The Direwolves of Winterfell: Part 6, Ghost and Jon’s Bond 

This is Part 6 (Episode 6.1) in a multi-part series about the Stark direwolves. Previously released posts in the series are here:

Part 1: Lady and Sansa, Part 2: Grey Wind and Robb, Part 3: Nymeria and Arya, Part 4: Summer and Bran, Part 5: Shaggydog and Rickon, Part 6: Ghost and Jon

Recall this SSM.

Q: Are all the Stark children wargs/skin changers with their wolves?

GRRM: To a greater or lesser degree, yes, but the amount of control varies widely.

Q: Yes I know that Lady is dead, but assuming they were all alive and all the children as well, would all the wolves have bonded to the kids as Bran and Summer did?

GRRM: Bran and Summer are somewhat of a special case.

https://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/Quite_a_Few_Questions

Here, we’ll investigate Ghost and Jon’s bond in the light of those thoughts from our author.  I also theorize that the direwolves, as creatures of magic, possess telepathic power.  The red-eyed and green-eyed Children of the Forest (CotF) are much more powerful than their yellow-eyed brethren; Does the same hold true for direwolves? In part 5, we investigated the hypothesis that the color of direwolves’ eyes might correspond to them having stronger telepathic genes with Shaggydog and his green eyes.  While we did not have a lot of material to investigate this hypothesis with Shaggydog, we do not have that issue with Ghost.  Under my hypothesis, Ghost would have the strongest magic of his pack mates.  So, Ghost and Jon’s bond might end up being the strongest of the set, even though Jon’s is magical gifts are less developed than Bran’s.

Ghost has also been described as an albino, and it may be that this is the genetic trait that makes him special telepathically aside from or in conjunction with the hypothesis above.  Albinos in this story (and in GRRM’s past work as well) are all special telepathically, including Bloodraven, the Ghost of High Heart, and maybe Melisandre.  Ghost is thematically tied to Bloodraven, but I think he might also be a special telepath, like him.  In the end, if through our study of Ghost, we find that he is special telepathically, we won’t know whether it is because of his eye color, his albinism, or both.  Indeed, his eye color may be because of his albinism.  It may even be that the red-eyed Children of the Forest are all albinos, too; there are none in our story, so we have no evidence of their pigment.

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A Game of Thrones – A Silent Pup and a Boy without a Home

Several themes from our prior volumes continue here with Ghost and his bond to Jon, including:

• Personality and mood mirroring
• Obedience vs. Independence
• Shadowing / protecting / fear of the wolves
  • Related: the wolves’ innate ability to sense threats
• Belonging to the pack / the instinct to hunt
• Being affectionate when they’re together
• Bad things happening when they’re separated

We’ll watch for these as we follow Ghost’s story and analyze his bond to Jon.  To this list, we add for Ghost, specifically, the theme of his silence.  Ghost is completely silent. He NEVER barks, howls, whines, growls, or uses his voice in any other way.  One must wonder, why this is?  Consider what speech is for in the first place, communication.  So, doesn’t Ghost need to communicate?  Wouldn’t that hamper him?  Clearly, the answer should be “yes”.  Theon Greyjoy even suggests Ghost would be weak and die quickly.  As it turned out Ghost grows to be the biggest of the litter, so the lack of speech doesn’t seem to have hurt his development. 

Albinos typically also have health issues, which is one reason I question whether he is a true albino, or just a direwolf with red eyes and white fur.  Certainly, it could just be that Jon is a good master, but it may be more than that.  My theory is that Ghost has a much stronger ability, mayhaps unique among his pack mates, to communicate telepathically.  I think the evidence shows that he can reach out telepathically to humans in the same way that human skinchangers reach out telepathically to beasts.  We see an example of this in our first chapter, and it continues throughout the story.

One must note that Preston Jacobs studied Ghost to some degree in his recent Night’s Watch video series.  While I do not attribute my theory to his ideas, I will credit him with finding several instances of this theme in Jon and Ghost’s story. 

Lastly, there are a few themes of Jon’s personality that drive our analysis, his selflessness, his seriousness, and his sporadic and sudden spats of anger and extremely aggressive behavior over things he feels are not fair in life.  These can be, alternately, reflections of and reflected in Ghost.  Preston’s ideas go further; he thinks that someone warging Ghost, such as Bloodraven, is using Ghost plant ideas into Jon’s mind.  I find this tinfoil idea fascinating, and we’ll consider it against the other more mundane explanations for Ghost and Jon’s behaviors.

A Game of Thrones – Bran I – Pups in the Snow

We revisit the first direwolf scene again and focus on Ghost’s and Jon’s part.  We’ll start before Ghost is found because Jon’s participation in finding the first five pups partially establishes his character.  Jon is the hero of the scene.  His intelligence and selflessness are on display; there’s even a bit of humor.  He smartly recognizes them as direwolves and that the wolves were meant for the children.  Then, he sacrifices his own opportunity to have a wolf in favor of his half-siblings. This is a huge indicator of his selfless character and the bond of love shared by him and his brothers and sisters.

The idea that the “children were meant to have these pups,” has a potential double meaning.  The mainstream connotation is that “fate” meant them for the children.  The more supernatural one is that a powerful entity connected to the “old gods,” like Bloodraven, literally selected the pregnant mother with her in-utero pups, and sent her there for each child to have a wolf.  I find the idea highly compelling.  The fact that no direwolf has been seen south of the wall for 200 years is the most compelling evidence for it.  In this scenario, the only thing left to chance would be which pup got matched to which child; the exception is Ghost, and possibly Summer, who we see Jon hand to Bran, below.

“It’s no freak,” Jon said calmly. “That’s a direwolf. They grow larger than the other kind.”

Theon Greyjoy said, “There’s not been a direwolf sighted south of the Wall in two hundred years.”

“I see one now,” Jon replied.

[…]

Bran gave the pup a quick nervous stroke, then turned as Jon said, “Here you go.” His half-brother put a second pup into his arms. “There are five of them.” Bran sat down in the snow and hugged the wolf pup to his face. Its fur was soft and warm against his cheek.

[…]

“Lord Stark,” Jon said. It was strange to hear him call Father that, so formal. Bran looked at him with desperate hope. “There are five pups,” he told Father. “Three male, two female.”

“What of it, Jon?”

“You have five trueborn children,” Jon said. “Three sons, two daughters. The direwolf is the sigil of your House. Your children were meant to have these pups, my lord.”

Bran saw his father’s face change, saw the other men exchange glances. He loved Jon with all his heart at that moment. Even at seven, Bran understood what his brother had done. The count had come right only because Jon had omitted himself. He had included the girls, included even Rickon, the baby, but not the bastard who bore the surname Snow, the name that custom decreed be given to all those in the north unlucky enough to be born with no name of their own.

Their father understood as well. “You want no pup for yourself, Jon?” he asked softly.

The direwolf graces the banners of House Stark, Jon pointed out. “I am no Stark, Father.”

After this selfless act, Jon is rewarded with the finding of Ghost.  The scene is at first confusing because Ghost never makes a sound, yet Jon swears he “heard” something which led to the discovery of our sixth pup.  Remember, Ghost never speaks with his voice, so Jon did not hear him whine or bark, unless he heard it in his mind.  This is probably that case, yet it was Ghost who reached out telepathically to Jon, not the other way around.  It could be that Bloodraven had some hand in this, too, but the only evidence I can provide for this is that Bran hears the wind in the trees, which is similar language to what is heard when people visit the godswood to pray in front of the heart tree (such as Theon in TWoW at the Ramsey’s wedding).  The wind may be an indication of the trees talking.  Either way, I conclude that for Jon to hear Ghost in this way, Ghost must have reached out to Jon telepathically.  The formation of their bond is indeed instantaneous, and Jon knows it.

Bran also thinks it curious that Ghost’s eyes alone are open.  This may also be Bloodraven’s doing, but I don’t have any definitive evidence for this, either.  To me, this is our first in a long line of evidence that Ghost can reach out telepathically almost as well as the telepathically-gifted humans around him.  He’s the only one in the litter with red eyes (Shaggydog has green eyes, and the rest have golden eyes).  Ghost is also unique in that his fur is pure white, fitting for a wolf bonded to a boy named Snow.  His look is reminiscent of weirwoods and Bloodraven.

I further ask the question, why was Ghost separate from his pack mates?  It’s presented as if he was driven off by his brothers and sisters as if he were a runt, but this explanation rings hollow, given that Ghost later grows to be the largest of the litter.  I think it could be that Bloodraven compelled the pup to crawl away so that he could ensure the others didn’t find him, to ensure that it was Jon who found him.  His eyes would have to be open to allow the weirwood net user to see and ensure he was well-hidden.

Halfway across the bridge, Jon pulled up suddenly.

“What is it, Jon?” their lord father asked.

“Can’t you hear it?”

Bran could hear the wind in the trees, the clatter of their hooves on the ironwood planks, the whimpering of his hungry pup, but Jon was listening to something else.

“There,” Jon said. He swung his horse around and galloped back across the bridge. They watched him dismount where the direwolf lay dead in the snow, watched him kneel. A moment later he was riding back to them, smiling.

“He must have crawled away from the others,” Jon said.

“Or been driven away,” their father said, looking at the sixth pup. His fur was white, where the rest of the litter was grey. His eyes were as red as the blood of the ragged man who had died that morning. Bran thought it curious that this pup alone would have opened his eyes while the others were still blind.

“An albino,” Theon Greyjoy said with wry amusement. “This one will die even faster than the others.”

Jon Snow gave his father’s ward a long, chilling look. “I think not, Greyjoy,” he said. “This one belongs to me.”

– A Game of Thrones – Bran I

In the final exchange with Theon above, we saw another piece of Jon’s personality, his seriousness.  He appreciates humor, but he is much more serious than Theon, which explains why they don’t get along very well.  Speaking of, this could be one reason Ghost is always silent, to mirror Jon’s businesslike manner.  As I’ve already said, I believe that he does not need to speak because he has the power to reach out to Jon telepathically, a power which his golden-eyed littermates don’t seem to possess.

With that in mind, I wonder if Ghost and Jon’s bond developed slightly sooner than at the moment of the scene you just heard.  Jon hands Summer to Bran, and then Bran’s bond to Summer seems to form instantaneously.  With Jon making first contact with Summer, oughtn’t Jon have established a bond with Summer, instead?  That is, of course, unless Ghost had already called out to Jon telepathically, before Bran arrived on the scene, establishing the psychic connection then.   

Episode 6.2 – A Boy without a Home

This episode focuses on Jon’s and Ghost’s interactions in Winterfell.

A Game of Thrones – Jon I 

In this first POV chapter there are many indications of the bond, almost all of our themes are evident. It starts with Jon, relegated to the back of the hall and extremely jealous of his half siblings and their place at the front of the hall, and he is drowning his sorrows in wine.  He is trying to delude himself that he’s lucky to be in the back because he can drink more and Ghost is allowed to with him.  It is a transparent lie, and it’s not working. By the third paragraph in the next passage, he is nearly crying.

Coupled into the scene is how Jon feeds Ghost a whole chicken when the pup nudges his leg.  Jon, in another example of selflessness, assumes the pup is hungry and feeds him.  I, however, think there’s another interpretation of Ghost’s act.  I believe this is an example of Ghost sensing the boy’s growing sadness and trying to lend him some comfort through an affectionate act.  If true, this is an indication of the pup’s emotional intelligence, potentially a reflection of Jon.  Still, Ghost is no dummy; when given a whole chicken, he tears into it in “savage silence,” a phrase I love.

Jon had started drinking then, and he had not stopped.

Something rubbed against his leg beneath the table. Jon saw red eyes staring up at him. “Hungry again?” he asked. There was still half a honeyed chicken in the center of the table. Jon reached out to tear off a leg, then had a better idea. He knifed the bird whole and let the carcass slide to the floor between his legs. Ghost ripped into it in savage silence. His brothers and sisters had not been permitted to bring their wolves to the banquet, but there were more curs than Jon could count at this end of the hall, and no one had said a word about his pup. He told himself he was fortunate in that too.

His eyes stung. Jon rubbed at them savagely, cursing the smoke. He swallowed another gulp of wine and watched his direwolf devour the chicken.

What follows is a challenge to Ghost by one of the dogs wandering the hall for table scraps.  The theme of others being afraid of our wolves is plain here.  Ghost’s eyes and bared teeth are enough to cause her to lose her nerve.

Following the challenge, we have a brief moment of affection between Jon and Ghost. Followed by Benjen entering the scene.  Ben then observes quickly how quiet the direwolf is.  This conversation is where it is confirmed for the reader that Ghost is truly mute.  Looking forward through the rest of the books, there are no exceptions to Ghost’s silence, save one time in a dream.

Dogs moved between the tables, trailing after the serving girls. One of them, a black mongrel bitch with long yellow eyes, caught a scent of the chicken. She stopped and edged under the bench to get a share. Jon watched the confrontation. The bitch growled low in her throat and moved closer. Ghost looked up, silent, and fixed the dog with those hot red eyes. The bitch snapped an angry challenge. She was three times the size of the direwolf pup. Ghost did not move. He stood over his prize and opened his mouth, baring his fangs. The bitch tensed, barked again, then thought better of this fight. She turned and slunk away, with one last defiant snap to save her pride. Ghost went back to his meal.

Jon grinned and reached under the table to ruffle the shaggy white fur. The direwolf looked up at him, nipped gently at his hand, then went back to eating.

“Is this one of the direwolves I’ve heard so much of?” a familiar voice asked close at hand.

Jon looked up happily as his uncle Ben put a hand on his head and ruffled his hair much as Jon had ruffled the wolf’s. “Yes,” he said. “His name is Ghost.”

[…]

His uncle was sharp-featured and gaunt as a mountain crag, but there was always a hint of laughter in his blue-grey eyes. He dressed in black, as befitted a man of the Night’s Watch. Tonight it was rich black velvet, with high leather boots and a wide belt with a silver buckle. A heavy silver chain was looped round his neck. Benjen watched Ghost with amusement as he ate his onion. “A very quiet wolf,” he observed.

“He’s not like the others,” Jon said. “He never makes a sound. That’s why I named him Ghost. That, and because he’s white. The others are all dark, grey or black.”

Jon goes on to ask Benjen if he can join the watch.  It doesn’t go well.  He gets increasingly angry, then storms from the table crying, nearly falling over in his drunkenness.  As he leaves, Ghost is dutifully shadowing him.  Preston Jacobs suggests that Jon’s wish and ultimate decision to join he Night’s watch is partly due telepathic suggestion from Bloodraven, through Ghost.  There really isn’t evidence for that here, save that Ghost is present the entire time.  Specifically, about this incident, though, I will say that Ghost had just finished fighting for a meal, so Jon’s rising anger could have been partly a reflection of Ghost’s lingering aggression.

“You don’t know what you’re asking, Jon. The Night’s Watch is a sworn brotherhood. We have no families. None of us will ever father sons. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor.”

“A bastard can have honor too,” Jon said. “I am ready to swear your oath.”

“You are a boy of fourteen,” Benjen said. “Not a man, not yet. Until you have known a woman, you cannot understand what you would be giving up.”

“I don’t care about that!” Jon said hotly.

“You might, if you knew what it meant,” Benjen said. “If you knew what the oath would cost you, you might be less eager to pay the price, son.”

Jon felt anger rise inside him. “I’m not your son!”

Benjen Stark stood up. “More’s the pity.” He put a hand on Jon’s shoulder. “Come back to me after you’ve fathered a few bastards of your own, and we’ll see how you feel.”

Jon trembled. “I will never father a bastard,” he said carefully. “Never!” He spat it out like venom.

Suddenly he realized that the table had fallen silent, and they were all looking at him. He felt the tears begin to well behind his eyes. He pushed himself to his feet.

“I must be excused,” he said with the last of his dignity. He whirled and bolted before they could see him cry. He must have drunk more wine than he had realized. His feet got tangled under him as he tried to leave, and he lurched sideways into a serving girl and sent a flagon of spiced wine crashing to the floor. Laughter boomed all around him, and Jon felt hot tears on his cheeks. Someone tried to steady him. He wrenched free of their grip and ran, half-blind, for the door. Ghost followed close at his heels, out into the night.

Jon then meets Tyrion Lannister, who shows interest in Ghost.  Ghost, for his part, was uneasy with the dwarf.  This is probably a remnant of foreshadowing of the original plot GRRM abandoned whereby Jon and Tyrion are more adversarial later in the saga. In that case, Ghost’s behavior would be an example of our theme of the danger sense that the direwolves posess. For some reason (Lannister bravado perhaps?), Tyrion was not fearful of Ghost at this point. That will change in later chapters. For the rest of this scene, we see how Ghost is quite obedient to Jon, allowing Tyrion to pet him with no protest after just recently baring his fangs against him!  This will not always be the case.  Ghost certainly is independent from time to time, as we move forward.  The scene concludes with Jon foreshadowing the promised ferocity of Ghost and his siblings.

Tyrion Lannister was sitting on the ledge above the door to the Great Hall, looking for all the world like a gargoyle. The dwarf grinned down at him. “Is that animal a wolf?”

“A direwolf,” Jon said. “His name is Ghost.” He stared up at the little man, his disappointment suddenly forgotten. “What are you doing up there? Why aren’t you at the feast?”

[…]

“Oh, bleed that,” the little man said. He pushed himself off the ledge into empty air. Jon gasped, then watched with awe as Tyrion Lannister spun around in a tight ball, landed lightly on his hands, then vaulted backward onto his legs.

Ghost backed away from him uncertainly.

The dwarf dusted himself off and laughed. “I believe I’ve frightened your wolf. My apologies.”

“He’s not scared,” Jon said. He knelt and called out. “Ghost, come here. Come on. That’s it.”

The wolf pup padded closer and nuzzled at Jon’s face, but he kept a wary eye on Tyrion Lannister, and when the dwarf reached out to pet him, he drew back and bared his fangs in a silent snarl. “Shy, isn’t he?” Lannister observed.

“Sit, Ghost,” Jon commanded. “That’s it. Keep still.” He looked up at the dwarf. “You can touch him now. He won’t move until I tell him to. I’ve been training him.“

“I see,” Lannister said. He ruffled the snow-white fur between Ghost’s ears and said, “Nice wolf.“

“If I wasn’t here, he’d tear out your throat,” Jon said. It wasn’t actually true yet, but it would be.

– A Game of Thrones – Jon I

A Game of Thrones – Arya I

Next, they encounter Arya and we see pack interaction.  Ghost is careful not to hurt her while asserting his dominance and showing some affection.  Arya and Jon have a visible rapport, and it seems to be mirrored by Ghost with his treatment of Nymeria.  The call of the pack is evident in how Nymeria begins to follow Ghost and / or Jon before realizing that Arya is not following. The pack bond/instinct is strong in these wolves.  Ghost’s leadership briefly pulls Nymeria off her task of shadowing Arya.

They arrived, flushed and breathless, to find Jon seated on the sill, one leg drawn up languidly to his chin. He was watching the action, so absorbed that he seemed unaware of her approach until his white wolf moved to meet them. Nymeria stalked closer on wary feet. Ghost, already larger than his litter mates, smelled her, gave her ear a careful nip, and settled back down.

[…]

Jon watched them leave, and Arya watched Jon. His face had grown as still as the pool at the heart of the godswood. Finally he climbed down off the window. “The show is done,” he said. He bent to scratch Ghost behind the ears. The white wolf rose and rubbed against him. “You had best run back to your room, little sister. Septa Mordane will surely be lurking. The longer you hide, the sterner the penance. You’ll be sewing all through winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers.”

Arya didn’t think it was funny. “I hate needlework!” she said with passion. “It’s not fair!”

“Nothing is fair,” Jon said. He messed up her hair again and walked away from her, Ghost moving silently beside him. Nymeria started to follow too, then stopped and came back when she saw that Arya was not coming.

– A Game of Thrones – Arya I

A Game of Thrones – Bran II

Ghost is mentioned also by Bran, who thinks the name is fantastic.  It certainly is fitting.

He was still trying to decide on a name. Robb was calling his Grey Wind, because he ran so fast. Sansa had named hers Lady, and Arya named hers after some old witch queen in the songs, and little Rickon called his Shaggydog, which Bran thought was a pretty stupid name for a direwolf. Jon’s wolf, the white one, was Ghost. Bran wished he had thought of that first, even though his wolf wasn’t white. He had tried a hundred names in the last fortnight, but none of them sounded right.

– A Game of Thrones – Bran II

A Game of Thrones – Jon II

Speaking of Bran, Jon visits him during the coma before leaving for the wall. Jon is partly dreading the visit because he has to face Lady Catelyn.  Ghost, first shadowing him, nuzzles at him, clearly sensing his disquiet and wanting to comfort the boy.  The affection is touching, and, more importantly, it helps Jon to summon up his nerve. Ghost is seemingly more aware of type of thing than his siblings, probably a reflection of Jon.

I also like how Ghost lifts his head when another wolf (probably Summer in this case) howls.  Because Ghost never responds with his voice, I imagine that he is responding telepathically.  This type of thing happens several times going forward, so we’ll continue to take note of it.

Jon climbed the steps slowly, trying not to think that this might be the last time ever. Ghost padded silently beside him. Outside, snow swirled through the castle gates, and the yard was all noise and chaos, but inside the thick stone walls it was still warm and quiet. Too quiet for Jon’s liking.

He reached the landing and stood for a long moment, afraid. Ghost nuzzled at his hand. He took courage from that. He straightened, and entered the room.

[…]

He stood in the door for a moment, afraid to speak, afraid to come closer. The window was open. Below, a wolf howled. Ghost heard and lifted his head.

The pair move on to meet Nymeria and Arya again, to make their farewells and to give Needle to Arya. Nymeria seems happy to see Ghost this time, again mirroring the relationship or Arya and Jon. The pack bond is strong.

Arya was in her room, packing a polished ironwood chest that was bigger than she was. Nymeria was helping. Arya would only have to point, and the wolf would bound across the room, snatch up some wisp of silk in her jaws, and fetch it back. But when she smelled Ghost, she sat down on her haunches and yelped at them.

– A Game of Thrones – Jon II

That concludes Jon and Ghost’s time at Winterfell. Next time we’ll take up their story as they make their way to the wall with Tyrion, Benjen, Yoren, and company.

Episode 6.2 – Snow Meets World

… covering Jon and Ghost’s bond from the trek to the wall until Tyrion leaves the wall.

A Game of Thrones – Tyrion II

In the next scene with Ghost, he attacks Tyrion.  Tyrion is piling on Jon about how terrible the Night’s Watch is, making him increasingly angry to the point of almost losing his temper.  Ghost must feel this through the bond, so he would be extremely alert and ready to fight, aggressively. As soon as Tyrion makes a move in Jon’s direction he acted, flattening the dwarf and keeping himself between the boy and the dwarf.  Tyrion thinks twice about Ghost’s red eyes, their brightness seemingly a sign of the wolf’s anger.

Jon, realizing what was happening, holds the new-found power over the dwarf in a smiling fashion, rubbing Tyrion’s nose in his position of weakness. He comically coerces Tyrion to ask him nicely for helping him to his feet. The comedy continues when Tyrion wonders why Ghost attacked him and Jon answers that he probably thought him a grumkin.  While this was funny, it distracts from the real answer to Tyrion’s question.  Clearly, the wolf is mirroring Jon’s anger, as well as fulfilling his role as a protector, just in case the imp really had meant him harm.  Note that Ghost didn’t do any lasting harm, so even though he felt Jon’s anger, he didn’t let it cause him to be aggressive, like Shaggydog.  This wasn’t wild or vicious; it was protective. Still, Jon is quick to anger in this incident, so that should be remembered going forward.

“Stop it,” Jon Snow said, his face dark with anger. “The Night’s Watch is a noble calling!”

Tyrion laughed. “You’re too smart to believe that. The Night’s Watch is a midden heap for all the misfits of the realm. I’ve seen you looking at Yoren and his boys. Those are your new brothers, Jon Snow, how do you like them? Sullen peasants, debtors, poachers, rapers, thieves, and bastards like you all wind up on the Wall, watching for grumkins and snarks and all the other monsters your wet nurse warned you about. The good part is there are no grumkins or snarks, so it’s scarcely dangerous work. The bad part is you freeze your balls off, but since you’re not allowed to breed anyway, I don’t suppose that matters.”

“Stop it!” the boy screamed. He took a step forward, his hands coiling into fists, close to tears.

Suddenly, absurdly, Tyrion felt guilty. He took a step forward, intending to give the boy a reassuring pat on the shoulder or mutter some word of apology.

He never saw the wolf, where it was or how it came at him. One moment he was walking toward Snow and the next he was flat on his back on the hard rocky ground, the book spinning away from him as he fell, the breath going out of him at the sudden impact, his mouth full of dirt and blood and rotting leaves. As he tried to get up, his back spasmed painfully. He must have wrenched it in the fall. He ground his teeth in frustration, grabbed a root, and pulled himself back to a sitting position. “Help me,” he said to the boy, reaching up a hand.

And suddenly the wolf was between them. He did not growl. The damned thing never made a sound. He only looked at him with those bright red eyes, and showed him his teeth, and that was more than enough. Tyrion sagged back to the ground with a grunt. “Don’t help me, then. I’ll sit right here until you leave.”

Jon Snow stroked Ghost’s thick white fur, smiling now. “Ask me nicely.”

Tyrion Lannister felt the anger coiling inside him, and crushed it out with a will. It was not the first time in his life he had been humiliated, and it would not be the last. Perhaps he even deserved this. “I should be very grateful for your kind assistance, Jon,” he said mildly.

“Down, Ghost,” the boy said. The direwolf sat on his haunches. Those red eyes never left Tyrion. Jon came around behind him, slid his hands under his arms, and lifted him easily to his feet. Then he picked up the book and handed it back.

“Why did he attack me?” Tyrion asked with a sidelong glance at the direwolf. He wiped blood and dirt from his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Maybe he thought you were a grumkin.”

– A Game of Thrones – Tyrion II- A Game of Thrones – Tyrion II

So aside from the glaring themes of protection, savagery, and mirroring, we also saw obedience and affection, and a repeat of the theme of Ghost’s silence. Pack and separation are missing for this episode, but they’ll come back into their story later in the series.

A Game of Thrones – Jon III

Once at the wall, Jon has a disagreement with his uncle about accompanying him on his ranging.  Jon, in his anger, has a sickening vision of Benjen’s death. He thinks that he’s just wished his uncle dead and is upset with himself over it, but I would say, rather, that he was given a vision of what was to come.  We’ve discussed before that Ghost can broadcast feelings or thoughts.  Could he have been used as a medium or as a conduit for this prophetic vision?

Jon rose at dawn the next day to watch his uncle leave. One of his rangers, a big ugly man, sang a bawdy song as he saddled his garron, his breath steaming in the cold morning air. Ben Stark smiled at that, but he had no smile for his nephew. “How often must I tell you no, Jon? We’ll speak when I return.”

As he watched his uncle lead his horse into the tunnel, Jon had remembered the things that Tyrion Lannister told him on the kingsroad, and in his mind’s eye he saw Ben Stark lying dead, his blood red on the snow. The thought made him sick. What was he becoming? Afterward he sought out Ghost in the loneliness of his cell, and buried his face in his thick white fur.

Much later, Jon has a discussion with Tyrion which reinforces our fear that something indeed might have happened to Benjen.  Before that, though, Jon mentions how Ghost scares the other boys, reminding us of our theme of the fearsomeness of the direwolves.  After that Ghost is used by Jon while making fun of Ser Alliser.  Thing is, I have no doubt that Ghost could be taught to juggle, if he wished to be, and if only he had opposable thumbs.

“It’s better that I’m by myself,” Jon said stubbornly. “The rest of them are scared of Ghost.”

“Wise boys,” Lannister said. Then he changed the subject. “The talk is, your uncle is too long away.”

[…]

Alliser Thorne overheard him. “Lord Snow wants to take my place now.” He sneered. “I’d have an easier time teaching a wolf to juggle than you will training this aurochs.”

“I’ll take that wager, Ser Alliser,” Jon said. “I’d love to see Ghost juggle.”

Jon heard Grenn suck in his breath, shocked. Silence fell.

– A Game of Thrones – Jon III

A Game of Thrones – Tyrion III

Jon meets with Tyrion one more time before the little man goes back south.  This meeting is rich in direwolf interaction.  Ghost, alert and guarding, approaches Tyrion first and seems to assess him as no threat.  Tyrion doesn’t trust the tacit acceptance though, and asks permission to pet Ghost… Smart man.  Jon, confident in Ghost’s obedience, assents.  As he pets him, he remarks on the pup’s growth and on his eyes again.  The joke about juggling is also brought up, and Jon gets a chance to brag about teaching the other boys.  Later, as they walk together, Ghost is again shadowing Jon.

On the far side of the catapult, a muffled voice called out a challenge. “Who goes there? Halt!”

Tyrion stopped. “If I halt too long I’ll freeze in place, Jon,” he said as a shaggy pale shape slid toward him silently and sniffed at his furs. “Hello, Ghost.”

[…]

“This is the last place I would have expected to be seen,” Tyrion admitted. “I was captured by a whim. If I touch Ghost, will he chew my hand off?”

“Not with me here,” Jon promised.

