Hey everyone,
I wanted to ask if anyone has theorized what the story is in universe behind the Magnar of thenns because it just fascinates me so much that how did the thenns come to recognize their Magnar as a god like figure and follow him absolutely and religiously which results in them having a stronger devotion to their Magnar than commoners do towards their lords south of the wall and it passed to even their son as well.
And this devotion to their Magnar persists after their defeat as well as shown when mance defeated the Magnar and force them to submit ,even then the thenns respected their Magnar and after stannis defeated the wildlings at battle near the wall and the Magnar died, then the thenns chose to follow his son as the next Magnar.
It just really interests me what is the story behind this and perhaps it is meant to show that wildlings are capable of religious reverence for humans considered divine if not kneeling for kings and maybe after Jon is resurrected from the dead they will Revere him the same as well especially when he becomes king in the north after defeating the boltons.
Thenn is obviously an amazing area to live in, the best above the Wall, and so the people there would have had to fight off invaders frequently. Therefore the Magnar began to exist is this guy to lead the armies and keep people out of Thenn, and so with a few against the odds victories, its easy to see why many would consider him a Godking
My speculation is that the resources in Thenn wanted defense from too many who would want such. Their society is structured to hold Thenn.
Yes that makes sense but why such devotion to one person and his lineage even after two defeats and the thenns are also now south of the wall outside their valley so why follow a Magnar.
I speculate their society developed to defend a land as a people. But now, with Sigorn wed to Alys, they continue because it's the custom everywhere in Westeros as well as being original to their own culture.
I always thought it was a reference to the Bronze Age Irish god-kings, although I don’t really have anything to support it. Kind of just popped into my head. Also the Irish God-Kings were super inbred, the idea being that “Gods” could break social taboos is pretty well attested.