Conflict beyond the Wall

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War Beyond the Wall
Date 296 AC-Ongoing
Location Beyond the Wall
Battles Fist of the First Men | Battle of the Bridge of Skulls | Castle Black |
Result Decisive Baratheon of King's Landing victory
Belligerents
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Conflict Beyond the Wall, refering to an ongoing conflicts taking place Beyond the Wall. While the War of the Five Kings raged in the south of Westeros the Night's Watch was engaged in heavy fighting not only against resurgent Wildling forces but their ancient enemy, the Others. While the conflicts at and north of the Wall cannot be characterized as a campaign or war by any one side it can be viewed as a three-sided conflict between forces each pursuing their own goals at the expense of the others.

The King Beyond the Wall and The Horn of Winter

Even before the beginning of Robert's Rebellion, Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, was gathering wildling forces around him in an attempt to stave off attacks from the Others and recover the Horn of Winter. The Horn was needed as a fail-safe against the Night's Watch, as it was reputed in legend to be able to bring down the entire Wall with a single sounding. While most thought that the Horn was just a myth, Mance believed not only that it was real but that he could find it, deep in the frozen mountains known as the Frostfangs.

After the disappearance of a group of rangers led by Ser Waymar Royce,[1] a second group led by First Ranger Benjen Stark went north to find their missing Brothers and discover what was becoming of all the wildlings.[2] After the subsequent disappearance of this second group, and the continued realignment of known wildling population centers, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont organized an expedition of over 300 Brothers and personally led them north to an ancient settlement near the Skirling Pass, east of the Frostfangs, called the Fist of the First Men.[3],[4]

The Half-Hand and the Battle of the Fist of First Men

While Lord Commander Mormont led his small army north, several groups were dispatched by the Watch to scout ahead. One of these groups was led by Qhorin Halfhand, a senior ranger and the second in command of the Night's Watch western most castle, the Shadow Tower. Accompanied by a half-dozen other rangers, including Jon Snow, a bastard of House Stark, the Halfhand discovered a vast wildling host deep in the Frostfangs. The group was trapped by wildling forces and either killed or went missing one by one until only the Halfhand and Jon Snow remained. At this point, to ensure that someone survived to bring word back to the Lord Commander, Qhorin Halfhand allowed Snow to slay him in a duel, thereby earning Snow the trust of the wildlings. With the destruction of the Halfhand's party, and Snow's inability to escape in time, the Lord Commander would receive no warning of the wildling host's purpose or composition, now numbering over a hundred thousand.

After the Night's Watch encamped on the Fist, a debate ensued among the Watch's leadership as to what the best course of action was to deal with the Wildling threat. Some, such as Thoren Smallwood, advocated attacking the wildling host along its line of march. The argument proved to be of no consequence when night fell and a force of Others and wights assaulted the Fist. The Watch had some initial success with flaming arrows and spear walls, but the massive waves of wights and the deadly Others overcame the Watch's defenses. Realizing that his position was untenable and remaining on the Fist would result in the overrunning and ultimate destruction of his forces, Lord Commander Mormont ordered the Brothers to attempt a breakout of their encircled position. Once mounted, the Brothers formed a wedge and managed to fight their way off the Fist.

Mormont's savaged forces managed to make a long march through the snow-covered wilderness to Craster's Keep, a Wildling estate known to the Brothers to be friendly to the Watch. The Watch was harried and harassed all through the night as they made their retreat, and by the time that they reached Craster's Keep less than one hundred Brothers remained of the original force. It was here, desperate and angry at their situation, that a group of Brothers rebelled and murdered not only Craster but Lord Commander Mormont as well. A small group of loyalists managed to escape the carnage and make their way back to the Wall, bringing news of the disastrous expedition's fate.

The Battles of Castle Black and The Gap

Mance Rayder, now knowing that the bulk of The Watch's fighting forces had been wiped out on the Fist by their mutual enemy, made his way out of the Frostfangs and started his march toward the Wall. Mance formed a plan to divert the remaining fighting men from both Castle Black and the Shadow Tower to the far west so he could send a team to scale the Wall and take the unwalled Castle Black from behind. With his diversionary force riding hard for the west, Lord Steward Bowen Marsh marshaled his forces and took the bait leaving only the old, the green, and the sickly behind to defend Castle Black. After this time, Jon Snow escaped from the wildlings and managed to return to Castle Black with warning of the approaching enemy force of Thenns and Wildling raiders sweeping around to their southern flank.

The Battle for Castle Black began in the early morning hours as wildling raiders and Thenn warriors stormed into Castle Black. Jon Snow and Donal Noye, Castle Black's blacksmith and de facto commander, organized the defense around archers in the towers and a line of fighting men on the massive wooden staircase that zigzagged up the south face of the Wall. After the archers took a heavy toll on the wildling force the battle was joined on the stair. Once the majority of the wildling forces had mounted the stair and were pushing back the crumbling defense the Watch sprung their desperate trap. The stair, soaked in oil between the last Night's Watch line of defense and the base of the structure, was set ablaze, destroying the stair and annihilating the wildling forces. While the raiding party had been defeated Mance's main force had yet to be dealt with and the Watch's primary means of transporting men and materials to the Wall had been destroyed.

With the news that his advance party had been defeated, and he would have to assault the Wall, Mance assembled his host at the tree line. Aftrer a small probing attack at night, the first morning's attacks were spearheaded by Giants mounted on mammoths. Only one giant, Mag the Mighty, King of the Giants, managed to breach the massive doors that lead to the tunnel underneath the Wall. Donal Noye and several brothers defended the tunnel system with spears and arrow fire from behind the internal gate and murder-hole system built into the tunnel. While they managed to kill all of the attackers, including Mag, and held the interior portcullis under the Wall, all the defenders were slain, including Noye, whose body was found crushed by Mag, his sword thrust though the Giant's neck.

With the death of Donal Noye, Jon Snow assumed command of the defense of the Wall at the request of Maester Aemon. Over the next several days Snow managed to throw back repeated attacks on the Wall by using catapults, archers, flaming arrows, boiling oils and finally frozen barrels of rock and ice used to destroy Mance's armored battering rams. Fortunately for the defenders of Castle Black, reinforcements arrived in the form of Brothers fresh from the battle at the Gap, Bowen Marsh's costly engagement of Mance's diversionary attack. Marsh, the Lord Steward and not a ranger, was badly wounded in the pyrrhic victory. Ser Alliser Thorne and Lord Janos Slynt, a known sympathizer of House Lannister, enemies of Jon Snow's parent House Stark, arrived along with the reinforcements. They took Jon Snow into custody with the knowledge that he had deserted and joined forces with the wildlings, either not believing or not caring about his orders from the Half-Hand to do just that.

Assuming that Snow would be killed, Slynt dispatched him to treat with Mance and demand his surrender. It was at this meeting that Snow learned that Mance had in fact found the Horn of Winter and held back from its sounding only because of a fear that without the Wall standing nothing would stop the Others from following his people into the South.


References and Notes