Difference between revisions of "Children of the forest"

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[[File:Children of the Forest.jpg|thumb|350px|Child of the forest, in its natural habitat.]]
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[[File:Children of the Forest by Rae Lavergne.jpg|thumb|350px|A child of the forest, by Rae Lavergne ©]]
[[File:Children of the forest by kallielef.jpg|thumb|350px|A child of the forest. © Kallielef]]
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The '''children of the forest''', sometimes referred to simply as the '''children''', are a mysterious non-human race that originally inhabited the continent of [[Westeros]] during the [[Dawn Age]] long before the arrival of the [[First Men]] thousands of years ago. The [[giants]] call them ''woh dak nag gram'' (little squirrel people). They call themselves '''''those who sing the song of earth''''' in the [[True Tongue]].{{Ref|ADWD|13}} The children have not been seen by men for hundreds of years.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Long Night}}
[[File:Children of the Forest greenseers.jpg|thumb|350px|Depiction of a [[greenseer]] singing the song of the earth.]]
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[[File:HBO cotf hand.png|thumb|350px|Their hands had only three fingers and a thumb, with sharp black claws instead of nails.]]
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==Characteristics==
The '''children of the forest''', sometimes referred to simply as the "children" are a mysterious non-human race that originally inhabited the continent of [[Westeros]] long before the arrival of the [[First Men]] during the [[Dawn Age]] more than 12,000 years ago. The [[giants]] call them ''woh dak nag gram'' ('little squirrel people'). They call themselves ''those who sing the song of earth'' in the [[True Tongue]].{{Ref|aDwD|13}}
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{{See also|:Category:Images of the Children of the Forest|l1=Images of the Children of the Forest}}
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[[File:Child of the forest by peaspod.jpg|thumb|350px|A red-eyed child of the forest with a [[raven]]. © Pea's Pod]]
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[[File:HBO cotf hand.png|thumb|350px|Their hands had only three fingers and a thumb, with sharp black claws instead of nails. © HBO]]
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The children are smaller than humans, but they are not childlike. They have nut-brown skin, dappled like a [[deer]]'s with paler spots. Their hands have only three fingers and a thumb, with sharp black claws instead of nails. They have large ears that can hear things that no man can hear.{{Ref|ADWD|34}} They usually have large gold and green eyes slitted like those of a cat,{{Ref|ADWD|13}} allowing them to see in dark passages.{{Ref|ADWD|34}}
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The children are slight, quick, and graceful. They weave leaves and vines and flowers into their hair, and wear cloaks of leaves. They may live for centuries.{{Ref|ADWD|13}} They often sing in their language, the [[True Tongue]].{{Ref|ADWD|34}}
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Very rarely, one of the children is born with mossy green or blood red eyes, a sign that they have been chosen by the [[Old Gods]]. The chosen ones are not robust, and do not live long on the earth, but they have the gift of [[greensight]] and are known as [[greenseer]]s. Once they are bound to a [[weirwood]], they live far longer than other children.{{Ref|ADWD|34}}
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The children are [[w:Omnivore|omnivores]] as they feed on different types of [[food]] they find and cultivate in and around their caves such as fish, meat, mushroom, cheese, milk, oats, barleycorn, dried fruit, and onions.{{Ref|ADWD|34}}
  
==Appearance==
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==Culture==
:''See also: [[:Category:Images of the Children of the Forest|Images of the Children of the Forest]]''
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The children may have lived in clans.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Dawn Age}} They did not use metal, weave cloth, or build cities. The children lived off the land, using stone and [[obsidian]] implements, wearing bark leg-bindings and shirts of woven leaves, dwelling in caves, crannogs, and hidden tree villages. Males and females both hunted side by side{{Ref|AGOT|66}} as [[wood dancers]],{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Coming of the First Men}} using obsidian weapons, [[weirwood]] bows, and flying snares made with grasses.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Dawn Age}} The children had no books, no ink, no parchment and no written language.{{Ref|ADWD|34}} They were a people with a deep connection to the land.{{Ref|AGOT|66}} The children used their weirwood hunting bows and obsidian weapons in battle, but also used powerful [[magic]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Dawn Age}}
The children were smaller than men with nut-brown skin, dappled like a deer's with paler spots. They had large ears that could hear things that no man could hear.  
 
  
They usually had large eyes, great golden cat's eyes, that could see down passages where a boy's eyes saw only blackness.  They have vertical, slit-like pupils; this trait is responsible for improved night vision and typically associated with a nocturnal lifestyle in such creatures as cats (the children's eyes are described in ''[[A Dance with Dragons]]'' as resembling cats' eyes). A few had green or red eyes; these had the gift of [[greensight]] and were known as [[greenseer]]s.
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Legends say the children of the forest were gifted with supernatural powers. These included having power over the beasts of the wood, the ability to [[Skinchanger|wear an animal's skin]], the skill to create music so beautiful as to bring tears to the eyes of any who heard it, the [[greensight]] ability and the ability to speak to the dead.{{Ref|ACOK|13}} It was the children who carved faces on weirwoods to keep watch over the woods.{{Ref|ACOK|28}} The children of the forest believed that the weirwood trees were gods, and when they died they became a part of them.{{Ref|ADWD|34}} Septon [[Barth]] believed that the children could communicate from afar with [[raven]]s.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Dawn Age}}
  
