The Citadel: Concordance

The Citadel is an archive of information for George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

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3.7. The Old Gods
  • The gods of the North are nameless and numerous (I: 6. SSM: 1)
  • The First Men and their descendants in the north largely follow the old gods, which were worshipped by the Children of the Forest (I: 19, etc.)
  • Every castle has its godswood, at which the center is always a heart tree with its face (I: 19)
  • The places where carven weirwoods stand are sacred, and are not defiled by bringing animals such as horses into them (I: 435)
  • In the North, only a few houses do not worship the Old Gods, following the Seven instead (I: 476)
  • Beyond the Wall, the old gods are the only gods (I: 482)
  • The Blackwoods follow the old gods, and are one of the few southron houses to continue to do so (I: 661. SSM: 1)
  • Some men believe that it is impossible for a man to lie before a weirwood, because the gods will hear (II: 150)
  • Incest is a monstrous sin before the gods, but the Targaryens followed the practices of ancient Valyria and didn't answer to religions when it came to such issues (II: 364)
  • Even in the North, septons witness marriages (although this may not be the case if both parties follow only the old gods) (II: 384)
  • Marriages are also made before the heart trees (II: 384)
  • Old gods or new, it makes no matter, no man is so accursed as the kinslayer. However, there are degrees of kinslaying, and killing a distant cousin in the midst of a battle is much less of a problem than killing a brother in cold blood (III: 232. SSM: 1)
  • The old gods hold slavery as an abomination (III: 264)
  • The old gods are said to still linger at High Heart, keeping a red priest from looking into his flames and seeing visions (III: 492)
Last revised November 30, 2009
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