Benjen Stark, the inquest. Close encounters of a cold kind.
Jun 2, 2016 10:26:45 GMT
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Post by arrysfleas on Jun 2, 2016 10:26:45 GMT
The fate of Benjen Stark has been discussed at length and many believe he is with the Others, captive or guest.
This is an attempt to reconstruct the events leading to his disappearance. In doing so, I have taken the words of the characters at face value: no lies, no idle chats.
There are no dreams nor prophecies in this text, no revelations, not even a drop of Evening Shade. It just is an examination of the evidence found in the books to explain the fate of Benjen Stark's seven men ranging party.
A. Benjen Stark and the Horn of Winter
1. Benjen Stark was sent on a mission to investigate the disappearance of Waymar Royce's ranging party.
CoK Jon 3
Lord Mormont said, "Ben was searching for Ser Waymar Royce, who'd vanished with Gared and young Will."
He was also well aware of the changes happening in the far North:
CoK Jon 7 - Qhorin Halfhand:
- Qhorin Halfhand and Ben Stark shared their views and planned complementary actions.
Benjen is the First Ranger of the NW, a Stark, experienced, seasoned, knows the terrain better than anyone, so it is reasonable to expect him to want to investigate these changes.
It has been suggested by readers that looking for Waymar Royce was in fact a cover for these investigations.
There is a confirmation of this separate agenda, which I explain in the 'Opinionated Raven' section later on.
2. He was last traced beyond the Fist of the First Men:
GoT Jon 4
CoK Jon 4 – Jon describes what he sees west of the Fist.
3. He may have found the Horn of Winter that Mance was looking for:
A dragonglass and horn cache, wrapped in a Night's Watch cloak was found at the base of the Fist by Ghost and Jon when they were with LC Mormont's Great Ranging in their search for Benjen's party.
It is possible that this cache was left there by Benjen's party:
CoK Jon 5 – Jon:
Mance was looking for the Horn of Winter, in the valley of the Milkwater river, down river from the Stony Hills where Benjen was last traced:
Got Jon 9
CoK Jon 8 - Qhorin
SoS Jon 2
SoS Jon 9 - Jon
But according to Ygritte and Tormund, Mance did not find it:
SoS Jon 4
DwD Jon 12 – Tormund:
Benjen Stark may have it:
GoT Bran 5
- This is a strong hint that Benjen Stark has something that Mance wants and Bran could be a bargaining chip for it.
What can be drawn from this?
Benjen Stark was looking for the Horn of Winter in the Stony Hills beyond the Fist. Once he found it, he probably just turned back.
B. More digging around the horn and dragonglass cache.
This is a major find,not only for the potentially magic horn and the useful weapons but also as the last evidence of Ben Stark's ranging as seen in section A3.
What else can we learn?
CoK Jon 4
- Since they were buried together, the horn being filled with arrow heads, we can assume they were carried together and likely acquired together.
Note that the bundle was not buried in a great hurry, nor that long ago:
- Someone took care to remove the stones and roots and dig two feet deep, this is careful burying.
How recent is recently? recently is more likely to mean 'in the past few weeks or months' than in the past few days'. Definitely not 'years'.
When would Ben's party have passed through the Fist on their way back?
Got Jon 7
- This exchange takes place when Othor and Jafer Waters' bodies are found by Ghost at the time of Jon taking his vows at the weirwood grove. Add a few months between that date and the Great Ranging reaching the Fist, subtract a few months to account for Benjen's party to go to the Stony Hills and return to the Fist.
Let's settle on about six months.
Note also that it required the donation of a cloak; we know that two of Benjen's seven men party were found wighted near Castle Black (with their cloaks) and there is a possibility that two others were involved in the hold-up on Bran near Winterfell (with their cloaks). So two of Benjen's men are still unaccounted for.
Might the cloak be Ser Waymar Royce's?
GoT prologue – Waymar Royce's cloak:
- If it is, the author is not helping, as this is what Jon saw: 'Good wool, thick, a double weave...'
The availability of the cloak is a vexing point as it requires for a ranger to be dead (or mad?), which implies either of illness, accident or fight.