Tyrion scratched the white wolf behind the ears. The red eyes watched him impassively. The beast came up as high as his chest now. Another year, and Tyrion had the gloomy feeling he’d be looking up at him. “What are you doing up here tonight?” he asked. “Besides freezing your manhood off …”

[…]

Tyrion grinned. “And has Ghost learned to juggle yet?”

“No,” said Jon, smiling, “but Grenn held his own against Halder this morning, and Pyp is no longer dropping his sword quite so often as he did.”

[…]

“The watch commander tells me I must walk, to keep my blood from freezing, but he never said how fast.”

They walked, with Ghost pacing along beside Jon like a white shadow. “I leave on the morrow,” Tyrion said.

Note how Tyrion said in the passive voice that he was captured by a whim to go to the top of the wall, followed by an immediate mention of Ghost. Looking at the earlier scene that sent Tyrion to the top of the wall, one might wonder if there was some type of force, fate or the old gods (or perhaps just George RR Martin) that wanted Jon and Tyrion to see eachother again, and to part as friends … mayhaps for the sake of the realms of men?

Almost illustrate the my idea, the scene ends with a pack of wolves howling ominously beyond the wall as they again discuss Benjen.  Similar to before, the silent Ghost perks up at hearing his wild brethren but does not join in, at least not audibly.  While Jon asserts that he and Ghost can find his missing uncle, Tyrion is worried.

“Give him time,” Tyrion said.

Far off to the north, a wolf began to howl. Another voice picked up the call, then another. Ghost cocked his head and listened. “If he doesn’t come back,” Jon Snow promised, “Ghost and I will go find him.” He put his hand on the direwolf’s head.

“I believe you,” Tyrion said, but what he thought was, and who will go find you? He shivered.

– A Game of Thrones – Tyrion III

Note also the continued affection and shadowing.

A Clash of Kings – Tyrion VI

Tyrion is so affected by the scene that he recalls it one book later (we’ll show it out of order here), further describing it as “a dread that had cut like that frigid northern wind.”

Tyrion remembered a cold night under the stars when he’d stood beside the boy Jon Snow and a great white wolf atop the Wall at the end of the world, gazing out at the trackless dark beyond. He had felt—what?—something, to be sure, a dread that had cut like that frigid northern wind. A wolf had howled off in the night, and the sound had sent a shiver through him.

– A Clash of Kings – Tyrion VI

Episode 6.4 Ghost Comforts a Fat Boy

A Game of Thrones – Jon IV

As Tyrion and Jon’s stories part, Jon immediately finds a new friend in Samwell Tarly. 

First though, Jon considers how much his time on the wall is better spent when Ghost was able to be at his side.  I do find it interesting how Ghost is able to help him hunt, and I wonder if it is indicative of their bond is getting closer (perhaps there is some instinctual, subconscious mental communication between them).  It isn’t mentioned anywhere else in the saga the the other Starks hunt with their direwolves at their sides, though Dany does wistfully contemplate hunting with Drogon once.  Either way, I suppose Ghost’s muteness is an asset on a hunt, especially if there is mental communication going on.

Later, Jon considers that Ghost only marginally makes the experience of spreading gravel marginally more tolerable, but it gives him time to think.  He thinks of Samwell Tarly.  Preston Jacobs points out in his Nights Watch video series that Ghost seems to affect Jon’s thoughts around Sam.  I will say that the phrase “found himself thinking of Samwell Tarly” is in the passive voice, which definitely leaves open the possibility that Ghost drove his thoughts in that direction.  As far as we know Ghost hasn’t even seen Sam yet, so it would have to be a third party, such as Bloodraven, who works to get Ghost to influence Jon’s thoughts in this instance at least.

Life at Castle Black followed certain patterns; the mornings were for swordplay, the afternoons for work. The black brothers set new recruits to many different tasks, to learn where their skills lay. Jon cherished the rare afternoons when he was sent out with Ghost ranging at his side to bring back game for the Lord Commander’s table, but for every day spent hunting, he gave a dozen to Donal Noye in the armory, spinning the whetstone while the one-armed smith sharpened axes grown dull from use, or pumping the bellows as Noye hammered out a new sword. Other times he ran messages, stood at guard, mucked out stables, fletched arrows, assisted Maester Aemon with his birds or Bowen Marsh with his counts and inventories.

That afternoon, the watch commander sent him to the winch cage with four barrels of fresh-crushed stone, to scatter gravel over the icy footpaths atop the Wall. It was lonely and boring work, even with Ghost along for company, but Jon found he did not mind. On a clear day you could see half the world from the top of the Wall, and the air was always cold and bracing. He could think here, and he found himself thinking of Samwell Tarly … and, oddly, of Tyrion Lannister. He wondered what Tyrion would have made of the fat boy. Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it, the dwarf had told him, grinning. The world was full of cravens who pretended to be heroes; it took a queer sort of courage to admit to cowardice as Samwell Tarly had.

Ghost is shadowing Jon the next time he sees Sam, who is sitting alone in the common hall; Jon joins him on the bench even though he thinks he’d enjoy his friends’ company more.  Sam seems alarmed at Ghost’s appearance, but you’d think a craven would act even more afraid of such a beast.  I wonder if Ghost was telepathically soothing Sam’s fear.  Either way, the trio go for a walk after eating; Ghost in his place shadowing Jon, silently.

The evening meal was almost done by the time he and Ghost reached the common hall. A group of the black brothers were dicing over mulled wine near the fire. His friends were at the bench nearest the west wall, laughing. Pyp was in the middle of a story. The mummer’s boy with the big ears was a born liar with a hundred different voices, and he did not tell his tales so much as live them, playing all the parts as needed, a king one moment and a swineherd the next. When he turned into an alehouse girl or a virgin princess, he used a high falsetto voice that reduced them all to tears of helpless laughter, and his eunuchs were always eerily accurate caricatures of Ser Alliser. Jon took as much pleasure from Pyp’s antics as anyone … yet that night he turned away and went instead to the end of the bench, where Samwell Tarly sat alone, as far from the others as he could get.

He was finishing the last of the pork pie the cooks had served up for supper when Jon sat down across from him. The fat boy’s eyes widened at the sight of Ghost. “Is that a wolf?”

“A direwolf,” Jon said. “His name is Ghost. The direwolf is the sigil of my father’s House.”

[…]

“I’m fat, not blind,” Samwell Tarly said. “Of course I saw it, it’s seven hundred feet high.” Yet he stood up all the same, wrapped a fur-lined cloak over his shoulders, and followed Jon from the common hall, still wary, as if he suspected some cruel trick was waiting for him in the night. Ghost padded along beside them. “I never thought it would be like this,” Sam said as they walked […].”

Eventually Sam breaks down in tears after Jon asks why he’s here is he’s afraid of everything.  Ghost takes the initiative to calm Sam (again?).  He’s only startled for a moment but then starts laughing.  Again, he should be deathly afraid of the beast, yet instead, Ghost seems to make him feel happy.  I do believe that Ghost must be telepathically soothing the boy in this instance.  We also must ask, is Ghost doing this because he instinctively likes Sam, because he sees that Jon likes the fat boy, or because of some other actor’s influence, like Bloodraven?  We can’t answer now, but we should keep this question in mind as we go forward.

After this, Jon lets his guard down and ends up telling a closely guarded secret about his dreams of Winterfell’s Crypts.  I am relatively certain that these dreams are telepathically “given” to Jon, but the reason for them is yet unclear.  Either way, one thing that interests me about the dreams is how Jon recalls that Ghost would comfort him when he woke.  This implies that Ghost was beside him on the nights while Jon has these dreams, which leaves open the possibility that he may be part of how they’re sent to Jon.  Either way, in a moment of affection, it’s clear that the direwolf does make Jon feel better.  The same is true in how a moment scratching Ghost’s ear seemingly makes Sam feel comfortable enough to tell his story of his banishment from Horn Hill.  While it isn’t apparent when we first read AGoT, we learn in later books that physical contact heightens the mind-meld of the bond, so Ghost’s feelings could more easily be transferred to Sam when they touch.

Samwell Tarly looked at him for a long moment, and his round face seemed to cave in on itself. He sat down on the frost-covered ground and began to cry, huge choking sobs that made his whole body shake. Jon Snow could only stand and watch. Like the snowfall on the barrowlands, it seemed the tears would never end.

It was Ghost who knew what to do. Silent as shadow, the pale direwolf moved closer and began to lick the warm tears off Samwell Tarly’s face. The fat boy cried out, startled … and somehow, in a heartbeat, his sobs turned to laughter.

Jon Snow laughed with him. Afterward they sat on the frozen ground, huddled in their cloaks with Ghost between them. Jon told the story of how he and Robb had found the pups newborn in the late summer snows. It seemed a thousand years ago now. Before long he found himself talking of Winterfell.

“Sometimes I dream about it,” he said. “I’m walking down this long empty hall. My voice echoes all around, but no one answers, so I walk faster, opening doors, shouting names. I don’t even know who I’m looking for. Most nights it’s my father, but sometimes it’s Robb instead, or my little sister Arya, or my uncle.” The thought of Benjen Stark saddened him; his uncle was still missing.

[…]

“Do you ever find anyone in your dream?” Sam asked.

Jon shook his head. “No one. The castle is always empty.” He had never told anyone of the dream, and he did not understand why he was telling Sam now, yet somehow it felt good to talk of it. “Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. That always scares me. I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time, screaming for someone, for anyone. And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of. I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way. It gets darker and darker, until I want to scream.” He stopped, frowning, embarrassed. “That’s when I always wake.” His skin cold and clammy, shivering in the darkness of his cell. Ghost would leap up beside him, his warmth as comforting as daybreak. He would go back to sleep with his face pressed into the direwolf’s shaggy white fur. “Do you dream of Horn Hill?” Jon asked.

“No.” Sam’s mouth grew tight and hard. “I hated it there.” He scratched Ghost behind the ear, brooding, and Jon let the silence breathe. After a long while Samwell Tarly began to talk, and Jon Snow listened quietly, and learned how it was that a self-confessed coward found himself on the Wall.

When Jon decides to have the rest of the recruits protect Jon, he has to use Ghost to literally fill Rast with the fear of god or in this case, the fear of the old gods, for which Ghost is an avatar.  This scene appears to be a very strong indication of mind-mingling in the bond of Jon and Ghost.  Ghost, with his eyes that “burned red as embers,” mirrors Jon’s anger at Rast’s defiance.  The cooperation in this scene is quite close, reminiscent of the scene with Robb and Grey Wind, when they first threatened Cleos Frey.  The ploy worked, so we can chalk up another mark for the theme of the wolves instilling fear in adversaries.

“You girls do as you please,” Rast said, “but if Thorne sends me against Lady Piggy, I’m going to slice me off a rasher of bacon.” He laughed in Jon’s face and left them there.

Hours later, as the castle slept, three of them paid a call on his cell. Grenn held his arms while Pyp sat on his legs. Jon could hear Rast’s rapid breathing as Ghost leapt onto his chest. The direwolf’s eyes burned red as embers as his teeth nipped lightly at the soft skin of the boy’s throat, just enough to draw blood. “Remember, we know where you sleep,” Jon said softly.

Sam and Jon’s other friends, brothers, are ultimately the glue that binds Jon to the wall.  Below, he whispers as much to Ghost.  Note that Ghost is repeatedly even more intimate with Jon than these friends.  Sam, the other boys, and Ghost will be used again to drive Jon’s plot forward in several ways.

And so they were, he thought to himself after Sam had taken his leave. Robb and Bran and Rickon were his father’s sons, and he loved them still, yet Jon knew that he had never truly been one of them. Catelyn Stark had seen to that. The grey walls of Winterfell might still haunt his dreams, but Castle Black was his life now, and his brothers were Sam and Grenn and Halder and Pyp and the other cast-outs who wore the black of the Night’s Watch.

“My uncle spoke truly,” he whispered to Ghost. He wondered if he would ever see Benjen Stark again, to tell him.

– A Game of Thrones – Jon IV

A Game of Thrones – Jon V

Again, Jon has an encounter with Ghost where his mood is described in the passive voice, “a deep restlessness was on him.”  Certainly, this could be an example of mirroring, but Jon mirroring Ghost’s mood.  I think that Ghost was more so the restless one in this case, wanting to hunt.  That said, Jon was contemplating 2 things here, 1) deciding whether he was going to follow through and take his night’s watch vows, and 2) figuring out how to keep Sam safe once he’s promoted from training. Still, Ghost is the one who bolts away once they set out, so I think that he was the restless one.

Ghost returns with a red muzzle, having clearly made a kill hunting.  After having thought of his own decision on vows while Ghost is off hunting, Jon thinks of Sam once Ghost returns.  Ghost’s thematic, and possibly telepathic, connection to Sam in Jon’s thoughts is getting to be repetitive.  Let’s not forget that this scene with Ghost also coincides with Jon’s decision to stay in the watch.  This is a parallel and possible foreshadowing to Jon deciding to stay in the watch when Ghost returns from beyond the wall in ASoS.  Was Ghost and/or some 3^rd party influencer part of swaying Jon at both times?

Again, the passive voice coinciding with a mention of Ghost “Jon found himself thinking of Samwell Tarly.” That’s twice in that short passage. Are these “tells” by our author? I think they might be.

“All we could wasn’t enough,” Jon said.

A deep restlessness was on him as he went back to Hardin’s Tower for Ghost. The direwolf walked beside him to the stables. Some of the more skittish horses kicked at their stalls and laid back their ears as they entered. Jon saddled hi s mare, mounted, and rode out from Castle Black, south across the moonlit night. Ghost raced ahead of him, flying over the ground, gone in the blink of an eye. Jon let him go. A wolf needed to hunt.

[…]

He wheeled his horse around and started for home.

Ghost returned as he crested a rise and saw the distant glow of lamplight from the Lord Commander’s Tower. The direwolf’s muzzle was red with blood as he trotted beside the horse. Jon found himself thinking of Samwell Tarly again on the ride back. By the time he reached the stables, he knew what he must do.

When Jon puts his plan to save Sam into action, he mentions Ghost twice.  He reminds us of the fear Ghost instills in enemies with the mention of Ghost threatening Rast.  I do wonder what Aemon – a Targaryen but a maester as well, a man with a foot in both the magical and magic-denying camps – thinks of this.  Does he recognize Jon as a warg?

Jon also mentions how Sam is good with Ghost, suggesting that he’ll be good with the ravens.  This is truly a dubious argument, given how Sam is described to be fearful of EVERYTHING, yet it turns out to be a correct assumption.  However, recall our earlier judgment that Sam was initially fearful of Ghost but very quickly soothed by the direwolf.  I do wonder if the Night’s watch ravens, all of which have latent skinchangers (CotF, recall from Bran’s story in ADwD) in them, have a similar way of quelling Sam’s fears. Indeed, does Sam Tarly have some latent skinchanging ability?

He told them all of it, even the part where he’d set Ghost at Rast’s throat. Maester Aemon listened silently, blind eyes fixed on the fire, but Chett’s face darkened with each word. “Without us to keep him safe, Sam will have no chance,” Jon finished. “He’s hopeless with a sword. My sister Arya could tear him apart, and she’s not yet ten. If Ser Alliser makes him fight, it’s only a matter of time before he’s hurt or killed.”

[…]

Jon glanced warily at Chett, standing beside the door, his boils red and angry. “He could help you,” he said quickly. “He can do sums, and he knows how to read and write. I know Chett can’t read, and Clydas has weak eyes. Sam read every book in his father’s library. He’d be good with the ravens too. Animals seem to like him. Ghost took to him straight off. There’s a lot he could do, besides fighting. The Night’s Watch needs every man. Why kill one, to no end? Make use of him instead.”

– A Game of Thrones – Jon V

That hint at Sam being a skinchanger concludes this episode. Next we cover Ghost finding the wights, the subsequent attack, and Jon’s ill fated choice to desert the watch, derailed by none other than Ghost.

Episode 6.5 – Wights and a White Wolf

This episode focuses on Ghost’s interaction with the wights and the repercussions thereof at the end of A Game of Thrones.

A Game of Thrones – Jon VI

Next time we see Ghost, it is when Sam and Jon go beyond the wall to take their vows.  Recall how Sam uncharacteristically chooses to take his vows in front of the heart tree with Jon.  It bears wondering if Ghost was part of this as well. 

Ghost’s obedience is on display in this scene, as well as the fear he instills in others, in this case, Marsh’s horse and perhaps Marsh, himself.  In any case, Ghost is off immediately after sniffing the air.  Give that he later returns with a human hand from one of the wights they find in the following chapter, one must wonder if he smelled the wights right then, or if he first went off hunting.

“They never have.” Jon climbed into his saddle. When Bowen Marsh and their ranger escort had mounted, Jon put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. Ghost came loping out of the tunnel.

The Lord Steward’s garron whickered and backed away from the direwolf. “Do you mean to take that beast?”

“Yes, my lord,” Jon said. Ghost’s head lifted. He seemed to taste the air. In the blink of an eye he was off, racing across the broad, weed-choked field to vanish in the trees.

When Ghost returns, Jon notices, with some disquiet, how Ghost resembles the weirwoods; he resembles the old gods.  We, the readers, know that, as an albino, he also resembles the Ghost of High Heart and Bloodraven as well, 2 conduits of the old gods.  One might even suggest that Bloodraven, as the current resident greenseer at the cave of the CotF, is a proxy for the old gods.  This is one reason I do give some credence to the idea the Ghost could be a tool for one such as Bloodraven.

Ghost obediently brings his grisly prize to Jon when called, but one wonders why he was not guarding Jon during this relatively exposed time.  Should not his protective instinct have won out in this situation?

And suddenly Ghost was back, stalking softly between two weirwoods. White fur and red eyes, Jon realized, disquieted. Like the trees …

The wolf had something in his jaws. Something black. “What’s he got there?” asked Bowen Marsh, frowning.

“To me, Ghost.” Jon knelt. “Bring it here.”

The direwolf trotted to him. Jon heard Samwell Tarly’s sharp intake of breath.

– A Game of Thrones – Jon VI

A Game of Thrones – Jon VII

Early in the next chapter, we learn that, among the animals, only Ghost is unafraid of the wights. The other animals go crazy around them.  The dogs will not track them when given the scent. Why is Ghost different in this case?  A few ideas come to mind.

1. A direwolf naturally doesn’t have an instinct to fear wights like the other beasts. I can’t eliminate this, but I question it.  This type of self-preservation instinct would presumably be quite important for any species that has survived beyond the wall for the past 8000+ years.
2. Ghost is different because of the warg bond. Most readers may assume this is how Ghost is different, as I once did.  While it is possible that this is part the truth, it may not be the whole truth.  Another weakness of this concept is that the beast ought reflect his warg’s feelings in the matter, and Jon seems quite scared himself.  Ghost should mirror this or emanate calm to Jon, but neither happens.
3. Ghost is different because of the telepathic abilities he possesses. This may be partly true, but, per item 1, I can’t see how this would cause him to go against his self-preservation instincts.
4. Bloodraven led him there for a purpose. This is Preston Jacobs’s take on it, and I can’t think of a better idea.  Bloodraven using greenseer magic to interrupt the connection between Jon and Ghost and assert some level of control of Ghost would explain how Ghost could so fully shirk his natural self-preservation instinct and his protective instinct.

“Gods have mercy,” the Old Bear muttered. He swung down from his garron, handing his reins to Jon. The morning was unnaturally warm; beads of sweat dotted the Lord Commander’s broad forehead like dew on a melon. His horse was nervous, rolling her eyes, backing away from the dead men as far as her lead would allow. Jon led her off a few paces, fighting to keep her from bolting. The horses did not like the feel of this place. For that matter, neither did Jon.

The dogs liked it least of all. Ghost had led the party here; the pack of hounds had been useless. When Bass the kennelmaster had tried to get them to take the scent from the severed hand, they had gone wild, yowling and barking, fighting to get away. Even now they were snarling and whimpering by turns, pulling at their leashes while Chett cursed them for curs.

It is only a wood, Jon told himself, and they’re only dead men. He had seen dead men before …

In the dream he had the night before, his subconscious either already knows through his bond with Ghost that the hand came from wights, or somebody like Bloodraven sent him the dream. In any case, I assume that Ghost experienced the dream as with Jon’s prior dreams. This is evidenced in how he again nuzzles Jon’s face after the nightmare. Given this, he ought to be mirroring Jon’s unease at the situation, but this doesn’t happen. Ghost doesn’t mirror Jon’s fear at all in relation to the wights, he’s unflappable. This contrast seems to bolster this idea of “the old god’s” influencing Ghost’s behavior in the scene. This type of dichotomy is reminiscent of later events that reek of the children of the Forest and Lord Bloodraven, such as when Ghost finds the dragonglass daggers. 

Last night he had dreamt the Winterfell dream again. He was wandering the empty castle, searching for his father, descending into the crypts. Only this time the dream had gone further than before. In the dark he’d heard the scrape of stone on stone. When he turned he saw that the vaults were opening, one after the other. As the dead kings came stumbling from their cold black graves, Jon had woken in pitch-dark, his heart hammering. Even when Ghost leapt up on the bed to nuzzle at his face, he could not shake his deep sense of terror. He dared not go back to sleep. Instead he had climbed the Wall and walked, restless, until he saw the light of the dawn off to the east. It was only a dream. I am a brother of the Night’s Watch now, not a frightened boy.

Jon later uses Ghost directly to get Sam to overcome his own fear of the wights, and it works. Ghost’s calming influence on Sam seems to remain during this interchange. I interpret this to be Ghost mirroring his feelings to Sam.

Jon put a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “We have a dozen rangers with us, and the dogs, even Ghost. No one will hurt you, Sam. Go ahead and look. The first look is the hardest.”

While Sam makes the case that the wights were not killed there, he also notes again that Ghost is different from the other beasts n his lack of fear.  In my experience, repetition of evidence like this is typical for GRRM when he’s trying to point out something important.

This is a good place to speculate as to how and why Ghost initially found the wights.  As we decided earlier, Bloodraven may be the reason that Ghost is unafraid of the wights.  I suspect that Bloodraven is also the reason that Ghost went to find the wights.  The alternative is that he just followed his sense of smell, but you’d have to conclude he has no instinctual fear of wights to adopt this explanation, that his instinct to hunt knows no bounds. Instead I find the idea compelling that Bloodraven took control or heavily influenced Ghost in both this and last chapter, just as Ghost crossed beyond the wall.

It would explain why Ghost did not mirror Jon’s dread before.  One thing we see here with Sam is that he only gains the courage to speak up once Jon mentions that Ghost was there to protect them.  Indeed, I’d say that Ghost is almost broadcasting calm or a lack of fear to Jon and Sam.  Jon seems calmed by him in the final paragraph of the upcoming passage, just as they were all finally accepting the idea that the bodies were wights. The wolf is giving both boys courage.  If our normal pattern of mirroring held here, Ghost should be freaking out in reflection of Jon’s emotions.  It is the opposite.  Jon is inwardly freaking out, but calmed by Ghost’s presence.

Sam mopped at the sweat on his brow. “You … you can see where Ghost … Jon’s direwolf … you can see where he tore off that man’s hand, and yet … the stump hasn’t bled, look …” He waved a hand. “My father … L-lord Randyll, he, he made me watch him dress animals sometimes, when … after …” Sam shook his head from side to side, his chins quivering. Now that he had looked at the bodies, he could not seem to look away. “A fresh kill … the blood would still flow, my lords. Later … later it would be clotted, like a … a jelly, thick and … and …” He looked as though he was going to be sick. “This man … look at the wrist, it’s all … crusty … dry … like …”

“They … they aren’t rotting.” Sam pointed, his fat finger shaking only a little. “Look, there’s … there’s no maggots or … or … worms or anything … they’ve been lying here in the woods, but they … they haven’t been chewed or eaten by animals … only Ghost … otherwise they’re … they’re …”

“Untouched,” Jon said softly. “And Ghost is different. The dogs and the horses won’t go near them.”

[…]

A silence fell over the wood. For a moment all they heard was Sam’s heavy breathing and the wet sound of Dywen sucking on his teeth. Jon squatted beside Ghost.

Jon being calmed by Ghost’s presence is further indicated in the next paragraph, in the inverse.  Jon feels “naked” (i.e. exposed, out-in-the-cold) when Ghost leaves them.  Ghost, on the other hand, has no worry at all.  He just went off to hunt, a direwolf doing direwolf things.

Ghost ran with them for a time and then vanished among the trees. Without the direwolf, Jon felt almost naked. He found himself glancing at every shadow with unease. Unbidden, he thought back on the tales that Old Nan used to tell them, when he was a boy at Winterfell. He could almost hear her voice again, and the click-click-click of her needles. In that darkness, the Others came riding, she used to say, dropping her voice lower and lower.

[…]

When they emerged from under the trees, Mormont spurred his tough little garron to a trot. Ghost came streaking out from the woods to meet them, licking his chops, his muzzle red from prey.

Jon, after learning of Ned’s imprisonment, is further calmed by Ghost later in the chapter.  We also get a reminder of his empathy, in his thoughts about his sisters.

The rest of the afternoon passed as if in a dream. Jon could not have said where he walked, what he did, who he spoke with. Ghost was with him, he knew that much. The silent presence of the direwolf gave him comfort. The girls do not even have that much, he thought. Their wolves might have kept them safe, but Lady is dead and Nymeria’s lost, they’re all alone.

After that last passage, focused on Ghost’s calming influence, Jon rages at Alliser Thorne and is confined to quarters.  Preston Jacobs suggests that this is also due to Ghost’s influence; I disagree.  I believe it more likely to be Jon’s own natural reaction and his failure to keep Ghost and his calming influence nearby; Ghost’s calm or lack of fear is evident throughout this chapter, save that scene.  Regardless, the passage has no mention of Ghost, so we’ll not cover it further save to say that bad thigs happen when the wolves are separated from their Starks.

The next mention of Ghost is when Jon and he are confined to quarters that night.  In fact, Ghost continues to calm Jon at that mention, just by his company.  Jon then has a one-sided conversation with Ghost, before immediately interacting with a candle then sleeping for a long while.  Preston suggests that there is something supernatural about this candle sequence, which may be true, but it could also be that Ghost’s calming influence simply enabled him to let go of his rage and to sleep.  Up to this point in the chapter, that has been the clear influence that Ghost provided him through the bond, so it makes sense that it continues until Jon rests.

Ghost’s behavior changes when Jon wakes, as he senses the wight in the lord commander’s tower.  It is clear protective behavior.  He senses the danger and acts on it.  His hackles are up and he’s ready for a fight, silently snarling.

Preston also suggests that Bloodraven arranged this scene.  Here I agree with him (at least to an extent) because of the timing of the event.  It always bothered me that Ghost didn’t wake Jon until well after the guard was killed.  It is certainly possible that Bloodraven wanted Jon to come out of this as a hero, and for that he’d need to valiantly save Mormont.  Delaying Jon’s waking enables this.  Ghost, logically, should have sensed the danger much earlier than when Jon woke.

And, we have evidence that perhaps he did: “There were deep gouges where he’d raked the wood.”  This may mean that he’d been trying to get at the wight for a while.  Why did Jon not wake until well after the wight was well past the guard at his door?  I submit that he was in a trance that was put in effect by staring at the candle, a hypnosis, perhaps.  Ghost, who we know can call to Jon telepathically, may have been cut off from Jon when he was in this state, or Jon would have woken much sooner.  

They took his knife and his sword and told him he was not to leave his cell until the high officers met to decide what was to be done with him. And then they placed a guard outside his door to make certain he obeyed. His friends were not allowed to see him, but the Old Bear did relent and permit him Ghost, so he was not utterly alone.

“My father is no traitor,” he told the direwolf when the rest had gone. Ghost looked at him in silence. Jon slumped against the wall, hands around his knees, and stared at the candle on the table beside his narrow bed. The flame flickered and swayed, the shadows moved around him, the room seemed to grow darker and colder. I will not sleep tonight, Jon thought.

Yet he must have dozed. When he woke, his legs were stiff and cramped and the candle had long since burned out. Ghost stood on his hind legs, scrabbling at the door. Jon was startled to see how tall he’d grown. “Ghost, what is it?” he called softly. The direwolf turned his head and looked down at him, baring his fangs in a silent snarl. Has he gone mad? Jon wondered. “It’s me, Ghost,” he murmured, trying not to sound afraid. Yet he was trembling, violently. When had it gotten so cold?

Ghost backed away from the door. There were deep gouges where he’d raked the wood. Jon watched him with mounting disquiet. “There’s someone out there, isn’t there?” he whispered. Crouching, the direwolf crept backward, white fur rising on the back of his neck. The guard, he thought, they left a man to guard my door, Ghost smells him through the door, that’s all it is.

Once they’re out the door the direwolf is leading Jon to the wight, waiting to make sure that Jon is coming.  as they move up the steps, Ghost seemingly mirrors Jon’s carefulness.  The lord commander’s raven (which is well-established as a tool of Bloodraven) breaks this spell, and Ghost runs ahead, starting the fight.

Ghost slid past him, out the door. The wolf started up the steps, stopped, looked back at Jon. That was when he heard it; the soft scrape of a boot on stone, the sound of a latch turning. The sounds came from above. From the Lord Commander’s chambers.

A nightmare this might be, yet it was no dream.

The guard’s sword was in its sheath. Jon knelt and worked it free. The heft of steel in his fist made him bolder. He moved up the steps, Ghost padding silently before him. Shadows lurked in every turn of the stair. Jon crept up warily, probing any suspicious darkness with the point of his sword.

