Heresy 224 Whitey Snow and the Winter Hill Gang

[St Daga]

I went looking for that Sansa "adrift" without Lady comment. I thought it was in an SSM but I found in at interview from 2003. This article was before Feast was published, so the questions and responses pertain to the first three novels. It's here if anyone is interested in looking at the entire article.

Any way, here is the Sansa comment:

Quote

Shaw: You mentioned how closely tied the Stark children are with the direwolves, but how about Sansa now that Lady's dead? 

Martin: She lost hers, so it kind of leaves her a little adrift. Of course Arya has lost her's too, she's separated from Nymeria.

 

Another part of this article stood out to me, since I have in the past questioned why we don't ever see direwolves north of the wall:

Quote

Shaw: Is there any reason why you never hear of direwolves north of the Wall? 

Martin: They're an extinct animal in that part. They're a very large and dangerous predator, and people have probably hunted them out. 

So, GRRM is stating that the direwolves are extinct north of the wall, and in the text Theon tells us that direwolves haven't been seen south of the wall in 200 years. So, that does make me wonder just what is up with the mother direwolf and her pups. If they didn't come from north of the wall, did that mean that there are still direwolves south of the wall, just that they are hidden and people don't spot them? Or did they come from somewhere else? Could this indicate that the birth of these direwolves is just as magical as the birth of the dragons, which is something that I have considered for quite a long time.

Also, if there are no direwolves north of the wall, because they are extinct, what is going on when Benjen mentions that he can hear direwolves howling on his ranging's and telling us that direwolves still exist north of the wall. Perhaps this is just a mistake on the interviewer part, and he and GRRM were talking about direwolves "south" of the wall, not "north"? I did notice a few other possible mistakes in this interview, so perhaps this is just a mistake, too? Maybe this has been discussed before, so any information to help me clarify this would be great. Thanks.

[Black Crow]

9 minutes ago, St Daga said:

Another part of this article stood out to me, since I have in the past questioned why we don't ever see direwolves north of the wall:

So, GRRM is stating that the direwolves are extinct north of the wall, and in the text Theon tells us that direwolves haven't been seen south of the wall in 200 years. So, that does make me wonder just what is up with the mother direwolf and her pups. If they didn't come from north of the wall, did that mean that there are still direwolves south of the wall, just that they are hidden and people don't spot them? Or did they come from somewhere else? Could this indicate that the birth of these direwolves is just as magical as the birth of the dragons, which is something that I have considered for quite a long time.

Also, if there are no direwolves north of the wall, because they are extinct, what is going on when Benjen mentions that he can hear direwolves howling on his ranging's and telling us that direwolves still exist north of the wall. Perhaps this is just a mistake on the interviewer part, and he and GRRM were talking about direwolves "south" of the wall, not "north"? I did notice a few other possible mistakes in this interview, so perhaps this is just a mistake, too? Maybe this has been discussed before, so any information to help me clarify this would be great. Thanks.

 I think its just a slip or a transcription error. At one point either Benjen or Qhorin Halfhand speaks of hearing Direwolves howling at night when they are on a ranging.

[JNR]

10 hours ago, Jaghen said:

I didn't know this particular SSM. That's a strange take though, does that mean all the Starks for the past 200 years were "lacking" ?

Lacking what?  Direwolves? 

If so then yes... actually, the Starks were probably lacking them long before 200 years ago, if direwolves haven't even been seen in the North since that time, about the time of Jaehaerys the Wise.  

The direwolf population was clearly dying out for centuries before that point.

10 hours ago, Jaghen said:

What is so special about direwolves skinchanging compared to other animals ? 

The text spells it out.  Basically dogs (which are descended from wolves) are the easiest animals to bond with of all... wolves are not as tame and therefore harder, but if that bond is achieved it is permanent.

Quote

 

Dogs were the easiest beasts to bond with; they lived so close to men that they were almost human. Slipping into a dog's skin was like putting on an old boot, its leather softened by wear. As a boot was shaped to accept a foot, a dog was shaped to accept a collar, even a collar no human eye could see. Wolves were harder. A man might befriend a wolf, even break a wolf, but no man could truly tame a wolf. "Wolves and women wed for life," Haggon often said. "You take one, that's a marriage. The wolf is part of you from that day on, and you're part of him. Both of you will change."

