Children Of The Forest Essay

“The Children of the Forest” The Children of the Forest are an ancient race of supernaturals in Westeros. They were last seen over 8,000 years ago and are introduced in A Song of Ice and Fire as nothing more than a fairy tale, believed to be long extinct. Similar to the Ancient Celts, they were once the indigenous race of Westeros and following a war between the First Men they were forced to retreat to the fringe of Westeros, “beyond the Wall,” where their history turned into legend which turned into folklore over the thousands of years they remained in isolation. In Martin’s book, The World of Ice and Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones, he describes them as “small as Children but dark and beautiful,” facing similar …show more content…
Because he is a wildling and grew up ‘beyond the Wall’ his gift was thus embraced and he was given the proper instructions on the proper ways to skin change, as well as the taboos. “To eat of human meat was abomination, to mate as wolf and wolf was abomination, and to seize the body of another man was the worst abomination of all” (4). Bran, having grown up in Westeros was always told that the supernatural elements were just fables, none to be believed. So when he begins to discover his greenseer abilities, he reacts frightened and defiant at first, but through the encouragement of “Jojen Reed” another Westerosi with supernatural gifts, Bran embraces and begins to control his powers. However, Bran remains ignorant of the proper instructions and taboos of skinchanging. He does not realize that when he enters the body of the simple-minded stable boy Hodor, (who acts as Bran’s legs since he is paralyzed from the waist down, and whose vocabulary is limited to only one word, “Hodor”) he is committing the “worst abomination of all,” yet he does intuitively understand that the act is unnatural, as portrayed by his decision to not tell anyone about it (A Dance of Dragons,