I think I've figured out what the purpose of Horn of Winter might be.

[LazarKg]

After reading increasingly wild theories about Horn of winter/horn of Joramun these past few days I think I've figured out what it is most likely meant to do if anything. Basically if dragon horns are tools made with fire and blood magic to enable instructing creations of fire magic ( I doubt dragons are natural beings), then horns of winter are tools made with ice and blood magic to enable raising and controlling creations of ice magic (namely wights but possibly Others themselves). "I am the horn that wakes the sleepers"

Remember how Joramun tried to wake the giants? Perhaps he raised dead giants to fight for him as wights. Those 79 watchmen encased in ice at nightfort... Perhaps that was the remnant of some old Night's watch custom where their watch did not end with their death (if what Sam speaks to the weirwood door at Nightfort is the original oath) but instead of burial they were encased in the ice wall to serve in some future battle. Imagine if what took to effectively fight Others the first time was to become like them raising your own army of the dead. It would fit old Georgie's theme of grey characters and no good or bad guys. Oh and there are a lot of badass Stark warriors burried at the Winterfell crypt with swords and all.

Many people theorise it can destroy the Wall either by causing an earthquake on section of it or collapsing whole damn thing. Some theories suggest it isn't even necessary for blower to even be near the Wall and say Sam might sound it in Oldtown causing complete collapse of the Wall a thousand miles away. I don't think magic in that world works that way.

Way I see it, magic in planetos has certain rules. It is of limited scope using blood magic and life energy as it's fuel and has control of an element as it's focus. Highest instances of magic we saw directly were resurrection/creation of fire and ice wights and weather control by Others, Melisandre and possibly Euron (skinchanging, whatever faceless men do, shadowbabies,glamours are "lower" instances but the point is same, limited scope). We also hear of rhoynar raising huge waves which due to it being 1000 years before the story might have happened. But all the legends of earth shattering continent shaping events like the breaking of the arm of dorne,sinking the neck and even in part at least doom of valyria and long night were mainly events caused by natural cataclysm that brought on change in magic and not the other way round.

That is why I doubt meager horne can collapse the entire Wall, especially not from thousands of miles away. I also don't see how even a strong earthquake could shake such a solid structure even on a segment. While waking the sleeping giants in the wall does seem to fit into my theory if those giants are dead there would really have to be millions of them burried in the wall to destabilise it's structure. There's also possibility Others might use it to raise undead dragons or similarly to the show kill and then raise a dragon. But I think that too is unlikely since real horn of winter is the broken one that Sam holds and he is way south of the Wall. Who broke it? Maybe the others when they wrested control from the children if the show is to be believed about their origins. Maybe wildlings deciding raising the wights themselves is an abomination.

In conclusion, I don't think horn is what will cause fall of the Wall in the books. It is too far away for magic to work or for it to enter the story. Fire is what will breach the Wall . But I do think horn will come into the story later when Sam joins the war for dawn and goes north.

[kissdbyfire]

Haven't finished reading but before I forget... IIRC, Jon has blown the horn already. Or was it Sam? Not sure, but I think it was Jon. Doesn't he say to Sam that he's tried it and it doesn't seem to do anything? He even suggests Sam uses it as a drinking horn? Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that it won't work long distance. But maybe for it to work and do whatever it is it will do, you need something else besides the horn being blown. 

ETA: FYI, there's no discussion of the abomination this side of the forum. 

 

[Alexis-something-Rose]

I sort of the disagree with the OP a bit.

Yes, Oldtown is at the other end of the continent, but the prologue of AFFC connected the Wall to the Hightower. 

Quote

Some claimed a man could see all the way to the Wall from the top. Perhaps that was why Lord Leyton had not made the descent in more than a decade, preferring to rule his city from the clouds.

For one this may indicate the presence of glass candles. For another, the Wall and the Hightower both have a Stark connection, so who knows what kind of spells there may be in that building. At the very least, we know that the Hightowers dabbled in sorcery.

And we do have an element of ice and fire going. The Wall, made of ice and the beacon of the Hightower, fire. So maybe the Horn of Winter can work if there's an element of fire added to it?

54 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

Haven't finished reading but before I forget... IIRC, Jon has blown the horn already

Here's your quote;

Quote

He had made a dagger for Grenn as well, and another for the Lord Commander. The warhorn he had given to Sam. On closer examination the horn had proved cracked, and even after he had cleaned all the dirt out, Jon had been unable to get any sound from it. The rim was chipped as well, but Sam liked old things, even worthless old things. "Make a drinking horn of it," Jon told him, "and every time you take a drink you'll remember how you ranged beyond the Wall, all the way to the Fist of the First Men." He gave Sam a spreahead and a dozen arrowheads as well, and passed the rst out among his friends for luck. (Jon V, Clash 43)

 

[kissdbyfire]

28 minutes ago, Widow's Watch said:

Here's your quote;

That's the one!

[chrisdaw]

Won't be about controlling things, it will be about becoming one of the things. The Varamyr chapter will prove the thematic outline, as too the deeds of the COTF, it will be about survival, about eternal life. And the crime the denial of eternal life to their minions.

The dragon's horn will make a soul fire, this one should make a soul ice. Like obsidian is a soul trapped in rock, a soul made ice will probably be able to enter ice. And so, raise as an entity from frozen water, like lakes or the Wall. Maybe how you get ice spiders, screaming ice weapons that shatter steel, and eventually an ice dragon.

