Camp Summerhall

Tormund's eldest son stood near the horses, talking with Leathers. Tall Toregg, he was called amongst the free folk.
A Dance With Dragons Jon XI 

 

The free folk call him Tall Toregg, but eventually Jon starts to think of him as Toregg the Tall.

 

Tormund had once thought to make himself the King-Beyond-the-Wall, before Mance had bested him. Toregg the Tall might well be dreaming the same dream.
A Dance With Dragons Jon XI

Toregg, Son of Tormund by Alejandro Kay ©

 

👑🍳 The name Toregg the Tall alludes to both Egg, known as Aegon the Unlikely, and his lifelong friend Ser Duncan the Tall. The two feature in the ‘Tales of Dunk and Egg’ series of novellas, and are figures of Westorosi history referenced in A Song of Ice and Fire. Toregg is tall and strong like Dunk, but he might be like Egg in other ways.

 

Light a Fire Under Them

 

While Jon and Tormund are overseeing the free folk passing through the Wall, Tormund notices that it’s getting late:

Tormund nodded toward the sky. "The clouds roll in. Already it grows darker, colder. Your Wall no longer weeps. Look." He turned and called out to his son Toregg. "Ride back to the camp and get them moving. The sick ones and the weak ones, the slugabeds and cravens, get them on their bloody feet. Set their bloody tents afire if you must. The gate must close at nightfall. Any man not through the Wall by then had best pray the Others get to him afore I do. You hear?"

"I hear." Toregg put his heels into his horse and galloped back down the column.
A Dance With Dragons Jon XII

👑🍳 As King, Egg was responsible for burning down the Targaryen castle of Summerhall in a failed attempt to hatch dragon eggs.

😜 But Tormund was joking, wasn't he? It's a figure of speech, a hyperbole. They're not really going to set fire to tents just to get people moving…

 

By late afternoon the snow was falling steadily, but the river of wildlings had dwindled to a stream. Columns of smoke rose from the trees where their camp had been. 

"Toregg," Tormund explained. "Burning the dead. Always some who go to sleep and don't wake up. You find them in their tents, them as have tents, curled up and froze. Toregg knows what to do."
A Dance With Dragons Jon XII

Jon heard Tormund tell Toregg to set people’s tents on fire to get them on the march, but this unsolicited explanation from Tormund presents an alternative interpretation. Jon can rest assured; Toregg is only burning the dead. 

🤨 Or is Tormund lying? 

 

Pants on Fire 

One of the responsibilities Tormund's band had in Mance Rayder’s column was to serve as whips:

The rest, divided into small bands under the likes of Rattleshirt, Jarl, Tormund Giantsbane, and the Weeper, served as outriders, foragers, and whips, galloping up and down the column endlessly to keep it moving in a more or less orderly fashion.
A Storm Of Swords Jon II

It is not clear how much force is needed to keep the column orderly. Did they literally whip people?

The stream was no more than a trickle by the time Toregg emerged from the wood. With him rode a dozen mounted warriors armed with spears and swords. "My rear guard," Tormund said, with a gap-toothed smile. "You crows have rangers. So do we. Them I left in camp in case we were attacked before we all got out."

"Your best men."

"Or my worst. Every man o' them has killed a crow."
A Dance With Dragons Jon XII

Tormund compares his rear guard to the Night’s Watch rangers. The rangers are the black brothers that venture beyond the Wall; but to the free folk, rangers are killers. Tormund sees his rear guard as their counterpart, even telling Jon they are his worst men, crow-killers all.

😜 Toregg and the rear guard certainly seem capable of forcing the free folk to join the march against their will, nothing funny about that.

 Trees in snow, by Elina Volkova ©

Pyrophobia

 

 “Get them moving. The sick ones and the weak ones, the slugabeds and cravens, get them on their bloody feet. Set their bloody tents afire if you must.”
A Dance With Dragons Jon XII

Those who are sick, weak, or lazy may need help to get moving, but what is delaying the cravens? Are some free folk scared to go through the Wall?

Jon heard the answer to this from one of the free folk that the Night’s Watch found at the grove of nine:

"The gods are here," one of the old men said. "This was as good a place to die as any."

"The Wall is only a few hours south of here," said Jon. "Why not seek shelter there? Others yielded. Even Mance."

The wildlings exchanged looks. Finally one said, "We heard stories. The crows burned all them that yielded."

"Even Mance hisself," the woman added.

Melisandre, Jon thought, you and your red god have much and more to answer for.
A Dance With Dragons Jon VII

They are scared that if they go through the Wall, they will be burned. So Tormund, his sons, and his “rear guard”, will burn anyone that doesn’t go through the Wall. Now the cravens have no excuse.

😜 Tormund was probably serious when ordering Toregg to force the free folk to march by burning their tents.

🤨 So does that mean Tormund was lying to Jon when he claimed Toregg was burning the dead?

Torwynd Rising

 

The grin melted away like snow in summer. "I am not the man I was at Ruddy Hall. Seen too much death, and worse things too. My sons …" Grief twisted Tormund's face. "Dormund was cut down in the battle for the Wall, and him still half a boy. One o' your king's knights did for him, some bastard all in grey steel with moths upon his shield. I saw the cut, but my boy was dead before I reached him. And Torwynd … it was the cold claimed him. Always sickly, that one. He just up and died one night. The worst o' it, before we ever knew he'd died he rose pale with them blue eyes. Had to see to him m'self. That was hard, Jon." Tears shone in his eyes. "He wasn't much of a man, truth be told, but he'd been me little boy once, and I loved him."
A Dance With Dragons Jon XI

Tormund’s son Torwynd died of cold, and returned as a wight. Tormund had to fight the zombie himself.

🤨 It doesn't seem like a fabricated story, what Tormund describes is plausible from what we know of A Song of Ice and Fire magic, and he appears to become genuinely emotional talking about it. In all likelihood the story is true.

Given what happened to Torwynd, the rest of Tormund’s children would probably have been taught to burn bodies that freeze to death.

 

Honesty and Deception

 

😜 When Tormund tells Toregg to burn down the tents of any remaining free folk, we assume it is hyperbole; but there are signs he was being deadly serious.

But when Jon sees the fires, Tormund has another explanation.

🤨 He was probably not lying when he said:

• the fires were started by Toregg
• they find free folk that have died of cold
• Toregg knows to burn the bodies. 

 

However, by sharing these facts, he seems to mislead Jon into believing that Toregg is only burning corpses, when it seems:

• Toregg and the rear guard are burning the tents of any remaining free folk, and
• some of the free folk are crossing the Wall against their will