Chapter 2: The Wall & The Giftnorthern oak. Just inside the heavy iron-bound door is an entrance witha pair of alcoves to either side where the men on guard stand their duty.A timber stair curls around the inner wall, climbing to the floors above.The Lord Commander lives well, if not richly. His chambers include asolar, bedchamber, small hall, and study. Below, the commander’s stewardhas a cell alongside a small store room holding linens, candles andvarious other household necessaries.The Lord Commander’s Tower is one of the few still in good condition,its walls sound and roof solid. Only the King’s Tower is in bettershape.King’s TowerThough none has seen fit to visit the Wall in a century, the King’s Towerstill stands ready to receive him should one come north to see the edgeof the world. At a hundred feet high, it holds a commanding view ofthe entire castle, the Kingsroad, and the gate and stair at the Wall tothe north. Even so it is not the tallest tower at Castle Black, ceding thathonor to the Lance.The King’s Tower is well appointed as accommodations at the Wallgo. There are chambers fit, as might be expected, for a king along withthe usual retinue associated with such august personage. There is a smallkitchen, a modest dining hall, cellars, cells for the housing of servants—all of the amenities expected of a host having noble visitors to guest.The tower boasts a crenellated roof, and an iron-studded oak door.And while none of Castle Black was constructed with defense as firstpriority, the King’s Tower is one of the more defensible. Its roof is accessibleonly through a narrow trap door at the top of a ladder, which itselfis only reachable after the long climb up the winding stair.The Common HallThe Common Hall is an enormous structure, built to seat every one ofthe five thousand men that once inhabited Castle Black. A great hearthstands at the north end, with tables and benches running the length ofroom. High above the tables, in the rough-hewn rafters of the roof, amurder of crows nest and gabble, making mock of the men below themsitting down to meal.Behind the hearth stand the kitchens with kettles bigger than bathtubs,ovens fit to bake half a dozen men in, with and spits so large theycan roast an aurochs whole. Broad doors open to the north as well, lettingout on the storerooms cut into the base of the Wall.Though it hasn’t been filled in living memory, the Common Hall israrely empty. Whether coming off of watch or about to go on, men filterthrough at all hours, taking a bit of food and warmth before and aftergoing into the cold to do their duty.Hardin’s TowerLeaning like a drunkard after a binge, with merlons that once stood onthe southeast corner of its roof that are now rubble in the courtyard at itsfeet, Hardin’s Tower yet stands. It is largely empty, but a few of the cells inthe uphill side are occupied by some of the more solitary brothers.It was originally built as a barracks housing new inductees to the<strong>Watch</strong>, then called the Green Tower, or by some, the Summer Tower.A great many boys wept their last tears in the cells that honeycomb thetower before becoming taking the vow to become a Brother.47
Chapter 2: The Wall & the GiftFor two thousand years it stood, impassively watching boys becomemen. But a little more than two centuries ago, during an unusuallywarm summer, the Wall shed a prodigiously large block ofice due to melting. The block struck earth, shaking dust from manyof the towers and buildings around it, but seemed to have no greatereffect. A week later the vault below the Green Tower collapsed,burying Lord Steward Hardin, who kept quarters within, engagedin long hours of study in matters ancient and arcane, keeping hisfindings to himself. The tower itself sank two feet at the southeastcorner, its crenels collapsing.The vault has never been reopened. Hardin still lies entombed within,along with the scrolls and tomes he had been studying. The towerstands firm, if not straight. Excavating the collapse, the builders fear,would only risk the lives of the diggers and the stability of the towerabove. And so, the vault keeps its secrets and the tower stands, a monumentto the man that died beneath it.The RookeryThe Rookery used to be a bell tower, but