What is the thing that comes in the night?

[The South Forgets]

In ASOS Bran recalls a story that Old Nan told him:

Quote

A Storm of Swords, Bran -

Or maybe it wasn't Mad Axe at all, maybe it was the thing that came in the night. The 'prentice all saw it, Old Nan said, but afterwards when they told their Lord Commander every description has been different. And three died within the year, and the fourth went mad, and a hundred years later when the thing had come again, the prentice boys were seen shambling along behind it, all in chains

What is the thing that comes in the night, and does it have any plot significance, given that all other Old Nan stories in the same chapter have some significance( Rat Cook shows the importance of guest right, 79 sentinels show the seriousness of Northern lords regarding NW, Night's King is Night's King, and the other stories mentioned haven't been elaborated upon)

[Kandrax]

It is

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

JOHN CENA

 

[Natruviath]

the white walkers

[Corvo the Crow]

The flash that cuts through the darkness, the light that breaks the night? 

 

I think it's a Wandering WW; 'prentices SHAMBLE behind it in chains and it comes in the night, just like "Craster's sons". All giving a different description could very well be the shifting pattern of the armor as we saw with Ser Waymar.

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

yes, Others

And the dead apprentices are simply wights. 

[Megorova]

1 hour ago, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

yes, Others

And the dead apprentices are simply wights. 

If they are wights, then there's no need to chain them. Wights are under control of the Others, so they will follow them willingly. Which made me think, that if those apprentices were chained, then they were not wights. And thus it also means, that whoever stole them, needed them alive. The Others don't take prisoners, neither do wights, they just kill, everyone who is alive. So my guess is that those things, that came in the night, are not the Others. But based on people, that saw what happened, dying or becoming mad afterwards, seems that whatever it was, it was something magical. And there are only two magical factions beyond The Wall.

So my guess is that the kidnappers were the Children. Could be that they took those people to feed them to the Weirwood. Either to give their blood to trees, or to make a weirwood paste mixed with their blood, or to try and connect them to the Weirwood Network, to see whether any of them can be used as a greenseer.

I suspect that the Children are connected to the Others. Bran in his vision, saw white-haired woman, killing a man, and giving his blood to a weirwood. The Night's King Stark, also was giving human sacrifices to the Others, when he was Lord Commander. Also it's suspicious, how uncle Benjen is still alive (or rather undead), when there's a swarm of wights outside, where he is. Why didn't they annihilated him? How the Children manage to find food, if there are wights outside of that cave? From where do they took all that meat, that they gave to Brand, Jojen and Meera? Everyday, the Children were feeding them with meat and blood. Where did they took that meat, and why did they were feeding them with blood? Isn't that suspicious?

[Sigella]

7 hours ago, The South Forgets said:

In ASOS Bran recalls a story that Old Nan told him:

What is the thing that comes in the night, and does it have any plot significance, given that all other Old Nan stories in the same chapter have some significance( Rat Cook shows the importance of guest right, 79 sentinels show the seriousness of Northern lords regarding NW, Night's King is Night's King, and the other stories mentioned haven't been elaborated upon)

This something thats been nagging at me too. Somehow I can't see it being the Others. Shifting looks is more of a FM thing than the Other's otherness. People dying and going mad seems very much FM.

It could be a tale of an FM-hit on the NW and tales of the Others jumbled up, maybe?

 

edit: the numbers echoes Jaqen's offer to Arya in Harrenhall.

[zandru]

1 hour ago, Megorova said:

Also it's suspicious, how uncle Benjen is still alive (or rather undead), when there's a swarm of wights outside, where he is.

"Uncle Benjen"? Are you talking about Coldhands? We don't yet know his former identity;

Spoiler

it's only in the show where Coldhands is identified as Benjen Stark.

1 hour ago, Megorova said:

How the Children manage to find food, if there are wights outside of that cave? From where do they took all that meat, that they gave to Brand, Jojen and Meera?

The children of the forest appear to be vegetarians, and there's lots in the underground world that can sustain them. Outside, the wights could easily comprise the "meat and blood". Long pork, in more traditional terms. I reject the concept of weirwood paste mixed with human blood. It wouldn't look the way it's described in the text, and it ain't Jojen Reed. My opinion.

[Damsel in Distress]

Bored people sitting around a camp fire making up ghost stories to scare the panties off each other. 

Boredom is the necessary element to creative storytelling.

