Everyone Was Wrong About the White Walkers

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:08]In the far north of the haunted forest, just before night fully fell, a young knight drew his sword against an entity whose name [music] he did not even know.

[00:00:17]His hands trembled from the cold as he raised his blade. The last traces [music] of a boy were still visible on his face. his companion Will, watching from a top a tree, thought at that moment that Wear Royce was no longer a child, but [music] a true man of the Night's Watch. The entity before him did not speak a single word. It scrutinized the young knight with star-like [music] burning blue eyes and skin as pale as milk, carrying a gray greenish shimmer.

[00:00:45]The [music] crystal sword had raised shattered the steel blade. Wayar Royce was wounded in the face by a shard of his own sword. Other entities approaching silently from among the trees tore the young man apart. George RR Martin opened [music] the first page of the A Song of Ice and Fire series with this very scene. Before introducing Kings, Games of Thrones, Intrigues, and Dragons, he showed the reader the true threat. Afterward, for [music] thousands of pages, the Lannisters, Starks, and Targaryenss struggled with one another.

[00:01:18]Yet Martin never let us forget what he wanted to say on that first page. While everyone in the south thought of their throne, something forgotten was awakening in the north. And the name of this forgotten thing was the other.

[00:01:32]These entities known as white walkers in Turkish translations became the greatest mystery of Westeros and the dark heart of Martin's entire world. There was a reason why this opening scene was so dramatically powerful. [music] Martin brought together people from three different classes in the same forest. Gared, an old soldier, had spent years on the wall and knew the cold in his bones. Silent Will was a man who had once been a poacher and later became a scout for the Night's Watch. [music] The young knight Weimar Royce was the youngest son of Lord Yan Roy of Runstone. He was 18 [music] years old and had only been in the Night's Watch for a short time. Yet he was given command because of [music] his noble blood. The three of them were distinct individuals expecting different things from the cold in the world. Before introducing the White Walkers, Martin showed the reader how even the class struggle of Westeros became meaningless in the face of this cold. The young lord's pride, the old soldiers experience, and the scouts silence all dissolved before a single cold gaze.

[00:02:36][music] In this video, we examined the origins and history of the White Walkers and why Martin deliberately left them vague using source texts. From old man's tales to Maester Aemon's secret [music] suspicions, from the legend of the last hero to the forbidden name of the Knights King, [music] we delved into the true history of the north of Westeros.

[00:02:57]Because understanding [music] these creatures was not just about understanding A Song of Ice and Fire.

[00:03:02][music] It was the key to grasping why Martin made such a mark on fantasy literature. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel so we can continue such in-depth analyses in extreme stories because continuing this journey together has only been possible with your support. We started with the most basic elements. What did the White Walkers look like? Those who watched the series had [music] a very clear image in their minds. Frozen, skeletal, terrifying creatures. However, the picture Martin drew in the books was much more unsettling because it was more beautiful. [music] In the source texts, white walkers were described as tall, gaunt, and pale.

[00:03:40]Their skin was white as milk. Their eyes were a cold blue, filled with a light that burned colder than ice, and sparkled like stars. Their blood was pale blue, and their bones shone as if made of milk glass. In Martin's own words, "These beings were like side made of ice.

[00:03:58]that is an icy form of those ancient fairylike beings [music] from Celtic mythology that are foreign to the mortal world. They were a foreign, elegant, [music] and dangerous life form. They were terrifying, but their terror came not from ugliness, but from their nonhuman nature. A critical misunderstanding needed to be corrected here. Old Nan spoke of them as dead things in her stories. However, Martin [music] explicitly stated in an interview that this definition was wrong. The White Walkers were not dead. They were a separate life form. At this point, a major distinction emerged for those who watched the [music] series. In the books, white walkers and the reanimated corpses we call whites were completely different things. Whites were dead bodies under the command of the white walkers. [music] They were blue-eyed, decayed creatures that existed only to kill. White Walkers, on the other hand, were the intelligent, fast, elegant, [music] and beautiful beings who reanimated these dead. In the book, they spoke and even laughed at times, though their language sounded like the cracking of ice to [music] human ears, showing them as completely silent in the show was a series preference, and [music] was not faithful to the source material.

