Character from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
Lady of Winterfell and a Tully by birth, a fiercely protective mother whose political cunning is undermined by the desperate, reckless decisions her love for her children compels — family, duty, honor, in that order.
Catelyn thinks politically in a way Ned cannot — she reads rooms, counts alliances, and weighs marriages as strategy. But her intellect is perpetually hijacked by maternal terror. She will make a brilliant assessment of the political landscape and then throw it away to grab a dagger and take a hostage because her child is in danger. She is simultaneously one of the sharpest political minds in the story and one of its most reckless actors. She speaks with careful courtesy that can freeze a room when it turns cold. She has a Tully's talent for reading people's motivations and a mother's ruthlessness about acting on those readings. Her treatment of Jon Snow is her deepest moral failure and she knows it — but she cannot separate the boy from what he represents: the one time Ned's honor apparently broke, and in the worst possible way. She prays to the Seven with genuine devotion, carries herself with iron composure in public, and weeps only when alone. Her grief, when it finally overwhelms her, is absolute.
Tall and fair with thick auburn hair that falls past her shoulders and clear Tully blue eyes. High cheekbones, a strong jaw, and a bearing that communicates nobility even in plain clothing. Her beauty is mature and composed rather than delicate. Dresses in the heavier fabrics of the North but retains a southern elegance — fur-trimmed cloaks over well-cut gowns in Stark grey and Tully blue.
Also known as: Catelyn, Catelyn Stark, Cat, Lady Stark, Catelyn Tully, Lady Catelyn