Jon Snow finds the Horn of Joramun. So what does it mean?

Potential Spoilers Below

The Eye of the World is a location in the Blight created by the male and female Aes Sedai after the Dark One tainted saidin. It was created using both saidin and saidar, and was protected by Someshta. It was an object of legend, and a frequent target of thrill seekers; myth and rumor state that "it can only be found once, and only at great need".  Moiraine Damodred is the only known person to have been able to enter the Eye of the World a second time.  The Green Man was set to guard the Eye of the World until the Dragon was reborn.

The Green Man aka Someshta

Moiraine Damodred - Aes Sedai

They then head off into the Blight. They are attacked by creatures which they fight off, before being pursued by a type of Shadowspawn referred to as Worms, but escape these when they meet the Green Man at the Eye of the World, which is a pool of pure saidin. Whilst there, two of the Forsaken, Aginor and Balthamel, appear. They are very much decayed, as they were close to the top when sealed. They quickly deal with everyone, except the Green Man, who kills Balthamel, though he is killed himself. Rand flees and is pursued by Aginor, who is killed.

Balthamel

Rand finds himself in a strange room with Ba'alzamon, who tells him that he has his mother. Discovering he can channel, Rand cuts a black cord coming out of Ba'alzamon's back, before returning to the real world. There, he discovers the Eye of the World to be empty of saidin. Several objects are found in it. These are the Horn of Valere, a banner with a Dragon on it and one of the Seals on the Dark One's prison, broken. Loial sings at the place the Green Man fell, growing a strong tree, which he hopes will not fall to the Blight. They then return to Fal Dara, through an unusually quiet Blight.

Horn of Valere

Dragon Banner

Broken Seal

Loial

So what are the three items that were found and what do they mean? 

1.    The Horn of Valere is an artifact older than the Age of Legends that can summon dead heroes.  It is a plain curled golden horn with flowing silver script inlaid around the mouth that reads "Tia mi aven Moridin isainde vadin", which means "The grave is no bar to my call" in the Old Tongue.  It was made to summon the heroes of the Ages from their graves and prophecy says it will only be found in time for the Last Battle.  The Horn is neither mentioned in the Karaethon Cycle nor linked to the Dragon Reborn in any way.  Those who are called forth by the Horn will follow whoever blows it, whether fighting for the Light or the Shadow but apparently they will only follow the Dragon Banner. The blower will be linked to the Horn until he or she dies and during this time, the Heroes of the Ages will not appear if anyone else blows it.

2.    The Dragon Banner is the banner of Lews Therin Telamon; aka the Dragon.  The Heroes summoned by the Horn thought it important as they refused to enter into battle until the Banner was properly flown. 

3.    One of the Seven Seals on the Dark One’s prison.  This items is strictly informational as it has no use in its current state.  It lets them know that the Dark One is indeed breaking free from his prison and the Last Battle is not far off.

 How the story played out in the Game of Thrones:

The largest structure ever built by the hands of man, Benjen Stark had told Jon on the kingsroad when they had first caught sight of The Wall in the distance. “And beyond a doubt the most useless,” Tyrion Lannister had added with a grin, but even the Imp grew silent as they rode closer. You could see it from miles off, a pale blue line across the northern horizon, stretching away to the east and west and vanishing in the far distance, immense and unbroken. This is the end of the world, it seemed to say.

Benjen Stark

Jon Snow

The Kings Road

The Wall

Tyrion Lannister

Sam squinted up at the Wall. It loomed above them, an icy cliff seven hundred feet high. Sometimes it seemed to Jon almost a living thing, with moods of its own. The color of the ice was wont to change with every shift of the light. Now it was the deep blue of frozen rivers, now the dirty white of old snow, and when a cloud passed before the sun it darkened to the pale grey of pitted stone. The Wall stretched east and west as far as the eye could see, so huge that it shrunk the timbered keeps and stone towers of the castle to insignificance. It was the end of the world.

Sam

He followed, angry, holding the torch out low so he could see the rocks that threatened to trip him with every step, the thick roots that seemed to grab at his feet, the holes where a man could twist an ankle. Every few feet he called again for Ghost, but the night wind was swirling amongst the trees and it drank the words. This is madness, he thought as he plunged deeper into the trees. He was about to turn back when he glimpsed a flash of white off ahead and to the right, back toward the hill. He jogged after it, cursing under his breath.

Ghost

A quarter way around the Fist he chased the wolf before he lost him again. Finally he stopped to catch his breath amidst the scrub, thorns, and tumbled rocks at the base of the hill. Beyond the torchlight, the dark pressed close.

