I haven’t read every essay you’ve done so perhaps you’ve addressed this already and I simply haven’t gotten to it, but were there any historical analogs to the mountain clans? In the sense that they seem to eschew some of the stereotypical “medieval lord” trappings moreso than any Northman in their ruggedness and less, for lack of a better word, “civilized” behavior, yet are still fiercely loyal to the Starks.