A Song of Ice and Fire - A Chapter a day discussion
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A Storm of Swords
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01/07/16 - Chapter 30: Jon IV
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Your point 7, I'd like to learn more about how it was made too. I think The World of Ice and Fire goes into some detail but not a whole lot. It's said Bran the Builder built it with the help of the children of the forest and giants, which would make sense how they maneuvered huge chunks of ice back then. And I recall there IS magic imbued into it. What exactly that does, I don't know, but I don't think the Wall just wants to keep out wildlings, lol. For me, it's strange how Ygritte feels the Wall hates her, almost. 1. Ghost ran off and Jon hopes he understood him about Castle Black. I’m pretty sure he did. Direwolves are smart. I wonder if the Sword of the Morning is the same constellation as the Ice Dragon. Looks like they’ve finally made it to the Wall.
2. The Thenns scout out with warhorns in case they find any rangers. The rest follow Jarl’s lead. The Wall is about 700-800 feet tall. All along the west, where there’s mountains, the Wall curves with the land. They choose a particularly tall hill to mount the ice a third of the way in. Smart. The forest helps hide them. The Thenns have never seen the Wall before and are scared of it. I like how the Wall is also the end of the world for them. “It was all in where you stood.”
3. Jon struggles with what to do about Ygritte. He wants to take her with him back to Castle Black but that wouldn’t go over well with the brothers. If he leaves her the Magnar may kill her. He briefly considers going back to the caves, awe.
4. Their tools are mostly made of antlers and animal bone. Jarl promises they’ll come back with castle-forged steel, right...when they take Castle Black from behind. According to Jon’s memory, patrols stumble across two or three raiders a year. Though Jon likes Jarl, he does not want them to succeed in this raiding. He particularly hopes Styr will die. Jon realizes the forest really needs to be cut back. There are three teams of four, Jarl leading.
5. Styr is ignorant of the fact that this climbing is very dangerous work. Jon can’t help but admire them for being so brave. Jon hopes a patrol will see this and do something. His father once said a wall is only as strong as the men who defend it, and unfortunately for the Night’s Watch there are just not enough men. Four patrols alone can take down 120 wildling raiders on the Wall.
6. The first time I read that Jarl plummeted to his death I didn’t care much, but now I feel bad. He was a pretty cool guy, but he got too cocky I guess. The other two teams make it to the top, though. They toss down five hempen rope ladders for the others to climb. Sounds terrifying.
7. I like how Ygritte says the Wall isn’t made of ice, it’s made of blood. By the time Jon and Ygritte reach the top it’s midnight; they’d spent all day climbing. Ygritte really hates this Wall. Jon tries to comfort her but she punches him, wtf woman... Finally she tells Jon something important: they’d been unearthing a bunch of graves in their search for the Horn of Joramun but they never found it. Instead, they let loose “all those shades” into the world. They were hoping to use the horn to bring the Wall down. I’m betting that horn in the cache Jon found in CoK is it. I wonder what shades she means. Ghosts? I hope not the white walkers.
That's really interesting! Yeah I don't think the Wall keeps the wildlings away, it's not like they touch it and die, lol. But I think it was mention the Wall had some magic, although I don't remember when. About your point 6, I didn't care either the first time. Maybe he got cocky like you said, and maybe the part he was climbing was not as strong as the ones the other teams were climbing. And now that I think about it, the ice falling probably did quite some noise. Maybe in Castle Black they didn't hear it (which is most likely) but this made me wonder if it's normal ice falls off from time to time, and they got used to it.
You know, about your point 7 I didn't know either what she meant by all those shades. I thought of ghost initially, but I wonder now if she meant something else. Although the white walkers are pretty solid, but it could be another way to call them.
2-The Wall was not built on uniform ground, so Jarl picked a place to climb where a third was earth and stone, and then the Wall began. The men of the Night’s Watch took care no trees were near the Wall, but they are so few now they don’t do it anymore. I forgot the Magnar and his men never saw the Wall before, and they were frightened. It’s huge after all.
3-Jon is having another war, and wonder on which side of the Wall he stands. Jon could tell Jarl’s men already climbed the Wall, and not just once. They were prepared, got rope, boots with spikes and ice axes. They divided the 11 climbers in groups of 4, and Jarl was his own group. Mance had a reward for the first group to reach the top: swords and their names on a song he would write. I forgot about it.
4-They start the climb, and Jarl was ahead of all of them. He started climbing a tree and then passed to the Wall, a tree that shouldn’t be so near the Wall Jon thinks. Grigg the Goat and Errok were the other liders, and were climbing in that order. The Magmar said they were climbing too slow, but it’s not easy, so I don’t blame them. That day the Wall was weeping, and Jon thought the wildlings were brave, and I agree. It’s so unsafe and they have to climb for so many hours!
5-Jon hopes a patrol shows up, but none does. Ned told him a wall is as strong as the men who defend it, and Jon believes a patrol can take them, but those castles are abandoned. A chunk of ice fell, Jarl was hanging from a rope and soon Grigg was really near to them, until his group was side to side with Jarl’s. I guess the price at the top keeps their hopes up and helps them get going. Jon thinks their legs must be numb by now, and I don’t know how they keep climbing to be honest. They’ve been climbing for 6 hours, which is insane.
6-They heard a crack, and soon ice and men were falling. Jarl ended up impaled in a branch, and his team was gone. Jon thinks the Wall defends itself, and it might though. They burned the bodies; Grigg reached the top, and later did Errok. Jon thought they would have to climb up a rope, but the wildlings were prepared, and they ended up climbing ladders.
7-Ygritte said something interesting, she asked Jon if he could feel how cold the Wall was, and when he replied it was because it was made of ice, she said it was made of blood. How the Wall was made is such a mystery! I would like to know more about it. Jon reached up the top by midnight, and noticed Ygritte was crying. She said the Wall tried to shove her off, and Jon was really sweet and told her not to be afraid, and tried to put an arm around her. But she cried because they couldn’t find the Horn of Winter, they opened up a lot of graves and let loose shades. It seems with the Horn of Joramun they could have brought the Wall down. This was really interesting, and I think Jon does think later this was the power Mance was looking for, but I am not quite sure.