A Song of Ice and Fire, #3
A Storm of Swords
by George R. R. Martin
Contents
CHAPTER 55: JON
Overview
Styr’s Thenns attack Castle Black at night, burning buildings and nearly overrunning Donal Noye’s barricade. Jon and Satin hold the King’s Tower, then help ignite oil-soaked stores and the wooden stair, trapping and destroying the assault. Styr dies as the stair collapses, and Ygritte is slain, dying in Jon’s arms.
Summary
At dawn, Jon Snow watches smoke rise from Mole’s Town and braces for Styr’s advance. Donal Noye arms the garrison of old men, boys, and refugees, bolstering Castle Black with scarecrow sentinels and a barricade around the gate and stair. Jon, limping but determined, is posted with Satin and Deaf Dick Follard atop the King’s Tower.
Night brings the attack. Wildlings set buildings ablaze and probe the yards while Jon and the tower archers drop foes with arrows and quarrels. Deaf Dick is killed by an archer, and fires spread to the armory and stables as Thenns mass against Noye’s makeshift wall. When Thenns break the barricade and the defenders rout toward the stair, Jon and Satin repel climbers through the tower trap with a quarrel and boiling oil.
Below, the fight surges onto the wooden stair. As Thenns drive panicked men upward, Noye signals from the ninth landing. Jon and other bowmen ignite oil-soaked casks and wood piled beneath and along the stair; flames trap the attackers between two infernos. The lower third of the stair and a slab of ice shear away, crushing and casting down the Thenns. Styr, the Magnar, perishes as the Wall destroys the assault.
With the gate saved and fires still crackling, Jon descends to the yard, seeking survivors he knows among the free folk. He finds Quort dead, Stone Thumbs dying, Big Boil wounded—and Ygritte lying with an arrow through her chest. Jon comforts her as she recalls their cave; she dies in his arms after telling him, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”
Who Appears
- Jon SnowWounded but fighting; commands the King’s Tower defense, kills attackers, helps ignite the stair; mourns Ygritte’s death.
- Donal NoyeLeads Castle Black’s defense; orchestrates barricade and burning of the stair, dooming the Thenn assault.
- SatinYoung recruit from Oldtown; mans a crossbow with Jon, helps pour boiling oil and light fires; steady under fear.
- Styr, Magnar of ThennLeads the southern assault; breaches the barricade but dies when the flaming stair collapses.
- YgritteWildling archer; glimpsed in the fighting, later found dying from an arrow; dies in Jon’s arms.
- Deaf Dick FollardCrossbowman on the King’s Tower; misses a key shot and is killed by an archer.
- Owen the OafWell-meaning builder and crossbowman; delivers food, prepares to defend the stair landings.
- Maester AemonSends ravens for aid; withdraws to the Wall’s top before the assault.
- ClydasAssists Maester Aemon and prepares to tend the wounded atop the Wall.
- Septon CelladorLeads prayers for the defenders at the barricade before the attack.
- RastHostile to Jon; speared and killed when the barricade collapses.
- MullyArcher on the Flint Barracks; shoots Big Boil in the leg during the yard fighting.
- Big BoilWildling raider wounded in the leg; later found alive but bleeding.
- QuortWildling raider; found dead after the fires and collapse.
- Stone ThumbsWildling raider; found dying in the aftermath.
- Three-Finger HobbCook who provisions defenders; safe atop the Wall during the battle.