If you watched Game of Thrones season seven episode four, you'll remember the strange symbols carved on the walls in the cave beneath Dragonstone.

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Left there by ancient magical race the Children of the Forest, they clearly have special meaning but what you may not have realised is that you've seen them before – even if it was in the form of a gruesome mess left by the White Walkers...

“There are a number of symbols on the walls," says Game of Thrones series co-creator David Benioff in a video going behind the scenes of episode The Spoils of War. "Some of them are supposed to remind us of patterns we’ve seen before, going back to the very first geometric pattern on the show which was the weird array of body parts that the White Walkers made."

Exhibit A...

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“One of the things we learn from these cave paintings is that the White Walkers didn’t come up with those images, they derived them from their creators, the Children of the Forest.

“These are patterns that have mystical significance for the Children of the Forest. We’re not sure exactly what they signify but spiral patterns are important in a lot of different cultures in our world so it makes sense that they would be in this world.”

Exhibit B...

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And here we were thinking they were just innocent doodles made to pass the time on long winter evenings...

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