Ned Stark, played by the fantasy icon Sean Bean, was everyone’s favorite character in Game of Thrones Season 1. And, when you have a legend like Sean Bean, you must ensure he gets plenty of time to shine in the swordsmanship department.
However, while Ned Stark impressed fans with his blade skills on two epic occasions in the show, was he actually that good in the books? Could he really compete with someone like Jaime Lannister in the novels?
Ned Stark was a good swordsman in Game of Thrones, but not elite
In Game of Thrones Season 1, Episode 5, “The Wolf and the Lion,” fans are treated to a one-on-one (kind of) duel between Ned Stark and Jaime Lannister, played by the brilliant Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The clash occurs right after Ned visits one of Littlefinger’s brothels while investigating his friend and king’s many illegitimate children. Jaime rolls up as Ned is leaving with several Lannister men-at-arms. After Ned kills some of them, his friend Jory is slain by Jaime. The wolf and lion then tangle. While it appears to be an even matchup, with Ned possibly having the slight edge, the duel is interrupted when one of the Lannister guards stabs the House Stark patriarch in the leg with a spear.
In the books, this scene was radically different, literally in the night and day sense. In Game of Thrones, the novel, Ned and Jory are accosted at night by Jaime and his men at night, while it’s rainy. Everyone in the scene is on horseback. As George R.R. Martin noted in a 2012 interview, the scene was likely changed due to budget and shooting logistics. It’s also important to note that in the book, Jaime doesn’t take part in the fighting and leaves his men to deal with Ned. So, while we never get to see the two directly fight in the books, we do have additional insights from Martin to draw from regarding their respective skills.
In 2012, Martin sat down with MTV. During an interview, he was asked a series of questions that pit Lord of the Rings characters against his own from A Song of Ice and Fire. When the hypothetical matchup of Bormir vs. Ned Stark came up (hilarious image of Sean Bean fighting Sean Bean), the author went with Boromir. “I think Boromir is probably more of a warrior than Ned was,” Martin told MTV. “Ned was more of a lord, a ruler, a diplomat, a general” (per Digital Spy). On the other hand, when Martin got asked about a Jaime Lannister-Aragorn clash at a fan convention, he gave the edge to a healthy and unmaimed Jaime.
In the books, Jaime was simply a fighting marvel. Even Brienne admits this in A Feast For Crows. “It had been all that she could do to keep his blade at bay. He was weak from his imprisonment and chained at the wrists. No knight in the Seven Kingdoms could have stood against him at his full strength, with no chains to hamper him. Jaime had done many wicked things, but the man could fight!” she thinks to herself in her first chapter. This is important to note because in the books, while many characters revere Ned, nobody remembers him specifically for his swordsmanship. Again, in A Feast For Crows, in Sansa’s first chapter, she vividly remembers Ned and Rodrik Cassel sparring against Yohn Royce. “She could see him in the yard, practice sword in hand, hammering her father to the ground and turning to defeat Ser Rodrik as well.”
Add all of these long-winded details up, and it can be surmised that Ned Stark, in the books, was a good swordsman but not the all-time great they made him out to be in the show. Again, to be fair to HBO, when you have freaking Sean Bean as your main star, you can’t make him anything but an epic and cool fighter. We should also take note of Ned’s humble character. In the books, Bran remembers his father flat out telling him that in his fight against Arthur Dayne — arguably the greatest swordsman to have ever lived in Westerosi history — he would have died if Howland Reed hadn’t been there. “The finest knight I ever saw was Ser Arthur Dayne, who fought with a blade called Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star. They called him the Sword of the Morning, and he would have killed me but for Howland Reed.”