What’s up with Borroq and his boar?

[Seams]

In support of my "Borroq-as-Robb-Stark" theory:

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Jon was done with denials. He was who he was; Jon Snow, bastard and oathbreaker, motherless, friendless, and damned. For the rest of his life—however long that might be—he would be condemned to be an outsider, the silent man standing in the shadows who dares not speak his true name. Wherever he might go throughout the Seven Kingdoms, he would need to live a lie, lest every man's hand be raised against him. But it made no matter, so long as he lived long enough to take his place by his brother's side and help avenge his father.

He remembered Robb as he had last seen him, standing in the yard with snow melting in his auburn hair. Jon would have to come to him in secret, disguised. He tried to imagine the look on Robb's face when he revealed himself. His brother would shake his head and smile, and he'd say … he'd say …

He could not see the smile. Hard as he tried, he could not see it. He found himself thinking of the deserter his father had beheaded the day they'd found the direwolves. "You said the words," Lord Eddard had told him. "You took a vow, before your brothers, before the old gods and the new."

AGoT, Jon IX

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The skinchanger stopped ten yards away. His monster pawed at the mud, snuffling. A light powdering of snow covered the boar's humped black back. He gave a snort and lowered his head, and for half a heartbeat Jon thought he was about to charge. To either side of him, his men lowered their spears.

"Brother," Borroq said.

"You'd best go on. We are about to close the gate."

"You do that," Borroq said. "You close it good and tight. They're coming, crow." He smiled as ugly a smile as Jon had ever seen and made his way to the gate. The boar stalked after him. The falling snow covered up their tracks behind them.

...

Borroq had taken up residence in one of the ancient tombs beside the castle lichyard. The company of men long dead seemed to suit him better than that of the living, . . . 

...

 Borroq leaned against a wall in a dark corner. Mercifully, his boar was nowhere in evidence. 

ADwD, Jon XII and XIII

When Jon was planning to desert and join Robb Stark's army, he remembered the snow melting in Robb's hair and he tried to imagine Robb's smile and what he would say when he saw Jon. He couldn't quite picture the moment of reunion and then he immediately starts to think about desertion and what it means. 

The thoughts of Robb were preceded by Jon Snow acknowledging that he is a bastard and will always be a bastard, "the silent man standing in the shadows." 

GRRM loves irony. Instead of Jon Snow standing in the shadows, we see Borroq in the Shield Hall, in a dark corner. When he met Jon Snow, snow was melting on his boar and he said, "Brother," and he had an ugly smile - in my opinion, the smile that Jon Snow had not been able to picture in his earlier imagined reunion with Robb. Borroq / Robb is the Stranger, not Jon Snow, relishing the company of the dead. 

A new thought, drawing on some of the comments in this thread, is that Borroq / Robb is able to command shadows, like Melisandre. Not for nothing was his direwolf called Grey Wind. I think shadow weapons are an unspoken weapon of mass destruction or, at least, magical power. There may be more than one kind of shadow weapon: Melisandre's shadow babies but also dragons and possible unexpected things such as birds flying out of a pie. "Quiet as a shadow" was part of Arya's training with Syrio Forel, and this training allowed her to catch the elusive old one-eared tom cat at the Red Keep, where she describes cats as "ragged shadows prowling the midden heaps."

Speaking of quiet, I think it's also significant that, as @sweetsunray points out, Borroq is part of the rearguard when he arrives to pass through the Wall. I think there may be wordplay on rearguard and "ear guard" along with Gared and dagger. Jon Snow thinks of Ned killing the deserter (Gared) just as he imagines his reunion with Robb in the AGoT passage cited above. Gared lost his ears to frostbite because, apparently, he had no ear guard. The old black tom cat caught by Arya has one ear. 

Maybe Arya killing the singer Dareon is also symbolic of her silent killing technique. She silenced him. He was also a deserter. 