Their hands had only three fingers and a thumb, with sharp black claws instead of nails.{{Ref|aDwD|34}} The children were slight, quick, and graceful.
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It is unknown if there is a connection between the children of the forest and the [[Ifequevron]], or "woods walkers", of northern [[Essos]]. There is a ruined settlement of carved trees and haunted grottoes, called by the [[Dothraki]] [[Vaes Leisi]], in the [[Kingdom of the Ifequevron]].{{Ref|AWOIAF|Ifequevron}}{{Ref|TWOIAF|Beyond the Free Cities: Ib}}
  
 
==History==
 
==History==
{{Quote|They were a people of the [[Dawn Age]], the very first, before kings and kingdoms, in those days, there were no castles or holdfasts, no cities not so much as a market town to be found between here and the [[sea of Dorne]]. There were no men at all.  Only the children of the forest dwelt in the lands we now call the [[Seven Kingdoms]].{{Ref|aGoT|66|p 737}}}}
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===Dawn Age===
It is unknown where the children of the forest came from, nor for how long they alone in their land before humans arrived. A child named [[Leaf]] claimed at least "a thousand thousand of your man-years."{{Ref|ADwD|34|p 496}} For thousands of years the children had to themselves, or shared only with the [[giants]], the landmass that later became known as [[Westeros]]. Eventually about 12,000 years ago, the children came in contact with the [[First Men]], the first outsiders. These invaders from [[Essos]] brought with them bronze, great leathern shields, the first [[horse]]s, and their own gods. They burned the great [[weirwood]]s as they came, leading to [[War of the First Men and the children of the forest|war]] between the two.
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[[File:Children of the Forest.jpg|thumb|350px|Child of the forest, in its natural habitat. © HBO]]
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It is unknown where the children of the forest came from, nor for how long they were in their land before humans arrived. For thousands of years during the [[Dawn Age]] the children and the [[giants]] shared the landmass that later became known as [[Westeros]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Dawn Age}} The two races are believed to have sometimes fought, since Maester [[Kennet (maester)|Kennet]] found a giant's barrow near [[Long Lake]] with [[obsidian]] arrowheads in the ribs.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Dawn Age}} The children lived throughout Westeros, from the [[Summer Sea]] to the [[Land of Always Winter]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Dawn Age}} They called [[Dorne]] the "Empty Land",{{Ref|TWOIAF|Dorne}} however, and maesters doubt that the children lived on the [[Iron Islands]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Iron Islands}}
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===First Men===
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Eventually between eight thousand and twelve thousand years ago,{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Coming of the First Men}} the children came in contact with the [[First Men]], the first outsiders. Legends of the [[Reach]] claim they were led by [[Garth Greenhand]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Reach: Garth Greenhand}} Crossing the [[Arm of Dorne]], the land-bridge connecting Westeros and [[Essos]], these invaders built permanent settlements and brought with them bronze weapons, great leathern shields, the first [[horse]]s, and their own gods.{{Ref|AGOT|66}}
  
For roughly 2,000 years the two races fought a desperate war for dominance.  The children used their magic to shatter the [[Arm of Dorne]], the land-bridge through which the First Men came, in a futile attempt to end the invasion and later flooded [[the Neck]] - where legend has it that the children called upon their [[old gods|gods]] from the [[Children's Tower]] to send the [[hammer of the waters]] to smash the Neck, as they smashed the Arm of Dorne, but it was not enough to stop the advance of the First Men.  The histories say that some of the First Men, the [[crannogmen]], grew close to the children of the forest in the days when the greenseers tried to bring the hammer of the waters down upon the Neck.{{Ref|acok|50|p 733}}
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The children initially welcomed the newcomers, but they disliked the First Men's harvesting of trees from forests, such as the [[rainwood]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Stormlands: The Coming of the First Men}} Fearing that the children used [[heart tree]]s for spying, the First Men burned and cut down the great [[weirwood]]s as they came, leading to [[War of the First Men and the children of the forest|war]] between the two races.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Dawn Age}}
  
Eventually the First Men and the children fought one another to a standstill. The two races agreed to peaceful coexistence and signed the [[Pact]] on the [[Isle of Faces]], granting the open lands to humanity and the forests to the children.  
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For thousands of years the two races fought a desperate war for dominance.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Stormlands: The Coming of the First Men}} The legendary [[Brandon of the Bloody Blade]] slew numerous children at [[Red Lake]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Reach: Garth Greenhand}} In a futile attempt to end the invasion, the children used the [[hammer of the waters]] to shatter the Arm of Dorne with the [[Breaking]], creating the [[Broken Arm]] and the [[Stepstones]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|Dorne: The Breaking}} The histories say that some of the First Men, the [[crannogmen]], grew close to the children of the forest in the days when the [[greenseer]]s at the [[Children's Tower]] of [[Moat Cailin]]{{Ref|AGOT|55}}{{Ref|ADWD|20}} tried to bring the hammer of the waters down upon the [[Neck]].{{Ref|ACOK|50}} 
  
