Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun

Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun, known to the black brothers as Wun Wun, is a giant who comes south of the Wall with the free folk after the battle beneath the Wall. He is the only giant to remain at Castle Black after Tormund Giantsbane's people are settled in the Gift, and his presence there becomes a source of wonder, fear, and ultimately tragedy.

Identity and Arrival

Wun Wun is a giant, a creature of legend in the Seven Kingdoms, standing some fourteen feet tall. He is described as having a shaggy pelt, a deep rumbling voice, and hands large enough to crush a man. He speaks the Old Tongue, and only a few words of the Common Tongue, which he learns from the wildling Leathers. Jon Snow, the Lord Commander, takes a personal interest in him, speaking with him through Leathers and learning about the giants' history and culture. Jon notes that Wun Wun is a willing worker, capable of doing the work of a dozen men, but that he is also easily frightened and will lash out violently when threatened. Jon compares him to Hodor, but twice as big, twice as strong, and half as clever.

Life at Castle Black

Wun Wun is initially housed in Hardin's Tower, where he sleeps in the entry hall. He is given a diet of vegetables, as he eats no meat, and is a holy terror when presented with a basket of roots, crunching onions, turnips, and raw neeps between his big square teeth. He is put to work shoveling snow and clearing the ice cells, tasks at which his prodigious strength proves invaluable. He is also a source of great curiosity and fear for the queen's men and the black brothers alike. When Queen Selyse Baratheon arrives at Castle Black, Wun Wun kneels before her and says, "Kneel queen. Little queen," words that Leathers had taught him. The queen is horrified, and her knights reach for their swords, but Jon Snow intervenes, warning them that angering the giant would be unwise. The giant is also fascinated by Patchface, the queen's fool, and laughs uproariously when the fool falls into a snowdrift.

The Final Confrontation

Wun Wun's presence at Castle Black becomes a flashpoint for the growing tensions between the free folk and the queen's men. Ser Patrek of King's Mountain, a knight of the queen's household, is found dead, his body torn apart by the giant. Wun Wun is bleeding from sword cuts on his belly and arm, and he is swinging Ser Patrek's corpse by one leg, smashing it against the stone of Hardin's Tower. Jon Snow rushes to the scene, ordering the men to form a line and keep back, and trying to calm the giant through Leathers. It is in this moment of chaos that Jon Snow is betrayed and stabbed by his own brothers, Bowen Marsh and Wick Whittlestick, who see the giant's rampage as proof that Jon's policy of admitting the free folk has led to disaster. The last thing Jon sees before he falls is Wun Wun, still roaring and swinging the dead knight, a symbol of the irreconcilable conflict that has consumed Castle Black.