 

This is what we find and repeatedly see reflected in the text.

So in a nutshell, over centuries with no direwolves the Starks lost all sense of themselves as skinchangers, to the point that it never even occurs to Ned that a bond might occur in the first chapter of AGOT.  But they never lost the talent.

[JNR]

1 hour ago, St Daga said:

So, GRRM is stating that the direwolves are extinct north of the wall, and in the text Theon tells us that direwolves haven't been seen south of the wall in 200 years. So, that does make me wonder just what is up with the mother direwolf and her pups.

This is not a typo or mistake by GRRM IMO; I think he knows exactly what he's talking about. 

The North is gigantic and mostly empty:

Quote

Robert snorted. "Bogs and forests and fields, and scarcely a decent inn north of the Neck. I've never seen such a vast emptiness. Where are all your people?"

And there is of course a forest the size of Great Britain immediately north of Winterfell called the Wolfswood where virtually no one lives.   It's easy for me to imagine that a tiny population of direwolves still existed in such conditions without being known.

As for the idea rangers heard direwolf howls north of the Wall, I wonder how they would even know what a direwolf's howl sounds like, never having seen a direwolf in their lives. 

And I notice we never, ever see a direwolf north of the Wall beside the Stark wolves, and Varamyr, who covets Ghost, has never heard of one or seen one either (exactly as we would predict from what GRRM said).

[St Daga]

1 hour ago, Black Crow said:

I think its just a slip or a transcription error. At one point either Benjen or Qhorin Halfhand speaks of hearing Direwolves howling at night when they are on a ranging.

It could be an error in the article (there is at least one other error that I see), but it's one that is more than 15 years old. And this article is used in the wiki in regards to Sansa's being "adrift" since Lady has died. So, it's not as if people who create the wiki would not be aware of what the article says. Perhaps there is some kind of retraction or clarifying statement somewhere. Benjen mentions there are direwolves north of the wall and they hear them on rangings, but does a direwolf howl sound much different that a regular wolf howling?

ETA: looking at the direwolf page on the wiki, this article is also used as a reference, although the part about north of the wall is not mentioned on the wiki page. Perhaps that's as much clarification that we will ever get about a possible error in the article?

 

36 minutes ago, JNR said:

And there is of course a forest the size of Great Britain immediately north of Winterfell called the Wolfswood where virtually no one lives.   It's easy for me to imagine that a tiny population of direwolves still existed in such conditions without being known.

As for the idea rangers heard direwolf howls north of the Wall, I wonder how they would even know what a direwolf's howl sounds like, never having seen a direwolf in their lives. 

And I notice we never, ever see a direwolf north of the Wall beside the Stark wolves, and Varamyr, who covets Ghost, has never heard of one or seen one either (exactly as we would predict from what GRRM said).

I have speculated that CotF might still live in the wolfswood, so perhaps a direwolf could, too!

Ha! I was just wondering the same thing about direwolf howling versus regular wolf howling. Is there a distinction? 

I have wondered for a long time about direwolves north of the wall. I would think if Varamyr had seen one in the past, he would have tried to claim one, but he never tells us that he did. Or that he has ever seen one besides Ghost., even amongst  the brotherhood of skinchangers north of the wall. And Ygritte seems quite startled when she first see's Ghost, which has always made me wonder if anyone in the north of the wall had really ever seen one. Qhorin seems to pick Jon to go on this ranging because of Ghost, although he and his rangers don't seem surprised by Ghost at all. 

[asongofheresy]

3 hours ago, Feather Crystal said:

It seems hinted at that Sansa is forming a bond with an old blind dog at the Eyrie. That the dog is “blind” indicates Sansa’s third eye wasn’t open yet.

Great find. Do you think Bran managed open Jon's third eye or is it still close? 

[Jaghen]

3 hours ago, St Daga said:

There is something special about the direwolves. Even Varamyr thinks that his second life in a direwolf would be a life worthy of a king. Varamyr was no king, but he senses that something in the direwolves would make him a king. It reminds me of how Bran/Summer thinks of himself as "prince of the green" and "prince of the wolfswood". Maybe something about the direwolves ties to kingship, and that ties to why the Stark's are the Kings in the North or the Kings of Winter? Then the question is, are all direwolves important, or just these six?

