Does Randyll Tarly hate the wildlings in the books?

Question

In Game of Thrones S06 E06 Blood of My Blood, Randyll Tarly is extremely vocal in his hatred of wildlings. Do the books ever show or describe him as having such feelings towards them?

I ask because I was somewhat surprised by the scene. In general the seven kingdoms are disinterested in and have neglected the Night's Watch. Horn Hill is probably close to two thousand miles from The Wall, and a proud lord of the Reach like Randyll Tarly would not be concerned about the skirmishes between poor Northern houses and wildlings, or so I would've thought.

Answer 1

In one word, Nope.

But seeing the kind of person Randyll Tarly is, he would be exactly the sort of guy who'd side with people advocating genocide of Wildlings or at least letting them die of their own accord.

Since the Tarlys dwell far in South, it is impossible that the Tarlys ever suffered from Wildling raiders in history so the Tarlys don't have any personal cause for hatred of Wildlings like Mors Umber does whose only daughter was abducted by raiders from beyond the wall. Randyll Tarly however strikes me as a man who would be Xenophobic so I suppose the only thing he feels for Wildlings is sheer contempt born out of xenophobia.

Nevertheless, at that time, Tarly was busy expelling Northmen from Riverlands-Crownlands border regions , sorting out Maidenpool and arranging the marriage of his son Dickon. Later he was moving on Kings Landing in the aftermath of Margaery's arrest by The Faith while all the drama with the Wildling invasion and later resettlement was unfolding.

He never said anything about Wildlings.

Wildlings were a problem of the North and Warden of the North Roose Bolton. Tarly served the Warden of the South, Mace Tyrell. He had more pressing concerns like performing the duty of clearing the Riverlands from Bandits; which the Crown charged him with & later of getting ready to free Queen Margaery, a duty he owed to his liege lord Mace Tyrell. As you correctly state, What happened thousands of leagues away in Northern wilderness was not his concern or in any way threatening for him.

However if he gets appointed Hand of the King in light of Kevan's murder, I suppose then he would have to form some opinion about wildling resettlement and do something about it. Only then would we be able to learn his thoughts about the Freefolk for sure.

Answer 2

Randyll Tarly hasn't been very heavily featured in the books as of yet, other than references Sam has made, therefore there is little canonical information about him. However, we can speculate based on what we do know.

We know that he places honor very highly on his list of priorities. He staunchly supported Aerys Targaryen, his rightful king, during Robert's rebellion, as well as supporting his liege lord Mace Tyrell during the War of the Five Kings.

He also didn't want shame brought upon his house by Sam inheriting Horn Hill, as he saw him as weak as he wasn't good at fighting and wouldn't have been able to lead his people into battle.

He also didn't want Sam to become a Maester, despite the fact that he was clearly very well suited to the role, as he didn't want his son serving other lords. Even though he despises his son, he still sees that he has the Tarly name and wants him to do what he can to bring pride to it.

So considering that he places so much pride in his name and his honor, simply having the perception that Wildlings are bad people, and don't belong in Westeros (as most people in the seven kingdoms believe), would be enough for him to form a very strong opinion as to what is right and wrong with something he realistically knows absolutely nothing about, simply because the realm at large considers them an enemy.

He may also have been angry that his oldest son had not only broken his oath to the Night's Watch to father no children, he had the child with an enemy of the kingdoms, and if word got out it would bring a lot of dishonor to him and his family.

Answer 3

In the books, the plan is for Gilly to travel to Horn Hill, like we see in the show. However, this has not yet occurred in the books.

Remember Randyll Tarly is the type of man who would kill his own son because he thought that son to not be worthy of the Tarly name. His hate for Wildlings would just be there even if he never encountered one himself.

Answer 4

They trade with them out of necessity, not because they wish to be chummy with them. The consensus view of wildings is that they are a brutish, savage, dirty, uncivilized mob.

They mutinied and killed the Lord Commander for allowing Wildlings into the North. It was considered a grave betrayal. Since people generally view White Walkers as mythical boogey-people, then the view of the Wall must be that it's meant to keep the wildlings out, yes? You don't build a wall like that to keep out those you don't fear or despise.

So, yeah, it's not like anyone, particularly as you go further south where they don't have interactions with wildlings, views them as misunderstood people who just like to live differently.

Answer 5

Ummm.... in the books, and in the show, EVERYONE hates the wildlings, so, yes, the idea of the son he sent to the Watch, because he wasn't fit to represent the family name, coming back with a wildling (assumed) wife/baby-mama in tow would put that kind of a jerk over the edge.