The wargs were the most numerous in that company, the wolf-brothers, but the boy had found the others stranger and more fascinating. Borroq looked so much like his boar that all he lacked was tusks... (Prologue, ADwD)
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"The lad's a warg, or close enough," put in Ragwyle, the big spearwife. "His wolf took a piece o' Halfhand's leg."
The Weeper's red rheumy eyes gave Jon another look. "Aye? Well, he has a wolfish cast to him, now as I look close.[...]" (Jon I, ASoS)
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He had known what Snow was the moment he saw that great white direwolf stalking silent at his side. One skinchanger can always sense another. (Prologue, ADwD)
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Amongst the riders came one man afoot, with some big beast trotting at his heels. A boar, Jon saw. A monstrous boar. Twice the size of Ghost, the creature was covered with coarse black hair, with tusks as long as a man's arm. Jon had never seen a boar so huge or ugly. The man beside him was no beauty either; hulking, black-browed, he had a flat nose, heavy jowls dark with stubble, small black close-set eyes.
"Borroq." Tormund turned his head and spat.
"A skinchanger." It was not a question. Somehow he knew.
...
The skinchanger stopped ten yards away. His monster pawed at the mud, snuffling. A light powdering of snow covered the boar's humped black back. He gave a snort and lowered his head, and for half a heartbeat Jon thought he was about to charge. To either side of him, his men lowered their spears.
"Brother," Borroq said. (Jon XII, ADwD)
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In the dark, the direwolf's red eyes looked black. He nuzzled at Jon's neck, silent as ever, his breath a hot mist. The wildlings called Jon Snow a warg, but if so he was a poor one. He did not know how to put on a wolf skin, the way Orell had with his eagle before he'd died. (Jon III, ADwD)
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The gift was strong in Snow, but the youth was untaught, still fighting his nature when he should have gloried in it. (Prologue, ADwD)
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Marsh hesitated. "Lord Snow, I am not one to bear tales, but there has been talk that you are becoming too…too friendly with Lord Stannis. Some even suggest that you are…a…"
A rebel and a turncloak, aye, and a bastard and a warg as well. Janos Slynt might be gone, but his lies lingered. (Jon III, ADwD)
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"Wolves and women wed for life," Haggon often said. "You take one, that's a marriage. The wolf is part of you from that day on, and you're part of him. Both of you will change."
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Perched above the window, the Old Bear's raven peered down at him with shrewd black eyes. My last friend, Jon thought ruefully. And I had best outlive you, or you'll eat my face as well. Ghost did not count. Ghost was closer than a friend. Ghost was part of him. (Jon III, ADwD)
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Jon smelled Tom Barleycorn before he saw him. Or was it Ghost who smelled him? Of late, Jon Snow sometimes felt as if he and the direwolf were one, even awake. The great white wolf appeared first, shaking off the snow. A few moments later Tom was there.
...
Ghost nuzzled up against his shoulder, and Jon draped an arm around him. He could smell Horse's unwashed breeches, the sweet scent Satin combed into his beard, the rank sharp smell of fear, the giant's overpowering musk. He could hear the beating of his own heart. When he looked across the grove at the woman with her child, the two greybeards, the Hornfoot man with his maimed feet, all he saw was men. (Jon VII, ADwD)
Hi there, I have two questions regarding the following scene from Jon XII, ADWD:
“The skinchanger stopped ten yards away. His monster pawed at the mud, snuffling. A light powdering of snow covered the boar's humped black back. He gave a snort and lowered his head, and for half a heartbeat Jon thought he was about to charge. To either side of him, his men lowered their spears.
"Brother," Borroq said.
"You'd best go on. We are about to close the gate."
“You do that," Borroq said. "You close it good and tight. They're coming, crow." He smiled as ugly a smile as Jon had ever seen and made his way to the gate. The boar stalked after him. The falling snow covered up their tracks behind them.”
Firstly, do you think Greenseers and/or those who experience green dreams (E.g. Jojen Reed and Bran Stark) are considered part of the sort of loose brotherhood of Wargs and Skinchangers, in Wildling cultures beyond the Wall, as depicted here between Jon Snow and Borroq? Secondly, what exactly is Borroq smiling about in this scene?
