Spoiler Warning

Jon Snow in HBO's Game of Thrones

Spoiler warning! The chances are that you wouldn’t have searched for something so specific to the plot of GGRM’s work as “is Jon Snow dead” if you haven’t already reached the end of A Dance With Dragons. Nevertheless, if you haven’t reached the end of the most recent book within George R R Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, you should not read this article, as it discusses Jon Snow’s Death and several Jon Snow theories at length and may well spoil the enjoyment you would otherwise glean from this fine series of fantasy novels.

Is Jon Snow Dead?

Among the many fans of George R R Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire books are a very vocal segment of readers who are keen to speculate on any number of vital plot points within the books- who is Jon Snow's mother? Is Tyrion Lannister a good guy? Who is Coldhands? or perhaps what happens to Jaqen H'Ghar? and so on. With the end of the most recent novel in the series came a cliff hanger that is epic even by GRRM’s standards and has set the internet ablaze with speculation about one of the Ice and Fire series’ favourite characters. For many people Jon Snow is the hero of the piece; one of only a few characters within the books who is consistently morally good (Arya and Tyrion join him here- I would welcome suggestions as to any others): winning the reader’s sympathy through heroic deed and consistently owning the moral high ground, rather than drifting in and out of our sympathies as the novels come and go. So when we are shown what appears to be Jon Snow’s death scene at the close of A Dance with Dragons, the reader is shocked and alarmed- dismayed too no doubt. Can it be true? Will we really have to wait for the next Song of Ice and Fire novel in order to find out? Is Jon Snow dead? As with questions concerning Jon Snow's parents, there are a great many Jon Snow theories out there about this supposed staging of Jon Snow's death.

GRRM is nothing if not mischievous. We’ve seen characters disappear before, only to reappear a book or two later. Catelyn Stark would be an example here; yes she’s “dead”, but since she’s still walking around, exhibiting her own independent agency, she’s not dead in the traditional sense. Looking elsewhere, we’ve seen Brienne left hanging (if you’ll pardon the pun), and Cersei and Jaime have also both been the figurative Schrodinger’s cat in GRRM’s closed box: stranded between life and death for several hundred pages. Crucially, Rickon and Brandon Stark have been portrayed as dead only to reappear a few hundred pages later. It’s easy to believe that Jon Snow’s death is simply another ruse by this master of the plot twist, made to think that Jon Snow is dead only to dust him off and have him pop up smiling in the middle of the next book. Think about it: did we see a body? Yes, Jon Snow was stabbed four times, but were we actually told he was dead? There are any number of ways in which GRRM could be pulling the wool here, using his famed misdirection to force us to ask whether Jon Snow is dead, and as ever, the fan community is abuzz with ways in which this could be made to be the case.

Jon Snow's Death Scene

Jon Snow’s death scene is a nasty shock to the reader- we are aware that his policies with regards the wildlings beyond the wall have been extremely unpopular with his brothers from the Night’s Watch, and we know too that there is an element among the Watch planted by the Lannisters to discredit or harm Jon Snow on account of his Stark roots. But the idea that such a central and well-liked character as Jon Snow could be killed off still comes as a massive shock to the reader. But is Jon Snow dead? Is his death scene exactly what it appears to be? Or are we merely told that he is stabbed and loses consciousness? In Jon Snow’s death scene we’re told that he never even felt the fourth knife, only the cold. This could mean anything from death to just being quite cold, by way of slipping into consciousness, and it's this deliberate vagueness from such a master of misdirection that has given rise to yet more Jon Snow theories.

The Direwolf, Ghost

So If He's Not Dead...

Does Jon Snow come back from the dead? Is Jon Snow going to be in the Winds of Winter? It’s possible that Jon Snow's death scene merely describes him being attacked and knocked unconscious, and he’ll return in The Winds of Winter alive, if not well. Perhaps he’ll come to in shackles in a cell beneath the wall and some of the plot of The Winds of Winter will see him recovering and trying to escape his brother captors before the trickle of wights becomes a flood. If Jon Snow is dead, whose narrative focus will allow us to see the events at the wall?

Or perhaps Jon Snow’s death scene is what we’re lead to believe, and he is actually dead. This wouldn't be the first time that GRRM has killed off a main, much-loved character. But can wargs really die? With his last breath, perhaps Jon Snow inhabits another person nearby, or perhaps he lives on The Winds of Winter in the guise of his Direwolf, Ghost. But is this Jon Snow theory up to scratch; would Jon Snow living as a Direwolf really satisfy the reader? Surely even the most ardent Jon Snow fan would rather see him die heroically than live on as a direwolf?

Comments, please!

What do you think? Is Jon Sow dead? Are we even supposed to think he is? What's your Jon Snow theory? Let me know below...