Location of the Fist of the First Men

A soft scrabbling noise made him turn. Jon moved toward the sound, stepping carefully among boulders and thornbushes. Behind a fallen tree, he came on Ghost again. The direwolf was digging furiously, kicking up dirt.

“What have you found?” Jon lowered the torch, revealing a rounded mound of soft earth. A grave, he thought. But whose?

He knelt, jammed the torch into the ground beside him. The soil was loose, sandy. Jon pulled it out by the fistful. There were no stones, no roots. Whatever was here had been put here recently. Two feet down, his fingers touched cloth. He had been expecting a corpse, fearing a corpse, but this was something else. He pushed against the fabric and felt small, hard shapes beneath, unyielding. There was no smell, no sign of graveworms. Ghost backed off and sat on his haunches, watching.

Jon brushed the loose soil away to reveal a rounded bundle perhaps two feet across. He jammed his fingers down around the edges and worked it loose. When he pulled it free, whatever was inside shifted and clinked. Treasure, he thought, but the shapes were wrong to be coins, and the sound was wrong for metal.

A length of frayed rope bound the bundle together. Jon unsheathed his dagger and cut it, groped for the edges of the cloth, and pulled. The bundle turned, and its contents spilled out onto the ground, glittering dark and bright. He saw a dozen knives, leaf-shaped spearheads, numerous arrowheads. Jon picked up a dagger blade, featherlight and shiny black, hiltless. Torchlight ran along its edge, a thin orange line that spoke of razor sharpness. Dragonglass. What the maesters call obsidian. Had Ghost uncovered some ancient cache of the children of the forest, buried here for thousands of years? The Fist of the First Men was an old place, only . . .

Dragonglass Dagger

Beneath the dragonglass was an old warhorn, made from an auroch’s horn and banded in bronze. Jon shook the dirt from inside it, and a stream of arrowheads fell out. He let them fall, and pulled up a corner of the cloth the weapons had been wrapped in, rubbing it between his fingers. Good wool, thick, a double weave, damp but not rotted. It could not have been long in the ground. And it was dark. He seized a handful and pulled it close to the torch. Not dark. Black.

Old Warhorn

Even before Jon stood and shook it out, he knew what he had: the black cloak of a Sworn Brother of the Night’s Watch.

Men of the Night's Watch taking their vows wearing their cloaks

So what are the three items that were found and what do they mean? 

1.    Dragonglass is volcanic glass, or obsidian.  Children of the Forest make weapons out of dragonglass, including daggers, blades and arrowheads.  During the Age of Heroes it was also recorded by the Night's Watch that the children of the forest gave the black brothers a hundred obsidian daggers every year.  Dragonglass weapons are one of the few weaknesses of the Others. An Other that is pierced by an obsidian blade dies almost instantaneously. Obsidian blades are sharper than steel but far more brittle.  The Valyrians called obsidian frozen fire and made use of obsidian to make their glass candles.  The smallfolk like to say that dragonglass is made by dragons while Maesters say it comes from the fires of the earth.

Leaf (Children of the Forest)

Other

2.    An old warhorn, made from an auroch’s horn and banded in bronze.  This is what I believe to the Horn of Winter. 

The Horn of Winter, also known as the Horn of Joramun, is a legendary horn with magical properties. It was supposedly blown by Joramun, a wildling King-Beyond-the-Wall. When he blew the horn, he "woke the giants from the earth."  It is currently claimed that blowing the Horn will destroy the Wall.  Mance Rayder claims to have found the Horn of Joramun in a grave beneath a glacier, high up in the Frostfangs.

Mance Rayder (The current King-Beyond-the-Wall)

The horn which Mance Rayder names the Horn of Joramun is eight feet long. It is so wide at the mouth that Jon Snow could put his arm inside up to the elbow.  It is black in colour with gold bands that are graven with runes of the First Men. At first Jon thinks the bands are bronze but when he moves closer he realises that the bands are made of gold, old gold, more brown than yellow.  It is said to be a thousand years old.  It is not known what the horn is made of. Jon Snow thinks that if it came from an aurochs, it was the biggest aurochs that ever lived.

A Storm of Swords:

Mance Rayder initially claimed to have opened fifty graves in search of the Horn but failed to find it. However, when Jon Snow returned to the wildling camp, this time as a brother of the Night's Watch, Mance presented what he said was the Horn, telling Jon of his plans to blow the horn should the wildlings fail to take the Wall.