[The Fattest Leech]

3 hours ago, Megorova said:

If they are wights, then there's no need to chain them. Wights are under control of the Others, so they will follow them willingly. Which made me think, that if those apprentices were chained, then they were not wights. And thus it also means, that whoever stole them, needed them alive. The Others don't take prisoners, neither do wights, they just kill, everyone who is alive. So my guess is that those things, that came in the night, are not the Others.

I can see how some of this may be possible, but I haven not delved in to this very deeply to be sure.

Quote

But based on people, that saw what happened, dying or becoming mad afterwards, seems that whatever it was, it was something magical. And there are only two magical factions beyond The Wall.

Not necessarily magical, but mysterious and horrific. There is probably no "good magic" and "evil magic", but perhaps more of how one chooses to use the magic power that is available, and if it is available to them.
Much of this series is about choice and the power and outcome of that choice.

 

Quote

The Night's King Stark, also was giving human sacrifices to the Others, when he was Lord Commander.

Remember that the tale of the Night's King is just a tale, including whether or not he was a Stark. It is just a tale of tale of a tale, and tales and rumors in this story cause all sorts of misinformation and problems.

Quote

 

Also it's suspicious, how uncle Benjen is still alive (or rather undead), when there's a swarm of wights outside, where he is. Why didn't they annihilated him?

*CLEAN UP ON AISLE THREE!*

We have not seen or heard from Benjen Stark since book 1, A Game of Thrones. When asked if Benjen is Coldhands, GRRM answered "no".

Sorry, but you let the abomination spill over in the canon book story. To paraphrase what Anne Groell once said, the abomination can add aliens to the show and there is nothing George could do about it. Two different stories and the show is just a complete mish mash of the canon source blended up with a whole lot of WTF writing and plot structure, which is why show talk is a no-no in the book forums.

Quote

How the Children manage to find food, if there are wights outside of that cave? From where do they took all that meat, that they gave to Brand, Jojen and Meera? Everyday, the Children were feeding them with meat and blood. Where did they took that meat, and why did they were feeding them with blood? Isn't that suspicious?

A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

The moon was fat and full. Summer prowled through the silent woods, a long grey shadow that grew more gaunt with every hunt, for living game could not be found. The ward upon the cave mouth still held; the dead men could not enter. The snows had buried most of them again, but they were still there, hidden, frozen, waiting. Other dead things came to join them, things that had once been men and women, even children. Dead ravens sat on bare brown branches, wings crusted with ice. A snow bear crashed through the brush, huge and skeletal, half its head sloughed away to reveal the skull beneath. Summer and his pack fell upon it and tore it into pieces. Afterward they gorged, though the meat was rotted and half-frozen, and moved even as they ate it.

Under the hill they still had food to eat. A hundred kinds of mushrooms grew down here. Blind white fish swam in the black river, but they tasted just as good as fish with eyes once you cooked them up. They had cheese and milk from the goats that shared the caves with the singers, even some oats and barleycorn and dried fruit laid by during the long summer. And almost every day they ate blood stew, thickened with barley and onions and chunks of meat. Jojen thought it might be squirrel meat, and Meera said that it was rat. Bran did not care. It was meat and it was good. The stewing made it tender.

The caves were timeless, vast, silent. They were home to more than three score living singers and the bones of thousands dead, and extended far below the hollow hill. "Men should not go wandering in this place," Leaf warned them. "The river you hear is swift and black, and flows down and down to a sunless sea. And there are passages that go even deeper, bottomless pits and sudden shafts, forgotten ways that lead to the very center of the earth. Even my people have not explored them all, and we have lived here for a thousand thousand of your man-years."

[Lost Melnibonean]

I think it's an allusion to this...

Quote

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!

 

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

8 hours ago, The South Forgets said:

Or maybe it wasn't Mad Axe at all, maybe it was the thing that came in the night. The 'prentice all saw it, Old Nan said, but afterwards when they told their Lord Commander every description has been different. And three died within the year, and the fourth went mad, and a hundred years later when the thing had come again, the prentice boys were seen shambling along behind it, all in chains

@Megorova The Apprentices are seen in chains a hundred  of years after the fact. The implication is a ghost story, if there is any truth in it at all they have to be wights, as it is impossible to be them a hundred years later. They each died long before three within a year and the one who went mad at some unknown point between them and a hundred years later. As with all of Old Nan's stories they have nuggets of truth in them. This one seems to suggest the dead as thralls of some terrifying thing. In chains can be a euphemism for enthralled, under the control of etc. As wights are to the Others. The Wights are described as shambling twice by Sam. 

