Heresy 224 Whitey Snow and the Winter Hill Gang

[Brad Stark]

I've always considered Howland followed Ned to the ToJ, but what if it was the other way around?  That's hard to do without making J=R+L and Jon being important, but it isn't impossible, certainly fits with Howland knowing too much about the central mystery, and explains how Ned knew to go to Dorne. 

Assuming Jon's parentage is the central mystery assumes Ned knows everything about  the central mystery Howland does.   Ned is not only present but a POV character, which doesn't fit with Ned knowing everything Howland does,  if Howland is off camera because of what he knows.   Howland needs to know something about the central mystery Ned didn't, otherwise GRRM is just being lazy not wanting a second person around who can spill the beans.  We also have some evidence Benjen knows Jon's parentage as well. 

[LynnS]

An Ode to My Garden:

I finished my garden.

it's a deep joy,

my shoulder is aching,

(makes whining noises).

[Melifeather]

4 hours ago, LynnS said:

He's actually too tall, but the High Sparrow is not. 

So if you know that your High Holy Place (The Isle of Faces) will come under attack, then mobilizing an army makes some sense.  

The business of Howland saving Ned's life and perhaps causing the death of Arthur Dayne; makes the Dawn sword available to one who is worthy of wielding it.  That person could lead the Faith Militant into battle when needed.  I don't think it's a coincidence that Brienne has been shown the path of the faithful; where only the faithful can pass.

So far the words of House Dayne have been kept from us because they reveal too much.  My bet is on:

 

I would really love it if this is how it plays out, but I don’t think Howland kept Dawn. The Sword of the Morning traditionally is a Dayne knight so I think we can expect Edric Dayne to wield it. After Beric died Edric defected from the Brotherhood Without Banners. It’s not said where he went, but he probably went home - although he could have been intercepted by Howland or Septon Meribald in the Riverlands. There does seem to be some interest in gathering Rhaegar’s “rubies” which I posit are actually people to represent the seven aspects of the Faith. If Howland is disguised as the High Septon in order to raise a Faith Militant from the small folk, then it may make sense to gather seven leaders to represent the Faith.

3 hours ago, redriver said:

A lot of literary gymnastics going on there....

I’m making a prediction based upon my wheel of time undoing history theory which I cannot prove until the next book is published, so we will have to wait to find out if I stick the landing or fall on my face.

[Lord Aegon The Compromiser]

11 hours ago, Black Crow said:

Perfectly true up to a point, but if course it was Howland Reed and what he knows I was talking about. And that point I was making is that he does know things about the eldritch side of the world. If he's not one of the Green Men then he certainly knows people who are.

What I was actually saying is that he provides a good example of issue-driven assumptions. GRRM says he knows too much about the central mystery. The disciples of R+L=J instantly assume that means he will reveal all about their boy on account of being at the tower of joy. In actual fact he certainly knows about the Starks, of Ice and Fire and so much is forgotten, and so much we never knew.  Is it not more likely that this is the central issue rather than Jon Snow's parentage?

I'm hesitant to agree with you...isn't the book series titled "A Song of A Dragon and A Rose"?

[LynnS]

8 hours ago, Feather Crystal said:

I would really love it if this is how it plays out, but I don’t think Howland kept Dawn.

Oh, no.  He didn't keep Dawn.  That's still in the sword tower waiting to be claimed by someone worthy. At this point, the High Sparrow is consolidating power and mobilizing an army, of fanatics actually.  He'll need somebody whom they will follow into battle. 

I don't think it will be Ned Dayne.  I think there is an SSM somewhere, GRRM has said that the person who claims the sword must be worthy of it and that wasn't restricted to members of House Dayne.  

