Jon does a deal with Tormund Giantsbane. Gold and a number of boys as wards/hostages and you can pass through the wall to escape the Others. And also help the Night's Watch with manning the castles and guarding the wall. It's all very amicably done. We'll also help look after your sick and wounded, of which there seem to be many.
"If every woman had a direwolf, men would be much sweeter," says Val. That's what I call feminism: a direwolf for every woman. Why not?
Val meets queen Selyse (who wants the wildlings to accept her red god, but Jon is having none of it) and her daughter Shireen. Val is totally freaked out by Shireen's greyscale, but Jon thinks it can be harmless in children. Who is right?
Some of Jon's lieutenants are not at all happy about letting more wildlings past the wall. Bowen Marsh delivers a blunt speech about how it is against the oath. Jon says, "I am the shield that guards the realms of men. Those are the words. So tell me, my lord--what are these wildlings if not men?" It's proper rousing stuff; Jon is good at this. And he is completely reforming the Watch to its true purpose: defense against Others, not wildlings. It's pretty lucky he was chosen as lord commander: none of the other candidates would have had the wherewithall to do it. Jon could be saving the world her.
In fact, now I think of it, where was he born? Could he have been born on Dragonstone? There was a Davos chapter where we learned something of that. Let me see... Here is what I wrote in chapter 9: "Jon Snow's mum is the daughter of a fisherman who gave him a lift from Sweetsister to the Eyrie". Looking at the map, Sweetsister is North of the Fingers, the Eyrie is in the middle (and inland, or down a fjordj), and Dragonstone is well south of the fingers and south of Cracklaw Point. Maybe if the fisherman and his daughter ranged quite widely after their encounter with Ned, Jon could be the prophesied chosen one...
