Jon's "Resurrection"

[Mithras]

I'm not arguing against Jon ending up, encased, entombed, in the wall somehow...just against him being locked in the the ice cells....I find there's a better argument to be made of Jon being stored among dead sheep and pigs, as food...if he's dead, he doesn't need to be chained, or locked, inside a cell, and Bowen is horribly worried about not having enough meat to get through the winter...

Blood and worse reek from bodies stabbed to death. Yeah they will all freeze but still Bowen cannot risk contaminating their scarce food resources, considering that he has ice cells for the job. The smallest ice cell is so small that even sitting is impossible. It is basically an ice coffin.

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

Actually all the direwolves except Ghost and Shaggy have golden eyes and grey fur. Ghost has red eyes, white fur and Shaggy has green eyes, black fur.

You didn't address my other questions. No insights on them? I sure would like to know, but I guess we all have to wait for the Winds of Winter.

[Jô Maltese]

Jon will be reborn amidst salted and smoked meat, it is known.

[yolkboy]

This is a topic to discuss Jon's "resurrection." I use quotation marks as I don't think Jon is dead, but comatose, since GRRM isn't fond of full-scale resurrections.

You don't feel cold in a coma.

[BalerionTheCat]

It would be very low for the NW to eat human flesh. More so if you imagine your meat comes from an undead thing. And Stannis burned men for cannibalism. If Jon is dead, they will burn him (or try it :lol:) before he becomes a wight.

I'm not sure how much support Marsh will have. I would rather believe he and his cronies are put to pieces by his brothers and the Free Folk. He assassinated his commander, and whatever the justification, it was unlawful. And queen Selyse also should punish him for that, if he is still alive.

Another alternative for the "bleeding star" is Ser Patrek of King's Mountain. His sigil is a star.

[Frey family reunion]

It would be very low for the NW to eat human flesh. More so if you imagine your meat comes from an undead thing. And Stannis burned men for cannibalism. If Jon is dead, they will burn him (or try it :lol:) before he becomes a wight.

I'm not sure how much support Marsh will have. I would rather believe he and his cronies are put to pieces by his brothers and the Free Folk. He assassinated his commander, and whatever the justification, it was unlawful. And queen Selyse also should punish him for that, if he is still alive.

Another alternative for the "bleeding star" is Ser Patrek of King's Mountain. His sigil is a star.

I'd be hesitant to use Ser Patrek's fate as much of a clue since apparently his character was created only because GRRM lost a bet to a Dallas Cowboy fan:

SAGAL: Isn't it true that there's a character in your latest book that's there because you lost a bet about a football game?

MARTIN: Yes, in a way, yes, it is. That's true.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Well what happened?

MARTIN: Well there's this guy named Patrick St. Denis, who runs a fantasy website called Pat's Fantasy Hotlist. And Pat is a big Dallas Cowboys fan. So we would have a standing bet for a number of years about whether the Dallas Cowboys or the New York Giants would do better.

And I won the bet the first two years. But finally, in the third year the Cowboys finished ahead of the Giants. And what I had to do if he won the bet was to kill him horribly within the books.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: So I invented a character called Ser Patrek of King's Mountain and described his heraldry as looking somewhat like the heraldry of the Dallas Cowboys with the silver star on a white field. And then I had him ripped apart by a giant.

[Greymoon]

Blood and worse reek from bodies stabbed to death. Yeah they will all freeze but still Bowen cannot risk contaminating their scarce food resources, considering that he has ice cells for the job. The smallest ice cell is so small that even sitting is impossible. It is basically an ice coffin.

Not if the blood is frozen. And...the other carcasses? dead meat is dead meat.

...even if we talk about Jon not being dead, a normal human being would die if their body was stored in a cold chamber. So, there is an element of 'abnormal' in Jon's survival. if he's considered dead, it's the 'dead meat' treatment for him, imo...