The Pact lasted for 4,000 years before the enigmatic [[Others]] invaded from the uttermost north, bringing death and destruction to both races, during an extended period of winter known as [[the Long Night]]. The children of the forest joined with the First Men, lead by the [[last hero]], to fight against the Others in the [[Battle for the Dawn]]. Eventually the Others were driven back into the [[Lands of Always Winter]].
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Eventually the First Men and the children fought to a standstill. The two races agreed to peaceful coexistence and signed the [[Pact]] on the [[Isle of Faces]], granting the open lands to humanity and the forests to the children, who had been greatly diminished. The children taught worship of the [[old gods]] to the First Men.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Stormlands: The Coming of the First Men}}
  
After the Long Night, the First Men and the children of the forest lived in relative peace. In these years, the children of the forest began their slow withdrawal from the lands of men, retreating deeper into their forests and [[beyond the Wall]]. During the [[Age of Heroes]] it was also recorded by the [[Night's Watch]] that the children of the forest gave the black brothers a hundred obsidian daggers every year.{{Ref|aFfC|5}}
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===Age of Heroes===
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[[File:Children of the Forest greenseers.jpg|thumb|350px|A [[greenseer]] singing the song of earth. © HBO]]
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The [[Age of Heroes]] followed the Pact between the children and the First Men, four thousand years of relative peace between the races.{{Ref|AGOT|66}} Eventually the enigmatic [[Others]] invaded from the uttermost north, bringing death and destruction to children and First Men, during an extended period of winter known as the [[Long Night]]. The children joined with the First Men, led by the [[last hero]], to fight against the Others in the [[Battle for the Dawn]]. Eventually the Others were driven back into the [[Lands of Always Winter]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Long Night}} [[Brandon the Builder|Bran the Builder]], the legendary founder of [[House Stark]], is said to have enlisted the [[magic]]al aid of the children during the construction of the [[Wall]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Dawn Age}}{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Wall and Beyond: The Night's Watch}}
  
The children of the forest taught the worship of the [[old gods]] to the First Men, but the old gods were largely supplanted in the south by the [[Faith of the Seven]] after the [[Andal invasion]].  A hill, now known to the Westerosi  as [[High Heart]], was sacred to the children of the forest. There the [[Andal]] king [[Erreg]] the [[Kinslayer]] cut down the children’s grove of thirty-one weirwoods.{{Ref|asos|22|p 249}} High Heart is said to be haunted by the ghosts of the children who died there, likely defending their grove from Erreg.  Some of the children’s magic is said to still linger at High Heart.
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The children began their slow withdrawal from the lands of men, retreating deeper into their forests and [[beyond the Wall]]. It was recorded by the [[Night's Watch]] that the children of the forest gave the black brothers a hundred [[obsidian]] daggers every year during the Age of Heroes.{{Ref|AFFC|5}} The [[free folk]] believe that [[Gendel]] and [[Gorne]] once mediated between rival children and giants.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Dawn Age}}
  
Relations between the children and humans grew distant over the years, until they ceased altogether. By the time of [[Aegon's Landing]], humans had not seen the children for thousands of years.{{Ref|aGoT|66}}
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Children and their [[greenseer]]s supported the [[Warg King]] at [[Sea Dragon Point]], but they were defeated by the Starks of [[Winterfell]], the [[Kings of Winter]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|The North: The Kings of Winter}} The [[Winged Knight]] in the [[Vale of Arryn|Vale]] is said to have wed one of the children, but she died during childbirth.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Vale: House Arryn}} Some legends claim that children helped [[Durran]] build the seventh castle of [[Storm's End]].{{Ref|ACOK|31}} Some [[maesters]] of the [[Citadel]], such as [[Jellicoe]], lived among the children.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Reach: Oldtown}}
  
It is unknown if there is a connection between the children of the forest and the [[Ifequevron]], or "woods walkers", of northern Essos; [[Vaes Leisi]] is a ruined settlement of carved trees and haunted grottoes.{{Ref|awoiaf}}
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===Andals===
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[[File:HBO Andals kill the children.png|thumb|350px|Children slain and [[weirwood]]s burned by [[Andals]]. © HBO]]
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The children again warred with humans when the [[Andals]] began migrating from [[Andalos]] across the [[narrow sea]] to Westeros. Zealous in the [[Faith of the Seven]] and armed with steel, having learned of ironworking from the [[Rhoynar]],{{Ref|ADWD|5}} the Andals resumed the cutting down and burning of [[weirwood]]s.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Riverlands}}
  