the bell cracked the first winterit saw and was never replaced. Crows took up residence the next summerof their own accord and, not long after, the <strong>Watch</strong> turned theirsquatting to more formal purpose.The first few Masters of Ravens made the base of the tower itselftheir residence. In time, a small wooden keep was raised around thebase of the tower, and has remained the abode of the Maester of CastleBlack ever since.The Rookery itself is a modest, square tower, open at the top with acupola raised above it on four thick timber posts. The keep below standstwo stories high, with chambers sufficient for the maester himself anda pair of aides.The LanceIn its heyday, the stewards of Castle Black conducted a vigorouscorrespondence with certain maesters of the Citadel. They conferredBBBBBBBBBBBrothers of Castle BlackBelow are some of the brothers of the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> mentioned in A Song of Ice and Fire.on a wide range of topics, one of which was the study of stars andtheir movement across the sky. A group of men dedicate to this petitionedthe Citadel and asked them to fund the construction of atower to further their study of northern constellations. Their petitionwas granted and construction of the Lance began the next year. Oneof the petitioners, a man called Maester Galleas, volunteered to gonorth himself to record his observations and return them to his fellowsin Old Town. He took the black and saw to the construction ofthe tower himself.But by the time the tower was completed and Galleas’ first observationscame to the Citadel, his colleagues had moved on to other matters.He found himself alone, a de facto exile, his research dismissedand ridiculed by the very men who had sent him to do it. He grewbitter before he died, but he never gave up on his study of the stars.His treatises likely rest in the vaults under the tower still, deep in atomb of dust.The Lance stands over two hundred feet high. That’s twice theheight of the next highest tower, the King’s Tower, but still only athird as high as the Wall itself. The upper floors are unsafe and havebeen closed to human traffic for two centuries, but the lower tiers aresound enough still.It was first christened the Farseer’s Spire. That name didn’t live evenas long as the man who built it. Though rarely in his hearing, it soonbecame known as Galleas’ Folly, but even that name did not last. Intime, the old Maester was forgotten and the Brothers took to calling thetower the Lance for its shape and prodigious span—it has been knownas such ever since.Flint BarracksLord Commander Rodrik Flint tried to make himself King-bey0ndthe-Wallwith Castle Black as his seat. Before the King in the Northcame to throw him down, he built the Flint Barracks and the Tower ofGuards in an attempt to fortify the castle. He should have turned hismen to building a wall, first. The keeps he built still stand, but Flint wasthrown to his death from the Wall he had forsworn.Rangers: Alan of Rosby, Bannen, Bearded Ben, Bedwyck (also called “Giant”), Black Bernarr, Brown Bernarr, Black Jack Bulwer,Jarmen Buckwell, Ser Byam, Dirk, Dywen, Elron, Jafer Flowers, Deaf Dick Follard, Fornio, Ser Arnell Fossoway, Gared, Garth Greyfeather,Garth of Greenaway, Garth of Oldtown, Geoff the Squirrel, Goady, Grubbs, Hairy Hal, Ronnel Harclay, Ketter, Lark theSisterman, Ser Mallador Locke, Ollo Lophand, Maslyn, Matthar, Mawny, Othar, Small Paul, Rolley of Sisterton, Ser Waymar Royce,Ser Jaremy Rykker, Aethan Ryles, Thoren Smallwood, Softfoot, Tim Stone, Ser Wynton Stout, Tumberjon, Ulmer of the Kingswood,Watt of Long Leg, Kedge Whiteye, Will, Ser Alladale Wynch, and Ser Ottyn Wythers.Stewards: Lord Steward Bowen Marsh, Clubfoot Karl, Ser Endrew Tarth, Red Alyn of the Rosewood, Bass, Chett, “Dolorous Edd”Eddison Tollett, Clydas, Dornish Dilly, Easy, Hake, Old Henly, Donnel Hill, Three-Finger Hobb (chief cook), Left Hand Lew, Mully,Muttering Bill, Orphan Oss, Owen the Oaf, Sawwood, Tim Tangletongue, and Wick Whittlestick.Builders: Othell Yarwyck (First Builder), Young Henly, Kegs, Spotted Pate of Maidenpool, and Spare Boot.Wandering Crows: Conwy, Gueren, and Yoren.Others: Septon Cellador48
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