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Dec 14, 2022 · Game of Thrones includes a decade-long summer and a 20-30 year winter - the dreaded Long Night. Here's how the confusing Westeros seasons work. The length of Westerosi seasons is unpredictable.
- Streaming Movies/TV Features Editor
Jan 30, 2021 · By the end of the series, winter officially comes to the land with the arrival of the White Walkers. Prior to the series, the Long Night was a generation-long season of winter that nearly wiped out civilization and brought the original White Walker invasion to Westeros.
Jul 30, 2017 · In the seventh season of Game of Thrones, people in Westeros absolutely cannot stop talking about the Long Night.
- Staff Writer
- Overview
- History
- In the books
- References
"Thousands of years ago, there came a night that lasted a generation. Kings froze to death in their castles, same as the shepherds in their huts; and women smothered their babies rather than see them starve, and wept, and felt the tears freeze on their cheeks... In that darkness the White Walkers came for the first time. They swept through cities and kingdoms, riding their dead horses, hunting with their packs of pale spiders big as hounds."
―Old Nan to Bran Stark
Prelude
The invasion of Westeros by the First Men and their encroachment into the lands of the Children of the Forest, the natives of Westeros, led to a long period of warfare between the two people for control of the continent. As the Children grew desperate, a group of their greenseers, resorted to dark magic, capturing one of the First Men and turning him into the first of the White Walkers, whose purpose was to protect the Children from the First Men. However, the White Walkers grew beyond their creators' control and became a threat to anyone living, becoming the most feared creatures in the known world. Recognizing the danger, the Children and the First Men reached a peace known as the Pact.
War
None knew why the White Walkers came when they did, 2,000 years after the signing of the Pact and 8,000 years before Robert's Rebellion, but they killed all in their path. The White Walkers reanimated the dead as wights to kill the living at their command, and soon the White Walkers and their hordes of undead were sweeping across the continent. Eventually the First Men and the Children of the Forest formed an alliance and rallied to defend themselves in the Battle for the Dawn. The White Walkers were defeated and driven back into the uttermost north, where the far northern lands became known as the Land of Always Winter. The Wall, a massive fortification standing seven hundred feet high and stretching from one side of the continent to the other, was constructed by the First Men, Children, and giants along the northernmost isthmus of northern Westeros to bar the Walkers' return. Legend says that the Wall was infused with powerful magic spells by the Children of the Forest that prevent the White Walkers from crossing it. The ancient order of the Night's Watch was founded to defend the Wall should the White Walkers return to invade the realms of men once more.
Aftermath
With the passing of the centuries and the coming of the Andals, memory of the Long Night and the Walkers faded into myth. In the present day, most believe the Long Night to be nothing more than a children's story, and the White Walkers, Children of the Forest, and giants nothing more than legends. Belief in them survives only in the North, and even there they are presumed extinct. Certainly, none or very few were seen for the next eight thousand years between their supposed defeat and the time of Robert's Rebellion. As the War of the Five Kings begins, disturbing reports have come back from the scouts of the Night's Watch saying that, after an abnormally long summer, winter is returning and the White Walkers with it. There is a danger of another Long Night, but given that the great lords of Westeros are short-sightedly more concerned with their petty power struggles, most have simply ignored the warnings. The situation leaves only the under-supported and under-manned Night's Watch to stand between the White Walkers and the realms of men.
As of the fifth novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance with Dragons, very little detail has been given about what actually happened in the Battle for the Dawn. Written history doesn't date back that far (at least in Westeros), so only oral tradition and half-mythical accounts come down to the present. There are vague legends that a single First Man- whom Old Nan refers to in her stories as "the last hero"- unified both the First Men and the Children of the Forest and led them to victory.
Stories about the Long Night are also found in lands far beyond Westeros, though they may not always refer to it as such. The World of Ice and Fire sourcebook explained that several cultures throughout the continent of Essos have their own legends of ancient cataclysms, all of which (supposedly) occurred around the same time as the generation-long winter. Also in these legends, the ways in which the Long Night was overcome all follow similar patterns to what is told in Westeros:
•Descendants of the Rhoynar people - who inhabited the regions of the modern-day Free Cities - claim that the mighty Rhoyne River froze as far south as one of its tributaries, the Selhoru (roughly where Myr and Tyrosh now lie), a claim which the maesters have confirmed with reasonable certainty. The Rhoynar believed that the Long Night only ended when a single hero beseeched Mother Rhoyne, the goddess of the river, along with the minor deities that were her children, to join together and sing a magical song which brought back the dawn.
•In Yi Ti, it is said the Lion of Night - the primary god worshiped in the region - fathered a son on the Maiden-Made-of-Light. Known as God-on-Earth, he was the first emperor of Yi Ti's Great Empire of the Dawn (a semi-mythical civilization that allegedly existed during the Dawn Age before the Long Night). Thousands of years later, a descendant of God-on-Earth known as the Amethyst Empress was usurped and murdered by her own brother, an event known as the Blood Betrayal. This caused the Maiden-Made-of-Light to turn away from humanity in shame, and the Lion of Night came forth in all his wrath to punish mankind's wickedness, inflicting the cold and darkness of the Long Night. According to the stories, the sun hid its face from the world for a lifetime, ashamed at something none could discover, and disaster was only averted by the deeds of a woman with a monkey's tail.
1.Game of Thrones: Season 1, Episode 3: "Lord Snow" (2011).
2."Lord Snow"
3."The Pointy End"
4.HBO Viewer's Guide, Season 2 appendices Westeros Through the Ages
5."The History of the Night's Watch - The Night's Watch"
6.Winter Is Coming"
Aug 28, 2017 · Problem is, Cersei has just lost the General of her armies, and it seems unlikely the city is properly prepared for winter, given the long war it has been fighting across the whole continent.
Apr 29, 2019 · With the epic battle of Winterfell now over, here's what happened thousands of years ago when Westeros was plunged into darkness.
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May 1, 2019 · So, as Game of Thrones moves toward The Last War after ending The Great War, let's take a look at what's left of the Seven Kingdoms following the Battle of Winterfell, starting with the show's four...
