I looked through your Benjen Stark posts and didn't see anything so I hope this isn't a repeat, but do you have any ideas about why Benjen joined the Watch in the first place? If he's been in there a while, he was pretty high up the Stark line of succession at the time he joined. Just guilt over whatever role he had in the Lyanna/Rhaegar thing, maybe?
There’s no given reason why Benjen joined the Night’s Watch, and considering the fact that this left Ned as the only heir-producing member of House Stark, you’d think it’s not something a responsible member of the family would do. (And notably this is a major reason why House Stark is in such apparent trouble in ASOIAF — with the male heirs either dead or believed dead and the female heirs either believed dead or missing, there’s no cousins to take up the name; it’s also a reason why Robb wanted to legitimize Jon, and so on.)
Note GRRM has been rather cagey about Benjen’s reasons, when asked:
Q: [Why did Benjen join the Night’s Watch?]
A: Good question. One day you will get an answer. But it will not be today.
— Asshai.com forum chat, July 2008
However, GRRM has said when Benjen joined the NW, and that’s probably very relevant:
Q: This one is probably trivial, but when did Benjen join the Watch? Right after the war against the Targaryens, more or less?
A: Pretty much, yes. Probably around about the time Ned returned from the south and Catelyn and Robb and Jon took up residence.
When, specifically, did Benjen join the NW? Was it a couple of years after Ned returned, or immediately?
It was within a few months of Ned’s returning. The reason being that there always was a Stark at Winterfell, so he had to stay there until Ned returned. GRRM refused to say the reason why Benjen had to join the NW. […] Also, I didn’t mean to imply that Benjen “had to” join the NW. We don’t know because GRRM wouldn’t elaborate on the reasons for Benjen joining the NW.
— convention report, May 2005
So, basically Benjen (about 14-15 at most, since he was the youngest of the siblings) was the Stark in Winterfell during Robert’s Rebellion. Some months after the end of the war, Ned returns to Winterfell with Lyanna’s body and baby Jon Snow… and Benjen leaves shortly thereafter for the Night’s Watch. Since he apparently didn’t “have to join” (although since GRRM didn’t say, we don’t know if he had to because of a crime or not, but at his age and with his class status he almost certainly didn’t), he must have volunteered. And he thought Jon was too young at 14 to want to join? He wasn’t that much older himself!
The timing and such is rather suspicious. And when you consider the facts that Benjen was close with Lyanna — that he knew of her skills with weapons:
Now two children danced across the godswood, hooting at one another as they dueled with broken branches. The girl was the older and taller of the two. Arya! Bran thought eagerly, as he watched her leap up onto a rock and cut at the boy. But that couldn’t be right. If the girl was Arya, the boy was Bran himself, and he had never worn his hair so long. And Arya never beat me playing swords, the way that girl is beating him. She slashed the boy across his thigh, so hard that his leg went out from under him and he fell into the pool and began to splash and shout.
and that Benjen had offered to equip Howland Reed at the Tourney at Harrenhal so that he could challenge the squires who had attacked him:
“The wolf maid saw them too, and pointed them out to her brothers. ‘I could find you a horse, and some armor that might fit,’ the pup offered. The little crannogman thanked him, but gave no answer. His heart was torn. Crannogmen are smaller than most, but just as proud. The lad was no knight, no more than any of his people. We sit a boat more often than a horse, and our hands are made for oars, not lances. Much as he wished to have his vengeance, he feared he would only make a fool of himself and shame his people. […] But late on the afternoon of that second day, as the shadows grew long, a mystery knight appeared in the lists.”[…] “It was the little crannogman, I bet.”“No one knew,” said Meera, “but the mystery knight was short of stature, and clad in ill-fitting armor made up of bits and pieces.”
…Well, then, yes I do think it was Benjen’s guilt over the whole Rhaegar/Lyanna thing that caused him to join the Night’s Watch. Though whether there was more to his role than helping create the Knight of the Laughing Tree, we have yet to see… but there is so much we have yet to learn of how exactly Rhaegar disappeared with Lyanna, and it’s possible that Benjen was involved there too. At least GRRM has said that we will get an answer someday…