The importance of quiet and shadows as weapons of the Stranger could also be linked to the hints people are seeing to Brienne's quest to the Whispers (not to mention her stop at the Quiet Isle). The sound of the waves against the base of the ruin seem like whispers. The advisors of Ser Clarence Crabb are dead heads (like the beheaded deserter in Jon's flashback to Gared's death) and they are not loud - they are whispering. 

I wonder whether the quiet and the "waves as whispers" helps to explain more of the "under the sea" wisdom of Patchface. What if the Free Folk are "Reef" folk? Maybe travels beyond the Wall represent an "under the sea" sojourn, and the Free Folk are an army that emerges from the sea? When Ygritte shows Jon Snow the stars, it could be similar to Davos finding starfish (and crabs) when he is stranded on a rock near the Blackwater. 

I'm wandering away from Borroq and his boar, I realize. I do think his arrival signals that Jon Snow or his after-death allies will have command of a shadow weapon or some kind.

Maybe we will round out the Stranger symbolism and see Benjen turn up at the Shadow Tower. 

 

[LongRider]

14 hours ago, sweetsunray said:

Borroq is a friend and brother to Jon.

I agree as Borroq is the Oscar the Grouch of the North, however, he knows what he is talking about and recognizes Jon for who he is, a powerful warg.  He's not well liked and Tormund comments as he sees him approaching the gate "Borroq." Tormund turned his head and spat."  This is great writing as it colors Jon's opinion of Borroq, and many of the fans as well.  

[LongRider]

As for the Others invading the Wall, I want to share something I explored in a previous thread (will leave a link at the end of this post)  

We were discussing what "woke up" Othor and Flowers when they were south of the Wall in the CB ice cell , I noted that Jon had heard a skirling wind blowing over the Wall from the North.  

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 ....after they were placed in the storerooms, perhaps what reanimated them passed over the Wall to them.   "A north wind had begun to blow by the time the sun went down. Jon could hear it skirling against the Wall and over the icy battlements as he went to the common hall for the evening meal."    

What is a skirling wind?  For that matter, what is a skirl?  Definition of skirl is: skirl:  (of bagpipes) make a shrill, wailing sound, also described as a shriek or shrieking.  Was the wind shrieking with magic when it blew on the South side of the Wall? 

In George's 1993 letter to his publishers the Others are said to 'ride down on the winds of winter'.  Did something ride down the skirling wind to reanimate the two wights on the wrong side of the Wall?   

So SSR's mention of a north wind blowing is an important point and perhaps the Others will come over the Wall that way.  They may 'wake up" and remove the chains of the two dead wilding in the ice cells while wreaking havoc at Castle Black.

 

The wind was part of this discussion of this thread started by @LynnS, ran to two threads and was very interesting.   

 

[Corvo the Crow]

1 hour ago, LongRider said:

As for the Others invading the Wall, I want to share something I explored in a previous thread (will leave a link at the end of this post)  

We were discussing what "woke up" Othor and Flowers when they were south of the Wall in the CB ice cell , I noted that Jon had heard a skirling wind blowing over the Wall from the North.  

So SSR's mention of a north wind blowing is an important point and perhaps the Others will come over the Wall that way.  They may 'wake up" and remove the chains of the two dead wilding in the ice cells while wreaking havoc at Castle Black.

 

The wind was part of this discussion of this thread started by @LynnS, ran to two threads and was very interesting.   

 

A Skirling is also a small trout or Salmon. Tullys are god damn Cthulhu cultists proved!

 

 

[LynnS]

7 hours ago, LongRider said:

The wind was part of this discussion of this thread started by @LynnS, ran to two threads and was very interesting.   

Jeepers, I haven't thought about this for ages.    I wonder if I've changed my mind about anything....

[Phylum of Alexandria]

16 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

A Skirling is also a small trout or Salmon. Tullys are god damn Cthulhu cultists proved!

 

Speaking of Chthulu cultists, the Greyjoys should be examined for anti-boar imagery. After all, they do not sow.