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LChris24

Horn of Winter/Hammer of the Waters (Spoilers Extended)

EXTENDED

While I was looking up some things for my recent post on the "Magics of the Crannogs", I came across an interesting comparison that probably has been discussed before at some point:

The Horn of Winter/Joramun and the Hammer of the Waters are extremely similar


The Hammer of the Waters

And so they did, gathering in their hundreds (some say on the Isle of Faces), and calling on their old gods with song and prayer and grisly sacrifice (a thousand captive men were fed to the weirwood, one version of the tale goes, whilst another claims the children used the blood of their own young). And the old gods stirred, and giants awoke in the earth, and all of Westeros shook and trembled. Great cracks appeared in the earth, and hills and mountains collapsed and were swallowed up. And then the seas came rushing in, and the Arm of Dorne was broken and shattered by the force of the water, until only a few bare rocky islands remained above the waves. The Summer Sea joined the narrow sea, and the bridge between Essos and Westeros vanished for all time. -TWOIAF, Dorne: The Breaking

The Horn of Winter

The first King-Beyond-the-Wall, according to legend, was Joramun, who claimed to have a horn that would bring down the Wall when it woke "the giants from the earth." (That the Wall still stands says something of his claim, and perhaps even of his existence.) -TWOIAF, The Wall and Beyond: The Wildlings

Sounds pretty similar, huh?


There's a lot that can be talked about here; COTF vs. the Giants, construction of the Wall, which of the 4-5 horns (if any) is the true horn of Joramun, but I just noticed this parallel for the first time and wanted to share.

I also thought it was interesting to note that while in a completely different context, the vows of the Night's Watch include the phrase "The horn that wakes the sleepers". (Seemingly referring to the different blasts given for returning brothers, wildlings, the Others).

TLDR: The Horn of Joramun and the Hammer of the Waters have very similar tales surrounding them

Posted Dec 26, 2019, 1:55 PM UTC

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