Our first introduction to Borroq is from a gathering of skinchangers and wargs recounted in Varamyr's memory. Why they have meetings and what they discuss is not really clear. But it does seem like those born in that one-in-a-thousand chance are in the club. In First Men cultures that are less impacted by the Faith/southern culture, skinchanging, green dreams, green seeing, and magic are simply understood to be a thing and the gifted are both feared and honored. Being occasionally hunted and killed out of superstitious fears is probably a reason why they do network from time to time, maybe to keep tabs on each other, even if there can be bad blood among individuals or even if they disagree on some fundamentals. As we can see in Varamyr's POV, not every skinchanger plays by the rules Haggon lays out. Most seem to do their own thing.
Any kinship that extends to people with other gifts seems to be looser still, but they do intersect with each other occasionally. Jojen was visited by a three-eyed crow as he lay near death from greywater fever and was given the gift of green dreams. After Jojen tells his father, Howland Reed (who is described as an adept mage, but does not have prophetic visions), about his green dreams, HR sends his children to Winterfell to guide Bran as much as they can as his powers awaken. They are able to offer Bran some general knowledge about green magic/skin changing like you can't get sustenance by eating in Summer's body; however, they still must deliver Bran to an actual greenseer that can train him in the gifts they don't have. And we expect HR to reveal himself in the third act to do whatever it is he's going to do. High chance a mage that went to Isle of Faces University doesn't just exist to deliver paternity info.
As for Borroq himself, we simply don't know enough about him to really know what his deal is, but we might be able to infer some things to speculate. Tormund obviously has some contempt for him. Maybe not as much as he had for Varamyr, but seems he would rather not keep his company. Boars were among the animals Haggon warned Varamyr not to skinchange into because of how they can change a person. With that said, Borroq's boar is absolutely massive ("twice the size of Ghost") with sword-like tusks as long as a man's arm, indicating this is a fully mature boar that's been well-fed for many a season. It also hasn't had any predators or habitat constraints to stop it from growing so abnormally large. A normal-sized boar can fuck you up. This one is practically a forest god and it could probably mow through its enemies like a combine harvester. So it's safe to say Borroq himself might be as dangerous as his boar.
Why Haggon mistrusts keeping boars is only a guess. He could be absorbing some of his own wolf, Greyskin's, instincts toward other animals. Wolves do hunt smaller boars but may be mortally wounded trying to take on a larger one. Ghost is certainly going a little crazy with the scent of a prey animal nearby. Jon orders them separated or else a bloody fight could break out, one Ghost may not survive. But Haggon may have other reasons. Not only are boars so strong and fierce they've been known to kill many an experienced hunter, but they are also highly adaptable omnivores, and they can eat small animals, even carrion.
Okay, bear with me here while I indulge in a bit of speculation, and I promise I am making my way toward answering your question. Take this next part with a HEFTY amount of salt. Does Borroq's boar, or maybe Borroq himself, have a taste for carrion?
Until such time, Borroq had taken up residence in one of the ancient tombs beside the castle lichyard. The company of men long dead seemed to suit him better than that of the living, and his boar seemed happy rooting amongst the graves, well away from other animals. -- Jon XIII, ADWD.
Resorting to eating decaying flesh (sometimes even human) isn't unheard of in the harsh wilderness when the only choice is that or starve; however, boars are natural survivors because they can eat practically anything. The boar is shown to be rooting around the graves, which could be an attraction to the scent of decay. Bran relished eating bloody deer meat in Summer's skin, so I don't think the urge to eat whatever the animal naturally wants would be any different. If a skinchanger has eaten carrion often enough while inhabiting a boar, maybe when the circumstances are not quite that dire, it could change the man in ways others might find ghastly and disturbing, even if the flesh is animal and not human. Lots of hardened wildlings are inured by death, but Borroq gives off these morbidly cozy, comfy vibes being around the dead. Major goth edgelord shit there.
I'm not suggesting Borroq does the actual butchering of any people himself for the purpose of eating them, but being an occasional carrion-eater or nibbling on the recently deceased (instead of immediately burning them as custom strictly dictates) would certainly be enough to earn someone a bit of a ghoulish reputation, hence Tormund's reaction to his presence. Haggon makes this clear that if a skinchanger crosses the line into eating humans, he wouldn't be just gross, but fucking cursed.
"Men may eat the flesh of beasts and beasts the flesh of men, but the man who eats the flesh of man is an abomination."
