Craster's line, "Those who are right with the Old Gods"

[The Fourth Head]

I think when Craster refers to "real gods", he is referring to "r'hllor vs the great other"

extreme situations call for extreme gods, and by sacrificing to the white walkers, he is sparing himself and the rest of his family from certain death. He could have gone with Mance to march south, but for him, it was too risky, and he was quite content doing what he is currently doing.

Mormont doesn't serve babies to the great other, he worships weirwoods, and "the old gods" who are nameless, but who quite possibly had identities originally which have been forgotten. the North has not faced certain annihilation for thousands of years, so their gods are gentler- they make up their own code of conduct because they don't remember who their gods are.

Most of Mormont's men serve the seven- from the south. The gentlest and least relevant of the gods, it would seem. Certainly to Craster.

The biggest area I am curious on, is when winter comes, I doubt very much that Craster be alone in taking this course of action. If the Others sweep through the 7 kingdoms, who will be able to resist the barbaric temptation of sacrificing one of your own to save the rest? It mirrors with R'hllor quite nicely, and makes it not about "good vs evil" "Rhllor vs the great Other", but about chosen survival methods reflecting the extreme circumstances and the personalities of the people involved.

It takes a brave, enlightened and principled man to conquer fear by honourable means, and Craster, in my view, is merely the forerunner of this crisis.

I can't imagine that Locke dude, or Theon's would be rapist having any qualms doing what Craster does in order to survive.

[Winterz]

In this episode he is talking about the cold winds and how he has nothing to fear, he's made a deal with the White Walkers to offer up his sons to them. The White Walkers are the "gods" that he serves.

Last season Craster lives his baby in the woods, a figure with blue eyes takes it, Jon tells Mormont about it, he tells Jon "Craster serves crueler gods than us"

Mormont just thought they were other sort of Gods who accepted male baby sacrifices. He sure as hell didn't know Craster worshiped WWs.

[A Dance With Drogon]

I disagree that Mormont did not know who Craster was giving the babies to. Even though there are a lot of gods in this world, I don't think he believes that there are gods he's never heard of that like to munch on frozen baby meat. I'm sure that would be known throughout the realm, or at least in the form of children's ghost stories.

[Tadco26]

It seems most likely to me that Mormont just thought Craster was killing the babies as a sacrifice. Many real world religions have had human sacrifices without an actual god coming to literally take that sacrfice.

On a different note, I am curious as to how Craster would have ever come up with the idea or negotiated the peace in the first place since the Others haven't shown any desire or ability to communicate with humans so far in any other situation.

[Deleted]

Deleted post - how can I delete my account?

Nothing but spoilers in every thread, regardless how it's marked.

[polarbear]

Lets not give Craster too much credit here. The man is not a theological scholar (like some young actors on the series:) Like most of the Wildings he worships " the old gods", But he has decided that the white walkers are in fact the old gods. Other old gods worshipers like Mormont think he's nuts.

Its like those Branch Davidians all deciding that David Koresh was Jesus Christ reborn. They might have still considered themselves Christians, but nobody else did.

[Ghost of Harrenhal]

I'm pretty sure Mormont knows exactly what craster is doing. When john tells him he saw what took the babies, Mormont says "he serves crueler gods than you or i" or something like that. Mormont knows this but he knows he has to rely on craster so he doesnt say anything.