Do the White Walkers know Samwell Tarly killed one of their brothers?

Question

A comment by user568458 to another question got me thinking about whether the White Walkers knew Samwell Tarly killed one.

My other question was why White Walkers were nearly naked in the first two seasons but wore clothes in armor in the later seasons.

And this is what user568458 said.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the first time we see white walkers wearing armour is also the first time we see them after Sam kills one with an obsidian dagger. I think before this, they were always sporting the "winter casual" skirts-and-bracers look. Maybe there was an off-screen "This s*** just got real. Put your obsidian-proof vests on, lads, and meet me by the baby-sacrificing table"

I never assumed the White Walkers knew Sam killed one of their brothers.

When Sam killed him, the White Walker was all alone. He wasn't traveling with his brothers, or else his brothers would have attacked Sam too. Since the walker was all alone, I don't think word got back to any of his brothers.

I also assumed the White Walkers did not know dragon glass or Valyrian steel could shatter them. Just look at the expression on the walker's face when Jon Snow blocked his attack with a Valyrian steel sword. That's when the Walkers realized "Shit just got real!"

Did they know Samwell Tarly killed one?

And a related question is whether they knew about their vulnerability to dragon glass and Valyrian steel.

I prefer answers from the books (with citations) over answers from the tv series.

Edit: I think that many of the White Walkers are biological brothers because answers to multiple questions mention that they are the children of Craster and his daughters.

Answer 1

Glad you asked for the book rather than the TV show. In the books they are never naked and wore armor that camouflaged them and my guess is that the TV-show producers just tried to make them look as zombie like as possible while the Wights looked just like humans with blue eyes.

The more the show progressed the more obvious it became that they had to show Wights in different states of decay (like zombies) and that the White Walkers needed to stand out somehow and be easily distinguishable from Wights so I think they figured out that giving the Walkers armor is a great way to do so.

Also at the beginning of the show they didn't have the budget they have now and creating these things (and/or the CGI) is pretty expensive.

From the books (AGOT Prologue):

A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall, it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.

I don't believe the shows producers didn't give the Walkers armor for any other reason but visuals, there was no storytelling reason behind it.

That being said: The other White Walkers might know that one of them died, but it has nothing to do with the changed appearance. It is not clarified neither in the books nor in the TV show if they do know it as of now.

Answer 2

We Do Not Know

At the moment we don't know a lot about the White Walkers so we don't know if they're connected in some way to each other. We do know they can communicate with each other, in some form or another, from the scream as it passes Sam:

And also from the descriptions in the books:

The Other said something in a language that Will did not know; his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking.
_{A Game of Thrones, Prologue}

We know they are an intelligent species, with some powers, so it makes sense for them to deduce that their missing White Walker was either killed and abducted. As such they could be wearing armour because of this.

However, the next time we see the White Walkers after Sam kills one in Season 3 Episode 8 is in Season 4 Episode 4 where the Night King performs some kind of ritual to turn Crasters baby into a White Crawler. So they could be armoured here for two reasons:

• The Night King is around "Look your best".
• We're performing a ritual I don't want you half naked.

The next time we see them is at Hardhome when they are getting ready for battle, as one goes to the ground to fight Jon. So it's safe to assume that they are wearing armour for the same reason we wear armour, protection in battle.

Again when Bran sees them in his vision the wights are assembled in ranks with the White Walkers as captains so it makes sense to be in armour, such as military personnel wear their uniform in drill.

Lastly, the next few times we see them again is all for battle purposes so it makes sense that they would be armoured.

• Attacking the Three Eyed Ravens Cave.
• Attacking the merry men on the capture the wight party.
• Attacking the Wall.

So while we do not know if they know Sam killed one of them there are other reasons that they could have been wearing their armour for all the subsequent times we see them.

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Also I'm sure that they could deduce that the lost White Walker was killed seeing as they've seen a few of them be killed by Jon since then. However, I doubt they'd know who actually killed him.

Answer 3

The Night King knows, the rest do not. It seems that the undead in the series has a couple of rules. The first-The King can raise, control, order his minions, so he has some kind of connection to them all. Since thus far, every single undead has either attacked mindlessly, or performed tasks which could always be argued in favor of orders coming from the King. Did the Others/Wight Walkers know Sam killed someone? Possibly...If they sat around talking to one another about who they killed that day. Unlikely, but possible. The King on the other hand would have known one of his Walkers was killed, since the connection would have been severed. Was the Walker who Jon Snow killed trying to prevent him from getting Dragonglass back at Hardholme because he knew of what Sam did? It really seemed he was just trying to kill everyone, since he went after the other warrior once engaged. I would say no. They don't know what Sam did. They don't really need to know, and what good would it be even if they did? They've been fighting Dragonglass and Valaryian steel for 10,000 or so years, Sam wouldn't have even been a footnote in their history.