[00:05:15]They left no prints when they walked on snow. Their movements were as fluid as water, and their speed was like lightning. Their weapons were forged from crystal or ice. Steel swords shattered upon contact with them because it was their cold that broke the metal.

[00:05:30]There were two [music] substances that could kill them. One was dragon glass or obsidian. In the source text, [music] a white walker struck by dragon glass melted into a puddle of cold water. The other was dragon steel, which Samuel Tarly encountered in forbidden books brought from the citadel. [music] Jon Snow and Samuel guessed that this was likely Valyrian steel, but its certainty was never clarified. [music] In old Nan stories, white walkers did not travel alone. According to her, the others [music] hunted with ice spiders as large as hounds. Dead horses carried dead riders. They hunted in the dark and did not appear during the day. Which of these [music] details is legend and which is reality Martin has not clarified even today? But there was a detail the source text skipped. When these creatures appeared, the cold came with them. Characters in the books constantly debated this issue. Did the white walkers bring the cold [music] or did they appear when the cold fell? This distinction birthed the question of whether they were the cause or the result of the long night. And that question remains unanswered. So where did these [music] beings come from and why did they come? This is where the true mystery began. When we went back to the earliest history of Westeros, we saw that the shadow of an era still hung over this land. Historians [music] called this period the long night.

[00:06:54]Approximately 8,000 years ago, a winter lasting a generation descended upon the world. The sun vanished and [music] the stars remained motionless in a frozen sky. Source text recounted the babies died of cold in their mother's arms and the tears mother shed froze on their cheeks. It was during this very period from the black heart of the long night that the white walkers descended from the north. They carried thin sharp ice swords and raised the dead. [music] The children of the forest and the first men, two separate races that had fought each other until then, [music] were now facing the same enemy. They had signed the pact centuries ago on the aisle of faces, but they hadn't encountered a threat that truly united them both until the long night. Now the darkness was upon them all. And from within this darkness, [music] a story was born. The story old Nan told Bran Stark, the story of the last hero. According to old Nan's account, a man named the last hero set out to find the children of the forest with a sword, a horse, [music] a dog, and 12 companions. Humanity's salvation could lie with these mystic beings where the old spirits of the forest were believed to still be hidden.

[00:08:10]However, the journey was long and brutal. The cold killed, giants killed, the dead killed, the white walkers caught the scent of hot blood and silently pursued him. His companions died one by one. And [music] finally, the last hero was left all alone, his steel sword shattered under the ice.

[00:08:31]The story broke off right there. Old Nan could never tell Bran the rest of the tale because someone else knocked at the door [music] and Martin did not want to give us more at that moment. The source book, "The world of ice and fire partially filled in the rest of the story. The last hero found the children of the forest. With their help, the Night's Watch was established, and the battle for the dawn took place. This war ended the long night. The White Walkers were driven back [music] to the far north, which we call the lands of always winter. The fate of the last hero remained unknown. But after the war, humanity rolled up its [music] sleeves to never experience such a winter again.

[00:09:13]At that same time, far away from Westeros, much further away, another [music] legend told the same story in another language. In the east of Essos, in the shadowy lands of Asai, there was a figure known by names such as Eldrich, Shadowchaser, Nefirion, Yintar, Hun the Hero, and most famously, Azor Ahai. This figure [music] gave humanity courage during a time when darkness covered the world with the flaming sword Lightbringer and buried the darkness back into [music] the dark. The historical records of Ye Thai, the morally ambiguous sages of Asai, and the priests of Rihor all recounted the same event with [music] different names. It was clear that this was no coincidence.