[Lord Aegon The Compromiser]

7 hours ago, Feather Crystal said:

I would really love it if this is how it plays out, but I don’t think Howland kept Dawn. The Sword of the Morning traditionally is a Dayne knight so I think we can expect Edric Dayne to wield it. After Beric died Edric defected from the Brotherhood Without Banners. It’s not said where he went, but he probably went home - although he could have been intercepted by Howland or Septon Meribald in the Riverlands. There does seem to be some interest in gathering Rhaegar’s “rubies” which I posit are actually people to represent the seven aspects of the Faith. If Howland is disguised as the High Septon in order to raise a Faith Militant from the small folk, then it may make sense to gather seven leaders to represent the Faith.

I’m making a prediction based upon my wheel of time undoing history theory which I cannot prove until the next book is published, so we will have to wait to find out if I stick the landing or fall on my face.

Your theory goes well beyond what can be reasonably extracted from Book Canon though. I know this something you understand, but that's dangerous waters to swim in for correct theories, IMO.

[LynnS]

9 hours ago, Brad Stark said:

We also have some evidence Benjen knows Jon's parentage as well. 

We do? How so?

[LynnS]

12 hours ago, Feather Crystal said:

Old Nan says the green men ride elks, so if Coldhands is a green man then green men are undead creatures different than greenseers. 

Typically a green man is depicted as a foliate head, a face surrounded by leaves or sprouting foliage.  So I wonder about feet like gnarled tree roots.  I'm not sure what Coldhands is at this point.  Coldhands probably needs to cold to preserve his dead body. Would that be viable on the Isle of Faces?  

[Lord Aegon The Compromiser]

2 hours ago, LynnS said:

Typically a green man is depicted as a foliate head, a face surrounded by leaves or sprouting foliage.  So I wonder about feet like gnarled tree roots.  I'm not sure what Coldhands is at this point.  Coldhands probably needs to cold to preserve his dead body. Would that be viable on the Isle of Faces?  

Coldhands doesn't exhale air.

[Melifeather]

2 hours ago, LynnS said:

Typically a green man is depicted as a foliate head, a face surrounded by leaves or sprouting foliage.  So I wonder about feet like gnarled tree roots.  I'm not sure what Coldhands is at this point.  Coldhands probably needs to cold to preserve his dead body. Would that be viable on the Isle of Faces?  

Some nursery tales claim they are horned and have dark, green skin. According to Old Nan, the green men ride elks and sometimes have antlers. Most maesters believe their clothes are green and they wear headdresses with horns.

4 hours ago, Lord Aegon The Compromiser said:

Your theory goes well beyond what can be reasonably extracted from Book Canon though. I know this something you understand, but that's dangerous waters to swim in for correct theories, IMO.

Dangerous? Will the R+L=R gang beat me up? 

[LynnS]

4 hours ago, Lord Aegon The Compromiser said:

Your theory goes well beyond what can be reasonably extracted from Book Canon though. I know this something you understand, but that's dangerous waters to swim in for correct theories, IMO.

Politically correct theories? LOL

42 minutes ago, Lord Aegon The Compromiser said:

Coldhands doesn't exhale air.

Yes and I've always wondered how is it that Bran and Co. can hear him speak?

[LynnS]

SweetSunray has a very interesting take on mirrors.  I have permission to post it here.

 

[sweetsunray]

On 7/9/2019 at 7:10 AM, LynnS said:

It has been proposed in the past that the WW are glamored.  Is that still true or is it possible that their armor is made of highly reflective ice?
 

 

I'd say it's true that they are using glamor.

George said the armor has 2 functions: reflecting and camouflage. So mirrors and camouflage. In Plutionian Others I proposed they are basically ice spiders , a completely different life form. The next essay focuses particularly on the armor (it would have been published over a week ago if it didn't get overwritten by an older draft version, so now I'm rewriting it). But the basics is this: on the one hand the armor is a hint imo that the Others can use ice as looking glass, and that includes the Wall.

