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I was reading this answer to a question What is Petyr Baelish's Endgame with Sansa?

Now in it they mention

"With Catelyn dead (or undead, as it turns out)"

Now I don't recollect any where from the books that it mentions

she is undead

Can someone please clarify this for me?

(I have read all the books and watch the TV series, but please put spoiler tags in for other people)

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    @yondaime008 They dropped it altogether? I remember reading they dropped from last season, not necessarily from the show. Though maybe I'm wrong. It should be noted in the books this arc hasn't panned out yet; maybe it's a subtle hint GRRM didn't intend it to lead to anything (like it has happened to other subplots already!).
    – Andres F.
    Jan 22, 2015 at 16:29
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    Michelle Fairley spoke with Entertainment Weekly about her character's demise on "24: Live Another Day," and she confirmed that Catelyn's Red Wedding death is her final one. "The character's dead," Fairley says. "She's dead." Source: zap2it.com/blogs/…
    – yondaime008
    Jan 22, 2015 at 16:35
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    @AndresF. thanks I was struggling on that one
    – Dreamwalker
    Jan 22, 2015 at 16:36
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    @yondaime008 Agreed: Cat's ultimate fate seems to be irrelevant in the books. Possibly her only influence is on Brienne's fate, but that can be easily rewritten for another character. I'm all for cutting cruft from the TV show; if you want dead-end characters, you can always read the books :)
    – Andres F.
    Jan 22, 2015 at 16:38
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    @yondaime008 Yup. Ok, Brienne and Jaime. I forgot about Jaime :P I still think Cat's character can be re-written to be someone else, acting out of different motives. Maybe not "easily" as I said, but it can be done :)
    – Andres F.
    Jan 22, 2015 at 17:16

2 Answers 2

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In A Feast for Crows, almost at the end, chapter titled Brienne (page 897, if you have one of the small paperbacks):

She captures Brienne and hangs her after the Red Wedding. It is, so far, the last we know of what happens to Catelyn.

Whether that qualifies Catelyn as undead or not depends on what one means by "undead." If "undead" means she is a mindless zombie similar to those raised by the White Walkers, then probably not. If, however, it is something more akin to Beric Dondarrion, then yes.

That said, as Beric puts it, you lose something every time you are brought back. Dying and coming back as a lesser version of oneself could fairly safely be described as being undead.

Check out the very last chapter in A Storm of Swords as well.

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  • Just add some spoiler tags all over the answer, there are major spoilers here !
    – yondaime008
    Jan 22, 2015 at 9:04
  • Spoilers?? For a book series that is old (started back in the '90es)?? why would you open this question if you didn't know the answer? and if you were just curious then you aren't a SPOILERALERT freak.
    – Cherubel
    Jan 22, 2015 at 11:22
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    @yondaime008 I changed the title of the question to help people avoid spoilers. I think that spoilers in the question's body, as well as the answers, are more or less unavoidable.
    – Andres F.
    Jan 22, 2015 at 16:34
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    She may not be like the Walker zombies, but she didn't come fully back like Beric, either. There was something about her being in the water too long or being drained of all blood (don't remember). She basically had one foot in the world, one in the grave.
    – Omegacron
    Jan 22, 2015 at 18:07
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    @Omegacron True. She wasn't mindless, but I don't think she could speak. Probably some other stuff too. Vocal cords cut, or yeah, water damage or something. I was mainly talking about whether the way she came back makes her undead. The damage to her body wasn't because of the way she returned.
    – Misha R
    Jan 22, 2015 at 18:24
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She was "resurrected" by Lord Beric Dondarrion after the Brotherhood without Banners found her in a river when she was dead for three days. She rose again as Lady Stoneheart.

Her face, Brienne thought. Her face was so strong and handsome, her skin so smooth and soft. "Lady Catelyn?" Tears filled her eyes. "They said... they said that you were dead."
"She is," said Thoros of Myr. "The Freys slashed her throat from ear to ear. When we found her by the river she was three days dead. Harwin begged me to give her the kiss of life, but it had been too long. I would not do it, so Lord Beric put his lips to hers instead, and the flame of life passed from him to her. And... she rose. May the Lord of Light protect us. She rose."
A Feast for Crows, Brienne VIII

As for whether she is undead the answer would appear to be yes as George R. R. Martin explains in an interview.

In my version of the story, Catelyn Stark is re-imbued with a kind of life and becomes this vengeful wight who galvanizes a group of people around her and is trying to exact her revenge on the riverlands.
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Right. And poor Beric Dondarrion, who was set up as the foreshadowing of all this, every time he’s a little less Beric. His memories are fading, he’s got all these scars, he’s becoming more and more physically hideous, because he’s not a living human being anymore. His heart isn’t beating, his blood isn’t flowing in his veins, he’s a wight, but a wight animated by fire instead of by ice, now we’re getting back to the whole fire and ice thing.
Time, George R. R. Martin on the One Game of Thrones Change He 'Argued Against

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