Wildlings

When Jon asked why they haven’t used the horn, why not just sound it and be done? It is Dalla that answers,

“We free folk know things you kneelers have forgotten. Sometimes the short road is not the safest, Jon Snow. The Horned Lord once said that sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it.”

Talk in the tent turns to the threat of the Others and Mance remarks that if he sounds the Horn of Winter, the Wall will fall, or so the songs say. Dalla then speaks,

“But once the Wall is fallen, what will stop the Others?”

Mance planned to offer the Horn in exchange for letting his people pass through the Wall. If the Night's Watch refused Tormund Giantsbane was to sound the Horn at dawn three days hence but the arrival of Stannis Baratheon put an end to that plan.

Tormund Giantsbane

Stannis Baratheon

A Feast For Crows:

Sam carried the warhorn all the way from the Fist to Castle Black.  He then carried it with him on his journey to Oldtown and the Citadel when he left with Gilly and Maester Aemon.

Castle Black

Gilly

Maester Aemon

The captain wanted Aemon’s chain as well, but there Sam had refused. It was a great shame for any maester to surrender his chain, he had explained. Xhondo had to go over that part three times before Quhuru Mo accepted it. By the time the dealing was done, Sam was down to his boots and blacks and smallclothes, and the broken horn Jon Snow had found on the Fist of First Men. I had no choice, he told himself. We could not stay on Braavos, and short of theft or beggary, there was no other way to pay for passage. He would have counted it cheap at thrice the price if only they had gotten Maester Aemon safe to Oldtown.

A Dance with Dragons:

The supposed Horn is burned by Melisandre when she has "Mance Rayder" (actually a glamoured Rattleshirt) put to death by fire.

Melisandre

Rattleshirt aka the Lord of Bones

When Melisandre sets the Horn of Joramun alight it bursts into flame and goes up with a whoosh as swirling tongues of green and yellow fire leap and crackle all along it length. The men of the Night’s Watch have to fight to still their mounts. A moan comes from the stockade as the free folk see their hope afire. For half a heartbeat the runes graven on the gold bands seem to shimmer in the air. The Queen's Men then heave the Horn into the fire pit where it crashes amongst the logs and leaves and kindling. Within three heartbeats the whole pit is aflame and "Mance Rayder" is dying in agony.

Later, as the free folk are passing through the Wall Tormund Giantsbane mentions to Jon Snow that the destroyed horn was a fake; Mance never found the true Horn.

“She burned that fine big horn, aye. A bloody sin, I call it. A thousand years old, that was. We found it in a giant’s grave, and no man o’ us had ever seen a horn so big. That must have been why Mance got the notion to tell you it were Joramun’s. He wanted you crows to think he had it in his power to blow your bloody Wall down about your knees. But we never found the true horn, not for all our digging. If we had, every kneeler in your Seven Kingdoms would have chunk’s o’ ice to cool his wine all summer.”

A Giant beyond The Wall

So bottom line I think the horn that Jon gave to Sam is the true Horn Of Winter.  Why else keep pointing it out.  Craven Sam runs for his life but never leaves the “broken horn” behind?  He even takes it with him on a trip which he doesn’t want to take.  Little things like this always come back to be important.

3.    The black cloak of a Sworn Brother of the Night’s Watch.  Again this item is for informational purposes.  It tells them that the cloak may be the property of someone from their order and possibly Benjen Stark himself.

It’s only the men from the Shadow Tower.  It was growing harder to cling to the hope of Benjen Stark’s safe return. The cloak he had found beneath the Fist could well have belonged to his uncle or one of his men, even the Old Bear admitted as much, though why they would have buried it there, wrapped around the cache of dragonglass, no one could say.

The Shadow Tower

Lord Commander Jeor Mormont aka The Old Bear

Jon slid his new dagger from its sheath and studied the flames as they played against the shiny black glass. He had fashioned the wooden hilt himself, and wound hempen twine around it to make a grip. Ugly, but it served. Dolorous Edd opined that glass knives were about as useful as nipples on a knight’s breastplate, but Jon was not so certain. The dragonglass blade was sharper than steel, albeit far more brittle.

It must have been buried for a reason.

He had made a dagger for Grenn as well, and another for the Lord Commander. The warhorn he had given to Sam. On closer examination the horn had proved cracked, and even after he had cleaned all the dirt out, Jon had been unable to get any sound from it. The rim was chipped as well, but Sam liked old things, even worthless old things. “Make a drinking horn out of it,” Jon told him, “and every time you take a drink you’ll remember how you ranged beyond the Wall, all the way to the Fist of the First Men.” He gave Sam a spearhead and a dozen arrowheads as well, and passed the rest out among his other friends for luck.