The prologue heavily hints that the Others set a trap to confront Waymar Royce, and that they identified him by his black steel sword and rich cloak. The trees very much attempt to scare off, warn and eventually protect the rangers. For example, when Will and Royce are almost to the spot where the Others await him, branches try to pry away his sword and cloak. Craster later stresses he recalls Royce because of the sword and cloak (mentioning the sword is black steel). Not only did the Others mean to kill Royce, they made damn sure the sword was destroyed and the cloak was slashed several times. And when Will attempts to take the remainder of the sword, that's when wighted Royce strangles him.

Another protection sign from the trees is how the tree that Will climbs almost instantly releases treesap that makes Will stick to the tree. His hands and later his cheek. It's as if the tree wants to glue Will to him, to prevent him from going down during nighttime. Only when the Others finally appear and it's too late, do the trees and animals grow silent. And it are the trees that are reflected in the Others' armor. Follow the tree-clues and you arrive at the truth.

Only Gared heeds the warning signs of the trees and the wolf (which I suspect is indeed the female direwolf).

Anyhow, Magician Joe proposed several years ago that the Others were after Jon Snow, and mistook Waymar Royce for Jon. Several angles were proposed on how the Others could have gotten their information. Craster as informant was proposed. LmL proposes the Others use and corrupted the weirnet. But imo the answer if far more simpler than that: they use ice surfaces, and thus the Wall.

George has several magical objects and elements used to "see", but one of the typical magical seeing objects has been absent so far: a mirror, a looking glass. There's a hint for an ice mirror through Royce's sword: a piece of it struck his eye, which is an allusion to Anderson's fairytale of the Ice Queen. In that story you have 2 magical mirrors. One was created by the devil and his demons that distorted perceptions. As they hauled it up to heaven to mock God and his angels, it fell and shattered into thousand pieces. The shards got into people's eyes, and all they could see after that is the evil of other humans, and only feel hatred and loathing. The brother of a girl in that story gets a splinter of that mirror into his eye and gets taken by the Ice Queen. She too has a mirror, a mirror of truth to see far and beyond, and it's an ice lake.

So, let's presume Others have an ice lake mirror to remote watch people reflected in other ice surfaces.

If you know the focus on the black steel sword, and the smugness of the Others as they kill Royce, then imagine their shock and surprise when Jon shows up at the Wall.

Quote

By the time Jon left the armory, it was almost midday. The sun had broken through the clouds. He turned his back on it and lifted his eyes to the Wall, blazing blue and crystalline in the sunlight. Even after all these weeks, the sight of it still gave him the shivers. Centuries of windblown dirt had pocked and scoured it, covering it like a film, and it often seemed a pale grey, the color of an overcast sky … but when the sun caught it fair on a bright day, it shone, alive with light, a colossal blue-white cliff that filled up half the sky. [...]

As he stood outside the armory looking up, Jon felt almost as overwhelmed as he had that day on the kingsroad, when he'd seen it for the first time. The Wall was like that. Sometimes he could almost forget that it was there, the way you forgot about the sky or the earth underfoot, but there were other times when it seemed as if there was nothing else in the world. It was older than the Seven Kingdoms, and when he stood beneath it and looked up, it made Jon dizzy. He could feel the great weight of all that ice pressing down on him, as if it were about to topple, and somehow Jon knew that if it fell, the world fell with it.

"Makes you wonder what lies beyond," a familiar voice said.

(aGoT, Jon III)

Or rather it makes you wonder, who's watching behind the looking glass. This act of Jon standing near the Wall and admiring it is several weeks after his arrival, but he has done it several times before, including upon his arrival. The Others believed they had killed the threat, and then Jon appears. Oopsie! 3 days later Benjen leaves, to never be seen again. My guess: they hunted after Benjen to lure Jon north of the Wall. A repeat of the trap tactic, except not with wildling raiders this time, but using his uncle. They likely expected Jon to be a ranger.

On the very day that Jon will make his vows, two wights lay close by the weirwood grove where followers of the Old Gods go to make their vows. It's as if they knew. Craster couldn't have told them that. Also earlier on, Jon has moved to live in the LC's tower. And that too is visible from the Wall. And they send the two wights to kill the LC. I suspect the Others believed that Jon was the LC already, hence they sent the wights in to kill the LC.