[00:09:59]Martin likely showed us the accounts of different witnesses [music] from different corners of the world regarding the same event. The war the last hero waged [music] against the darkness and Azor Ahai's sacrifice of his wife, Nissa. Nissa. While forging Lightbringer [music] could be two sides of the same coin, Martin constructed legends as overlapping, distorted, semi-forgotten testimonies because that is how real history has always been transmitted.

[00:10:27]Only one thing was certain. Somewhere in the world, someone somehow had [music] defeated the darkness. The faith of Riyore took this story one step further.

[00:10:38]The priests of the fire god believed that the darkness had only one rival.

[00:10:43]They called him the great other, [music] the nameless, faceless god of cold and death. Red priestesses like Melisandre said that Azor Ahai would be reborn to defeat this great other. Melisandre believed this hero was Stannis [music] Baratheon. Maester Aemon in the final days of his life [music] sensed this was a mistake and that the true owner of the prophecy could be Daenerys Targaryen.

[00:11:08]"The dragon has three heads," he said on his bed. He told Samuel that Melisandre pinned her hopes on the wrong king.

[00:11:16]"Even with over a century of wisdom, Maester Aean could not say anything definitive about who the White Walkers were. [music] He only knew they were coming. Once the long night ended, humanity embarked on a great task. A legendary man known as Brandon the Builder raised a massive barrier of stone, ice, and earth to the north using the magic of the children of the forest and the physical strength of giants.

[00:11:40][music] It was called the wall. Standing about 700 ft high and stretching 300 m, [music] this structure was not just a visible pile of stone. It was also a boundary woven with ancient spells.

[00:11:53][music] Its purpose was simple. To ensure the White Walkers never crossed south [music] again. Those who would guard the wall were those clad in black the Night's Watch. Their oath [music] was transmitted to every generation over thousands of years with the same words.

[00:12:09]It was an oath of a vigil that began as soon as darkness fell and ended only with death. There would be no wife, no land, no children, no crown, [music] no glory. there would only be the wall. The oath became a well-intentioned tradition [music] over time, but initially that oath was something very concrete because the white walkers were real and they had come once before. The final lines of the oath clearly indicated what threat it was built against. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls.

[00:12:42]I am the fire that burns [music] against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. Shortly after the Night's Watch was [music] established, one of the most chilling stories in history took place.

[00:12:59]The north of Westeros still cannot tell the story today without whispering. The hero of this story which reached [music] us through old Nan in the source texts was the 13th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. His name is unknown today because when he was defeated, it was erased from all records, carved out of all stones, [music] and removed from all books. Only one title remained for him, [music] the Knights King. The Knights King was courage itself, and was far from all fears. Old man said this was his only weakness because all men had to know how to be afraid. One night, looking down from the top of the wall, he saw a woman on the dark side of the north. She had skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars. He pursued her, caught her, and loved her. Her skin was as cold as ice, but the knight's king was fearless. When he gave her his seed, he had also given her his soul.

[00:13:56][music] He brought that woman to the Night Fort and declared himself king and her queen. He bound all the brothers of the Night's Watch to himself with magic.

[00:14:05]For 13 years, he ruled the entire north from the oldest and largest castle of the wall. And during those 13 years, [music] terrible things were done. Human sacrifices were made and offerings were presented to the others. Finally, Brandon the Breaker, the king in the north, joined forces with Joraman, the king beyond the wall. The two powers came together and overthrew the knights king. The fate of his queen was never known. [music] When it was revealed after his fall that sacrifices had been made to the others, the elders of the north made a decision. The name of the knight's king would be erased from history. Only his title would be remembered, and his name would never be spoken again. And one more rule was set.

[00:14:50][music] The castles of the Night's Watch would never again be protected by walls against the South because the Knights Watch should not be a power [music] that threatened the South. It should exist for the South. According to old Naun, the [music] Knight's King was a Stark.

