Othor

Othor was a ranger of the Night's Watch, a big, ugly man known for his bawdy singing. He was one of the six men who rode out with Benjen Stark on a ranging beyond the Wall, a mission from which Benjen never returned. Othor's fate, however, was not merely to die but to become a terrifying portent of the ancient evil stirring in the North.

Death and Discovery

Othor and his fellow ranger Jafer Flowers were found dead in the haunted forest, almost within sight of the Wall. Their bodies were in a grotesque state of preservation: the flesh was blanched white, the hands were black, and the blood had dried to a black dust, with no signs of decay or scavenging. The horses and hounds of the search party refused to approach the corpses, and Ghost, Jon Snow's direwolf, had torn off Jafer's hand. The rangers, led by Ser Jaremy Rykker and Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, were deeply unsettled. Samwell Tarly, a recruit, pointed out the unnatural lack of blood on the ground and the absence of rot, concluding that the men had been dead far longer than a day. The Old Bear ordered the bodies brought back to Castle Black for Maester Aemon to examine, despite the horses' terror.

The Wight Attack

Othor's corpse was stored in a cold cell at the base of the Wall. That night, it reanimated as a wight. It killed the guard outside Jon Snow's cell, twisting his head completely around, and then moved silently through the Lord Commander's Tower. Jon, awakened by Ghost's agitation, found the dead guard and armed himself. He followed the sounds of disturbance to Mormont's solar, where he saw a shadowy figure with eyes that shone with an icy blue radiance. The wight, still wearing Othor's face, attacked. It was unnaturally strong and felt no pain; Jon's sword cut through its arm and face, but the severed arm continued to crawl and attack on its own. The wight forced its black, cold fingers down Jon's throat, nearly choking him to death. Ghost intervened, tearing at the wight's belly, and Jon, remembering the power of fire, grabbed a lamp and set the drapes ablaze, finally destroying the creature.

Significance and Aftermath

The attack by Othor's wight was a pivotal event at Castle Black. It provided irrefutable proof that the ancient legends of the Others and their undead servants were not mere stories. Lord Commander Mormont, who had been skeptical, was forced to acknowledge the threat. The incident directly led to Jon Snow being given the Valyrian steel sword Longclaw by Mormont, as a reward for his bravery and quick thinking. It also hardened the Lord Commander's resolve to lead a great ranging beyond the Wall to discover what was happening. For Jon, the horror was compounded by a recurring nightmare in which the burning corpse wore his father Eddard Stark's face, a dark omen of the tragedies to come. Othor, once a living man, became the first concrete manifestation of the supernatural war that the Night's Watch would have to fight.