Jeyne Poole
| House / Order | None (household of House Stark) |
|---|---|
| Race / Culture | |
| Status | Alive (in the novels) |
| Origin | Winterfell; later King's Landing and the North |
| Born | 286 AC (approx.) |
| Died | — |
| Weapon | |
| Fate | Forced to impersonate Arya Stark and wed to Ramsay Bolton; later helped to flee by Theon Greyjoy |
| Portrayed by |
Jeyne Poole is the daughter of Vayon Poole, the steward of Winterfell, and was the closest childhood friend of Sansa Stark. A minor figure in the early novels, Jeyne becomes the center of one of the saga's most harrowing storylines when she is coerced into impersonating the lost Arya Stark and married to the sadistic Ramsay Bolton.
Background
As the steward's daughter, Jeyne grew up within the household of House Stark at Winterfell and was Sansa Stark's dearest friend and companion. When Lord Eddard Stark traveled south to King's Landing to serve as Hand of the King, he brought his daughters and members of his household, including Jeyne and her father, with him.
After the fall of House Stark
During the arrest and execution of Eddard Stark, Jeyne's father Vayon Poole was killed along with much of the Stark household in the capital. Jeyne herself vanished into the keeping of Littlefinger, placed in one of his brothels. She disappears from the narrative for a long stretch.
Impersonating Arya Stark
She reemerges as a pawn in the schemes of House Lannister and House Bolton. To secure the Boltons' hold on the North, the crown needed a Stark heir to wed Roose Bolton's bastard son Ramsay. With the true Arya Stark missing, Jeyne, who resembled Arya in age and coloring and had known her, was coached to pass as the lost Stark girl. She was sent north and married to Ramsay at Winterfell, where she endured terrible cruelty and abuse at his hands.
Theon Greyjoy, broken in body and spirit and known then as "Reek," recognized that the bride was not truly Arya. Moved at last to an act of conscience, Theon helped Jeyne escape the castle, the two of them leaping from the walls into the snow to flee toward the army of Stannis Baratheon. As of the latest published novel, her fate after that flight remains unresolved.
Character
Jeyne Poole is an ordinary girl swept up and destroyed by forces far beyond her, embodying the unnamed suffering inflicted on the powerless during the wars of the great houses. Her plight, and Theon's decision to save her, mark the turning point in his long arc of degradation and the first stirring of his redemption.
In the television series
In HBO's Game of Thrones, the role Jeyne plays in the novels, the false Stark bride wed to Ramsay, is given instead to Sansa Stark, who is married to Ramsay in the show. Jeyne herself appears only briefly in the first season as Sansa's friend.