Well, no, for 8,000 years he has been dormant. he hasn't been roaming around looking for the wall, or a way to get past it. His recent awakening was spurred on by a recent event, be it the comet, Bran being born, or something else is unknown. This has been correlated (his awakening) by the Wildlings. Now, I don't know if he was really truly dormant, or just happy to stay in the far North, away from all manor of men, but his activity in the land of men North of the wall is a recent event, and it happened well before he touched bran.