The great ranging is an expedition organized by Jeor Mormont, the 997th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, in 299 AC. Lord Commander Mormont leads three hundred sworn brothers of the Night's Watch, including two hundred from Castle Black and another hundred from the Shadow Tower, north beyond the Wall. It is the biggest ranging in living memory, consisting of near a third of the Night's Watch's strength.
Goals
[edit]The great ranging's goals are:[1][2]
- To discover why the wildlings who lived close to the Wall were leaving their villages;
- Learn more about the so-called King-Beyond-the-Wall, Mance Rayder;
- Find First Ranger Benjen Stark, Ser Waymar Royce, and the other rangers who have recently disappeared;[3][4]
- To discover further information on what caused the corpses of Jafer Flowers and Othor to rise from the dead as wights.[5]
Expedition North and New Discoveries
[edit]
The expedition into the haunted forest passes seven deserted wildling villages, the fourth of which is Whitetree,[6] before arriving at Craster's Keep, where the expedition camps for the night. There they learn from Craster the villages are empty because Mance Rayder is gathering all the free folk in the Frostfangs with the intent to strike at the Wall as the wildling chieftains have done in the past.[7]
Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, decides they will camp at the Fist of the First Men and await Qhorin Halfhand and the men from the Shadow Tower. Qhorin's party arrives late after running into a wildling scouting party led by Alfyn Crowkiller. They were successful in stopping the wildlings from reporting back to Mance, at the cost of four men and a dozen wounded. A prisoner taken in the battle revealed that Mance is searching for some magic to bring down the Wall.[8]
After Qhorin finally makes it to the rendezvous point, it is decided to send three scouting parties into the Frostfangs to discover the size of the host and what Mance is looking for. Jarman Buckwell, Thoren Smallwood, and Qhorin are selected to lead the parties, and Qhorin requests that Jon Snow, Jeor's steward, accompany him.[8]
Scouting Parties
[edit]Jarman climbs the Giant's Stair,[2] and Thoren follows the Milkwater.[2]
Qhorin leads his party into the Skirling Pass, but they are forced to turn back when discovered by wildlings.[9] When Qhorin and Jon are overcome by Rattleshirt's band, Qhorin has Jon kill him in a duel so that Jon can join the wildlings as a supposed deserter.[10] Mance Rayder and Styr question Jon about the ranging.[11]
Disaster at the Fist and Retreat
[edit]
After Thoren's team returns to the Fist of the First Men, Jeor decides that the Watch will attack Mance's large, uncoordinated host. Separately, Chett leads a small group of conspirators who plot to assassinate the Lord Commander and desert.[2] Before either plan can be put into effect, however, the expedition encamped at the Fist is attacked by wights.[2] After an unsuccessful counterattack, due to being caught unaware and ill-prepared to fight an unfamiliar foe, Lord Commander Mormont rallies sixty-some[12] onto horseback to break out of the Fist in a tactical retreat.[13]
As the horses become more tired and the weather worsens, the Lord Commander organizes the injured to be put on horseback and sets the able men walking with torches to guard the flanks and rear. A few bleed to death or wander off into the snow, and others in the rearguard are picked off.[13] Samwell Tarly, Small Paul, and Grenn are among the stragglers, and they are attacked by an Other. Samwell stabs the Other with a dragonglass dagger after it kills Paul, causing the creature to dissolve.[13]
Mutiny at Craster's Keep
[edit]Forty-four brothers, twelve of them seriously injured, survive the wight and Other attacks and are able to reach Craster's Keep.[12] However, morale is low and food is scarce. Four men die from their wounds, including Bannen.[12]
Although Craster offers them some food, many of the disgruntled members of the group claim Craster is holding out on them, and they eventually draw their weapons. Craster tries to fight them but is killed by Dirk. Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, who tries to intervene, is killed as well by Ollo Lophand, which leads to a brawl between the mutineers and the loyalists.[12]
About a dozen loyalists decide to retreat and manage to return to Castle Black;[14] Samwell Tarly and Gilly also manage to escape.[15] Jarman's party eventually returns to Castle Black as well.[14]
Aftermath
[edit]According to Bowen Marsh, the ranging costs the Watch a quarter of its strength,[16] including most of its officers and best men. Jon Snow escapes from Styr's wildlings at Queenscrown,[17] and he returns to the Watch to help defend against Styr's attack on Castle Black.[18]
Known Members
[edit]Command
[edit]
- Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch,[6] killed at Craster's Keep[12]
- Thoren Smallwood, commander of the rangers,[19] killed at the Fist[13]
- Jarman Buckwell, commander of the scouts[6]
- Ser Mallador Locke, commander of the baggage[6]
- Ser Ottyn Wythers, commander of the rearguard,[6] killed at the Fist[13]
- Qhorin Halfhand, commander of the brothers from the Shadow Tower,[8] killed in the Skirling Pass by Jon Snow[10]
- Blane, Qhorin's second-in-command[2]
Rangers/Scouts
[edit]- Aethan[2]
- Alan of Rosby,[13] a mutineer[20]
- Bannen, dies at Craster's Keep[12]
- Bedwyck, known as Giant[6]
- Black Bernarr[13]
- Brown Bernarr,[7] killed at the Fist[12]
- Byam Flint, dies at Craster's Keep[12]
- Dalbridge, called Squire Dalbridge, sacrifices himself in the Skirling Pass[9]
- Dirk,[12] a mutineer[20]
- Dywen[6]
- Ebben, killed by wildlings in the Skirling Pass[10]
- Fornio, delirious at Craster's[12]
- Garth Greyfeather[12]
- Garth of Greenaway,[12] a mutineer[20]
- Garth of Oldtown, killed by Garth of Greenaway at Craster's[12]
- Goady[2]
- Grenn[6]
- Grubbs, a mutineer[20]
- Ronnel Harclay[12]
- Kedge Whiteye[2]
- Lark the Sisterman,[7] turned into a wight[15]
- Mawney, a mutineer[20]
