The Wildlings are one of the strangest factions in Game of Thrones, and some things about them just don't add up.

They’re called the wildings; even their very name seeming to capture an indelibly feral part of their collective personality. For a significant part of the run of Game of Thrones, they’re a persistent threat, always lurking Beyond the Wall, ready to sweep down upon the south should the Night’s Watch slacken their guard.

Despite the fact that they are, ostensibly, some of the most inveterate enemies of the southern realms of Westeros, the series seems more than a bit cagey about several aspects of their culture and their history. Truth be told, there’s much that remains unclear and doesn’t make sense about them - ten of which have been listed here.

10 Why Would They Unite Behind A Former Crow?

It’s rather strange to think that a group known for both their stubborn refusal to bow to authority and their hatred of the Night’s Watch would, in fact, unite behind a man who served for many years in that organization, even if he was born a wildling.

Obviously, this says a great deal about the sort of charisma and power that Mance Rayder wields as a leader, but there are still some aspects of their decision to unite behind him that don’t quite add up.

9 Why Were They Comfortable With Some Of The More Outlandish Groups Joining In?

As soon as they appear in the series, the wildings are marked as being some of the strangest people to inhabit Westeros. While many of them appear as one would expect of people who haven’t experienced the benefits of civilization, there are some truly strange, bizarre, and sometimes downright frightening tribes.

While some tribes are really just nomadic warriors, others are known for being cannibals while others are imbued with strange supernatural powers. It could be said that they put their differences aside at some point, but it still strains the imagination to think that most of the wildlings would be okay with such people joining their ranks. Seeing these disparate factions unite under a single cause is just weird, to say the least.

8 Why Are They So... Wild?

As their name suggests, the wildlings seem to have an almost pathological aversion to anything that smacks of the civilization of the south, presumably because it would make them either soft or would take away their vaunted independence.

It does seem, though, that at least some of them might have settled down in more stable communities, but the series doesn’t really provide any sort of depth on this particular issue. It certainly doesn’t show much attention to sedentary groups of wildlings, preferring to focus on the roving bands.

7 How Did They All Agree On Calling Themselves 'The Free Folk?'

Given that, until recently, there was no centralized authority among the Free Folk, one has to wonder: how exactly did they settle upon that name?

This sort of collective identity is all the stranger when one considers their desire to avoid all of the things that mark southern civilization including, presumably, an overarching ethnic identity. It’s one of those things that the series glosses over, but it’s still a puzzling contradiction in the wildlings’ character.

6 How Did They Manage To Not Eradicate Themselves?

Students of history will know that, in Westeros, it’s something of a miracle that the entire continent still has any people left, considering the many uprisings and wars that have taken place over the centuries. At the very least, there is a system of government to keep things at least somewhat stable when each crisis has passed. It's not perfect, but it's something.

That is definitely not the case with the willdings, though, and it seems rather odd that they haven’t managed to completely destroy themselves. Logically speaking and given their violent natures, they should've driven themselves to the point of extinction before the events of the series and yet, there's enough of them to mount a resistance against the White Walkers and even lay siege to the Wall.

5 Why Do So Many Of Them Speak The Westerosi Common Tongue?

Thankfully for both the reader of the books and the viewer of the series, the Westerosi tongue is basically English. It’s a remarkably ubiquitous language, stretching even into the furthest parts of the North, even Beyond the Wall.

Given how little contact there usually is between those south and north of that great edifice, however, it doesn’t make sense that so many of the wildlings would not only be able to speak Westerosi, but actually be fluent in it.

4 Why Did They Leave Craster Alone?

Craster is one of the series’ more chilling denizens. A man who has repeatedly had incestuous relationships with his daughters, he’s also left numerous of his daughters' sons out in the cold for the White Walkers to claim for their own.

He’s a truly reprehensible character, but the bigger mystery is why the wildlings, not especially known for their caring or their mercy, would leave him alone to lead his life as he wants rather than (at the very least) taking his wives as their own.

3 Why Did They Live Beyond The Wall, Even Though They Know It’s Closer To The Walkers?

Of all the people living in Westeros, the wildlings more than most know about the danger posed by the White Walkers. Indeed, it is precisely their knowledge of the existential threat posed by the ancient and malevolent creatures that leads them to unite.

However, it remains unexplained why they would have tried to live Beyond the Wall in the first place, knowing that there was such a power lurking there, simply waiting for its chance to strike at the south.

2 Why Did The Hornfoots Just Not Wear Shoes?

Though they don’t get as prominent billing in the series as they do in the books, it’s still mentioned that the Hornfoots, as their name implies, have feet that have been so scarred from the cold that they no longer need to wear shoes.

It’s one of those fascinating little bits that makes the wildings into an exotic other that is strange and bewildering, but it’s also more than a little confusing. Was there a particular reason that they saw fit to subject their bodies to this?

1 Why Did They Think That Plundering The South Was Going To Be Sustainable?

From the beginning, the wildlings make it clear that they have every intention of taking as much of the south as they can and turning it to their own uses. While this makes sense, it’s still hard not to scratch one’s head at the logical extension of their reasoning. That, and one has to consider the migrant and nomadic lifestyle of most of the wildlings.

Did they really think that a raid would work out in the long term? What were they going to do once they were in the more “civilized” lands of the south beyond just conquering them?

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