Dywen

Dywen is a veteran forester of the Night's Watch, a gnarled old man known for his boast that he can smell snow coming. He is distinguished by his wooden teeth, which he sucks on when thinking, a habit that marks him as a man of the wild, practical and unsentimental. He serves among the rangers, the men who ride beyond the Wall, and his long experience in the haunted forest gives his word weight among the black brothers.

Role in the Discovery of the Wights

When the rangers find the bodies of Othor and Jafer Flowers, two of Benjen Stark's missing men, the corpses present a puzzle: they show no signs of decay, no maggots, no scavenger damage, and their blood is dry and crusted rather than fresh. Dywen is the first to voice the suspicion that the bodies were not killed where they lie. "Might be they didn't die here," he says, sucking at his wooden teeth. "Might be someone brought 'em and left 'em for us. A warning, as like." He also notices that Othor's eyes, which he remembers as brown, are now blue—a detail that points toward the supernatural agency of the Others. His practical woodcraft, which includes the ability to smell snow coming, makes him a reliable witness to the unnatural state of the corpses.

Later Rangings and the Search for Benjen Stark

After the wight attack at Castle Black, Dywen is part of the search parties sent out to find Benjen Stark. He and Hake return from one such ranging with no sign of the missing First Ranger, confirming the grim pattern that the haunted forest has swallowed him. Dywen's failure to find any trace underscores the depth of the mystery and the danger that lies beyond the Wall. His presence in these scenes reinforces the theme that even the most seasoned men of the Night's Watch are being tested by forces they do not fully understand.

Narrative Significance

Dywen functions as a voice of grounded, empirical observation within the Night's Watch. His ability to smell snow and his suspicion that the wights were placed deliberately give the reader a tangible, sensory link to the growing supernatural threat. He is not a leader or a hero, but a reliable sensor, a man whose decades of experience make his unease a credible measure of the danger. His wooden teeth and his habit of sucking on them become a small, recurring motif that marks him as a creature of the wild, a man whose knowledge comes from the forest itself, not from books or lords.