[00:15:06]While pinching little Bran's nose, she said, "Maybe his name was Brandon, and he slept in this very bed." However, the maesters of the Citadel viewed [music] this story as a myth. Whether the knight's king was a Bolton, an umber, a flint, or the Magnar of Skagos was never known, but old Nan's insistence and [music] the deep connection of the Starks to the Night's Watch made this theory its strongest version. A Stark was once the commander of the wall. A Stark had once allied [music] with the others. The oldest lineage of the north had once looked into the darkness, and the darkness had looked back. Another important figure in this story was Joramon. Jorahoon, the king beyond the wall of the wildlings, was a legendary leader said to have allied with Brandon the Breaker to overthrow the Knights King. According to legend, he had a horn in his hand, the horn of winter. The wildlings believed that when this horn was blown, the giants under the earth would wake [music] and the wall would crack and fall. This was what man's raider was truly looking for when he united so many wildlings beyond the wall under a single banner. He even claimed to have found a horn, but it was never clarified whether that horn truly belonged to Joraman. Stannis Baratheon ordered the horn burned after capturing Mance's stronghold. [music] Jorammon's true horn of winter, if it ever existed, remained lost. Martin did not say whether this horn was real, but source text clearly explained that the wildlings believed in something. Long ago, someone had left a weapon against the magic of the wall. Or at least so it was said. [music] The greatest barrier humanity built against the horror coming from the north was also a structure that could be destroyed by humanity. This contradiction was the basis of Martin's logic of fiction. Every castle could fall into the wrong hands. Every protective spell could be broken. Every oath could be forgotten. Following the fall of the Knights King, a long silence began. The White Walkers withdrew beyond the wall and did not appear for 8,000 years. [music] As time passed, humanity forgot them. First, they became myths.

[00:17:19]Then, they turned into nursery rhymes told to frighten children. Then, they became a smile on the lips of maesters.

[00:17:27][music] In the old corridors of the citadel, the reality of the white walkers became [music] a joke. Only those like old Nan, whose memory reached back further than their great great great grandchild, [music] and the wildlings beyond the wall continued to keep the story alive. The wildlings called these entities [music] white walkers in their own tongue. They realized that the southerners had long since forgotten them. So why did they return? Martin is not yet given the answer to this question. Perhaps he never fully will, but there were important clues in the source texts. A long summer had been experienced. In the book, the world's seasons were not like ours. Summers lasted for years, and winters lasted for years. [music] And when the cold returned, something ancient woke up with it. Wear Royce's death was a beginning. Afterward, two [music] semifrozen corpses were brought to Jayor Mormont's castle. These two black [music] brothers named Aor and Jaffer Flowers rose at midnight with blue eyes. Jon Snow was able to stop one of them by burning it with a torch.

[00:18:32][music] Samuel Tarly later, when an icy hand reached out to him beyond Crara's keep, [music] stabbed a small piece of dragon glass into the creature's throat.

[00:18:41]At that moment, the white walker melted.

[00:18:45]That was the moment it was understood that a thousand-year-old myth was real.

[00:18:50]The others had never died. They had only waited. At the ancient hill called the Fist of the First Men, Jon Snow's foot tripped on a stone. From underground, a bundle of dragon glass emerged inside a tattered cloak. Someone had buried [music] these weapons there thousands of years ago. Someone knew what was going to happen. Who it was is still unknown.

[00:19:13]But why they buried it was as important as who buried it. Because this was a silent warning left for future generations [music] by someone who knew the white walkers would come once more.

[00:19:25]The tens [music] of thousands of wildlings Mance Raider gathered beyond the wall felt the same thing. They did not come for war. [music] They fled.

[00:19:33]That people who had lived in the north for hundreds of thousands of years marched [music] to take refuge at the Knights Watchers's wall once again.

[00:19:41]because something was coming behind them. Something that in Man's eyes could turn a fighting army into a crowd of dead. [music] The chilling reports from Cotter Pike ships sent to the shores of Hardome, the fate of the wildlings waiting there, and news that the dead had reached there as well were all small pieces of the same horror. The Hardhome scene in the series brought this nightmare, which the book only announced from afar before our eyes.

