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Originally Posted by Funkutron5000
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The Night's King is a legendary Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, who lived during the Age of Heroes. According to legend, the Night's King lived during the Age of Heroes, not long after the Wall was complete. He was a fearless warrior, who was named the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Later he fell in love with a woman "with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars", he chased her and loved her though "her skin was cold as ice", and when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well. (Her description matches that of the Others.)
He brought her back to the Nightfort and after the unholy union, he declared himself king and her his queen, and ruled the Nightfort as his own castle for thirteen years. During the dark years of his reign, horrific atrocities were committed, of which tales are still told in the North. It was not until his own brother, the King in the North, and Joramun, the King-Beyond-the-Wall, joined forces that the Night's King was brought down and the Night's Watch freed. After his fall, when it was discovered that he had been sacrificing to the Others (possibly in similar way to Craster), all records of him were destroyed and his very name was forbidden. It is likely this led the lords of the North to forbid the Night's Watch to construct walls at their keeps, ensuring the keeps would always be accessible from the south.
While on his way north, Bran Stark recalls stories told to the Stark children of the Night's King and the Nightfort by Old Nan, servant in Winterfell. She said some people believe the Night's King was a Bolton, a Magnar out of Skagos, an Umber, a Flint, a Norrey, or a Woodfoot, who ruled Bear Island before the ironmen came. However, she identifies the Night's King as a Stark of Winterfell and brother to the King of the North and hints his name too was Bran.
now moving on to the great other, The Great Other is the god of darkness, cold, and death in the faith of R'hllor. His true name is never spoken. He is considered the enemy of R'hllor, the Lord of Light. Followers of R'hllor believe that there are only two gods, R'hllor and the Great Other, who wage an eternal war over the fate of the world. All forces of darkness, cold, and death are believed to be only servants to the Great Other. Melisandre refers to the Others as the "cold children" of the Great Other. The Great Other has never been mentioned by any Westerosi although all know of the Others from legends. According to Melisandre sleep is a little death, dreams and whispering of the Other who would drag everyone into his eternal night. At the Wall, when gazing into the fires, Melisandre sees a wooden face, corpse white, a thousand red eyes, and a boy with a wolf's head beside him. She thinks to herself that they must be the Great Other's champions, as King Stannis is hers.
Further evidence in the text ties the Last Greenseer, Bloodraven, the Old Gods, and Bran Stark to the theme of darkness that draws The Great Other into opposition with R'hllor. The vision of Melisandre pointing towards Bloodraven and Bran as champions of The Great Other is corroborated in this exchange:
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There he sat, listening to the hoarse whispers of his teacher. 'Never fear the darkness, Bran.' The lord's words were accompanied by a faint rustling of wood and leaf, a slight twisting of his head. "The strongest trees are rooted in the dark places of the earth. Darkness will be your cloak, your shield, your mother's milk. Darkness will make you strong.
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In an apparent paradox, on one hand the attractive Melisandre and her "Lord of Light" R'hllor clearly display "evil" practices such as human sacrifice in their magic. On the other hand, the twisted Bloodraven and broken Bran (a universally sympathetic character) use the darkness as their ally to merge with nature and apparently aid the forces of "good." However, the true motivations of Bloodraven and the children of the forest are not yet apparent.
and then of course u have Melisandre saying:
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Beyond the Wall, the enemy grows stronger, and should he win the dawn will never come again.
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it is far more likely that someone from the show misspoke imo.