#horn of winter

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

I think it’s interesting that a particular refrain keeps appearing in Jon’s inner monologue about the Horn of Winter.

They’re not wearing skins, Jon realized. That’s hair. Shaggy pelts covered their bodies, thick below the waist, sparser above. The stink that came off them was choking, but perhaps that was the mammoths. And Joramun blew the Horn of Winter, and woke giants from the earth. He looked for great swords ten feet long, but saw only clubs. Most were just the limbs of dead trees, some still trailing shattered branches. A few had stone balls lashed to the ends to make colossal mauls. The song never says if the horn can put them back to sleep. [..] “So how did you come by your other names?” Jon asked. “Mance called you the Horn-Blower, didn’t he? Mead-king of Ruddy Hall, Husband to Bears, Father to Hosts?” It was the horn blowing he particularly wanted to hear about, but he dared not ask too plainly. And Joramun blew the Horn of Winter, and woke giants from the earth. Is that where they had come from, them and their mammoths? Had Mance Rayder found the Horn of Joramun, and given it to Tormund Thunderfist to blow?(Jon II, ASoS)

Lady Melisandre watched him rise. “FREE FOLK! Here stands your king of lies. And here is the horn he promised would bring down the Wall.” Two queen’s men brought forth the Horn of Joramun, black and banded with old gold, eight feet long from end to end. Runes were carved into the golden bands, the writing of the First Men. Joramun had died thousands of years ago, but Mance had found his grave beneath a glacier, high up in the Frostfangs. And Joramun blew the Horn of Winter, and woke giants from the earth. Ygritte had told Jon that Mance never found the horn. She lied, or else Mance kept it secret even from his own. (Jon III, ADWD)

Jon turned in his saddle, frowning. And Joramun blew the Horn of Winter and woke giants from the earth. That huge horn with its bands of old gold, incised with ancient runes … had Mance Rayder lied to him, or was Tormund lying now? If Mance’s horn was just a feint, where is the true horn? (Jon XII, ADWD)

Repeated phrases in a character’s inner monologue are always important to their development (e.g., “promise me, Ned” or “wherever whores go”). The refrain “And Joramun blew the Horn of Winter, and woke giants from the earth” is repeated four times in Jon’s. That may not seem like much, but then we get to Jon’s final chapter in ADWD:

Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun howled again and gave Ser Patrek’s other arm a twist and pull. It tore loose from his shoulder with a spray of bright red blood. Like a child pulling petals off a daisy, thought Jon. “Leathers, talk to him, calm him. The Old Tongue, he understands the Old Tongue. Keep back, the rest of you. Put away your steel, we’re scaring him.” Couldn’t they see the giant had been cut? Jon had to put an end to this or more men would die. They had no idea of Wun Wun’s strength. A horn, I need a horn. He saw the glint of steel, turned toward it. “No blades!” he screamed. “Wick, put that knife …”

It’s a rather peculiar narrative choice to have Jon think about needing a horn to command a giant right before his death. Especially since the Horn of Winter’s very purpose is to wake (and potentially command) giants, whom Jon has been in communion with since ASoS.

The fandom at large believes the old, chipped warhorn in Sam’s possession might be the Horn of Winter. While that’s a great theory, I think there’s an important narrative distinction to make: the Horn of Winter exists squarely in Jon’s storyline. Though Sam’s POV has made callbacks to the warhorn, signaling that GRRM wants us to remember its existence, the Horn of Winter’s lore and purpose are explored exclusively in Jon’s chapters. Even when it appears in Sam’s narrative, it’s tied directly to Jon through their conversations. Sam’s warhorn may be a Chekhov’s gun, but resolution to the Horn of Winter must come through Jon’s arc. Its purpose has always resided with him, so he should be the one to blow it.

[jozor-johai]

I’ve always thought it was curious that there are superficial similarities between Mance’s “fake” Horn of Winter—which the did dig up in the crypts of the far North—and Euron’s dragonbinder horn.

The horn Mance found:

The horn was huge, eight feet along the curve and so wide at the mouth that he could have put his arm inside up to the elbow. If this came from an aurochs, it was the biggest that ever lived. At first he thought the bands around it were bronze, but when he moved closer he realized they were gold. Old gold, more brown than yellow, and graven with runes.

The horn Euron brought:

The horn he blew was shiny black and twisted, and taller than a man as he held it with both hands. It was bound about with bands of red gold and dark steel, incised with ancient Valyrian glyphs that seemed to glow redly as the sound swelled.

