A return to the beginning?

Potential Spoilers Below

For any of you who have read my theory, you know I believe that the Game of Thrones will end in a similar fashion as The Wheel of Time (TWOT) but with a twist.  With the break that the show is taking it gives us all time to contemplate what may happen.  My mind keeps drifting back to one of the most significant events in TWOT in the first book; The Eye of the World.  The event in question is when they actually found the Eye of the World.  This set the tone for the entire series.  My favorite movie, The Last Dragon, has a quote that I think may be fitting to how I believe A Song of Ice and Fire may also end: “The final level is but a return to the beginning.”

The Wheel of Time: Who is the Green Man?

“A figure stepped out of the foliage, a manshape as much bigger than Loial as the Ogier was bigger than Rand. A manshape of woven vines and leaves, green and growing. His hair was grass, flowing to his shoulders; his eyes, huge hazelnuts; his fingernails, acorns. Green leaves made his tunic and trousers; seamless bark, his boots. Butterflies swirled around him, lighting on his fingers, his shoulders, his face. Only one thing spoiled the verdant perfection. A deep fissure ran up his cheek and temple across the top of his head, and in that the vines were brown and withered.

“The Green Man,” Egwene whispered, and the scarred face smiled. For a moment it seemed as if the birds sang louder.

“Of course I am. Who else would be here?” The hazelnut eyes regarded Loial. “It is good to see you, little brother.  In the past, many of you came to visit me, but few of recent days.”

The Game of Thrones: Who are the Green Men?

“It is possible that a few survived on the Isle of Faces, as some have written, under the protection of the green men, whom the Andals never succeeded in destroying. But again, no definitive proof has ever been found.”

Isle of Faces

Isle of Faces

Isle of Faces

Similar to the Green Man the Green Men were protectors of a place.  The Green Man protected the Eye of the World and the Green Men protected the Isle of Faces.

There is also a description from The Game of Thrones: The World of Ice and Fire which sounds eerily similar to the Green Man:

“Garth Greenhand, we call him, but in the oldest tales he is named Garth Greenhair, or simply Garth the Green. Some stories say he had green hands, green hair, or green skin overall. (A few even give him antlers, like a stag.) Others tell us that he dressed in green from head to foot, and certainly this is how he is most commonly depicted in paintings, tapestries, and sculptures. More likely, his sobriquet derived from his gifts as a gardener and a tiller of the soil—the one trait on which all the tales agree. “Garth made the corn ripen, the trees fruit, and the flowers bloom,” the singers tell us.”

Doesn’t the descriptions of Garth Greenhand sound the same as the Green Man from TWOT?

The Wheel of Time: What was the Eye of the World?

“I will not go in with you,” the Green Man said. The butterflies around him swirled as if they shared some agitation. “I was set to guard it long, long ago, but it makes me uneasy to come too close. I feel myself being unmade; my end is linked with it, somehow. I remember the making of it. Some of the making. Some.” His hazelnut eyes stared, lost in memory, and he fingered his scar. “It was the first days of the Breaking of the World, when the joy of victory over the Dark One turned bitter with the knowledge that all might yet be shattered by the weight of the Shadow. A hundred of them made it, men and women together. The greatest Aes Sedai works were always done so, joining saidin and saidar, as the True Source is joined. They died, all, to make it pure, while the world was torn around them. Knowing they would die, they charged me to guard it against the need to come. It was not what I was made for, but all was breaking apart, and they were alone, and I was all they had. It was not what I was made for, but I have kept the faith.” He looked down at Moiraine, nodding to himself. “I have kept faith, until it was needed. And now it ends.”

Representation of the Dark One

Male Aes Sedai weilding Saidin

Female Aes Sedai weilding Saidar

“You have kept the faith better than most of us who gave you the charge,” the Aes Sedai said. “Perhaps it will not come as badly as you fear.”

