Ok I’m about to nerd out but Martin is pretty adamant about Tolkien being his primary influence . It’s all over his books . Jon clearly mirrors Aragorn : a reluctant ruler who doesn’t want to face his expectations. The Knights of the Vale at the BOB is clearly taken from the Rohan saving Gondor . The hero’s sacrificing themselves in the final battle just to buy time to accomplish the big goal . So here it goes .... one cool thing about LOTR is Sauron is never embodied . We know he exist , we know he is orchestrating everything but we never see him or even hear from him . Very similar to the NK . As of yet in the books he’s never been mentioned or seen at all . The NK could be a total creation of the show . Avg TV watchers need a villain and having the hero’s fight against swarms of ice Zombies with no main bad guy just wouldn’t work . Very curious when , or even if the NK is revealed in the books .