The Haunted Forest

The forest covers nearly all the land north of the Wall, bounded by the Frostfangs to the west and the Shivering Sea to the east. The Wall itself cuts across its southern edge, where the men of the Night's Watch cut their timber, and several rivers run through it, the Antler among them.

Weirwoods, oaks, beeches and ironwoods share the ground. Near Castle Black stands a grove of nine weirwoods reached only by crossing a stream that freezes as winter nears and then following a crooked path to the northeast; there the brothers of the Watch who still hold to the Old Gods speak their vows, and both they and the wildlings hold the place sacred.

On its eastern side sit wildling villages such as Hardhome or Craster's Keep, and rising over the forest stands the Fist of the First Men, a hill many believe was raised by human hands. Out of its depths come stories of direwolves, giants, Children of the Forest, sea monsters and worse; over time, some of those stories have stopped sounding like tales.

Blocks of ice cut from its lakes are said to have gone into building the Wall centuries ago. And six hundred years ago, for about six months, the ashes of Hardhome fell over the forest like rain.

Lord Commander Jeor Mormont sent Benjen Stark into the forest at the head of six men, looking for Ser Waymar Royce, who had failed to return from a ranging of his own. Benjen did not come back either.

His disappearance later counted among the reasons Mormont himself rode out beyond the Wall at the head of the Great Ranging.

During the Great Ranging, the Night's Watch found a forest emptied of both wildlings and animals, as if everything living in it had fled at once. Not even the most seasoned rangers remembered it ever looking so haunted.

Bran Stark, Hodor and his guardians Meera and Jojen Reed reached the Nightfort, beside the Wall, where they found Samwell Tarly. He led them to a hidden door cut through the ice.

On the other side Coldhands was waiting, and he became their guide through the forest as they searched for the three-eyed crow.

The journey wore on cold and hungry, and the group came close to starving before they found the cave of the three-eyed crow. Wights ambushed them at the entrance, but the cave itself was warded against the White Walkers and against them as well.

Inside, the Children of the Forest were waiting, and with them the three-eyed crow himself.

Nine of the wildlings who had come back with Jon Snow from Hardhome approached the weirwood grove in the Haunted Forest to swear the black of the Night's Watch. Among the survivors of the battle at Castle Black that Jon found there was a giant.

When the group entered the clearing, the giant and the wildlings reached for their weapons, ready to fight, until Pieles spoke at length in the Old Tongue to explain that the place was sacred and that they had only come to pray. Jon ended up recruiting those still alive, among them the giant Wun Weg Wun Dar Wun.

Jon Snow sent three ranging parties of three men each into the forest: one under Dywen, the other two led by Black Jack Bulwer and Kedge Whiteye. In a treeless clearing at the foot of the Wall, the Weeper's wildlings fell on one of them by night.

They staked the heads of Black Jack, Hal the Moose and Garth Greyfeather on ash spears and fled back into the forest. Not long after, Jon also sent Val into the Haunted Forest to find Tormund and his people; she came back to Castle Black bringing him with her.