This backfires, because the next scene in front of the Wall is this one.

Quote

 

A half dozen of his friends were lurking outside when he left the King's Tower, where Lord Commander Mormont now made his residence. They'd hung a target on the granary doors, so they could seem to be honing their skills as archers, but he knew lurkers when he saw them. No sooner did he emerge than Pyp called out, "Well, come about, let's have a look." [...]

The sword," Grenn stated. "We want to see the sword." [...]

"The sword!" Matt insisted. The others took up the chant. "The sword, the sword, the sword."

Jon unsheathed Longclaw and showed it to them, turning it this way and that so they could admire it. The bastard blade glittered in the pale sunlight, dark and deadly. "Valyrian steel," he declared solemnly, trying to sound as pleased and proud as he ought to have felt. (aGoT, Jon VIII)

 

 

The Others speak their own language, and most likely do not understand Common Tongue, but here they can't miss out on the meaning of the word sword. It's chanted by 6 of Jon's friends (yes 6, the same number as the Others surrounding Royce, the same number of Brazen Locusts following Selmy to arrest Hizdahr, etc) outside near the Wall. And Jon shows it deliberately in every conceivable angle so it can be admired. And it's "dark" and most likely for the Others "deadly". Oopsie again: not only did they kill the wrong man, they destroyed the wrong sword. And now we have a likely hint on how the Others decided to go after Waymar. They had seen his black steel sword through the Wall and not knowing the actual difference between VS and normal steel, they just go by fearing any sword that is black or near black.

 

Next up is the Great Ranging. The assassination didn't work, but missing Benjen as trap eventually does get Jon north of the Wall. After Craster the NW gathers at the Fist. Instead of using a mirror, the Others have to scout the NW personally. We get hints of their nearby presence when Dywen mentions he can smell the cold, before Jon goes down the Fist following Ghost to find the obsidian arrows. Though the scouting confirms Jon's whereabouts at the time for the Others, he is armed with "the sword" and "obsidian" and ends up distributing it amongst his NW brothers.Tthe Others cannot take any chances. They need an army of wights to attack the Fist. But they don't have one yet.

 

Fortunately for the Others the wildlings decided to gather by the thousands, and so the Others can have easy pickings in one location. How do they know where the wildlings are? Because they camped at the foot of a glacier, an ice mirror surface.

 

Quote

 

And suddenly [Jon] was back in the mountains, his paws sunk deep in a drift of snow as he stood upon the edge of a great precipice. Before him the Skirling Pass opened up into airy emptiness, and a long vee-shaped valley lay spread beneath him like a quilt, awash in all the colors of an autumn afternoon.

A vast blue-white wall plugged one end of the vale, squeezing between the mountains as if it had shouldered them aside, and for a moment he thought he had dreamed himself back to Castle Black. Then he realized he was looking at a river of ice several thousand feet high. Under that glittering cold cliff was a great lake, its deep cobalt waters reflecting the snowcapped peaks that ringed it. There were men down in the valley, he saw now; many men, thousands, a huge host. Some were tearing great holes in the half-frozen ground, while others trained for war. He watched as a swarming mass of riders charged a shield wall, astride horses no larger than ants. The sound of their mock battle was a rustling of steel leaves, drifting faintly on the wind. Their encampment had no plan to it; he saw no ditches, no sharpened stakes, no neat rows of horse lines. Everywhere crude earthen shelters and hide tents sprouted haphazardly, like a pox on the face of the earth. He spied untidy mounds of hay, smelled goats and sheep, horses and pigs, dogs in great profusion. Tendrils of dark smoke rose from a thousand cookfires.

This is no army, no more than it is a town. This is a whole people come together. (aCoK, Jon VII)

 

 

During his scouting mission with Qorin in the Skirling Pass, Jon wargs Ghost and sees a wall of ice where Mance set up camp. Notice how George makes Jon think of the Wall. So, the glacier and the Wall are linked, and I say because the Others can use both as looking glass to spy on people. Spying is what Jon is doing here too, except not using ice, but by warging Ghost.