The only shred of evidence we have with the cloak is a frayed rope:
- A frayed rope is a rope that is in poor condition or unravelling at the ends. Many google images show a near broken rope.
I will settle for an accident which happened in the Stony Hills, perhaps even when raiding a deep burial site. The Watch wastes nothing and Ben's men used the dead ranger's cloak and broken rope to wrap their just-found bounty.
If Mance happened to get to that site afterwards, it would be no wonder that he is looking for Benjen Stark.
C. Close encounters of a cold kind
Let's revisit the two recent and detailed encounters with WWs.
1. Waymar Royce.
Waymar and his two rangers, Will and Gared, were looking for a group of wildling raiders.
A Cold Death in the Snow: The Killing of a Ranger (@reddit) is an interesting post and partly summarised as such:
Waymar was identified as looking like a Stark by Craster. The Others took this information and put Waymar through some sort of ritualized test of his swordplay abilities and what kind of sword he owned...
I have drawn from this suggestion of the WWs' agency.
GoT Prologue
- The WW first 'stood in front of Royce' then 'slid forward': this does not depict a charge or aggressive move. Waymar was afraid (wouldn't you be?), raised his sword 'high over his head', the WW 'halted', inspected Waymar's sword, then decided to engage.
2. Samwell Tarly.
Sam's group was dead last of Mormont's party on their flight from the battle at the Fist to Craster's Keep.
SoS Sam 1
- The WW sliding gracefully from its horse is definitely not a threatening posture. Grenn tried to push back the WW with his torch and the WW severed the head of the torch, not Grenn's. Small Paul charged at it with an axe; the WW avoided the axe and killed Small Paul: self defence?
Sam, with a desperate urge, thrust his dragonglass dagger forward bringing an abrupt end to the encounter.
Note that at that point the WW was actually unarmed having lost grip of his crystal sword.
I suggest the WW was after Sam because he tends to the ravens (he even brought a horse for him, does a WW get tired?) Ravens, obviously, are essential for communication.
In both encounters the WW are not the first to show aggression, the humans are.
Also, the WWs wear an armour - why? do they need one to protect their spell? unlikely.
An armour is also not the threatening image of a monster from the legends ('spiders as big as hounds' - anyone?)
On the contrary the WWs take an appearance which would be most familiar to a NW man.
I propose that the WWs masters, the Others, are trying to make contact with Men, either for noble or ignoble purposes.
D. Benjen Stark's encounter with the WWs
Due to the impossibility to interview any witnesses and the complete unavailability of (even grainy) CCTV footage, I admit upfront that this is - mostly - speculation.
Ben Stark and his five remaining men are in the vicinity of the Fist, it is night time; they do not have a fire on so as to not be spotted by wildlings, specially considering the precious bundle they carry which Mance wants.
One (or more) WW shows up.
- this may be a chance encounter or a planned one as they may be after a Stark, hard to say; certainly Benjen avoided dropping in at Craster's who confirmed he had not seen him in three years.
The WW approaches the group in the same non threatening manner as in Waymar's and Sam's encounters.
The cold becomes intense and some of the rangers react according to usual script: Othor attacks with his axe and gets killed by the WW.
GoT Jon 7
- note that these are not wights wounds since 90% of the time they attack bare hands to the throat.
Whether or not the WW lost grip of its sword, similarly to the attack on Small Paul, does not matter.
At that point, Ben Stark, armed with purpose, nerve, experience and dragonglass (if he knew of its potential), takes control of the situation and stops the attacks.
Stiv, Wallen and a third unnamed man decide that discretion is the better part of valour and flee.
Jafer Flowers, the last ranger left with him, holds his nerve (he is no shrinking edelweiss, later on as a wight he fights twelve men and kills one with his dagger).
Ben Stark instructs Jafer to bury the precious bundle and to return to Castle Black to tell the story.
He then engages in some form of communication with the WW, follows it and disappears from the story.
Jafer digs the two foot deep hole and some time after he has finished, he is attacked by a risen Othor who axes his throat (sorry..). Eventually they both start their long, slow night-time-only journey towards home, following their last heading or instructions.
What happened to the three deserters?
