Game of Thrones question . . . (spoilers)

[XMan]

OK, due to incessant nagging by some members of this forum, I bought "A Game of Thrones" today.

My question is this - there are three characters on patrol in the haunted forest at the beginning of the book. Two of them are killed, one presumably escapes.

Now, in the next scene, the king beheads a man, who is of the same physical description of the guy who survived (Gared) the patrol. Is it Gared? If yes, why would they kill him, since he probably witnessed what happened and could warn people what was coming?

Oh, and the fact that Bran died 85 pages into the book made me sick to my stomach. That's as far as I've gotten so far, so don't ruin it for me.

 

[LanEvoVI]

IIRC...b/c he deserted his post at the Wall. Every now and then some Brother's of the Night's Watch try to desert their posts and this is the prescribed punishment. And by the time they found Gared he was probably speaking gibberish and the like and so nothing useful would have come out of interrogation.

85 pages and ur saying, "WTF?" already? Haha...be prepared for some more. Martin isn't ur average author by a long shot...

 

[Kelvrick]

Ehh... That is the punishment for deserting your post. Nobody would probably believe him anyway. I don't wanna say anything else...

Also, that wasn't the king. That was Lord Eddard Stark, Warden of the North. You'll meet the king later.

 

[Noriaki]

Yes Eddard Stark beheads the 3rd man from the patrol.

You have to read longer to understand, but many of the men of the Night's Watch are criminals who have had their death sentence waved in exchange for serving in the Night's Watch. If they choose to leave that post, their death sentence must be carried out.


I suggest you read the book, then read it again, you'll pick up a lot the second time through that you miss the first time through.