Who is Coldhands?

[Lady Blizzardborn]

For some reason,I believe the purpose of Coldhands is to show the future of Jon Snow and how he will appear. In particular,what kind of being he is going to become once he is resurrected. I don't think we will learn who Coldhands is,but when we will see the description of resurrected Jon,we will picture Coldhands right away and understand what George wanted to tell us right there.

When I picture resurrected Jon I somehow picture him walking as a cold undead being that has a mind of his own. His body will be very cold to the touch due to time spent in ice cells of the Wall. And I don't imagine Jon's eyes turning blue like of a wight or White Walker. He will completely different entity.

So you think Coldhands was resurrected? Then why does he smell like death? I don't recall LS or Beric being said to smell like death. Also, CH is described as "dead" whereas Beric and unCat are alive again. Kind of a difference.

I do agree that Jon would not be exactly the same as he was, but I don't think he'd be like Coldhands. More like a Beric of the North.

[Scorpion92]

So you think Coldhands was resurrected? Then why does he smell like death? I don't recall LS or Beric being said to smell like death. Also, CH is described as "dead" whereas Beric and unCat are alive again. Kind of a difference.

I do agree that Jon would not be exactly the same as he was, but I don't think he'd be like Coldhands. More like a Beric of the North.

Well,if he used to be a brother of Night's Watch,then him smelling like death and being cold logically implies that he was brought back to life,but the main difference between Coldhands and a wight is that he isn't a mindless zombie and probably serves Bloodraven from what we gather.

You need to keep in mind the vision of Bran seeing Jon in the cold bed with all the warmth leaving his body,which implies he will be very cold to the touch (and perhaps personality wise he will more ruthless and feral like a wolf,because it is implied he will warg Ghost).

The main difference between Jon's resurrection and that of Lady Stoneheart and Beric is that I believe Jon's resurrection will involve both ice and fire magic via Bran/Bloodraven and Melisandre,while the latter two were brought back by Lord of Light only and are corrupted versions of former selves.

This is why I believe Jon's resurrection will be different. Bran/Bloodraven are going to affect his soul and help him discover who he really is,while Melisandre will tend to his wounds and heal his body. He will be completely different creature when he is brought back in the process.

And I believe we will need two sacrifices for the price of returning Jon back to the living: one by burning someone in fire and one by killing someone next to weirwood tree. Again,ice and fire magic combined.

[Ser Brandon Badwater]

We know Coldhands was once a Black Brother, and we know he is now undead. However we don't know much more about him.

We also know he speaks a language unknown to Bran when blessing the dead elk. Any other countries bless their dead animals? Coud narrow it down

[Alequo Adarys]

rhaegar

[wknight8111]

I think he's The Night's King.

 

This is probably my favorite explanation. At first I liked the theory that it was Benjen, but the (scant) evidence seems to point against that. Benjen probably has a different arc to be revealed yet.

 

Benjen is possibly one of the few remaining characters who can shed light on Jon Snow's parentage. That is, if Ned confided to Benjen, or if Benjen knew the mother personally, or knew just enough about his brother to piece things together. If R+L=J, Benjen very well might have known that Lyana was secretly in love with Rhaegar, or that her "kidnapping" wasn't non-consensual. Once you know that much, and Ned comes home with a baby, it's very possible to piece the story together.

 

There's also the story about Benjen secretly being Daario in disguise. While plausible (Daario IS suspicious for a lot of reasons, and it's possible to get to Essos from beyond-the-wall, in a roundabout, improbable way) I don't think it's likely.

 

If he's not Coldhands and not Daario, then Benjen has some other role to play yet.

 

That leaves us with Coldhands. The children say he "died a long time ago", which must be a really long time if they don't consider Three-Eyed Raven to be old. If we assume he's a former member of the watch, any character from the list of historical watchers could fit the bill. He would need to be from a long time ago, would need to have died or disappeared without explicitly being told his funeral ended with fire or was handled somewhere proper south of the wall, and would need to have exhibited some level of devotion to the watch. That is, some of the really bad Lords Commander (Rodrik Flint, Runcel Hightower, etc) probably don't fit the bill UNLESS a second life as coldhands is some kind of atonement or punishment.