As to the rest of your post I think other people have addressed it.  I too am not a believer in human paste, Jojen or otherwise flavoured. Benjen is not Coldhands, GRRM himself has said so. The Show has no place in the book forums as a serious point of reference. 

[The Fattest Leech]

Ok, I gave it a looksy and it really seems a tale of tale of a tale again. I suppose you could say that it is whatever fear that manifests in each individual. Some people are afraid of snakes so a snake-man would be their biggest fear. That wouldn't work for me because I really like snakes. Tell me I have to go to a baby shower for my niece and I have to play baby shower games... 

I will say that the line of the whatevers being in chains... those might not be literal metal links of chain, but more of a mental chaining- mind control thing. I do find it interesting that Luwin is also thought of in this scene, and Luwin is a bit of a talent suppressor when it comes to Bran and his gift (but that is probably just what Luwin was taught to do as a maester (maybe)).

There are several references to "magical" beings locked in chains in the story such as the direwolves and dragons. Even Osha is chained for a while, and later she takes a warg pup to the people most likely to help train him with his warg talent, not suppress it. Dany breaks chains in Essos, while Jon and Val work to break the upcoming chains of mental bondage of the free folk if they are turned in to wights. The maesters have chains that chafe at them, and that is most likely very telling. Jojen greendreams of the winged wolf that was bound to the earth by stone chains while a crow tried to break them apart. I guess I tend to think this case of the chains could be a mind control clue. But that is just me (and now I see I was by The Weirwood Eyes above)

A Storm of Swords - Bran IV

His eyes opened. What was that? He held his breath. Did I dream it? Was I having a stupid nightmare? He didn't want to wake Meera and Jojen for a bad dream, but . . . there . . . a soft scuffling sound, far off . . . Leaves, it's leaves rattling off the walls outside and rustling together . . . or the wind, it could be the wind . . . The sound wasn't coming from outside, though. Bran felt the hairs on his arm start to rise. The sound's inside, it's in here with us, and it's getting louder. He pushed himself up onto an elbow, listening. There was wind, and blowing leaves as well, but this was something else. Footsteps. Someone was coming this way. Something was coming this way.

It wasn't the sentinels, he knew. The sentinels never left the Wall. But there might be other ghosts in the Nightfort, ones even more terrible. He remembered what Old Nan had said of Mad Axe, how he took his boots off and prowled the castle halls barefoot in the dark, with never a sound to tell you where he was except for the drops of blood that fell from his axe and his elbows and the end of his wet red beard. Or maybe it wasn't Mad Axe at all, maybe it was the thing that came in the night. The 'prentice boys all saw it, Old Nan said, but afterward when they told their Lord Commander every description had been different. And three died within the year, and the fourth went mad, and a hundred years later when the thing had come again, the 'prentice boys were seen shambling along behind it, all in chains.

That was only a story, though. He was just scaring himself. There was no thing that comes in the night, Maester Luwin had said so. If there had ever been such a thing, it was gone from the world now, like giants and dragons. It's nothing, Bran thought.

[Megorova]

52 minutes ago, zandru said:

"Uncle Benjen"? Are you talking about Coldhands? We don't yet know his former identity;

I'm not basing who he is on the show. I'm basing it on his (concealed) looks, timing, location, and his attitude towards Bran.

Coldhands is wearing black clothes of Watchers. And they are still black, not faded like old clothes of those wights, that were dead/undead for a long time. So he is a "fresh" wight, not ancient. He was close to The Wall, prior Sam and Gilly came there. So he wasn't one of those Watchers, that departed with Mormont from that cave, where many Brothers were killed, or turned into wights. It's obvious that by the time of Sam's arrival, Coldhands already has spent at least some time with the Children. They the ones who stopped his turning into brainless undead monster. So he can't be one of Brothers, that were with Mormont. And he also can't be someone, that disappeared long ago, he isn't decomposed that much, and his clothes are still black. Out of those Watchers that disappeared recently, only Benjen's body wasn't found. Thus based on all of that, most likely Coldhands is Benjen.

Also based on this:

"Meera Reed rose, her frog spear in her hand, a chunk of smoking meat still impaled upon its tines. “Show us your face.”