==Culture==
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Children are said to have sent wolves against Andals at the [[White Wood]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Riverlands}} The [[Storm King]] [[Durran XXI Durrandon]] formed the [[Weirwood Alliance]] with the remaining children in the [[stormlands]] against the new invaders.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Stormlands: Andals in the Stormlands}} Having seen the Andals overwhelm other kingdoms, [[Gwayne IV Gardener]], [[King of the Reach]], sent men to seek aid from the children, although it is unknown if any were found.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Reach: Andals in the Reach}}
The children did not use metal, weave cloth or build cities; instead they lived off the land, using stone implements, wearing bark leg-bindings and shirts of woven leaves, dwelling in caves, crannogs, and hidden tree villages. Males and females both hunted side by side. The children had no books, no ink, no parchment and no written language.{{Ref|aDwD|34}} They were a people with a deep connection to the land.{{Ref|aGoT|66}} The children wielded [[obsidian]] weapons and bows in battle, but also used powerful [[magic]].
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A hill, now known to the Westerosi as [[High Heart]], was sacred to the children of the forest. There the Andal king [[Erreg the Kinslayer]] cut down the children's grove of thirty-one weirwoods. High Heart is said to be haunted by the ghosts of the children who died there, where the children's magic is said to still linger.{{Ref|ASOS|22}} ''[[True History]]'' states that the children had already abandoned the [[riverlands]] before the arrival of the Andals, however.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Riverlands}}
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Because of the [[Andal invasion|Andals' invasion]] and conquest of the First Men, the old gods were largely supplanted south of the [[Neck]] by the Faith of the Seven. [[Moat Cailin]] held back the Andals from the north,{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Arrival of the Andals}} however, so some children fled north.{{Ref|AGOT|66}} During the reign of [[Dorren Stark]], [[King in the North]], the ranger [[Redwyn]] traded with children during a journey to [[Lorn Point]] and the [[Frozen Shore]].{{Ref|ACOK|6}}
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Relations between the children and humans grew distant over the years, until they ceased altogether. Maesters largely believe the children have been gone for hundreds{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Long Night}} or thousands{{Ref|AGOT|24}} of years, but the [[free folk]] believe they still live [[beyond the Wall]].{{Ref|AGOT|66}} Some scholars have suggested that children may have survived at the [[Isle of Faces]] or in the bogs of the Neck.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: The Arrival of the Andals}} Some also theorize that the [[crannogmen]] of the Neck intermarried with the children.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The North: The Crannogmen of the Neck}}
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[[Jenny of Oldstones]] always claimed that her [[ghost of High Heart|woods witch friend]] was one of the children.{{Ref|ADWD|23}} Lord [[Eddard Stark]] taught his offspring in their youth about the Age of Heroes and the children of the forest.{{Ref|AGOT|1}}
  
Legends say the children of the forest were gifted with supernatural powers and magic; having power over the beasts of the wood, the ability to [[Skinchanger|wear an animal's skin]], the skill to create music so beautiful as to bring tears to the eyes of any who heard it, the [[greensight]] ability (although [[maesters]] believe that the greensight was not magic, simply another kind of knowledge) and the ability to speak to the dead.{{ref|acok|13}} It was the children who carved the faces on the [[weirwood]]s to keep watch over the woods.{{Ref|aCoK|28}} They believe that their wisdom had something to do with the faces in the trees.{{Ref|aCoK|28}} The children of the forest believed that the [[weirwood]] trees were gods, and when they died they became a part of them.{{ref|aDwD|34}}
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==Recent Events==
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===''A Game of Thrones''===
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At [[Winterfell]], Maester [[Luwin]] tells [[Bran Stark]] of the [[war of the First Men and the children of the forest]] and the [[Pact]].{{Ref|AGOT|66}}
  
The hunters among the children were known as [[wood dancers]].{{ref|TWOIAF| Ancient History: The Coming of the First Men}}
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===''A Clash of Kings''===
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In the library of [[Castle Black]] [[Samwell Tarly]] reads an account of [[Redwyn]]'s journey [[beyond the Wall]], during which the ranger met children of the forest, and a book about [[True Tongue|the tongue]] of the children.{{Ref|ACOK|6}}
  
==Recent Events==
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Luwin and Bran speak of [[greensight]].{{Ref|ACOK|28}}
===''A Dance with Dragons''===
 
Although people in [[Westeros]] believe the children of the forest to be extinct there are a few that still live in the world of men. A dwindling remnant of their population is located far north of the [[Wall]], in [[cave of the three-eyed crow|a cave system under a hill]]; the entrance is a warded cleft in the hillside.{{Ref|aDwD|34}}
 
  
The caves are home to more than three score living singers and the bones of thousands dead, and extend far below the hollow hill.  The children of the forest live with whom they refer to as ''the [[Three-eyed crow|Last Greenseer]]''. One of the children, [[Leaf]], tells [[Bran Stark]] that even the children of the forest have not explored all of the caves, even though they have lived there for a thousand thousand man-years.[[File:Bran Stark and the Children of the Forest.jpg|thumb|400px|right| Depiction of Brandon Stark with the children of the forest by  Conor Campbell ©]] Bran hears them sing sad songs in the [[True Tongue]] so he cannot understand the words, but their voices are as pure as the winter air.{{Ref|aDwD|34}}
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===''A Storm of Swords''===
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[[Tom of Sevenstreams]] tells [[Arya Stark]] how [[High Heart]] is shunned by [[smallfolk]], who believe it haunted by children slain by [[Erreg the Kinslayer]]. Arya wonders if the [[ghost of High Heart]] is one of the children, but tom explains she is just a dwarf woman.{{Ref|ASOS|22}}
  