The scarred, leafy head shook slowly from side to side. “I know an ending when it comes, Aes Sedai. I will find another place to make things grow.” Nutbrown eyes swept sadly over the green forest. “Another place, perhaps. When you come out, I will see you again, if there is time.” With that he strode away, trailing butterflies, becoming one with the forest more completely than Lan's cloak ever could.

“What did he mean?” Mat demanded. “If there's time?”

The Eye of the World is a location in the Blight created by male and female Aes Sedai after the Dark One tainted saidin and was protected by the Green  Man. 

The Game of Thrones: What is the Isle of Faces?

“Finally the wise of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the First Men met the greenseers and wood dancers amidst the weirwood groves of a small island in the great lake called Gods Eye.

Weirwood tree

Location of the Gods Eye

“There they forged the Pact. The First Men were given the coastlands, the high plains and bright meadows, the mountains and bogs, but the deep woods were to remain forever the children’s, and no more weirwoods were to be put to the axe anywhere in the realm.  So the gods might bear witness to the signing, every tree on the island was given a face, and afterward, the sacred order of green men was formed to keep watch over the Isle of Faces.

Representation of the Pact

The Children of the Forest

“The Pact began four thousand years of friendship between men and children. In time, the First Men even put aside the gods they had brought with them, and took up the worship of the secret gods of the wood. The signing of the Pact ended the Dawn Age, and began the Age of Heroes.”

The Wheel of Time: What was found at the Eye?

“How could these things be inside the Eye,” Mat asked, “without being destroyed like that rock?”

“They were not put there to be destroyed,” the Aes Sedai said curtly, and frowned away their questions while she took the pottery fragments, black and white and shiny, from Mat.

They seemed like rubble to Rand, but she fitted them together deftly on the ground beside her, making a perfect circle the size of a man's hand. The ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai, the Flame of Tar Valon joined with the Dragon's Fang, black siding white. For a moment Moiraine only looked at it, her face unreadable, then she took the knife from her belt and handed it to Lan, nodding to the circle.

The Flame of Tar Valon & The Dragon's Fang

The Warder separated out the largest piece, then raised the knife high and brought it down with all his might. A spark flew, the fragment leaped with the force of the blow, and the blade snapped with a sharp crack. He examined the stump left attached to the hilt, then tossed it aside. “The best steel from Tear,” he said dryly.

Mat snatched the fragment up and grunted, then showed it around. There was no mark on it.”

“Cuendillar,” Moiraine said. “Heartstone. No one has been able to make it since the Age of Legends, and even then it was made only for the greatest purpose. Once made, nothing can break it. Not the One Power itself wielded by the greatest Aes Sedai who ever lived aided by the most powerful sa'angreal ever made. Any power directed against heartstone only makes it stronger.”

The broken cuendillar seal 

“Then how ... ?” Mat's gesture with the piece he held took in the other bits on the ground.

“This was one of the seven seals on the Dark One's prison,” Moiraine said. Mat dropped the piece as if it had become white hot. For a moment, Perrin's eyes seemed to glow again. The Aes Sedai calmly began gathering the fragments.“It doesn't matter anymore,” Rand said. His friends looked at him oddly, and he wished he had kept his mouth shut.

“Of course,” Moiraine replied. But she carefully put all the pieces into her pouch.”

“Bring me the chest.” Loial lifted it closer.

The flattened cube of gold and silver appeared to be solid, but the Aes Sedai's fingers felt across the intricate work, pressing, and with a sudden click a top flung back as if on springs. A curled, gold horn nestled within. Despite its gleam, it seemed plain beside the chest that held it. The only markings were a line of silver script inlaid around the mouth of the bell. Moiraine lifted the horn out as if lifting a babe. “This must be carried to Illian,” she said softly.

“Illian!” Perrin growled. “That's almost to the Sea of Storms, nearly as far south of home as we are north now. ”

“Is it ... ?” Loial stopped to catch his breath. “Can it be ... ?”

“You can read the Old Tongue?” Moiraine asked, and when he nodded, she handed him the horn.

