Massacre at Hardhome

The Massacre at Hardhome is an event in the Conflict Beyond the Wall between the Night's Watch and the Free Folk against the White Walkers and the Wights. It is shown in the episode "Hardhome."

Prelude
Jon Snow and Tormund Giantsbane, along with other members of the Night's Watch and the Free Folk, arrive at the Wildling town of Hardhome to convince the rest of the Wildlings to join them in the upcoming war against the White Walkers and their armies of wights. Refusing to ally with the Night's Watch, the Lord of Bones insults Tormund for being at the side of the Night's Watch, causing Tormund to beat his former ally to death with his own scepter.

They gather in the townshall to discuss an alliance between the Free Folk and the Night's Watch, but many of the Wildlings do not trust Jon. Having not seen Mance Rayder since he was taken prisoner at the Wall, the Wildlings question his whereabouts. Jon informs them that he shot an arrow through Mance's heart. This angers the group and they move in to kill him. Tormund speaks for him, stating that Rayder was about to be burned at the stake as a vicious message from Stannis Baratheon. Jon defied that order by shooting Mance before he burned. Some leaders are convinced, such as Karsi, but others like the Thenn warrior Loboda remain defiant and refuse to ally.

Battle
As the Wildlings are boarding rowboats to board ships bound for Castle Black, the sounds of a storm are heard and a mist starts to pour over the mountain. Recognizing this as the sign of approaching White Walkers, Loboda orders the gates of Hardhome to be shut, abandoning thousands of the Free Folk to their fate, as they all rush to get through the gate. Whilst pleading for the gates to be opened, those trapped on the other side are suddenly silenced and walk away from the gate. Evidently transformed by either the mist or whatever lurks within it, they re-animate as wights and start breaking through the gates or begin climbing over the walls. Jon, Tormund, Loboda and Karsi fight alongside the others to buy the others time to escape. On top of a hill overlooking Hardhome, multiple White Walkers mounted on undead horses are looking at the battle, including The Night's King. Realizing the need for dragonglass, Jon and Loboda go to the townhall, which is on fire. A White Walker warrior confronts the two. While Loboda confronts the threat, Jon Snow goes for the dragonglass. Loboda is quickly killed as his axe shatters immediately upon contacting the White Walker's weapon before he is impaled.

Jon reaches for a dragonglass dagger, but is tossed aside by the White Walker and disarmed when his sword, Longclaw, is knocked out of his hand. He grabs an ordinary weapon, only to have it shatter upon contact with the White Walker's blade. When Jon retrieves Longclaw, both he and the White Walker are surprised to see that the sword doesn't shatter. Seizing the opportunity, Jon slays the White Walker which immediately shatters to pieces after being touched by Longclaw. Karsi fights off multiple wights before she is confronted by a pack of undead children. Frozen by the horror, she is overwhelmed by them. The Night's King screams, signalling more wights to leap from the cliffs and they begin slaughtering the remaining defenders as they attempt to flee to the water. Shielded by the giant Wun Wun who wields a burning log as a club before walking into the sea with them, they manage to get to the last remaining boat to make it to their ship.

Aftermath


Those killed in the defense of Hardhome, as well as those who were unable or unwilling to board the Royal Fleet, are revived as wights by the Night's King. The wildlings were ultimately successful in evacuating around 5,000 people, but at least as many were killed and revived. Aside from the free folk evacuees, the only tactical advantage that the Night's Watch gained from the massacre was the information that Valyrian steel is lethal to White Walkers, and even that was only discovered by accident when most of their dragonglass was lost, and is limited in practical use by the rarity of Valyrian steel weapons. They also become aware of the Night's King, although they learn nothing of him save that he is the leader of the White Walkers and can raise hundreds of wights instantly.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the events at Hardhome take place "off-screen". Very little information is given about it. The size of opposing forces, number of casualties and its outcome are unknown. In fact, what is depicted in the TV series is an amalgamation of four different missions of Jon Snow: firstly, after the Battle of Castle Black, Jon sent a wildling envoy named Val North of the wall to find the wildlings, who were led by Tormund himself, as he was not captured during the battle. During a ranging beyond the Wall, Jon encountered the giant Wun Wun and a small group of wildlings, whom he convinced to come back to Castle Black with them. Later, Jon heard from several wildlings about the many other Free Folk at Hardhome, and sent many of the Night's Watch ships and men to the ruined settlement to save them. However, wights surrounded the area and they were left stranded, so Jon and Tormund planned to go themselves and save the black brothers and wildlings both —however, this mission was interrupted by a mutiny at Castle Black. The TV series picked the Hardhome context of the latter two failed missions and ascribed it to the successful former missions of bringing Wun Wun and a few wildlings back to Castle Black and of sending a wildling envoy North and bringing thousands of Free Folk through the Wall.