[BalerionTheCat]

I'd be hesitant to use Ser Patrek's fate as much of a clue since apparently his character was created only because GRRM lost a bet to a Dallas Cowboy fan:

Agree.

But he could have killed him elsewhere, it is not the lack of opportunities. Or he could have needed the bleeding star symbol anyways, and Patrick St. Denis was the opportunity. I was presenting this as a possibility, just a possibility. I would myself prefer a true comet, because it is what we expect, if we interpret Barristant observation correctly.

[Durran Durrandon]

Jon will be reborn amidst salted and smoked meat, it is known.

^^^ This.

[Durran Durrandon]

Agree.

But he could have killed him elsewhere, it is not the lack of opportunities. Or he could have needed the bleeding star symbol anyways, and Patrick St. Denis was the opportunity. I was presenting this as a possibility, just a possibility. I would myself prefer a true comet, because it is what we expect, if we interpret Barristant observation correctly.

I really hope it is the comet, because it would be really cheesy if it was the sigil on a minor character's clothing. I mean if it was Brienne's shield, copied from Ser Duncan, or House Dayne's sigil, that would be different.

[Fire Eater]

No. It seems to foreshadow that Jon will be placed somewhere, beneath the wall. Both the ice cells and storerooms are cold and beneath the wall. And there's lots of foreshadowing for Bowen Marsh's treason in Jon IV, the chapter where he and Bowen, Wick and Edd visit the storerooms. cf. post 104.

I think it will be the ice storerooms as well. They would want to preserve Jon's body to show the Boltons.

Jon will be reborn amidst salted and smoked meat, it is known.

That's what I'm thinking. Why else would GRRM show us Jon inspecting the storerooms when it could have simply happened off-screen?

You don't feel cold in a coma.

Except if you you paid attention to the text I provided, Jon was feeling the cold as he was leaving his body going into Ghost, exactly what Varamyr was feeling.

I really hope it is the comet, because it would be really cheesy if it was the sigil on a minor character's clothing. I mean if it was Brienne's shield, copied from Ser Duncan, or House Dayne's sigil, that would be different.

Well, lots of signs in prophecies turn out to be mundane things like animals turning out to be the people who wear the sigils. Ser Partek's sigil is a star, and followers of the R'hllor or the Red Faith are called "red."

[Frey family reunion]

There is some foreshadowing for that.

As they did their count, Jon peeled the glove off his left hand and touched the nearest haunch of venison. He could feel his fingers sticking, and when he pulled them back he lost a bit of skin. His fingertips were numb. What did you expect? There’s a mountain of ice above your head, more tons than even Bowen Marsh could count. Even so, the room felt colder than it should.

Jon Snow could see his own reflection dimly inside the icy walls.

As for the storywise reason; I think Bowen will succeed in having a short-lived reign as the LC of the NW. He will want to keep Jon's body to show Ramsay as a sign of their loyalty to the IT and the Warden of the North.

Jon seeing his own reflection inside the icy walls does draw a nice parallel to Catelyn in ACOK:

Beside the entrance, the king's armor stood sentry; a suit of forest-green plate, its fittings chased with gold, the helm crowned by a great rack of golden antlers. The steel was polished to such a high sheen that she could see her own reflection in the breastplate, gazing back at her as if from the bottom of a deep green pond. The face of a drowned woman, Catelyn thought.

So we have these repeating parallels (and GRRM does everything in threes)

1. Beric Dondarrion: impaled by a lance, falls into the waters of the Red Fork, and then is brought back by Thoros.

2. Catelyn: throat slit open, then dropped into the waters of the Green Fork, then fished out and brought back to life by Beric.

3. Jon: stabbed possibly to death (or just severely wounded), possibly encased in ice (another way of being drowned in water, just of the frozen variety) and then brought back to life possibly by Melisandre.

[bemused]

If we haven't moved on too far..