I could be way off and being too literal here with the lichyard bit. There could be a multitude of reasons why Tormund dislikes Borroq. Spitting on the ground might just be a display of general contempt, but it is also commonly believed in many real-world cultures that spitting on the ground is an effective way to ward off The Evil Eye. GRRM could be borrowing that signifier. Like there's bad juju surrounding this guy. Wildlings do believe certain people are cursed for violating taboos like Craster is considered cursed for his blatant offense to the gods. So, I don't know. We'll see. Borroq does feel like a minor character that managed to distinguish himself when given the spotlight, and I suspect he'll be fleshed out more in TWOW.
Regardless, in the literary sense, he's aligned with death in this scene. He's like the specter of the Stranger, who is sometimes depicted as half-man, half-beast, just nonchalantly loitering around the tombs and graves. His boar is busy digging up a fresh hole in the ground like someone(s) is due to croak very soon...
Oh yeah. This is Jon XIII: the mutiny chapter. This would not be the first time in this series a very large boar was associated with an assassination and sudden regime change. It's also not the first time an agitated direwolf has been chained up (for everyone's safety ha!) while its warg got assassinated by men sworn to them. If Borroq and his boar are a portent of death, hidden in plain sight, then Jon is blind to it. Jon can only think "the last thing I need right now is Ghost savaging that boar," at a time when it would have been wiser to keep his direwolf close. In superstitious thinking, the howling of restless dogs is said to be a sign that trouble is near; Ghost is mute, however, but is still definitely flipping out. He's pacing around his confinement, bristling, bearing his teeth, and snapping at Jon. Even Mormont's raven is calling his name over and over like they are trying to get his attention. Yes, it's on account of that boar, but not the literal boar. The boar that means he's about to get the ol' heave-ho via knife. Repeated misunderstanding of this communication speaks to Jon being unable to read the signs orbiting around him. He's had a case of tunnel vision and has taken some things for granted like the continued obedience of the mutineers, who will decide new leadership is in order. He doesn't fully appreciate the extent to which his soon-to-be-assassins feel he has betrayed them and the mission of the Watch.
But back to Borroq. There's a dark ironic humor to Borroq calling Jon "brother." Jon is both a brother skinchanger and a black brother. Just a short time ago they were all still mortal enemies. Necessity has forced them all to the same side. Now wildlings are pledged to help defend the Wall against the Others, making them de facto brothers of the Night's Watch. The world's gone topsy-turvy. Those old hatreds do not get put aside so easily, and there is growing discontent within the NW over Jon's executive decisions. On second reading, his ugly smile and the "yup, close that gate up good and tight cause they're coming tee hee" feel like GRRM taking a bit of wicked glee in teasing what is about to happen. In many ways, Jon has invited the Stranger in through the front door, completely unaware he's sealed himself up inside with the more immediate threat.
In fact, it's Borroq's question that stirs up the controversial announcement that will drive the assassins into action only moments later. "And where will you be, crow?" Borroq thundered. "Hiding here in Castle Black with your white dog?"
"No. I ride south." Then Jon read them the letter Ramsay Snow had written. [Jon makes his plans clear and asks for volunteers to ride with him]
...
I have my swords, thought Jon Snow, and we are coming for you, Bastard.
Yarwyck and Marsh were slipping out, he saw, and all their men behind them. It made no matter. He did not need them now. He did not want them. No man can ever say I made my brothers break their vows. If this is oathbreaking, the crime is mine and mine alone.
And that's all we really see or know about Borroq, which is not much. We don't know anything about his backstory or what his motivations might be or what he will do in the wake of the mutiny. He certainly is a character that makes an impression. I do hope we get to see that boar go feral on a bunch of wights XD
Hi there, I have two questions regarding the following scene from Jon XII, ADWD:
“The skinchanger stopped ten yards away. His monster pawed at the mud, snuffling. A light powdering of snow covered the boar's humped black back. He gave a snort and lowered his head, and for half a heartbeat Jon thought he was about to charge. To either side of him, his men lowered their spears.
"Brother," Borroq said.
"You'd best go on. We are about to close the gate."
“You do that," Borroq said. "You close it good and tight. They're coming, crow." He smiled as ugly a smile as Jon had ever seen and made his way to the gate. The boar stalked after him. The falling snow covered up their tracks behind them.”
Firstly, do you think Greenseers and/or those who experience green dreams (E.g. Jojen Reed and Bran Stark) are considered part of the sort of loose brotherhood of Wargs and Skinchangers, in Wildling cultures beyond the Wall, as depicted here between Jon Snow and Borroq? Secondly, what exactly is Borroq smiling about in this scene?
