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Horns


namesarehard

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The horn Ghost found is, or was just a regular horn of a NW member I believe, judging what was found with it; a brother’s cloak together with obsidian daggers, arrow heads and spear heads as well if I recall. A horn is part of the gear of a NW brother as seen below. It may also have been a practice once, in the very distant past, to bury stashes such as this to predetermined places so if ranging brothers really encounter wights, or walkers, they would have the means to fight them.

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There are ghosts here," Bran said. Hodor had heard all the stories before, but Jojen might not have. "Old ghosts, from before the Old King, even before Aegon the Dragon, seventy-nine deserters who went south to be outlaws. One was Lord Ryswell's youngest son, so when they reached the barrowlands they sought shelter at his castle, but Lord Ryswell took them captive and returned them to the Nightfort. The Lord Commander had holes hewn in the top of the Wall and he put the deserters in them and sealed them up alive in the ice. They have spears and horns and they all face north. The seventy-nine sentinels, they're called. They left their posts in life, so in death their watch goes on forever. Years later, when Lord Ryswell was old and dying, he had himself carried to the Nightfort so he could take the black and stand beside his son. He'd sent him back to the Wall for honor's sake, but he loved him still, so he came to share his watch."

If you guys really want the horn as an item to be something special, it could perhaps be the original horn that woke the sleepers, last hero’s horn.

But, it doesn’t need to be anything special besides just a regular old horn as it has some other significance. Since no one put it out, I doubt anyone has noticed it;

Fist of the First Men is a ring fort on a hill. Ghost digs out that horn somewhere around there. Samwell Tarly of Horn Hill gets the horn that was dug up from a hill and is chipped on the rim, is cracked and gives no sound. Doubt it’s relevant but just like the horn, ghost makes no sound as well.

@Seams I’m sure you will make something of the above pharagraph. Since no one seems to have noticed, you can also carry it out to the wow I never noticed thread. I’d do it but I’m sure you’ll be adding more to it so the honor goes to you :D

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I'm not sure I would connect the dots between the broken horn and Ghost, although you might be right. There are several silent people and things - Ser Ilyn, Wex Pyke in addition to Ghost. There is a reference to Brienne being "wordless" in the Catelyn POV just before the chapter where Jon finds the obsidian cache and the horn. There are also a couple of "mute appeal" moments at various points in the books.

But Jon does note that Ghost woke him when the wights infiltrated Mormont's tower at Castle Black, like the horn that wakes the sleepers. And the next Jon POV in ACoK opens with the horn waking the ranging party to announce the arrival of Qhorin Halfhand's group. That could all reinforce the comparison.

The broken horn is found among weapons - should we be comparing it to a broken weapon, such as the broken sword over Littlefinger's hearth at The Fingers, or the sword that one of the wildlings puts onto the pile of valuables when Mance's host passes through the gate at Castle Black? In the chapter immediately following Jon's discovery of the cache, Bran is helping Mikken, operating the bellows at the Winterfell forge.

I think it's also significant that Jon Snow gives the horn to Sam with the thought that Sam could use it as a drinking horn. There is a lot of action around Jon Snow preparing mulled wine and Jeor Mormont drinking it just before Jon follows Ghost to the buried bundle containing the dragonglass and the horn. The wine seems like symbolic blood.

Mormont also asks Jon whether his direwolf has found any game lately and says that the rangers could use some meat. Jon then returns to the kettle with the mulled wine and finds that there are "a few fingers" left: he is referring to the depth of the remaining wine in the kettle but the double meaning implies that this is part of the meat and blood symbolism. In other words, I think Jeor is preparing Jon Snow to be sacrificed and/or to be part of the "game" of thrones. (Additional talk of wolves and sheep and the raven's insistent demand for corn underscores this symbolism.)

Interestingly, I am also seeing a possibility that Ghost and/or the bundle and its contents could "be" uncle Benjen. Jon Snow has a conversation with Jeor about the better likelihood that Benjen will find the large, highly-visible ranging group than that the rangers could find Benjen. Immediately after that conversation, Ghost comes to get Jon and to lead him to the bundle. (Perhaps Qhorin is also a symbolic or reborn version of Benjen.)

The chapter also includes a great deal of wordplay around the word "well." My current thinking is that wells and walls are opposites but equivalents: both can be used to create a defensive position or hiding place and both are used as barriers / portals to another world. I think the Fist may be a symbolic well: Sam and Jon meet there and have an odd conversation where they both use the phrase "fare well" to describe their day. Jon notes that the Lord Commander will want to be fed, "as well" and later says, "Sleep well," to the Lord Commander. We know that Sam Tarly will emerge from a well and then lead Bran and his traveling companions back through it to get to Coldhands. I think Sam emerging from that well at the Nightfort is his first chance to emerge from the Otherworld he entered at the Fist or at Craster's Keep. It's possible that the cracked horn doesn't work in the "under the sea" place where it is found, but it will work now that Sam has transported it out of the well and into the green lands of the Reach.

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On 7/14/2019 at 10:05 PM, HoodedCrow said:

King Robert had horns...

 

3 hours ago, argonak said:

Ironically, Cersei gave him some as well.

These type of horns were the first I thought of, and I must say, I still find it an odd saying, just saying.

 

Also, The Horn of Herrock is one that always comes to mind, and I see it hasn't been mentioned in the thread.  I do wonder if there is more to it than first meets the eye.  It seems Jaime had taken to Ser Kennos sounding it to announce his arrivals throughout the Riverrlands.  The wiki describes it as black, twisted, and banded in gold. 

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Horn_of_Herrock

 

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