Quote

Qhorin came up beside him. "A frozen river, you say?"

"The Milkwater flows from a great lake at the foot of a glacier," Stonesnake put in.

So, the Others easily located the wildlings to gather an army of wights because of the glacier, and hunted wildlings along the Milkwater as they journeyed to meet up with Mance. And as they hunted wildlings and whatever mammal they came across (like the snow bear) to wightify, they believed that Jon was still at the Fist.

Take notice that George had Jon scout along another pass than the Milkwater: the skirling pass. And Jon himself never got physically near the glacier as Jon.

And even in the skirling pass, Qorin inadvertently steers Jon away from ice forming, when they flee from the wildling scouts pursuing them.

 

Quote

 

They went cautiously, moving as silent as man and horse could move, retracing their steps until they reached the mouth of a narrow defile where an icy little stream emerged from between two mountains. Jon remembered the place. They had watered the horses here before the sun went down.

"The water's icing up," Qhorin observed as he turned aside, "else we'd ride in the streambed. But if we break the ice, they are like to see. Keep close to the cliffs. There's a crook a half mile on that will hide us." He rode into the defile. Jon gave one last wistful look to their distant fire, and followed.

The farther in they went, the closer the cliffs pressed to either side. They followed the moonlit ribbon of stream back toward its source. Icicles bearded its stony banks, but Jon could still hear the sound of rushing water beneath the thin hard crust. (aCoK, Jon VIII)

 

 

This was a moment where the Others could have detected that Jon was not at the Fist at all, if Qhorin and Jon had continued on the stream. Notice that when they halted there by day it was still just flowing water. It's only icing up at night. And the irony is that "breaking the ice" would leave a trail for the wildings, while "not breaking the ice" would make the Others see them. But they don't continue along the stream. They stay near the cliffs, away from the stream and then disappear behind a waterfall into the cave that is a passage through the mountain.

The Others return to the Fist with their wight army and attack the Fist, still thinking Jon is with them. Since they can't find Jon amongst the dead at the Fist, they follow the survivors in pursuit. And since the NW failed to use the obsidian at the Fist, they dare to hunt them in person... except one of them ends up killed by Samwell who accidentally rediscovers the use of the obsidian. Which is why they really want to kill Sam with wights after he flees Craster and attempts to get back to the Wall. He musn't be allowed to reveal it to the rest of the NW.

This entire time, the Others remain unaware that Jon isn't with the NW anymore. That he's with the wildlings. And notice again how in every situation where Jon is near ice, he avoids it or it's broken up. First of all, Ygritte informs Jon and the reader that Mance and his wildlings will already be journeying through the Milkwater valley by the time they will rejoin the force, and thus Jon does not join Mance at the foot of the glacier.
 

Quote

 

"Will we return by the Skirling Pass?" Jon asked her. He did not know if he could face those heights again, or if his garron could survive a second crossing.

"No," she said. "There's nothing behind us." The look she gave him was sad. "By now Mance is well down the Milkwater, marching on your Wall." (aCoK, Jon VIII)

 

When they arrive in the valley near a little frozen stream, Rattleshirt shatters the ice crust with his horse. Jon is still wearing his black cloak, and thus would stand out here amongst the wildlings if seen through ice.

Quote

At the bottom of the slope they came upon a little stream flowing down from the foothills to join the Milkwater. It looked all stones and glass, though they could hear the sound of water running beneath the frozen surface. Rattleshirt led them across, shattering the thin crust of ice. (aSoS, Jon I)

Once he jons with Mance, he gets new cloak and furs, and basically is disguised as a wildling. The risk of detection by Others is less great, that is until Ygritte proposes to swim naked in the half frozen Milkwater. Jon refuses to do so and makes himself scarce ASAP.

