House Stark founded during the long night?

[Jojen Dayne-Reed]

Bran could've just staked claim to free land in the North, i mean after such calamity, there's bound to be lots of free land around, and WF isn't close to any of the most obvious sites for development(rivers, bays, mines,etc).

So is that how the story of the last hero ends? He is being chased and stumbles across a volcanic hot spring?

The heat (maybe?) scares off the WWs. (Or there is volcanic glass around?) the last hero builds a fort that becomes ground zero of the resistance.

And to this day we remember that as the spot where winter fell and spring won?

I like it.

[sertravisredbeard]

I think all the stories about the First Men legends are just amalgamations of a lot of different people. There's no way one guy lived long enough to build the whole wall. Bran the Builder, Lann the Clever, the Last Hero, the Griffin King, and Durrendon the Storm King are just how the people of Westeros have explained systems and structures that wouldn't make sense without written down history. Everything accomplished before things were written down is just referred to as being done by "Bran the Builder" or "Garth the Greenhand."

[louzeyre]

I always through the story about Bran the building helping the storm king build his castle was Martin's nod to the story of Merlin helping Vortigirn build his castle. That version of Merlin is specifically chosen to "help" because he is a man without a father.

(And then of course there's the whole scene with two dragons fighting for dominance in a pond symbolizing the struggle to control England that's part of the story too which seems slightly apt for Westeros in a way)

[TheNinjaDC]

I think all the stories about the First Men legends are just amalgamations of a lot of different people. There's no way one guy lived long enough to build the whole wall. Bran the Builder, Lann the Clever, the Last Hero, the Griffin King, and Durrendon the Storm King are just how the people of Westeros have explained systems and structures that wouldn't make sense without written down history. Everything accomplished before things were written down is just referred to as being done by "Bran the Builder" or "Garth the Greenhand."

If the guy is half child of the forest he could have lived hundreds of years.

[Jaak]

I think all the stories about the First Men legends are just amalgamations of a lot of different people. There's no way one guy lived long enough to build the whole wall.

Um, Hadrian´s Wall was built in one reign, and Qin Shi Huangdi built pretty long Chinese Wall in a few years.

Whole? No. Not 700 feet high. I wonder how they did it. GRRM himself regretted it seeing a wall half that height.

But building a wall 300 miles long and 17 feet high was completely feasible for the Night Watch in one reign. And over the following millennia, they gradually built it to be 27 feet, 70 feet, 700 feet...

[AryaNymeriaVisenya]

I think all the stories about the First Men legends are just amalgamations of a lot of different people. There's no way one guy lived long enough to build the whole wall. Bran the Builder, Lann the Clever, the Last Hero, the Griffin King, and Durrendon the Storm King are just how the people of Westeros have explained systems and structures that wouldn't make sense without written down history. Everything accomplished before things were written down is just referred to as being done by "Bran the Builder" or "Garth the Greenhand."

Its never said the whole wall was built in Bran's lifetime. It is added to over generations.

Because of the magic in the wall and Storm's end, as well as the seemily coincidental bonding between Starks and Baratheons throughout. Bran and Durran are the only ones I give credence to in some way. But no, I don't believe Durran married the god's daughter. I think that may be a metaphor for blood magic.