- Ollo Lophand, a mutineer[12]
- Ryles, turned into a wight[21]
- Softfoot, turned into a wight[21]
- Tim Stone[12]
- Stonesnake, lost in the Skirling Pass[22]
- Tumberjon[2]
- Ulmer of the Kingswood[12]
Stewards
[edit]- Chett, keeper of the hounds,[6] turned into a wight[21]
- Clubfoot Karl,[12] a mutineer[20]
- Hake, steward and cook, likely turned into a wight[21]
- Sweet Donnel Hill, Mallador Locke's steward and squire
- Left Hand Lew[14]
- Maslyn, killed at the Fist[13]
- Muttering Bill,[12] a mutineer[20]
- Orphan Oss,[12] a mutineer[20]
- Rolley of Sisterton, dies at Craster's Keep[12]
- Sawwood[2]
- Small Paul, killed by an Other[13] and turned into a wight[15]
- Jon Snow, Jeor's steward and squire[6]
- Samwell Tarly, keeper of the ravens[6]
- Eddison Tollett[6]
Confirmed survivors
[edit]The following men are known to have survived the great ranging and returned to Castle Black:
- Bedwyck, one of the dozen who return to Castle Black from Craster's Keep[14]
- Black Bernarr[20]
- Donnel Hill, one of the dozen[14]
- Dywen[14]
- Eddison Tollett, one of the dozen[14]
- Garth Greyfeather, one of the dozen[14]
- Goady[20]
- Grenn, one of the dozen[14]
- Jarman Buckwell and his scouting party,[14] perhaps five men including himself.
- Jon Snow, independently makes his way back to the Wall[14]
- Kedge Whiteye[23]
- Left Hand Lew, one of the dozen[14]
- Samwell Tarly, independently makes his way back to the Wall with Gilly and her infant son[24]
- Tim Stone[20]
- Tumberjon[25]
- Ulmer of the Kingswood, one of the dozen[14]
Unconfirmed fates
[edit]Quotes
[edit]Jeor: I think you were meant to be here, and I want you and that wolf of yours with us when we go beyond the Wall.
Jon: Beyond the Wall?
Jeor: You heard me. I mean to find Ben Stark, alive or dead. I will not sit here meekly and wait for the snows and the ice winds. We must know what is happening. This time the Night's Watch will ride in force, against the King-beyond-the-Wall, the Others, and anything else that may be out there. I mean to command them myself.[1]
—Jeor Mormont and Jon Snow
The pale pink light of dawn sparkled on branch and leaf and stone. Every blade of grass was carved from emerald, every drip of water turned to diamond. Flowers and mushrooms alike wore coats of glass. Even the mud puddles had a bright brown sheen. Through the shimmering greenery, the black tents of his brothers were encased in a fine glaze of ice.[7]
—thoughts of Jon Snow
Chett: It's an old man's folly, this ranging. We'll find nothing but our graves in them mountains.
Lark: There's giants in the Frostfangs, and wargs, and worse things.[8]
Three hundred sworn brothers of the Night's Watch had ridden north, two hundred from Castle Black and another hundred from the Shadow Tower. It was the biggest ranging in living memory, near a third of the Watch's strength. They meant to find Ben Stark, Ser Waymar Royce, and the other rangers who'd gone missing, and discover why the wildlings were leaving their villages. Well, they were no closer to Stark and Royce than when they'd left the Wall, but they'd learned where all the wildlings had gone—up into the icy heights of the godsforsaken Frostfangs.[2]
—thoughts of Chett
Craster's sloping palisades of mud and melting snow would hardly slow the wights, who'd climbed the much steeper slopes of the Fist to swarm over the ringwall. And instead of three hundred brothers drawn up in disciplined ranks to meet them, the wights would find forty-one ragged survivors, nine too badly hurt to fight. Forty-four had come straggling into Craster's out of the storm, out of the sixty-odd who'd cut their way free of the Fist, but three of those had died of their wounds, and Bannen would soon make four.[12]
—thoughts of Samwell Tarly
Only a dozen? Two hundred men had left Castle Black with Lord Commander Mormont, two hundred of the Watch's best.[14]
—thoughts of Jon Snow
Lord Mormont's last ranging cost the Watch a quarter of its men, my lord. We need to conserve what strength remains us. Every death diminishes us, and we are stretched so thin ...[16]
—Bowen Marsh to Jon Snow
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 70, Jon IX.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 A Storm of Swords, Prologue.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Prologue.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 19, Jon III.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 52, Jon VII.
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 13, Jon II.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 23, Jon III.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 43, Jon V.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 53, Jon VII.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 68, Jon VIII.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 7, Jon I.
- ↑ 12.00 12.01 12.02 12.03 12.04 12.05 12.06 12.07 12.08 12.09 12.10 12.11 12.12 12.13 12.14 12.15 12.16 12.17 12.18 12.19 12.20 12.21 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 33, Samwell II.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 13.8 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 18, Samwell I.
- ↑ 14.00 14.01 14.02 14.03 14.04 14.05 14.06 14.07 14.08 14.09 14.10 14.11 14.12 14.13 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 48, Jon VI.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 46, Samwell III.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 10, Jon III.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 41, Jon V.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 55, Jon VII.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 34, Jon IV.
- ↑ 20.00 20.01 20.02 20.03 20.04 20.05 20.06 20.07 20.08 20.09 20.10 A Feast for Crows, Appendix.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 46, Bran VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Appendix.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 5, Samwell I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 75, Samwell IV.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 69, Jon IX.