Suddenly he heard the shriek of Mormont’s raven. “Corn,” the bird was screaming. “Corn, corn, corn, corn, corn, corn.” Ghost bounded ahead, and Jon came scrambling after. The door to Mormont’s solar was wide open. The direwolf plunged through. Jon stopped in the doorway, blade in hand, giving his eyes a moment to adjust. Heavy drapes had been pulled across the windows, and the darkness was black as ink. “Who’s there?” he called out.

Then he saw it, a shadow in the shadows, sliding toward the inner door that led to Mormont’s sleeping cell, a man-shape all in black, cloaked and hooded … but beneath the hood, its eyes shone with an icy blue radiance …

During the fight, Ghost and Jon alternate in defense and attack.  Every movement need not be analyzed, but every mention of Ghost in the fight is is in the passage that follows. Ghost certainly is protecting Jon throughout, and his attacks are savage continuing our themes. The spot that is potentially supernatural is between Jon and the bird.  Who had the idea to burn the wight first?  Jon or Bloodraven, watching through the raven.  Did he use the bird or Ghost to give Jon the idea?  There’s no definitive evidence for how Jon got the idea.  Jon grabbed the lamp before the bird said “burn,” so it’s definitely not on the page that Jon got the idea from the bird.  What we know is that he got the lamp, the bird said burn, he burnt the drapes, called off Ghost (who obeys immediately, indicating a strong bond at that instant), and kills the wight with the burning drapes.

Ghost leapt. Man and wolf went down together with neither scream nor snarl, rolling, smashing into a chair, knocking over a table laden with papers. Mormont’s raven was flapping overhead, screaming, “Corn, corn, corn, corn.” Jon felt as blind as Maester Aemon. Keeping the wall to his back, he slid toward the window and ripped down the curtain. Moonlight flooded the solar. He glimpsed black hands buried in white fur, swollen dark fingers tightening around his direwolf’s throat. Ghost was twisting and snapping, legs flailing in the air, but he could not break free.

Jon had no time to be afraid. He threw himself forward, shouting, bringing down the longsword with all his weight behind it. Steel sheared through sleeve and skin and bone, yet the sound was wrong somehow. The smell that engulfed him was so queer and cold he almost gagged. He saw arm and hand on the floor, black fingers wriggling in a pool of moonlight. Ghost wrenched free of the other hand and crept away, red tongue lolling from his mouth.

[…]

The corpse lurched forward. There was no blood. One-armed, face cut near in half, it seemed to feel nothing. Jon held the longsword before him. “Stay away!” he commanded, his voice gone shrill. “Corn,” screamed the raven, “corn, corn.” The severed arm was wriggling out of its torn sleeve, a pale snake with a black five-fingered head. Ghost pounced and got it between his teeth. Finger bones crunched. Jon hacked at the corpse’s neck, felt the steel bite deep and hard.

[…]

And suddenly the corpse’s weight was gone, its fingers ripped from his throat. It was all Jon could do to roll over, retching and shaking. Ghost had it again. He watched as the direwolf buried his teeth in the wight’s gut and began to rip and tear. He watched, only half conscious, for a long moment before he finally remembered to look for his sword …

… and saw Lord Mormont, naked and groggy from sleep, standing in the doorway with an oil lamp in hand. Gnawed and fingerless, the arm thrashed on the floor, wriggling toward him.

Jon tried to shout, but his voice was gone. Staggering to his feet, he kicked the arm away and snatched the lamp from the Old Bear’s fingers. The flame flickered and almost died. “Burn!” the raven cawed. “Burn, burn, burn!”

Spinning, Jon saw the drapes he’d ripped from the window. He flung the lamp into the puddled cloth with both hands. Metal crunched, glass shattered, oil spewed, and the hangings went up in a great whoosh of flame. The heat of it on his face was sweeter than any kiss Jon had ever known. “Ghost!” he shouted.

The direwolf wrenched free and came to him as the wight struggled to rise, dark snakes spilling from the great wound in its belly. Jon plunged his hand into the flames, grabbed a fistful of the burning drapes, and whipped them at the dead man. Let it burn, he prayed as the cloth smothered the corpse, gods, please, please, let it burn.

– A Game of Thrones – Jon VII

A Game of Thrones – Jon VIII

Next, we see the results of those events. Ghost and Jon are recognized as heroes with the gift of the Valyrian Steel blade (forged in magic), and Jon’s nemesis, Thorne is sent away.  If there had been a plot by the old gods to elevate Jon in the watch, it worked.  The discussion below of the likeness of the wolf reminds me of his likeness to the weirwoods, with the “eyes darker than garnets and wiser than men” line.

Jon also remembers how Ghost was found apart from his siblings.  He thinks it was because of Ghost’s look being different than his littermates, but I’ve already suggested that it could be that Bloodraven caused Ghost to move away, not the other pups.  There is no strong reason to think Jon’s supposition here is the correct one; the “unreliable narrator” trope may be at work.  We are also reminded that Jon heard Ghost, but Ghost never makes a sound.  Jon still doesn’t seem to notice this glaring issue with his memory.  I do wonder why our author chose this point to remind us of this again?  Is it to tell us that Jon is unreliable as a narrator?  On why Ghost was driven off or something else?  I couldn’t say for sure, but using the recollection to again point out Ghost’s telepathic gift is highest on my list of guesses.

Mormont snorted. “Because I sent him, why do you think? He’s bringing the hand your Ghost tore off the end of Jafer Flowers’s wrist. I have commanded him to take ship to King’s Landing and lay it before this boy king. That should get young Joffrey’s attention, I’d think … and Ser Alliser’s a knight, highborn, anointed, with old friends at court, altogether harder to ignore than a glorified crow.”

“Crow.” Jon thought the raven sounded faintly indignant.

[…]

They had moved him back to his old cell in tumbledown Hardin’s Tower after the fire, and it was there he returned. Ghost was curled up asleep beside the door, but he lifted his head at the sound of Jon’s boots. The direwolf’s red eyes were darker than garnets and wiser than men. Jon knelt, scratched his ear, and showed him the pommel of the sword. “Look. It’s you.”

Ghost sniffed at his carved stone likeness and tried a lick. Jon smiled. “You’re the one deserves an honor,” he told the wolf … and suddenly he found himself remembering how he’d found him, that day in the late summer snow. They had been riding off with the other pups, but Jon had heard a noise and turned back, and there he was, white fur almost invisible against the drifts. He was all alone, he thought, apart from the others in the litter. He was different, so they drove him out.

– A Game of Thrones – Jon VIII

Episode 6.6 – A White Wolf and an Reluctant Watchmen

… which covers how Ghost and others influence Jon’s decision to leave and then stay in the Night’s Watch at the end of A Game of Thrones in anticipation of a new adventure, going beyond the wall, at the beginning of A Clash of Kings.

A Game of Thrones – Jon IX

Following Ned’s death, when Jon resolved to desert from the watch and join Robb’s army, Ghost plays a pivotal part in bringing Jon back.  First, he slows Jon’s progress as they initially rode away.  Then, once the other boys were close, he made noise to cause them to find where he was hiding.

It starts with Ghost obediently coming when called and then shadowing Jon as he rides off.  I have two side notes before we discuss the action:

1. Ghost’s “eyes like embers” are mentioned as they leave the castle, but I am uncertain if there is any meaning to this other than simply reminding us of their hue.  Generally, burning eyes is an expression of anger or determination / force of will in this saga, but it might also be generally about indicating some type of magical event.  It could be that Ghost is reflecting Jon’s anger or determination, but it also might be an indication that someone else (i.e. Bloodraven) is participating in the scene through Ghost, either passively or actively. Regardless of whether or not GRRM intended the mention of eyes as a clue to such, I definitely feel that Ghost made a purposeful act later to derail Jon’s mission. He succeeded, too.
2. Jon flexes his hand during the initial flight.  This happens a lot in his story from the prior chapter through later books.  Whenever he does so, it conjures up images of Luke and Anakin Skywalker (and probably a lot of other fantasy heroes), and how both of them had flexed their bionic hands from time to time in the Star Wars saga.  I believe George intended this connection.  That said, specifically for Jon in this scene, it is symbolic of a tie that binds him to the watch.  It reminds him of the wight that he destroyed, which undoubtedly reminds him of the threat posed by the wights and the others, not to mention the sword that Mormont gave him in the preceding chapter.  So, from the very beginning of the flight, Jon is symbolically / subconsciously questioning his own actions.  Does Ghost recognize or feel this apprehension?

After thinking of his hand, and with Ghost travelling at his side, Jon slows a bit and thinks about Ned and then about Robb and the reception he’d get from his half-brother.  The obvious questions that raises only make him more disquieted.  Could it be that Ghost is trying to mentally temper Jon’s enthusiasm for desertion, or is it all in Jon’s head?  Either way, Jon is angered at the thoughts and finally breaks into a gallop.  Only a half mile after starting the gallop, Ghost slows up.  Jon writes it off as the difference between a horse and a wolf’s stamina, but a half mile is not a very long to run, so count me suspicious.  It would have to be a sprint to tire the wolf much.

The mare whickered softly as Jon Snow tightened the cinch. “Easy, sweet lady,” he said in a soft voice, quieting her with a touch. Wind whispered through the stable, a cold dead breath on his face, but Jon paid it no mind. He strapped his roll to the saddle, his scarred fingers stiff and clumsy. “Ghost,” he called softly, “to me.” And the wolf was there, eyes like embers.

[…]

Jon raised the hood of his heavy cloak and gave the horse her head. Castle Black was silent and still as he rode out, with Ghost racing at his side. Men watched from the Wall behind him, he knew, but their eyes were turned north, not south. No one would see him go, no one but Sam Tarly, struggling back to his feet in the dust of the old stables. He hoped Sam hadn’t hurt himself, falling like that. He was so heavy and so ungainly, it would be just like him to break a wrist or twist his ankle getting out of the way. “I warned him,” Jon said aloud. “It was nothing to do with him, anyway.” He flexed his burned hand as he rode, opening and closing the scarred fingers. They still pained him, but it felt good to have the wrappings off.

[…]

Ghost kept pace with them for almost half a mile, red tongue lolling from his mouth. Man and horse alike lowered their heads as he asked the mare for more speed. The wolf slowed, stopped, watching, his eyes glowing red in the moonlight. He vanished behind, but Jon knew he would follow, at his own pace.

Jon rides for a while, alone, but eventually slows because the horse tired.  During this time (between quotes about Ghost), Jon ponders but doesn’t feel any better about his decision to desert.  He then wonders at his own recklessness with the perilous ride, which is symbolic of the recklessness of leaving the watch in general.

Jon calls, then worries about the direwolf when Ghost does not return.  Ghost may be hunting, but their separation definitely delays Jon.

That run had been truly stupid, an invitation to a broken neck. Jon wondered what had gotten into him. Was he in such a great rush to die?

Off in the trees, the distant scream of some frightened animal made him look up. His mare whinnied nervously. Had his wolf found some prey? He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Ghost!” he shouted. “Ghost, to me.” The only answer was a rush of wings behind him as an owl took flight.

Frowning, Jon continued on his way. He led the mare for half an hour, until she was dry. Ghost did not appear. Jon wanted to mount up and ride again, but he was concerned about his missing wolf. “Ghost,” he called again. “Where are you? To me! Ghost!” Nothing in these woods could trouble a direwolf, even a half-grown direwolf, unless … no, Ghost was too smart to attack a bear, and if there was a wolf pack anywhere close Jon would have surely heard them howling […]

He should eat, he decided. Food would settle his stomach and give Ghost the chance to catch up. Tere was no danger yet, Castle Black still Slept.

Before Ghost shows up, Jon hears the boys Sam had sent to retrieve him. Ghost delayed Jon enough that they caught up with him. If it were only this, one might think it was just a coincidence that Ghost ended up slowing Jon down.  What confirms for me that Ghost’s delay of Jon was purposeful is how Jon tries to hide, but Ghost runs through the tree making noise, and then causing further noise by frightening Jon’s horse.  Then, after the boys convince Jon to come back, Ghost “looked at him knowingly.”  To me, this “look” is definitive.  Ghost’s actions were undoubtedly intentional. And remember Ghost is normally silent!

“There’s nothing here.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Jon glimpsed a pale shape moving through the trees. Leaves rustled, and Ghost came bounding out of the shadows, so suddenly that Jon’s mare started and gave a whinny. “There!” Halder shouted.

“I heard it too!”

[…]

“Do we have to bind your hands, or will you give us your word you’ll ride back peaceful?” asked Halder.

“I won’t run, if that’s what you mean.” Ghost moved out from under the trees and Jon glared at him. “Small help you were,” he said. The deep red eyes looked at him knowingly.

To me, the only question is whether it was Ghost (and mayhaps Jon’s own conscience) driving his actions, or whether a third party such as Bloodraven was placing a thumb on the scale.  I can’t conclude which; both are reasonable ideas, given the additional context of potential interference by the old gods in our prior chapters.

Speaking of Mormont, when he confronts Jon about the escapade the next morning, he says one peculiar thing that I think is a piece of this puzzle.  He says, in the passive voice, that Jon was “meant to be here.” This statement would be literally true in the case of Bloodraven meddling and having Jon brought back.  Under that reading of it, Bloodraven actively meant for Jon to be there.  Mormont also connects this to Ghost’s actions in finding the wights and saving him.  What’s even more convincing to me is that when I wrote the paragraph above, I hadn’t read ahead to this paragraph about Mormont, which makes Mormont’s words even more powerful to me!

“Why? Why? Why?” the raven called.

“All I know is that the blood of the First Men flows in the veins of the Starks. The First Men built the Wall, and it’s said they remember things otherwise forgotten. And that beast of yours … he led us to the wights, warned you of the dead man on the steps. Ser Jaremy would doubtless call that happenstance, yet Ser Jaremy is dead and I’m not.” Lord Mormont stabbed a chunk of ham with the point of his dagger. “I think you were meant to be here, and I want you and that wolf of yours with us when we go beyond the Wall.“

His words sent a chill of excitement down Jon’s back. “Beyond the Wall?”

– A Game of Thrones – Jon IX

Lest ye forget, Bloodraven was actually watching that entire scene, through the eyes of the Raven, whom we are reminded about at the beginning of the passage. Regardless, with the enticement of going beyond the wall, Jon goes on to reaffirm his loyalty to the watch and notably to the Old Bear specifically, completing his arc and setting up the Ghost and Jon’s plot for the upcoming volumes. and, I think, they’re going exactly where Bloodraven wanted them to go.

To summarize, in A Game of Thrones, we’ve seen abundant evidence and suggestive innuendo for Ghost’s ability to call out telepathically in a way that we didn’t see for any of the other direwolves. This gives a lot of weight to our hypothesis that Ghost is special in that regard, as hinted at by of his eye color. There are also strange events when Ghost uncharacteristically disregards or disobeys Jon, possibly indicating interference with their bond. To be clear, Ghost seems to generally be closely bonded to, of one mind with, and obedient to Jon, making these events the exception, not the rule. These events suggest that a third party may be using Ghost to meddle in Jon’s fate. Otherwise, our direwolf themes held for Ghost and Jon’s story in AGoT.

---

A Clash of Kings – A White Wolf and an Eager, Reluctant Ranger

In this volume, most of our other Stark children have wolf dreams introduced into the plot. It is no different for Jon and Ghost.  What is different is that Ghost spends almost the entire story in ACoK beyond the wall, so we learn from his dream that he cannot sense his pack, despite trying. Jon is initially eager for the ranging beyond the wall and later at the opportunity to range with Qhorin Halfhand, but fear and concern soon overtakes this, followed by reluctance and chagrin at having to kill Qhorin.  The way that Ghost mirrors Jon’s emotions in this volume speaks, well, volumes.

We’ll also continue to investigate the themes from our prior volumes, including:

• Personality and mood mirroring
• Obedience vs. Independence
• Shadowing / protecting / fear of the wolves
  • Related: the wolves’ innate ability to sense threats
• Belonging to the pack / the instinct to hunt
• Being affectionate when they’re together
• Bad things happening when they’re separated

Ghost’s unique theme of silence, coupled with his associated ability to communicate telepathically, also continues in this volume, although some might think the wolf dream puts said silence into question. The question of their bond being being meddled with telepathically by Bloodraven or some other entity also comes up when they are at Craster’s keep, as well as at the Fist of the First Men and in the Frost Fangs.

A Clash of Kings – Bran I

We start with the Pack bond. Bran is wondering if Shaggy and Summer are calling to Ghost, Grey Wind, Nymeria and Lady’s shade.  I don’t know the answer to Bran’s question, but given what we learn in Bran and Summer’s story, part 4 of this series, I presume that Ghost can sense them when it happens.  Ghost, of course, can’t howl; at least he never does. Specifically, though, I wonder what Ghost thinks of the comet.

Summer’s howls were long and sad, full of grief and longing. Shaggydog’s were more savage. Their voices echoed through the yards and halls until the castle rang and it seemed as though some great pack of direwolves haunted Winterfell, instead of only two . . . two where there had once been six. Do they miss their brothers and sisters too? Bran wondered. Are they calling to Grey Wind and Ghost, to Nymeria and Lady’s Shade? Do they want them to come home and be a pack together?

– A Clash of Kings – Bran I

A Clash of Kings – Jon I

Speaking of symbols, our first mention of Ghost is a comparison to the white ravens of the citadel.  It is very interesting that in our world, the all-black crows and ravens, and the all-white doves are used symbolically a lot, especially as harbingers.  Negative connotations, of course, go to the black birds and positive to the white.  The white raven is kind of a mix of both, so the coming of this raven to the wall, coupled with the comet is very interesting symbolically, although I will not make an attempt to interpret it.  Leave that to LML.

What I will do, though, is remind us that Ghost’s appearance, previously connected to the weirwoods and Bloodraven, is now connected to the white ravens.  This connection should not be forgotten.  I don’t think it’s important this time, but it may be important the next time they fly, as harbingers of winter, never a good thing in the north.  The mention of the white raven’s silence is also interesting, because others of them do speak, one saying “lady” to Shireen, for example, so they are not exactly like Ghost in this.  They also have black eyes, like other ravens, so they are unlike Ghost (and other albinos) in this, as well.  However, they are mentioned as being much cleverer than other ravens, which is probably a good comparison to Ghost.  I do wonder if they are more special telepathically than the other ravens, as seems the case for Ghost.

Soon, Jon thought as they climbed. He’d seen the harbinger that had come to Maester Aemon with word of summer’s end, the great raven of the Citadel, white and silent as Ghost. He had seen a winter once, when he was very young, but everyone agreed that it had been a short one, and mild. This one would be different. He could feel it in his bones

The steep stone steps had Sam puffing like a blacksmith’s bellows by the time they reached the surface. They emerged into a brisk wind that made Jon’s cloak swirl and snap. Ghost was stretched out asleep beneath the wattle-and-daub wall of the granary, but he woke when Jon appeared, bushy white tail held stiffly upright as he trotted to them.

So from Ghost and the Raven, the conversation with Sam centers on the wall and then to the comet, and Ghost again, all symbols. This time Ghost is shadowing.

“Never mind about comets, it’s maps the Old Bear wants.”

Ghost loped ahead of them. The grounds seemed deserted this morning, with so many rangers off at the brothel in Mole’s Town, digging for buried treasure and drinking themselves blind.

Speaking of the Old Bear, special beasts and intelligent birds, clearly the latter is true of Mormont’s Raven, who also has the power of speech as we see below when he calls Jon by name.  The former may also be true.  While this bird is not the topic of this post, it is definitely worth mentioning that a lot of the things that make Ghost special may also be in evidence for this bird.  In this scene, the bird is seen as annoyingly echoing Thoren Smallwood, who is already annoying Mormont with his opinions.  Preston Jacobs suggests that this is partially a way of goading Mormont through the raven, by Bloodraven, of course.  While that is all conjecture, it is certainly interesting to think that the former lord commander, Brynden Rivers, is still spying on and manipulating his successors through the bird.

As to Ghost, he is mentioned as being left behind at the beginning of the scene with Mormont.  His obedience here says to me that he doesn’t sense any threat to Jon in the offing.

Lord Commander Mormont had taken up residence in the King’s Tower after the fire had gutted his own. Jon left Ghost with the guards outside the door. “More stairs,” said Sam miserably as they started up. “I hate stairs.”

“Well, that’s one thing we won’t face in the wood.”

When they entered the solar, the raven spied them at once. “Snow!” the bird shrieked. Mormont broke off his conversation. “Took you long enough with those maps.” He pushed the remains of breakfast out of the way to make room on the table. “Put them here. I’ll have a look at them later.”

Thoren Smallwood, a sinewy ranger with a weak chin and a weaker mouth hidden under a thin scraggle of beard, gave Jon and Sam a cool look. He had been one of Alliser Thorne’s henchmen, and had no love for either of them. “The Lord Commander’s place is at Castle Black, lording and commanding,” he told Mormont, ignoring the newcomers, “it seems to me.”

The raven flapped big black wings. “Me, me, me.”

– A Clash of Kings – Jon I

Episode 6-7 – Ghost and Jon Beyond the Wall

… covering Jon and Ghost’s story as they proceed beyond the wall in A Clash of Kings.

A Clash of Kings – Jon II

In the first chapter, on the face of it, nothing seems very noteworthy, save two instances of our direwolf themes.  Ghost is hunting but not finding anything, and then, once reunited with Jon, he resumes his post as shadow.  The fact that Ghost is not finding any game suggests that the woods are empty; however, game should be plentiful, given that the wildlings are all missing.  There are 4 potential explanations for the lack of game:

1. The first is the one explicitly given in the text below, that the black brothers frightened it all away. I find this wanting, especially since Jon seems to think Ghost hunted well away from them.
2. Most readers probably think the game is all fled due to the others. I do as well, at least partially.  As presented to us, this makes a lot of sense, and Dywin certainly implies it.   What gives me pause is to wonder where the game would have gone?  I suppose they’d just go to parts of the haunted forest away from Craster’s keep, where others haven’t been around recently.
3. It is possible that the woods have been hunted clean by wildlings in preparation for their own ranging into the Frost Fangs. It doesn’t seem likely, and there are no mentions of this in the text.
4. The final possibility is that Ghost isn’t hunting at all. It’s possible he was doing some task at Bloodraven’s behest, scouting perhaps.  There is little evidence for this idea, save in how Bloodraven seems to be interfering with Ghost in other points of the story, but it is certainly not precluded by the text, either.  Is he one more set of eyes for him to check for or track others… One-thousand eyes and three, as it were?

Either way you interpret this, it is probably true that Ghost, or whoever is messing with him, didn’t feel Jon needed Ghost’s protection until they reached Craster’s. That said, we should recall the theme of bad things happening when the wolves are separated from the Stark children. Ghost will be separated from Jon several times during this volume.

Ghost emerged from the undergrowth so suddenly that the garron shied and reared. The white wolf hunted well away from the line of march, but he was not having much better fortune than the foragers Smallwood sent out after game. The woods were as empty as the villages, Dywen had told him one night around the fire. “We’re a large party,” Jon had said. “The game’s probably been frightened away by all the noise we make on the march.”

“Frightened away by something, no doubt,” Dywen said.

Once the horse had settled, Ghost loped along easily beside him. Jon caught up to Mormont as he was wending his way around a hawthorn thicket.

– A Clash of Kings – Jon II

A Clash of Kings – Jon III

In the next scene, Jon seems to want Ghost at his side, given how quickly he calls him upon hearing noises in the wood, which turn out to be Dywin. That this scene features Dywin once more gives more credence to the ranger’s words last chapter.  At least, it certainly seems that Jon respects the old ranger.  It’s interesting that Jon later contradicts himself, saying that Ghost would not be far, while he previously thought the Ghost ranged well away to hunt.  It appears Jon is right, as Ghost appears not long after Dywin.

Is Ghost’s closeness and Jon’s call for the wolf an indication that there is more danger in this new chapter as they approach Craster’s keep?  Ghost’s resumption of shadowing at the end of the passage might be an indication of this.  Also, his fur is “ruffed up”. Jon thinks it is only for protection from the rain, but it could be more than that. Canines often have the fur on their backs stick up (the scientific term is piloerection) when roused or threatened. Clearly, then this is an example of the theme of the direwolf’s sense of danger. The author definitely intended the intensity to ramp up at Craster’s keep as he prepares to reveal the commerce between Craster and the others.

On his way back, Jon swung wide of the column’s line of march and took a shorter path through the thick of the wood. The sounds of man and horse diminished, swallowed up by the wet green wild, and soon enough he could hear only the steady wash of rain against leaf and tree and rock. It was midafternoon, yet the forest seemed as dark as dusk. Jon wove a path between rocks and puddles, past great oaks, grey-green sentinels, and black-barked ironwoods. In places the branches wove a canopy overhead and he was given a moment’s respite from the drumming of the rain against his head. As he rode past a lightning-blasted chestnut tree overgrown with wild white roses, he heard something rustling in the underbrush. “Ghost,” he called out. “Ghost, to me.”

But it was Dywen who emerged from the greenery, forking a shaggy grey garron with Grenn ahorse beside him. The Old Bear had deployed outriders to either side of the main column, to screen their march and warn of the approach of any enemies, and even there he took no chances, sending the men out in pairs.

“Ah, it’s you, Lord Snow.” Dywen smiled an oaken smile; his teeth were carved of wood, and fit badly. “Thought me and the boy had us one o’ them Others to deal with. Lose your wolf?”

“He’s off hunting.” Ghost did not like to travel with the column, but he would not be far. When they made camp for the night, he’d find his way to Jon at the Lord Commander’s tent.

[…]

“More’n you ever will, brother. Well, it’s not so hard when you breed your own. There’s your beast, Snow.”

Ghost was trotting along beside Jon’s horse with tail held high, his white fur ruffed up thick against the rain. He moved so silently Jon could not have said just when he appeared. Grenn’s mount shied at the scent of him; even now, after more than a year, the horses were uneasy in the presence of the direwolf. “With me, Ghost.” Jon spurred off to Craster’s Keep.

When they finally arrive at the keep, Craster’s dogs definitely had fearful reactions, reminding us of that direwolf theme.  Then, Jon commands Ghost to stay, and he seems to obey, indicating at least that he doesn’t sense any danger to Jon inside the keep.

[…] Chett’s hounds barked wildly in answer, snarling and snapping despite his curses, with a pair of Craster’s dogs barking back. When they saw Ghost, some of the dogs broke off and ran, while others began to bay and growl. The direwolf ignored them, as did Jon.

[…]

“Ghost, stay,” he commanded. The door to Craster’s Keep was made of two flaps of deerhide. Jon shoved between them, stooping to pass under the low lintel.

While Ghost seemed obey at Jon’s command, he certainly didn’t stay for long after Jon left to go inside.  Instead he hunted and attacked Gilly’s rabbits.  It is debatable whether he threatened Gilly as well.  Certainly, she was very afraid of the white wolf.  Preston Jacobs suggests that Ghost was giving her undue attention as part of a Bloodraven / CotF plot to deprive the others of her baby.  While this scene does facilitates the initial the connection between her and Jon and Sam, I am not wholly convinced.  As written, it doesn’t say that Ghost had her backed up against the wall, only that she “was backed up against” the wall.  You need to assume that Ghost did this on purpose, rather than Jon’s interpretation, that she only thought he was threatening her while Ghost only wanted the rabbits.  Note that the Sisterman does think Ghost is looking at her menacing, but, being one of Chett’s mutineers, he may be biased.

Ghost’s actions are peculiar, given how he’s never reported attacking any other domestic animal.  Under this light, I can suggest one mode for how there might have been meddling in Ghost’s actions.  In the first line of the passage below, Jon was not hungry until “he stopped to think of his own supper.” Then, Jon then thinks of Sam, for some reason….  Why? Because Sam is fat, so you naturally think of him and food?  While he may have been thinking of Sam because Mormont wanted Sam for mapmaking, it almost seems the author has a penchant (a calling card, if you will) for how a lot of weird things happen when Ghost and Sam are in the equation.  Either way, Ghost immediately attacks the rabbits after Jon thinks of food.

This is 100% an example of mirroring.  The question is, whose appetite is being mirrored?  Does Ghost feel Jon’s hunger on top of his own, causing him to lose control and then attack the rabbits?  Perhaps, but I think the opposite is more likely, that when Jon thought of his supper, it was a reflection of Ghost’s hunger.  If Ghost’s mind was meddled with in this instance, it may be that overwhelming hunger was projected to him by Bloodraven of the CotF.  It could even be that Gilly sensed the wolf’s hunger, adding to her own fear.

Whatever your interpretation, though, it’s incontrovertible that the meeting with Gilly is facilitated by Ghost doing something quite uncharacteristic.  It was further facilitated by Lark the Sisterman and Chett calling Jon a lord and brother to kings, even though the boy had just said, in eerily matching language to what Qhorin Halfhand says a few chapters later, “I’m no lord.”  This seems to lead Gilly to seek out Sam, Jon’s friend.

At the end of the passage below, we get a humorous incident where Ghost takes the other rabbit from under the hand of the Sisterman, causing him to fall in the mud.  The humor serves to ramp down the tension a bit.  Still, there is some danger lingering, as Jon walks away with Ghost shadowing him.

Jon got the horses fed before he stopped to think of his own supper. He was wondering where to find Sam when he heard a shout of fear. “Wolf!” He sprinted around the hall toward the cry, the earth sucking at his boots. One of Craster’s women was backed up against the mud-spattered wall of the keep. “Keep away,” she was shouting at Ghost. “You keep away!” The direwolf had a rabbit in his mouth and another dead and bloody on the ground before him. “Get it away, m’lord,” she pleaded when she saw him.

