 5.
As we can probably guess, the DNA of the Protector archetype is also one of the main building blocks of the Hero archetype, as Heros are often willing to sacrifice themselves for others.
"“How is it that a human being can so participate in the peril or pain of another, that without thought, spontaneously, he sacrifices his own life to the other? How can this happen? That what we normally think of as the first law of nature, namely self-preservation, is suddenly dissolved, there’s a breakthrough” —Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth"
And like all good characters, the wildling spearwife named Osha is a mix of archetypes, including the Warrior, Shapeshifter, Herald, and Mother. Here I’ll argue that the Protector is her dominant archetypal function as a recurring character in Game of Thrones.
Osha is a hard-bitten survivor in a rough world and a believer in the cold-hearted Old Gods. Osha has an obvious animalistic, wolf-like element to her. She slinks, crouches low, and tends to not make eye contact, much in the way a wolf will act in the vicinity of humans. It is interesting to look at Osha using Carl Jung’s mythological archetypes (Joseph Campbell bases much of his work on the archetypal templates laid out by Jung) of the anima and the mother, in particular his concept of the earth-mother.
"“If the anima is the “chaotic urge to life” and a force beyond the controlling ego, then it is not surprising that both in the individual psyche and world mythology, she manifests as an inconsistent creature. Jung characterises her character as “bipolar.” She can: appear positive one moment and negative the next . . . now young, now old; now mother, now maiden; now a good fairy, now a witch . . . the anima also has ‘occult’ connections with ‘mysteries,’ with the world of darkness in general, and for that reason she often has a religious tinge . . . she can be cruelly provocative, taunting, seductive, and terrifying on the one hand, and gentle, solicitous, and wise on the other. Her mutable, untamable nature makes her a fascinating mythological creature, displaying opposing, compelling tendencies . . . The anima “has affinities with animals, which symbolize her characteristics.” —Dr. Joan Relke “The Archetypal Female in Religion: The Anima and the Earth Mother”"
We first meet Osha as she stalks Bran in the Wolfswood north of Winterfell, and in the beginning she is all about her own survival. Terrified of the White Walkers, Osha and her two wildling companions have abandoned Mance Rayder’s army and escaped south of the Wall.
"“Piss on Mance Rayder. And piss on the north. We’re going as far south as south goes. There ain’t no White Walkers down in Dorne.” —Osha’s wildling companion (“A Golden Crown,” S1/Ep6)"
When the wildlings attempt to steal Bran’s horse, Osha’s first instinct is to do something other than kill the hated ‘southern’ noble boy, providing an early glimpse into her mothering instinct. She suggests they sell Bran (as a nephew of the hated Benjen Stark, First Ranger of the Night’s Watch, Bran would make a great prize) to Mance Rayder. Osha is captured and spared by Robb Stark, who places her in the service of Winterfell.
"“Give me my life, m’Lord, and I am yours.” —Osha, to Robb Stark (“A Golden Crown,” S1/Ep6)"
Perhaps unexpectedly, Osha proves good to her word. Employed as a House Stark servant, Osha performs her menial task in chains, though Theon suggests he could remove them in exchange for sex. The unimpressed Osha is rescued from the situation by Maester Luwin, for whom she develops respect.
"“I didn’t mean to come here. Meant to get much further south than this. As far south as south goes. Before the long night comes . . . there’s things that sleep in the day and hunt at night . . . I’m not talking about owls and shadow cats . . . they wasn’t gone, old man. They were sleeping. And they ain’t sleeping no more.” —Osha, to Maester Luwin (“You Win or You Die,” S1/Ep7)"
Osha’s desire to survive, to head south to escape the horrors of the winter she feels coming in her bones, is still her primary driving force. But with her strong connection to nature and the Old Gods, she quickly becomes a friend and confidante to Brandon Stark, listening to him recount his dreams of the three-eyed raven even though the portents unsettle her. And, acting as an Herald archetype, she tries to warn Bran.
"“I tried telling your brother (Robb) he’s marching the wrong way. All these swords should be going north, boy. North, not south. The cold winds are rising.” —Osha to Bran (“The Pointy End,” S1/Ep8)"
Once Ned, Lady Catelyn, and Robb are gone, Osha becomes a surrogate mother to Bran and Rickon. She even carries Bran into the Winterfell crypts when Maester Luwin informs them of Lord Eddard Stark’s death.
Danger to the boys arrives swiftly. When Theon Greyjoy and his sailors capture Winterfell (“The Old Gods and the New,” S2/Ep6) Osha immediately offers her loyalty to Theon but, suspecting her motives, he wisely refuses. Though Osha’s actions obviously sting Bran, she has not betrayed him: she has taken on the mantle of protector and is attempting to manipulate the situation, her Shapeshifter element emerging as she works to become someone Theon wants.
When seductress Osha beds Theon, she claims to offer her body in return for her freedom, and gets him to drop his guard. While Theon sleeps, Osha tricks the sentry, Drennan, by seducing him and cutting his throat when he’s close enough. She escapes Winterfell in the night with Bran, Rickon, Hodor, Summer, and Shaggydog.
“The Old Gods and the New” is a turning point for Osha in terms of action, though she has already decided to take on the role of the boys’ protector. If all she wanted to do was survive, to have her freedom, to race south to escape the White Walkers, this is her golden opportunity. Instead, she risks her life to try to help the heavily encumbered boys and Hodor flee. In myth we can see this kind of selflessness in the goddess Demeter, the nurturer, who sacrifices much to care for the children she feels responsible for. Looking to an interesting example of a servant risking all to save the family children, we need look no further than The Sound of Music, where the governess Maria risks her life to help the von Trapp family escape the Nazis and cross the Alps to safety.
