Ketter

Ketter is a ranger of the Night's Watch, a brother of the order who serves at Castle Black. He appears only once in the narrative, during the expedition led by Lord Commander Jeor Mormont to recover the bodies of Othor and Jafer Flowers, two rangers who had been found dead under uncanny circumstances in the haunted forest. Ketter's role in this scene is that of a supporting figure, one of the men tasked with the grim work of bringing the corpses back to the Wall.

Role in the Recovery of the Wights

When the rangers attempted to load the dead men onto horses, the animals reacted with terror, screaming, rearing, and lashing out with their hooves. It was Ketter who ran to help when a horse went mad, though the text does not specify what action he took. The horses' refusal to carry the bodies forced the party to improvise, hacking off branches to fashion crude slings so the corpses could be carried back on foot. Ketter was among those who participated in this laborious and unsettling task, a process that underscored the unnatural quality of the dead men, who showed no signs of decay and whose blood had turned to black dust. His presence in this scene, though brief, places him among the witnesses to the first concrete evidence that the ancient threat of the Others and their wights was stirring again beyond the Wall.