Jorah Mormont
An exiled knight of Bear Island, the disgraced son of the Old Bear, serving as sword and counsel to a young Targaryen princess across the sea ÔÇö and falling under her spell.
A soul born at Bear Island, sworn to House Mormont.
The fuller tale
Season Three
Dany offers a dragon for eight thousand Unsullied; Jorah and Barristan protest in unison.
Season Four
In The Mountain and the Viper ÔÇö One old parchment undoes years of penance. Ser Barristan hands Jorah a royal pardon signed by Robert Baratheon: the spying is out; Dany exiles him.
Where they stand. Meereen.
Season Five
In Kill the Boy ÔÇö Pulls Tyrion from the water; hides a grey patch on his wrist. Tyrion and Jorah sail through ruined Valyria, past stone men ÔÇö and one grabs the dwarf. Jorah's 'gift' to the queen in a Meereen pit is Tyrion Lannister, alive and bowing. Dany takes Tyrion as advisor and sends Jorah away a second time.
Season Seven
Sam risks his chains to cut the greyscale from Ser Jorah in a locked cell. Jorah returns cured; Gendry returns rowed; Jon plans madness: capture a wight to convince two queens.
Where they stand. Oldtown, Dragonstone and King's Landing.
Season Eight
In The Long Night ÔÇö Fell shielding his queen, sword in hand, at last content.
Where they stand. Winterfell.
How it ends for them
On the screen. Fell defending his queen (S8┬ÀE3)
The exile who betrayed his queen, was banished twice, and came back both times died in the snow at Winterfell with his sword in his hand, taking blow after blow meant for Daenerys. He fell at her feet; a dragon mourned over them both.
In the show Jorah dies at the Battle of Winterfell, in the Long Night of the eighth season, exactly where every viewer always knew he would die: between Daenerys and the swords coming for her. When Drogon is driven from the sky and the queen is left standing in the open among the dead, Jorah cuts his way to her and plants himself, taking wound after wound through the last hour of the battle, Heartsbane ÔÇö Sam TarlyÔÇÖs family blade, passed to him in the smithy of the man whose family judged him ÔÇö in his hands. He falls only when the battle is already won, dying in her arms in the snow while Drogon lands and curls a wing around them both: the bear, the dragon, and the queen, the whole hopeless devotion granted one perfect image.
In the published books Jorah Mormont is alive ÔÇö branded, exiled, unransomed and unredeemed, riding with the Second Sons in the war for Meereen, still carrying his ruin toward whatever ending Martin intends. Book readers note the elder MormontÔÇÖs dying wish at CrasterÔÇÖs Keep ÔÇö find my son, tell him to take the black ÔÇö as a road sign the novels may yet honor; the show, having given Jorah a better death than the Wall could, let the old bearÔÇÖs wish go unkept.
Their chapters, book by book
A Game of Thrones 2 chapters that name them
Daenerys IV
In Vaes Dothrak Daenerys eats the stallion's heart and the crones name her son the stallion who mounts the world; Jorah stops Viserys stealing her eggs.
Daenerys V
In the market of Vaes Dothrak a wineseller pours poison for the dragon's daughter; Jorah's suspicion saves her, and Drogo promises his son the iron chair.A Dance with Dragons 4 chapters that name them
Where the page and the screen part
The largest divergence is medical: JorahÔÇÖs greyscale is a show invention, transplanted from the booksÔÇÖ Jon Connington, who contracts it saving Tyrion from the stone men of the Sorrows. With Connington cut from the show entirely, his disease, his devotion, and something of his doomed-loyalist flavor were folded into Jorah ÔÇö an elegant compression that also handed the show its Sam-and-Jorah Citadel sequence, which has no book counterpart. Book JorahÔÇÖs road is grimmer and less romantic: sold at auction to the Yunkish lord Yezzan zo Qaggaz alongside Tyrion and the dwarf girl Penny, branded on the cheek with a demonÔÇÖs mask, escaping in the chaos of the pale mare to join the Second Sons as the siege of Meereen tightens.
The booksÔÇÖ Jorah is also a rougher character ÔÇö older, blunter, and pushier in his affections, including an unasked-for kiss the show declined to keep ÔÇö and he remains alive in the published novels, a sellsword with a slaveÔÇÖs brand waiting on a battle that has not yet been fought. His show ending, dying at his queenÔÇÖs feet in the Long Night, is the seriesÔÇÖ own composition from start to finish.
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.