Battle of Castle Black

The Battle of Castle Black is an event during the Conflict Beyond the Wall.

Prelude
Having heard disturbing reports of disappearance of wildlings and presence of White Walkers beyond the wall, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont commanded a great ranging beyond the Wall to find out what was happening. The ranging ended up in disaster with a nigh-annihilation of the ranging party after an attack by White Walkers followed by a mutiny.

Mance Rayder, Ki​ng-beyond-the-Wall, indeed united most wildling tribes in order to march south to escape the White Walkers. The destruction of the ranging party convinced him it was time to strike both because of the White Walker threat and because of the severe losses of the Night's Watch, making an attack on the Wall both necessary and easier than it once had been.

Mance's strategy was sending raiding parties to climb the Wall to lure the remaining strength of the Night's Watch out of Castle Black, then take it by the south, while the bulk of his strengths attacked from the north.

​Having infiltrated Mance's army to learn their plans, Jon Snow convinced the Night's Watch not to waste men on defending the Gift but instead focusing on the defense of Castle Black. An attack on Craster's Keep prevented wildlings from knowing the truth about the numbers of the Night's Watch.

Preface
Mance Rayder, now knowing that the bulk of the Watch's fighting force has been wiped out on the Fist by their mutual enemy, makes his way out of the Frostfangs and starts his march toward the Wall. Mance forms a plan to divert the remaining fighting men from both Castle Black and the Shadow Tower to the far west so he can send a team to scale the Wall and take the unwalled Castle Black from behind by surprise. With Mance's diversionary force striking hard in the west, Lord Steward Bowen Marsh marshals his forces and takes the bait, leaving only the old, the green, and the sickly behind to defend Castle Black - forty-one men against thirty thousand.

Strike from the South
As part of Mance Rayder's plan, the Magnar of Thenn, Styr, along with his co-commander Jarl and about 120 raiders, is sent ahead to scale the Wall and take Castle Black by surprise from the rear. After crossing near Greyguard and circling south-east through the Gift, Jon Snow escapes at Queenscrown. He warns Mole's Town and Castle Black of the imminent attack from the south. Donal Noye, Castle Black's blacksmith and now de-facto commander, and Jon organize the defense around archers in the towers and a line of fighting men on the massive wooden staircase that zigzags up the south face of the Wall.

The battle begins in the early morning hours as wildling raiders and Thenn warriors storm Castle Black. After the archers take a heavy toll on the wildling force, the battle culminates on the stair. Once the majority of the wildling forces mount the stair and push back the crumbling defense, the Watch springs a desperate trap. The stair, soaked in oil between the last Night's Watch line of defense and the base of the structure, is set ablaze, destroying the stair and killing Styr and most of his men. Ygritte dies in Jon's arms. While the raiding party is defeated, Mance's main force has yet to be dealt with and the Watch's primary means of transporting men and materials to the top of the Wall is destroyed.

The Siege
With the news that his advance party has been defeated, and he must instead assault the Wall, Mance assembles his host beyond the tree line. After a small probing attack at night, the first morning's attacks are spearheaded by giants mounted on mammoths. Mag the Mighty, King of the Giants, manages to breach the massive doors that lead to the tunnel underneath the Wall. Donal Noye and four brothers defend the tunnel system with spears and arrow fire from behind the internal gate and murder-hole system built into the tunnel. While they manage to kill all of the attackers, including Mag, and hold the interior portcullis under the Wall, all the defenders are slain, including Donal, whose body is found crushed by Mag, and his sword thrust though the giant's neck.

With the death of Donal Noye, Jon Snow reluctantly assumes command of the defense of the Wall at the request of Maester Aemon. Over the next several days, Jon manages to throw back repeated attacks on the Wall by using catapults, archers, flaming arrows, boiling oils and finally frozen barrels of rock and ice used to destroy Mance's armored battering rams.

Ser Alliser Thorne, an enemy of Jon, and Lord Janos Slynt, a betrayer of Jon's father Eddard Stark, arrive along with reinforcements from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. They take Jon into custody with the knowledge, from a captured Rattleshirt who led a diversion on the eastern side of the Wall, that he had deserted and joined forces with the wildlings. Either not believing him or not caring about his orders from Qhorin Halfhand to do just that, they imprison Jon in the ice cells under the Wall.

Jon is eventually sent out to the wildling camp to treat with Mance, although Alliser and Janos want Jon to assassinate the King-Beyond-the-Wall.