Specifically as it regards to Hardhome, in the books Jon tells Bowen Marsh, Othell Yarwyck, and Septon Cellador what several of the Wildings told him: a woods witch called Mother Mole had a vision of a fleet of ships arriving to carry the free folk to safety across the narrow sea. About six thousand of those who fled the battle of Castle Black were desperate enough to believe her. She has led them all to Hardhome, there to pray and await salvation from across the sea. Jon intends to bring as many of them as possible to Castle Black, reasoning that any of those Wildlings to die at Hardhome - is one more wight to fight against. Marsh, Yarwyck and Cellador disagree - as they have been objecting consistently to Jon's idea to bring Wildlings to the Watch - but Jon is adamant in his decision. He gives orders to Cotter Pyke to sail to Hardhome with the eleven ships they have, three of them from Salladhor Saan's fleet and another three that Jon borrows from Tycho Nestoris - in the novels, Nestoris seeks out Stannis at Castle Black instead of Stannis seeking the Iron Bank's aid before sailing north. Unlike in the show, Jon, Eddison Tollett and Tormund do not travel there, and Wun Wun does not take any part in the event.

Unbeknowst to Jon, two Lyseni galleys called "Goodheart" and "Elephant", arrived some time before at Hardhome to make repairs. They offered the wildlings to take the women and children to safety. The wildlings had nothing to eat, so the men sent out their wives and daughters, but as soon as the ships were out to sea, the Lyseni drove them below and roped them up, intending to sell them all in Lys. Only then they ran into another storm and the ships were parted. The Goodheart was so damaged her captain had no choice but to put in Braavos, and was seized by the Sealord's guard, since slavery is forbidden there. The Elephant, however, might have made it back to Lys. That raiding has unexpected disastrous application on Cotter Pyke's mission.

The first report from Cotter Pyke arrives: "Calm seas today. Eleven ships set sail for Hardhome on the morning tide. Three Braavosi, four Lyseni, four of ours. Two of the Lyseni barely seaworthy. We may drown more wildlings than we save. Your command. Twenty ravens aboard, and Maester Harmune. Will send reports. I command from Talon, Tattersalt second on Blackbird, Ser Glendon holds Eastwatch".

The next report is much worse: "At Hardhome, with six ships. Wild seas. Blackbird lost with all hands, two Lyseni ships driven aground on Skane, Talon taking water. Very bad here. Wildlings eating their own dead. Dead things in the woods. Braavosi captains will only take women, children on their ships. Witch women call us slavers. Attempt to take Storm Crow defeated, six crew dead, many wildlings. Eight ravens left. Dead things in the water. Send help by land, seas wracked by storms. From Talon, by hand of Maester Harmune". This message is the only source of information about the battle: apparently, the Wildlings mistook Cotter Pyke for another slaver who came to kidnap and sell their women and children to slavery, and responded aggressively. Worse, they are under attack of wights that seem capable of operating underwater. It is unknown whether the Others are involved in the battle, too.

Jon consults with his subordinates what they should do. Bowen Marsh advises Jon to let the Wildlings die, the same thing Queen Selyse says. Melisandre, also at Castle Black, tells Jon what she saw in a vision "Let them die. You cannot save them. Your ships are lost. All of them. Not a man shall return." Yarwyck suggests sending Tormund to Hardhome.

Jon accepts Yarwyck's suggestion and starts to set up a ranging force that will cross the Haunted Forest and approach Hardhome by land, with him and Tormund leading. However, he is interrupted by a letter from Ramsay Bolton, which infuriates him to the point that he relinquishes command of the mission to someone else so that he can deal with Ramsay himself (though his decision leads to a mutiny). This is the last reference to Hardhome in the novels so far.

It is unknown what is the status of Cotter Pyke and his men, if any of them is still alive.

The occurrence at Hardhome is foreshadowed in the novel:
 * Melisandre sees a vision in the fire: "Snowflakes swirled from a dark sky and ashes rose to meet them, the grey and the white whirling around each other as flaming arrows arced above a wooden wall and dead things shambled silent through the cold, beneath a great grey cliff where fires burned inside a hundred caves. Then the wind rose and the white mist came sweeping in, impossibly cold, and one by one the fires went out. Afterward only the skulls remained."
 * Patchface, the court jester of Dragonstone, sings: "The crow, the crow. Under the sea the crows are white as snow, I know, I know, oh, oh, oh". Later, when Jon argues with Selyse about sending ranging force to help Cotter Pyke, Patchface exclaims: "I will lead it! We will march into the sea and out again. Under the waves we will ride seahorses, and mermaids will blow seashells to announce our coming, oh, oh, oh".