Deer

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A stag in the Kingswood - by Juan Carlos Barquet; ©Fantasy Flight Games

Deer are hoofed ruminant mammals similar to real-life deer.

Breeds and terms

Different species of deer exist in the known world, such as: elk,[1][2] great elk,[3] moose,[4][5] red deer,[2][3] and reindeer.[6] White harts are considered rare and magical.[7]

Deer and elk can be found in great numbers in the Forest of Qohor.[8]

Depending on the species, females are called does or hinds, whereas males are refer to as bucks, harts, or stags. Their youngs are called fawns.[9][10][11]

Culture

The black crowned stag of House Baratheon.

Several Westerosi Houses use deer or deer attributes on their coat of arms; stags for the Baratheons, Bollings, Durrandons, and Wensingtons; brown deer for the Hunts, fawns for the Cafferens, antlers for the Buckwells, and harts for the Hartes.[12]

In the wild, deer are hunted by wolves[13] and direwolves.[14] In Westeros, they are hunted for sport and game by men of noble birth.[15] Smallfolk are not allowed to hunt deer in a lord's woods, however. Being sent to the Wall is a common punishment for poaching.[16][17][18][3]

Red Deer Island is an island in the Red Fork of the Trident.[19]

Silver stags are coins used in the Seven Kingdoms.[20]

Kin of the Stag is a book written by Maester Hubert.[21]

Some of the men of the Frozen Shore wear antlers on their hats.[6]

History

Great elk have gone extinct south of the Wall just like giants, children of the forest, and direwolves.[3]

By royal decree, Lord Wyman Webber and his descendants were granted the right to hunt red deer in the Osgrey owned wood.[3]

King Aerys II Targaryen granted the smallfolk of the Kingswood the right to hunt a few deer during the autumn.[18]

Will was sent to the Night's Watch after being caught skinning a buck in Mallister's woods.[22]

Lord Yohn Royce brought back a buck to Winterfell after a hunt in the wolfswood with Lord Eddard Stark.[15]

Lord Randyll Tarly confronted his son, Samwell, about his view on the inheritance of their house and forced him to join the Night's Watch while skinning a deer.[23]

Recent Events

Coldhands astride his great elk - Art by Zippo514 ©

A Game of Thrones

A white hart is sighted in the kingswood, so King Robert Baratheon goes to hunt it with his royal retinue. His brother Renly and Ser Barristan Selmy join him.(AGOT Eddard IX) Sansa wishes that Joffrey would kill the white hart instead of Robert, noting that white harts are believed to be rare and magical.

Ultimately, Robert did not find the white hart until it was too late: wolves killed and devoured it before the hunters arrived, and left behind little more than hooves and horns. Robert was infuriated, until scouts brought word that a monstrous boar was sighted deeper in the forest, and Robert went off to pursue it.(AGOT Eddard XII)

After fleeing King's Landing, Arya Stark repeats to herself phrases Syrio Forel taught her, "Swift as a deer." being one of them.[24][25][26]

A Clash of Kings

Patchface wears a mock helm fashioned from an old tin bucket strapped with a rack of deer antlers.[27]

Yoren commands the former poachers, Koss and Kurz, to go hunt in the woods to feed their group marching towards the Wall. They come back with deer or quails.[17]

The lands on Cape Wrath given to Ser Davos Seaworth by Lord Stannis Baratheon include woods containing red deer.[28]

Summer and Shaggydog kill and eat a young elk in the wolfswood.[2]

The White Hart and Stag of the Sea are both destroyed by wildfire during the Battle of the Blackwater.[29]

A Storm of Swords

The roof of Mance Rayder's tent is crowned with a set of a great elk's antlers.[30]

Bran Stark hunts a deer while skingchanging Summer.[31]

Coldhands travels the lands beyond the Wall on a great elk.[32]

References