Borgen actress Birgitte Hjort Sørensen will play a wildling on Season 5 of Game of Thrones

A couple of days ago, a new Game of Thrones teaser further whetted the appetites of fans who were ready for Season 5 to just begin, already. Much of the footage had been seen before, but we can tease out details from a couple of new shots, including the one above, of a wildling woman running like hell away from something.

Some eagle-eyed commentators over at Watchers on the Wall identified the wildling as Danish actress Birgitte Hjort Sørensen. Sørensen rose to prominence by playing an ambitious news reporter on Borgen, a political drama about the first female Prime Minister of Denmark. Since then, she’s gotten cast in HBO’s upcoming series about the rock ‘n’ roll business in the ’70s, so it would seem that she’s made a splash at the network.

Spoilers, as well as speculation that could amount to spoilers, follow.

What’s less clear is just who she’ll be playing on Game of Thrones. Sørensen’s profile is probably too high for her to be cast as some nameless extra. Also, the fact that her terrified expression is the focus of this shot indicates that she’ll likely be doing something more important than playing Wilding Woman #14. According to Watchers of the Wall, she won’t be playing Val, the wildling “princess” who makes Jon Snow’s acquaintance in A Dance with Dragons. So among notable wildling women, that leaves Mance Rayder’s wife Dalla, vicious warrior Harma the Dogshead, and wildling leader Mother Mole.

In A Dance with Dragons, Mother Mole led a contingent of wildlings to Hardhome, a wildling settlement, to wait for rescue. We know that the show will be visiting Hardhome this year, so Sørensen playing Mother Mole would make sense. Then again, Mother Mole is described as a woods witch, who are traditionally a decrepit lot, something that doesn’t really describe Sørensen. She could still play an aged-down version of Mother Mole or, more likely, a new amalgamated character who combines different aspects from other characters.

Or she really is just a terrified extra. We’ll have to wait until episode 5.8 to be sure.