My thoughts on Jon's "resurrection" have gone through an evolution in the past couple of years.. At first I embraced the comatose and preserved in ice scenario. I rejected death and resurrection by Mel because of the diminishing effect we see on Beric and Cat. Even Victarion may no longer be as he was in his personality, after his "healing" by Moqorro, so I also reject healing by Mel. ...I definitely think it's vital to the story that Jon remain fully Jon.

I feel that , like Dany, the "fire" is already in his blood and will assert itself, when the time is right. No intervention by Mel will be necessary.

It's tempting to take literally all the associations we can make of the various hints, clues and possible influences in the writing, but they are so many (and so often divergent), they can't all be meant to manifest literally in the story.

Withregard to the ice cells, Jon has been there, done that, already. This leads me away from the "preserved in ice" option. ... The second time Thorne put him in an ice cell, he told Jon he'd die in there. The text tells us Jon believed him. This is the second place that we may have already seen Bran's vision becoming reality. (While symbolically speaking, Jon adopts a "colder" personality after his election.)

When Jon goes to move Cregan from his cell.. Jon Snow could see his own reflection dimly inside the icy walls. ... Well, he has been where Cregan is.. but I think it's the use of language that's really more important than Jon being in an ice cell (past or future). The "icy walls" are the Wall (the language makes them a stand-in for it and they are literally part of it). It "reflects" Jon and he reflects it. Whatever magic is in his blood is a mirror image of the magic that supports the wall. He only sees his reflection "dimly", because although he knows Starks have had an important role to play at the Wall and he may feel an affinity with them, he doesn't understand the connection clearly (yet).

So next, my thoughts moved to - Not dead. Not comatose, but probably very seriously wounded. Here I felt (and still do) that Val and Morna Whitemask would step in (Val is obviously not a healer, but as a warrior witch, Morna probably is).

***As an aside, I think Val will bestow a kiss that does "awaken" Jon ;) .. and while I suspect she does have an agenda involving Jon, I don't think it has anything to do with the Others, but more to do with the Old Gods (as wildlings percieve them) and with the welfare of the Free Folk. Her eyes do not glow as the Others' do , and either her changing blue/grey eye colour is a mistake, or could possibly connect her to the Farwynds , IMO.***

Next, for me , in the process of breaking down the assassination scene, I began to see that Jon's wounds might not be serious enough to totally put him out of action , but only to slow him down temporarily.

Let's return to Barristan's thoughts on pitfighters , knowing he'd soon be facing Khrazz..

after the battle was done and won the victors could have their wounds bound up and quaff some milk of the poppy for the pain, knowing that the threat was past and they were free to drink and feast and whore until the next fight.

This also can relate to Jon..with some changes to the "between fight" activities :D. ( Jon was planning his "next fight" againt Ramsay ) ... We leave Jon in mid-battle, or at the beginning of one and as I said previously, we may yet see him rise up to carry it through to "done and won". His wounds will need to be "bound up", but some wildling remedy could replace milk of the poppy, which dulls the wits.(Wildling medicine saved Mance.) ... "Drinking, feasting and whoring" would be toned wa-a-ay down, although Val's kiss (at least) may well come in here - as well as food and drink, as necessary. Even if he winds up "knowing" the threat from the conspirators is past, the threat from Ramsay would remain .. and Mithras Stormborn could be right .. 3 days might pretty well complete the process of killing the boy and letting the man be born (resurrection).

Returning to the original Barristan / Khrazz quote I gave upthread, there's a second part to it that I'd still been musing over..

Blood welled from Khrazz’s wounds. That only seemed to make him wilder. He seized the brazier with his off hand and flipped it, scattering embers and hot coals at Selmy’s feet. Ser Barristan leapt over them.

