Jon XIII

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Lord Commander Jon Snow and Ghost

Jon is pleading Selyse to help him with Hardhome and grant him some men, but Selyse declines all his asking by demanding that he simply let the wildlings die. When Jon says that he will do the ranging himself then she lets him, but tells him that he will have to answer for it and other things once Stannis is back. She then summons "the king of the wildlings", which turns out to be Gerrick Redbeard, a far descendant of Raymun Readbeard. His daughters are to be married to knights of Selyse's court, and she demands that Val marries Ser Patrek, but Jon simply deflects it by saying that he needs to rob her then after wildling custom. Selyse's answer is to summon Val to teach her the proper behavings of a lady, and Jon is dismissed.

Angrily, he makes his way to his chambers. Out of the court, he encounters Melisandre, but he doesn't want to speak with her, accusing her of all her prophecies being wrong. She asks after Ghost, whom Jon has locked up in his rooms since Borroq's boar seems to make him mad. She also says the ranging is a bad idea, and that she saw in the fires that all ships were lost, but Jon turns her down and goes to the armory. On the way he seeks out Leathers, with whom he has a short discussion about how many men they should take and where the advantages of either approach lie. He gets a report that Ghost is wild, even biting the stewards, which disturbs Jon deeply.
In the armory, where he can see that the report wasn't false since Ghost is really restless, he thinks about the right route to Hardhome, concluding that going along the coast, starting at Eastwatch, is the best way and would secure them the help of giants. Shortly after, Othell Yarwick and Bowen Marsh come to discuss further strategy, but both only complain about the wildlings and point out potential dangers, advising him to let them all die. He dismisses them in despair and goes out, where the snow has blown up on the Wall, and commands the cells to be dug free and Karstark to be brought in the cellars of the Lord Commander's tower so he doesn't die.
He meets Tormund, who mocks Gerrick Redbeard, and discusses the ranging with him when a messenger from Clydas comes to tell him of a letter he needs to see. The wildlings and Jon trade some wise words before Jon departs into the armory, where a letter sealed with pink wax and the word "Bastard" written on it is waiting for him. It is from Ramsay, who claims to have defeated Stannis in a seven-day-battle and taken his sword. Mance Rayder he demasked and put in a cage, warmed only by the skins of his six spear wives. He demands that Jon gives over Selyse, Shireen, Val, Monster and Theon to him, or he would come and cut his heart out. Jon reads the letter to Tormung, and then they talk for two hours.
After, Jon goes to the Shieldhall, where wildlings and brothers wait for the orders for the ranging to Hardhome. Ghost wants to follow, but Jon locks him in, so he doesn't attack Borroq. In the hall, Jon announces that Tormund will lead the ranging instead of him, reads the letter and states that he will ride to Winterfell. He will not command anyone to come with him, but take volunteers. The wildlings in the hall volunteer, the brothers and queen's men leave. Before anything more can happen, news drag him outside, where Wun Wun is currently killing Ser Patrek, who seems to have attacked him. Jon tries to defuse the situation when Whick Wittlefield stabs him in the neck. Before Jon can get his sword out, Bowen Marsh stabs him in the bowels. Jon falls to his knees, is stabbed in the shoulders and loses consciousness.
This chapter was surely the Red Wedding of this book. When I read it the first time, I was horrified. Like with the Red Wedding, all the elements were in place long before, carefully sowed over the book, but you don't really recognize them until it hits you in the face.When Jon then is finally stabbed to his seeming death, it comes out of nowhere, punching you. Now, in the reread, you see the signs everywhere. It's like Tywin's battles won with ink - a meaningless remark on the first read, ripe with looming doom when you read it again. The chapter of course is the one chapter standing out of the book, leaving the most questions and the most awful cliffhanger.

The first matter to discuss is, of course, Jon's fate. Is he dead? There are basically three possibilities how it can go. First, Martin really killed Jon off, he's dead and the Night's Watch goes to hell. This is possible, but not very likely. Second, Jon is not dead, but mortally wounded. SInce Tormund, Melisandre and others came out of the hall after him, they could have secured him after the fourth step, and Melisandre worked some magic or stuff that saved him. Or, third possibility, and the most likely, Jon is dead and will return somehow. For the latter, there are again basically three possibilities. The first is that Jon will return as an Other, turning the story somewhat upside down. Second, he is kissed back to life by Melisandre like it was done by Thoros. Or third, he wargs into Ghost, and instead of leading a second life like Varamyr, he somehow returns into his body.