 

I would think if Ned or Brandon or Lyanna had this connection, they might not have understood it. This knowledge seems to be something that the Stark's have lost. If you don't understand it, how can you explain it? Especially Ned, who doesn't seem to be a believer in such things, although he does take his time to commune with the weirwoods, which I do think is important. And yes, Ned's favorite horse might be nothing more than a favorite animal, with no deeper meaning. And it also reminds me of how Dany responded the first time she rode her silver mare. Almost as if magically connected to the animal, although she seems to think nothing odd about it at that time. 

Now I'd choose a direwolf over a dog (or horse) as well, given the choice.

But if wolves are harder to bond with, direwolves even more so, and they also happen to be almost extinct, what's preventing any Stark in the last hundreds of years from skinchanging, dogs per say ? How did it get to be entirely forgotten if it never stopped is what's puzzling me.

By my own worst estimate the current Stark litter got 3/6 skinchangers. 50%. And yet nobody even believe in such things (except Nan, who nobody believes either)as far as we can see. Or 100% with best estimate.

Either there is something odd with these kids ability, or there is something very odd with their forefathers lack off such.

 

And yeah pretty sure Giants can be skinchanged - Hodor might not be a real giant, but he does for now - I'd say Dragons can as well, which may or may not be why Valyria never invaded Westeros.

[Black Crow]

20 minutes ago, Jaghen said:

 

But if wolves are harder to bond with, direwolves even more so, and they also happen to be almost extinct, what's preventing any Stark in the last hundreds of years from skinchanging, dogs per say ? How did it get to be entirely forgotten if it never stopped is what's puzzling me.

By my own worst estimate the current Stark litter got 3/6 skinchangers. 50%. And yet nobody even believe in such things (except Nan, who nobody believes either)as far as we can see. Or 100% with best estimate.

Either there is something odd with these kids ability, or there is something very odd with their forefathers lack off such.

 

Logic is a terrible thing, but whatever the reasoning GRRM has written a story in which despite the ability apparently lying dormant for generations all six [per that SSM above] children of Winterfell became wargs to a greater or lesser degree, triggered by the arrival of the direwolf pups.

[Melifeather]

5 hours ago, St Daga said:

Perhaps that makes sense of why that old dog is blind, but would this then mean that Jon's "third eye" has been open from the very start, since Ghost had his eyes open when they found him? Except Jon doesn't seem to sense Ghost until after the five pups have been claimed?

 

2 hours ago, Jova Snow said:

Great find. Do you think Bran managed open Jon's third eye or is it still close? 

In response to both of you. Bran opened Jon's third eye when he was dreaming that he was Ghost. You two may have missed this when I posed this earlier:

 

Quote

 

A Clash of Kings - Jon VII

When he closed his eyes, he dreamed of direwolves.

There were five of them when there should have been six, and they were scattered, each apart from the others. He felt a deep ache of emptiness, a sense of incompleteness. The forest was vast and cold, and they were so small, so lost. His brothers were out there somewhere, and his sister, but he had lost their scent. He sat on his haunches and lifted his head to the darkening sky, and his cry echoed through the forest, a long lonely mournful sound. As it died away, he pricked up his ears, listening for an answer, but the only sound was the sigh of blowing snow.

Jon?

The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only . . .

A weirwood.

It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother's face. Had his brother always had three eyes?

Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow.

He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew. He was smelling death. He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs.

Don't be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him.

And suddenly he 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.

 

 

[Brad Stark]

I am not buying all this Sansa stuff.   Just because a dog was seen within a hundred miles of her, it doesn't make her a warg.

Bran is ahead for the same reason Rob was behind.   With his injuries, he spends more time focused on dreams or in his wolf and has little else to distract him.   Bran is also the strongest and likely the only Stark who can become a Greenseer.

[St Daga]

17 hours ago, Jaghen said:

By my own worst estimate the current Stark litter got 3/6 skinchangers. 50%. And yet nobody even believe in such things (except Nan, who nobody believes either)as far as we can see. Or 100% with best estimate.