The Ogier took it as gently as she had, delicately tracing the script with one broad finger. His eyes went wider and wider, and his ears stood up straight. “Tia mi aven Moridin isainde vadin,” he whispered. “The grave is no bar to my call. ”

“The Horn of Valere.” For once the Warder appeared truly shaken; there was a touch of awe in his voice.

The Horn of Valere

At the same time Nynaeve said in a shaky voice, “To call the heroes of the Ages back from the dead to fight the Dark One.”

“Burn me!” Mat breathed.

Loial reverently laid the horn back in its golden nest.

“I begin to wonder,” Moiraine said. “The Eye of the World was made against the greatest need the world would ever face, but was it made for the use to which... we... put it, or to guard these things? Quickly, the last, show it to me.”

After the first two, Rand could understand Perrin's reluctance. Lan and the Ogier took the bundle of white cloth from him when he hesitated, and unfolded it between them. A long, white banner spread out, lifting on the air. Rand could only stare. The whole thing seemed of a piece, neither woven, nor dyed, nor painted. A figure like a serpent, scaled in scarlet and gold, ran the entire length, but it had scaled legs, and feet with five long, golden claws on each, and a great head with a golden mane and eyes like the sun. The stirring of the banner made it seem to move, scales glittering like precious metals and gems, alive, and he almost thought he could hear it roar defiance.

“What is it?” he said.

Moiraine answered slowly. “The banner of the Lord of the Morning when he led the forces of Light against the Shadow. The banner of Lews Therin Telamon. The banner of the Dragon.” Loial almost dropped his end.

Lews Therin Telamon

Dragon Banner

“Burn me!” Mat said faintly.

“We will take these things with us when we go,” Moiraine said. “They were not put here by chance, and I must know more.” Her fingers brushed her pouch, where the pieces of the shattered seal were. “It is too late in the day for starting now. We will rest, and eat, but we will leave early. The Blight is all around here, not as along the Border, and strong. Without the Green Man, this place cannot hold long. Let me down,” she told Nynaeve and Egwene. “I must rest.”

Rand became aware of what he had been seeing all along, but not noticing. Dead, brown leaves falling from the great oak. Dead leaves rustling thick on the ground in the breeze, brown mixed with petals dropped from thousands of flowers. The Green Man had held back the Blight, but already the Blight was killing what he had made.

“It is done, isn't it?” he asked Moiraine. “It is finished.”

The Aes Sedai turned her head on its pillow of cloaks. Her eyes seemed as deep as the Eye of the World. “We have done what we came here to do. From here you may live your life as the Pattern weaves. Eat, then sleep, Rand al'Thor. Sleep, and dream of home.”

The Pattern; aka The Wheel of Time

The Game of Thrones: What was found that mirrors TWOT?

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.

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.

Jon Snow

“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 . . .

A maester

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.

Dragonglass & The Horn of Winter?

The items found at the Eye of the World were the cuendillar or one of the seals of the Dark One, The Horn of Valere and the Dragon Banner.

The items found in The Game of Thrones that mirror these items were dragonglass, an old warhorn, made from an auroch’s horn and banded in bronze and was found wrapped in a cloak of a brother of the Night’s Watch.

The brothers of the Night's Watch

So how are the similar?  Cuendillar was supposed to be indestructible but was found broken which meant the Dark One’s prison was loosening.  The dragon glass that was found was quite brittle but could kill that which seemed indestructible; White Walkers.  The Horn of Valere when blown was used to summon the “Heroes of the Horn”.  I truly believe that the horn that Jon found was the Horn of Winter.  Though it’s true purpose is unknown I believe it will serve a similar purpose and raise the King’s of Winter; see my ariticle Why "There must always be a Stark in Winterfell" and why "Winter is Coming" to see what I mean.  Finally the Dragon Banner was used as a rallying point for the Heroes once the Horn of Valere was blown.  In a similar way I believe that the King’s of Winter will rally behind Jon Snow once the Horn of Winter is blown to fight against the Other’s and the Wights.

