Long Barrow

Long Barrow is one of the nineteen castles along the Wall that had fallen into ruin and disuse before Jon Snow, as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, undertook to re-garrison them. Unlike the other forts he reopened, Long Barrow was given a unique composition: it was to be garrisoned entirely by women, aside from its commander and chief steward. Jon assigned Iron Emmett as its commander and Dolorous Edd Tollett as his second and steward, a choice that provoked Iron Emmett's horror and delight in equal measure. The castle quickly acquired a new name among the men of Castle Black: "Whore's Hole," a mocking reference to the spearwives who were sent to join their sisters there. Jon dispatched six wagons of women to Long Barrow under Edd's charge, and Edd later reported that the place was overrun with spearwives, remarking with characteristic gloom that there were days he wanted the rats back. The decision to garrison Long Barrow with women was part of Jon's broader strategy to separate the wildling women from the black brothers and reduce tensions at Castle Black, where Hardin's Tower had become a flashpoint after three drunken fools mistook it for a brothel.