The ranger made no move to obey."

~

" “A monster,” Bran said.

The ranger looked at Bran as if the rest of them did not exist. “Your monster, Brandon Stark.”

“Yours,” the raven echoed, from his shoulder. Outside the door, the ravens in the trees took up the cry, until the night wood echoed to the murderer’s song of “Yours, yours, yours.”

“Jojen, did you dream this?” Meera asked her brother. “Who is he? What is he? What do we do now?”

“We go with the ranger,” said Jojen. “We have come too far to turn back now, Meera. We would never make it back to the Wall alive. We go with Bran’s monster, or we die.”"

If that guy is not uncle Benjen, then why didn't he showed his face to them? If he's some random Watcher, then why was he hiding who he is? They have already realised what he was - a wight. So what was the point of hiding his face? The only explanation, is that he is someone whom Bran knows. And the only Watchers, that Bran personally knows, are Jon and Benjen, and Coldhands is not Jon.

1 hour ago, zandru said:

Outside, the wights could easily comprise the "meat and blood". Long pork, in more traditional terms. I reject the concept of weirwood paste mixed with human blood. It wouldn't look the way it's described in the text, and it ain't Jojen Reed. My opinion.

I agree that that can be human meat. It's likely that Coldhands is hunting for the Children, and bring food for their guests, and he wouldn't care whether that is human meat, or animal meat.

But the reason why I think that the blood was Jojen's, is this: Jojen and Meera were long gone, when Hodor brought Bran to their cave, after he ate that paste; Jojen were afraid that he will die there, he was sure of it. He looked and behaved like he already gave up. And he was very scared. It looks like he knew, what exactly will happen to him. Prior that, Bran was eating human blood, nearly everyday. And then, they fed to him a greenseer's blood, mixed with weirwood seeds.

1 hour ago, The Fattest Leech said:

Not necessarily magical, but mysterious and horrific.

People won't die just because they saw something scary. At least if they do die, because of fear, then it will happen immediately, not months later. So whatever they saw there, whoever those creature/creatures was/were, they somehow influenced those people, that saw them. It's some sort of a curse. They were affected by it, when they saw those creatures, and that's what killed them later.

1 hour ago, The Fattest Leech said:

Remember that the tale of the Night's King is just a tale, including whether or not he was a Stark. It is just a tale of tale of a tale, and tales and rumors in this story cause all sorts of misinformation and problems

Well, tales about Long Night and the Others, and white walkers, turned out to be true. Even that they could be killed with obsidian. So most likely, one of LC's were actually what people were telling about him. Because if that sort of thing never happened, then why did those storytellers were badmouthing Lord Commander, and accusing him of such horrible things? If that was a lie, the what was the point of it? People lie either to gain something, or to defend themselves against someone or something. But this sort of lie, is pointless.

1 hour ago, The Fattest Leech said:

When asked if Benjen is Coldhands, GRRM answered "no".

Sorry, but you let the abomination spill over in the canon book story. To paraphrase what Anne Groell once said, the abomination can add aliens to the show and there is nothing George could do about it. Two different stories and the show is just a complete mish mash of the canon source blended up with a whole lot of WTF writing and plot structure, which is why show talk is a no-no in the book forums.

Read above, in the beginning of this post, I wrote there reasons, why I think that Coldhands is Benjen, and can't be anyone else.

And what GRRM said about Coldhands, doesn't cross out possibility, that before Coldhands became wight, he WAS Benjen. Same as prior her death, Lady Stone Heart WAS Catelyn Tully.

1 hour ago, The Fattest Leech said:

And almost every day they ate blood stew, thickened with barley and onions and chunks of meat. Jojen thought it might be squirrel meat, and Meera said that it was rat. Bran did not care. It was meat and it was good. The stewing made it tender.

What kind of meat was it? There's no living game/prey even above and far from the cave. Summer's pack was eating wights. So from where did they took fresh meat? Let's assume, that the meat in a stew wasn't fresh, that it was some sort of preserved meat, salted or smoked, and stored from before. But what about blood? You can't just STORE blood, like wine or jam, and somehow prevent it from coagulating. Thus at least the blood has to be fresh.