“He won’t hurt you.” He knew at once what had happened; a wooden hutch, its slats shattered, lay on its side in the wet grass. “He must have been hungry. We haven’t seen much game.” Jon whistled. The direwolf bolted down the rabbit, crunching the small bones between his teeth, and padded over to him.

The woman regarded them with nervous eyes. She was younger than he’d thought at first. A girl of fifteen or sixteen years, he judged, dark hair plastered across a gaunt face by the falling rain, her bare feet muddy to the ankles. The body under the sewn skins was showing in the early turns of pregnancy. “Are you one of Craster’s daughters?” he asked.

She put a hand over her belly. “Wife now.” Edging away from the wolf, she knelt mournfully beside the broken hutch. “I was going to breed them rabbits. There’s no sheep left.”

“The Watch will make good for them.” Jon had no coin of his own, or he would have offered it to her . . . though he was not sure what good a few coppers or even a silver piece would do her beyond the Wall. “I’ll speak to Lord Mormont on the morrow.”

She wiped her hands on her skirt. “M’lord—”

“I’m no lord.”

But others had come crowding round, drawn by the woman’s scream and the crash of the rabbit hutch. “Don’t you believe him, girl,” called out Lark the Sisterman, a ranger mean as a cur. “That’s Lord Snow himself.”

“Bastard of Winterfell and brother to kings,” mocked Chett, who’d left his hounds to see what the commotion was about.

“That wolf’s looking at you hungry, girl,” Lark said. “Might be it fancies that tender bit in your belly.”

Jon was not amused. “You’re scaring her.”

“Warning her, more like.” Chett’s grin was as ugly as the boils that covered most of his face.

“We’re not to talk to you,” the girl remembered suddenly.

“Wait,” Jon said, too late. She bolted, ran.

Lark made a grab for the second rabbit, but Ghost was quicker. When he bared his teeth, the Sisterman slipped in the mud and went down on his bony butt. The others laughed. The direwolf took the rabbit in his mouth and brought it to Jon.

“There was no call to scare the girl,” he told them.

[…]

“I know all the names. Save your breath.” He walked away, Ghost at his side. The rain had dwindled to a thin drizzle by the time he reached the gate. Dusk would be on them soon, followed by another wet dark dismal night. The clouds would hide moon and stars and Mormont’s Torch, turning the woods black as pitch. Every piss would be an adventure, if not quite of the sort Jon Snow had once envisioned.

Remember how I said that weird things happen when Sam and Ghost are part of the equation?  It happens again later that same chapter.  Ghost, knows exactly where the boy is. Note that outside meddling might explain this, as Sam is with the ravens, prime suspects for being skinchanged by Bloodraven or the children of the forest.  He finds Sam with no mention of sniffing the air or anything else.  

It was Ghost who found Sam in the end. The direwolf shot ahead like a quarrel from a crossbow. Under an outcrop of rock that gave some small degree of shelter from the rain, Sam was feeding the ravens. His boots squished when he moved. “My feet are soaked through,” he admitted miserably. “When I climbed off my horse, I stepped in a hole and went in up to my knees.”

Ghost later seems to want the other rabbit after it was cooked.  Did he have a big appetite because of the lack of game while hunting earlier?  Or was someone projecting hunger upon him?

Jon spitted the carcass, banked the fire with a pair of rocks, and balanced their meal atop them. The rabbit had been a scrawny thing, but as it cooked it smelled like a king’s feast. Other rangers gave them envious looks. Even Ghost looked up hungrily, flames shining in his red eyes as he sniffed. “You had yours before,” Jon reminded him.

Later, we have an intimate scene between Jon and Ghost as they sleep by the fire.  I’d suggest that Ghost’s closeness is also an indication of his protective nature.  That said, the danger couldn’t have been that critical, given that he was gone when Jon woke, another instance of separation.  Was he off scouting for Bloodraven (again)?  The cold came overnight; was this just normal weather, or were the others involved?  The cold upon Jon’s waking is probably not a good sign, though we have little reason to link this cold with the others, until Gilly discussed them with Jon not long after.

Ghost laid his head on his paws and went to sleep by the fire. Jon stretched out beside him, grateful for the warmth. He was cold and wet, but not so cold and wet as he’d been a short time before. Perhaps tonight the Old Bear will learn something that will lead us to Uncle Benjen.

He woke to the sight of his own breath misting in the cold morning air. When he moved, his bones ached. Ghost was gone, the fire burnt out. Jon reached to pull aside the cloak he’d hung over the rock, and found it stiff and frozen. He crept beneath it and stood up in a forest turned to crystal.

As I mentioned before, Gilly then corners Jon and asks him to take her away when they left, explaining about the boy and sheep sacrifices to the others.  As they leave the keep, Ghost swims across a stream, then shakes.  It is implied that the water gets all over Mormont and the raven, so this is definitely another instance of shadowing.  One good thing, the ice is melting, so the others are not in evidence now that day has broken.

Jon took his accustomed position at Mormont’s side as the Night’s Watch streamed out past the skulls on Craster’s gate. They struck off north and west along a crooked game trail. Melting ice dripped down all about them, a slower sort of rain with its own soft music. North of the compound, the brook was in full spate, choked with leaves and bits of wood, but the scouts had found where the ford lay and the column was able to splash across. The water ran as high as a horse’s belly. Ghost swam, emerging on the bank with his white fur dripping brown. When he shook, spraying mud and water in all directions, Mormont said nothing, but on his shoulder the raven screeched.

– A Clash of Kings – Jon III

With that foreshadowing of the coming of the others and the reminder that Ghost is there to protect Jon, We now break until next time, when they approach the Fist of the First Men.

Episode 6-8 White Wolf, Black Weapons

… covering Ghost’s peculiar behavior as the watch approach the Fist of the First Men, leading to his finding the dragonglass daggers, arrowheads, and spearpoints, plus what some believe to be the Horn of Winter.

A Clash of Kings – Jon IV

The next chapter is where they reach the Fist of the First Men.  Ghost does not want to ascend.  As the men ascended, Jon has to call Ghost twice to bring him, but the wolf continually runs off until Mormont tells Jon to leave him be.  At first, it might seem that he just wanted to hunt, but Jon returns to get him he has to drag him bodily, which still doesn’t work.  Still he obediently comes at Jon’s call; he just won’t ascend the hill.  Not understanding, Jon eventually relents, assuming, he’ll go “hunt”.

The contradiction in Ghost’s reluctance to accompany Jon is even more stark (pun intended) when you consider that Jon is very disquieted at the eeriness of the woods surrounding the fist, concerned for Ghost.  Ghost should sense Jon’s concern and be at his side for protection.  The fact that he isn’t indicates either that he doesn’t sense any danger, that he senses something and wants to track it, or that there is 3^rd party meddling.  Recall prior instances of Ghost’s disobedience, such as Jon’s failed attempt at desertion. These often accompany significant plot points involving the resultant behavior by the direwolf.  It is no different here, as we’ll get to.

There are 4 other notable things in the passage.

1. First, Ghost sniffs the ringfort, and then retreats. This might indicate he did not want to enter because of something about the place, but later he enters on his own, which doesn’t compute.
2. Second, Jon angrily says “what’s wrong with you?” He gets no answer.  This type of exclamation (what was wrong with me, etc.) is a type of signpost to me, to pay attention for some significant plot point.  It definitely tingles my spidy sense.
3. The third peculiar thing is Ghost’s eyes, mentioned as red, but not burning, giving us no evidence of Ghost’s mood. We might get an explanation for this later in the chapter.
4. Lastly, Jon worries that “anything” could be out there in the forest. At a minimum, this is an indication that Jon is afraid, as I said above. This could also have a tinfoil explanation, that there was someone specifically watching in that woods.  We’ll cover this more later.

He rode to the top with Lord Mormont and the officers, leaving Ghost below under the trees. The direwolf had run off three times as they climbed, twice returning reluctantly to Jon’s whistle. The third time, the Lord Commander lost patience and snapped, “Let him go, boy. I want to reach the crest before dusk. Find the wolf later.”

[…]

Once he’d put up the Lord Commander’s tent and seen to their horses, Jon Snow descended the hill in search of Ghost. The direwolf came at once, all in silence. One moment Jon was striding beneath the trees, whistling and shouting, alone in the green, pinecones and fallen leaves under his feet; the next, the great white direwolf was walking beside him, pale as morning mist.

But when they reached the ringfort, Ghost balked again. He padded forward warily to sniff at the gap in the stones, and then retreated, as if he did not like what he’d smelled. Jon tried to grab him by the scruff of his neck and haul him bodily inside the ring, no easy task; the wolf weighed as much as he did, and was stronger by far. “Ghost, what’s wrong with you?” It was not like him to be so unsettled. In the end Jon had to give it up. “As you will,” he told the wolf. “Go, hunt.” The red eyes watched him as he made his way back through the mossy stones.

[…]

Ghost was not like to be alone down there, he thought. Anything could be moving under that sea, creeping toward the ringfort through the dark of the wood, concealed beneath those trees. Anything. How would they ever know? He stood there for a long time, until the sun vanished behind the saw-toothed mountains and darkness began to creep through the forest.

Later, Ghost joins Jon at the fire, which may mean he had no real problem with the ring fort itself, despite the sniffing scene earlier.  Upon his return, it starts to become apparent that he wanted Jon to follow him.  It’s possible that he wanted him to follow all along, but it is only evident to Jon (and us the readers, by proxy) now, when Jon realizes that “it did not seem as if he were after meat.”  Either way, he is still afraid and alarmed, but eventually follows Ghost.  Note also how Jon connects Ghost’s weird behavior to another time we postulate that Ghost was messed with telepathically, when they saved Mormont.

Admittedly, Jon’s confusion is a weakness in my idea that Ghost can broadcast thoughts or feelings.  We readers don’t get Ghosts emotions, we only seen his actions.  There are a few possible explanations for this in this instance.  It’s possible I am reading too much into this, and it’s also possible that the author wanted to keep Ghost’s abilities a bit more mysterious, so he did not use them in this instance.  Sharing an image of what Ghost had found would have made it crystal clear for Jon, but that it doesn’t happen here doesn’t necessarily mean Ghost is not “special”.  Perhaps the lack of any evidence of the emotional bond is also an indication that Ghost is currently under someone else’s control, cut off from Jon telepathically.  This idea may explain the lack of burning in Ghost’s eyes earlier.  FWIW, I also think that George, who has written for the screen, benefited from that experience in writing this scene.  The way that Ghost races ahead and then waits for Jon would have transferred exceedingly well to the HBO show.  Sadly, some moron decided to have Sam find the dragonglass on the HBO show, depriving us of the scene.

Nonetheless, a lot happens as Ghost leads Jon away from the hilltop.  First, Ghost startles one of the horses along the way.  I can’t help but think of the horsemanship of Jon’s “aunt” and “uncle”, Lyanna and Brandon in this scene.  It seems likely to me that both of them had some ability to skinchange their horses, making them “half a horse” or “a pair of centaurs.”  It seems Jon, known to be a warg, inherited the same gene as they had, if this ability turns out to be genetic.  His ability to quickly calm the horse with almost no effort is a great indication of this.

There is also an contradiction in how Ghost races down the hill while Jon proceeds deliberately and carefully.  One would expect that their approach is mirrored, with both racing down or proceeding carefully, as in several stressful situations with Bran and Summer.  The only thing I can assume here is that Ghost they are not strongly linked through the bond at this particular time (nor most of this day), which is one more indication that someone else is meddling, or mingling, with Ghost’s mind. Taken as a whole, there is a lot of evidence that someone is meddling in Ghost’s actions here. If you still think this isn’t possible, check in later for our discussion of Melisandre’s interactions with Ghost, for a rebuttal.

“Ghost,” Jon breathed, surprised. “So you came inside after all, eh?” The white wolf often hunted all night; he had not expected to see him again till daybreak. “Was the hunting so bad?” he asked. “Here. To me, Ghost.”

The direwolf circled the fire, sniffing Jon, sniffing the wind, never still. It did not seem as if he were after meat right now. When the dead came walking, Ghost knew. He woke me, warned me. Alarmed, he got to his feet. “Is something out there? Ghost, do you have a scent?” Dywen said he smelled cold.

The direwolf loped off, stopped, looked back. He wants me to follow. Pulling up the hood of his cloak, Jon walked away from the tents, away from the warmth of his fire, past the lines of shaggy little garrons. One of the horses whickered nervously when Ghost padded by. Jon soothed him with a word and paused to stroke his muzzle. He could hear the wind whistling through cracks in the rocks as they neared the ringwall. A voice called out a challenge. Jon stepped into the torchlight. “I need to fetch water for the Lord Commander.”

Jon slipped sideways between two sharpened stakes while Ghost slid beneath them. A torch had been thrust down into a crevice, its flames flying pale orange banners when the gusts came. He snatched it up as he squeezed through the gap between the stones. Ghost went racing down the hill. Jon followed more slowly, the torch thrust out before him as he made his descent. The camp sounds faded behind him. The night was black, the slope steep, stony, and uneven. A moment’s inattention would be a sure way to break an ankle . . . or his neck. What am I doing? he asked himself as he picked his way down.

u/mumamahesh on reddit has a terrific analysis of this scene discussing how whomever planted the dragonglass (he suggests coldhands) used some techniques that confuse Ghost’s tracking skills in this scene, including using streams to hide the scent, as Summer and Shaggy did when Theon was tracking them later in this volume.  

In the next passage, as Jon struggles to follow Ghost, there is a line that several theorists believe may be related to the children of the forest.  It is where he “glimpsed a flash of green.”  While this is certainly conjecture, it may be that instead of glimpsing leaves in the torchlight, the conventional understanding of the passage, he actually glimpsed a child of the forest.  The reason I don’t discard the idea, is the use of the term “flash”.  While GRRM may have only used the term because of the torchlight and the flicker of the flame, causing a reflected flash, he may also have intended it as a clue of the children of the forest watching, being seen, and then fleeing.  They may even have been the one(s) who delivered the dragonglass.  Note that he uses “flash of white” to describe motion by Ghost not long after.

The trees stood beneath him, warriors armored in bark and leaf, deployed in their silent ranks awaiting the command to storm the hill. Black, they seemed . . . it was only when his torchlight brushed against them that Jon glimpsed a flash of green. Faintly, he heard the sound of water flowing over rocks. Ghost vanished in the underbrush. Jon struggled after him, listening to the call of the brook, to the leaves sighing in the wind. Branches clutched at his cloak, while overhead thick limbs twined together and shut out the stars.

Ghost’s continued lack of obedience throughout this entire episode is more indication to me that he is being influenced or controlled by someone else.  Below, Ghost makes no moves to go to Jon when called. It even makes Jon angry, but he follows.  Again, there is a lack of Ghost mirroring Jon’s anger.  His eyes are not burning.  Instead his eyes are described as “baleful”.  This is actually our best evidence for third party meddling with Ghost.  Baleful means “full of menacing and maligned influence” (thanks Alexa).  WOW!  HFS!  I am glad I noticed this while making my edits!  So, a menacing and maligned influence may be on Ghost in this scene.  As an aside, notice that the eyes glowed, like the moon, instead of burning like the sun.  LML, have a field day with that symbolism.

Ghost is also described here as lean.  This is the first and only time he is described this way.  Summer, Grey Wind and Shaggydog are described this way several times, but Ghost, instead, had only been described as the largest of the pack. This could be an indication that the unsuccessful hunting is taking its toll.

He found Ghost lapping from the stream. “Ghost,” he called, “to me. Now.” When the direwolf raised his head, his eyes glowed red and baleful, and water streamed down from his jaws like slaver. There was something fierce and terrible about him in that instant. And then he was off, bounding past Jon, racing through the trees. “Ghost, no, stay,” he shouted, but the wolf paid no heed. The lean white shape was swallowed by the dark, and Jon had only two choices—to climb the hill again, alone, or to follow.

He followed, angry, holding the torch out low so he could see the rocks that threatened to trip him with every step, the thick roots that seemed to grab at his feet, the holes where a man could twist an ankle. Every few feet he called again for Ghost, but the night wind was swirling amongst the trees and it drank the words. This is madness, he thought as he plunged deeper into the trees. He was about to turn back when he glimpsed a flash of white off ahead and to the right, back toward the hill. He jogged after it, cursing under his breath.

A quarter way around the Fist he chased the wolf before he lost him again. Finally he stopped to catch his breath amidst the scrub, thorns, and tumbled rocks at the base of the hill. Beyond the torchlight, the dark pressed close.

When Jon finally catches the wolf again, he is digging up the bundle of dragonglass, hidden behind a tree, perhaps purposefully so that only Jon / Ghost would find it.  Jon thinks it will be a body, connecting Ghost’s weird behavior here to another time his mind may have been meddled with, when he found the wights, also beyond the wall, mind you.  As an aside, while I have no evidence for this, it is perhaps easier for Bloodraven to meddle with Ghost while they are on the same side of the wall.

Ghost’s next (and last) move in the scene is to sit “on his haunches, watching.”  Again, this language fits perfectly if Bloodraven is using Ghost’s mind, this time to see Jon collect the prize, a prize he had someone deliberately put there, not long ago.  Jon actually considers the idea that it’s been there for a long time, but the condition of the Night’s Watch cloak makes it obvious that this was placed there recently.

A soft scrabbling noise made him turn. Jon moved toward the sound, stepping carefully among boulders and thornbushes. Behind a fallen tree, he came on Ghost again. The direwolf was digging furiously, kicking up dirt.

“What have you found?” Jon lowered the torch, revealing a rounded mound of soft earth. A grave, he thought. But whose?

He knelt, jammed the torch into the ground beside him. The soil was loose, sandy. Jon pulled it out by the fistful. There were no stones, no roots. Whatever was here had been put here recently. Two feet down, his fingers touched cloth. He had been expecting a corpse, fearing a corpse, but this was something else. He pushed against the fabric and felt small, hard shapes beneath, unyielding. There was no smell, no sign of graveworms. Ghost backed off and sat on his haunches, watching.

Jon brushed the loose soil away to reveal a rounded bundle perhaps two feet across. He jammed his fingers down around the edges and worked it loose. When he pulled it free, whatever was inside shifted and clinked. Treasure, he thought, but the shapes were wrong to be coins, and the sound was wrong for metal.

A length of frayed rope bound the bundle together. Jon unsheathed his dagger and cut it, groped for the edges of the cloth, and pulled. The bundle turned, and its contents spilled out onto the ground, glittering dark and bright. He saw a dozen knives, leaf-shaped spearheads, numerous arrowheads. Jon picked up a dagger blade, featherlight and shiny black, hiltless. Torchlight ran along its edge, a thin orange line that spoke of razor sharpness. Dragonglass. What the maesters call obsidian. Had Ghost uncovered some ancient cache of the children of the forest, buried here for thousands of years? The Fist of the First Men was an old place, only . . .

Beneath the dragonglass was an old warhorn, made from an auroch’s horn and banded in bronze. Jon shook the dirt from inside it, and a stream of arrowheads fell out. He let them fall, and pulled up a corner of the cloth the weapons had been wrapped in, rubbing it between his fingers. Good wool, thick, a double weave, damp but not rotted. It could not have been long in the ground. And it was dark. He seized a handful and pulled it close to the torch. Not dark. Black.

– A Clash of Kings – Jon IV

Now, it’s worth pointing out that the behavior of Ghost may be explained, partially, by him picking up a scent that lead him to the dragonglass.  To me, one scent that might cause this would be if the cloak had belonged to Benjen Stark.  Of course, this doesn’t explain Ghost’s disobedience, only his will to “hunt” and how he led Jon to the place.  It also doesn’t explain the lack of mirroring and the repeated connections Jon makes in his mind to other unexplainable weird actions by Ghost.

One final aside, I can’t help but to mention the old warhorn that Jon finds.  I believe, as many do, that it is the real Horn of Joramun.  I wonder if Sam can fix the chip on the mouthpiece at the Citadel.  What might it be used for if he does?

A Clash of Kings – Jon V

The next mention of Ghost is by Qhorin Halfhand.  It is only a passing mention, but later in the same chapter, Qhorin chooses Jon to go on his ranging party, mentioning as a reason that “The old gods are still strong beyond the Wall. The gods of the First Men . . . and the Starks.”  To me, coupled with his reaction to Jon’s wolf dream a few chapters later, this is a pretty clear indication that Qhorin suspected Jon was a warg and included him in the party partially for this reason.

Jon’s only response is to say Ghost is hunting.  I do wonder how much hunting Ghost has actually been doing at the fist, but it at least serves to remind us of the theme of the call of the hunt.

“He was a friend to the Watch.” Qhorin glanced behind. “It is said that a direwolf runs with you.“

“Ghost should be back by dawn. He hunts at night.”

[…]

“Tollett can care for you as well, my lord.” Qhorin lifted his maimed, two-fingered hand. “The old gods are still strong beyond the Wall. The gods of the First Men . . . and the Starks.”

– A Clash of Kings – Jon V

A Clash of Kings – Jon VI

Speaking of recognition of wargs, the next mention of Ghost is when he is reunited with Jon after Jon and Stonesnake kill the wildling watchers and capture Ygritte.  When the rest of the party rejoin them, Ghost runs ahead and they play a little game of tug-of-war with Jon’s wrist.  It is a nice moment of affection and display of their bond, strong again after the seeming lack of a bond at the fist.  What’s more?  Ygritte watches wide-eyed.  Recall that she just lost her friend Orell, another warg.  I’d say that she almost certainly recognizes Jon as a warg in this moment.

Later, Qhorin leaves Jon with his instructions to deal with Ygritte, mentioning that “he’s the blood of Winterfell.”  Given that Ygritte just finished telling him the story of Ba’al the bard, it is likely that this reminder left Jon conflicted and played into his decision to release her unharmed.  One must wonder when Qhorin learned from Stonesnake that she had told Jon this story.  Did Qhorin want her released?  They certainly didn’t torture her, so they bore her no ill will.  The lack of pumping her for information also makes me question the whole premise of the mission.  Does Qhorin already know where the wildlings all are?  Does he even believe in his own mission as a fact-finder?  Or, is he already angling for Jon to be implanted with the wildlings?

One other implication of Ygritte recognizing Jon as a warg is that she doesn’t try to run from him.  Likely she’d know that with Ghost there, it’d be futile, unless her goal was to get her throat ripped out.

“No,” Ygritte said, “but a bard’s truth is different than yours or mine. Anyway, you asked for the story, so I told it.” She turned away from him, closed her eyes, and seemed to sleep.

Dawn and Qhorin Halfhand arrived together. The black stones had turned to grey and the eastern sky had gone indigo when Stonesnake spied the rangers below, wending their way upward. Jon woke his captive and held her by the arm as they descended to meet them. Thankfully, there was another way off the mountain to the north and west, along paths much gentler than the one that had brought them up here. They were waiting in a narrow defile when their brothers appeared, leading their garrons. Ghost raced ahead at first scent of them. Jon squatted to let the direwolf close his jaws around his wrist, tugging his hand back and forth. It was a game they played. But when he glanced up, he saw Ygritte watching with eyes as wide and white as hen’s eggs.

[…]

“Then you must do what needs be done,” Qhorin Halfhand said. “You are the blood of Winterfell and a man of the Night’s Watch.” He looked at the others. “Come, brothers. Leave him to it. It will go easier for him if we do not watch.” And he led them up the steep twisting trail toward the pale pink glow of the sun where it broke through a mountain cleft, and before very long only Jon and Ghost remained with the wildling girl.

He thought Ygritte might try to run, but she only stood there, waiting, looking at him. “You never killed a woman before, did you?” When he shook his head, she said, “We die the same as men. But you don’t need to do it. Mance would take you, I know he would. There’s secret ways. Them crows would never catch us.”

– A Clash of Kings – Jon VI

Episode 6-9 Ghost’s Howl, Jon’s Dream

… covering Jon’s first wolf dream inside Ghost; it’s a lot to analyze, too much, really.

A Clash of Kings – Jon VII

Like many chapters, this one starts with Ghost shadowing Jon.  Ghost is also restless, perhaps sensing the growing danger from wildlings.  It’s also possible that he senses something else watching, a CotF.  We’ll pick up that thread toward the end of the chapter.   He also doesn’t seem to be having any luck hunting, as Jon later shares his rations with him.

Note in the second paragraph below that Qhorin mentions how Black cloaks will help hide the brothers blend into the shadows.  Truth, except for Ghost!  The contradiction here makes me again think that Ghost is a big part of Qhorin’s goals on this mission, otherwise why risk him sticking out like a sore thumb. We are reminded of this again in the third paragraph below (and beyond the quoted passage) when Jon confesses to not killing Ygritte.  Qhorin Isn’t upset going on to call the wildlings men, like anyone in the south.  This discussion is a preface to Ghost finding the wildling camp in the wolf dream.  The theme discussed, that of identifying with the wildlings, leads straight to Jon eventually joining them.

Ghost padded restlessly by Jon’s side. From time to time he would stop and turn, his ears pricked, as if he heard something behind them. Jon did not think the shadowcats would attack living men, not unless they were starving, but he loosened Longclaw in its scabbard even so.

A wind-carved arch of grey stone marked the highest point of the pass. Here the way broadened as it began its long descent toward the valley of the Milkwater. Qhorin decreed that they would rest here until the shadows began to grow again. “Shadows are friends to men in black,” he said.

[…]

Stonesnake curled up under his ragged fur cloak and was asleep almost at once. Jon shared his salt beef with Ghost while Ebben and Squire Dalbridge fed the horses. Qhorin Halfhand sat with his back to a rock, honing the edge of his longsword with long slow strokes. Jon watched the ranger for a few moments, then summoned his courage and went to him. “My lord,” he said, “you never asked me how it went. With the girl.”

To which, of course he answers “I’m no lord,” just as Jon had earlier done to Gilly. In an “married R+L=J” world, Jon’s assertion turns out not to be the truth, is it also a lie for Qhorin?.

Since I have no time for tinfoil right now, we’ll proceed directly to the wolf dream. Ghost doesn’t obey Jon’s command to stay, though that alone is not unusual when he wants to hunt at night, which Jon assumes here, even though no hunting takes place.  Jon also has a very comforting thought about being close to Ghost while he sleeps.  Perhaps this sentiment foreshadows why his consciousness seeks out the wolf in sleep.

In the dream we immediately get Ghost’s thoughts.  He thinks of his littermates, his pack.  He cannot sense them; in fact, this is the same for Summer sensing his pack in ADwD.  We hypothesized in that essay that the wolves have their own telepathic wolf bond.  It’s direct telepathy, and the magical barrier of the wall blocks the connection.  We also decided in that essay that supernatural communication through the wall is possible when the weirwood net is used.  The thought of pack is wolfish, but in a way it is also mirroring Jon’s own tie to his brothers and sisters. 

Ghost then does something very peculiar.  It seems that he howls, calling for his pack.  However, as we know, Ghost never uses his voice, so we can only assume that he called out telepathically, not audibly.  Looked at in this way, this is more confirmation for Ghost’s uniqueness in telepathic ability.  Besides, you’d think that the Rangers would hear it if he actually howled.  He waits for an answer.  It comes, but from Bran, using the weirwood net, not from one of the wolves.

Jon did not think sleep would come easily, but he knew the Halfhand was right. He found a place out of the wind, beneath an overhang of rock, and took off his cloak to use it for a blanket. “Ghost,” he called. “Here. To me.” He always slept better with the great white wolf beside him; there was comfort in the smell of him, and welcome warmth in that shaggy pale fur. This time, though, Ghost did no more than look at him. Then he turned away and padded around the garrons, and quick as that he was gone. He wants to hunt, Jon thought. Perhaps there were goats in these mountains. The shadowcats must live on something. “Just don’t try and bring down a ‘cat,” he muttered. Even for a direwolf, that would be dangerous. He tugged his cloak over him and stretched out beneath the rock.

When he closed his eyes, he dreamed of direwolves.

There were five of them when there should have been six, and they were scattered, each apart from the others. He felt a deep ache of emptiness, a sense of incompleteness. The forest was vast and cold, and they were so small, so lost. His brothers were out there somewhere, and his sister, but he had lost their scent. He sat on his haunches and lifted his head to the darkening sky, and his cry echoed through the forest, a long lonely mournful sound. As it died away, he pricked up his ears, listening for an answer, but the only sound was the sigh of blowing snow.

Jon?

In the interaction with Bran, it seems as if Jon’s consciousness Ghost’s share time being in control.  Either way, it starts, as in answer to my earlier question about silent howls, with a discussion of a silent shout.  Clearly, they exist; two paragraphs later we have more evidence.

Before that, we get the description of the weirwood Bran is using as a node.  They eyes are a contradiction.  Bran is glad to see him, while the tree’s eyes are “fierce”.  This is reminiscent of the baleful eyes Ghost himself had a few chapters ago.  Fortunately on the other end, Bran seems firmly in control, so I see no outside meddling in this interaction yet, even though the trees certainly see it all.  Ghost is still concerned, though, at the scent of the crypts, where Bran is physically located in this moment.

The call came from behind him, softer than a whisper, but strong too. Can a shout be silent? He turned his head, searching for his brother, for a glimpse of a lean grey shape moving beneath the trees, but there was nothing, only . . .