Either there is something odd with these kids ability, or there is something very odd with their forefathers lack off such.

Well, it's all six of the children. So, yes, there is something very important in the genetics of these six children, or there is something very important about these six direwolves.

 

24 minutes ago, Brad Stark said:

I am not buying all this Sansa stuff.   Just because a dog was seen within a hundred miles of her, it doesn't make her a warg.

Bran is ahead for the same reason Rob was behind.   With his injuries, he spends more time focused on dreams or in his wolf and has little else to distract him.   Bran is also the strongest and likely the only Stark who can become a Greenseer.

I see no reason to think that since Sansa lost her direwolf, that her gift could not be triggered into a different direction or animal. As to the Stark who can become a greenseer, it does relate to Bran. But both Jon and Rickon have wolves with red and green eyes, and those CotF with red and green eyes were special, were considered to have greensight and become greenseers. Why did GRRM make this choice in similiarity? Perhaps it's a distraction, but I have a hard time thinking so. As to Robb, we have no idea what his gift and bond with Grey Wind might have entailed, but as the eldest, he might have been figuring his gift out on his own, unlike Bran, who needed a literal push from a tower as well as a push from Jojen, who was sent to help him understand his gift.

[St Daga]

15 hours ago, Feather Crystal said:

21 hours ago, St Daga said:

Perhaps that makes sense of why that old dog is blind, but would this then mean that Jon's "third eye" has been open from the very start, since Ghost had his eyes open when they found him? Except Jon doesn't seem to sense Ghost until after the five pups have been claimed?

 

18 hours ago, Jova Snow said:

Great find. Do you think Bran managed open Jon's third eye or is it still close? 

In response to both of you. Bran opened Jon's third eye when he was dreaming that he was Ghost. You two may have missed this when I posed this earlier:

My inquiry was mostly related to the thought you expressed on Sansa's third eye being closed because the dog at Littlefinger's keep is blind, and how that could relate to Jon Snow, who was given the only direwolf with it's eyes opened, therefore not blind like the other pups. That must mean something in relation to Jon. I am questioning that something started right then for Jon Snow, as soon as he got Ghost. How  long had Jon been having his crypt dreams? We really don't know, but he tells Sam about them in Jon's 4th POV. Has Jon been having these dreams only since he came to the wall, has he had them for his whole life, or perhaps has he had them since he got Ghost. I think it could be that.

If there are certain steps that a greenseer must pass, then it seems like Jon and Bran are doing them in different orders. Jon has his crypt dreams, then he has his fire injury from the wight fight and had dreams about that. Then, Jon has wolf dreams, the one you mentioned in your post seems to be the first wolf dream of Jon/Ghost's that we hear of. At the end of Dance, we see Jon involved in a stabbing, which I predict will be a near death incident that will finally unlock his potential gift. This might involve darkness and dirt and smell of death, things that are hinted about in the dream you had just posted.

With Bran, we hear of no dreams until after his fall, but that's only his 3rd POV and early in the story. At that time, he has a near death experience, and has his three-eyed crow dream, a dream that seems quite prophetic. Then we see Bran's wolf dreams. At some point, Jojen is sent to Bran to help him understand his gift, and Bran even expresses that his "third-eye" didn't open until he was in the darkness of the crypts, and finally, when Bran reaches the cave north of the wall, he is fed weirwood paste that seems to fully unlock his potential gift. Perhaps not fully, since we don't have an endgame yet, but to at least further his abilities.

To me, it seems like Bran and Jon are very similar, but coming at their abilities by different paths.

As to the dream you mention, it does expressly show us Bran (or a tree that looks like Bran) reaching out and touching Jon's forehead. But even before this part of the dream, Jon is having a wolf dream. He is in Ghost, thinking on his pack mates, so something in the frostfangs has done something to change or alter his and Ghost's connection, but this is before the "third-eye" mention. I wonder honestly if this is Bran talking to Ghost more than Jon, but perhaps that doesn't matter. Then Jon's dream continues from Ghost's perspective, looking over Mance's camp, and only the attack of Orell's eagle seems to break this connection between Ghost and Jon, and therefore end the wolf dream. I believe after the attack at Queen's crown, we will later see that Bran tries to slip inside of Summer, but cannot because the direwolf was in pain and blocking him. So pain is a hindrance to the gift, at least for a small amount of time.