They flee south and having passed over the Wall encounter a group of wildlings, Osha, Hali and Co. A fight takes place, Osha kills the unnamed escapee; sanity prevails and they band together:
GoT Bran 5
- Wallen may well have seen Benjen Stark holding his own with the WW before he fled.
- Stiv is not keen on going back; he may well have seen a WW, shredding Othor (sorry...).
Osha:
- Osha met them after crossing the wall and they were in a hurry!
CoK Bran 2 - Osha
- This is the unnamed crow, the sixth ranger, who fled with Stiv and Wallen.
GoT Bran 6 – Osha
- This tells us that Osha and Stiv became rather familiar on their way South. She may well have mended his ragged black cloak with bits of coloured material.
In summary, Ben Stark walked into the night with one or more WW after having instructed at least one of his men to bury the dragonglass and horn and report to Castle Black.
Why not take the precious bundle to Castle Black? most logical explanation is to keep it hidden from Mance's search.
E. The Opinionated Raven
Mormont's opinionated raven gives us readers a hint as to what Benjen was up to.
The following conversation takes place just before LC Mormont announces that he intends to find Benjen.
GoT Jon 9.
Why Ben Jen? Why not just Benjen? Does the raven have the hiccup? Has it swallowed its corn sideways?
We know that the raven usually 'opinionates' in single syllables but it has been known to utter the occasional two (such as 'father', 'obey').
So what is the significance of the raven insisting on splitting Benjen Stark's first name in two?
Benjen Stark is often called Ben by his family and friends, nothing unusual there.
So then what to make of 'Jen'?
The Search of Ice and Fire site returns only one occurrence for this name, that of the raven's. No one else in the books is called Jen, not in Westeros, not in Essos.
To find this name in a fantasy context (rather than a Hollywood one), we need to look into the world of the Dark Crystal. Some of you may recall kids growing up in the 80s freaking out at the Skeksis and that 'the plot revolves around Jen, an elf-like 'Gelfling' on a quest to restore balance to his alien world by returning a lost shard to a powerful but broken gem.'
Below is text extracted from both the wikipedia and the Dark Crystal wiki.
Gelflings were a sentient species native to Thra. They were a diminutive and peaceful race. The Gelflings once had a flourishing civilisation. Gelflings had triangular faces, with wide cheek bones tapering to a pointed chin. They had large, wide eyes that were set apart on either side of a flattish nose. They had long hair, from which their large, pointed ears protruded. Their hands have three long fingers and a thumb. Gelflings had the ability to meld their consciousness with each other through touch, a process known as "Dreamfasting".
Jen is a young male Gelfling. Jen is an ancient woodland creature who lives in the alien world of Thra. His skin has a brown complexion .... Jen is sent away on a mission to restore the small broken shard to The Crystal. On his way he meets another Gelfling named Kira. Kira is a young kind girl who can speak with animals and all the living things.
In DwD Bran 3, Bran describes the CotF:
- and the books are full of references to greendreams and skinchanging.
So there are striking similarities between the Gelflings and the Children of the Forest, both in physical appearance and in magical ability.
My take on this is that the author is giving us a strong hint that Ben, like Jen, is on a mission. This mission having something to do with restoring balance.
By the time Mormont's Great Ranging reaches the Fist, the following exchange takes place
CoK Jon 4 – Mormont & Jon
- the raven is pretty adamant that Benjen Stark is dead! And he wants everyone to know it.
Has the raven not just lost track of Ben Stark?
Later on the same day Jon finds the horn and dragonglass cache, giving him - and us - renewed hope.
you know nothing, Raven!
Actually, the raven's rant confirms that Ben Stark is not with Bran's hosts, but either with an other CotF 'faction' or some 'Other' tribe which the raven cannot spy on.
This is an attempt to reconstruct the events leading to his disappearance. In doing so, I have taken the words of the characters at face value: no lies, no idle chats.
There are no dreams nor prophecies in this text, no revelations, not even a drop of Evening Shade. It just is an examination of the evidence found in the books to explain the fate of Benjen Stark's seven men ranging party.
A. Benjen Stark and the Horn of Winter
1. Benjen Stark was sent on a mission to investigate the disappearance of Waymar Royce's ranging party.
CoK Jon 3
Lord Mormont said, "Ben was searching for Ser Waymar Royce, who'd vanished with Gared and young Will."