 

Quote

 

 The day before last, Jon had made the mistake of wishing he had hot water for a bath. "Cold is better," she had said at once, "if you've got someone to warm you up after. The river's only part ice yet, go on."

Jon laughed. "You'd freeze me to death."

"Are all crows afraid of gooseprickles? A little ice won't kill you. I'll jump in with you t'prove it so."

"And ride the rest of the day with wet clothes frozen to our skins?" he objected.

"Jon Snow, you know nothing. You don't go in with clothes."

"I don't go in at all," he said firmly, just before he heard Tormund Thunderfist bellowing for him (he hadn't, but never mind). (aSoS, Jon II)

 

Ygritte, you know nothing either. A little ice could have killed Jon.

Anyhow, Jon stays away from ice all the way until back at the Wall to climb it. He does swim at some point, inside a cave, and no ice near. Of course by the time he climbs the Wall, the Others would have been able to see him up close and personal, but out of reach. And this is the first time that George in particular uses the word "reflect" for the Wall (it's Jon's first encounter with the Wall again AFTER Jeor died, and the Wall is only said to "reflect" in Jon POVs... it's his mirror shield... hint to Serwyn of the Mirror Shield, but that's for another essay)

Quote

The sun was high in the sky, and the upper third of the Wall was a crystalline blue from below, reflecting so brilliantly that it hurt the eyes to look on it. (aSoS, Jon IV)

And so, we can conclude that the attack on Hardhome while the NW is there to rescue the wildlings was intended as yet again, another trap or lure for Jon to go north of the Wall and kill him. But they must have seen signs of the conspiracy, for we get serious hints that the Others are at the rim of the forest north of CB ready to wightify any dead there after Jon's blood is drawn. (again that belongs to Jon of the Mirror Shield essay, but I advize you to check out aDwD Jon chapters for "stink" references - all issues that contribute to the planned assassination - and Ghost being extremely aggressive to Jon and trustworthy guards, more so than to Bowen, as long as the wind is not blowing from the South, and that includes the raven going nuts too simultaneously. And of course there's Borroq's boar rooting around in the lichyard, reminding us of Mance once digging up graves, a chapter after Boroq warned Jon "they are coming" )

....

As for the glamor evidence: it's Rattleshirt's rattleshirt. He wears an armor made entirely of "bones". It's basically an "exoskeleton". And an insect's exoskeleton is typically part of the camouflage. And Rattleshirt's exoskeleton was used to camouflage Mance with a glamor, which "changes the seeming but not the being." A parallel to the camouflaged blue blooded ice spiders are the manticores: who look like a jewel scarab, and even when they unfold their exoskeleton mimics a humanoid face. The seeming of the Others is not what they are.

ETA: the use of ice as "eyes" is likely the reason why the NW had the black weirwood gate. You need to reach it through the well, down an earthen tunnel. It's the one gate where you don't have to go through an ice tunnel that could be used by Others to see who's coming and going throguh the wall.

 

[LynnS]

1 hour ago, sweetsunray said:

ETA: the use of ice as "eyes" is likely the reason why the NW had the black weirwood gate. You need to reach it through the well, down an earthen tunnel. It's the one gate where you don't have to go through an ice tunnel that could be used by Others to see who's coming and going throguh the wall.

Well! My goodness, I love it.  This is the essay you lost on wordpress?  LOL.  Ouch.  I really like the idea that the Others can use ice in the way you describe to spy out the land.  George did say that we would surprised by what the Others could do with ice and you have surprised me.   There is a lot of juicy stuff in your essay to think about.  I have to say that I also thought the Others were after Jon Snow in the Prologue on consideration.  I can buy that they are threatened by him and have been taking measures for opportunities to hunt him.  I'm also reminded that Coldhands was particularly concerned about the Others finding Bran and perhaps his purpose as guide and protector was to make sure they didn't.

I'm sure I'll more to say, but thank you for posting this for us.  Very well done, indeed. 