To me, it seems like Jon is coming at his gift in the sense that he started having his crypt dreams, then we see him with his wolf dreams, and the incident with Tree Bran touches Ghost and speaks to Jon (this is how Bran thinks of it, anyway, which again makes me think Bran's touching opened something in Ghost more than something in Jon). The wolf dreams come more often to Jon after this, and it's Qhorin and his band point out to Jon what they think he is as far as a warg and skinchanger (I think both terms are used in this passage). We have the time when Jon cannot sense Ghost and the when Ghost and Jon are reunited, near the end of Storm. In Dance, we seem to have a combination of dreams for Jon, and of course, we are left with a cliffhanger ending, that I think results in Jon in a coma (mirroring Bran's coma from early in Game) and therefore another important step that Jon must take in controlling or using his abilities. 

I did find your thought on Sansa and the blind dog interesting, because it actually reminded me of that moment that Orell's eagle attacks Jon and for a moment he thinks he has been blinded but turns out to only be blinded by blood. Arya has her time as Blind Beth, and this is where she starts to see through the cat's eyes, I think. (Arya also has the knock on the head that the Hound gave her, which causes her to sleep a lot, not a coma but perhaps a concussion, which might have helped move her abilities along but that doesn't really touch on the blindness idea). Rickon is a bit of a wild card, but he seems to have been spending much time in the crypts early in the story, and no one notes that he had a torch or anything, so was he, a three or four years of age, figuratively blind in the crypts, which might have helped his abilities?  As far as I know, we don't ever have any reference to Robb being blind, so perhaps that altered his abilities in some way. 

Anyway, I am not 100% on anything, just trying to explore possible connections and how they might tie to each other.

 

 

[LynnS]

19 hours ago, JNR said:

And I notice we never, ever see a direwolf north of the Wall beside the Stark wolves, and Varamyr, who covets Ghost, has never heard of one or seen one either (exactly as we would predict from what GRRM said).

I still question whether the pregnant direwolf came from north of the Wall with Gared. 

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Prologue

Ser Waymar Royce did not deign to reply.

Somewhere off in the wood a wolf howled.

Will pulled his garron over beneath an ancient gnarled ironwood and dismounted.

It's questionable whether Will, Gared or Waymar would know what a direwolf sounds like. 
 

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Bran II

The wolf did as he was told. Bran scratched him behind the ears, then turned away, jumped, grabbed a low branch, and pulled himself up. He was halfway up the tree, moving easily from limb to limb, when the wolf got to his feet and began to howl.

Bran looked back down. His wolf fell silent, staring up at him through slitted yellow eyes. A strange chill went through him. He began to climb again. Once more the wolf howled. "Quiet," he yelled. "Sit down. Stay. You're worse than Mother." The howling chased him all the way up the tree, until finally he jumped off onto the armory roof and out of sight.

The business of the howling chasing Bran up a tree onto the roof before his encounter with Jaime and Cersei is suggestive.

Bran also refers to a wolf howling when refers to the direwolf.

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Bran II

Screaming, Bran went backward out the window into empty air. There was nothing to grab on to. The courtyard rushed up to meet him.

Somewhere off in the distance, a wolf was howling. Crows circled the broken tower, waiting for corn.

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Tyrion I

Somewhere in the great stone maze of Winterfell, a wolf howled. The sound hung over the castle like a flag of mourning.

So if the Night Watch claims that they have heard direwolves north of the Wall,  how do they distinguish the common wolf from the direwolf?  Is there some quality that distinguishes the two?

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Catelyn X

Here was the call of Maege Mormont's warhorn, a long low blast that rolled down the valley from the east, to tell them that the last of Jaime's riders had entered the trap.

And Grey Wind threw back his head and howled.

The sound seemed to go right through Catelyn Stark, and she found herself shivering. It was a terrible sound, a frightening sound, yet there was music in it too. For a second she felt something like pity for the Lannisters below. So this is what death sounds like, she thought.

Quote

A Game of Thrones - Tyrion I

Somewhere in the great stone maze of Winterfell, a wolf howled. The sound hung over the castle like a flag of mourning.