And how many squirrels or rats could live in an underground caves, in the middle of nowhere, that there are so many of them, so that out of their blood, the Children make stew nearly every day. What were eating in those caves, all those rats and squirrels? Mushrooms? Or were they hunting blind fish, in that underground river? Or were they milking goats? There also were "some oats and barleycorn and dried fruit laid by during the long summer". But rats live only where there's food to eat. So it looks unlikely, that some rats traveled many miles, from some human settlement, where there was planty of food, because they expected that in those caves, there will be stored oats and barleycorn, for them to eat it. Also if there are so many rats, then why haven't they yet, didn't ate all those Children? Rats do eat people. Even still alive people.

If there are so many rats, that they themselved are a food source for the Children/or for their guests, then why haven't they ate all of Children's food? And if there's not that many rats, in those caves, then from where do the Children take fresh blood, nearly every day? Thus rats are not a viable explanation. It's just that Jojen and Meera convinced themselves, that it was rat meat, instead of thinking, what it may actually be.

[LynnS]

2 hours ago, Sigella said:

This something thats been nagging at me too. Somehow I can't see it being the Others. Shifting looks is more of a FM thing than the Other's otherness. People dying and going mad seems very much FM.

 

We're never told how they died and I wonder if they fell from the Wall and failed the flying test for greenseers.  I wonder if the 'thing' comes to them in the night in their dreams.  The thing coming to collect the apprentice boys sounds like something akin to Coldhands.     

Three of them die and one goes mad.  I'm reminded of Euron jumping from the cliffs in an attempt to fly.  He's maddest of them all.

[Megorova]

1 hour ago, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

Benjen is not Coldhands, GRRM himself has said so.

Even though GRRM has said that Coldhands is not Benjen, it doesn't mean, that Coldhands is not Benjen's body.

Catelyn's last chapter was in ASOS, nevertheless she is still character of ASOIAF. Though she did lost her POV as Catelyn. Because when she died, she stopped being Catelyn. And when she was revived with a kiss of fire, she became Lady Stone Heart.

[zandru]

14 minutes ago, Megorova said:

Coldhands is wearing black clothes of Watchers. And they are still black, not faded like old clothes of those wights, that were dead/undead for a long time. So he is a "fresh" wight, not ancient.

At this point, lots and lots of Night Watch ("watchers"?) have been recently turned to wights.  The "freshness" of his clothing means little or nothing.

16 minutes ago, Megorova said:

If that guy is not uncle Benjen, then why didn't he showed his face to them?

Maybe half of it has fallen off already and he doesn't want to terrify the children? Maybe his mouth doesn't move when he speaks? Plenty of possible reasons besides him being "Uncle Benjen". And if GRRM says he's not, I believe him.

18 minutes ago, Megorova said:

What kind of meat was it? There's no living game/prey even above and far from the cave.

I've got to refer you back to the excellent extended quote provided by The Fattest Leech: they're raising goats underground. Maybe that's not all. But goats for certain, and because goats reproduce, they can afford to / will need to sacrifice a few every now and again. It explains the blood, too. I totally reject the idea that Jojen is being bled and eaten piecemeal - surely, he would have noticed, even if he wasn't a greenseer.

1 hour ago, The Weirwoods Eyes said:

The Apprentices are seen in chains a hundred  of years after the fact. The implication is a ghost story, if there is any truth in it at all they have to be wights, as it is impossible to be them a hundred years later.

Why should they have to be wights? Why not ghosts? Recall Marley's ghost in chains which he figuratively forged for himself during life and literally wore after death. If the boys were apprentices, the chains could be their obligations to their masters - or to the Night's Watch. And, once again, I refer you to The Fattest Leech's excellent discussion of figurative chains in several other book contexts.

[The Fattest Leech]

2 hours ago, Megorova said:

I'm not basing who he is on the show. I'm basing it on his (concealed) looks, timing, location, and his attitude towards Bran.

Coldhands is wearing black clothes of Watchers. And they are still black, not faded like old clothes of those wights, that were dead/undead for a long time. So he is a "fresh" wight, not ancient.

Well, who's to say this wasn't Benjen's cloak and he was outnumbered then captured and killed by the Others because of his Stark look, and we see that the Others are looking for a person with a Stark look. The cloak from the cache is also fresh.

A Clash of Kings - Jon IV

Jon brushed the loose soil away to reveal a rounded bundle perhaps two feet across. He jammed his fingers down around the edges and worked it loose. When he pulled it free, whatever was inside shifted and clinked. Treasure, he thought, but the shapes were wrong to be coins, and the sound was wrong for metal.

