Ghouls

[LordImp]

In one of Old Nans tales Ghouls are mentioned , then I wonder what Ghouls are? Are they just a other name for the Others or are they a different species?

[RumHam]

In one of Old Nans tales Ghouls are mentioned , then I wonder what Ghouls are? Are they just a other name for the Others or are they a different species?

Might be another word for the others, but I doubt it because old Nan calls them the others other times. Probably not another term for wights, as they are listed alongside "the dead that walk" at one point. Maybe something like a ghost with some form of corporeal body? (think The Shining) They probably don't really exist, along with the snarks and grumpkins.

[Ser Creighton]

Ghouls is generally a term used for the undead that consume human flesh.

[Steelborn]

Ghouls is generally a term used for the undead that consume human flesh.

So, for zombies. Wights definitely aren't zombies, but undeads only. Yes, they probably don't even exist, or the wildlings would have said a word about it.

[Lars Penry]

So, for zombies. Wights definitely aren't zombies, but undeads only. Yes, they probably don't even exist, or the wildlings would have said a word about it.

It's possible that Wights do eat human flesh:

“In that darkness, the Others came for the first time,” she said as her needles went click click click. “They were cold things, dead things, that hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun, and every creature with hot blood in its veins. They swept over holdfasts and cities and kingdoms, felled heroes and armies by the score, riding their pale dead horses and leading hosts of the slain. All the swords of men could not stay their advance, and even maidens and suckling babes found no pity in them. They hunted the maids through frozen forests, and fed their dead servants on the flesh of human children.”

And Others may drink human blood, or perhaps give it to their Wight thralls:

She remembered a story Old Nan had told once, about a man imprisoned in a dark castle by evil giants. He was very brave and smart and he tricked the giants and escaped … but no sooner was he outside the castle than the Others took him, and drank his hot red blood.

[Steelborn]

I see now.

[LordImp]

It's possible that Wights do eat human flesh:

And Others may drink human blood, or perhaps give it to their Wight thralls:

So who are this evil Giants? Wight giants?

[Lars Penry]

So who are this evil Giants? Wight giants?

Probably just regular giants, though Wight giants more than likely did/do exist. It may be the part where Old Nan's tales and reality diverge, since we know Giants utilise fairly rudimentary technology so don't have castles. It's possible that they stole some humans castles, but it seems unlikely, we know Wun Wun is a vegetarian, though I'm not sure whether or not that is just him, or giants in general are ruminants, like mammoths.

So why they would take humans and their castles is unknown if not to eat them.

Maybe they were just particularly mean giants, surely there are Ramsay Snows among the giants. It's difficult to know how much of what Old Nan speaks is truth anyway. Besides, the human castles would be designed for human usage, so far too small for them.

[Long Live The Onion King]

Plenty of evidence of ghouls so far - wights, unCat, etc.

[CharlesW]

Probably the undead creatures made by the others,

[Game Of Thrones]

Probably the undead creatures made by the others,

You mean wights? Wights are mentioned along with ghouls, so they aren't ghouls.