[Mat92]

I think it's odd that Euron has a horn that looks extremely similar to the one that Mance found (big warhorn with runes and gold bands) - one that we know has some sort of magical toll to use it - yet IIRC, nothing happens with Mance tries to blow it? Or does he not even attempt to? I can't remember.

 

Either way, it seems too coincidental to have 2 horns that are very similar found on opposite sites of the planet (beyond the wall, Valyria apparently). I still think it's suspicious for the horn that Sam has to keep being mentioned in the story, but the more I think about it, the weirder it is that this little cracked horn could have all this power. 

In regards to the OP, I definitely agree with magic having certain rules, similar to how energy works in real life - it cannot be created or destroyed, it just changes form. Magic in ASOIAF has a cost - "death pays for life" for example. If the horn of winter is magical, then using it would have some cost also, but simply raising the dead doesn't really seem like a sacrifice on behalf of the user (the guy who blew Euron's horn, burnt up from inside out). 

I think the Horn of Winter could be Sam's horn, but it's not magical it's just the horn that was used to herald the Battle for the Dawn, or rally everyone to push back and win it.

[Kandrax]

I think that the Wall will collapse when Dragonbinder and Horn of Winter are blown at same time.

[Tucu]

For the Horn of Joramun I am betting on a horn to trigger earthquakes and volcanos.i am linking  it to roman/greek mythology about giants sleeping under mountains/volcanoes and triggering earthquakes and eruptions when disturbed. Blowing up the hot springs under Winterfell might break the magic seals that sustain the Wall.

As Virgil wrote about the giant Enceladus buried beneath Aetna.

Quote

A spreading bay is there, impregnable
to all invading storms; and Aetna's throat
with roar of frightful ruin thunders nigh.
Now to the realm of light it lifts a cloud
of pitch-black, whirling smoke, and fiery dust,
shooting out globes of flame, with monster tongues
that lick the stars; now huge crags of itself,
out of the bowels of the mountain torn,
its maw disgorges, while the molten rock
rolls screaming skyward; from the nether deep
the fathomless abyss makes ebb and flow.
Enceladus, his body lightning-scarred,
lies prisoned under all, so runs the tale:
o'er him gigantic Aetna breathes in fire
from crack and seam; and if he haply turn
to change his wearied side, Trinacria's isle
trembles and moans, and thick fumes mantle heaven.
That night in screen and covert of a grove
we bore the dire convulsion, unaware
whence the loud horror came. For not a star
its lamp allowed, nor burned in upper sky
the constellated fires, but all was gloom,
and frowning night confined the moon in cloud.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

The horn of winter may be a bluff by Joramun, so let's all keep that in mind.

Or what's worse...the horn having been blown (and other important necessary ingredient) might be what brought the Others back after all those centuries. Not so much literally bringing down the Wall as creating a force that makes the Wall of negligible value. 

Joramun was the one who helped take down Night's King. NK was said to be sacrificing to the Others, and supposedly bewitched by an Otheress. Did NK own the horn and KitN and KBtW take it from him with the agreement that it would go north--and Ice would go south--for the sake of protecting mankind from themselves? What if the two together are what could bring down the Wall, not just blowing the horn?

Just spit-balling here.

[Alexis-something-Rose]

Something I've been wondering about with regard to the wildlings (and the horn and all that).

The Night's Watch blows their horn once for rangers returning, twice for wildlings and three times for the Others. It got me wondering if this wasn't a system that was established with the First Men that remained north of the Wall after it was built. Because why would men remain on the other side of the Wall? The wildlings are First Men and they worship the old gods, same as the northmen do. The men that remained north of the Wall could very well have been Night's Watchmen, which would make the current wildlings their descendants. 

So this got me wondering if the NW of old wasn't working in concert with the wildlings of old and that the horn that became known as the Horn of Winter's purpose isn't to bring the Wall down, but to alert the Night's Watch and the north that the Others are coming. 

Joramun and Brandon the Breaker came together, worked together, to get rid of the Night's King. This is about people coming together and working together to get rid of the problem. And if Joramun blew the horn, the Wall didn't come down when he did that.

Perhaps the sleepers can be interpreted as the people who are south of the Wall.

[Megorova]

38 minutes ago, Widow's Watch said:

Joramun and Brandon the Breaker came together, worked together, to get rid of the Night's King. This is about people coming together and working together to get rid of the problem. And if Joramun blew the horn, the Wall didn't come down when he did that.

Perhaps the sleepers can be interpreted as the people who are south of the Wall.

It isn't necessary for The Wall to fall, for the Undead Army to get on the other side of it. In one of his dreams (in that chapter, when he let the wildlings thru the gates) Jon saw wights scaling The Wall like spiders. Something like a scene from World War Z movie, or Pines TV-series.

Maybe the horn wasn't broken, and the reason why there was no sound heard, is because its sound is too low or too high to be heard by people. It's like those dog whistles. Maybe that horn was made specifically to be heard by the Others, or by the dead.

So could be, that the sleepers are dead Starks in crypts of Winterfell. Jon did saw them rising, in one of his dreams.

[HoodedCrow]

It occurs to me that Samwell is from Horn Hill. Right?