The Old Bear had seemed pleased by the dagger, but he preferred a steel knife at his belt, Jon had noticed. Mormont could offer no answers as to who might have buried the cloak or what it might mean. Perhaps Qhorin will know. The Halfhand had ventured deeper into the wild than any other living man.

Dolorous Edd

Grenn

Qhorin Halfhand

Who buried the items for Jon to find?

If you ask me it could only have been one person at this time in the story; Brynden Rivers aka Bloodraven, aka the last Greenseer, aka The Three-eyed crow.  He is the only one that seems to helping the Starks at least Bran and from what I believe Jon.  We know through Jojen Reed, who had greendreams and that in those dreams, he could peer into the future.  Brynden, at this point in the story, is going to become Bran’s teacher, should have been able to do so much more.  This is why I believe that he knew when Jon would be on the Fist of the First Men where the items were hidden and had Coldhands simply bury them there at the designated time.  Jon’s own observations clearly show that they hadn’t been there long.  With all the Rangers that had gone missing ranging beyond The Wall the cloak would have been easy to come by.  The Children of the Forest supplied the dragonglass and Brynden most likely had the horn with him when he left his post on The Wall all those years ago as he knew this day would come and their needs had to be met otherwise all would be lost.

Brynden Rivers (Bloodrave, the Last Greenseer, the three-eyed crow)

Bran

Jojen Reed

When Jon and Ghost came near he simply warged Ghost had him go to the designated spot and had him start digging until it caught Jon’s attention. 

Remember what Varamyr said to Jon Snow:

Varamyr

“Once a horse is broken to the saddle, any man can mount him,” he said in a soft voice. “Once a beast’s been joined to a man, any skinchanger can slip inside and ride him. Orell was withering inside his feathers, so I took the eagle for my own. But the joining works both ways, warg. Orell lives inside me now, whispering how much he hates you. And I can soar above the Wall, and see with eagle eyes.”

Orell

Jon removes the items and takes them back with him because Brynden has seen that these items will be needed in the future.  I won’t do it now but later I will go into what I think will happen when the horn is sounded (a hint remember the seventy-nine sentinels; I believe time has eroded the true nature of the horn from the memories of men but the truth will lie somewhere in the middle of all the stories told) and what will happen to Jon as a result of the events that I believe Brynden set in motion (i.e. becoming Azor Ahai and what Lightbringer truly is).

The seventy-nine sentinels

Azor Ahai (Life for Death)

I know that there are those out there who will never accept what I am saying because of your respect for the ASOIAF series but I do believe that the ending will be a reflection of the Wheel of Time however it ends.  They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so I’m not hating I’m just pointing out what I see between these series.  I don’t have to be told that other ideas are the same across other fantasy books simply because there really isn’t such a thing as a new idea, not truly.  It’s the twists and turns that a writer takes that makes the journey worth the trip.  I love the series otherwise I wouldn’t be taking the time to try and solve the mystery before it concludes on its own.

The part below from the "Eye of the World" also has a meaning that will become apparent in another blog.  I didn't come up with this myself but it fits into how I believe that the Game of Thrones is lining up with the Wheel of Time:

"Rand finds himself in a strange room with Ba'alzamon, who tells him that he has his mother." - his mother speaks with him at this time.

Rand's mother is dead and he knows it.  I believe that Jon Snow has the same characteristics as Rand al'Thor the Dragon Reborn.  Therefore when Jon gets to this stage, in the Winds of Winter, after he is stabbed he will play out this part in the story.  The strange room becomes the Crypts below Winterfell where the "Kings of Winter" and his mother are buried.

Remember Jon's dream:

The castle is always empty… Even the ravens are gone from the rookery, and the stables are full of bones. That always scares me. I start to run then, throwing open doors, climbing the tower three steps at a time, screaming for someone, for anyone. And then I find myself in front of the door to the crypts. It’s black inside, and I can see the steps spiraling down. Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of. I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way. It gets darker and darker, until I want to scream.”

When he completes this journey he will speak to his Mother Lyanna Stark and once and for all know the truth of who he truly is.  Jon will then return to the real world.  But I will save this for another time as it is too much to tie in right now.

Lyanna Stark

In case you missed the point I am trying to make; I am saying that:

The Eye of the World equates to The End of the World 

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.