Who Is Benjen Stark on Game of Thrones?
Game of Thrones: Everything You Need to Know About Benjen Stark
He and the Character Named Coldhands Are One and the Same
In "Blood of My Blood," Bran and Meera are rescued from a group of wights by a mysterious, hooded man on horseback, who quickly reveals himself to be Bran's Uncle Benjen. When Bran asks how he could possibly still be alive after vanishing without a trace north of the Wall, Benjen tells him how a pack of wights overpowered him and his companions during their ranging, and although the other two died, he was saved by the Children of the Forest. They used dragonglass to stop Benjen's body from turning into a wight, so now he's not exactly dead, but not exactly alive, either.
Even though no one in the episode mentions this name specifically, there's no doubt that Benjen is the highly-anticipated character of Coldhands. In the books, Coldhands first appears in A Storm of Swords to save Samwell Tarly and Gilly from wights after they escape Craster's Keep, and later links up with Bran, Meera, Jojen Reed, and Hodor to guide them to the tree of the Three-Eyed Crow. He's extremely important to Bran's future, so it will be interesting to see how the show interprets his character going forward.