 

The three best explanations I have are:

 

1) The Night's King. He broke his vows by pursuing a woman, and turned the watch into his own personal army. We never hear about his death. If he was making sacrifices to the Others, it's possible they repaid him with some sort of eternal life WITHOUT being controlled like the other wights. It's also possible that some other curse forced him to repay his debts to the watch. Nan suggested that the Night's king was a Stark and even hints that his name might have been Brandon, which is weird if his foe was Brandon the Breaker. It's also worth nothing that Joramun fought against him as well, and Joramun eventually gained possession of the Horn of Winter. We never really hear about the origin of that horn, whether Joramun created it or whether he found it among the possessions of the Night's King. If blowing the horn can "raise the giants out of the earth" does that mean it could raise wights from the earth as well? Many unanswered questions here with some intriguing possibilities.

 

2) Osric Stark: One of the few Lords Commander of the Night's Watch that we know by name, from the right time period (400 years before the conquest). We don't know anything about him, but being a Stark would be a good explanation for why he's loyal to the cause of the Watch and why he's protecting Bran in particular. We also know he was the youngest Lord Commander and served for an impressive 60 years. If that doesn't create devotion lasting into the afterlife, I don't know what would.

 

3) The Last Hero: He predates the wall and the watch, but I present a few things to consider: (A) We never hear an explanation for why the members of the watch wear all black. It could likely be in tribute to the first (ceremonial) member. (B) He would have died a very long time ago, and would have died after having met and forming an alliance with The Children. (C) We never hear the ending to his story. When Nan is interrupted, he is alone, has no weapon, and is being pursued by the Others with giant spiders. It seems quite likely that death found him soon thereafter, though he could have been reanimated by the Others or the Children. An argument against this is his massacre of the Night's Watch traitors, which he might not be compelled to do if he would do unless he had taken an oath to the Watch.

[TheRevNath]

Pure speculation from me too

I believe cold hands is a stark but not Benjen. My theory is the the Starks of winterfell have a sort of magical immunity to the others. So if a SoW was to be brought back as a wight they would still keep all of they're original memories and drives and not be under the nights kings control. I speculate that when Brandon the builder helped the children of the forest with the construction of the wall against the others the children also gave them this immunity as defenders of the wall.

I could also be entirely wrong and my theory massively flawed as I am a bit of noob

[khal drogon]

Random nights watch person. Why someone always have to be secretly someone else? 

[DMC]

Paul Newman

[Lord Reaper oOo]

The opposite of Hothands.

[SevasTra82]

It's already been confirmed by GRRM that he's not Benjen.

 

I think people are setting themselves up for disappointment with Coldhands.  He is unimportant enough to the story that the show didn't even include him.

 

Coldhands, IMO, is probably an old ranger-buddy of Bloodravens, someone from the Dunk and Egg storyline.  His whole point in the story is to just aid Bran to get to Bloodraven.  I won't be surprised if we never see him again, IMO.

 

I hate to sound like a downer, but I think Coldhands is turning into one of those characters that people are simply putting too much speculation and thought into.  What is interesting about CH is not WHO he is, but WHAT he is.  His identity won't end up being a major revelation or anything.

[Minuteman]

I suspect that Starks can't be truly wighted. Brought back as wights but not controlled. Coldhands is what happens when an Other attempts to wight a Stark. So he is any one of many Starks that have served the NW and was killed by the Others "long ago" per Leaf and when brought back he still possessed his knowledge (Jon comments that wights do seem to remember some of their former selves which is how they knew to attack Mormont) and most significantly and uniquely his free will. My guess is that Benjen was captured by the Others but has not been killed for this very reason. Beyond being an old random Stark Coldhands is no one of significance. Absolutely no evidence of this in the books just a feeling.

 

PS: there is one tiny fiber of evidence - Leaf says that "they" killed him. Not "we" killed him or he was offered or he did it to himself. I presume the "they" is the Others as she made the comment in regards to his jeopardy fighting blue eyed wights.

