Brienne of Tarth
The Maid of Tarth: a huge, plain, earnest young noblewoman who wants only to be a knight, mocked by men she could best with either hand, and truer than any of them.
A soul born at Evenfall Hall, sworn to House Tarth.
The fuller tale
Season Two
In What Is Dead May Never Die ÔÇö Wins a place in Renly's Kingsguard with a sword's argument. Catelyn treats with Renly's hundred thousand at his tourney camp ÔÇö and meets Brienne of Tarth. In The Ghost of Harrenhal ÔÇö Watched a shadow with her king's face kill him. Brienne, blamed and hunted, swears her sword to Catelyn Stark.
In The Prince of Winterfell ÔÇö One prisoner, one oath, one very long river. Robb learns his mother freed the Kingslayer and puts her under guard; Brienne rows Jaime south. Brienne and Jaime go south; Robb marries Talisa and breaks his word to Walder Frey.
Where they stand. Storm's End and The Crag.
Season Three
Brienne and Jaime cross swords on a bridge and lose to Locke's men. In Walk of Punishment ÔÇö Survives the night because a Lannister lied for her. Jaime, feverish in a bath, tells Brienne why the Mad King's blood is on his white cloak. In The Bear and the Maiden Fair ÔÇö A tourney sword against a bear; help arrives all the same.
Jaime, freed for King's Landing, turns his escort around for Brienne ÔÇö and jumps into a bear pit with no hand.
Where they stand. Harrenhal and King's Landing.
Season Four
In Oathkeeper ÔÇö Rides out with a Valyrian blade, new armor, and Podrick Payne. Jaime gives Brienne his Valyrian sword and a quest: find Sansa, keep her safe. She names it Oathkeeper. Brienne and the Hound fight over Arya; Arya leaves him begging for mercy she won't give ÔÇö and sails for Braavos.
Where they stand. The Bloody Gate.
Season Five
In The House of Black and White ÔÇö Two Stark girls, two refusals ÔÇö the oath holds anyway. Brienne finds Sansa at an inn with Littlefinger; her oath is refused a second time. Stannis's host deserts; Brienne finally gets her sentence ÔÇö and Ramsay's men get the field.
Season Six
In The Red Woman ÔÇö "I swear that I shall always keep her secrets..." Accepted, at last. Sansa and Theon are run down in the snow ÔÇö until Brienne's oath is finally accepted. In No One ÔÇö Failed to move the Blackfish; kept the sword and the mission.
Where they stand. Castle Black, Riverrun and Winterfell.
Season Seven
Arya comes home to Winterfell; the reunion is warm, the sparring with Brienne is warmer.
Where they stand. King's Landing.
Season Eight
In A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms ÔÇö Arise, Ser Brienne of Tarth, a knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Jaime stands trial in Winterfell's hall; Brienne's word outweighs two queens' grudges. One last night: songs by the fire, wine, Podrick singing ÔÇö and Jaime knights Brienne of Tarth. In The Iron Throne ÔÇö Lord Commander; finishes a certain white book's page properly.
Where they stand. Winterfell and King's Landing.
How it ends for them
The chronicle records no death for this soul ÔÇö they are living when the tale leaves them, or their ending is a page the maesters have yet to turn.
Their chapters, book by book
A Clash of Kings 3 chapters that name them
A Storm of Swords 3 chapters that name them
A Feast for Crows 8 chapters of their own, and 1 more that name them
A Dance with Dragons 1 chapter that name them
Where the page and the screen part
The books' Brienne is a point-of-view character on a road the show never takes: her fourth-book quest through the ruined Riverlands ÔÇö with Podrick Payne, a conscript guide, and a trail of the war's orphans ÔÇö is the saga's long meditation on what knighthood owes the smallfolk, and it ends on the story's most argued cliffhanger: captured by the Brotherhood under its terrible new leadership, sentenced for carrying a Lannister sword, and shouting a single unrecorded word as the noose tightens. The show cut the entire arc, spent her instead on found scenes ÔÇö the duel with the Hound, Stannis's end, Riverrun's siege ÔÇö and resolved her story with honors the books still hold hostage. Her face, too, diverges: book Brienne carries a mauling that the show never inflicts, part of the books' insistence that her road pays its tolls in flesh.
Their journey
Where the two tellings send them to the same place the road runs whole; where they part, the screen keeps the left and the books the right.