The World of Panem
Interpreting Society, Geography, and Characters of the Hunger Games
Considering a Katniss-Covey Family Connection
(Spoiler Alert for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes)
by Eddie Mikus, guest contributor.
A popular fan theory that emerged after The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes (TBOSAS) came out this past May involves the idea that Katniss Everdeen could be related to a member of the Covey. Despite the almost-canon acceptance of this theory, however, its proponents overlook a fair amount of evidence against it.
For one thing, Katniss-Covey proponents often ignore a number differences between Katniss and the Covey. For example, according to Maude Ivory, the Covey use the following custom for naming children: a first name taken from a ballad and a middle name taken from a color (BSS 436). Members of the Everdeen family who are named in the original trilogy do not follow this custom. Instead, “Katniss” and “Primrose” are types of plants, while Collins has said that the surname “Everdeen” is adapted from one that occurs in Thomas Hardy’s novel Far From The Madding Crowd. Throughout TBOSAS, the Covey are portrayed as people who try to maintain a distinct identity from the rest of District 12—something Coriolanus Snow himself points out (meaning that it is a little suspect that they would give up this particular custom).
Furthermore, shortly after TBOSAS released, the American bookstore Barnes And Noble hosted an Instagram Live discussion between two of the book’s editors, David Levithan and Katie Egan. During that discussion, Levithan stated that Suzanne Collins told him that Clerk Carmine was in Finnick and Annie’s wedding.
(I should clarify that Instagram Live deletes videos after 24 hours, so no video of this conversation was preserved. However, I remember hearing it personally, and I have also seen it occasionally referenced on other Hunger Games social media).
Anyhow, in Mockingjay, Katniss states that the music in the wedding, “is provided by a choir of children accompanied by the lone fiddler who made it out of 12 with his instrument” (MJ 226). If we take Levithan’s statement about Clerk Carmine to be canon, then it’s safe to assume that Clerk Carmine was the lone fiddler, as this is the same instrument he played in the Covey’s band. Two paragraphs later, Katniss says, “After the kiss that seals the union, the cheers, and a toast with apple cider, the fiddler strikes up a tune that turns every head from 12” (MJ 226). At no point, however, does Katniss identify the fiddler or say that he knew her parents—in fact, had Levithan not said so explicitly, I don’t think that there would be enough evidence to support this particular theory. This is incredibly odd if we hold that Maude Ivory or someone else in the Covey were related to Katniss, since it would imply that the Covey did not introduce their own children to one another.
Another variant of the Katniss-Covey theory involves the notion that Katniss’s ancestry runs through Lucy Gray. While this makes sense on some level as a link between two female victors, it completely undermines the storyline for both characters. For Lucy Gray, being an ancestress of Katniss would run counter to the fact that her fate was deliberately left a mystery at the end of TBOSAS—as is the case for the girl in the ballad from which Lucy Gray took her name. For Katniss, being related to Lucy Gray undermines the hero’s quest aspect of the original trilogy, since it would already make Katniss a person of stature prior to the 74th Hunger Games.
Don’t just take it from me, however. Take it from Katniss Everdeen herself. There are at least two points in the original trilogy where Katniss could have plausibly mentioned that she had an ancestress win the Hunger Games. The first occurs during the 74th Reaping, where Katniss says, “Then [the mayor] reads the list of past District 12 victors. In seventy-four years, we’ve had exactly two. Only one is still alive. Haymitch Abernathy…” (THG 19). This statement is especially noteworthy, since it implies that Katniss would have heard Lucy Gray’s name read at the Reaping—in which case it would make sense to state a relation to Lucy Gray. (I realize that Dr. Gaul erased the tapes of the 10th Hunger Games, but it’s also worth noting that Katniss states that she did not hear much about Haymitch’s Games in school—most likely because of Haymitch’s using the arena as a weapon).
The other occasion where it would have made sense for Katniss to mention being related to a victor occurs in Catching Fire, in a passage in which she is describing the fallout of trying to calm the Districts by maintaining a relationship with Peeta. In describing the potential effects that she and Peeta could face, Katniss states, “Victors’ children have been in the ring before. It always causes a lot of excitement and generates talk about how the odds are not in that family’s favor. But it happens too frequently to be about odds. Gale’s convinced the Capitol does it on purpose, rigs the drawings to add extra drama” (CF 45). If Katniss were related in any way to a previous victor, it kind of feels like we would have heard some of this chatter in the first book—which we don’t. In particular, it also feels like this is something that Gale would have brought up personally given his otherwise well-known and publicly exhibited anti-Capitol sentiment.
At the end of the day, I realize why people want to link Katniss to someone in TBOSAS, given Katniss’ prominence in the original trilogy. While first reading TBOSAS, I noticed that Lil’s character description of “long black hair and olive skin,” was somewhat similar to Katniss’s description of “Straight black hair, olive skin…grey eyes.” While re-reading the book, I noticed that Lil’s brother Spruce had grey eyes. My initial reaction to this was that Lil in particular would be related to Katniss. I don’t see this possibility as likely, insofar as Lil is hanged with Sejanus at the end of TBOSAS. Perhaps it is just better to accept the original trilogy and TBOSAS as different works that exist within the same canon and universe.
(Eddie Mikus is a 2015 graduate of Fordham University and is currently a middle school social studies teacher in New York. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the blog owner and are provided to encourage ongoing thought and dialogue.)
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Tom Paradis
This site inspired by a first-year seminar on the Hunger Games at Butler University.
The World of Panem 
All of these arguments rely on the notion that Katniss would have known/had Covey traditions. My theory is that her father (who loved to sing and sang Lucy’s song) was Covey but left them to marry Katniss’s mother. Her mother did NOT like him singing to the girls or sharing that part of his life. It would NOT be logical that they would have followed Covey naming traditions.
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