It has been over two decades since A Song of Ice and Fire first captured the imagination of readers before becoming the legendary international show we know as the Game of Thrones!
Based on the fantasy book series by author George R. R. Martin, the show exhausted the books and went independent after a few seasons in.
However, there is one original book mystery that remains unanswered both in the show and in the books themselves—taking a guess? It has to do with one of the Stark siblings.
Back in 1996, when the book series first came out amid very minimal fanfare, the plot flourished on three pillars of mystery – the secret of Daenerys’s dragon eggs, the unknown murderer of Jon Arryn, and the truth of what happened to Benjen Stark.
While the first two went on to be explored in the first book itself, the last one remains a mystery till today. Whatever happened to Benjen Stark outside the Wall? We know that we have to wait for the next book ‘Winds of Winter’, but until then, here is some debunking of related theories and myths.
The one theory that seemed to explain it all, but rejected by George Martin, was that Benjen died and became the ghostly figure known as Coldhands. Most of the fans still believe this theory to be correct, given the explicit nature of how the show treated the plot over the years.
For the purists, let’s just hope Martin completes the next book soon (which probably won’t happen for a good long with GRRM’s current pace).
1. Who was Benjen Stark?
For those unaware of how important a figure Benjen Stark was in the first book, can get a clue from the fact that author George Martin has himself rejected all fan theories about the character.
Known to stay somewhat reclusive about his storytelling, the fact that Martin clarified about Benjen is proof that the latter is his Chekhov’s Gun.
Benjen Stark was quite prominent early in the book and briefly served as a guide and mentor to Jon Snow when he first joined the Night’s Watch. But soon after, he disappears beyond the Wall and hasn’t been definitively seen since.
2. Did Benjen turn into Coldhands?
No, at least not according to author Martin. However, for many years, fans associated the figure of Coldhands with Benjen. It actually seemed pretty clear cut: Coldhands was a dead Night’s Watch ranger, one who hadn’t been turned by the wights but revived by someone much less evil.
The first appearance of Coldhands in A Storm of Swords gave us some hope of Stark’s mystery getting resolved. Lost in the wilds beyond the Wall, both Sam Tarly and Bran Stark receive help from an apparently dead man dressed in Night’s Watch garb and armor, riding an elk.
He helped Stark and his Night’s Watch brother and showed great bravery and skill in the wild. The only prominent and missing Night’s Watch ranger in recent times is Benjen. So it seemed like a suitable payoff for one of the series’ very first dangling questions.
But even though the theory seems logically consistent, George R. R. Martin has himself rejected it in a private note to his own editor. Since he would have no reason to act all mysterious in this situation, the likelihood of its truth is very high.
3. How do we Know Benjen isn’t Coldhands?
Back in 2015, a diligent fan went to the Cushing Library at Texas A&M University, which maintains a large collection of George R. R. Martin’s notes, manuscripts, and papers.
The fan gained access to an original manuscript for A Dance with Dragons and found out lots of interesting things. But the most notable discovery was a note from GRRM’s editor on a page about Coldhands, asking him whether the character was actually Benjen. George responded with a big, red “No.”
Remembering the context that this was a private exchange with his editor that he never thought would be public. He could not have had any reason to lie.
If you still don’t believe it, don’t worry you are not alone. Plenty of people have come up with plenty of explanations about how George is just trying to trick us. But for the rest of us, this is proof that the Coldhands = Benjen theory is wrong.
That leads to a hard question and an easy one. First the easy one.
4. Who is Coldhands?
Several theories have emerged over the years in the GoT world, including that he is Bloodraven, the lost Targaryen bastard who is probably also the three-eyed crow, or one of Bloodraven’s long-dead loyal bodyguards (Raven’s teeth).
Or maybe he’s Jon Snow’s old wildling friend Quorin Halfhand, an ex-ranger whom Jon had to kill to keep palling around with Mance Rayder. Or perhaps he is the Night’s King or the Last Hero or a legendary figure who died thousands of years ago. But none of these theories is quite convincing.
But the most likely explanation is also too simple: Coldhands isn’t anybody in particular. He doesn’t have a secret identity. He is who he is. With a personality as dramatic as Coldhands, you don’t need any more of a secret identity. (Even for GoT-level drama, it is a bit much.)
I mean, think about it, he is a dead-but-not-dead ranger riding an elk and saving the heroes in the very nick of time. Pretty fricking dramatic.
5. Mythical Roots of Coldhands
When Leaf, child of the forest extraordinaire, confirms that Coldhands is dead, she says:
“They killed him long ago.”
Leaf
Statements like that, and the overall vibe of the Coldhands chapters, makes one feel like something much older and more mythic is associated with the character.
In the lines of Celtic legends rather than King’s Landing politics. In that lens, all we need to know is that Coldhands was once a ranger of the Night’s Watch, and though he is dead, his watch has not ended.
So coming to the hard question of what actually happened to Benjen we could get a real answer here someday — assuming George ever finishes Winds of Winter.
6. Why Benjen’s no Side-Mystery
One of the most basic literary tropes is called the Chekhov’s Gun, which says that if a writer establishes an object, character, or plotline as important, they usually make that storyline pay off. If a cabin has a gun on the wall and the writer keeps mentioning it in more ways than one, someone is going to get shot before the story is over.
The mysteriously missing brother of the series’s original protagonist is, in fact, a locked and loaded Chekhov’s gun. And it’s not like the Benjen plot went away: the Great Ranging of the Night’s Watch, Jon’s arc in A Clash of Kings, was launched explicitly to find him. (And they ended giving up on the search without finding him!)
The Benjen mystery cannot be some side affair however hard the TV show may suggest that it is. It is at the very heart of what has been going on in the North since the series began.
That’s why the most common fan theory — that Benjen randomly died somewhere beyond the Wall — is both incredibly unsatisfying and unlikely to be true. Some find it to be bad storytelling, and George R. R. Martin ain’t no half-hearted storyteller.
The only real clue about what happened to Benjen comes at the foot of the Fist of the First Men, where Jon discovers a cache of dragonglass (and a mysterious horn) wrapped in a Night’s Watch cloak.
The garment had clearly not been there long and is described as:
“Good wool, thick, a double weave, damp but not rotted. It could not have been long in the ground.”
It was likely left by Benjen, or a ranger travelling with Benjen. This adds to the theory that he was en route to the Land of Always Winter, on some strange quest to find where the Others are coming from, but that’s just speculation.
Meanwhile, the fact that George Martin has played his cards very close to his vest has to mean something! There’s only one way we’ll ever really know: when he finishes Winds of Winter, which may actually be in sight!
Meanwhile, for those of us who always thought Benjen was Coldhands, we have one more morsel to feed on. Even though the theory has been explicitly disavowed, Game of Thrones decided to riff on it anyway.
In the Game of Thrones Season 6, Benjen Stark does show up again, first to help Bran and again in Season 7 to save Jon Snow. The show doesn’t call him Coldhands, but he’s clearly in a similar situation – he’s dead.
Benjen led a ranging party deep into the north, was killed by White Walkers, and saved by the children of the forest using dragonglass from becoming a wight. That’s why he can’t pass south of the Wall, since it doesn’t allow the walking dead to pass.
If that’s the closest we ever get to Coldhands being Benjen Stark, so be it, even if Game of Thrones failed to show him riding an elk.
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