Leaf tells Bran the children have:
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===''A Dance with Dragons''===
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[[File:Bran Stark and the Children of the Forest.jpg|thumb|400px|right|[[Bran Stark]] with the children of the forest by Conor Campbell ©]]
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[[Coldhands]] leads Bran, [[Hodor]], and [[Meera Reed|Meera]] and [[Jojen Reed]] north of the [[Wall]] to the [[cave of the three-eyed crow]], whom Coldhands calls the [[three-eyed crow|last greenseer]].{{Ref|ADWD|4}} They are attacked by [[wight]]s at the entrance, a cleft in the hillside, but they survive with the assistance of one of the children, a being who first appears to be a girl child and can speak the [[Common Tongue]].{{Ref|ADWD|13}}
  
{{Quote|Gone down into the earth … Into the stones, into the trees.  Before the [[First Men]] came all this land that you call [[Westeros]] was home to us, yet even in those days we were few. [[old gods|The gods]] gave us long lives but not great numbers, lest we overrun the world as deer will overrun a wood where there are no wolves to hunt them.  That was in the [[Dawn Age|dawn of days]], when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling.  The [[giants]] are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great [[lion]]s of the [[westerlands|western hills]] have been slain, the [[unicorns]] are all but gone, the [[mammoth]]s down to a few hundred. The [[direwolf|direwolves]] will outlast us all, but their time will come as well.  In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us.{{Ref|aDwD|34}}}}
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Bran and his companions discover a dwindling remnant of children live in the warded cavern. The caves are home to more than three score living singers and the bones of thousands dead, and extend far below the hollow hill. Bran and Meera give names to the children, since they cannot speak the [[True Tongue]]. Bran hears them sing sad songs in the True Tongue which he cannot understand, but their voices are as pure as the winter air. [[Leaf]], who saved the humans from the wights, explains that the children have not explored all of the caves, even though they have lived there for a thousand thousand man-years. {{Ref|ADWD|34}}
  
Although Bran is saddened by Leaf's explanation and demeanor, he later thinks to himself: {{quote|Men would not be sad. Men would be wroth. Men would hate and swear a bloody vengeance. The singers sings sad songs, where men would fight and kill.{{Ref|aDwD|34}}}}
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Bran finds [[greenseer]]s enthroned in nests of [[weirwood]] roots. The boy learns from Lord [[Brynden Rivers|Brynden]], the last greenseer, and the child [[Snowylocks]] supplies [[weirwood paste]].{{Ref|ADWD|34}}
  
 
==Known children of the forest==  
 
==Known children of the forest==  
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*[[Ash]]
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*[[Black Knife]]
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*[[Coals]]
 
*[[Leaf]]
 
*[[Leaf]]
*[[Ash]]
 
 
*[[Scales]]
 
*[[Scales]]
*[[Black Knife]]
 
 
*[[Snowylocks]]
 
*[[Snowylocks]]
*[[Coals]]
 
  
 
==Quotes==
 
==Quotes==
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[[File:Children of the forest by kallielef.jpg|thumb|350px|A child of the forest. © Kallielef]]
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{{Quote|Bran, the children of the forest have been dead and gone for thousands of years. All that is left of them are the [[Heart tree|faces in the trees]].{{Ref|AGOT|24}}|[[Luwin]], to [[Bran Stark]]}}
  
{{Quote|Bran, the children of the forest have been dead and gone for thousands of years. All that is left of them are the [[Heart tree|faces in the trees]].{{ref|AGOT|24}}}} – Maester [[Luwin]], to [[Bran Stark]]
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{{Quote|They were a people of the [[Dawn Age]], the very first, before kings and kingdoms. In those days, there were no castles or [[holdfast]]s, no cities, not so much as a market town to be found between here and the [[sea of Dorne]]. There were no men at all. Only the children of the forest dwelt in the lands we now call the [[Seven Kingdoms]].{{Ref|AGOT|66}}|[[Luwin]], to [[Bran Stark]]}}
  
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{{Quote|[[Beyond the Wall|North of the Wall]], things are different. That's where the children went, and the [[giants]], and the other old races.{{Ref|AGOT|66}}|[[Osha]], to [[Bran Stark]]}}
  
{{Quote|'''Osha''': The children of the forest could tell you a thing or two about dreaming.<br>
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{{Quote|The children are gone from this world, and their wisdom with them.{{Ref|ACOK|28}}|[[Luwin]], to [[Bran Stark]]}}
'''Luwin''': The children ... live only in dreams.  Now.  Dead and gone.{{ref|AGOT|66|p 736}}}} – [[Osha]] and [[Luwin]], to [[Bran Stark]]
 
  
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{{Quote|We remember the [[First Men]] in the [[Neck]], and the children of the forest who were their friends ... but so much is forgotten, and so much we never knew.{{Ref|ASOS|9}}|[[Jojen Reed]], to [[Bran Stark]]}}
  
