My lord of Lannister,
you once said you understood the love a man can have for his brother, no matter the difference in rank and age, and prospects of life.
Little did I know then about the world, and less even, to speak the truth, about love – whether for a brother nor for a woman.
You warned me, I remember, so I grant you every right to taunt me for being a boy while I bragged about the knight I would become. I know you do not need my permission to laugh into my face, but winter is coming, and I'm afraid I will not see you again.
Darkness and cold fall upon us, my friend, and if I die here on the wall, I will do so as a better brother and man than the one you left what seems a lifetime ago.
If I die here, there is but one thing I ask of you. I ask you to keep a memory for me, a secret I can't talk about to nobody else, not even to my brothers. This far I have gone on my way, to lose not only myself but also my faith in these men ready to die with me when the last night comes.
It is love, the memory I beg you to save. The love a man can have for a woman, or a novice for his goddess when she appears after nights of praying. I do not have the right words to speak about it, about us, about her, and the fire she woke in me, melting away the ice inside and around me, burning me, charring me to ashes.
You once told me always to know who I am so I couldn't be hurt, my friend, and you were right. I did not know myself for only a moment, and she took me and changed me and now all I know is that I love her, and I destroyed her, as well as she has destroyed me.
If I die here on the wall, let my name be forgotten. What is a name compared to a body that fights, a heart that beats… and my heart is beating for her.
When it stops, my lord of Lannister, I ask you to keep her name alive for me.
Not because I hope to find forgiveness one day, I know better than to expect this of her. And neither should you, if you ever meet her, talk to her about me.
If I die here on the wall, and you want to remember your friend the bastard, remember the girl who taught him how to love.
Ygritte.
Keep it in mind, Tyrion. Let her name not be lost in the darkness.
Ygritte.
Winter is coming, my friend, and the world grows colder each day. May the old gods and the new be with you and with the Starks, and may the eternal summer come one day to end all the night.
Ygritte.
Promise me. Do not let her be forgotten, for my sake.
Jon Snow