I strongly opt for the last opportunity. I think that the basic outlay was done for that, especially in Melisandre's vision of "man becomes wolf becomes man again". The concept of skinchanging in general was very much emphazised in the book, and we also learned that Jon has really strong capabilities, although denied and undeveloped. So he might be of a level with Bran, therefore able to do some serious stuff. I would guess that we get another POV chapter for Jon in the next book, starting from Ghost's perspective and flying over the Heart of Winter or something before returning into his body, much the same like Bran's chapter in "A Game of Thrones" before he wakes up. At least, I hope it will be that; somehow I find this the most fitting solution. But Martin could of course come up with something entirely different.

The second question for this chapter is of course Jon's true identity. Is he Azor Ahai reborn or The Prince Who was Promised or both? Typically for Martin, the prophecy is solved: Marsh's tears provide the salt, Jon's smoking wounds the smoke, and Ser Patrek was certainly bleeding with his big star embroidered all over his clothing. It's not as strong as other fulflillments we find in Dany, but it's a small hole that was left and carefully hidden by Martin, surely not by accident. This is not the place to repeat the discussion whether Azor Ahai and the Prince Who was Promised are the same person or not, and whether Dany fulfills at least part of it, but one thing is certain - if Jon is meant to fulfill that role, he is not dead, but will be reborn - more or less instantly after being stabbed, since otherwise he couldn't be reborn amidst smoke and salt under a bleeding star. But then again, we don't know how much truth that prophecy will hold anyway.

The third obvious question is the truth of Ramsay's letter. Martin has himself more or less confirmed that it doesn't contain 100% truth, so let's have a look at what is likely. First, there is only one thing in the letter that he couldn't know without some success: Mance and his spear wives. It is not sure whether he really has Mance or if the wildling could escape, but he certainly captured one of the spear wives, otherwise he wouldn't have that information, and he knows that they were sent to retrieve "Arya Stark". The rest of the letter could be and likely is bullshit. First, everyone knows of Lightbringer, so Ramsay could just say he has the sword. Second, a seven-day-battle to defeat Stannis? It sounds like something out of ancient annals, not like something that really happened. And third, Ramsay demands Theon from Jon - he would however certainly have him had he defeated Stannis and conquered his camp. At least he would have captured Asha. But there is none of that; Ramsay doesn't know. So, it's not likely that he did it.

Of course, Jon doesn't know either. He swallows it, and that seems what Ramsay intended. Why exactly he wants to provoke Jon into marching on Winterfell I don't know; perhaps he wants to destroy Stannis' foothold in the Watch. It is possible that he was in contact with Marsh, although I doubt it. Perhaps he wanted to use the Watch's betrayal as a pretext to gain support from the Iron Throne. Perhaps he just likes to make a racket. We will know in the next book, I hope.

So, why does Marsh finally attack Jon? He could have done it times and times before, at better times, when he is not surrounded by hundreds of wildlings who just swore to fight for Jon. I still think that Marsh, as unhappy as he was with Jon's politics, did not plan on murdering him before he commited open treason. And make no mistake, his announcment of marching on Winterfell was exactly that, treason and defection. Marsh after all never concurred to Mormont's plan of the big ranging either and did carry it when it was ordered. He is a follower, after all, and Jon really stressed his loyalty in the previous chapters over and over again without him breaking. I am convinced that Marsh really lives the Watch besides all his shortcomings, and that he attacked Jon because he was a traitor, and not because he didn't like his politics.

The beginning of the chapter almost fades before these events, but it is not of no interest. We can see queen Selyse with her court acting in the vacuum of her own imaginations. They treat with the wildlings like they want and only acknowledge those fitting, ignoring the reality. The king Redbeard is hilarious, but they don't even get the idea that the wildlings won't accept him. Worse, they will try to force him on them, since the knights already married the daughters and would suffer serious smears on their honor if it was revelaed that Redbeard was just a bag of wind. It's strange anyway how Selyse tries to reward her own knights. What's with Stannis' men? Her husband will have taken the best and most able with him, but Selyse hands rewards to her collection of trash. Either Stannis wants to give his people better stuff, which is a promise in an uncertain future, or Selyse just sabotages his enitre nothern policy. Knowing this queen, I think it's the latter. And she doesn't even know it.

As to side notes, we again get the notion in this chapter that the direwolves sense the danger of their owners. Grey Wind sensed the Red Wedding, and Ghost sensed Marsh.Nymeria attacked Joffrey. Neither Robb nor Jon nor Eddard listened. The wolves really seem to have the hang out of people, judging them way better than anyone else. Second, I like the advice of maester Aemon about standing and sitting people. Jon lets all people in the hall sit on benches before speaking to them, since sitting men are more likely to listen, and standing men more inclined to shout. Nice remark.