Lord Mormont said, "Ben was searching for Ser Waymar Royce, who'd vanished with Gared and young Will."
He was also well aware of the changes happening in the far North:
CoK Jon 7 - Qhorin Halfhand:
"The cold winds are rising. Mormont feared as much. Benjen Stark felt it as well. Dead men walk and the trees have eyes again."
Benjen is the First Ranger of the NW, a Stark, experienced, seasoned, knows the terrain better than anyone, so it is reasonable to expect him to want to investigate these changes.
It has been suggested by readers that looking for Waymar Royce was in fact a cover for these investigations.
There is a confirmation of this separate agenda, which I explain in the 'Opinionated Raven' section later on.
2. He was last traced beyond the Fist of the First Men:
GoT Jon 4
… Qhorin Halfhand had gone forth from the Shadow Tower, but they'd found nothing aside from a few blazes in the trees that his uncle had left to mark his way. In the stony highlands to the northwest, the marks stopped abruptly and all trace of Ben Stark vanished.
CoK Jon 4 – Jon describes what he sees west of the Fist.
Clambering atop the piled rocks, Jon gazed off toward the setting sun. He could see the light shimmering like hammered gold off the surface of the Milkwater as it curved away to the south. Upriver the land was more rugged, the dense forest giving way to a series of bare stony hills that rose high and wild to the north and west.
3. He may have found the Horn of Winter that Mance was looking for:
A dragonglass and horn cache, wrapped in a Night's Watch cloak was found at the base of the Fist by Ghost and Jon when they were with LC Mormont's Great Ranging in their search for Benjen's party.
It is possible that this cache was left there by Benjen's party:
CoK Jon 5 – Jon:
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.
Mance was looking for the Horn of Winter, in the valley of the Milkwater river, down river from the Stony Hills where Benjen was last traced:
Got Jon 9
Qhorin Halfhand took a captive in the depths of the Gorge, and the man swears that Mance Rayder is massing all his people in some new, secret stronghold he's found, to what end the gods only know
CoK Jon 8 - Qhorin
"Your wolf saw their diggings in the valley of the Milkwater. What did they seek, in such a bleak and distant place? Did they find it? “
SoS Jon 2
The Halfhand had suspected that the wildlings had gone up into the bleak and barren Frostfangs in search of some weapon, some power, some fell sorcery with which to break the Wall . . .
SoS Jon 9 - Jon
'I left the Fist with Qhorin Halfhand to scout the Skirling Pass. I joined the wildlings under orders. The Halfhand feared that Mance might have found the Horn of Winter . . ."
But according to Ygritte and Tormund, Mance did not find it:
SoS Jon 4
"I'm crying because we never found the Horn of Winter. We opened half a hundred graves and let all those shades loose in the world, and never found the Horn of Joramun to bring this cold thing down!"
DwD Jon 12 – Tormund:
But we never found the true horn, not for all our digging.
Benjen Stark may have it:
GoT Bran 5
"You're as stupid as you are ugly, Hali," said the tall woman. "The boy's worth nothing dead, but alive … gods be damned, think what Mance would give to have Benjen Stark's own blood to hostage!"
What can be drawn from this?
Benjen Stark was looking for the Horn of Winter in the Stony Hills beyond the Fist. Once he found it, he probably just turned back.
B. More digging around the horn and dragonglass cache.
This is a major find,not only for the potentially magic horn and the useful weapons but also as the last evidence of Ben Stark's ranging as seen in section A3.
What else can we learn?
CoK Jon 4
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.
Note that the bundle was not buried in a great hurry, nor that long ago:
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.....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.
How recent is recently? recently is more likely to mean 'in the past few weeks or months' than in the past few days'. Definitely not 'years'.
When would Ben's party have passed through the Fist on their way back?
Got Jon 7
"It has been close on half a year since Benjen left us, my lord," Ser Jaremy went on... The corpses are still fresh, these men cannot have been dead more than a day …".
Let's settle on about six months.
Note also that it required the donation of a cloak; we know that two of Benjen's seven men party were found wighted near Castle Black (with their cloaks) and there is a possibility that two others were involved in the hold-up on Bran near Winterfell (with their cloaks). So two of Benjen's men are still unaccounted for.