I think both Khrazz and Selmy could represent Jon. ...First, I associate braziers with Mel, much more than with dragons. Using a brazier she can both see visions and work magic.... "Off hand" can be taken to mean something unintentional, or done without thinking about the consequences. It's something Khrazz does in the course of his fight, but it's not essential to the fight, or what he's fighting to acheive. ...By "Khrazz-Jon's" actions, Mel's brazier can be "flipped" , the contents "scattered" ..first, scattered at "Selmy-Jon's" feet, like flowers before the feet of a king or hero. This can represent her ideas and plans being overturned - perhaps the point where she suddenly sees Jon as Azor Ahai and wants to honour him as such. ..Jon, like Barristan, will just "leap over" her pronouncements (and blandishments) as being of no consequence to him ,or to the fight he's focused on.

There's a second reference to the scattered coals in the aftermath of the fight... Here and there the carpets had begun to smolder where some of the scattered coals had fallen ... Damage to Stannis? Selyse ? Queen's men? Mel herself ? ..The thing that people are standing on is being burned away.

There's actually quite a bit that can be related to Jon in events concerning Barristan and Khrazz. Here's a comparison that I think bodes well for Jon :

“Die,” spat Khrazz … but as he lifted his arakh, its tip grazed one of the wall hangings and hung.

That was all the chance Ser Barristan required. He slashed open the pit fighter’s belly, parried the arakh as it wrenched free, then finished Khrazz with a quick thrust to the heart as the pit fighter’s entrails came sliding out like a nest of greasy eels.

OK... Barristan "slashes" Khrazz's unprotected belly with a longsword. ...Bowen delivers a straight stab (like a "punch") with a dagger. I don't think Jon is so trusting or naive as to be wearing no protection (He's not a pit fighter). As Bowen strikes ,I think there are signs that his weapon gets "hung" on something. Here's Jon ... He found the dagger’s hilt and wrenched it free. ... just as Khrazz's arakh has to be "wrenched free". I believe that the third dagger for Jon was either a poor aim (because Jon suddenly went to his knees) .. or someone may have stepped in and somehow "parried" the blow, winding Jon and pushing him forward in the process.

In short , I don't believe we'll be seeing Jon's entrails, and because I think Bowen's dagger "hung", I strongly suspect the wound is much more shallow than the length of the dagger... something that could be treated, bound up and allow for continued , if restricted, activity.

[Fire Eater]

It's tempting to take literally all the associations we can make of the various hints, clues and possible influences in the writing, but they are so many (and so often divergent), they can't all be meant to manifest literally in the story.

Withregard to the ice cells, Jon has been there, done that, already. This leads me away from the "preserved in ice" option. ... The second time Thorne put him in an ice cell, he told Jon he'd die in there. The text tells us Jon believed him. This is the second place that we may have already seen Bran's vision becoming reality. (While symbolically speaking, Jon adopts a "colder" personality after his election.)

When Jon goes to move Cregan from his cell.. Jon Snow could see his own reflection dimly inside the icy walls. ... Well, he has been where Cregan is.. but I think it's the use of language that's really more important than Jon being in an ice cell (past or future). The "icy walls" are the Wall (the language makes them a stand-in for it and they are literally part of it). It "reflects" Jon and he reflects it. Whatever magic is in his blood is a mirror image of the magic that supports the wall. He only sees his reflection "dimly", because although he knows Starks have had an important role to play at the Wall and he may feel an affinity with them, he doesn't understand the connection clearly (yet).

In short , I don't believe we'll be seeing Jon's entrails, and because I think Bowen's dagger "hung", I strongly suspect the wound is much more shallow than the length of the dagger... something that could be treated, bound up and allow for continued , if restricted, activity.

So next, my thoughts moved to - Not dead. Not comatose, but probably very seriously wounded. Here I felt (and still do) that Val and Morna Whitemask would step in (Val is obviously not a healer, but as a warrior witch, Morna probably is).

***As an aside, I think Val will bestow a kiss that does "awaken" Jon ;) .. and while I suspect she does have an agenda involving Jon, I don't think it has anything to do with the Others, but more to do with the Old Gods (as wildlings percieve them) and with the welfare of the Free Folk. Her eyes do not glow as the Others' do , and either her changing blue/grey eye colour is a mistake, or could possibly connect her to the Farwynds , IMO.***

Good catches; I forgot that Thorne told Jon "You will die in here, Lord Snow." I think that foreshadows Jon Snow or Lord Snow dying when Jon learns the truth of his heritage.