A weirwood.

It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother’s face. Had his brother always had three eyes?

Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow.

He sniffed at the bark, smelled wolf and tree and boy, but behind that there were other scents, the rich brown smell of warm earth and the hard grey smell of stone and something else, something terrible. Death, he knew. He was smelling death. He cringed back, his hair bristling, and bared his fangs.

The boy sees Ghost’s reaction and responds with calming thoughts.  Then something very magical happens.  The tree reaches down and touches the wolf, and Ghost/Jon are transported to the top of a cliff at the end of the pass.  I cannot begin to explain how this happens, but it is hard to imagine that Bran accomplished it all; it is likely that Bloodraven is responsible for it, probably starting with “open your eyes.”  There is no evidence of Bran for the rest of the dream.  My best guess is that Bloodraven took control of Ghost and Jon for a while and had Ghost walk to this location.

Nevertheless, Ghost sees the vast host of wildlings.  I have left the passage in its entirety, so as not to have to describe it.  The only thing I’ll point out is that these are more boyish thoughts, not those of a wolf, save the mention of paws.

Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him.

And suddenly he was back in the mountains, his paws sunk deep in a drift of snow as he stood upon the edge of a great precipice. Before him the Skirling Pass opened up into airy emptiness, and a long vee-shaped valley lay spread beneath him like a quilt, awash in all the colors of an autumn afternoon.

A vast blue-white wall plugged one end of the vale, squeezing between the mountains as if it had shouldered them aside, and for a moment he thought he had dreamed himself back to Castle Black. Then he realized he was looking at a river of ice several thousand feet high. Under that glittering cold cliff was a great lake, its deep cobalt waters reflecting the snowcapped peaks that ringed it. There were men down in the valley, he saw now; many men, thousands, a huge host. Some were tearing great holes in the half-frozen ground, while others trained for war. He watched as a swarming mass of riders charged a shield wall, astride horses no larger than ants. The sound of their mock battle was a rustling of steel leaves, drifting faintly on the wind. Their encampment had no plan to it; he saw no ditches, no sharpened stakes, no neat rows of horse lines. Everywhere crude earthen shelters and hide tents sprouted haphazardly, like a pox on the face of the earth. He spied untidy mounds of hay, smelled goats and sheep, horses and pigs, dogs in great profusion. Tendrils of dark smoke rose from a thousand cookfires.

This is no army, no more than it is a town. This is a whole people come together.

Across the long lake, one of the mounds moved. He watched it more closely and saw that it was not dirt at all, but alive, a shaggy lumbering beast with a snake for a nose and tusks larger than those of the greatest boar that had ever lived. And the thing riding it was huge as well, and his shape was wrong, too thick in the leg and hips to be a man.

Then the eagle attacks.  As happened with Bran / Summer and One-Eye / Varamyr, skinchangers seem to be able to recognize wargs.  Is that why Orell’s eagle, perhaps with Varamyr in it by this time, attacked Ghost?  Or did the eagle simply see Jon and Ghost together, then target Ghost as revenge for the killing of Orell?  Either way, Ghost’s pain ends the dream.  Awakened, Jon is concerned for the wolf. He explains the dream to the rangers and is very surprised when Qhorin actually takes the dream seriously. He is then further disquieted when they call him a skinchanger, although, like I said, it’s hinted at pretty well that Qhorin knew or suspected this already.

Then a sudden gust of cold made his fur stand up, and the air thrilled to the sound of wings. As he lifted his eyes to the ice-white mountain heights above, a shadow plummeted out of the sky. A shrill scream split the air. He glimpsed blue-grey pinions spread wide, shutting out the sun . . .

“Ghost!” Jon shouted, sitting up. He could still feel the talons, the pain. “Ghost, to me!”

Ebben appeared, grabbed him, shook him. “Quiet! You mean to bring the wildlings down on us? What’s wrong with you, boy?”

“A dream,” said Jon feebly. “I was Ghost, I was on the edge of the mountain looking down on a frozen river, and something attacked me. A bird . . . an eagle, I think . . .”

[…]

“There was a tree with my brother’s face. The wildlings . . . there were thousands, more than I ever knew existed. And giants riding mammoths.” From the way the light had shifted, Jon judged that he had been asleep for four or five hours. His head ached, and the back of his neck where the talons had burned through him. But that was in the dream.

“Tell me all that you remember, from first to last,” said Qhorin Halfhand.

Jon was confused. “It was only a dream.”

“A wolf dream,” the Halfhand said. “Craster told the Lord Commander that the wildlings were gathering at the source of the Milkwater. That may be why you dreamed it. Or it may be that you saw what waits for us, a few hours farther on. Tell me.”

It made him feel half a fool to talk of such things to Qhorin and the other rangers, but he did as he was commanded. None of the black brothers laughed at him, however. By the time he was done, even Squire Dalbridge was no longer smiling.

“Skinchanger?” said Ebben grimly, looking at the Halfhand. Does he mean the eagle? Jon wondered. Or me? Skinchangers and wargs belonged in Old Nan’s stories, not in the world he had lived in all his life. Yet here, in this strange bleak wilderness of rock and ice, it was not hard to believe.

“The cold winds are rising. Mormont feared as much. Benjen Stark felt it as well. Dead men walk and the trees have eyes again. Why should we balk at wargs and giants?”

Notice the bit about Jon’s head and neck aching from where the eagle attacked, this is clear mirroring, Jon feeling what Ghost is feeling through the bond, while awake.

This is a good spot to stop for now, we’ll continue this chapter and cover Jon and Ghost’s final chapter in our next episode.

Episode 6-10: Snow and A White Wolf Slay the White Bull

After Jon’s story of the wolf dream the rangers quickly move on, although it’s unclear at the time whether they are looking for Ghost or just pressing on. Either way, Jon is increasingly fearful for his missing and possibly injured wolf.  We don’t get any information about the bond here, but with Ghost injured we can presume that Ghost has not reachable via the bond in his pain, similar to how Summer was unreachable after his injury in ASoS.  As the search ends, they find the eagle before Ghost.

As an aside, Jon remembers the encounter with Bran, and the vision of the wildling encampment.  This doesn’t always happen with supernatural dreams in the story.  I am not sure if this is significant or not, although it does jibe with my earlier idea that some of the thoughts were boyish, not wolfish.

Ghost did not reappear as they set out again. The shadows covered the floor of the pass by then, and the sun was sinking fast toward the jagged twin peaks of the huge mountain the rangers named Forktop. If the dream was true . . . Even the thought scared him. Could the eagle have hurt Ghost, or knocked him off the precipice? And what about the weirwood with his brother’s face, that smelled of death and darkness?

The last ray of sun vanished behind the peaks of Forktop. Twilight filled the Skirling Pass. It seemed to grow colder almost at once. They were no longer climbing. In fact, the ground had begun to descend, though as yet not sharply. It was littered with cracks and broken boulders and tumbled heaps of rock. It will be dark soon, and still no sight of Ghost. It was tearing Jon apart, yet he dare not shout for the direwolf as he would have liked. Other things might be listening as well.

“Qhorin,” Squire Dalbridge called softly. “There. Look.”

The eagle was perched on a spine of rock far above them, outlined against the darkening sky. We’ve seen other eagles, Jon thought. That need not be the one I dreamed of.

Even so, Ebben would have loosed a shaft at it, but the squire stopped him. “The bird’s well out of bowshot.”

“I don’t like it watching us.”

The squire shrugged. “Nor me, but you won’t stop it. Only waste a good arrow.”

Just as Jon’s worry seems peaked, they find Ghost.  He was injured and probably hiding from the watchful eyes of the eagle.  Fortunately the wolf is well enough to walk, though he has a bad wound on the neck.  There is a pretty good example of intimacy or affection and the closeness of their bond when the big ranger and Jon do their best to heal Ghost.  Ghost bears his teeth at Qhorin when they wash it, but Jon holds him and whispers soothing words.  Recall that I mentioned earlier that the bond is strengthened when physical touch is involved.  This is a great example of their closeness.  As they depart, Ghost obediently responds to Jon’s call and takes up his place as Jon’s bright shadow.

Ghost, Jon wanted to shout, where are you?

He was about to follow Qhorin and the others when he glimpsed a flash of white between two boulders. A patch of old snow, he thought, until he saw it stir. He was off his horse at once. As he went to his knees, Ghost lifted his head. His neck glistened wetly, but he made no sound when Jon peeled off a glove and touched him. The talons had torn a bloody path through fur and flesh, but the bird had not been able to snap his neck.

Qhorin Halfhand was standing over him. “How bad?”

As if in answer, Ghost struggled to his feet.

“The wolf is strong,” the ranger said. “Ebben, water. Stonesnake, your skin of wine. Hold him still, Jon.”

Together they washed the caked blood from the direwolf’s fur. Ghost struggled and bared his teeth when Qhorin poured the wine into the ragged red gashes the eagle had left him, but Jon wrapped his arms around him and murmured soothing words, and soon enough the wolf quieted. By the time they’d ripped a strip from Jon’s cloak to wrap the wounds, full dark had settled. Only a dusting of stars set the black of sky apart from the black of stone. “Do we press on?” Stonesnake wanted to know.

Qhorin went to his garron. “Back, not on.”

“Back?” Jon was taken by surprise.

“Eagles have sharper eyes than men. We are seen. So now we run.” The Halfhand wound a long black scarf around his face and swung up into the saddle.

The other rangers exchanged a look, but no man thought to argue. One by one they mounted and turned their mounts toward home. “Ghost, come,” he called, and the direwolf followed, a pale shadow moving through the night.

Early in this chapter we mentioned that Ghost might be concerned about a CotF instead of the wildlings.  The possible evidence for this is in the passage below, where Jon sees a “pair of glowing eyes.”  Now, the conventional interpretation of this is that Jon sees a shadowcat staring down at him given that ’cats are mentioned in the prior sentence.  That may be as it may be, but there is good reason to question this interpretation.

Animals’ eyes glow at night sometimes; this is true, but that only happens when there is a light source for the eyes to reflect.  This may not be the case in this passage, as Qhorin expressly forbade lighting fires.  So, given that, I look for other reasons for these glowing eyes.  I think immediately back to the last time Jon saw “glowing eyes,” in Ghost, when I had suggested earlier that Jon may have seen a CotF at the time Ghost found the dragonglass daggers.  Ghost is certainly a creature of magic, so his eyes glowing of their own volition is reasonable; same for CotF.  We have no evidence of magic in shadowcats.  While certainly not conclusive proof, I can’t help but to see the possible connection here as highly compelling.

All night they rode, feeling their way up the twisting pass and through the stretches of broken ground. The wind grew stronger. Sometimes it was so dark that they dismounted and went ahead on foot, each man leading his garron. Once Ebben suggested that some torches might serve them well, but Qhorin said, “No fire,” and that was the end of that. They reached the stone bridge at the summit and began to descend again. Off in the darkness a shadowcat screamed in fury, its voice bouncing off the rocks so it seemed as though a dozen other ‘cats were giving answer. Once Jon thought he saw a pair of glowing eyes on a ledge overhead, as big as harvest moons.

– A Clash of Kings – Jon VII

A Clash of Kings – Jon VIII

The situation for the Rangers goes from bad to worse in this next chapter, and Ghost, Jon and Qhorin find themselves the only ones remaining in their party.  Jon contemplates his own mortality as Ghost looks on (silently), I can’t help but wonder why Jon mentions Ghost howling when Jon dies.  As we’ve said before, Ghost does not howl, at least not audibly.  The mention of Summer howling is interesting and reminiscent of the wolves howling as Lady’s body is brought back to Winterfell.  I do wonder if Ghost felt them when that happened… probably so. Does Jon know about this episode subconsciously?

When Qhorin Halfhand told him to find some brush for a fire, Jon knew their end was near.

It will be good to feel warm again, if only for a little while, he told himself while he hacked bare branches from the trunk of a dead tree. Ghost sat on his haunches watching, silent as ever. Will he howl for me when I’m dead, as Bran’s wolf howled when he fell? Jon wondered. Will Shaggydog howl, far off in Winterfell, and Grey Wind and Nymeria, wherever they might be?

In a flashback we get a mention of Ghost eating a dead horse.  Even though it causes Stonesnake to have to leave on foot, It’s still a good thing as it probably allowed the wolf to heal faster and regain his strength. There is a possible mirroring there as Jon does not have an appetite not long after Ghost’s feast.  Jon is not interested in the meager meal of blood and oats while Ghost is satisfied with having gorges on horseflesh.  Did Ghost’s ensuing lack of appetite cause Jon’s lack of hunger?  I think this is likely.

Ghost ate well that day, and Qhorin insisted that the rangers mix some of the garron’s blood with their oats, to give them strength. The taste of that foul porridge almost choked Jon, but he forced it down. They each cut a dozen strips of raw stringy meat from the carcass to chew on as they rode, and left the rest for the shadowcats.

At Ghost’s next mention, still in the flashback, he is alternately shadowing Jon and ranging away.  It is unlikely that there is anything peculiar about this behavior, as Jon could always sense his closeness.  As with Bran and Summer, after the first wolf dream, the bond is much stronger.  This is another level of closeness emotionally as well, and it is comforting for Jon.  This is in following with our theme of affection.

After that, every night seemed colder than the night before, and more lonely. Ghost was not always with them, but he was never far either. Even when they were apart, Jon sensed his nearness. He was glad for that. The Halfhand was not the most companionable of men. Qhorin’s long grey braid swung slowly with the motion of his horse. Often they would ride for hours without a word spoken, the only sounds the soft scrape of horseshoes on stone and the keening of the wind, which blew endlessly through the heights. When he slept, he did not dream; not of wolves, nor his brothers, nor anything. Even dreams cannot live up here, he told himself.

“Is your sword sharp, Jon Snow?” asked Qhorin Halfhand across the flickering fire.

That last paragraph is a return to the present, and it seems this is where Qhorin instead decided to sacrifice himself so that Jon would live. He asked if the sword is sharp (Valyrian steel always is, so this can only be foreshadowing by our author), and later they recite their vows together.  Qhorin bound Jon to his plan in that moment. Ghost is a witness to it.  Given Ghost’s metaphorical connection to the weirwoods, it is similar to Jon’s original recitation.  We must also wonder if anyone else listening through Ghost?  Notably, the “mountains” are also mentioned as watching.  We have very little evidence of stone conducting supernatural communication.  It’s an interesting choice by our author.

“Say them again with me, Jon Snow.”

“If you like.” Their voices blended as one beneath the rising moon, while Ghost listened and the mountains themselves bore witness. “Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am 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. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.”

When they make their last ditch effort to escape pursuit hiding in a cave and then taking a secret passage through a mountain, Ghost potentially derails the effort by pissing at the entrance to the cave (marking his turf).  I don’t know if this is just a wolf being a wolf, or there is meddling here.  Still, if the former, it begs the question as to why the author bothered to mention it.

Ghost and Jon have another affectionate moment as they sleep next to each other and Ghost licks him before sleeping.  Still, Jon thinks of “all the fires going out,” notices the moon glowing through the waterfall, and proceeds to have bad dreams of burning castles and the dead rising from graves.  Ghost, the moon, and Qhorin’s mention of all the fires going out all may have had a hand in causing Jon’s nightmare.  If it ends up being a prophetic dream, Ghost and the moon may end up being more important influences here.  Recall though, that the boy still thinks he’s going to die soon, so the dream may just be a normal nightmare (tinged with symbolism of course).

The cleft in the rock was barely large enough for man and horse to pass, but beyond, the walls opened up and the floor turned to soft sand. Jon could feel the spray freezing in his beard. Ghost burst through the waterfall in an angry rush, shook droplets from his fur, sniffed at the darkness suspiciously, then lifted a leg against one rocky wall. Qhorin had already dismounted. Jon did the same. “You knew this place was here.”

[…]

He took off his wet cloak, but it was too cold and damp here to strip down any further. Ghost stretched out beside him and licked his glove before curling up to sleep. Jon was grateful for his warmth. He wondered if the fire was still burning outside, or if it had gone out by now. If the Wall should ever fall, all the fires will go out. The moon shone through the curtain of falling water to lay a shimmering pale stripe across the sand, but after a time that too faded and went dark.

Sleep came at last, and with it nightmares. He dreamed of burning castles and dead men rising unquiet from their graves. It was still dark when Qhorin woke him. While the Halfhand slept, Jon sat with his back to the cave wall, listening to the water and waiting for the dawn.

Jon’s feelings of fear and foreboding transition to incredulity and reluctance when the big ranger commands him to break his vows and join the wildlings.  Would Ghost that reluctance and mirror it?  As the wildlings approach, Ghost comes obediently to Jon upon being called at Qhorin’s request and stays by his side, alert, and in a fierce protective stance.  Jon tries to calm him and seems to succeed.

A hunting horn echoed through the mountains, and a moment later Jon heard the baying of hounds. “They will be with us soon,” announced Qhorin. “Keep your wolf in hand.”

“Ghost, to me,” Jon called. The direwolf returned reluctantly to his side, tail held stiffly behind him.

The wildlings came boiling over a ridge not half a mile away. Their hounds ran before them, snarling grey-brown beasts with more than a little wolf in their blood. Ghost bared his teeth, his fur bristling. “Easy,” Jon murmured. “Stay.” Overhead he heard a rustle of wings. The eagle landed on an outcrop of rock and screamed in triumph.

Ghost takes part in Jon’s reluctant sacrifice of Qhorin in a decisive way.  Jon is doing his best to attack the ranger, but feels outmatched to the point where I almost wondered if Qhorin changed his mind about sacrificing himself when he charged Jon like a bull.  We’ll never know if he had second thoughts, though, because Ghost attacks Qhorin’s leg, which gives Jon the opening to strike the killing blow.  Ghost’s attack was fierce, leaving his muzzle bloody, as was Jon’s sword. Jon’s fear that Qhorin was attacking in earnest must have been real for Jon to follow through with the blow. This would also be mirrored to Ghost, helping him to sense true danger and driving him to make the protective move to assist Jon.

And then Qhorin’s sword was coming at him and somehow Longclaw leapt upward to block. The force of impact almost knocked the bastard blade from Jon’s hand, and sent him staggering backward. You must not balk, whatever is asked of you. He shifted to a two-hand grip, quick enough to deliver a stroke of his own, but the big ranger brushed it aside with contemptuous ease. Back and forth they went, black cloaks swirling, the youth’s quickness against the savage strength of Qhorin’s left-hand cuts. The Halfhand’s longsword seemed to be everywhere at once, raining down from one side and then the other, driving him where he would, keeping him off balance. Already he could feel his arms growing numb.

Even when Ghost’s teeth closed savagely around the ranger’s calf, somehow Qhorin kept his feet. But in that instant, as he twisted, the opening was there. Jon planted and pivoted. The ranger was leaning away, and for an instant it seemed that Jon’s slash had not touched him. Then a string of red tears appeared across the big man’s throat, bright as a ruby necklace, and the blood gushed out of him, and Qhorin Halfhand fell.

Ghost’s muzzle was dripping red, but only the point of the bastard blade was stained, the last half inch. Jon pulled the direwolf away and knelt with one arm around him. The light was already fading in Qhorin’s eyes. “. . . sharp,” he said, lifting his maimed fingers. Then his hand fell, and he was gone.

– A Clash of Kings – Jon VIII

So this scene is the other thing that feeds the idea that Qhorin = The White Bull Gerald Hightower. Credit to u/Tootles on reddit for pointing it out in one of his essays, but the scene seems to be a reenactment of the tauroctony, at least it would be. The tauroctony is the central part of the ancient religious sect called Mithraism, stemming from ancient Persia. In the tauroctony the hero Mithras reluctantly slays a white bull in order to preserve life. The reluctance can be seen in artwork depicting the scene, here he is looking away from his deed.

Many in the fandom, starting with Schmendrick in an essay on the westeros.org forum, have argued that Jon Snow is symbolically a Mithras figure. Taking that at face value, I argue that this might be the scene of his tauroctony, where he has to sacrifice his friend Qhorin for the greater good. It would be even cooler if that sacrificed friend really were a white bull. And what better was for a kingsguard to die than in preserving the life of the boy he thinks of as his rightful king, Jon Snow, per haps the trueborn son of Rhaegar and Lyanna. Who would know the truth of that better than one of the KG at the Tower of Joy? All, that said, Qhoring and Gerold don’t have to be the same person, they could simply be similar archetypes.

So that ends Ghost and Jon’s adventures in a Clash of Kings. While for Jon, it ends with a literal nightmare followed by the figurative nightmare of having to kill his friend, Ghost’s returns to the basics of protecting the boy after a set of very peculiar adventures that suggest outside interference in his actions.  He hunted many times, but never seemed to catch any game.  He acted weird around Gilly and Sam at Craster’s keep. He seems to have been disconnected from his bond with Jon for a while at the Fist of the First Men before finding the dragonglass daggers and arrowheads. Finally, he has a strange adventure in Jon’s wolf dream, where he seems to call out telepathically for his brothers and sister, resulting in not the wolves, but Bran hearing, through the weirwood net.  This leads to another event where it seems that a third party has meddled with him, moving him to a cliff side in the Frostfangs.  Through all this, it seems his bond with Jon is made stronger, like the rest of his pack.

---

Ep. 6-11 – A Storm of Swords – A White Wolf and a Loyal Oath Breaker

We’ll continue to monitor Ghost’s unique themes of silence and possible telepathic communications through ASoS, while watching for more instances of outside intervention in his actions. As always we’ll also investigate the themes from our prior volumes, including:

• Personality and mood mirroring
• Obedience vs. Independence
• Shadowing / protecting / fear of the wolves
  • Related: the wolves’ innate ability to sense threats
• Belonging to the pack / the instinct to hunt
• Being affectionate when they’re together
• Bad things happening when they’re separated

This volume begins with Ghost and Jon being quite close in their bond and together physically nearly all the time. That is as it should be for protection, with Jon being surrounded by people he views as his enemies.  However, Ghost spends a lot of time away from Jon later in volume, isolated completely from him by the magical barrier of the wall. The contrast in Jon is noticeable. We really don’t know what Ghost was doing during this separation, but it takes him much more time to reach Castle Black than Jon, which begs the question: What was he doing? I definitely wonder if a third party used or guided him for a time during this period.  We really don’t know. They are reunited at Castle Black near the end of the volume under suspicious circumstances, though, which may again suggest outside meddling.

A Storm of Swords – Jon I

We start with Ghost shadowing Jon, alert for danger, as evidenced by his reaction to the falling rock.  Ghost undoubtedly is being very protective at this time while they are surrounded by wildlings, Jon as a virtual prisoner.  He’s also hounded by the hounds.  I guess this is symbolic that he and Jon are not really turning their cloaks to the wildlings.  That said, Ghost mops the floor with the first dog that challenges him, reminding us of his ferocity.  The dogs keep their distance thereafter; as always our direwolves inspire fear.

A stone bounced down the slope, disturbed by a passing hoof, and Jon saw Ghost turn his head at the sudden sound. He had followed the riders at a distance all day, as was his custom, but when the moon rose over the soldier pines he’d come bounding up, red eyes aglow. Rattleshirt’s dogs greeted him with a chorus of snarls and growls and wild barking, as ever, but the direwolf paid them no mind. Six days ago, the largest hound had attacked him from behind as the wildlings camped for the night, but Ghost had turned and lunged, sending the dog fleeing with a bloody haunch. The rest of the pack maintained a healthy distance after that.

The rest of Ghost’s mentions in this chapter follow Jon’s introduction to the main free folk camp.  We discussed in ACoK how Ygritte probably recognized Jon as a warg when she first saw him with Ghost.  It seems that when the Weeper saw Jon, he assumes him to be a warg as well.  Or does he merely recognize Jon as having Stark features?  Tough to say, given that we have no evidence the man ever met Benjen.

Ghost continues to shadow Jon while freaking out the hounds, this time in the main camp.  Interesting how Jon specifically mentions why the dogs don’t like Ghost.  I wonder if there’s more, if they recognize him as being more than a common direwolf.

The Weeper’s red rheumy eyes gave Jon another look. “Aye? Well, he has a wolfish cast to him, now as I look close. Bring him to Mance, might be he’ll keep him.” He wheeled his horse around and galloped off, his riders hard behind him.

The wind was blowing wet and heavy as they crossed the valley of the Milkwater and rode singlefile through the river camp. Ghost kept close to Jon, but the scent of him went before them like a herald, and soon there were wildling dogs all around them, growling and barking. Lenyl screamed at them to be quiet, but they paid him no heed. “They don’t much care for that beast o’ yours,” Longspear Ryk said to Jon.

“They’re dogs and he’s a wolf,” said Jon. “They know he’s not their kind.” No more than I am yours. But he had his duty to be mindful of, the task Qhorin Halfhand had laid upon him as they shared that final fire—to play the part of turncloak, and find whatever it was that the wildlings had been seeking in the bleak cold wilderness of the Frostfangs. “Some power,” Qhorin had named it to the Old Bear, but he had died before learning what it was, or whether Mance Rayder had found it with his digging.

Next, Ghost is again shadowing Jon as they survey the camp.  Note how Jon is still thinking about the camp in terms of war and tactics, and not thinking about them as people.  Ghost’s protective posture may be a reflection of Jon’s current view of all of them as enemies.

Later, Ghost obeys when Jon asks him to wait outside the tent before Jon goes in to meet Mance, Tormund, Styr the Magnar of Thenn, Val, and Dalla.  He must not sense danger inside.  I guess I’d agree, though I’d question that conclusion about the Magnar.

They walked the rest of the way, past more cookfires and more tents, with Ghost following at their heels. Jon had never seen so many wildlings. He wondered if anyone ever had. The camp goes on forever, he reflected, but it’s more a hundred camps than one, and each more vulnerable than the last. Stretched out over long leagues, the wildlings had no defenses to speak of, no pits nor sharpened stakes, only small groups of outriders patrolling their perimeters. Each group or clan or village had simply stopped where they wanted, as soon as they saw others stopping or found a likely spot. The free folk. […]

[…]

Here at least they found defenders; two guards at the flap of the tent, leaning on tall spears with round leather shields strapped to their arms. When they caught sight of Ghost, one of them lowered his spearpoint and said, “That beast stays here.”

“Ghost, stay,” Jon commanded. The direwolf sat.

“Longspear, watch the beast.” Rattleshirt yanked open the tent and gestured Jon and Ygritte inside.

A Storm of Swords – Jon I

A Storm of Swords – Bran I

In Bran’s first chapter in this volume, Summer thinks of Ghost and his other pack mates, noting that Ghost is to the side, not truly fitting with the rest of the litter.  This makes me think of how Sarella Sand doesn’t really fit with the sandsnakes.  Partially because of her personality, and frankly, partially because of her appearance.  Ghost is also different in these ways.

As an aside, the paragraph after has some imagery that is very much reminiscent of my ideas about the direwolves’ differing telepathic abilities.  Mentioned in succession, are the “snowy slopes”, which might represent Ghost, “great green pines,” which could represent Shaggydog, and “the golden leaf oaks,” which would represent the other four wolves.  It is the mention of golden leaf oaks that is so awkward that I can’t help wonder why the author included it.  Either he is very specific about his taxonomy, he is making a veiled marijuana reference, he is making a veiled reference to naval officers, or I am right that it is symbolic of the direwolves.

He had a pack as well, once. Five they had been, and a sixth who stood aside. Somewhere down inside him were the sounds the men had given them to tell one from the other, but it was not by their sounds he knew them. He remembered their scents, his brothers and his sisters. They all had smelled alike, had smelled of pack, but each was different too.

His angry brother with the hot green eyes was near, the prince felt, though he had not seen him for many hunts. Yet with every sun that set he grew more distant, and he had been the last. The others were far scattered, like leaves blown by the wild wind.

Sometimes he could sense them, though, as if they were still with him, only hidden from his sight by a boulder or a stand of trees. He could not smell them, nor hear their howls by night, yet he felt their presence at his back . . . all but the sister they had lost. His tail drooped when he remembered her. Four now, not five. Four and one more, the white who has no voice.

These woods belonged to them, the snowy slopes and stony hills, the great green pines and the golden leaf oaks, the rushing streams and blue lakes fringed with fingers of white frost. But his sister had left the wilds, to walk in the halls of man-rock where other hunters ruled, and once within those halls it was hard to find the path back out. The wolf prince remembered.

A Storm of Swords – Bran I

A Storm of Swords – Jon II

Jon and Ghost are on the move with the wildlings, and when they first approach mammoths, Ghost backs off.  The mammoths are markedly not afraid of Ghost, rather the opposite.  Note that Ghost is implied to be shadowing Jon in that instance, as he is afterward.

The giants swayed slowly atop the mammoths as they rode past two by two. Jon’s garron shied, frightened by such strangeness, but whether it was the mammoths or their riders that scared him it was hard to say. Even Ghost backed off a step, baring his teeth in a silent snarl. The direwolf was big, but the mammoths were a deal bigger, and there were many and more of them.

[…]

Jon wheeled and followed Tormund back toward the head of the column, his new cloak hanging heavy from his shoulders. It was made of unwashed sheepskins, worn fleece side in, as the wildlings suggested. It kept the snow off well enough, and at night it was good and warm, but he kept his black cloak as well, folded up beneath his saddle. “Is it true you killed a giant once?” he asked Tormund as they rode. Ghost loped silently beside them, leaving paw prints in the new-fallen snow.