Might the cloak be Ser Waymar Royce's?
GoT prologue – Waymar Royce's cloak:
His cloak was his crowning glory; sable, thick and black and soft as sin.
The availability of the cloak is a vexing point as it requires for a ranger to be dead (or mad?), which implies either of illness, accident or fight.
The only shred of evidence we have with the cloak is a frayed rope:
A length of frayed rope bound the bundle together.
I will settle for an accident which happened in the Stony Hills, perhaps even when raiding a deep burial site. The Watch wastes nothing and Ben's men used the dead ranger's cloak and broken rope to wrap their just-found bounty.
If Mance happened to get to that site afterwards, it would be no wonder that he is looking for Benjen Stark.
C. Close encounters of a cold kind
Let's revisit the two recent and detailed encounters with WWs.
1. Waymar Royce.
Waymar and his two rangers, Will and Gared, were looking for a group of wildling raiders.
A Cold Death in the Snow: The Killing of a Ranger (@reddit) is an interesting post and partly summarised as such:
Waymar was identified as looking like a Stark by Craster. The Others took this information and put Waymar through some sort of ritualized test of his swordplay abilities and what kind of sword he owned...
I have drawn from this suggestion of the WWs' agency.
GoT Prologue
A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce...Will heard the breath go out of Ser Waymar Royce in a long hiss. "Come no farther," the lordling warned... He threw the long sable cloak back over his shoulders, to free his arms for battle, and took his sword in both hands...
The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen...
Ser Waymar met him bravely. "Dance with me then." He lifted his sword high over his head, defiant. His hands trembled from the weight of it, or perhaps from the cold...
The Other halted. Will saw its eyes; blue, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice. They fixed on the longsword trembling on high, watched the moonlight running cold along the metal...
They emerged silently from the shadows, twins to the first. Three of them … four … five … The pale sword came shivering through the air.
Ser Waymar met it with steel.
Behind him, to right, to left, all around him, the watchers stood patient, faceless, silent, the shifting patterns of their delicate armor making them all but invisible in the wood. Yet they made no move to interfere.
The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen...
Ser Waymar met him bravely. "Dance with me then." He lifted his sword high over his head, defiant. His hands trembled from the weight of it, or perhaps from the cold...
The Other halted. Will saw its eyes; blue, deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice. They fixed on the longsword trembling on high, watched the moonlight running cold along the metal...
They emerged silently from the shadows, twins to the first. Three of them … four … five … The pale sword came shivering through the air.
Ser Waymar met it with steel.
Behind him, to right, to left, all around him, the watchers stood patient, faceless, silent, the shifting patterns of their delicate armor making them all but invisible in the wood. Yet they made no move to interfere.
2. Samwell Tarly.
Sam's group was dead last of Mormont's party on their flight from the battle at the Fist to Craster's Keep.
SoS Sam 1
Grenn spun, thrusting out his torch. "Who goes there?" A horse's head emerged from the darkness... On its back was a rider pale as ice. ...The Other slid gracefully from the saddle to stand upon the snow. Sword-slim it was, and milky white. Its armor rippled and shifted as it moved, and its feet did not break the crust of the new-fallen snow. ..
"Get away!" Grenn took a step, thrusting the torch out before him. "Away, or you burn." He poked at it with the flames.
The Other's sword gleamed with a faint blue glow. It moved toward Grenn, lightning quick, slashing. When the ice blue blade brushed the flames, a screech stabbed Sam's ears sharp as a needle. The head of the torch tumbled sideways to vanish beneath a deep drift of snow, the fire snuffed out at once. And all Grenn held was a short wooden stick. He flung it at the Other, cursing, as Small Paul charged in with his axe.
… and Sam heard Paul say, "Oh," as he lost the axe. Impaled, his blood smoking around the sword, the big man tried to reach his killer with his hands and almost had before he fell. The weight of him tore the strange pale sword from the Other's grip.
"Get away!" Grenn took a step, thrusting the torch out before him. "Away, or you burn." He poked at it with the flames.
