Highlights
- In Game of Thrones season 1, Jon Snow receives the Valyrian steel sword Longclaw from Lord Commander Mormont as a reward for saving his life.
- Mormont considers Jon his surrogate son and believes he is worthy of the honor of wielding Longclaw.
- Jon later uses Longclaw to fight both the living and the Dead, proving its effectiveness against White Walkers due to its Valyrian steel construction.
In Game of Thrones season 1, episode 9 "Baelor," Jon Snow visits Lord Commander Jeor Mormont in his chamber and receives his ancestral Valyrian steel sword - Longclaw as a reward for saving his life from a Wight. "It's called Longclaw. Works as well for a wolf as a bear, I think," Lord Commander says. While Jeor Mormont hails from Bear Island in the North and is fondly called the Old Bear, Jon is known as Ned Stark's bastard and, a wolf, owing to House Stark's sigil. Mormont replaces his sword's old pommel and has the new one designed in the shape of a wolf, and proudly passes on House Mormont heirloom to Jon.
By the events of Game of Thrones' "Baelor," Jon is still relatively new at the Night's Watch, but it's clear that he's become Mormont's surrogate son. The Lord Commander finds his own son, the exiled, Jorah Mormont unworthy of Longclaw and bestows the precious weapon upon his personal steward, Jon. It's uncommon for someone belonging to the order of the Stewards at the Night's Watch to receive a gift from the Lord Commander, much less an heirloom Valyrian steel sword, but Mormont is grooming Jon to lead the Night's Watch and his blade is stepping stone to Jon's leadership.
Longclaw in Game Of Thrones
Upon receiving Longclaw, Jon (Kit Harington in Game of Thrones) removes it from the scabbard and discovers it's made from Valyrian steel. Mormont is then compelled to narrate the story behind his sword. He tells Jon he inherited the blade from his father. The reason why Longclaw isn't in Jorah's ownership is because he was exiled from the North by Ned Stark for selling slaves:
The Mormonts have carried it for five centuries. It was meant for my son, Jorah. He brought dishonor to our House, but he had the grace to leave the sword before he fled from Westeros.
The Old Bear shows faith in Jon and admits that if it wasn't for him and his direwolf, Ghost, he wouldn't be alive at all. He commands Jon to take his sword and the latter complies. The Old Bear tells Jon to put it somewhere safe:
That's a man's sword. It will take a man to wield it.
Mormont knows he's made the right decision as no one's more worthy of the honor than his personal steward. Jon's friends and brothers at the Night's Watch praise him and tell him he earned Longclaw. His friends demand to see the sword, and he lets Grenn, Pyp, and the rest hold it.
History Of Longclaw
The Valyrian steel bastard sword was briefly in Jorah Mormont's possession, but he left it behind and Jeor's sister, Maege returned it to him. A hand-and-a-half sword, Longclaw's size edges somewhere between a longsword/ broadsword and a two-handed greatsword. As seen in Game of Thrones, Jon's sword has a long grip for two-handed use. In Game of Thrones season 7, episode 6 "Beyond the Wall," Jon and Jorah discuss Lord Commander Mormont's time with the Night's Watch. Jon tries to give back Longclaw to Jorah thinking he has no right to have it as it is the ancestral House Mormont sword:
Your father gave me this sword. Changed the pommel from a bear to a wolf, but it's still Longclaw.
Jorah holds Longclaw for a while but gives it back to Jon knowing the young man will put it to good use.
Jon And His Longclaw
In Game of Thrones season 1, episode 10 "Fire and Blood," Jon returns to the Night's Watch after briefly deserting it to march South alongside his half-brother, Robb Stark. Jeor is aware of his desertion and tells him that the simmering conflict beyond the Wall is far more important than the conflict in the Seven Kingdoms. He says the Dead are a different league of enemies and the living stand no chance against them if they keep indulging in petty squabbles. Jon wields Longclaw the next day when he, Ghost, and the men of the Watch under the Old Bear's command ride out beyond the Wall to check on reports of abandoned villages, fires blazing in the mountains, the unification of the Wildling tribes at secret strongholds and finally, the discovery of blue-eyed corpses outside Eastwatch. This ranging beyond the Wall makes Jon a true brother of the Night's Watch.
Jon wields his Longclaw sword as a changed man. He is forced to kill a fellow brother, and the legendary ranger, Qhorin Halfhand with it in order to infiltrate into Mance Rayder's camp. Later on Thrones, Jon uses Longclaw to fight the Dead at Hardhome and smashes a White Walker to smithereens with it. After the Massacre at Hardhome, Jon and Samwell Tarly deduce that Longclaw was able to shatter a White Walker because it's fashioned out of Valyrian steel. While the Walker easily shattered steel axes with his mysterious crystallized blade, Valyrian steel, on the other hand, proved lethal to him. Jon uses Longclaw in battles against the living as well as the Dead in Game of Thrones.