Tyrion Lannister looked up from his books and shivered, though the library was snug and warm. Something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of the mind, running naked before the pack.

 

Quote

 

A Game of Thrones - Catelyn III

Outside the tower, a wolf began to howl. Catelyn trembled, just for a second.

"Bran's." Robb opened the window and let the night air into the stuffy tower room. The howling grew louder. It was a cold and lonely sound, full of melancholy and despair.

 

 

[alienarea]

I see the six direwolf pups as catalysts. Whoever placed them knew they would trigger something in some of the Stark children plus Jon, but not necessarily what in whom.

 

[LynnS]

1 hour ago, alienarea said:

I see the six direwolf pups as catalysts. Whoever placed them knew they would trigger something in some of the Stark children plus Jon, but not necessarily what in whom.

 

Yes and possibly conduits for the old gods to interact with the Stark kids while they are wolf-dreaming.  The incident with Tree-Bran and Ghost-Jon at the Skirling Pass comes to mind.

[St Daga]

3 hours ago, LynnS said:

So if the Night Watch claims that they have heard direwolves north of the Wall,  how do they distinguish the common wolf from the direwolf?  Is there some quality that distinguishes the two?

I was just questioning this as well. GRRM sometimes refers to a the direwolves as just wolves howling, but never really tells us if their call sounds different or not. The only times I can find any distinguishing between the two seems to be within the wolf-dreams, which note that Nymeria howls and her cousins join her in howling. But I don't know if it sounds different or they just recognize the difference because they know their sister's call? Or in general, the direwolves can hear the difference between their own kind and their smaller cousins, but people cannot? 

[Melifeather]

3 hours ago, St Daga said:

My inquiry was mostly related to the thought you expressed on Sansa's third eye being closed because the dog at Littlefinger's keep is blind, and how that could relate to Jon Snow, who was given the only direwolf with it's eyes opened, therefore not blind like the other pups. That must mean something in relation to Jon. I am questioning that something started right then for Jon Snow, as soon as he got Ghost. How  long had Jon been having his crypt dreams? We really don't know, but he tells Sam about them in Jon's 4th POV. Has Jon been having these dreams only since he came to the wall, has he had them for his whole life, or perhaps has he had them since he got Ghost. I think it could be that.

I agree that Sansa has a latent skinchanging ability that could be awakened. She's just not aware of it or maybe she thinks it was only a bond that she shared with Lady? As for Ghost's eyes being opened - I think there might be differences in skill level with regards to learning about what all the third eye can do versus wolf dreams.

3 hours ago, St Daga said:

If there are certain steps that a greenseer must pass, then it seems like Jon and Bran are doing them in different orders. Jon has his crypt dreams, then he has his fire injury from the wight fight and had dreams about that. Then, Jon has wolf dreams, the one you mentioned in your post seems to be the first wolf dream of Jon/Ghost's that we hear of. At the end of Dance, we see Jon involved in a stabbing, which I predict will be a near death incident that will finally unlock his potential gift. This might involve darkness and dirt and smell of death, things that are hinted about in the dream you had just posted.

With Bran, we hear of no dreams until after his fall, but that's only his 3rd POV and early in the story. At that time, he has a near death experience, and has his three-eyed crow dream, a dream that seems quite prophetic. Then we see Bran's wolf dreams. At some point, Jojen is sent to Bran to help him understand his gift, and Bran even expresses that his "third-eye" didn't open until he was in the darkness of the crypts, and finally, when Bran reaches the cave north of the wall, he is fed weirwood paste that seems to fully unlock his potential gift. Perhaps not fully, since we don't have an endgame yet, but to at least further his abilities.

To me, it seems like Bran and Jon are very similar, but coming at their abilities by different paths.

I think wolf dreams are actually instances of skinchanging that occur while the human is sleeping. It's said the third eye will flutter open when the skinchanger is asleep, so the skinchanger sees, smells, and experiences whatever their animal is doing, but they don't realize that what they are experiencing is real, or since they have no control over the experience they think it's simply a dream.

The ability to open the third eye consciously is the ability of the skinchanger to be able to do three things at will:

1) They can actively skinchange while awake and control what their animal does.

2) Travel and inhabit someone else's dream. 