The Other's sword gleamed with a faint blue glow. It moved toward Grenn, lightning quick, slashing. When the ice blue blade brushed the flames, a screech stabbed Sam's ears sharp as a needle. The head of the torch tumbled sideways to vanish beneath a deep drift of snow, the fire snuffed out at once. And all Grenn held was a short wooden stick. He flung it at the Other, cursing, as Small Paul charged in with his axe.
… and Sam heard Paul say, "Oh," as he lost the axe. Impaled, his blood smoking around the sword, the big man tried to reach his killer with his hands and almost had before he fell. The weight of him tore the strange pale sword from the Other's grip.
Sam, with a desperate urge, thrust his dragonglass dagger forward bringing an abrupt end to the encounter.
Note that at that point the WW was actually unarmed having lost grip of his crystal sword.
I suggest the WW was after Sam because he tends to the ravens (he even brought a horse for him, does a WW get tired?) Ravens, obviously, are essential for communication.
In both encounters the WW are not the first to show aggression, the humans are.
Also, the WWs wear an armour - why? do they need one to protect their spell? unlikely.
An armour is also not the threatening image of a monster from the legends ('spiders as big as hounds' - anyone?)
On the contrary the WWs take an appearance which would be most familiar to a NW man.
I propose that the WWs masters, the Others, are trying to make contact with Men, either for noble or ignoble purposes.
D. Benjen Stark's encounter with the WWs
Due to the impossibility to interview any witnesses and the complete unavailability of (even grainy) CCTV footage, I admit upfront that this is - mostly - speculation.
“All speculation, all, all”, the raven cried! “All”.
Ben Stark and his five remaining men are in the vicinity of the Fist, it is night time; they do not have a fire on so as to not be spotted by wildlings, specially considering the precious bundle they carry which Mance wants.
One (or more) WW shows up.
- this may be a chance encounter or a planned one as they may be after a Stark, hard to say; certainly Benjen avoided dropping in at Craster's who confirmed he had not seen him in three years.
The WW approaches the group in the same non threatening manner as in Waymar's and Sam's encounters.
The cold becomes intense and some of the rangers react according to usual script: Othor attacks with his axe and gets killed by the WW.
GoT Jon 7
Blossoms of hard cracked blood decorated the mortal wounds that covered him like a rash, breast and groin and throat.
Whether or not the WW lost grip of its sword, similarly to the attack on Small Paul, does not matter.
At that point, Ben Stark, armed with purpose, nerve, experience and dragonglass (if he knew of its potential), takes control of the situation and stops the attacks.
Stiv, Wallen and a third unnamed man decide that discretion is the better part of valour and flee.
Jafer Flowers, the last ranger left with him, holds his nerve (he is no shrinking edelweiss, later on as a wight he fights twelve men and kills one with his dagger).
Ben Stark instructs Jafer to bury the precious bundle and to return to Castle Black to tell the story.
He then engages in some form of communication with the WW, follows it and disappears from the story.
Jafer digs the two foot deep hole and some time after he has finished, he is attacked by a risen Othor who axes his throat (sorry..). Eventually they both start their long, slow night-time-only journey towards home, following their last heading or instructions.
What happened to the three deserters?
They flee south and having passed over the Wall encounter a group of wildlings, Osha, Hali and Co. A fight takes place, Osha kills the unnamed escapee; sanity prevails and they band together:
GoT Bran 5
Bran flared. "I'm Brandon Stark of Winterfell, and you better let go of my horse, or I'll see you all dead."
The gaunt man with the grey stubbled face laughed. "The boy's a Stark, true enough. Only a Stark would be fool enough to threaten where smarter men would beg."
The gaunt man with the grey stubbled face laughed. "The boy's a Stark, true enough. Only a Stark would be fool enough to threaten where smarter men would beg."
"Mance be damned," the big man cursed. "You want to go back there, Osha? More fool you. Think the white walkers will care if you have a hostage?
Osha:
"I broke no oaths. Stiv and Wallen flew down off the Wall, not me...”
CoK Bran 2 - Osha
"Fighting men." She belted herself with a length of rope. "Black crows, oft as not. Killed me one too," she said, shaking out her hair.