[Varys' member]

As for the counter-argument against Royce being Coldhands, Waymar died 2 years prior to Bran meeting Coldhands. How is that not "long ago"? I get it, 200 years would be long-er ago, so would 2000 years and so on. It's just a matter of perspective, so to me, "long ago" means "long enough for him (and his clothes) to decompose".

 

I know it's not likely him, but I don't believe the "died long ago" is a powerful enough counter-argument.

 

One argument for Royce that I like is when Will gets to dead Waymar, he notices his cold hand.

[Leonardo]

As for the counter-argument against Royce being Coldhands, Waymar died 2 years prior to Bran meeting Coldhands. How is that not "long ago"? I get it, 200 years would be long-er ago, so would 2000 years and so on. It's just a matter of perspective, so to me, "long ago" means "long enough for him (and his clothes) to decompose".
 
I know it's not likely him, but I don't believe the "died long ago" is a powerful enough counter-argument.
 
One argument for Royce that I like is when Will gets to dead Waymar, he notices his cold hand.

Because it's "long ago" to Leaf who is the one we're quoting, and she's hundreds of years old.

Hes one of the 79 sentinels. It's in the chapter right when he is first mentioned to Bran by Sam, and all you have to do is look at the line "bound in DEATH for not giving service in life". The magic of the Night's Watch oath is overriding whatever magic has brought him back so he is no thrall of the others, but clearly a Wight.

[Varys' member]

Because it's "long ago" to Leaf who is the one we're quoting, and she's hundreds of years old.

 

And I'm saying that this argument isn't strong enough. It's only a matter of perspective. If I ask a child how long it's been since they brushed their teeth, they could tell me "long ago" to mean 4 days. By your logic, if I ask the same question to an elderly and they answer "long ago" it would mean years? No, it could also mean 4 days.

 

I'm not saying Coldhands isn't more than 2 years dead, I'm saying "long ago" could mean anything, regardless of the age of the person who said it.

 

EDIT : love your avatar

[maniacmcgoo]

I'm convinced his name is Luke Jackson, a rascal who refuses to play by the rules.

 

bonus points to those who get the reference.

[James of the Blackwater]

I just think he's a wight that Bloodraven is warging to get the crew to the Cave of the Three-Eyed Crow, it shows off how powerful of a greensear BR is by showing that he can warg a wight.

[A Ghost of Someone]

Coldhands is one of the great mysteries of the books as to his true identity. Him and the "Hooded Man" of Winterfell. Benjen Stark is unlikely as Bloodraven says that Coldhands was killed by "them" a long time ago. I think he is a Stark who is somehow bound through blood or honor to Bran. I think he is the Night's King of Old who was said by Old Nan to be a Stark, another Brandon Stark who was the younger brother of a King Stark of Winter/Winterfell and that he is helping Bran, one of his kin as if the Others can be fully defeated, he might be able to rest in peace. Atleast that is what I think.

 

People need to remember, Bran, not Jon is the true head of House Stark, the True King of the North, Winter, Winterfell and no legitimization etc of Jon Snow will change that fact. After him is Rickon.

[Minuteman]

I just think he's a wight that Bloodraven is warging to get the crew to the Cave of the Three-Eyed Crow, it shows off how powerful of a greensear BR is by showing that he can warg a wight.

Don't think so. When Bran and co. was with CH he sensed there were "foes" on their trail and said that he would have to go check on it. He said he didn't know the umber or where they were though. That led to the battle with the wights. If BR was warging CH the same as he was warging the ravens then there would have been no need for CH to check on who/what was following them and he would have known what they were as BR would have seen them through the crows eyes. CH doesn't seem to have any knowledge beyond his own perspective whuich conflicts with what he would know if he was speaking with BRs voice. I do think that BR was warging the great elk they were riding as CH didn't seem to know the way but I don't see as how BR warging CH as just another wight makes any sense with what we have seen of him.

[DMC]

I'm convinced his name is Luke Jackson, a rascal who refuses to play by the rules.

 

bonus points to those who get the reference.

 

Beat ya by five hours!

 

Paul Newman

[Magnar of Skagos]

The more that I think about it the more I believe he is the original Night's King, which is why for an undead man he behaves different from other wights or Others.