Hardhome, a ruined fishing town on the shores beyond the Wall.
Who fought
A Night's Watch rescue fleet sent by Lord Commander Jon Snow against a catastrophe that struck the wildling refugees gathered at Hardhome
Outcome
The rescue fleet sent to evacuate Hardhome suffered catastrophic losses amid an unexplained disaster in which the dead reportedly rose against the living; the surviving account reached the Wall only as a fragmentary, panicked report.
A rescue mission sent to save thousands of starving refugees returned instead with a report so grim that the men who carried it struggled to make anyone above the Wall believe it.
Commanders
Cotter Pyke
Ser Denys Mallister
Jon Snow (ordering the rescue)
What happened
A rescue mission beyond the Wall, meant to bring desperate refugees to safety, met with disaster of a kind the chronicle is not yet prepared to describe in full. Word of what happened reached Castle Black only in fragments, carried by a raven message too frightened to be entirely coherent, and the losses — among both the rescuers and the rescued — were severe.
The details belong to the last pages of a story still being told beyond the Wall, and this record holds them back rather than spoil an ending readers may not have reached.
Hardhome in the novels
This carries how the battle plays out in the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
Thousands of Free Folk, driven from their homes by dangers the maesters can only describe secondhand, gathered at the ruined fishing town of Hardhome on the shores of the Bay of Seals, trusting rumor of a Night's Watch rescue more than they trusted the wilderness at their backs. Lord Commander Jon Snow, against the wishes of Watch brothers who considered every wildling an enemy regardless of circumstance, sent ships under Cotter Pyke and Ser Denys Mallister to bring as many of them south of the Wall as the fleet could carry.
What happened at Hardhome reached Castle Black only secondhand, in a raven message from Cotter Pyke too urgent and too frightened to wait for a fuller report. By his account, the camp was struck by something the rescue fleet was not prepared for — an assault amid which the dead themselves rose to fight against the living, drowning any orderly evacuation in panic. Ships were lost; men and wildlings alike died in numbers the message could not even estimate with confidence.
The full truth of that night remains, even now, known mostly through the fear in a single raven-scrawled letter rather than any settled account — the sort of gap in the record the Citadel is obliged to note rather than fill with invention. What is certain is that word of the disaster reached the Wall at the worst possible moment, feeding a resentment among Jon Snow's own brothers over his wildling policy that would have consequences of its own before the year was out.
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
In the timeline
SourcesADWD · Jon
Explore further
Commanders
Houses in the field
Elsewhere in this war
What was Hardhome?
A rescue mission sent to save thousands of starving refugees returned instead with a report so grim that the men who carried it struggled to make anyone above the Wall believe it.
Is Hardhome from the books or the show?
Book canon. This entry follows George R. R. Martin's novels and histories, and notes where the television series diverges rather than following it.