Rattleshirt
The Lord of Bones, a boastful wildling raider armored in the clattering bones of dead men and beasts, loud and vicious in equal measure.
A soul born at Beyond the Wall, sworn to The Free Folk.
The fuller tale
How it ends for them
On the screen. Beaten down before the free folk (a different fate in the books) (S5┬ÀE8)
The Lord of Bones sneered one taunt too many at Tormund in front of the free folk gathered at Hardhome. Tormund took his own staff off him and beat him dead with it, then asked for the crowd's next objection.
On the page. Burned in a king's skin (ADWD, ch. 11)
The Lord of Bones burned before the Wall wearing a king's face: Melisandre's glamour made the free folk see Mance Rayder in the flames. The real bag of bones died screaming in another man's name ÔÇö her ruby's cruelest trick.
His two deaths could not be less alike. In the books he dies in another manÔÇÖs skin: condemned in Mance RayderÔÇÖs place, wrapped in MelisandreÔÇÖs glamour, the Lord of Bones burns in a cage before the Wall screaming under a kingÔÇÖs face, and not even his executioners know whom the fire is actually eating. It is among the crueler deaths in the saga ÔÇö anonymous by design, his last agony credited to a man he hated. The showÔÇÖs version is almost merciful by comparison: at Hardhome, when Rattleshirt jeers once too often at the crowsÔÇÖ peace offer and calls Tormund a traitor, Tormund takes the bone-lordÔÇÖs own staff from him and beats him to death with it in front of the assembled chieftains, then asks if anyone else objects. Nobody does; the meeting proceeds over his body.
Their chapters, book by book
Where the page and the screen part
The show keeps the bones and discards nearly everything else. Screen-Rattleshirt is a minor heavy ÔÇö JonÔÇÖs captor in the Skirling Pass, a heckler at Hardhome ÔÇö while book-Rattleshirt is loaded with one of the sagaÔÇÖs strangest destinies: after the battle, MelisandreÔÇÖs ruby glamour swaps his seeming with Mance RayderÔÇÖs, and it is Rattleshirt who burns in ManceÔÇÖs shape before the assembled Wall while the true king stands by wearing the bone-lordÔÇÖs rattling shirt. For weeks afterward, the man everyone at Castle Black despises as Rattleshirt ÔÇö sparring brutally with Jon, sneering from under the giantÔÇÖs skull ÔÇö is Mance Rayder in disguise, one of the booksÔÇÖ best-hidden tricks. The show, having no glamour plot, spent the character as crowd color and gave him a quick, crowd-pleasing exit at TormundÔÇÖs hands.
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.