White Walkers

The White Walkers are a mythological race mentioned in ancient legends and stories from the time of the First Men and the Children of the Forest. They are held to have caused chaos and war in Westeros before being defeated in a great struggle and driven back into the uttermost north, with the Wall raised to bar their return. They were generally believed to have either never existed, or if they ever did, are long extinct, as they had not been seen for thousands of years. The White Walkers speak a language known in myth as 'skroth'.

Season 1
At the start of the series, there have been peculiar rumours from over the Wall mentioning the White Walkers. According to Will, a renegade from the Night's Watch taken captive near Winterfell, his patrol was ambushed by several White Walkers and his comrades Gared and Ser Waymar Royce were executed by them. Prior to this, the White Walkers had massacred a tribe of wildlings and left the corpses out as a warning. His story was not believed by Lord Eddard Stark, who executed him as a deserter.

While not specifically mentioned, as the series progresses members of the watch ask Tyrion to send reinforcements to the watch. They claim there is something other than the Wildlings behind the wall and its been watching and testing them for weeks. With winter coming they fear this unseen enemy will make its move.

In the books
In the Game of Thrones television show, the term 'White Walkers' is used as an alternate name for a species normally called the Others in the books. They are held to be myths only. According to legend, the Others were creatures of ice and cold who, more then eight thousand years ago, came from the uttermost north during a winter that lasted a generation and a night that covered the world, the Long Night. The Others were defeated in the War for the Dawn by a great hero wielding a sword of flame. After the Others defeat, Bran the Builder constructed the Wall with magic and artifice to ensure they could never return to threaten the people of Westeros and the world beyond. The War for the Dawn apparently unified the peoples of the North under the rule of the Starks and saw Winterfell built shortly thereafter.

The Night's Watch was founded to guard against the return of the Others, but this task is generally forgotten today. The Watch is instead believed to be guarding against the human wildlings who hold the lands beyond and occasionally try to raid across the Wall into the richer lands to the south.

Naming
The White Walkers are known as 'the Others' in the novels, and were still known by this name in the first draft of the pilot script. Whilst the producers have not commented directly on the reasons for the name change, fans speculate that this was done to avoid similarities to an identically-named faction in the television series Lost.

Some fans have confused the term 'White Walkers' with their minions, which are called 'wights'. This confusion stems from the name change, when in the novels it is made clear the Others and wights are two separate types of creature.