Mole's Town

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The north and the location of Mole's Town
The north and the location of Mole's Town
Mole's Town
The north and the location of Mole's Town
Mole's Town by Paolo Puggioni © Fantasy Flight Games

Mole's Town is a village[1] or town[2] close to Castle Black. It lies along the kingsroad in Brandon's Gift, half a league south of the Wall.[1] Jon Snow refers to the village's smallfolk as moles.[3]

Layout

Mole's Town is bigger than it seems. Three-quarters of the village lie below ground in deep damp warm cellars and vaults connected by a warren of tunnels. Buildings above ground include a smithy,[4] a stable,[5] and a small number of hovels with shuttered windows and wooden slats.[6]

There is a brothel located in the cellars, with nothing more than a shack no bigger than a privy on the surface. It has a red lantern that is hung over the door. It is said that brothers of the Night's Watch go to Mole's Town to dig or mine for "buried treasure" (i.e. engage the services of prostitutes).

Smallfolk in Mole's Town farm nearby fields.[6] A huge oak tree by the kingsroad marks the village's northern perimeter.[4][6]

History

In 58 AC, Queen Alysanne Targaryen went on a royal progress to Winterfell with her husband King Jaehaerys, and decided to visit the Wall. It was normally Alysanne's practice to hold "women's courts" while on royal progress, but as there are no women in the Night's Watch, she pressured Lord Commander Burley to escort her to Mole's Town, the nearest settlement of commoners in the lands ruled directly by the Watch. There she held one of her women's courts among the whores who lived there, learning that many of them were commoner women who were seized by lords practicing First Night, after which their husbands abandoned them. Alysanne was so horrified by this that upon her return to King's Landing she convinced Jaehaerys to ban First Night throughout the Seven Kingdoms.[7]

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Donal Noye restores the burned sword Longclaw, which Jeor Mormont then gives to Jon Snow. The sword's pommel is decorated with garnets purchased by Samwell Tarly in Mole's Town.[8]

Desiring to aid his half brother, Robb Stark, Jon deserts the Night's Watch and rides south past Mole's Town on the kingsroad. However, his friends convince him to return to Castle Black.[6]

A Clash of Kings

Before embarking on the great ranging, many rangers go drinking and whoring in Mole's Town. To celebrate Grenn's first ranging, Halder, Pypar, and Todder pay for his first woman. Sam and Jon are invited as well, but they remain at Castle Black.[9]

A Storm of Swords

Having escaped from Styr at Queenscrown,[10] Jon warns the people of Mole's Town of the upcoming attack by raiders of the free folk and Thenns,[5] with three quarters of the villagers choosing to escape to Castle Black.[3] The wildlings set the village afire on their way to the Wall.[3] Some villagers help the Night's Watch prepare for the attack on Castle Black, and a midwife assists Clydas and Maester Aemon with treating the wounded. Most villagers seek refuge atop the Wall, and the few fighting below have poor discipline.[3]

After the attack from the south is repulsed, most villagers return to Mole's Town, although Hareth, Zei, and three orphaned boys remain at Castle Black. When Mance Rayder threatens from north of the Wall, Jon sends Zei with a request for aid from the village, but she never returns. Jon then sends Mully, who finds the village deserted. Jon assumes the villagers went south on the kingsroad.[11]

A Dance with Dragons

After the battle beneath the Wall, Stannis Baratheon investigates Mole's Town.[12] Although the buildings above ground were put to the torch by wildlings, the cellars below remain inhabitable.[4]

Free folk who have yielded to Stannis take refuge in the tunnels of Mole's Town.[13] Jon, now Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, posts guards around the village to separate the Night's Watch from wildling women, as well as prevent wildlings from venturing further south.[4] Wildlings carve carve a face into the oak, turning it into a heart tree.[4]

While delivering rations to the village, Jon finds the tunnels overcrowded with hungry free folk. In return for food and shelter at the Wall, sixty-three wildlings choose to work with the Watch.[4] Jon later sends ten Mole's Town wildlings each to Cotter Pyke at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea and Ser Denys Mallister at the Shadow Tower.[14]

Hareth, a stablehand from Mole's Town who aided in the defense of Castle Black,[15] joins the Night's Watch.[16]

Ty and Dannel find Alys Karstark two leagues south of Mole's Town.[17] Jon takes into custody her pursuer, Cregan Karstark, half a league south of the village before he can claim guest right.[18]

Quotes

If we beheaded every boy who rode to Mole's Town in the night, only ghosts would guard the Wall.[6]

Mole's Town had always been larger than it seemed; most of it was underground, sheltered from the cold and snow.[4]

—thoughts of Jon Snow

The Magnar of Thenn had put the empty village to the torch when he passed through on his way to attack Castle Black, and only heaps of blackened beams and old scorched stones remained above-ground … but down beneath the frozen earth, the vaults and tunnels and deep cellars still endured, and that was where the free folk had taken refuge, huddled together in the dark like the moles from which the village took its name.[4]

—thoughts of Jon Snow

Chapters that take place at Mole's Town

References