[sweetsunray]

1 minute ago, LynnS said:

Well! My goodness, I love it.  This is the essay you lost on wordpress?  LOL.  Ouch.  I really like the idea that the Others can use ice in the way you describe to spy out the land.  George did say that we would surprised by what the Others could do with ice and you have surprised me.   There is a lot of juicy stuff in your essay to think about.  I have to say that I also thought the Others were after Jon Snow in the Prologue on consideration.  I can buy that they are threatened by him and have been taking measures for opportunities to hunt him.  I'm also reminded that Coldhands was particularly concerned about the Others finding Bran and perhaps his purpose as guide and protector was to make sure they didn't.

I'm sure I'll more to say, but thank you for posting this for us.  Very well done, indeed. 

Part of it!

Also included an analysis of all the tree action in the Prologue, Dany's mirror platter, Hotah's chapter summary, Armageddon Rag's side character nicknamed Mirrors (bodyguard who wears  mirroring sunglasses), Brazen Beasts, Tuf Voyaging featuring an "exoskeleton" armor (called that) in the Plague Star, the Swords with mirroring armor escorting Cersei during her walk of shame. I was nearly done, just tieing up the last stuff and writing a conclusion.... and then I had lag on my wireless connection on the laptop, and opened wordpress app on the phone with 4G... boom my earliest draft of a month before was uploaded: instead of 15k words I was back to 2300

[LynnS]

9 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

Part of it!

Also included an analysis of all the tree action in the Prologue, Dany's mirror platter, Hotah's chapter summary, Armageddon Rag's side character nicknamed Mirrors (bodyguard who wears  mirroring sunglasses), Brazen Beasts, Tuf Voyaging featuring an "exoskeleton" armor (called that) in the Plague Star, the Swords with mirroring armor escorting Cersei during her walk of shame. I was nearly done, just tieing up the last stuff and writing a conclusion.... and then I had lag on my wireless connection on the laptop, and opened wordpress app on the phone with 4G... boom my earliest draft of a month before was uploaded: instead of 15k words I was back to 2300

Oh Geez! Respect.

[Matthew.]

10 hours ago, LynnS said:

We do? How so?

I don't know what Brad is referring to, but I do feel that Benjen might have certain frustrations that are going unspoken (but hinted at) during Jon and Benjen's conversation in Jon I AGOT:
 

Quote

"I am almost a man grown," Jon protested. "I will turn fifteen on my next name day, and Maester Luwin says bastards grow up faster than other children."

"That's true enough," Benjen said with a downward twist of his mouth. He took Jon's cup from the table, filled it fresh from a nearby pitcher, and drank down a long swallow.

While this also reads as a general frustration with the way Jon has been raised - that he has a low opinion of bastardy, and feels like an outsider within his own family - I think it would take on an added layer if Jon is Lyanna's son, and Benjen were aware of that.

[LynnS]

1 minute ago, Matthew. said:

I don't know what Brad is referring to, but I do feel that Benjen might have certain frustrations that are going unspoken (but hinted at) during Jon and Benjen's conversation in Jon I AGOT:
 

While this also reads as a general frustration with the way Jon has been raised - that he has a low opinion of bastardy, and feels like an outsider within his own family - I think it would take on an added layer if Jon is Lyanna's son, and Benjen were aware of that.

Yes, that would be my take as well.  It's ambiguous of course, as always. lol

[Lord Aegon The Compromiser]

7 hours ago, Feather Crystal said:

Some nursery tales claim they are horned and have dark, green skin. According to Old Nan, the green men ride elks and sometimes have antlers. Most maesters believe their clothes are green and they wear headdresses with horns.

Dangerous? Will the R+L=R gang beat me up? 

Mayhaps. 

[Brad Stark]

Lots of speculation about Benjen knowing Jon's parentage, here and other places.  The quote Mathew posted is one, and the quote about Jon not knowing what he is giving up is another, possibly implying Jon ending the Targaryen dynasty and giving up a claim to the throne. 

As I said, this is a possibility, it certainly isn't proven.