Well, greenseers and green dreamers are different; green dreamers like Jojen are not necessarily wargs or greenseers, and while they do have an identifying mark (unnaturally green or red eyes), the Free Folk don’t seem to consider this trait significant the way they do warging. Greenseers, on the other hand, are all wargs (a rare type that can warg into weirwoods), so by definition they’d be part of the group of skinchangers. As Varamyr says, “one skinchanger can always sense another” (even though they may not be aware of what they are), so the skinchangers would know of each other’s abilities. That’s probably the reason why the gathering of skinchangers Haggon took him to when he was young was even possible; however, since it seems like skinchangers have a natural dislike to deadly rivalry with each other (seen with Varamyr/Orell/Borroq to Jon, Varamyr to Haggon. Does not bode well for Bl00draven to Bran) I don’t know if I’d call it a brotherhood (consider Varamyr is called “grey faced and bald” yet only went to one gathering). I’d consider them more like tigers: keeping to their own clearly defined territory, disliking when others intrude except in certain circumstances (breeding and rearing young).
Borroq is smiling sarcastically as he’s the last of wildlings to cross the Wall before the gate is closed against the Others. Nearly every time he interacts with Jon, there’s some mockery or threat, probably due to their warg animals instantly wanting to hurt the other. It wouldn’t be the last time Borroq insinuated Jon was a coward ("And where will you be, crow?" Borroq thundered. "Hiding here in Castle Black with your white dog?" in response to Jon saying he won’t lead the ranging to Hardhome while sending Borroq to Stonedoor) for not wanting to fight. He is part of the Free Folk, and a solitary skinchanger at that, disliked by many.
Some thoughts about Jon’s resurrection following AFFC and ADWD reread
So mostly what I see as theories about what will happen to Jon is that he’ll be put in an ice cell (there is foreshadowing of him seeing himself in Creagan Karstark’s ice cell) and he’ll be in Ghost for awhile and then Mel will raise him.
That’s fine, if a bit vague. I don’t hate it. But what is interesting to me about Jon’s death (and they totally dropped the ball on this in the show) is that A LOT is going on when he dies. He’s not left alone to bleed out. He’s in a huge crowd. He was speaking to large gathering of wildlings and Black brothers in the Shield Hall about the ranging to Hardhome when a man’s scream is heard. Everyone runs outside to find Wun Wun beating the absolute shit out of Ser Patrek (I bet he deserved it but we don’t know why yet). Jon is yelling for Leathers to calm Wun Wun down, and for anyone else listening to keep the Queen’s Men away (because they will probably demand Wun Wun be put to death), and he wants everyone to put their steel away so as to not frighten the giant.
But then Bowen Marsh and his pals do use this opportunity to pull knives and stab him.
I don’t know how many people were looking at Jon. Can Marsh et al claim some of the wildlings killed him? I suspect not but I wouldn’t put it past them to try.
Who is going to end up in possession of Jon’s body? Mutineers, loyal Black Brothers, the Wildlings or the Queen’s Men? Because I think that could really change things. Will Wun Wun beat the shit out of the guys who killed Jon? Ooh, that’d be fun for me.
And, if Jon goes directly into Ghost, will we get a PoV chapter where he is locked in Jon’s rooms (which he was because Ghost didn’t get along with Borroq’s boar) and is just like, “… why am I short now?”
It is mentioned that Borroq was at the meeting, so presumably he is also in the crowd and would know about the Second Life Jon is about to get.
And some people have suggested Coldhands is also a skinchanger who just warged back into his dead body, so if that is true, could Borroq or someone else (Bloodraven? Bran?) help Jon do that? No need of Mel? (I don’t entirely buy that you can just skin change back into your corpse. If so, why didn’t Varamyr. I think there would have to be some other element, like the kiss that brings fire into the body again. Except this would be ice, I guess. But Bloodraven would know if he is the one who brought Coldhands back?)
I think we need to find out more about how Coldhands was created before Jon comes back. Because my theory was that Beric foreshadows Lady Stoneheart but Coldhands (also a man of the Night’s Watch) foreshadows Jon. Maybe I just want this to be true because I want the show to be wrong about it being Melisandre who raises him. No dislike of Mel, just dislike of the show. I am petty and want them to be wrong.
Idk. I just think there are a lot of moving parts to this and fan theories make it seem much simpler and less chaotic than it will be.