One is twisted and one not, but both are giant, black, and banded with metal engraven with runes/glyphs.

If you ask me, I wonder if Stannis really did burn a magic horn, just not the Horn of Winter. Maybe there was a dragonbinder horn (or something-binder horn?) buried North of the Wall.

[hamliet]

Interesting. I didn't really think it was a physical object. Like the hammer of the waters, I thought it was a spell, but it cpuld be a hammer or something metaphysical.

I mean, it doesn't really matter to me either way, so if it turns out to be a spell I'll be like "cool."

That said, for now I very much do think the precedent is that it's a physical object. There are other magical horns in the series. See Dragonbinder, which corresponds to "fire;" it makes sense that there would be a physical "ice" counterpart (the Horn of Winter) based on the title.

Plus, the whole "blowing a horn brings down a wall" thing is like, an element in storytelling that goes back to the Biblical book of Joshua. Martin's lapsed Catholicism definitely shows its influence in terms of the mythos of Westeros at times.

[windriverdelta]

Reblogging this by @racefortheironthrone as it is a great explanation for the Horn.

Although I must note that "woke giants from the earth" probably refers to this, from TWOIAF:

And so they did, gathering in their hundreds (some say on the Isle of Faces), and calling on their old gods with song and prayer and grisly sacrifice (a thousand captive men were fed to the weirwood, one version of the tale goes, whilst another claims the children used the blood of their own young). And the old gods stirred, and giants awoke in the earth, and all of Westeros shook and trembled. Great cracks appeared in the earth, and hills and mountains collapsed and were swallowed up. And then the seas came rushing in, and the Arm of Dorne was broken and shattered by the force of the water, until only a few bare rocky islands remained above the waves. The Summer Sea joined the narrow sea, and the bridge between Essos and Westeros vanished for all time.

Especially since it's giants in the earth, not in ice. They'd break the Wall by causing the ground to shake, rather than shattering the ice directly.

Or it might be "shadow fire", per the @poorquentyn theory.

A Theory About the Horn of Joramun

Based off a long conversation from Twitter, but I’ve started to have some ideas about the Horn of Joramun, one of the more significant objects in the series if assumptions are right that it will bring down the Wall.

The Horn is a curious object, because it seems to have a strong duality about it: it’s known as both the Horn of Winter and the Horn of Joramun, and it is supposed to have  "woke giants from the earth” and it’s also supposed to have the power “bring this cold thing down.” And yet, even through Joramun was a King Beyond-the-Wall “in ancient days,” whom Jeor Mormont places as coming before the Horned Lord and the brothers Gendel and Gorne, and describes all of them as having “broke his strength on the Wall, or was broken by the power of Winterfell on the far side,” the Wall still stands.

Why did Joramun never use the Horn to bring down the Wall?

Weiterlesen

[hoofpeet]

I like the idea of unicorns being a cervine species so that they go through the whole shedding/growing in/ shedding velvet process that deer have 💛 they should have a yucky phase every year

[glassshine]

I don't like Icewings cause they all look the same to me so I drew some

[riverwindphotography]

A Roosting Great-horned Owl

(c) riverwindphotography, January 2022

[stromuprisahat]

aeriondripflame:

#canon. all fun and games till rhaegar’s harp joins the ensemble

between the horn of winter and the hellhorn my twow prediction is that we shall have an eldritch jazz ensemble

[aqua-regia009]

Bill Mayer (American, b.1951)

https://www.thebillmayer.com/

[klaasfoto]

[banditblvd]

Prime defenders but it’s only the stupidest things I’ve drawn for them

Banimatic

[catsharky]

After this Astarion got brought home and put in a hot bath to thaw like a pack of chicken breasts you forgot to take out of the freezer in advance.

Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays to all who celebrate, and a good regular winter to everyone who doesn't!

I've got something coming for Rolan as well, and also for Garrus for all the patient lovely people who still follow me for ME stuff (I love you and thank you for sticking around even if BG3 isn't your thing)!

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

my little residents

[charliecraftsthings]

Once in a while, I like putting these horns on a different toque, or in a different position, to see how it looks.

Toque yarn: heavy worsted Corriedale in "Annie Oakley" by cloud9fiberworks (circa 2019; now discontinued).

[trustymikh]

I think the reason I instantly like Arrow upon seeing her is that she looks similar to one of my favorite pokemon

[lovelybeautifulsleep]

Tati Cotliar by Benny Horne for Exit, F/W 2010