WAR infographic

The massacre at Hardhome in the show is an amalgamation of 4 different missions ordered by Lord Commander Jon Snow in the latest book.

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• After the Battle of Castle Black, Jon sent a wildling envoy named Val beyond the Wall in order to find the wildlings a task she eventually accomplished.

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• Also, during a ranging beyond the Wall, Jon encountered the giant Wun Wun and a small group of wildlings, who he convinced to come back to Castle Black with them.

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• Later, Jon learned from them about the thousands of Free Folk at Hardhome, and sent many of his men to the ruined settlement by sea, so as to bring the wildlings south. However, wights surrounded the area and the rescuers were left stranded, so Jon and Tormund planned to go themselves and save the black brothers and wildlings both —this mission was interrupted by a mutiny at Castle Black.

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• Yet, Jon remained adamant and gave orders to Cotter Pyke to sail to Hardhome with the eleven ships

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• Jon and Tormund did not travel there, and Wun Wun did not take any part.

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• The next report contained very bad news: "At Hardhome, with six ships. Wild seas. Blackbird lost with all hands, two Lyseni ships driven aground on Skane, Talon taking water. Very bad here. Wildlings eating their own dead. Dead things in the woods. Braavosi captains will only take women, children on their ships. Witch women call us slavers. Attempt to take Storm Crow defeated, six crew dead, many wildlings. Eight ravens left. Dead things in the water. Send help by land, seas wracked by storms. From Talon, by hand of Maester Harmune".

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• This message is the only source of information about the event

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• Jon decided to send a ranging force that would cross the Haunted Forest and approach Hardhome by land, with him and Tormund leading.

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• However, his plans were interrupted by a letter from Ramsay Bolton claiming Stannis had perished and commanding Jon to surrender the king's family, among other demands, which infuriated Jon to the point that he relinquished command of the mission to Tormund alone so that he could deal with Ramsay himself —a decision that proved to be the immediate trigger for the fateful mutiny against him.

 

Melisandre saw a vision in the fire which. It was the most descriptive portrayal of the actual battle in the books, and corresponds to the show in many aspects:

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"Snowflakes swirled from a dark sky and ashes rose to meet them, the grey and the white whirling around each other as flaming arrows arced above a wooden wall and dead things shambled silent through the cold, beneath a great grey cliff where fires burned inside a hundred caves. Then the wind rose and the white mist came sweeping in, impossibly cold, and one by one the fires went out. Afterward only the skulls remained."