GoT Bran 6 – Osha
“Gage lets me have my prayers from time to time, when I feel the need, and I let him do as he likes under my skirt, when he feels the need. It's nothing to me. I like the smell of flour on his hands, and he's gentler than Stiv."
In summary, Ben Stark walked into the night with one or more WW after having instructed at least one of his men to bury the dragonglass and horn and report to Castle Black.
Why not take the precious bundle to Castle Black? most logical explanation is to keep it hidden from Mance's search.
E. The Opinionated Raven
Mormont's opinionated raven gives us readers a hint as to what Benjen was up to.
The following conversation takes place just before LC Mormont announces that he intends to find Benjen.
GoT Jon 9.
Do you think your uncle Benjen was the only ranger we've lost this past year?"
"Ben Jen," the raven squawked, bobbing its head, bits of egg dribbling from its beak. "Ben Jen. Ben Jen."
"Ben Jen," the raven squawked, bobbing its head, bits of egg dribbling from its beak. "Ben Jen. Ben Jen."
We know that the raven usually 'opinionates' in single syllables but it has been known to utter the occasional two (such as 'father', 'obey').
So what is the significance of the raven insisting on splitting Benjen Stark's first name in two?
Benjen Stark is often called Ben by his family and friends, nothing unusual there.
So then what to make of 'Jen'?
The Search of Ice and Fire site returns only one occurrence for this name, that of the raven's. No one else in the books is called Jen, not in Westeros, not in Essos.
To find this name in a fantasy context (rather than a Hollywood one), we need to look into the world of the Dark Crystal. Some of you may recall kids growing up in the 80s freaking out at the Skeksis and that 'the plot revolves around Jen, an elf-like 'Gelfling' on a quest to restore balance to his alien world by returning a lost shard to a powerful but broken gem.'
Below is text extracted from both the wikipedia and the Dark Crystal wiki.
Gelflings were a sentient species native to Thra. They were a diminutive and peaceful race. The Gelflings once had a flourishing civilisation. Gelflings had triangular faces, with wide cheek bones tapering to a pointed chin. They had large, wide eyes that were set apart on either side of a flattish nose. They had long hair, from which their large, pointed ears protruded. Their hands have three long fingers and a thumb. Gelflings had the ability to meld their consciousness with each other through touch, a process known as "Dreamfasting".
Jen is a young male Gelfling. Jen is an ancient woodland creature who lives in the alien world of Thra. His skin has a brown complexion .... Jen is sent away on a mission to restore the small broken shard to The Crystal. On his way he meets another Gelfling named Kira. Kira is a young kind girl who can speak with animals and all the living things.
In DwD Bran 3, Bran describes the CotF:
They had nut-brown skin, dappled like a deer's with paler spots, and large ears that could hear things that no man could hear. Their eyes were big too, great golden cat's eyes that could see down passages where a boy's eyes saw only blackness. Their hands had only three fingers and a thumb, with sharp black claws instead of nails.
So there are striking similarities between the Gelflings and the Children of the Forest, both in physical appearance and in magical ability.
My take on this is that the author is giving us a strong hint that Ben, like Jen, is on a mission. This mission having something to do with restoring balance.
By the time Mormont's Great Ranging reaches the Fist, the following exchange takes place
CoK Jon 4 – Mormont & Jon
“If Ben Stark is alive and free, he will come to us, I have no doubt." "Yes," said Jon, "but . . . what if . . ."
". . . he's dead?" Mormont asked, not unkindly. Jon nodded, reluctantly.
"Dead," the raven said. "Dead. Dead."...
"Dead," his raven cawed, ruffling its wings. Its voice grew louder and more shrill. "Dead."
". . . he's dead?" Mormont asked, not unkindly. Jon nodded, reluctantly.
"Dead," the raven said. "Dead. Dead."...
"Dead," his raven cawed, ruffling its wings. Its voice grew louder and more shrill. "Dead."
Has the raven not just lost track of Ben Stark?
Later on the same day Jon finds the horn and dragonglass cache, giving him - and us - renewed hope.
you know nothing, Raven!
Actually, the raven's rant confirms that Ben Stark is not with Bran's hosts, but either with an other CotF 'faction' or some 'Other' tribe which the raven cannot spy on.