3) Sense where other skinchangers are.

When Bran came to Jon while he was sleeping he wasn't having a wolf dream, because he wasn't inside Ghost. Jon was dreaming that he himself was Ghost and he was using his third eye to sense where all his siblings were, but he wasn't fully utilizing all the functions of the third eye. Perhaps it was because he didn't realize that he has one or know what his abilities are?

Bran was utilizing a third eye skill by coming to Jon in his dream. He poked Jon in his third eye to fully wake it and suddenly Jon was instantly able to see what Ghost was seeing. The time of day was totally different than the dream, so the dream was not a wolf dream.

3 hours ago, St Daga said:

Arya has her time as Blind Beth, and this is where she starts to see through the cat's eyes, I think. (Arya also has the knock on the head that the Hound gave her, which causes her to sleep a lot, not a coma but perhaps a concussion, which might have helped move her abilities along but that doesn't really touch on the blindness idea). 

I think you may be correct in thinking Arya's third eye was opened when the waif gave her the "milk" and blinded her. She may have had some skills prior, but attributed them to wolf dreams - not realizing that they were real - but now that she was able to see through the eyes of the cat she knows she has this skill.

 

[Black Crow]

21 minutes ago, St Daga said:

I was just questioning this as well. GRRM sometimes refers to a the direwolves as just wolves howling, but never really tells us if their call sounds different or not. The only times I can find any distinguishing between the two seems to be within the wolf-dreams, which note that Nymeria howls and her cousins join her in howling. But I don't know if it sounds different or they just recognize the difference because they know their sister's call? Or in general, the direwolves can hear the difference between their own kind and their smaller cousins, but people cannot? 

Well, we don't know since GRRM hasn't thus far enlightened us, but the fact of the matter is that as the story is written by GRRM his characters speak of knowing the sound of direwolves. Now if another character took leave to doubt the statement that's fair enough, but as it stands the rangers talk of hearing direwolves howling and nobody says them nay.

[LynnS]

2 hours ago, St Daga said:

I was just questioning this as well. GRRM sometimes refers to a the direwolves as just wolves howling, but never really tells us if their call sounds different or not. The only times I can find any distinguishing between the two seems to be within the wolf-dreams, which note that Nymeria howls and her cousins join her in howling. But I don't know if it sounds different or they just recognize the difference because they know their sister's call? Or in general, the direwolves can hear the difference between their own kind and their smaller cousins, but people cannot? 

I tend towards the direwolf mum coming from North of the Wall with Gared.  That makes a more interesting story than direwolves are rare but exist south of the Wall even though nobody has seen one for 200 years.  I also think a larger animal might sound different than their smaller cousins and I don't have any reason to doubt the Night Watch when they say there are direwolves north of the Wall.  Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, in this case anyway, since we know for a fact the direwolves exist.  The direwolf mum didn't make those pups by herself.  If they have long been hunted, they might be cagey enough to avoid humans.

[Melifeather]

I actually don't think Gared knew anything about the mother direwolf, because she and the pups weren't found until after he was beheaded and the Stark party was on it's way back to Winterfell. Its a wonder that they didn't notice or hear anything on their way to see Gared as I'm assuming they took the same route over the bridge there and back. The event is meant to be magical and symbolic, so we might have to accept that everything was put into place via magic. And if it was magic that put everything into place, then we need to consider who worked the magic? Is this something that a greenseer could accomplish? Was it done by the room full of Children greenseers or in conjunction with the godhead itself?

I don't think anyone ever wonders where the Lady of the Lake came from in Arthur's story. Bloodraven has a bit of Merlin imagery with his confinement in the cave of skulls under the weirwood. If the Lady of the Lake can give Arthur his sword Excalibur and raise Lancelot in an enchanted land disguised as a lake, then a dead mother direwolf and pups can be presented to the Starks, magically appearing out of nowhere. Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone (the proof of Arthur's lineage) are sometimes said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. 

Having Jon find Ghost is sort of like presenting Arthur with his true lineage. Gared was found in an old holdfast in the hills away from Winterfell. While it's not explicitly mentioned, perhaps the location is within the wolfswood? The wolfswood may be an enchanted place and akin to the lake where the Lady of the Lake resides.