{{Quote|[[Beyond the Wall|North of the Wall]], things are different.  That’s where the children went, and the [[giants]], and the other old races.{{ref|AGOT|66|p 736}}}} - [[Osha]], to [[Bran Stark]]
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{{Quote|The children of the forest are all dead. The [[First Men]] killed half of them with [[bronze]] blades, and the [[Andals]] finished the job with [[iron]].{{Ref|ASOS|33}}|[[Jeor Mormont]], to [[Samwell Tarly]]}}
  
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{{Quote|Though the men of the [[Seven Kingdoms]] might call them the ''children of the forest'', [[Leaf]] and her people were far from childlike. ''Little wise men of the forest'' would have been closer.{{Ref|ADWD|34}}|[[Bran Stark]]'s thoughts}}
  
{{Quote|The children are gone from this world, and their wisdom with them.{{ref|ACOK|28}}}} – [[Luwin]], to [[Bran Stark]]
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{{Quote|'''Bran:''' Where are the rest of you?<br>
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'''Leaf:''' Gone down into the earth. Into the stones, into the trees. Before the [[First Men]] came all this land that you call [[Westeros]] was home to us, yet even in those days we were few. [[Old gods|The gods]] gave us long lives but not great numbers, lest we overrun the world as [[deer]] will overrun a wood where there are no [[wolves]] to hunt them. That was in the [[Dawn Age|dawn of days]], when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The [[giant]]s are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great [[lion]]s of the [[westerlands|western hills]] have been slain, the [[unicorn]]s are all but gone, the [[mammoth]]s down to a few hundred. The [[direwolves]] will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us.{{Ref|aDwD|34}}|[[Bran Stark]] and Leaf}}
  
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{{Quote|Men would not be sad. Men would be wroth. Men would hate and swear a bloody vengeance. The singers sing sad songs, where men would fight and kill.{{Ref|ADWD|34}}|[[Bran Stark]]'s thoughts}}
  
{{Quote|The children of the forest are all dead.  The [[First Men]] killed half of them with bronze blades, and the [[Andals]] finished the job with iron.{{Ref|ASOS|33|p 373}}}} - [[Jeor Mormont]], to [[Samwell Tarly]]
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==References==
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{{Quote|[[Leaf]] and her people were far from childlike.  Little wise men of the forest would have been closer. {{Ref|aDwD|34}}}} - [[Bran Stark]]'s thoughts
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==References and Notes==
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Latest revision as of 04:41, 17 January 2024

A child of the forest, by Rae Lavergne ©

The children of the forest, sometimes referred to simply as the children, are a mysterious non-human race that originally inhabited the continent of Westeros during the Dawn Age long before the arrival of the First Men thousands of years ago. The giants call them woh dak nag gram (little squirrel people). They call themselves those who sing the song of earth in the True Tongue.[1] The children have not been seen by men for hundreds of years.[2]

Characteristics

A red-eyed child of the forest with a raven. © Pea's Pod
Their hands had only three fingers and a thumb, with sharp black claws instead of nails. © HBO

The children are smaller than humans, but they are not childlike. They have nut-brown skin, dappled like a deer's with paler spots. Their hands have only three fingers and a thumb, with sharp black claws instead of nails. They have large ears that can hear things that no man can hear.[3] They usually have large gold and green eyes slitted like those of a cat,[1] allowing them to see in dark passages.[3]

The children are slight, quick, and graceful. They weave leaves and vines and flowers into their hair, and wear cloaks of leaves. They may live for centuries.[1] They often sing in their language, the True Tongue.[3]

Very rarely, one of the children is born with mossy green or blood red eyes, a sign that they have been chosen by the Old Gods. The chosen ones are not robust, and do not live long on the earth, but they have the gift of greensight and are known as greenseers. Once they are bound to a weirwood, they live far longer than other children.[3]

The children are omnivores as they feed on different types of food they find and cultivate in and around their caves such as fish, meat, mushroom, cheese, milk, oats, barleycorn, dried fruit, and onions.[3]

Culture

The children may have lived in clans.[4] They did not use metal, weave cloth, or build cities. The children lived off the land, using stone and obsidian implements, wearing bark leg-bindings and shirts of woven leaves, dwelling in caves, crannogs, and hidden tree villages. Males and females both hunted side by side[5] as wood dancers,[6] using obsidian weapons, weirwood bows, and flying snares made with grasses.[4] The children had no books, no ink, no parchment and no written language.[3] They were a people with a deep connection to the land.[5] The children used their weirwood hunting bows and obsidian weapons in battle, but also used powerful magic.[4]

Legends say the children of the forest were gifted with supernatural powers. These included having power over the beasts of the wood, the ability to wear an animal's skin, the skill to create music so beautiful as to bring tears to the eyes of any who heard it, the greensight ability and the ability to speak to the dead.[7] It was the children who carved faces on weirwoods to keep watch over the woods.[8] The children of the forest believed that the weirwood trees were gods, and when they died they became a part of them.[3] Septon Barth believed that the children could communicate from afar with ravens.[4]

It is unknown if there is a connection between the children of the forest and the Ifequevron, or "woods walkers", of northern Essos. There is a ruined settlement of carved trees and haunted grottoes, called by the Dothraki Vaes Leisi, in the Kingdom of the Ifequevron.[9][10]

