Hardhome Theories

[Craving Peaches]

I would like to discuss and compare various Hardhome theories with the enlightened users of this board. This is what we know about the event so far:

Quote

Hardhome had been halfway toward becoming a town, the only true town north of the Wall, until the night six hundred years ago when hell had swallowed it. Its people had been carried off into slavery or slaughtered for meat, depending on which version of the tale you believed, their homes and halls consumed in a conflagration that burned so hot that watchers on the Wall far to the south had thought the sun was rising in the north. Afterward ashes rained down on haunted forest and Shivering Sea alike for almost half a year. Traders reported finding only nightmarish devastation where Hardhome had stood, a landscape of charred trees and burned bones, waters choked with swollen corpses, blood-chilling shrieks echoing from the cave mouths that pocked the great cliff that loomed above the settlement.

I have frequently seen these suggested as explanations:

• Hardhome was a volcanic eruption (ashes could suggest this)
• Hardhome was a meteor strike
• Hardhome was the Valyrians attacking what they thought was Braavos
• Hardhome was a test run for the Doom
• Hardhome was a nuclear explosion

Regarding the first two, I would expect more people to realise what they were. If it was a volcano, why would they not report smoke, tremors, or other signs of Volcanic activity besides ash before or after the event? If it was a meteor, surely someone would notice (they have telescopes), and there should be an impact crater, and they might feel the impact. It could be the Valyrians, but the description of the fire sounds more like the Doom than 'just' dragonfire, and there are no dragon sightings by anyone or any indication that the Valyrians were there. From the description, it does sound like a proto-Doom of Valyria - the intense heat, ashes everywhere, etc. But then you have to wonder, who was testing it out there, and why where they testing it on innocent villagers? If the theory of the Faceless Men causing the Doom is true, it seems a bit 'out of character' for them to do this, since according to the story the punishment was specifically for the suffering inflicted on the slaves in the Fourteen Flames. As for Hardhome being a nuclear explosion, I think that comes from it being described as like the sun rising, however I cannot see how anyone would actually have access to nuclear weapons, or if they did, why they would bother using them on Hardhome. Also, none of the above aside the Doom test theory really explain why there are still shrieks coming from the caves after the event is finished. The shrieks make me think it was maybe a magic experiment gone wrong, but...

Personally I feel like the mystery will never be confirmed either way and so we have a 'Schrödinger's Theory' situation with regards to Hardhome. Any thoughts?

[Corvo the Crow]

Failed Valyrian invasion. 

[Craving Peaches]

15 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Failed Valyrian invasion. 

Why did it fail?

[Corvo the Crow]

4 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

Why did it fail?

Dragonslaying Others. 

[Aebram]

My own theory about this is that Hardhome was a Valyrian mining colony. That explains all the caves. I think that it ended in a "mini-Doom:" a volcanic / seismic event triggered by misuse or abuse of magic.

The "screams" could be an acoustic phenomenon similar to what Brienne found at The Whispers: wind moving through natural passages in the earth. The wind at Hardhome probably blows pretty strongly sometimes. A cave or tunnel of the right size and shape could act like a giant flute.

[Loose Bolt]

11 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

Why did it fail?

My theory is that local wargs tried to take over invading dragons. But instead of controlling them they only cut connections between dragons and riders and so made all dragons mad and everybody and everything was burned down by rampaging dragons.

[Craving Peaches]

3 hours ago, Aebram said:

My own theory about this is that Hardhome was a Valyrian mining colony

But we are told it was inhabited by Wildlings. A Maester even lived amongst them for a time and wrote a book about it.

[Aebram]

28 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

But we are told it was inhabited by Wildlings. A Maester even lived amongst them for a time and wrote a book about it.

Hmmm, good point ... but when was he there? The Citadel has been around for a very long time. Maybe Hardhome was originally a village of the free folk, and Maester Wyllis lived there before the Valyrians arrived.

[Craving Peaches]

2 hours ago, Aebram said:

Hmmm, good point ... but when was he there? The Citadel has been around for a very long time. Maybe Hardhome was originally a village of the free folk, and Maester Wyllis lived there before the Valyrians arrived.

Wiki just says sometime before it was destroyed. But if it was a Valyrian colony, I would expect people would notice...

[Jon Fossoway]

Logical explanation is that it was a volcano that suddenly broke up with mild to none prior signs of it happening. It left the town in shambles, so venturing pirates and slavers that probably saw the huge eruption, eventually came closer and took whatever people were alive to slavery and plundered whatever was left. Screaming caves could just be the winds in these cave systems the inhabitants used as part of the town.

My only convoluted theory is (unlikely, of course) is that they dug too deep (being cave dwellers) and woke a Balrog.