‘Game of Thrones’ Writer Reveals the Meaning of the White Walkers’ Spiral Pattern

Over the course of seven seasons, Game of Thrones has been shrouded in mystery over its past and the involvement of the Children of the Forest. We’ve recently learned that the growing threat of the Night King and the Army of the Dead have stemmed from the actions of the Children, possibly damning the Seven Kingdoms.

The White Walkers and the Children have employed many mysterious symbols over the years, and we’ve only been able to guess at their meanings. Now Game of Thrones writer Dave Hill, who wrote the premiere episode “Winterfell,” opened up about the significance of these symbols.

“As we saw with Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven, the spiral pattern was sacred to the Children of the Forest, who created the Night King by sacrificing a captured man in a spiral ‘henge of stones.’ The Night King then adopted the symbol as a sort of blasphemy, like Satan with the upside-down cross,” Hill explained to the New York Post.

We first saw a symbol in the opening scene of the pilot episode, when rangers from the Night’s Watch journey beyond the Wall and come across a settlement of dead people, their bodies arranged in a rhombus with a line going through it.

We later see a spiral of dead horse parts, and then we finally get to see the creation of a White Walker when the Night King transforms a baby — at the center of a sacred area with stones arranged in another mysterious order.

All of these symbols gain more significance when Bran Stark sees the creation of the Night King by the Children of the Forrest at the center of a spiral, indicating that the threat of the Dead was created by the Children in their battle against the First Men.

Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen discover cave drawings of these symbols on the island of Dragonstone, showing a history where the First Men and the Children of the Forest eventually set aside their differences to combat the threat of the Night King.

The White Walkers will continue to pervert Westeros in their attempt to destroy all living things. We’ll find out if they succeed as the final season of Game of Thrones continues on Sundays on HBO TV.