Night's Watch Vows (hidden meaning information?)

[MidnightAurora]

I know there are a couple threads in the general forum, but I wanted to place a thread here in the still reading section of ACOK and ASOS to gather what newbies like me think. I just read the Night's Watch vows and for them to be informative. I began thinking what sure way would the ancestors have to ensure that information could be past down from generation to generation w/o getting lost or changed? The vows they take.. Each generation recites the same vows and they know it, but I think the meaning has been lost. I think the vows are information on how to fight the others and other essential information. " For we are the swords in the darkness, the watchers on the walls..." "The fire that burns against the cold." "The light that brings the dawn. The horn that wakes the sleepers. The shield that guards the realms of men.

We know fire kills wites (hence the sentence the fire that burns against the cold).

The horn could be the one that Jon found buried in the snow and could mean to wake the children of the forest who seem to be asleep for ages.

The shield could mean the wall that protects the realm from the supernatural and from the bad god which I think is the one Mel subscribes to from re-entering our world.

Any other thoughts on the meaning or information gathered in the Night's Watch vows?? Could one breaking the vows or breaking them a few times be cause for the first seal to be broken in the apocalypse?? Any thoughts?

i believe the Wall's purpose is different than intended as I believe it is a protection against The Others, supernatural worlds, and a protection preventing the bad god from entering our realm. (the realm of men)

[Lady-Nymeria]

It is truth that the Nighth's Watch purpose has been forgotten with the time, and it's sworn brothers are trained now to kill men (wildlings) instead of wights, as it was supposed to be. They had to find out again about the wildfire and the dragonglass. Sam is even thinking that the wildlings are men too, and that the Watch should protect them too. I agree with the shield/wall theory, but I'm not so sure about the horn having anything to be with the children of the forest. Breaking the vows is no apocalypse cause, but if you are considered a desserter, it likely means that your life will end, as your watch did. I can't find any other meaning to the vows, but I would like the wildlings and the Watch to team up against the Others, so they could learn from each others how to fight them.