First things first: this post contains spoilers if you're not all caught up. So if you aren't, turn away.
With any Game of Thrones season comes so many theories. Everything from the Starks and White Walkers are related to Bran is actually the Night King.
Recently a lot of theories have been focused on the crypts below Winterfell. The most popular one states that when the Night King attacks the castle he will use his powers to raise the dead Starks in the crypts to attack the living.
Well, CUNY professor Steven Attewell has a theory he wrote in a blog post on what he thinks will happen in the crypts.
I don’t think the Starks of ages past, so focused on the coming of winter, buried their dead with iron swords because they were stupid men.
If anything, I think the Winterfell crypts are GRRM’s spin on the Dead Men of Dunharrow.
What he's basically saying is the dead Starks in the crypts wouldn't rise to kill people but to actually help them. This theory does have some teeth to it. While a lot of the Starks we know aren't there — Ned, Robb, and Catelyn — there are generations of Starks in those tombs that go back hundreds of years.
Also, as is tradition many of those Ancient Starks are buried with iron swords to ward off evil spirits. Ned says himself in the A Game Of Thrones book.
By ancient custom an iron longsword had been laid across the lap of each who had been Lord of Winterfell, to keep the vengeful spirits in their crypts. The oldest had long ago rusted away to nothing, leaving only a few red stains where the metal had rested on stone. Ned wondered if that meant those ghosts were free to roam the castle now. He hoped not. The first Lords of Winterfell had been men hard as the land they ruled.
The theory also mentions the Dead Men of Dunharrow for the Lord of the Rings books. In the LOTR trilogy, the Dead Men of Dunharrow were a once-disgraced undead army who defended the heroes of the series in their time of greatest need and redeemed themselves.
So imagine a small army of undead and armed warrior Starks going toe-to-toe with the Night King's army. That certainly would be cool and would play into the lore and reverence Northerners have for the Winterfell crypts.
So, what do you think — will the dead of Winterfell rise to help, or to harm?