Jon seeing his own reflection inside the icy walls does draw a nice parallel to Catelyn in ACOK:

So we have these repeating parallels (and GRRM does everything in threes)

1. Beric Dondarrion: impaled by a lance, falls into the waters of the Red Fork, and then is brought back by Thoros.

2. Catelyn: throat slit open, then dropped into the waters of the Green Fork, then fished out and brought back to life by Beric.

3. Jon: stabbed possibly to death (or just severely wounded), possibly encased in ice (another way of being drowned in water, just of the frozen variety) and then brought back to life possibly by Melisandre.

Seeing his own reflection in the walls akin to Cat seeing her own reflection in Renly's green armor foreshadowing her resurrection is a good catch, Frey family reunion. Both Beric and Cat fall into rivers, and are revived by the last kiss. I think it adds to theory of Val giving Jon a "last kiss." Beric dies in the Red Fork, Catelyn in the Green, and the Wall is described as white, but also in Jon's POV in ADwD, blue (akin to the Blue Fork, if you follow J.Stargaryen's theories). It goes with Ironborn drownings, and the saying "What is dead may never die, but rises again harder and stronger." Jon Snow may be dead, but he will rise again as Jon Targaryen.

[Mithras]

About seeing self-reflections that foreshadows the coming doom, we also have this:

Ser Barristan felt very tired, very old. Where have all the years gone? Of late, whenever he knelt to drink from a still pool, he saw a stranger’s face gazing up from the water’s depths.

Stranger is the god of death according to Barristan. Krakens are said to rise from the water's depths. Barristan seeing a stranger's face as his own reflection gazing up from the depths means that a kraken is rising up to slay him.

[Ghosts Lunch]

^^^^ Great catches

I've already picked that Theon will die by the fact he is at the banquet for the dead, Tyrion too as a kinslayer, but probably not until fairly late in the piece on both accounts (eg Theon has to go to Kingsmoot and I reckon he had a bastard child with the Captains daughter of the Myraham)

Sounds like Victarion will kill Ser Barristan then? With the Terminator hand too I bet...

The amount of deep symbolism never ceases to amaze, never would have picked so much of it

As for Jons resurrection, he can fully go into Ghost, and then fully go back into his own revived body, the revived person seems to lack something of itself, but if Jon goes back into himself from Ghost he is complete in a way Beric and Cat aren't. A foreshadowing

In the case of Jon, being stored in the Ice Cells is akin to being stored in frozen water. There is an intriguing connection between the religion of the IB and the Wights

The details are complicated given the Wall seems to block warging, so Jon may be running around in Ghost for a while. I think some line points to him even going to Brans cave? Not sure on the last one but the whole Varymyr line about Jon Snow "living like a King" inside the Direwolf is very ominous IMO

There's certainly a foreshadowing of Jon going into Ghost not only int he Varymyr Prologe but he also saw Orell do it, same with the TV show. So when it comes to Jon getting stabbed, all the women will be too busy chrieking to notice his warging eyes I bet :cool4:

[Greymoon]

The white wolf raced through a black wood, beneath a pale cliff as tall as the sky. The moon ran with him, slipping through a tangle of bare branches overhead, across the starry sky.

"Snow," the moon murmured. The wolf made no answer.

Snow crunched beneath his paws. The wind sighed through the trees. Far off, he could hear his packmates calling to him, like to like. They were hunting too. A wild rain lashed down upon his black brother as he tore at the flesh of an enormous goat, washing the blood from his side where the goat's long horn had raked him. In another place, his little sister lifted her head to sing to the moon, and a hundred small grey cousins broke off their hunt to sing with her. The hills were warmer where they were, and full of food. Many a night his sister's pack gorged on the flesh of sheep and cows and horses, the prey of men, and sometimes even on the flesh of man himself.

