Prologue
Summary
A raiding party of Night’s Watch brothers have been chasing a group of wildlings through the forest beyond the Wall. There is Ser Waymar Royce, Gared and Will. Will comes back to the encampment with report: the wildlings are dead. Leader of the raiding party, Ser Waymar Royce is not convinced and decides that he wants to see the “dead” himself. As they reach the campsite, Will is shocked to see that the bodies are gone. Waymar orders Will to climb a tree and look for any sign of the wildlings. As he climbs, Will hears Ser Waymar issue an uncertain challenge. The Others, however, make no sound as they glide through the forest towards Ser Waymar. Will sees them briefly, but assumes it was a mirage. Waymar calls out to Will and asks why it is so cold, and Will realizes that it is now freezing. An Other comes out of the shadows to challenge Waymar. As Will watches, five more emerge silently to surround Waymar, but the knight does not see them. After a series of blows, the Other wounds Waymar in the side. Finding a last ounce of strength, Waymar lunges forward, but when his sword meets the Other’s blade, it shatters. Waymar is killed by the Others. Will stays in the tree a long while after the Others depart before gathering the courage to come down. He decides to take the broken sword as proof of what happened. As Will stands, he sees Ser Waymar standing over him, Waymar grabs Will’s throat and chokes him to death. His grip is icy cold and eyes are blue. Waymar has become a wight
Quotes
A shadow emerged from dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees.
The Other slid forward on silent feet. In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.
Comments by Mel
We have been introduced to the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. We are in the most northern region where a giant wall constructed of ice and magic separates the realm from the unknowns beyond the wall. It is manned by the Night’s Watch. Men that take an oath to never marry or have children, a lot of them are prisoners who have taken the black instead of death or imprisonment. We are also told in this world seasons can last for years at a time. As an Arizona girl the thought of winters lasting years and years gives me anxiety:) I kind of picture the regions of the wall and beyond similar to Siberia. Which, really is the last place in the world I would ever want to be.
From the beginning of the prologue we have a sense of dread for these men, with their uneasiness and the fact that the temperature keeps dropping. Not where I want to raise my kids. I’m thinking I’m moving to Pentos. 
From Book to HBO
- The rangers are not given any names, and their ranging seems to be very close to the Wall whereas in the novel they have been tracking the wildlings for nine days. The white walkers—never called Others, to date—are primitive and monstrous in appearance, wearing loincloths/kilts rather than icy armor. The wildlings are butchered and laid out in a gruesome pattern, rather than merely left to seem as if they had died where they slept. Royce is cut down immediately rather than putting up a fight, Gared is beheaded rather than escaping, and Will is apparently let go by the walkers.
