We first saw the symbol of the White Walkers/Night King in the prologue of Game of Thrones, Season 1 Episode 1. The spiral-esque symbol was made of human limbs and left by the White Walkers as a warning of sorts (it was still unclear back then). We saw the symbol again last week in the premiere episode of the final season, causing fans of the show to theorise and speculate. What could the symbol mean?
Some say it’s a remixed version of the symbol of House Targaryen, which could mean that the Night King has a bone to pick specifically with the Mother of Dragons (and Jon Snow). However, many (myself included) have always seen the Night King and his Walkers as a force of nature — a metaphor for climate change — uninterested in specific houses and politics. Well, it looks like we finally have some clarification from one of the screenwriters of Game of Thrones.
In an interview with New York Post, Dave Hill who wrote 15 episodes of Game of Thrones, including the season 8 premiere had this to say:
“As we saw with Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven, the spiral pattern was sacred to the Children of the Forest, who created the Night King by sacrificing a captured man in a spiral ‘henge of stones’. The Night King then adopted the symbol as a sort of blasphemy, like Satan with the upside-down cross.”
Hill’s quote seemingly rules out the theory about the sigil of House Targaryen. While it doesn’t confirm the White Walkers as a metaphor for climate change and global warming, it does lean slightly in the direction of nature’s vengeance.
A quick recap: Thousands of years ago, the Children of the Forest created the Night King and the White Walkers as a way to fight men who were destroying mother nature. But this still doesn’t explain why the Night King eventually turned on the Children and why he’s been dormant for so many years. Hopefully, we’ll get some answers within the next couple of episodes.