A length of frayed rope bound the bundle together. Jon unsheathed his dagger and cut it, groped for the edges of the cloth, and pulled. The bundle turned, and its contents spilled out onto the ground, glittering dark and bright. He saw a dozen knives, leaf-shaped spearheads, numerous arrowheads. Jon picked up a dagger blade, featherlight and shiny black, hiltless. Torchlight ran along its edge, a thin orange line that spoke of razor sharpness. Dragonglass. What the maesters call obsidian. Had Ghost uncovered some ancient cache of the children of the forest, buried here for thousands of years? The Fist of the First Men was an old place, only . . .

Beneath the dragonglass was an old warhorn, made from an auroch's horn and banded in bronze. Jon shook the dirt from inside it, and a stream of arrowheads fell out. He let them fall, and pulled up a corner of the cloth the weapons had been wrapped in, rubbing it between his fingers. Good wool, thick, a double weave, damp but not rotted. It could not have been long in the ground. And it was dark. He seized a handful and pulled it close to the torch. Not dark. Black.

 

Quote

If that guy is not uncle Benjen, then why didn't he showed his face to them? If he's some random Watcher, then why was he hiding who he is? They have already realised what he was - a wight. So what was the point of hiding his face? The only explanation, is that he is someone whom Bran knows. And the only Watchers, that Bran personally knows, are Jon and Benjen, and Coldhands is not Jon.

And another possibility is that CH could be one of Brynden Rivers' Raven's Teeth that followed him so many years ago. Or that Coldhands is older than even that possibility as he was killed "long ago." And, Coldhands is not a typical wight by any means. He is something else and we can speculate to all seven hells and back, but we just don't know. I do agree that his hiding his face is odd, other than the fact that we read over and over again how living brothers also do this, but I am not entirely convinced CH is Benjen based on a few super loose suspicions.

Quote

Read above, in the beginning of this post, I wrote there reasons, why I think that Coldhands is Benjen, and can't be anyone else.

Great! You suspect Benjen is Coldhands, but he could possibly be someone else because we have no canon confirmation yet.

Hey, I love speculating the hell out of things and I do it all of the time (sorry, friends ), but until we read the words 'the end", it is all speculation. Claiming that some things are the "only explanation" while implying you are the only one to figure this out is just as bad as that awful Order of the Greenhand youtube group, and many other youtubers that think they are too special to talk amongst we plebes here.

Quote

And what GRRM said about Coldhands, doesn't cross out possibility, that before Coldhands became wight, he WAS Benjen. Same as prior her death, Lady Stone Heart WAS Catelyn Tully.

 

George was asked another question or two about why or if it could be Benjen, not just is Coldhands Benjen. George didn't say "keep reading", he said "no". If GRRM had said, "keep reading," or, "that would be telling," or even, "there could be something there," then I would say it was more of an open case.

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

42 minutes ago, Megorova said:

Even though GRRM has said that Coldhands is not Benjen, it doesn't mean, that Coldhands is not Benjen's body.

Catelyn's last chapter was in ASOS, nevertheless she is still character of ASOIAF. Though she did lost her POV as Catelyn. Because when she died, she stopped being Catelyn. And when she was revived with a kiss of fire, she became Lady Stone Heart.

No. GRRM was asked by his editor if Coldhands is Benjen he said No. He had no reason to be mysterious with her, no reason to mislead. The notations on the manuscript where never meant for public viewing. Coldhands is not and never was Benjen. 

Cat is known as Lady Stoneheart by the Brotherhood without banners, but they called Beric Beric still it isn't some rule that a person who is wighted changes their name and identity. Moqorro is likely a fire wight too, because a living person could not do what he did and survive 10 days and nights in the sea under the blazing sun with no water, no food and no sleep(sleep mean you let go of the floating thing, we've all seen Titanic. lol.) Mellisandre too is likely one. But there is no evidence either has undergone an identity change due to this.  

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

37 minutes ago, zandru said:

Why should they have to be wights? Why not ghosts? Recall Marley's ghost in chains which he figuratively forged for himself during life and literally wore after death. If the boys were apprentices, the chains could be their obligations to their masters - or to the Night's Watch. And, once again, I refer you to The Fattest Leech's excellent discussion of figurative chains in several other book contexts.

Well aye, they could be.