"Snow," the moon called down again, cackling. The white wolf padded along the man trail beneath the icy cliff. The taste of blood was on his tongue, and his ears rang to the song of the hundred cousins. Once they had been six, five whimpering blind in the snow beside their dead mother, sucking cool milk from her hard dead nipples whilst he crawled off alone. Four remained … and one the white wolf could no longer sense.

"Snow," the moon insisted.

The white wolf ran from it, racing toward the cave of night where the sun had hidden, his breath frosting in the air. On starless nights the great cliff was as black as stone, a darkness towering high above the wide world, but when the moon came out it shimmered pale and icy as a frozen stream. The wolf's pelt was thick and shaggy, but when the wind blew along the ice no fur could keep the chill out. On the other side the wind was colder still, the wolf sensed. That was where his brother was, the grey brother who smelled of summer.

"Snow." An icicle tumbled from a branch. The white wolf turned and bared his teeth. "Snow! " His fur rose bristling, as the woods dissolved around him. "Snow, snow, snow! " He heard the beat of wings. Through the gloom a raven flew.

p. 46-47 aDwD US Hardcover.

Val is the moon. (the moonmaid and the thief...moon of my life, is an endearment used for women....); The 'wolf' will not answer her (death/coma, prevents it), the moon is cackling (crying? or is the raven already present at this point?). The wolf races toward the cave (shell?) where the sun (man?) had hidden...the sentence stands out, because the sun does not hide in a 'cave'....in the end, the 'raven' will intervene... but not before the 'icicle' tumbled from the branch, provoking a strong reaction that announces the return of consciousness -- the wolf's attention focuses away from Bran and toward the here and now....

what is the 'icicle'? I first though of something pointy (a dagger?), but....

Typically, icicles will form when ice or snow is melted by either sunlight or some other heat source (such as a poorly insulated building), and the resulting melted water runs off into an area where the ambient temperature is below the freezing point of water (0 °C/32 °F), causing the water to refreeze.

The icicle, as a result of snow melting -- the Snow identity, melting away from Jon?

The icicle falls from a tree -- the apple doesn't fall far from the tree; a family tree; the tree of life, the idea, that trees bears seeds, and fruits. Children as fruits of their fathers loins...The tree as the 'original' family unit. The icicle (Snow) as a 'decaying branch' of House Stark? or alternatively, the icicle, as 'melting away' from the tree of House Targaryen?

From the first growth of the tree, many a limb and branch has decayed and dropped off; and these fallen branches of various sizes may represent those whole orders, families, and genera which have now no living representatives, and which are known to us only in a fossil state.

from Darwin's On the origin of Species.

[yolkboy]

Except if you you paid attention to the text I provided, Jon was feeling the cold as he was leaving his body going into Ghost, exactly what Varamyr was feeling.

But I don't understand your point... you state he's not dead & in a coma, then say he feels the cold that Varamyr felt. Varamyr felt cold because he experienced death and went into second life.

It's not standard cold Varamyr's feeling

"as if he had been plunged into the icy waters of a frozen lake."

How can you use commonalities of Varamyr going into true death/second life with Jon's fate as evidence that Jon's not dead?

[Mithras]

The white world turned and fell away. For a moment it was as if he were inside the weirwood, gazing out through carved red eyes as a dying man twitched feebly on the ground and a madwoman danced blind and bloody underneath the moon, weeping red tears and ripping at her clothes. Then both were gone and he was rising, melting, his spirit borne on some cold wind. He was in the snow and in the clouds, he was a sparrow, a squirrel, an oak. A horned owl flew silently between his trees, hunting a hare; Varamyr was inside the owl, inside the hare, inside the trees. Deep below the frozen ground, earthworms burrowed blindly in the dark, and he was them as well. I am the wood, and everything that’s in it, he thought, exulting. A hundred ravens took to the air, cawing as they felt him pass. A great elk trumpeted, unsettling the children clinging to his back. A sleeping direwolf raised his head to snarl at empty air. Before their hearts could beat again he had passed on, searching for his own, for One Eye, Sly, and Stalker, for his pack. His wolves would save him, he told himself.

