The Citadel

The Archive of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Lore

Concordance

12.2.5. Norvos
  • Norvos makes fine tapestries (I: 161)
  • A land of rolling hills and terraced farms with small villages sitting behind white stucco walls (I: 192)
  • Norvoshi wear upswept, long dyed mustaches (I: 494)
  • Norvos has magisters (III: 272)
  • Norvos gives lavishly to passing khals (III: 272)
  • There are bearded priests in Norvos who train men to the use and keeping of the longaxe (IV: 32)
  • Unwanted boys can sold by Norvoshi families to the bearded priests (IV: 35)
  • Those trained by the bearded priests "wed their axes" around the age of sixteen, swearing vows which are said to be simple for the simple men who swear them: "Serve. Obey. Protect." They brand the men on the chest with a brand shaped like an axe, and remind them to keep their longaxes sharp (IV: 36-37)
  • Norvos has two distinct quarters, the high city on the hill and the low city by the river (IV: 36)
  • There are three great bells in the city which have names. Noom has a deep peal, Narrah has a proud and strong peal, and Nyel's peal is said to sound like laughter (IV: 36, 597)
  • A yearly festival features the eating of wintercake (made of ginger, pine nuts, and bits of cherry) and the drinking of nahsa, a drink of fermented goat's milk laced with honey. During the festival, bears dance down the Sinner's Steps (IV: 36-37, 597)
  • Men trained by the bearded priests might wear heavy horsehair capes and studded leather tunics, along with iron halfhelms crested by iron spikes (IV: 37)
  • Norvos is sometimes called Great Norvos, at least by Norvoshi (IV: 40)
  • Norvos is far larger than the shadow city of Sunspear (IV: 40)
  • The Norvoshi do not foster out children (IV: 301)