WARNING: This story contains spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 1.
Sure, there was a lot of emphasis on Daenerys's arrival to Winterfell, Jon's true identity, and Bran's awkward stares in the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere last night, but let's not forget: the White Walkers are still marching south with the Army of the Dead. There wasn't a single Night King appearance in the episode, but he still left his mark in a horrifying way.
His victims in the latest episode were the residents of Last Hearth—the seat of House Umber, a Northern ally of House Stark. None of them were left in the Northern fortress except for the young Lord Ned Umber, dead and nailed to the wall amidst a slew of severed limbs in a spiral pattern.
Tormund, Beric Dondarrion, Dolorous Edd, and their crew find the haunting symbol when they arrive to Last Hearth. "It's a message from the Night King," Beric notes of the bloody formation. But what is the Night King saying?
At face value, it means the White Walkers are marching south quickly. After breaking through the Wall in the Season 7 finale, they've already reached one of the Northern houses of Westeros and moved on—Winterfell could be next. Next week's episode already finds Jon and his crew less than a day away from the Night King's arrival.
The White Walkers have used spirals before.
The exact meaning of the spiral symbol remains unclear, but GoT viewers have seen it in past episodes. The Night King has a penchant for leaving behind his victims in spooky patterns. In the very first scene of Season 1, Episode 1, a man of the Night's Watch finds corpses in the woods lying in an eerie formation. It wasn't a spiral, but creepy nonetheless.
In Season 3, Episode 3, Jon Snow and a group of Wildlings (including Mance Rayder, Tormund, and Ygritte) find dead horses beyond the wall in the shape of the spiral.
The Children of the Forest have used it too.
It turns out the White Walkers aren't the only ones associated with the spiral motif. While traveling back in time in Season 6, Episode 5, Bran discovers the same pattern in the stones surrounding the weirwood tree where the Children of the Forest first created the Night King. The sequence shows Leaf stabbing the heart of a man with a shard of dragonglass, causing his eyes to turn blue, showing his transformation into a White Walker.
In Season 7, we learn that the Children of the Forest often used used the circular symbol in carvings as well, thanks to several ancient cave drawings Jon and Daenerys find in in Dragonstone. Spirals and swirls appear around the cave, and one even appears next to a drawing of early humans.
The White Walkers actually copied the Children of the Forest.
In a behind-the-scenes interview from this Season 7 episode, GoT showrunner David Benioff confirmed that the White Walkers copied the symbol from their creators.
"One of the things we learn from these cave paintings is that the White Walkers didn't come up with those images; they derived them from their creators, the Children of the Forest. These are patterns that have mystical significance for the children of the forest, we're not sure exactly what they signify, but spiral patterns are important in a lot of different cultures in our world, and it makes sense that they would be in this world as well."
To refresh your memory, the Children of the Forest, the original inhabitants of Westeros, first created the White Walkers as a weapon to protect themselves against the First Men when they were invaded thousands of years before the events on Game of Thrones. However, the White Walkers later got out of control and the First Men had to team up with the Children of the Forest to fight the icy beings in a battle called the War for the Dawn.
So why did the White Walkers adopt the spiral symbol? Are they reminding mankind of their defeat in the War for the Dawn? Are they about to take out their revenge on the Children of the Forest on humans? As Time points out, in real-life, some ancient cultures have used the spiral to signify rebirth or progression. If the GoT showrunners were inspired by real history to create these symbols, is repeating past events part of the White Walkers' plan?
Some fans also thought the spiral looks like the Targaryen sigil of the three-headed dragon. Could the mysterious symbol be a threat to the Targaryens, the traditional rulers of Westeros?
Perhaps we'll find out in GoT's final episodes. Catch the next installment of GoT next Sunday, April 21, on HBO at 9 p.m. ET.
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now.