History

Dawn Age

Child of the forest, in its natural habitat. © HBO

It is unknown where the children of the forest came from, nor for how long they were in their land before humans arrived. For thousands of years during the Dawn Age the children and the giants shared the landmass that later became known as Westeros.[4] The two races are believed to have sometimes fought, since Maester Kennet found a giant's barrow near Long Lake with obsidian arrowheads in the ribs.[4] The children lived throughout Westeros, from the Summer Sea to the Land of Always Winter.[4] They called Dorne the "Empty Land",[11] however, and maesters doubt that the children lived on the Iron Islands.[12]

First Men

Eventually between eight thousand and twelve thousand years ago,[6] the children came in contact with the First Men, the first outsiders. Legends of the Reach claim they were led by Garth Greenhand.[13] Crossing the Arm of Dorne, the land-bridge connecting Westeros and Essos, these invaders built permanent settlements and brought with them bronze weapons, great leathern shields, the first horses, and their own gods.[5]

The children initially welcomed the newcomers, but they disliked the First Men's harvesting of trees from forests, such as the rainwood.[14] Fearing that the children used heart trees for spying, the First Men burned and cut down the great weirwoods as they came, leading to war between the two races.[4]

For thousands of years the two races fought a desperate war for dominance.[14] The legendary Brandon of the Bloody Blade slew numerous children at Red Lake.[13] In a futile attempt to end the invasion, the children used the hammer of the waters to shatter the Arm of Dorne with the Breaking, creating the Broken Arm and the Stepstones.[15] The histories say that some of the First Men, the crannogmen, grew close to the children of the forest in the days when the greenseers at the Children's Tower of Moat Cailin[16][17] tried to bring the hammer of the waters down upon the Neck.[18]

Eventually the First Men and the children fought to a standstill. The two races agreed to peaceful coexistence and signed the Pact on the Isle of Faces, granting the open lands to humanity and the forests to the children, who had been greatly diminished. The children taught worship of the old gods to the First Men.[14]

Age of Heroes

A greenseer singing the song of earth. © HBO

The Age of Heroes followed the Pact between the children and the First Men, four thousand years of relative peace between the races.[5] Eventually the enigmatic Others invaded from the uttermost north, bringing death and destruction to children and First Men, during an extended period of winter known as the Long Night. The children joined with the First Men, led by the last hero, to fight against the Others in the Battle for the Dawn. Eventually the Others were driven back into the Lands of Always Winter.[2] Bran the Builder, the legendary founder of House Stark, is said to have enlisted the magical aid of the children during the construction of the Wall.[4][19]

The children began their slow withdrawal from the lands of men, retreating deeper into their forests and beyond the Wall. It was recorded by the Night's Watch that the children of the forest gave the black brothers a hundred obsidian daggers every year during the Age of Heroes.[20] The free folk believe that Gendel and Gorne once mediated between rival children and giants.[4]

Children and their greenseers supported the Warg King at Sea Dragon Point, but they were defeated by the Starks of Winterfell, the Kings of Winter.[21] The Winged Knight in the Vale is said to have wed one of the children, but she died during childbirth.[22] Some legends claim that children helped Durran build the seventh castle of Storm's End.[23] Some maesters of the Citadel, such as Jellicoe, lived among the children.[24]

Andals

Children slain and weirwoods burned by Andals. © HBO

The children again warred with humans when the Andals began migrating from Andalos across the narrow sea to Westeros. Zealous in the Faith of the Seven and armed with steel, having learned of ironworking from the Rhoynar,[25] the Andals resumed the cutting down and burning of weirwoods.[26]

Children are said to have sent wolves against Andals at the White Wood.[26] The Storm King Durran XXI Durrandon formed the Weirwood Alliance with the remaining children in the stormlands against the new invaders.[27] Having seen the Andals overwhelm other kingdoms, Gwayne IV Gardener, King of the Reach, sent men to seek aid from the children, although it is unknown if any were found.[28]

A hill, now known to the Westerosi as High Heart, was sacred to the children of the forest. There the Andal king Erreg the Kinslayer cut down the children's grove of thirty-one weirwoods. High Heart is said to be haunted by the ghosts of the children who died there, where the children's magic is said to still linger.[29] True History states that the children had already abandoned the riverlands before the arrival of the Andals, however.[26]

Because of the Andals' invasion and conquest of the First Men, the old gods were largely supplanted south of the Neck by the Faith of the Seven. Moat Cailin held back the Andals from the north,[30] however, so some children fled north.[5] During the reign of Dorren Stark, King in the North, the ranger Redwyn traded with children during a journey to Lorn Point and the Frozen Shore.[31]

Relations between the children and humans grew distant over the years, until they ceased altogether. Maesters largely believe the children have been gone for hundreds[2] or thousands[32] of years, but the free folk believe they still live beyond the Wall.[5] Some scholars have suggested that children may have survived at the Isle of Faces or in the bogs of the Neck.[30] Some also theorize that the crannogmen of the Neck intermarried with the children.[33]

Jenny of Oldstones always claimed that her woods witch friend was one of the children.[34] Lord Eddard Stark taught his offspring in their youth about the Age of Heroes and the children of the forest.[35]

