Why don’t Starks/Northern houses burn their dead?

[Shouldve Taken The Black]

1 hour ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

Bingo 

He didn't say conquered. Gentrified, Andals moving north and bringing their culture and traditions with them, like the Manderlys, or bringing it with them via marriage, like the Tullys or the Royces 

Sure, the Andals have some influence, but nowhere near to the extent they do in the South.

[Dorian Martell's son]

12 minutes ago, Shouldve Taken The Black said:

Sure, the Andals have some influence, but nowhere near to the extent they do in the South.

We never said they did, but 8000 years and an influx of a different culture are easily enough to change burial customs 

 

[Clegane'sPup]

On 4/17/2018 at 8:20 AM, Angel Eyes said:

So white walkers raise the dead as wights. Wights can only be killed with fire, so wildlings and Night’s Watch burn their dead. And the North is the closest kingdom to the Lands of Always Winter. So why doesn’t the North burn their dead?

You asked. I'm typing.

At some point in time the wildings/free folk buried the dead.

A Storm of Swords - Jon IV       We opened half a hundred graves and let all those shades loose in the world, and never found the Horn of Joramun to bring this cold thing [Wall] down!"/

True fire kills wights. There have been numerous examples in the books about that. The supposition is that the Others/white walkers are the wights masters, as mentioned by Tormund in the below quote..

A Dance with Dragons - Jon XII        A man can fight the dead, but when their masters come, when the white mists rise up … how do you fight a mist, crow? Shadows with teeth … air so cold it hurts to breathe, like a knife inside your chest … you do not know, you cannot know … can your sword cut cold?"/

The prologue set up the Other tease. As the story progresses the books revealed what a wight is.  By time book three or four rolls around I am teased with how to kill an Other.    In book five ^ it is insinuated that the Others are the masters of the wights.

Back on track to the why don’t Starks burn their dead----

I don’t know what all the people in the North (one of the Seven Kingdoms) do with their dead. I do seem to remember something about some House using barrows.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/barrow-burial-mound

A Game of Thrones - Eddard II        A wide plain spread out beneath them, bare and brown, its flatness here and there relieved by long, low hummocks. Ned pointed them out to his king. "The barrows of the First Men."       Robert frowned. "Have we ridden onto a graveyard?"/

For some reason martin put the dead Starks in a crypt that is cold. Their bones enclosed by tombs/sepulchers made of granite.

A Game of Thrones - Eddard I       Flickering light touched the stones underfoot and brushed against a long procession of granite pillars that marched ahead, two by two, into the dark. Between the pillars, the dead sat on their stone thrones against the walls, backs against the sepulchres that contained their mortal remains. "She is down at the end, with Father and Brandon."      He led the way between the pillars and Robert followed wordlessly, shivering in the subterranean chill. It was always cold down here. Their footsteps rang off the stones and echoed in the vault overhead as they walked among the dead of House Stark. The Lords of Winterfell watched them pass. Their likenesses were carved into the stones that sealed the tombs. In long rows they sat, blind eyes staring out into eternal darkness, while great stone direwolves curled round their feet. The shifting shadows made the stone figures seem to stir as the living passed by.       By ancient custom an iron longsword had been laid across the lap of each who had been Lord of Winterfell, to keep the vengeful spirits in their crypts. The oldest had long ago rusted away to nothing, leaving only a few red stains where the metal had rested on stone. Ned wondered if that meant those ghosts were free to roam the castle now. He hoped not. The first Lords of Winterfell had been men hard as the land they ruled. In the centuries before the Dragonlords came over the sea, they had sworn allegiance to no man, styling themselves the Kings in the North./

 

Maybe when Bran and companions took those swords from the crypts they released some ghosts in WF. Maybe Theon was right to think about ghosts. Maybe the killings in WF under Theon and under Bolton are angry shades reeking vengeance. Maybe the Kings of Winter or is that the Kings of the North and their direwolves will ride forth and wreak havoc on the Others.

 

[The Lord of the Crossing]

On 4/17/2018 at 8:20 AM, Angel Eyes said:

So white walkers raise the dead as wights. Wights can only be killed with fire, so wildlings and Night’s Watch burn their dead. And the North is the closest kingdom to the Lands of Always Winter. So why doesn’t the North burn their dead?

It's too much trouble.  

[Angel Eyes]

1 hour ago, Noble Lothar Frey said:

It's too much trouble.  

Less trouble than having a murderous zombie chasing after you.

[zandru]

On 4/18/2018 at 11:29 AM, By Odin's Beard said:

That is a pretty rigid and overly-literal way of thinking. 

[...]

 If an author wants to give you a hint about topic A (crypts), he can describe topic B (dungeons) in very similar and more detailed wording.  It is called metaphor.

I'll believe as I wish, as you will also. What I believe is that you're overthinking this, but we'll need to wait for the next book, and maybe the one after that (and the one after that...) to tell. Sometimes a dungeon is just a dungeon (Sigmund Freud).

[Unacosamedarisa]

15 hours ago, Angel Eyes said:

Less trouble than having a murderous zombie chasing after you.

How many murderous zombies have there been in the North in the last 500 years? By my count 2... the 2 the Watch found near the Weirwoods when Jon and Sam went to say their vows, and the Watch brought through the Wall. 

The Others, their wights, and everything else about them have become myth. Like Tyrion says in AGoT, they're Snarks and Grumkins, they're like Merlings or Squishers or Giants or the Children of the Forest... fictions talked about by superstitious peasants. Over time, any traditions they had to protect against these superstitions have been abandoned. 

[ChuckPunch]

On 4/18/2018 at 1:47 PM, Shouldve Taken The Black said:

Sure, the Andals have some influence, but nowhere near to the extent they do in the South.

Okay? That wasn't even part of the discussion.