In the case of Ygritte, Jon chooses to sleep with Ghost by his side, increasing their own instances of affection, just to avoid having sex with Ygritte.  That obviously changes, but the fact that Ghost allows this to happen at all (he didn’t run off to hunt) could be an indication of his knowing that Jon needed him in these instances.

Every night when they made camp, Ygritte threw her sleeping skins down beside his own, no matter if he was near the fire or well away from it. Once he woke to find her nestled against him, her arm across his chest. He lay listening to her breathe for a long time, trying to ignore the tension in his groin. Rangers often shared skins for warmth, but warmth was not all Ygritte wanted, he suspected. After that he had taken to using Ghost to keep her away. Old Nan used to tell stories about knights and their ladies who would sleep in a single bed with a blade between them for honor’s sake, but he thought this must be the first time where a direwolf took the place of the sword.

Following that, Jon is disquieted at Varamyr, and with good reason.  Leaving his skinchanging aside, he is a terrible person, who has committed heinous acts of murder and rape, with no compunction.  Ghost immediately mirrors Jon’s reaction.  The bond is much tighter at this point. Or, does Ghost sense the skinchanger through some special sense?

Along with the Tormunds and the Longspears rode other sorts of wildlings, though; men like Rattleshirt and the Weeper who would as soon slit you as spit on you. There was Harma Dogshead, a squat keg of a woman with cheeks like slabs of white meat, who hated dogs and killed one every fortnight to make a fresh head for her banner; earless Styr, Magnar of Thenn, whose own people thought him more god than lord; Varamyr Sixskins, a small mouse of a man whose steed was a savage white snow bear that stood thirteen feet tall on its hind legs. And wherever the bear and Varamyr went, three wolves and a shadowcat came following. Jon had been in his presence only once, and once had been enough; the mere sight of the man had made him bristle, even as the fur on the back of Ghost’s neck had bristled at the sight of the bear and that long black-and-white ‘cat.

We find in the next passage that Ghost does hunt from time to time as the wildlings proceed.  Jon is sure, though that he’ll come back.  He is also sure about this with Ygritte.  Add her to the list of people Ghost has been compared to.

The snow was falling heavily by the time they caught Tormund’s band, several hours later. Ghost departed along the way, melting into the forest at the scent of prey. The direwolf would return when they made camp for the night, by dawn at the latest. However far he prowled, Ghost always came back . . . and so, it seemed, did Ygritte.

Ghost leaving this time also serves to remind us that bad things happen when they are parted from their Stark children. In this case what happens is that Orell (in the eagle) attacks Jon. Jon also wonders where Ghost is at this time. Why can’t Jon sense him? Is it that their bond is not strong enough yet, or is it something else, perhaps involving third party meddling?

Can a bird hate? Jon had slain the wildling Orell, but some part of the man remained within the eagle. The golden eyes looked out on him with cold malevolence. “I’ll come,” he said. The blood kept running down into his right eye, and his cheek was a blaze of pain. When he touched it his black gloves came away stained with red. “Let me catch my garron.” It was not the horse he wanted so much as Ghost, but the direwolf was nowhere to be seen. He could be leagues away by now, ripping out the throat of some elk. Perhaps that was just as well.

When Ghost returns, it is in the nick of time, as Jon and Rattleshirt are near to exchanging blows (with swords).  Rattleshirt throws the killing of the Halfhand in Jon’s face.  Jon must be extremely angry because Ghost mirrors him with “bristling” fur and “dark red eyes” that “spoke blood.”  He seems about to tear out the wildling’s throat.  Fortunately (for Rattleshirt), when danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled.  Brave, brave, brave, brave Rattleshirt … just like a bully.

Ghost resumes his place as Jon’s shadow, but Ygritte makes it clear that her price for getting Jon out of the jam with Mance is his maidenhead.  Reluctant again, he gives assent.  Then his reluctance fades away for some reason…  I can’t imagine why.  It’s probably for the best that Ghost wasn’t under the furs with them.

“You got no wolf to help you here, boy.” Rattleshirt reached for his own sword.

“Sure o’ that, are you?” Ygritte laughed.

Atop the stones of the ringwall, Ghost hunched with white fur bristling. He made no sound, but his dark red eyes spoke blood. The Lord of Bones moved his hand slowly away from his sword, backed off a step, and left them with a curse.

Ghost padded beside their garrons as Jon and Ygritte descended the Fist. It was not until they were halfway across the Milkwater that Jon felt safe enough to say, “I never asked you to lie for me.”

“I never did,” she said. “I left out part, is all.”

“You said—”

“—that we fuck beneath your cloak many a night. I never said when we started, though.” The smile she gave him was almost shy. “Find another place for Ghost to sleep tonight, Jon Snow. It’s like Mance said. Deeds is truer than words.”

A Storm of Swords – Jon II

Episode 6-12: Parting under the Sword of the Morning

. . . covering the parting of Jon Snow and Ghost and the affect it has on Jon, after he is forced to climb the wall, leaving his direwolf behind.

A Storm of Swords – Jon III

As Jon prepares to part from Ghost (over the wall), they have a rare one-on-one scene, high on a hill Jon climbs to find him. We know Ghost never howls, but the imagery reminds us that in this pose, most any other wolf would be howling.  This brings to mind where Ghost last silently howled while thinking of his siblings in the dream. I then connect this as the probable reason that the white wolf is climbing hills. He’s lost his packs scent, and he is trying to find them. He is trying to communicate with them the only way he has, telepathically.

Given that the wall appears to be the magical barrier isolating him from them, perhaps the height of the hill reduces the power of the wall’s magical shield/barrier? Or is it just that instinct tells him that he can be better heard from hilltop, even though it probably won’t work, so near to the wall? Summer also climbed a hill and thought of his pack in Bran I of this same volume, at which time his senses (primarily scent) were heightened, so this scene rhymes, especially since Ghost conflates scent and his telepathic bond with his pack.

We learn from his thoughts that Ghost seems drawn to hilltops and that he sits on his hindquarters and his eyes “drink the stars.”  Could it also be that While Ghost is trying to contact his pack, he is getting contact with greenseers instead, perhaps via starry wisdom, as with Daenerys and Quaithe? 

The last night fell black and moonless, but for once the sky was clear. “I am going up the hill to look for Ghost,” he told the Thenns at the cave mouth, and they grunted and let him pass.

[…]

He found Ghost atop the hill, as he thought he might. The white wolf never howled, yet something drew him to the heights all the same, and he would squat there on his hindquarters, hot breath rising in a white mist as his red eyes drank the stars.

Mixed with Jon asking about the stars, we get 2 affectionate moments, first when Jon scratches the wolf’s neck and Ghost licked him. Then, when Jon tells him for the first time that they must part, Ghost affectionately nuzzles Jon’s neck. Even on my first read, I took this as a sign of acknowledgement, as Ghost’s attempt to comfort Jon at the same time.  I still feel this way. Jon, on the other hand, does not seem to understand the gesture at all, even thinking that he’s a terrible warg for not knowing how to tell Ghost about what is to happen. Jon, he gets it! As a consolation, it is good that Jon mentally seems to accept the truth of being a warg, against the dream as evidence.

Nevertheless, Jon, very worried about leaving the wolf, goes to painstaking detail to try to make sure the wolf goes back to Castle Black.  I do trust that Ghost feels Jon’s emotions and mostly understands the directions given.  Ghost takes off, so it may be a clue.  Jon said they need to part, and he departs.  How he departs definitely seems like how a wolf might be starting a hunt, similar to Bran’s hunt in Bran I, as mentioned earlier.  As he is missing for most of the rest of this book, it is highly unlikely he went straight to Castle Black, as Jon wonders.  Jon’s repeated thought that he was a bad warg, tells me that the opposite is true.  He thinks he performed inadequately in telling Ghost what to do, but he actually got the message across just fine.  That he also accomplishes his task as a spy loyal to the watch also bolsters the case, given the association he makes between that and warging.

“Do you have names for them as well?” Jon asked, as he went to one knee beside the direwolf and scratched the thick white fur on his neck. “The Hare? The Doe? The She-Wolf?” Ghost licked his face, his rough wet tongue rasping against the scabs where the eagle’s talons had ripped Jon’s cheek. The bird marked both of us, he thought. “Ghost,” he said quietly, “on the morrow we go over. There’s no steps here, no cage-and-crane, no way for me to get you to the other side. We have to part. Do you understand?”

In the dark, the direwolf’s red eyes looked black. He nuzzled at Jon’s neck, silent as ever, his breath a hot mist. The wildlings called Jon Snow a warg, but if so he was a poor one. He did not know how to put on a wolf skin, the way Orell had with his eagle before he’d died. Once Jon had dreamed that he was Ghost, looking down upon the valley of the Milkwater where Mance Rayder had gathered his people, and that dream had turned out to be true. But he was not dreaming now, and that left him only words.

“You cannot come with me,” Jon said, cupping the wolf’s head in his hands and looking deep into those eyes. “You have to go to Castle Black. Do you understand? Castle Black. Can you find it? The way home? Just follow the ice, east and east, into the sun, and you’ll find it. They will know you at Castle Black, and maybe your coming will warn them.” He had thought of writing out a warning for Ghost to carry, but he had no ink, no parchment, not even a writing quill, and the risk of discovery was too great. “I will meet you again at Castle Black, but you have to get there by yourself. We must each hunt alone for a time. Alone.“

The direwolf twisted free of Jon’s grasp, his ears pricked up. And suddenly he was bounding away. He loped through a tangle of brush, leapt a deadfall, and raced down the hillside, a pale streak among the trees. Off to Castle Black? Jon wondered. Or off after a hare? He wished he knew. He feared he might prove just as poor a warg as a sworn brother and a spy.

That was the last time that Jon sees Ghost until his final chapter in this volume.  He begins to miss Ghost almost immediately, thinking of him later that chapter when someone approaches.

Something was coming up the hill behind him, he realized suddenly. For half a heartbeat he thought it might be Ghost come back, but the direwolf never made so much noise. Jon drew Longclaw in a single smooth motion, but it was only one of the Thenns, a broad man in a bronze helm. “Snow,” the intruder said. “Come. Magnar wants.” The men of Thenn spoke the Old Tongue, and most had only a few words of the Common.

A Storm of Swords – Jon III

A Storm of Swords – Jon IV

Jon thinks of Ghost again as they depart for the wall, still worrying if he understood where to go. Jon’s missing wolf will become a theme in his thoughts for the rest of this volume.

Ghost was gone when the wildings led their horses from the cave. Did he understand about Castle Black? Jon took a breath of the crisp morning air and allowed himself to hope. The eastern sky was pink near the horizon and pale grey higher up. The Sword of the Morning still hung in the south, the bright white star in its hilt blazing like a diamond in the dawn, but the blacks and greys of the darkling forest were turning once again to greens and golds, reds and russets. And above the soldier pines and oaks and ash and sentinels stood the Wall, the ice pale and glimmering beneath the dust and dirt that pocked its surface.

A Storm of Swords – Jon IV

A Storm of Swords – Samwell II

Just as Jon starts to miss Ghost, Sam misses Jon and Ghost in turn.  It reminds us that Ghost has played a major part in Sam’s story.  I do wonder why our author didn’t have them cross paths while Jon was across the wall and they were still north of it.  I assume he must have wanted Ghost’s movements to be a complete mystery.

[…] I wish it was all a dream. Then I could wake up. How fine that would be, to wake back on the Fist of the First Men with all his brothers still around him, even Jon and Ghost. Or even better, to wake in Castle Black behind the Wall and go to the common room for a bowl of Three-Finger Hobb’s thick cream of wheat, with a big spoon of butter melting in the middle and a dollop of honey besides. Just the thought of it made his empty stomach rumble.

“Snow.”

A Storm of Swords – Samwell II

A Storm of Swords – Jon V

Jon starts to miss Ghost (again) in his lone chapter among the wildlings south of the wall, so much so that he somehow thinks that Summer was Ghost during the attack at Queenscrown.  Note also that Jon develops a liking for several of the men on the march with him, even as he tries to suppress it.  His suppression of affection for the wildlings goes as far as to make hum feel alone even with Ygritte.  His telepathic isolation from Ghost enhances this feeling of loneliness.

Jon is still wondering if he got his message across to go to Castle Black.  It is almost becoming a theme for Jon that he underestimates his own abilities, accomplishments, and strength-at-arms.  I suppose it drives him to improve, but a bit more confidence could help immensely.

Jon wondered where Ghost was now. Had he gone to Castle Black, or was he was running with some wolfpack in the woods? He had no sense of the direwolf, not even in his dreams. It made him feel as if part of himself had been cut off. Even with Ygritte sleeping beside him, he felt alone. He did not want to die alone.

[…]

And death leapt down amongst them.

The lightning flash left Jon night-blind, but he glimpsed the hurtling shadow half a heartbeat before he heard the shriek. The first Thenn died as the old man had, blood gushing from his torn throat. Then the light was gone and the shape was spinning away, snarling, and another man went down in the dark. There were curses, shouts, howls of pain. Jon saw Big Boil stumble backward and knock down three men behind him. Ghost, he thought for one mad instant. Ghost leapt the Wall. Then the lightning turned the night to day, and he saw the wolf standing on Del’s chest, blood running black from his jaws. Grey. He’s grey.

A Storm of Swords – Jon V

A Storm of Swords – Arya VIII

Arya (the squirrel girl, later compared to the CotF herself) mentions how the Ghost of High Heart’s appearance is similar to that of Ghost.  The woman is an albino, but Jenny of Oldstones once said she is a child of the forest.  I doubt that, but with her being prone to visions and prophecy, I believe she is special telepathically, as I believe with Ghost.  We’ll add her to our list of entities that Ghost has been compared to: The weirwoods, Bloodraven, the white ravens of the Citadel, Ygritte, and now the Ghost of High Heart.

That night the wind was howling almost like a wolf and there were some real wolves off to the west giving it lessons. Notch, Anguy, and Merrit o’ Moontown had the watch. Ned, Gendry, and many of the others were fast asleep when Arya spied the small pale shape creeping behind the horses, thin white hair flying wild as she leaned upon a gnarled cane. The woman could not have been more than three feet tall. The firelight made her eyes gleam as red as the eyes of Jon’s wolf. He was a ghost too. Arya stole closer, and knelt to watch.

A Storm of Swords – Arya VIII

And with that, we thank you for sticking with us for another episode … see you next time!

Episode 4-13: Lost and Found

… covering Jon’s time after returning to Castle Black before reuniting with Ghost.

A Storm of Swords – Jon VI

When Jon arrives at Castle Black it becomes official that Ghost is “missing,” and not just  “missed.”

“Where’s your wolf?” Noye asked as they crossed the yard.

“Ghost. I had to leave him when I climbed the Wall. I’d hoped he’d make his way back here.”

“I’m sorry, lad. There’s been no sign of him.” They limped up to the maester’s door, in the long wooden keep beneath the rookery. The armorer gave it a kick. “Clydas!”

A Storm of Swords – Jon VI

A Storm of Swords – Jon VII

He thinks of Ghost two more times the next chapter, perhaps starting to think he was lost forever, triggered by seeing Rast, and by looking out on the stars.

[…] They still think me a turncloak. That was a bitter draft to drink, but Jon could not blame them. He was a bastard, after all. Everyone knew that bastards were wanton and treacherous by nature, having been born of lust and deceit. And he had made as many enemies as friends at Castle Black . . . Rast, for one. Jon had once threatened to have Ghost rip his throat out unless he stopped tormenting Samwell Tarly, and Rast did not forget things like that. […]

[…]

The west had gone the color of a blood bruise, but the sky above was cobalt blue, deepening to purple, and the stars were coming out. Jon sat between two merlons with only a scarecrow for company and watched the Stallion gallop up the sky. Or was it the Horned Lord? He wondered where Ghost was now. He wondered about Ygritte as well, and told himself that way lay madness.

A Storm of Swords – Jon VII

A Storm of Swords – Bran IV

Upon meeting Summer. Sam again recalls Ghost, and Summer seems to like Sam much as Ghost has. **cough** skinchanger **cough** kingsblood **cough**

“He won’t hurt you,” Bran said. “That’s Summer.”

“Jon said you all had wolves.” Sam pulled off a glove. “I know Ghost.” He held out a shaky hand, the fingers white and soft and fat as little sausages. Summer padded closer, sniffed them, and gave the hand a lick.

That was when Bran made up his mind. “We’ll go with you.”

A Storm of Swords – Bran IV

A Storm of Swords – Jon VIII

As time passes, Jon really starts to worry about Ghost and his thoughts turn dark.  He associates Ghost with a dream he has of Grey Wind and Robb being dead, also with the incident at queenscrown with Summer/Bran, worrying that he’d lost them all.

The cell was dark, the bed hard beneath him. His own bed, he remembered, his own bed in his steward’s cell beneath the Old Bear’s chambers. By rights it should have brought him sweeter dreams. Even beneath the furs, he was cold. Ghost had shared his cell before the ranging, warming it against the chill of night. And in the wild, Ygritte had slept beside him. Both gone now. He had burned Ygritte himself, as he knew she would have wanted, and Ghost . . . Where are you? Was he dead as well, was that what his dream had meant, the bloody wolf in the crypts? But the wolf in the dream had been grey, not white. Grey, like Bran’s wolf. Had the Thenns hunted him down and killed him after Queenscrown? If so, Bran was lost to him for good and all.

A Storm of Swords – Jon VIII

A Storm of Swords – Jon X

He again recalls Ghost during Stannis’s attack, the thought triggered by Varamyr and his wolves.  Note also a bit of skinchanging lore exposed in this passage.  Varamyr’s wolves still guard Jon while Varamyr skinchanges the eagle and mutters what he sees under his breath. This shows how versatile skinchanging can be once mastered.  The wolves are either compelled through the bond alone, or he is splitting his attention 4 ways, at least.  Jon may need this ability going forward if he is to ride a dragon and maintain his bond to Ghost.  Note also that Varamyr screams at the end, an eagle’s natural call is much like a scream.  I don’t think this word choice is a coincidence.

Jon took a step toward the tent, thinking of the Horn of Winter, but the shadowcat blocked him, tail lashing. The beast’s nostrils flared, and slaver ran from his curved front teeth. He smells my fear. He missed Ghost more than ever then. The two wolves were behind him, growling.

“Banners,” he heard Varamyr murmur, “I see golden banners, oh . . .” A mammoth lumbered by, trumpeting, a half-dozen bowmen in the wooden tower on its back. “The king . . . no . . .”

Then the skinchanger threw back his head and screamed.

A Storm of Swords – Jon X

A Storm of Swords – Samwell IV

Jon again laments the missing Ghost, telling Sam that he doesn’t dream of Ghost anymore. It’s no wonder, given that they are on opposite sides of the wall, Jon seems to know this too, at least it’s hinted at in his subconscious thoughts in the dreams of Winterfell he’s having in place of wolf dreams.

“What everyone knows is that Ser Alliser is a knight from a noble line, and trueborn, while I’m the bastard who killed Qhorin Halfhand and bedded with a spearwife. The warg, I’ve heard them call me. How can I be a warg without a wolf, I ask you?” His mouth twisted. “I don’t even dream of Ghost anymore. All my dreams are of the crypts, of the stone kings on their thrones. Sometimes I hear Robb’s voice, and my father’s, as if they were at a feast. But there’s a wall between us, and I know that no place has been set for me.”

A Storm of Swords – Samwell IV

A Storm of Swords – Jon XI

As their reunion approaches, Jon has a final thought of Ghost with Stannis, recalling him even in the past tense, and then remembering how Ghost found the dragonglass.  Stannis offers Jon Winterfell later in the same scene.  Without hope of Ghost’s return, Jon is prone to take the offer.

“Aye. All that, and more. You are a warg too, they say, a skinchanger who walks at night as a wolf.” King Stannis had a hard smile. “How much of it is true?”

“I had a direwolf, Ghost. I left him when I climbed the Wall near Greyguard, and have not seen him since. Qhorin Halfhand commanded me to join the wildlings. He knew they would make me kill him to prove myself, and told me to do whatever they asked of me. The woman was named Ygritte. I broke my vows with her, but I swear to you on my father’s name that I never turned my cloak.”

“I believe you,” the king said.

[…] “I know more than you might think, Jon Snow. I know it was you who found the dragonglass dagger that Randyll Tarly’s son used to slay the Other.”

“Ghost found it. The blade was wrapped in a ranger’s cloak and buried beneath the Fist of the First Men. There were other blades as well . . . spearheads, arrowheads, all dragonglass.”

“I know you held the gate here,” King Stannis said. “If not, I would have come too late.”

A Storm of Swords – Jon XI

A Storm of Swords – Jon XII

Before Jon is reunited with Ghost, there is a scene that relates to the offer for Winterfell, Jon’s penchant for underestimating his abilities, and, potentially, Ghost.  He’s training in the yard, with Iron Emmett.  Before this scene Jon had mentioned that Emmett was a strong fighter, but Jon liked to think he gave as good as he got.  We are lead to believe that they were perhaps evenly matched with Emmett perhaps having the upper hand.  I think Jon was underestimating his ability in that assessment, give what he does to Emmett in the scene that follows.  When Jon takes a heavy blow to the head (I cringe but this was published in 1999 – before the modern understanding of concussions was front page in mainstream news), he has a vision relating to Robb’s rights over him about Winterfell, and promptly annihilates Emmett. Chalk one up for Jon’s true ability, perhaps augmented by magic (telekinesis?).

Afterward, Jon can’t understand his anger and his actions. Preston Jacobs thinks that Ghost’s nearness might be at play in this scene. He cites the fact that Jon tastes blood (similar to how Bran does when Summer tastes blood). And Jacobs also speculates that Jon’ contemplation of his own anger might be evidence of Jon mirroring Ghost.  While mirroring is definitely part of direwolf lore that we’ve seen throughout the saga, I am still skeptical, because it cannot be forgotten because Ghost was definitely north of the wall at this time.

He was almost ready to lower his blade and call a halt when Emmett feinted low and came in over his shield with a savage forehand slash that caught Jon on the temple. He staggered, his helm and head both ringing from the force of the blow. For half a heartbeat the world beyond his eyeslit was a blur.

And then the years were gone, and he was back at Winterfell once more, wearing a quilted leather coat in place of mail and plate. His sword was made of wood, and it was Robb who stood facing him, not Iron Emmett.

Every morning they had trained together, since they were big enough to walk; Snow and Stark, spinning and slashing about the wards of Winterfell, shouting and laughing, sometimes crying when there was no one else to see. They were not little boys when they fought, but knights and mighty heroes. “I’m Prince Aemon the Dragonknight,” Jon would call out, and Robb would shout back, “Well, I’m Florian the Fool.” Or Robb would say, “I’m the Young Dragon,” and Jon would reply, “I’m Ser Ryam Redwyne.”

That morning he called it first. “I’m Lord of Winterfell!” he cried, as he had a hundred times before. Only this time, this time, Robb had answered, “You can’t be Lord of Winterfell, you’re bastard-born. My lady mother says you can’t ever be the Lord of Winterfell.”

I thought I had forgotten that. Jon could taste blood in his mouth, from the blow he’d taken.

In the end Halder and Horse had to pull him away from Iron Emmett, one man on either arm. The ranger sat on the ground dazed, his shield half in splinters, the visor of his helm knocked askew, and his sword six yards away. “Jon, enough,” Halder was shouting, “he’s down, you disarmed him. Enough!”

No. Not enough. Never enough. Jon let his sword drop. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “Emmett, are you hurt?”

Iron Emmett pulled his battered helm off. “Was there some part of yield you could not comprehend, Lord Snow?” It was said amiably, though. Emmett was an amiable man, and he loved the song of swords. “Warrior defend me,” he groaned, “now I know how Qhorin Halfhand must have felt.”

That was too much. Jon wrenched free of his friends and retreated to the armory, alone. His ears were still ringing from the blow Emmett had dealt him. He sat on the bench and buried his head in his hands. Why am I so angry? he asked himself, but it was a stupid question. Lord of Winterfell. I could be the Lord of Winterfell. My father’s heir.

Given Ghost’s nearness, I suppose it may be possible that feeling of anger and the taste of blood from Ghost could leak through the wall, especially given the strength of the mirroring in the highlighted section of the paragraph I quote next. That said, <<tinfoil alert>> there is another explanation we should consider, that a greenseer or even Ghost used the weirwoods to affect Jon’s mind and bring him north of the wall to retrieve Ghost. After all, to go north of the wall was Jon’s next move. 

From Bran’s story, we know that telepathic communication beyond the wall can be successful for weirwoods, and that makes perfect sense given that there is a weirwood literally embedded in the wall at the black gate. As we see in the next passage, Ghost comes out of the Haunted Forest, so it is entirely possible that the weirwoods influenced Jon. Remember how in another instance in ADwD, Bran tastes the blood from an ancient blood sacrifice at Winterfell in a tree vision. Anger is also a theme of weirwood interaction as well (just look at some of the descriptions of the faces).  Lastly, the scene in Jon’s vision is exactly the type of thing Bran sees when starting his greenseer training. Could Ghost have been in the weirwood net during his long absence? Perhaps Ghosts thoughts, or maybe his feelings, such as hunger or the taste of prey, were sent to Jon. If this really was the case, Emmet was just an innocent bystander, **laugh**, poor guy.

Regardless, the mirroring once north of the wall is extreme, more than anything we’ve seen before through Jon and Ghost’s bond (at least waking). Jon realizes the implication of the mirroring and knows that Ghost is near. The affection in their reunion needs no interpretation, but I will mention that we were right to think Jon thought Ghost dead in the prior chapter, as Jon mentions it here.

He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger . . . he could feel it. It was food he needed, prey, a red deer that stank of fear or a great elk proud and defiant. He needed to kill and fill his belly with fresh meat and hot dark blood. His mouth began to water with the thought.

It was a long moment before he understood what was happening. When he did, he bolted to his feet. “Ghost?” He turned toward the wood, and there he came, padding silently out of the green dusk, the breath coming warm and white from his open jaws. “Ghost!” he shouted, and the direwolf broke into a run. He was leaner than he had been, but bigger as well, and the only sound he made was the soft crunch of dead leaves beneath his paws. When he reached Jon he leapt, and they wrestled amidst brown grass and long shadows as the stars came out above them. “Gods, wolf, where have you been?” Jon said when Ghost stopped worrying at his forearm. “I thought you’d died on me, like Robb and Ygritte and all the rest. I’ve had no sense of you, not since I climbed the Wall, not even in dreams.” The direwolf had no answer, but he licked Jon’s face with a tongue like a wet rasp, and his eyes caught the last light and shone like two great red suns.

Ghost’s eyes feature prominently at the end of that passage, compared to suns, so the burning motif is back.  Note that this is a contrast to typical albinos in real life, where their eyes can be red, yes, but they are only red because they lack pigment, so they take the coloring only from the blood that runs through them. Further, because of this phenomenon, albinos typically have assorted vision problems. Ghost suffers from none of that.  His eyes are burn red, and they are deep, like a weirwood.  As if to confirm this, the next paragraph makes that connection again.  “He had a weirwood’s eyes.”  This comparison does a few things for me:

1. It reinforces my earlier argument that Jon’s actions in the yard earlier this chapter were probably influenced via a weirwood.
2. It reminds me of Ghost’s textual connection to other telepathically-special entities that we’ve discussed before, Bloodraven, Melisandre, The Ghost of High Heart, the white ravens and the weirwoods. None of these needs to be a true albino for the comparison to hold.  In fact, there is ample variation among the lot, as we’ve discussed before.  Jon even makes a contrast between Ghost’s eyes and Mel’s in the passage that follows.
3. It strengthens my conviction in the argument that Ghost is telepathically special due to his red eyes. In fact, I’ll take it one step further. I think Ghost is the equivalent of a greenseer among direwolves.

Note also that just before this, he has seemingly determined that he would take Stannis’s offer.  All it took was seeing Ghost and noting the comparison to the trees to reverse that course.  Note that when Stannis made his offer, Melisandre further urged him to “burn these weirwoods, and accept Winterfell….”  This conflation is in Jon’s mind is probably why he made up his mind so quickly at this point.

Red eyes, Jon realized, but not like Melisandre’s. He had a weirwood’s eyes. Red eyes, red mouth, white fur. Blood and bone, like a heart tree. He belongs to the old gods, this one. And he alone of all the direwolves was white. Six pups they’d found in the late summer snows, him and Robb; five that were grey and black and brown, for the five Starks, and one white, as white as Snow.

He had his answer then.

As Jon reenters Castle Black we get a few more reminders of our direwolf bond themes.  First, Jon is now aware of the mirroring of Ghost’s appetite upon him.  This may come into play later (note that Stannis’s men mention that the brothers are having food withheld in the aim of driving them to choose a lord commander once and for all).  Then, there are two reactions by these men to Ghost, first awe, and later a scowl.  Both at probably mixed with fear, reminding us of the theme.  Also, recall that Ghost has grown; he is perhaps full-grown by now.  That can only augment that fear and awe.  The scowl is probably also related to the rumor around the garrison that Jon is a warg.  Stannis mentioned that at the time of his offer, too.

Beneath the Wall, the queen’s men were kindling their nightfire. He saw Melisandre emerge from the tunnel with the king beside her, to lead the prayers she believed would keep the dark away. “Come, Ghost,” Jon told the wolf. “With me. You’re hungry, I know. I could feel it.” They ran together for the gate, circling wide around the nightfire, where reaching flames clawed at the black belly of the night.