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

At Winterfell, Maester Luwin tells Bran Stark of the war of the First Men and the children of the forest and the Pact.[5]

A Clash of Kings

In the library of Castle Black Samwell Tarly reads an account of Redwyn's journey beyond the Wall, during which the ranger met children of the forest, and a book about the tongue of the children.[31]

Luwin and Bran speak of greensight.[8]

A Storm of Swords

Tom of Sevenstreams tells Arya Stark how High Heart is shunned by smallfolk, who believe it haunted by children slain by Erreg the Kinslayer. Arya wonders if the ghost of High Heart is one of the children, but tom explains she is just a dwarf woman.[29]

A Dance with Dragons

Bran Stark with the children of the forest by Conor Campbell ©

Coldhands leads Bran, Hodor, and Meera and Jojen Reed north of the Wall to the cave of the three-eyed crow, whom Coldhands calls the last greenseer.[36] They are attacked by wights at the entrance, a cleft in the hillside, but they survive with the assistance of one of the children, a being who first appears to be a girl child and can speak the Common Tongue.[1]

Bran and his companions discover a dwindling remnant of children live in the warded cavern. The caves are home to more than three score living singers and the bones of thousands dead, and extend far below the hollow hill. Bran and Meera give names to the children, since they cannot speak the True Tongue. Bran hears them sing sad songs in the True Tongue which he cannot understand, but their voices are as pure as the winter air. Leaf, who saved the humans from the wights, explains that the children have not explored all of the caves, even though they have lived there for a thousand thousand man-years. [3]

Bran finds greenseers enthroned in nests of weirwood roots. The boy learns from Lord Brynden, the last greenseer, and the child Snowylocks supplies weirwood paste.[3]

Known children of the forest

Quotes

A child of the forest. © Kallielef

Bran, the children of the forest have been dead and gone for thousands of years. All that is left of them are the faces in the trees.[32]

They were a people of the Dawn Age, the very first, before kings and kingdoms. In those days, there were no castles or holdfasts, no cities, not so much as a market town to be found between here and the sea of Dorne. There were no men at all. Only the children of the forest dwelt in the lands we now call the Seven Kingdoms.[5]

North of the Wall, things are different. That's where the children went, and the giants, and the other old races.[5]

The children are gone from this world, and their wisdom with them.[8]

We remember the First Men in the Neck, and the children of the forest who were their friends ... but so much is forgotten, and so much we never knew.[37]

The children of the forest are all dead. The First Men killed half of them with bronze blades, and the Andals finished the job with iron.[38]

Though the men of the Seven Kingdoms might call them the children of the forest, Leaf and her people were far from childlike. Little wise men of the forest would have been closer.[3]

Bran Stark's thoughts

Bran: Where are the rest of you?
Leaf: Gone down into the earth. Into the stones, into the trees. Before the First Men came all this land that you call Westeros was home to us, yet even in those days we were few. The gods gave us long lives but not great numbers, lest we overrun the world as deer will overrun a wood where there are no wolves to hunt them. That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The giants are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great lions of the western hills have been slain, the unicorns are all but gone, the mammoths down to a few hundred. The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us.[3]

Bran Stark and Leaf

Men would not be sad. Men would be wroth. Men would hate and swear a bloody vengeance. The singers sing sad songs, where men would fight and kill.[3]

Bran Stark's thoughts

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 13, Bran II.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Long Night.
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 34, Bran III.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Dawn Age.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 66, Bran VII.
  6. 6.0 6.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Coming of the First Men.
  7. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 13, Jon II.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 28, Bran IV.
  9. George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Ifequevron.
  10. The World of Ice & Fire, Beyond the Free Cities: Ib.
  11. The World of Ice & Fire, Dorne.
  12. The World of Ice & Fire, The Iron Islands.
  13. 13.0 13.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Reach: Garth Greenhand.
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 The World of Ice & Fire, The Stormlands: The Coming of the First Men.
  15. The World of Ice & Fire, Dorne: The Breaking.
  16. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 55, Catelyn VIII.
  17. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 20, Reek II.
  18. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 50, Theon IV.
  19. The World of Ice & Fire, The Wall and Beyond: The Night's Watch.
  20. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 5, Samwell I.
  21. The World of Ice & Fire, The North: The Kings of Winter.
  22. The World of Ice & Fire, The Vale: House Arryn.
  23. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 31, Catelyn III.
  24. The World of Ice & Fire, The Reach: Oldtown.
  25. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 5, Tyrion II.
  26. 26.0 26.1 26.2 The World of Ice & Fire, The Riverlands.
  27. The World of Ice & Fire, The Stormlands: Andals in the Stormlands.
  28. The World of Ice & Fire, The Reach: Andals in the Reach.
  29. 29.0 29.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 22, Arya IV.
  30. 30.0 30.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Arrival of the Andals.
  31. 31.0 31.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 6, Jon I.
  32. 32.0 32.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 24, Bran IV.
  33. The World of Ice & Fire, The North: The Crannogmen of the Neck.
  34. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 23, Daenerys IV.
  35. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 1, Bran I.
  36. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 4, Bran I.
  37. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 9, Bran I.
  38. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 33, Samwell II.