White Walkers leading Wights

The same as the Eye of the World was made against the greatest need the world would ever face; I believe the same will come to be said of the Isle of Faces and the items Jon found with seemed to be a warged Ghost. 

Notes:

Although the pure pool of saidin would destroy anything that was thrown into it it also protected the items that were needed in the future.  Could there be something at the Isle of Faces that could be used to defeat the Night’s King?

If you noticed the Pattern aka The Wheel of Time you will see it is the universe itself.  We have seen the like in the TV show do you remember these:

A picture of space with a man in the lower left corner

I was thinking they were going to go with the "Mirror World" concept; an alternate reality/timeline that has been woven by the Wheel. These alternate worlds represent "Ifs". What if the Game of Thrones is going with the concept that the "First Men" simply came from "Another World"; a world similar to theirs capable of supporting life.  This would account for the cave drawings and the Children of the Forest/White Walker art work that is similar to how we represent spiral galaxies and black holes at the center of them.

Cave Drawing showing spiral galaxy and black hole radiating through the middle of said galaxy.  Notice the circle on one of the arms of the spiral galaxy.  Could this be a representation of where the man in the lower left picture comes from?

Children of the Forest in rear of drawing.  Looks like spacemen in the forefront with the same symbols below them of spiral galaxy and black hole radiating through the galaxy.  Is this where the term First Men came from?  They were the first men to come to this planet.

Notice that this is where we are in the Milky Way Galaxy.  Placement sort of matches the cave drawing.

Is this their attempt at creating a spiral galaxy?

A spiral galaxy

Is this an attempt to show a black hole at the center of a galaxy?

Black hole at the center of a galaxy

Another thing that I believe will be revealed in the books is the true nature of the Night’s Watch.  Here is the oath that they are taught in present day:

“Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.”

When Sam passes through the Black Gate he is told by Coldhands the words to say in order to pass:

Sam

The Black Gate

Coldhands from the TV show and the books

“A turn or two later Sam stopped suddenly. He was a quarter of the way around the well from Bran and Hodor and six feet farther down, yet Bran could barely see him. He could see the door, though. The Black Gate, Sam had called it, but it wasn’t black at all.

Bran and Hodor

It was white weirwood, and there was a face on it.

A glow came from the wood, like milk and moonlight, so faint it scarcely seemed to touch anything beyond the door itself, not even Sam standing right before it. The face was old and pale, wrinkled and shrunken. It looks dead. Its mouth was closed, and its eyes; its cheeks were sunken, its brow withered, its chin sagging. If a man could live for a thousand years and never die but just grow older, his face might come to look like that.

The door opened its eyes.

They were white too, and blind. “Who are you?” the door asked, and the well whispered, “Who-who-who-who-who-who-who.”

“I am the sword in the darkness,” Samwell Tarly said. “I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men.”

“Then pass,” the door said. Its lips opened, wide and wider and wider still, until nothing at all remained but a great gaping mouth in a ring of wrinkles. Sam stepped aside and waved Jojen through ahead of him. Summer followed, sniffing as he went, and then it was Bran’s turn. Hodor ducked, but not low enough. The door’s upper lip brushed softly against the top of Bran’s head, and a drop of water fell on him and ran slowly down his nose. It was strangely warm, and salty as a tear.”

Jojen

Summer

Notice that it doesn’t contain any of the following:

“Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.  I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.”

This tells me that the Night’s Watch has lost its true nature of what it was founded to be.  The words that were added were thrown in to force people to stay because that is the only way they could do it.  I believe it had a noble mission to protect their world but when the danger went away for so long the truth was forgotten and it morphed into what it currently is.

“The final level is but a return to the beginning.”  The Game of Thrones IMHO will return to the where it all began in TWOT and finish the story there.  In TWOT it is there that Rand becomes the Dragon Reborn.  Since I think that Jon Snow is Rand in most aspects could the story take the opposite track and Jon meets his end in a fashion.  My theory is that Jon becomes the new three-eyed crow replacing Bran.  Could this be where he takes up residence to guard the world?  Read my theory on this here:  The time has come for you to become me

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.