The king’s men were much in evidence in the yards of Castle Black. They stopped as Jon went by, and gaped at him. None of them had ever seen a direwolf before, he realized, and Ghost was twice as large as the common wolves that prowled their southron greenwoods. As he walked toward the armory, Jon chanced to look up and saw Val standing in her tower window. I’m sorry, he thought. I’m not the man to steal you out of there.

In the practice yard he came upon a dozen king’s men with torches and long spears in their hands. Their sergeant looked at Ghost and scowled, and a couple of his men lowered their spears until the knight who led them said, “Move aside and let them pass.” To Jon he said, “You’re late for your supper.”

As Jon enters the hall, his friends, starting with Pyp, are overjoyed to see him.  Not so for Janos Slynt, who throws the rumor of Jon being a warg out for all to hear.  This must have angered Jon, and Ghost either mirrored this anger, or sensed the threat that Slynt was, and bared his fangs.  As if to prove the truth of the accusation, Jon calms the wolf at a touch.

Recall that Ghost was projecting his appetite upon Jon and that all the brothers were being deprived of food.  This is the backdrop of the scene.  Preston Jacobs suggests that Ghost and the lord commander’s raven are doing the same in his “The Rigged Election of Jon Snow” series.  I tend to agree with a lot of what he puts forth in that series.  If Ghost and the raven were to project hunger to all the men in the same way Jon is feeling it, that would make the men desperate to complete the election.  Indeed, Jon’s projection of calmness might have averted a riot in place of an election. I take the raven’s utterances and the zeal to bring food afterward for proof that appetite played some role in Jon’s choosing. To conclude that there was outside influence on the choosing you need only look to the mystery of how the bird was put in the choosing kettle. Pyp’s question is easily answered under the assumption that Lord Commander Bloodraven was skinchanging the bird.  It’s still his bird.

Pyp was the first to see Jon. He grinned at the sight of Ghost, put two fingers in his mouth, and whistled as only a mummer’s boy could whistle. The shrill sound cut through the clamor like a sword. As Jon walked toward the tables, more of the brothers took note, and fell quiet. A hush spread across the cellar, until the only sounds were Jon’s heels clicking on the stone floor, and the soft crackle of the logs in the hearth.

[…]

Lord Janos was red-faced and quivering. “The beast,” he gasped. “Look! The beast that tore the life from Halfhand. A warg walks among us, brothers. A WARG! This . . . this creature is not fit to lead us! This beastling is not fit to live!”

Ghost bared his teeth, but Jon put a hand on his head. “My lord,” he said, “will you tell me what’s happened here?”

Maester Aemon answered, from the far end of the hall. “Your name has been put forth as Lord Commander, Jon.”

[…]

“Supper,” screamed the raven. “Supper, supper.”

The king’s men cleared the door when they told them of the choosing, and Three-Finger Hobb and half a dozen helpers went trotting off to the kitchen to fetch the food. Jon did not wait to eat. He walked across the castle, wondering if he were dreaming, with the raven on his shoulder and Ghost at his heels. Pyp, Grenn, and Sam trailed after him, chattering, but he hardly heard a word until Grenn whispered, “Sam did it,” and Pyp said, “Sam did it!” Pyp had brought a wineskin with him, and he took a long drink and chanted, “Sam, Sam, Sam the wizard, Sam the wonder, Sam Sam the marvel man, he did it. But when did you hide the raven in the kettle, Sam, and how in seven hells could you be certain it would fly to Jon? It would have mucked up everything if the bird had decided to perch on Janos Slynt’s fat head.”

“I had nothing to do with the bird,” Sam insisted. “When it flew out of the kettle I almost wet myself.”

A Storm of Swords – Jon XII

This volume began with Ghost and Jon being quite close physically and in their bond, surrounded by enemies.  Through their later separation, Jon felt extremely lonely at the seeming loss of his wolf.  It seems that the isolation may have strengthened their bond, though, given how much Jon’s feelings indicate that he missed the wolf.  I imagine that thinking about and worrying about the missing wolf almost helped Jon to learn to reach out mentally for his companion.  Ghost may also have strengthened his own telepathic abilities in the same way.  This improved strength in their bond was apparent at their reunion. 

---

A Dance with Dragons – A White Shadow and a Subverted Commander

We’ll continue to monitor Ghost’s unique themes of silence and possible telepathic communications through Feast / Dance, while watching for more instances of outside intervention in his actions. As always we’ll also investigate the themes from our prior volumes, including:

• Personality and mood mirroring
• Obedience vs. Independence
• Shadowing / protecting / fear of the wolves
  • Related: the wolves’ innate ability to sense threats
• Belonging to the pack / the instinct to hunt
• Being affectionate when they’re together
• Bad things happening when they’re separated

Jon’s being Lord Commander changes some of the dynamics in this volume, especially in the theme of obedience.  The theme of Jon being alone, seen earlier when Jon was with the wildling raiding party, returns in this volume as Jon isolates himself from the rest of his brothers.  Ghost is ever at his side, but unfortunately in the end Jon isolated himself from Ghost again, which left him open to “bad things happening.”   As with Grey Wind and Robb’s death, Ghost recognizes danger from Jon’s betrayers long before the act, but Jon was blind to his signals. 

Wolf dreams also feature prominently in this volume, indicating a stronger bond.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon I

This volume begins with such a dream.  We’ve covered it in the last 3 direwolf essays, in fact, as Ghost thinks of each of his remaining packmates during the dream.  This dream is much more descriptive than any of Summer’s had been.  I think this is an indication that Ghost has stronger telepathy.  Summer, in our most descriptive dream in his consciousness could only “sense” the other wolves, but he could not smell them or hear them (sight through their eyes is not discussed).

By contrast, Ghost’s visions of Shaggy and Nymeria here have sight, and hearing, and even taste (which would lead us to assume he shares their senses of smell and touch as well, though not mentioned).  Shaggy is injured in the scene, by a UNICORN, in the rain, and is now feasting on its corpse.  This is a vivid image, even including the weather FFS.  With Nymeria there is a clear image of her howling at the moon with her huge pack of 100 wolves.  We also get information about how often Nymeria hunts, so either he is getting Nymeria’s thoughts, or he has these visions of his pack all the time.

In the paragraph after that, Ghost tastes blood (presumably from Shaggy’s kill or licking his wound) and hears Nymeria’s pack’s howls.  He thinks of Summer twice, confirming that he can’t sense him specifically because he was beyond the wall.  He also recalls that he “smelled of summer” which confirms that he can smell through the bond, leaving only touch remaining unconfirmed as transferable through the pack bond for Ghost.

The white wolf raced through a black wood, beneath a pale cliff as tall as the sky. The moon ran with him, slipping through a tangle of bare branches overhead, across the starry sky.

“Snow,” the moon murmured. The wolf made no answer. Snow crunched beneath his paws. The wind sighed through the trees.

Far off, he could hear his pack mates calling to him, like to like. They were hunting too. A wild rain lashed down upon his black brother as he tore at the flesh of an enormous goat, washing the blood from his side where the goat’s long horn had raked him. In another place, his little sister lifted her head to sing to the moon, and a hundred small grey cousins broke off their hunt to sing with her. The hills were warmer where they were, and full of food. Many a night his sister’s pack gorged on the flesh of sheep and cows and horses, the prey of men, and sometimes even on the flesh of man himself.

“Snow,” the moon called down again, cackling. The white wolf padded along the man trail beneath the icy cliff. The taste of blood was on his tongue, and his ears rang to the song of the hundred cousins. Once they had been six, five whimpering blind in the snow beside their dead mother, sucking cool milk from her hard dead nipples whilst he crawled off alone. Four remained … and one the white wolf could no longer sense.

“Snow,” the moon insisted.

The white wolf ran from it, racing toward the cave of night where the sun had hidden, his breath frosting in the air. On starless nights the great cliff was as black as stone, a darkness towering high above the wide world, but when the moon came out it shimmered pale and icy as a frozen stream. The wolf’s pelt was thick and shaggy, but when the wind blew along the ice no fur could keep the chill out. On the other side the wind was colder still, the wolf sensed. That was where his brother was, the grey brother who smelled of summer.

“Snow.” An icicle tumbled from a branch. The white wolf turned and bared his teeth. “Snow!” His fur rose bristling, as the woods dissolved around him. “Snow, snow, snow!” He heard the beat of wings. Through the gloom a raven flew.

It landed on Jon Snow’s chest with a thump and a scrabbling of claws. “SNOW!” it screamed into his face.

In the prior volumes we asked if Ghost has more ability to sense his siblings than Summer or if this dream is more vivid and detailed simply because the author is choosing to reveal a bit more in each volume.  At the time, we reserved judgment, but upon reflection of everything we’ve learned thus far in part 6, I lean heavily toward Ghost being much stronger than Summer (and Grey Wind, Nymeria, and Lady by proxy).

Jon’s dream inside Ghost is interrupted by the Lord Commander’s (his) raven and Dolorous Edd.  Ghost’s reaction, with bristling fur and a snarl, is probably a reflection of Jon not wanting the dream interrupted.  While Ghost is clearly more powerful in the bond, at this point Jon still has the types of issues Bran had late in ACoK and early in ASoS with not being in control while in the wolf, or not wanting to return to his own form.  There is one place where Jon is a bit more advanced than Bran, in that he seems to remember more of the wolf dreams than Bran had at that point in the development of this power.

That is on display in the passage that follows, where Jon recalls several of the details of the past dream, though he sadly still believes all his brothers are dead, even though Robb is the only one truly dead.  Following that we get confirmation that Ghost was indeed not sleeping in his normal place, confirmation of what we already knew, that he was out running.  The fact that he is not near shows that there is no current threat to Jon or else Ghost would be at his post as protector.

Jon pissed in darkness, filling his chamber pot as the Old Bear’s raven muttered complaints. The wolf dreams had been growing stronger, and he found himself remembering them even when awake. Ghost knows that Grey Wind is dead. Robb had died at the Twins, betrayed by men he’d believed his friends, and his wolf had perished with him. Bran and Rickon had been murdered too, beheaded at the behest of Theon Greyjoy, who had once been their lord father’s ward … but if dreams did not lie, their direwolves had escaped. At Queenscrown, one had come out of the darkness to save Jon’s life. Summer, it had to be. His fur was grey, and Shaggydog is black. He wondered if some part of his dead brothers lived on inside their wolves.

[…]

Jon’s cloak hung on a peg by the door, his sword belt on another. He donned them both and made his way to the armory. The rug where Ghost slept was empty, he saw. Two guardsmen stood inside the doors, clad in black cloaks and iron halfhelms, spears in their hands. “Will m’lord be wanting a tail?” asked Garse.

Unfortunately, in our next scene we learn that threats to Jon are already forming, so it would be better if Ghost were with him more often for protection. Melisandre warns Jon to keep him close in our first straightforward foreshadowing of Jon’s death. Jon doesn’t seem to take her seriously until she says “you know nothing, Jon Snow.” We don’t know his reaction to this because the chapter ends. He ought to take it seriously, but his actions in the next few chapters don’t reflect this. Regardless, Mel clearly recognizes the utility of Ghost as a protector.  Jon should know too.

“Do not be so certain.” The ruby at Melisandre’s throat gleamed red. “It is not the foes who curse you to your face that you must fear, but those who smile when you are looking and sharpen their knives when you turn your back. You would do well to keep your wolf close beside you. Ice, I see, and daggers in the dark. Blood frozen red and hard, and naked steel. It was very cold.”

A Dance with Dragons – Jon I

A Dance with Dragons – Bran I

As a contrast to Ghost’s thoughts last chapter, in the passage below we see that Bran needs to remind Summer of the existence of his real pack.  Summer, beyond the wall and unable to sense the rest of his pack, doesn’t even seem to remember his siblings.  Ghost clearly has a much better memory than Summer as well, so Bran’s boast about Summer’s intelligence (back in AGoT) seems dubious at this point as well.  Bran may have thought that due more to mirroring of his own thoughts onto Summer.

When he was done with that one, he moved to the next, and devoured the choicest bits of that man too. Ravens watched him from the trees, squatting dark-eyed and silent on the branches as snow drifted down around them. The other wolves made do with his leavings; the old male fed first, then the female, then the tail. They were his now. They were pack.

No, the boy whispered, we have another pack. Lady’s dead and maybe Grey Wind too, but somewhere there’s still Shaggydog and Nymeria and Ghost. Remember Ghost?

A Dance with Dragons – Bran I

A Dance with Dragons – Jon II / A Feast for Crows – Samwell I

The next chapter with Ghost is an amalgam of two chapters covering many of the same events, one from Sam’s POV in AFfC and the other from Jon’s POV in ADwD.  The first two mentions shows Ghost eating, as Jon returns from his business about the castle, then as Sam joins Jon not long after.  Sam also reminds us of Ghost’s silence.

When he went to close the door, Jon saw that Ghost was stretched out beneath the anvil, gnawing on the bone of an ox. The big white direwolf looked up at his approach. “Past time that you were back.” He returned to his chair, to read over Maester Aemon’s letter once again.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon II

“Lord Snow is waiting.” Two guards in black cloaks and iron halfhelms stood by the doors of the armory, leaning on their spears. Hairy Hal was the one who’d spoken. Mully helped Sam back to his feet. He blurted out thanks and hurried past them, clutching desperately at the stack of books as he made his way past the forge with its anvil and bellows. A shirt of ringmail rested on his workbench, half-completed. Ghost was stretched out beneath the anvil, gnawing on the bone of an ox to get at the marrow. The big white direwolf looked up when Sam went by, but made no sound.

A Feast for Crows – Samwell I

Later, Ghost resumes his role as protector at Jon’s side.  Jon doesn’t have a wolf dream that night because Ghost sleeps there with him.  He has a nightmare about how he forced Gilly to abandon her child to save Mance’s. 

Jon donned his cloak and strode outside. He made the rounds of Castle Black each day, visiting the men on watch and hearing their reports first hand, watching Ulmer and his charges at the archery butts, talking with king’s men and queen’s men alike, walking the ice atop the Wall to have a look at the forest. Ghost padded after him, a white shadow at his side.

[…]

Ghost slept at the foot of the bed that night, and for once Jon did not dream he was a wolf. Even so, he slept fitfully, tossing for hours before sliding down into a nightmare. Gilly was in it, weeping, pleading with him to leave her babes alone, but he ripped the children from her arms and hacked their heads off, then swapped the heads around and told her to sew them back in place.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon II

Later, he muses to Sam about the first time he saw Gilly, being cornered (possibly) by Ghost; he implies that she should have been worried about Jon.  Sam, on the other hand, thinks he meant Craster.  It highlights Jon’s empathy, even as he tries to harden himself.  

This might be another example of Jon’s overly humble self-image.  He feels he has done the only thing he could, but feels like it makes him a bad person.  Jon’s feeling of inadequacy here reminds us of his underestimating his own performance in sword fights with Qhorin and with Iron Emmett.

Jon was remembering. “The first time I saw Gilly,” he said, “she was pressed back against the wall of Craster’s Keep, this skinny dark-haired girl with her big belly, cringing away from Ghost. He had gotten in among her rabbits, and I think she was frightened that he would tear her open and devour the babe . . . but it was not the wolf she should have been afraid of, was it?”

– A Dance with Dragons – Jon II

No, Sam thought. Craster was the danger, her own father.

A Feast for Crows – Samwell I

A Dance with Dragons – Jon III

Ghost appears in Jon’s following chapter in a shadowing role.  Does this mean that there is reason to believe he might be unsafe at this point, that there is some resistance to his leadership already?  The first scene talks about Ghost’s eyes again, calling them “pools of fire.”   Jon also reflects Ghost’s taste of blood in his mouth.  Note that he seems to want to reject this part of their bond.  We’ll look for this to be a continuing theme.

He was walking beneath the shell of the Lord Commander’s Tower, past the spot where Ygritte had died in his arms, when Ghost appeared beside him, his warm breath steaming in the cold. In the moonlight, his red eyes glowed like pools of fire. The taste of hot blood filled Jon’s mouth, and he knew that Ghost had killed that night. No, he thought. I am a man, not a wolf. He rubbed his mouth with the back of a gloved hand and spat.

Cydas blinked. “A sword that makes its own heat …”

“… would be a fine thing on the Wall.” Jon put aside his wine cup and drew on his black moleskin gloves. “A pity that the sword that Stannis wields is cold. I’ll be curious to see how his Lightbringer behaves in battle. Thank you for the wine. Ghost, with me.” Jon Snow raised the hood of his cloak and pulled at the door. The white wolf followed him back into the night.

While Jon seems to have been resisting part of his bond with Ghost in the passage above, in the final paragraph of the passage that follows, he remembers that Ghost is part of him, more than a friend. Given that Ghost is in the room, the affection of the scene is touching.

Note also that Clydas seems to give Jon very strong wine, or even drugged wine in the prior quote, because in the scene to follow Jon continues to work while Ghost sleeps, but is unable to effectively write out a few simple letters.  Further, he makes one of the biggest blunders of his command at this time, sending away four of his closest friends and biggest supporters.  Clearly Jon doesn’t understand politics at all.  He should have sent away men he didn’t want!  Just kidding, but still, he truly needed these friends as his surrogates in the days and months to come.  The idea, first suggested to me by Preston Jacobs, that Clydas poisoned or drugged Jon here, causing this blunder, is highly intriguing.

[…] When he peeled off his gloves, his hands were stiff and cold. It took him a long while to get the candles lit. Ghost curled up on his rug and went to sleep, but Jon could not rest yet. The scarred pinewood table was covered with maps of the Wall and the lands beyond, a roster of rangers, and a letter from the Shadow Tower written in Ser Denys Mallister’s flowing hand.

He read the letter from the Shadow Tower again, sharpened a quill, and unstoppered a pot of thick black ink. He wrote two letters, the first to Ser Denys, the second to Cotter Pyke. Both of them had been hounding him for more men. Halder and Toad he dispatched west to the Shadow Tower, Grenn and Pyp to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. The ink would not flow properly, and all his words seemed curt and crude and clumsy, yet he persisted.

When he finally put the quill down, the room was dim and chilly, and he could feel its walls closing in. Perched above the window, the Old Bear’s raven peered down at him with shrewd black eyes. My last friend, Jon thought ruefully. And I had best outlive you, or you’ll eat my face as well. Ghost did not count. Ghost was closer than a friend. Ghost was part of him.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon III

This is a good place to stop. See you next time!

Episode 6-15: Red Light and a Mistrustful Shadow

Covering Jon and Ghost’s bond through the middle section of ADwD, especially relating to some important interactions with Melisandre.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon IV

In the next scene, Devan Seaworth is accosted by Ghost.  It is, at first, unclear why Ghost would do this.  Devan seems a nice enough lad.  Upon further inspection, there are a couple clues.  First, Devan is clearly terrified of Ghost, even without Ghost threatening him. Perhaps the boy has heard the rumors of Jon being a warg, as well, adding to that fear? Then, in real life, boys of that age who show fear in front of dogs are prime candidates to be attacked, so perhaps GRRM is riffing on that concept here too. Most importantly the stewards, chiefly Bowen Marsh, are already disillusioned with Jon’s leadership, specifically the food situation.  My opinion is that this general unrest and anger must have Ghost’s sense of danger peaking, the main reason for his showing anger.

Later, Ghost attempts to shadow Jon, which fits that explanation, but Jon commands him to stay.  Instead, he runs off.  Perhaps he went to sniff out the source of danger?  Either way, his disobedience and protective / aggressive behavior are reminiscent of Grey Wind in ASoS, which is worrisome. Jon’s choice to separate himself from the wolf is also foreshadowing “bad things” for Jon’s future.

By the time they returned to the surface, the shadows of the afternoon were growing long. Clouds streaked the sky like tattered banners, grey and white and torn. The yard outside the armory was empty, but inside Jon found the king’s squire awaiting him. Devan was a skinny lad of some twelve years, brown of hair and eye. They found him frozen by the forge, hardly daring to move as Ghost sniffed him up and down. “He won’t hurt you,” Jon said, but the boy flinched at the sound of his voice, and that sudden motion made the direwolf bare his teeth. “No!” Jon said. “Ghost, leave him be. Away.” The wolf slunk back to his ox bone, silence on four feet.

Devan looked as pale as Ghost, his face damp with perspiration. “M-my lord. His Grace c-commands your presence.” The boy was clad in Baratheon gold and black, with the flaming heart of a queen’s man sewn above his own.

[…]

[. . . ] “If it would please His Grace.” He followed the young squire back across the yard. Ghost padded after them until Jon said, “No. Stay!” Instead the direwolf ran off.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon IV

A Dance with Dragons – Jon V

In this chapter Jon declines his tail, but keeps Ghost with him as he goes about the castle. Jon refusing or underestimating his needed protection becomes a theme in this volume, dovetailing with the undercurrent of dissatisfaction in his leadership among the brothers, led by Marsh.  This is only exacerbated when he returns from the sojourn to Molestown with more wildlings to join them on the wall.

Jon washed and dressed and left the armory, stopping in the yard outside just long enough to say a few words of encouragement to Hop-Robin and Emmett’s other charges. He declined Ty’s offer of a tail, as usual. He would have men enough about him; if it came to blood, two more would hardly matter. He did take Longclaw, though, and Ghost followed at his heels.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon V

A Dance with Dragons – Jon VI

Jon again has no tail but is shadowed by Ghost when we see them next. Actually Jon was without Ghost earlier in the chapter, I assume Jon had had a wolf dream and knew the wolf was off ranging the wood, even though we don’t get the dream in the POV.  In the scene that follows, we get a very vivid mind-meld between the two when Jon makes physical contact with Ghost.  Jon’s senses of hearing and smell are suddenly augmented tenfold, but we are distracted from this by the appearance of Melisandre, who “smells warm.” Though more vivid, this is reminiscent of the time that Sansa made physical contact with the cat Balerion (which possibly was skinchanged by the Princess Rhaenys and may be the vessel for her second life.

He found Ghost outside his door, gnawing on the bone of an ox to get at the marrow. “When did you get back?” The direwolf got to his feet, abandoning the bone to come padding after Jon.

[…]

“No. I just need a breath of air.” Jon stepped out into the night. The sky was full of stars, and the wind was gusting along the Wall. Even the moon looked cold; there were goosebumps all across its face. Then the first gust caught him, slicing through his layers of wool and leather to set his teeth to chattering. He stalked across the yard, into the teeth of that wind. His cloak flapped loudly from his shoulders. Ghost came after. Where am I going? What am I doing? Castle Black was still and silent, its halls and towers dark. My seat, Jon Snow reflected. My hall, my home, my command. A ruin.

In the shadow of the Wall, the direwolf brushed up against his fingers. For half a heartbeat the night came alive with a thousand smells, and Jon Snow heard the crackle of the crust breaking on a patch of old snow. Someone was behind him, he realized suddenly. Someone who smelled warm as a summer day.

The interaction with Melisandre virtually proves my earlier suspicions that 3^rd parties can invade Ghost’s mind and affect his actions.  It starts relatively normally, with her asking to pet him. She calls him in a sing-song voices and he comes to her warily but after he smells he fingers he nuzzles her hand.  That is when everything changes.  I think the author means for us to wonder about the the change in Ghost and what caused it.  Did she affection him with her voice?  Her scent? Her mind? Or was it the physical contact?

I’d suggest that when they made physical contact, Ghost’s and Mel’s minds melded in a warging fashion, overpowering the wolf’s connection with Jon. To support my hypothesis, I need only look earlier in the chapter when Jon touched Ghost.  The author set it up extremely well.  Jon’s senses are nearly overwhelmed when he makes physical contact with Ghost.  In turn, Ghost’s connection to Jon was probably overwhelmed when the magically powerful Melisandre made contact with Ghost.

And that is exactly what I believe happened.  Melisandre temporarily blocked the bond to Ghost.  He completely ignores Jon when he calls him forward and “looked at him as if he were a stranger.”  This must have been a punch in the gut to Jon, who already doubted his own ability as a warg.  He was in disbelief. 

Nonetheless, if measured against her aim to influence Jon’s behavior, her display is ineffectual.  She tries to get Jon to embrace his identity as a warg, but he mentally resists, thinking, “I am not a wolf.”  Then she offers to help him but does it in such a creepy way that he is instead repulsed.  She also misuses her control over Ghost, draping her arm over him almost possessively.  This probably makes Jon feel threatened.

There is also another comparison between Ghost and Melisandre’s eyes (and her ruby).  To me, this is more symbolism that suggests Ghost is magically special, like a greenseer.  Further, Jon mentions Ghost’s eyes as being “blazing” at times, like Mel’s.  We have noticed that this typically accompanies determination or anger in the wolves (this is also the case with humans in this work).  In Melisandre, I’d interpret the same to be an indication of her religious zeal.  She is single minded and imperturbable, but I am not sure that is a good thing.  With Ghost it is.

“… for you are bastard born. I had not forgotten. I have seen your sister in my fires, fleeing from this marriage they have made for her. Coming here, to you. A girl in grey on a dying horse, I have seen it plain as day. It has not happened yet, but it will.” She gazed at Ghost. “May I touch your … wolf?”

The thought made Jon uneasy. “Best not.”

“He will not harm me. You call him Ghost, yes?”

“Yes, but …”

“Ghost.” Melisandre made the word a song.

The direwolf padded toward her. Wary, he stalked about her in a circle, sniffing. When she held out her hand he smelled that too, then shoved his nose against her fingers.

Jon let out a white breath. “He is not always so …”

“… warm? Warmth calls to warmth, Jon Snow.” Her eyes were two red stars, shining in the dark. At her throat, her ruby gleamed, a third eye glowing brighter than the others. Jon had seen Ghost’s eyes blazing red the same way, when they caught the light just right.

“Ghost,” he called. “To me.”

The direwolf looked at him as if he were a stranger.

Jon frowned in disbelief. “That’s … queer.”

“You think so?” She knelt and scratched Ghost behind his ear. “Your Wall is a queer place, but there is power here, if you will use it. Power in you, and in this beast. You resist it, and that is your mistake. Embrace it. Use it.”

I am not a wolf, he thought. “And how would I do that?”

“I can show you.” Melisandre draped one slender arm over Ghost, and the direwolf licked her face. “The Lord of Light in his wisdom made us male and female, two parts of a greater whole. In our joining there is power. Power to make life. Power to make light. Power to cast shadows.”

“Shadows.” The world seemed darker when he said it.

– A Dance with Dragons – Jon VI

To me, that passage is clear incontrovertible proof that Ghost can be manipulated telepathically by those who are magically strong.  Ghost disobeying and acting as if he doesn’t know Jon is what you might call a smoking gun.  It also makes our earlier assertions and speculation about 3^rd party meddling with Ghost feel that much more plausible.

A Dance with Dragons – Melisandre I

Melisandre is the POV for our next scene with Jon and Ghost.  We learn many things from her in this chapter, the first, and most powerful of which is her vision where she sees Jon as a man, then as a wolf, then a man again.  After that she sees danger to him, from enemies “daggers in the dark.”  To me, the latter vision clearly foreshadows his death in ADwD – Jon XIII, while the former relates to what happens after his death, namely that the man goes into his wolf to begin his second life inside Ghost.  Mel also thinks that he then becomes a man again, and this seems to foreshadow his resurrection, that he goes back into his body. I believe that we are quickly gathering the facts that are key to understanding the mystery of how that is possible.

The flames crackled softly, and in their crackling she heard the whispered name Jon Snow. His long face floated before her, limned in tongues of red and orange, appearing and disappearing again, a shadow half-seen behind a fluttering curtain. Now he was a man, now a wolf, now a man again. But the skulls were here as well, the skulls were all around him. Melisandre had seen his danger before, had tried to warn the boy of it. Enemies all around him, daggers in the dark. He would not listen.

Next we have another potential instance of meddling in Ghost’s actions.  When Jon is surveying the heads of three murdered rangers (men he sent himself), Ghost sniffs the spears and then pisses on them.  Jon decides that Ghost decided they couldn’t be tracked.  You, know nothing, Jon Snow.  What Ghost really did was make sure that hounds couldn’t be used to track the wildling murderers that delivered the heads on spikes. Given our proof of the ability to meddle in Ghost’s actions from the prior chapter, I am very suspicious of Ghost’s actions here.  There are any number of people did not want Jon to send anyone out on such a mission (very sensible), so I am not interested in discern who may have meddled in Ghost’s mind here, but it’s clear that Ghost took the decision out of Jon’s hands here, possibly some puppetmaster.

It is, of course, possible Ghost sensed danger and acted alone to protect Jon.  To believe this, we’d have to believe he acted alone and on purpose when he outed his location to the the boys who were chasing him the night he tried to desert as well, for instance.  Conversely, I am not sure if I am ready to ascribe that amount of intelligence to a wolf, yet.

“No,” said Jon Snow. “They left their gifts in the black of night, then ran.” His huge white direwolf prowled around the shafts, sniffing, then lifted his leg and pissed on the spear that held the head of Black Jack Bulwer. “Ghost would have their scent if they were still out there.”

Regardless of potential meddling, I suppose that we can take solace from the fact that Ghost is in place as Jon’s protector in this scene.  Unfortunately, that changes as they go b ack through the wall to Castle Black where Jon chooses to send the shadowing Ghost away with Edd.

As they walked beneath the Wall, she slipped her arm through his. Morgan and Merrel went before them, Ghost came prowling at their heels. The priestess did not speak, but she slowed her pace deliberately, and where she walked the ice began to drip. He will not fail to notice that.

