Grenn
A big, slow-witted, good-hearted farmer's son turned brother of the Night's Watch, one of Jon Snow's first friends at the Wall.
A soul born at The Reach, sworn to The Night's Watch.
The fuller tale
How it ends for them
On the screen. Fell holding the gate (S4┬ÀE9)
Held the inner gate of Castle Black with five brothers against a giant of the free folk. The gate held. None of the six stood up afterward; they said the words as they died.
The show gives him the death of a much grander name. When ManceÔÇÖs giant, Mag the Mighty, forces the tunnel under the Wall, Grenn and five brothers are sent down to hold the inner gate ÔÇö six men against a king of the giants in a corridor of ice. Jon finds them afterward: the gate held, the giant dead, and all six brothers fallen where they stood. Grenn led them in the vow as they died ÔÇö the shield that guards the realms of men ÔÇö and the tale offers no cleaner statement of what the NightÔÇÖs Watch is for. He is alive in the published books.
Their chapters, book by book
Where the page and the screen part
Book-Grenn survives the series as published ÔÇö through the Fist, the mutinyÔÇÖs aftermath and the defense of Castle Black, still cheerfully enduring the old nickname, last seen going about the WatchÔÇÖs business. His show death at the inner gate is an invention, and a pointed one: the screen version gathers the storyÔÇÖs affection for the WatchÔÇÖs ordinary men into one stand and spends it all at once. Readers should also note the bookÔÇÖs fuller comedy of his friendship with Pyp ÔÇö the pair function as a double act through three novels ÔÇö where the show, with less time, sketches it in glances.
Their journey
Where the two tellings send them to the same place the road runs whole; where they part, the screen keeps the left and the books the right.