Osha has now killed a man to protect Bran and Rickon, and she’s willing to do it again. The Protector archetype is often intimately associated with warriors, and Osha, as a member of the Free Folk, is most surely a warrior. Osha isn’t a traditionally trained soldier, but as we see by looking at the followers of Mance Rayder’s army, circumstances and hardship turn both male and female wildlings into capable fighters. Osha has survived by killing: she overcame her husband Bruni when he returned home as a wight, the same kind of creature who nearly defeated Jon Snow at Castle Black.
With her powerful animal and natural associations, we can see links between the she-wolf Osha and she-wolves who protect lost/feral children in myth and literature. Romulus and Remus, the two Founders of Rome abandoned in the wilderness by Amulius, survive by being suckled by a she-wolf. Mother Wolf (Raksha the Demon) in Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book stares down the vicious tiger Shere Khan to protect the boy Mowgli’s life. It is common for the lost children of myth who are saved by wild animals to be destined for great things.
Pursued by Theon and his hounds, the wily Osha doubles back, following a stream to throw off the dogs, and hides her charges in the crypts beneath Winterfell. She is discovered smuggling bread by the observant Maester Luwin, and agrees to try to hide the news of Theon’s burning of the farm boys to protect Bran from feeling responsible.
"“The little lads have suffered enough.” —Osha (“The Prince of Winterfell,” S2/Ep8)"
When Ramsay Bolton razes and sacks Winterfell, Osha remains hidden until the attack is over. She knows how to perform a clean kill on a dying man, and, grim and clear-eyed, she gives the “gift of mercy” to the mortally wounded Maester Luwin, agreeing to escort the boys north to reunite them with Jon Snow, despite her own fears of that compass direction.
"“You must protect them! You are the only one who can!” —the dying Maester Luwin to Osha, referring to Bran and Rickon Stark (“Valar Morghulis,” S2/Ep10)"
While fleeing Winterfell with Bran, Rickon, Hodor, and the direwolves, Osha attempts to defend Bran from Jojen and Meera Reed with a sharpened stake. Osha is highly suspicious of Jojen’s convulsive ‘greensight’ visions, which she interprets as black magic dangerous to Bran. Jojen claims his ‘sight’ has allowed him to find Bran, and Osha reluctantly agrees to let him and Meera accompany her group north to Castle Black.
"“Any boy his age who needs his sister to protect him is gonna find himself needing lots of protecting.” –Osha, to Meera, regarding Jojen (“Dark Wings, Dark Words,” S3/Ep2)"
Osha struggles with accepting Meera into the group, for Meera’s hunting skills threaten to displace Osha as mother provider. Osha is dismayed when Jojen claims that Jon Snow is now lost north of the Wall and Bran’s three-eyed-raven dreams are not leading Bran to Castle Black but rather to an unspecified location beyond the Wall. When Bran tells Osha that she doesn’t understand, she tells the story of how her beloved husband Bruni was turned into a wight by the White Walkers and how she was forced to destroy him.
"“I didn’t ask the gods what it meant. I didn’t need to. I already knew. It meant the north was no place for men to be, not any more. I promised your Maester I’d get you to Castle Black and no further.” —Osha (“The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” S3/Ep7)"
When arriving in the Gift region of the North, Osha and her company take refuge in an old mill during a thunderstorm, where Bran is able to warg into Summer and Shaggydog to attack the wildlings. Osha is working against the Free Folk because her loyalty is to Bran and Rickon now.
That night, Bran decides to travel beyond the Wall but Osha refuses to go further north. Knowing his journey to be dangerous, Bran wants Rickon taken to the holdfast of Greatjon Umber, a loyal bannerman to the Starks. When Osha immediately collects Rickon to accompany him and head out into the night, Bran reminds her that she is not bound to do so. Osha, repeatedly kissing Rickon on the top of the head to reassure him, reminds Bran that the Starks took her in and were kind to her “when they had no cause to be.”
"“Keep this one (Bran) safe. He means the world to me.” —Osha, to Jojen and Meera (“The rains of Castamere,” S3/Ep9)"
By the time Osha heads out into the night with Rickon and Shaggydog, she has long since made the transition from a woman only interested in self-protection to a character who embodies the archetypal function of Mother and, because of these particular circumstances, Protector. Osha is akin to Brienne of Tarth in a way, for though she lacks Brienne’s noble bloodline and Arthurian-style noble questing, she keeps fighting even though she has repeatedly failed: as a protector, Osha failed to save her husband Bruni, her wildling comrades in the Wolfswood, and even her friend, Maester Luwin. And now she can no longer protect Bran, who is still exceptionally vulnerable in a physical sense, even though he has been forced to grow up very quickly.
Similar to Ellen Ripley in the film Aliens, Osha has become maternally attached to a lost child/children and will risk her life to protect them. But, unlike Ripley, Osha has yet to be tested in the face of her greatest fear. Ripley stood and fought the alien queen. Since it looks like Osha might be returning to Game of Thrones in Season 6, one would hope that she would be able to rise to protect Rickon if confronted by the White Walkers, and perhaps that trial still awaits our courageous wildling spearwife.
The Protector Osha: Specifics
Occupation: Wildling Spearwife
Home country: North of the Wall
God: The Old Gods
Animal: Wolf
Weapons: Any weapon she can grab
Nemesis: The White Walkers
Sidekick: Rickon, sort of
Greatest Love: Bruni
Greatest Strength: Loyalty, Survival
Greatest Weakness: Fear of the White Walkers
Color: Earth Brown
Tarot Card: The Hanged Man
Ice Cream: Rocky Road
Future Prospects: Unknown, attached to Rickon Stark
Other WiC Game of Thrones as Myth Articles in the Archetype and Hero’s Journey Series:
Jon Snow as the Archetypal Hero
Alliser Thorne as the Archetypal Threshold Guardian