[…]

“Lord Snow,” Melisandre said quietly. “Will you come with me to the King’s Tower? I have more to share with you.”

He looked at her face for a long moment with those cold grey eyes of his. His right hand closed, opened, closed again. “As you wish. Edd, take Ghost back to my chambers.“

– A Dance with Dragons – Melisandre I

Why send him away, Jon?  Hasn’t she given you enough reason to keep your wolf close?

A Dance with Dragons – Jon VII

This chapter is very dense with symbolism, and direwolf interaction.  It starts with Ghost being a wolf, it’s interesting how he loves fresh-fallen snow.  One might assume this is about grooming, the freshest snow might be best for cleaning his fur.  Is there something symbolic about this?  I wonder if this scene is an analog the cleansing that Dany experienced in her second dragon dream.

Jon decides to take him north of the wall to swear in the new recruits.  A good choice, considering the prior visit to that Weirwood grove.  The 2 journeys are very much paralleled up to and including the fact that 2 bodies are founds and brought back because of this ranging as well.  Again, Ghost goes off as they near the forest, presumed to be hunting, but he may sense danger and is investigating it; he seemed to smell something.

At the base of the Wall he found Ghost rolling in a snowbank. The big white direwolf seemed to love fresh snow. When he saw Jon he bounded back onto his feet and shook himself off. Dolorous Edd said, “He’s going with you?”

“He is.”

[…]

“I have something they did not.” Jon turned his head and whistled. “Ghost. To me.” The direwolf shook the snow from his back and trotted to Jon’s side. The rangers parted to let him through, though one mare whinnied and shied away till Rory gave her reins a sharp tug. “The Wall is yours, Lord Bowen.” He took his horse by the bridle and walked him to the gate and the icy tunnel that snaked beneath the Wall.

Beyond the ice, the trees stood tall and silent, huddled in the thick white cloaks. Ghost stalked beside Jon’s horse as the rangers and recruits formed up, then stopped and sniffed, his breath frosting in the air. “What is it?” Jon asked. “Is someone there?” The woods were empty as far as he could see, but that was not very far.

Ghost bounded toward the trees,  slipped between two white-cloaked pines, and vanished in a cloud of snow. He wants to hunt, but what? Jon did not fear for the direwolf so much as for any wildlings he might encounter. A white wolf in a white wood, silent as a shadow. They will never know he’s coming. He knew better than to go chasing him. Ghost would return when he wanted to and not before. […]

Jon had also smartly sent out scouts, as Tom Barleycorn seems to have ridden ahead.  Jon smelled him, then clearly recognized that it was actually Ghost’s sense of smell he was using, and it was happening a lot!  This is the strongest waking instance of mind meld between Ghost and Jon without them being in physical contact.  Clearly the bond is still strengthening.  As they enter the glad to encircle the wildlings, Ghost is shadowing Jon to make sure he is safe in the confrontation.  Jon again noticed Ghost’s weirwood symbolism, too.

Jon smelled Tom Barleycorn before he saw him. Or was it Ghost who smelled him? Of late, Jon Snow sometimes felt as if he and the direwolf were one, even awake. The great white wolf appeared first, shaking off the snow. A few moments later Tom was there. “Wildlings,” he told Jon, softly. “In the grove.”

[…]

Ahead he glimpsed a pale white trunk that could only be a weirwood, crowned with a head of dark red leaves. Jon Snow reached back and pulled Longclaw from his sheath. He looked to right and left, gave Satin and Horse a nod, watched them pass it on to the men beyond. They rushed the grove together, kicking through drifts of old snow with no sound but their breathing. Ghost ran with them, a white shadow at Jon’s side.

The weirwoods rose in a circle around the edges of the clearing. There were nine, all roughly of the same age and size. Each one had a face carved into it, and no two faces were alike. Some were smiling, some were screaming, some were shouting at him. In the deepening glow their eyes looked black, but in daylight they would be blood-red, Jon knew. Eyes like Ghost’s.

Jon and Ghost make physical contact twice in the next scene.  First, he holds the wolf back as they play it safe with Wun Wun, the giant.  There is nothing special about this interaction, but the second time is more intimate.  Ghost nuzzles Jon and the man drapes his arm over the wolf in a very similar fashion to Melisandre’s scene with Ghost not long ago.

This time, he seems to share Ghost’s sense of smell and sight, and I think he even shares Ghost’s thoughts, “all he saw was men.”  He no longer thinks of the wildlings as enemies, as he had done for most of ASoS.  This concept of empathy for and identification with the “free folk” seems to be something that Ghost helped him to fully realize (as well as Ygritte, and to a smaller extent, Mance, Tormund, and Qhorin).

This is also why his black brothers are now working steadfastly toward his downfall.  Unfortunately, he didn’t learn the basic leadership skill of communication with your men for the sake of fostering understanding to naturally raise moral.  Throughout this volume, all his entreaties that the wildlings were men, as he sees so clearly through Ghost’s eyes, were always given to his deputies.  These deputies disagreed with Jon and would NEVER have shared Jon’s views with their underlings, and Jon never made the case for common cause with the wildlings directly to his men.  It made for terrible morale and set the stage for the bloodbath that probably came with Jon’s stabbing later.

Ghost showed his teeth in answer. Jon grabbed the wolf by the scruff of the neck. “We want no battle here.” His men could bring the giant down, he knew, but not without cost. Once blood was shed, the wildlings would join the fray. Most or all would die here, and some of his own brothers too. “This is a holy place. Yield, and we—”

[…]

“I am the sword in the darkness,” said the six, and it seemed to Jon as though their voices were changing, growing stronger, more certain. “I am the watcher on the walls. I am 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.”

The shield that guards the realms of men. Ghost nuzzled up against his shoulder, and Jon draped an arm around him. He could smell Horse’s unwashed breeches, the sweet scent Satin combed into his beard, the rank sharp smell of fear, the giant’s overpowering musk. He could hear the beating of his own heart. When he looked across the grove at the woman with her child, the two greybeards, the Hornfoot man with his maimed feet, all he saw was men.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon VII

Clearly from the last interaction with Ghost, we can conclude that Jon is getting very close to being able to fully warg Ghost. 

And with that, we’ll conclude this Episode. I look forward to next time!

Episode 6-16 – Daggers in the Dark, The Lone Wolf Dies

…covering Jon and Ghost in their final chapters in ADwD.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon VIII

He seems to be dreaming inside Ghost a lot, given passages like what follows, although the author cleverly hides it by only mentioning Ghost’s actions from the dreams without actually mentioning wolf dreams. How else would Jon know how far he goes to hunt? Unfortunately, Ghost goes too far to hunt, which means he’s not around to guard Jon for large patches of time. This is … not good, … bad things.

It was still dark when Jon returned to his chambers behind the armory. Ghost was not yet back, he saw. Still hunting. The big white direwolf was gone more oft than not of late, ranging farther and farther in search of prey. Between the men of the Watch and the wildlings down in Mole’s Town, the hills and fields near Castle Black had been hunted clean, and there had been little enough game to begin with. Winter is coming, Jon reflected. And soon, too soon. He wondered if they would ever see a spring.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon VIII

A Dance with Dragons – Jon X

Ghost is shadowing Jon when he greets Selyse, who dislikes Ghost (which may be important later).  Doubtless she heard the rumors that he is a warg at Eastwatch, and all sorts of other slander. 

Jon crossed to Queen Selyse, with Ghost beside him. His boots crunched through piles of old snow.

[…]

The queen glanced at Ghost suspiciously, then raised her head to Jon. “To be sure. Lady Melisandre knows the way.”

A Dance with Dragons – Jon X

Melisandre again urges him to keep the wolf close.  Clearly, she is not of a mind with the queen on the value of the wolf.  Jon brushes her off saying he’s always around.  We know from the last several chapters how untrue this is.  Jon is in denial of the danger to himself, despite his immediate predecessor being killed by his own men.

“You would do well to keep your wolf beside you, my lord.“

“Ghost is seldom far.” The direwolf raised his head at the sound of his name. Jon scratched him behind the ears. “But now you must excuse me. Ghost, with me.“

[…]

Others ha d heard it too. The music and the laughter died at once. Dancers froze in place, listening. Even Ghost pricked up his ears. “Did you hear that?” Queen Selyse asked her knights.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon X

Looking back at the last passage, I wonder if Jon heard the horn through Ghost’s ears.  If George intended that after all the sharing of senses in the last few chapters it would be very cool subtle writing to just mention the wolf’s ears here in passing.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon XI

In the next passage, Ghost runs off when the wildlings come to negotiate the passage through the wall.  Clearly, he senses no threat from them.  Jon even thinks he doesn’t need any protection but him.  True enough, you can definitely trust him, at least when their minds are melded.  And Ghost trusts Val, given how he arrives back with her.  Jon’s silent comparison between them is interesting and their flirtation reflect Ghosts easiness with the woman.  This underscores her importance in the TWoW scenes that will come, when Jon’s consciousness will be inside Ghost.

[…] (Gareth) and Leathers were the only men Jon had brought with him to the parley; any more might have been seen as a sign of fear, and twenty men would have been of no more use than two if Tormund had been intent on blood. Ghost was the only protection Jon needed; the direwolf could sniff out foes, even those who hid their enmity behind smiles.

Ghost was gone, though. Jon peeled off one black glove, put two fingers in his mouth, and whistled. “Ghost! To me.“

From above came the sudden sound of wings. Mormont’s raven flapped from a limb of an old oak to perch upon Jon’s saddle. “Corn,” it cried. “Corn, corn, corn.”

“Did you follow me as well?” Jon reached to shoo the bird away but ended up stroking its feathers. The raven cocked its eye at him. “Snow,” it muttered, bobbing its head knowingly. Then Ghost emerged from between two trees, with Val beside him.

They look as though they belong together. Val was clad all in white; white woolen breeches tucked into high boots of bleached white leather, white bearskin cloak pinned at the shoulder with a carved weirwood face, white tunic with bone fastenings. Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue, her long braid the color of dark honey, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. It had been a long while since Jon Snow had seen a sight so lovely.

Have you been trying to steal my wolf?” he asked her.

“Why not? If every woman had a direwolf, men would be much sweeter. Even crows.”

Next, we revert to two of our direwolf themes.  Jon has an affectionate moment with Ghost.  We can imagine that his senses are augmented through the bond during this, as he continues to converse with Val.  Then as they ride back to Castle Black, Ghost resumes his role as a sentry.  This probably indicates a higher threat level in the castle.

As Jon scratched Ghost behind the ear, Toregg brought up Val’s horse for her. She still rode the grey garron that Mully had given her the day she left the Wall, a shaggy, stunted thing blind in one eye. As she turned it toward the Wall, she asked, “How fares the little monster?”

[…]

They rode the rest of the way in silence, Ghost loping at their heels. Mormont’s raven followed them as far as the gate, then flapped upward as the rest of them dismounted. […]

Earlier I mentioned that Selyse mislikes Ghost.  This becomes a threat in the next passage, as her guards forbid him to be in her presence.  Ghost is separated from Jon because of it.  He is then missing again, probably hunting, when Jon returns, compounding the danger.

It was all that Jon could do not to laugh. Stone-faced, he told the knight that they required audience with the queen. Ser Patrek sent one of the men-at-arms scrambling up the steps to inquire as to whether Her Grace would receive them. “The wolf stays here, though,” Ser Patrek insisted.

Jon had expected that. The direwolf made Queen Selyse anxious, almost as much as Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun. “Ghost, stay.”

[…]

Ghost was gone again. The sun was low in the west. A cup of hot spiced wine would serve me well just now. Two cups would serve me even better. But that would have to wait. He had foes to face. Foes of the worst sort: brothers.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon XI

I’ll put a bow on my thought for this chapter with a tinfoil alert, in coming interactions with Val in TWoW and the scene we just reviewed, let’s not underestimate the significance of Ghost’s power to reach out telepathically. We saw it in his first scene in AGoT, and we saw it in ACoK in the wolf dream and when Ghost went up the hill in ASoS before Jon crosses the wall. We’ve also seen many instances of Ghost projecting feelings, especially hunger. I think it possible that he/Jon uses his connection to Val and maybe Mel in the coming crisis to call them to him. 

A Dance with Dragons – Jon XII

Separation. That is the elephant in the room. Given the evidence of the threat at Castle Block, the risk every time they are separated is now critical. Ghost was separated from Jon for two different reasons in the prior chapter, Selyse and hunting.  They can also be separated at Jon’s whim or manipulation by his brothers.  Then in the next chapter we add one more reason for them to be separated, the threat of a clash between him and the boar belonging to Borroq, the skinchanger.   Combined, these reasons for separation eventually hit a breaking point spelling disaster, as our direwolf theme has predicted all along (well it was developed in hindsight, but still).

Before the boar, though, Jon gives Tormund a bit more reason to respect him, theatrically calling Ghost and spooking the big man’s horse.   The episode requires coordination from Ghost, which their tight bond enables.  The boar appears a bit later, twice Ghost’s size, and a true threat.  It’s too bad that Jon didn’t trust his bond with Ghost enough to forego an entanglement. If he had, Ghost would have obeyed Jon solely based upon Jon’s force of will. Our author has other plans.  He has Jon agree to tie Ghost up.  Big mistake.

That is a lesson I would sooner they never learned. Jon peeled the glove off his burned hand, put two fingers in his mouth, and whistled. Ghost came racing from the gate. Tormund’s horse shied so hard that the wildling almost lost his saddle. “Naught to be feared?” Jon said. “Ghost, stay.”

[…]

Amongst the riders came one man afoot, with some big beast trotting at his heels. A boar, Jon saw. A monstrous boar. Twice the size of Ghost, the creature was covered with coarse black hair, with tusks as long as a man’s arm. Jon had never seen a boar so huge or ugly. The man beside him was no beauty either; hulking, black-browed, he had a flat nose, heavy jowls dark with stubble, small black close-set eyes.

“Borroq.” Tormund turned his head and spat.

“A skinchanger.” It was not a question. Somehow he knew.

Ghost turned his head. The falling snow had masked the boar’s scent, but now the white wolf had the smell. He padded out in front of Jon, his teeth bared in a silent snarl.

“No!” Jon snapped. “Ghost, down. Stay. Stay!”

“Boars and wolves,” said Tormund. “Best keep that beast o’ yours locked up tonight. I’ll see that Borroq does the same with his pig.” He glanced up at the darkening sky. “Them’s the last, and none too soon. It’s going to snow all night, I feel it. Time I had a look at what’s on t’other side of all that ice.”

A Dance with Dragons – Jon XII

Looking back at the passage, if Ghost were going to attack the beast, he would have done it right there and then.  He didn’t; he instead adopted a defensive posture so as to protect Jon, nothing more.  He wasn’t aggressive beyond a projection of strength in his snarl, showing the beast that he is a threat too.  Jon should have taken the clue here and maintained Ghost as a constant presence, in accordance with Mel’s repeated advice.  Unfortunately, he followed Tormund’s terrible advice instead.

A Dance with Dragons – Jon XIII

As we see in the next scene, Melisandre is apoplectic at Jon’s ideas about Ghost and the boar, but Unfortunately his mind is up, and Ghost remains tied up both because of the boar and Selyse.

“It is those duties I would speak of.” She made her way down, the hem of her scarlet skirts swishing over the steps. It almost seemed as if she floated. “Where is your direwolf?“

“Asleep in my chambers. Her Grace does not allow Ghost in her presence. She claims he scares the princess. And so long as Borroq and his boar are about, I dare not let him loose.” […] “That thing is the size of a bull, with tusks as long as swords. Ghost would go after him if he were loose, and one or both of them would not survive the meeting.”

“Borroq is the least of your concerns. This ranging …”

In the following scene, Ghost gives any one with eyes a huge clue to everyone that he senses mortal danger for Jon. His behavior to Mully and then Bowen and Othell is beyond anything that we’ve ever seen from him. Jon, blind, doesn’t see it.  It is weird hos he can’t feel the truth through the bond. He still blames Ghost’s agitation on the boar. In Jon’s defense, he probably knows for sure, through the bond, that Ghost truly can smell the boar, but I don’t believe for a minute that this is the reason he attacked Mully or threatened Marsh / Yarwyck. The only satisfying explanation is that Mully and Bowen at least were in on the plot to assassinate Jon. Jon even thinks how much he needs better men that these, but still doesn’t recognize the threats they pose.  Even the raven is freaked out, showing the lie to Jon’s thoughts.

It all adds up to Jon being unable to think clearly and causing him to ask for mulled wine.  Sadly, it seems that Clydas has been brewing very strong or potentially narcotic-laced wine (see Preston Jacobs Daggers for Jon theory on this), so Jon’s senses and wits seem to steadily degrade through the rest of the chapter.  I do wonder if Jon’s use of Clydas’s mulled wine is partly so that he can dull the bond to Ghost and the heightened senses that go along with it.  I admit that when I learned as a kid how much better hearing and sense of smell canines have, I wondered how they process all the extra information.  It would be no easy task for the human mind to sort through it all.

Mully agreed. “He tried to take a bite o’ me, he did.”

“Ghost?” Jon was shocked.

“Unless your lordship has some other white wolf, aye. I never seen him like this, m’lord. All wild-like, I mean.“

He was not wrong, as Jon discovered for himself when he slipped inside the doors. The big white direwolf would not lie still. He paced from one end of the armory to the other, past the cold forge and back again. “Easy, Ghost,” Jon called. “Down. Sit, Ghost. Down.” Yet when he made to touch him, the wolf bristled and bared his teeth. It’s that bloody boar. Even in here, Ghost can smell his stink.

Mormont’s raven seemed agitated too. “Snow,” the bird kept screaming. “Snow, snow, snow.” Jon shooed him off, had Satin start a fire, then sent him out after Bowen Marsh and Othell Yarwyck. “Bring a flagon of mulled wine as well.”

[…]

Satin helped them back into their cloaks. As they walked through the armory, Ghost sniffed at them, his tail upraised and bristling. My brothers. The Night’s Watch needed leaders with the wisdom of Maester Aemon, the learning of Samwell Tarly, the courage of Qhorin Halfhand, the stubborn strength of the Old Bear, the compassion of Donal Noye. What it had instead was them.

After the meeting, Jon makes his fateful and final decision to separate himself from Ghost, and he has to do it bodily.  Ghost is determined to protect Jon.  His disobedience is a dead giveaway that something is gravely wrong.  Ghost can take some solace from Ned’s words to Ser Barristan, he can’t protect Jon from himself.  He is still thinking about the stupid boar, the one Mel said was “the least of his concerns.”   Jon’s logic is wrong here, too.  Why should the Lord Commander sequester his wolf for the sake of the wildling of no special account.  Is he drunk?

Horse and Rory had replaced Fulk and Mully at the armory door with the change of watch. “With me,” Jon told them, when the time came. Ghost would have followed as well, but as the wolf came padding after them, Jon grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and wrestled him back inside. Borroq might be amongst those gathering at the Shieldhall. The last thing he needed just now was his wolf savaging the skinchanger’s boar.

No, Jon, the last thing you need is to be stabbed to death, but that happens after said meeting in the Shieldhall.  When Bowen Marsh predictably stabbed Jon, I must admit that my first thought was that he fell to the same mistakes that Robb did.  He ignored his wolf after making a botch of the politics around him and paid the price.  Also like Robb, his last words were his wolf’s name.

We discussed in part 2-4 how I think that as Robb’s body died, his consciousness started to flow into his direwolf, Grey Wind right around the time Robb uttered “Grey Wind.” I feel the same happens in this scene with Ghost and Jon.

… away, he meant to say. When Wick Whittlestick slashed at his throat, the word turned into a grunt. Jon twisted from the knife, just enough so it barely grazed his skin. He cut me. When he put his hand to the side of his neck, blood welled between his fingers. “Why?”

“For the Watch.” Wick slashed at him again. This time Jon caught his wrist and bent his arm back until he dropped the dagger. The gangling steward backed away, his hands upraised as if to say, Not me, it was not me. Men were screaming. Jon reached for Longclaw, but his fingers had grown stiff and clumsy. Somehow he could not seem to get the sword free of its scabbard.

Then Bowen Marsh stood there before him, tears running down his cheeks. “For the Watch.” He punched Jon in the belly. When he pulled his hand away, the dagger stayed where he had buried it.

Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger’s hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. “Ghost,” he whispered. Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold …

A Dance with Dragons – Jon XIII

That is the end of our interactions with Jon and Ghost in the published work. Next time, we’ll turn to what everyone seems to think will happen in “The Winds of Winter,” Jon starting his “second life” inside Ghost and eventually being resurrected. I have many thoughts, and I look forward to sharing them in the final video of “The Direwolves of Winterfell”

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The Direwolves of Winterfell Episode 6-17 – Epilogue: Jon’s Second and Third Life

Now we’ll turn to what everyone seems to think will happen next: Jon starting his “second life” inside Ghost, before eventually being resurrected back into his own body. It is foreshadowed in Melisandre’s POV:

His long face floated before her, limned in tongues of red and orange, appearing and disappearing again, a shadow half-seen behind a fluttering curtain. Now he was a man, now a wolf, now a man again. But the skulls were here as well, the skulls were all around him.

A Dance with Dragons – Melisandre I

So Mel says he’ll be a man, then a wolf, then a man again. I, like many that that passage combined with the information about the “second life” from Varamyr’s prologue chapter together hint that Jon’s becoming a wolf happens when he speaks the name “Ghost” while his body is dying in his final POV chapter. From the Prologue:

Haggon’s rough voice echoed in his head. “You will die a dozen deaths, boy, and every one will hurt … but when your true death comes, you will live again. The second life is simpler and sweeter, they say.”

A Dance With Dragons – Prologue

… later …

Varamyr could feel the snowflakes melting on his brow. This is not so bad as burning. Let me sleep and never wake, let me begin my second life. His wolves were close now. He could feel them. He would leave this feeble flesh behind, become one with them, hunting the night and howling at the moon. The warg would become a true wolf.

A Dance With Dragons – Prologue

There is one other thing that ties the passages of Jon and Varamyr’s deaths: In the Prologue, as Varamyr leaves his body, he “was rising, melting, his spirit borne on some cold wind.” This seems a parallel to the last line of Jon’s story as he presumably also leaves his body. When as he’s stabbed for the fourth time, he doesn’t feel it, “only the cold.”  If you didn’t catch that, the cold is what their deaths have in common.

We also see a parallel in Jon and Robb’s deaths, where both speak their wolves’ names as their last words. Again, like many, I consider the use of the boys’ wolves names to be evidence that they are about to spend their “second life” in those wolves. While Robb’s second life would have been very short, since Grey Wind is immediately killed, Jon’s soul will travel into Ghost, where he will remain for a quite a while before eventually being resurrected.

There are a myriad ideas as to how he is resurrected and what he will be like afterward. Some think he will be changed a lot, like how Lady Stoneheart is only a shadow of her former self after Beric brings her back. Other people think that his magical experience will cause him to transform into a more magical being, sort of “level up” to use gamer talk. Some also think he’ll be more “wolfish.” I believe more in that latter 2 ideas to a certain extent. We know from out study of Bran and Summer that extended periods of time in the wolf help the warg to embrace the magic, but also to think more like a wolf.

I’ll also note that there is a similar resurrection in the Farseer series by Robin Hobb, a fantasy author that GRRM greatly admires. In that book, after spending several days in his wolf, the character is returned to his body, which had been buried earlier that day (disinterred the same night). In that book, it takes the hero many months to feel again like a human. and he never was the same. Jon may experience something similar.

I do think that Jon will pay some price for this initial death, in any case; he will certainly not be the same exact character upon his return to his body. Perhaps his body will also have some debilitating issues. We know that cold wights and fire wights don’t really have flowing blood, so they don’t really respire like true humans. It is my firm hope that Jon’s body will be something more after his resurrection, truly a living body, somehow restored of his lost blood, flowing again. The only mechanism for this is transfusion (blood sacrifice?) after his body is warmed following being frozen quickly upon his death. “Cold preserves,” as we know. All of this is potentially feasible… The stab wound to the gut sure is a problem though… oof… maybe he got lucky and nothing critical was punctured?

Setting that aside, there is also the complication of whether it is possible for Jon’s soul to escape Ghost’s body back into his own. I believe that our study of Ghost and his actions throughout the story give some pretty good clues to that, but first, let’s study Varamyr’s thoughts related to that concept.

He thinks his “second life” will be the limit, that once he goes into that vessel, he’ll die for real once it dies. Note that the vessel Varamyr finally goes into is his wolf One-Eye, but prior to that, he tries to take over the body of the wildling Thistle. While it would be cool for a skinchanger to flip from one body to the next, and then to the next endlessly, I think our author has set bounds to limit this from happening, save in a few special cases. The key passage to understanding the limit to second lives is when he contemplates taking Thistle’s body:

His gift would perish with his body, he expected. He would lose his wolves, and live out the rest of his days as some scrawny, warty woman … but he would live.

A Dance With Dragons – Prologue

Note that he explicitly ties the gift (his ability to skinchange) to his own body, not to his consciousness. Well… that makes me think that in cases where a skinchanger starts their second life in a body that also had “the gift”, that a third life is possible. In Jon’s case, I believe that this third life would be in his own resurrected body, after having spent a short second life inside Ghost. Some in the fandom, like David Lightbringer, suggest that Ghost needs to be sacrificed for Jon to escape the vessel of Ghost’s body. I firmly reject this, nor do I expect it (although I wouldn’t put it past the author to have Mel do this misguidedly, tragically, and ironically).

I believe I’ve made a very strong case in this series that Ghost possesses a body that has, in Varamyr’s terms “the gift,” or in Mel’s terms, kingsblood.” Ghost, is more than just a direwolf, he is a creature of magic. The red eyes gave it away; the telepathic communication at his first contact with Jon gives it away, and myriad other examples we have covered give it away. That’s right. One of the keys to Jon becoming wolf, then going back to being a man is that Ghost is the equivalent of a greenseer direwolf. Jon can jump back to his own body using Ghost’s gift.

I’ve been working toward this moment through 6 essays and 124,829 words to tell you this one thing… that Jon can have a third life because he is living his second life in the telepathically gifted Ghost, who is capable of his own second life.  <<drops mic>>. Oops, I dropped my mic…

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Now, that was not the only reason I wrote all these essays, and it certainly was not the only thing I learned about direwolves and skinchanging while on this exploration. I know some things. But to prove that Ghost has a greenseer level of the magical gift was the most important part of this whole adventure. I think that we’ve learned that Ghost is definitely much more capable than his siblings (with the possible exception of Shaggy, for whom we have such limited information) in telepathic ability. As to my hypothesis that it is because of his eyes, I can’t say for sure. I can say that it was either a genetic gift tied to his eye color or a genetic gift that is tied to him being an albino. We don’t have enough information to discern the genetic cause.

Either way, we’ve proven Ghost can communicate telepathically much more strongly than Summer or Nymeria. I think the evidence shows that he can reach out telepathically to humans in the same way that human skinchangers reach out telepathically to other beasts. While Bran and Summer’s bond is currently the strongest pair studied, seemingly because of Bran’s gift being stronger, Ghost’s power leaves open the potential for his bond to Jon to rival Bran and Summer’s as the story continues to develop.

Other than Ghost’s telepathic gift being stronger, he exhibits all the same direwolf themes as the others, mirroring, shadowing, obedience, ferocity and inspiring fear, bad things happening when away from his Stark, and affection when near.  Specific to Ghost, we saw his theme of silence over and over again and some evidence that he may to be prone to manipulation by 3^rd parties.  We did not uncover a lot of evidence of this in his packmates, although maybe we would if we had looked more closely for it.

The only thing that is left to discuss in this episode is to contemplate how Jon will be resurrected. The fandom has various theories on this. Most probably think Melisandre will resurrect him one way or another. Some have suggested that the others also might also be part of reanimating his body as a cold wight. Some also think that Bran or someone might be part of it. I can’t be sure, but since I want Jon to have flowing blood, I favor the latter, knowing the examples we have for cold and fire wights not having flowing blood. My own personal speculation is that Mel might try some kind of sacrifice, and Jon, as Ghost, seeing this, might willingly return to his body to try to avert her plan (especially since ghost can’t speak…, his theme of silence returning).

And with that that we are done with direwolf bonds!

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What else is coming for the Green Bard? Well, I do have more direwolf covers coming. Plus, I’ll finish my series on Dany and her dragons, of course. I’ll also continue my kingsblood series, focusing on Targaryens, given the advent of the HBO series House of the Dragon. Speaking of, I’ll probably start covering that series too. Then, I also have some more tinfoil and music percolating. Watch out for it!

Thanks to everyone who has been helping me along the way, including artists, family and other YouTubers and members of the fandom. Please subscribe to me here, and on twitter, reddit, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, Myspace, Friendster, BobZilla BBS, or wherever you get your social media.  If you really like my work, please consider joining my Patreon supporters! Peace!

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Shout-out and attribution as always goes to those who’ve gone before me with some of the theories that I am subconsciously building upon here, including:

u/LoveMeSexyJesus who posted https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/3gjex7/the_relationship_between_the_stark_children_and/

u/RockyRockington who posted https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/aivijc/spoilers_extended_a_theory_about_ghost_and/

u/mumamahesh for his posts related to Ghost.

u/PrestonJacobs and all his videos related to this topic.

David Lightbringer for his symbolic analysis of these topics.

See you soon!