[00:20:07]>> [music] >> This is where we saw what a great master of fiction Martin is because he never revealed to us where these creatures came from, how they were created, or what they wanted. The show in its [music] sixth season showed the children of the forest creating the first white walker by stabbing a man in the heart with dragon glass to protect themselves against the first men. This scene did not take place in the book. In fact, [music] that crowned Night King character in the show never existed in the book at all. The Night King in the books was the legendary 13th Lord Commander. He had died thousands of years ago and was not the leader of the White Walkers. The show combined these two figures [music] and gave a clear answer to their origins to shorten the narrative and create a visual antagonist. Martin, however, did not provide such an answer. In the source texts, whether the White Walkers had a leader, [music] how they were created, or whether they had a culture remained uncertain, Martin [music] said in an interview, "We'll see their history, yes, but do they have a culture? I don't know. This single sentence alone [music] separated the White Walkers from all other fantasy monsters. This ambiguity was not a deficiency. On the contrary, it was Martin's most conscious fictional choice. Because true horror comes not from the defined, but from the undefinable. White walkers were not just a monster species. They were not even just a threat. They were a symbol in Martin's [music] work. They were the price of humanity immersing itself in its own games and forgetting [music] the great danger. While the lords of Westeros were at each other's throats for the Iron Throne, the greatest nightmare of old was reborn beyond the wall. The Night's Watch had dwindled, remained ignorant, and was [music] forgotten. The kings of the Seven Kingdoms believed that nothing coming from the north could affect him. And they [music] paid the price for this belief together at the end of the story.

[00:22:08]Martin's choice was clear. He did not write the White Walkers as morally gray characters, nor did he write them as main characters at all. He wrote [music] them strictly as an antagonist. But this antagonist had no face, no name, [music] and no clear purpose. They were simply the winter coming from the north. They were the question humanity had forgotten. Tolki and Sauron was a principle of evil. But we knew what he was, what he [music] wanted, and how he was defeated. Martin's white walkers were not like that. They were the [music] nameless face of darkness. And precisely for that reason, they were much more powerful from a literary standpoint. [music] The moment you recognized a monster, you diminished it in your mind. Martin wanted to keep the darkness in the reader's mind large until the very end. At this point, the most striking truth we can derive from the source texts was this. The white walkers took shape in the reader's mind.

[00:23:05]Definitive answers would have reduced them to fairy tale monsters. [music] Vagiddi turned them into a true horror.

[00:23:12]Our task as readers was to trace the history hidden beneath every line, to complete the sentences old Nan left unfinished, to hear the name Maester Aean whispered with his last breath, [music] and to open the forbidden books Samuel Tarly read. This was the essence of the story. The White Walkers were the question Westeros forgot. [music] A song of ice and fire was an epic written to seek the answer to this question. Who the throne belonged to? who died at Freyy's wedding [music] or who sat on the Iron Throne actually didn't matter that much. The real question to be asked was the last words that came from Weimar Royce's mouth [music] thousands of years ago. Before that sword shattered and before the cold descended upon him to darken his vision, the young knight had turned to the darkness and raised his voice. Who goes there? The White Walkers did not answer this [music] question because for 8,000 years, Westeros had questioned their existence. They did not feel the need to speak. We will see the answer to the question in time, but perhaps Martin will never fully give it [music] because this unanswerability was what made the darkness immortal. The end of that half-tale old Nan told Bran was perhaps a story we were meant to complete together. We continued to solve such stories line by line in Extreme Stories. [music] If you want to accompany this excavation our channel silently conducts and shed light on the dark corners of Westeros, Middle Earth, [music] and great literature together, don't forget to subscribe and like the video because great stories lived not only in the author's memory, but also in the readers. And remember, the true winter has always