That was his last thought as a man.

True death came suddenly; he felt a shock of cold, as if he had been plunged into the icy waters of a frozen lake. Then he found himself rushing over moonlit snows with his packmates close behind him. Half the world was dark. One Eye, he knew. He bayed, and Sly and Stalker gave echo.

If Varamyr truly died when he felt the cold, his spirit should not be able to warg into One-Eye. We know that the gift is in the blood and skinchangers cannot use their gift once their primary body is dead.

I think the feeling of extreme cold was due to his spirit completely detaching from his body which was still alive. And since his body was still alive, he could find his One-Eye and take its body in an irreversible manner.

There is a different between normal warging back and forth and detaching the soul completely to take residence in another vessel permanently.

Therefore, the way Jon feels the cold means that his body was still alive and his soul was permanently going into Ghost.

[Frey family reunion]

The white world turned and fell away. For a moment it was as if he were inside the weirwood, gazing out through carved red eyes as a dying man twitched feebly on the ground and a madwoman danced blind and bloody underneath the moon, weeping red tears and ripping at her clothes. Then both were gone and he was rising, melting, his spirit borne on some cold wind. He was in the snow and in the clouds, he was a sparrow, a squirrel, an oak. A horned owl flew silently between his trees, hunting a hare; Varamyr was inside the owl, inside the hare, inside the trees. Deep below the frozen ground, earthworms burrowed blindly in the dark, and he was them as well. I am the wood, and everything that’s in it, he thought, exulting. A hundred ravens took to the air, cawing as they felt him pass. A great elk trumpeted, unsettling the children clinging to his back. A sleeping direwolf raised his head to snarl at empty air. Before their hearts could beat again he had passed on, searching for his own, for One Eye, Sly, and Stalker, for his pack. His wolves would save him, he told himself.

That was his last thought as a man.

True death came suddenly; he felt a shock of cold, as if he had been plunged into the icy waters of a frozen lake. Then he found himself rushing over moonlit snows with his packmates close behind him. Half the world was dark. One Eye, he knew. He bayed, and Sly and Stalker gave echo.

If Varamyr truly died when he felt the cold, his spirit should not be able to warg into One-Eye. We know that the gift is in the blood and skinchangers cannot use their gift once their primary body is dead.

I think the feeling of extreme cold was due to his spirit completely detaching from his body which was still alive. And since his body was still alive, he could find his One-Eye and take its body in an irreversible manner.

There is a different between normal warging back and forth and detaching the soul completely to take residence in another vessel permanently.

Therefore, the way Jon feels the cold means that his body was still alive and his soul was permanently going into Ghost.

I agree with your analysis which is why I think that Martin may toy with the idea of splitting Jon's soul literally in two (the aspect of his psyche that goes into Ghost, and the aspect that is left behind that will be resurrected). If Martin is playing on Jung's idea of the Shadow (the portion of ourselves that we disassociate ourselves from, our negative and selfish impulses) then this would lead to only Jon's negative aspects being resurected with his body. Which I think is what will lead us to the modern day Night King. Jon and probably Val as his consort and probably with the help of the Wildlings take revenge on his former brothers, putting them to the sword (the pointy end) and then taking over either the Wall and/or Winterfell (Jon's darkest desire).

Jon's positive aspect stays with Ghost and my guess is the "reforging" will occur when he is able to integrate both aspects of himself together.

Now in regards to the feeling of "cold" being a portion of your soul leaving your body perhaps before death, this brings to mind when Stannis' "Shadow" stabs Renly and Renly feels a sensation of cold before he dies. I wonder if Martin is subtly suggesting that Stannis may have done more than kill his brother, but perhaps also stole a portion of his "soul". Anyway food for thought.