House Mormont of Bear Island is a small but storied northern house sworn to Winterfell. Bear Island is a hard place, half mountain and half forest, raided often by the ironborn and the wildlings, and the Mormonts have a hard reputation to match it. Their women are said to take up axe and spear when their men sail to war, and to give better than they get.
Lord Jeor Mormont put aside his seat to take the black and rose to Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. The ancestral Valyrian-steel longsword Longclaw goes with him to the Wall, and from there into the hand of Jon Snow. Bear Island is held by Jeor's sister Maege in his absence, with her daughter Dacey at her shoulder.