The Citadel: Concordance - 3.2. The Starks

3.2. The Starks

The Valyrian steel greatsword of the Starks, Ice, is four hundred years old. It is named after the sword of the Kings of the North, who ruled in the Age of Heroes to the time of Aegon (I: 12, 20, etc.)
The Starks are Wardens of the North (I: 12)
The blood of the First Men flows in the veins of the Starks (I: 14, etc.)
The Starks are not as other men when it comes to their illegitimate children. They raise their bastards among their children and call them son or daughter openly (I: 55)
The Starks hold tournaments in disdain for being useless pageantry (I: 242)
Winterfell has hosted harvest festivities for centuries (II: 237)
"May your winters be short and your summers bountiful," is a common response to the swearing of oaths (II: 241)
The greatsword Ice is nearly as tall as a man (II: 597)
The role of the wardens are to defend their assigned regions from invaders, and are in theory the supreme generals of their area so as to avoid disunity (SSM: 1)

Last revised August 05, 2009
PermaLink

3.2.1. Winterfell

There is a holdfast amongst the hills a few hours from Winterfell, north of a bridge and river (I: 11, 14)
The castle has a kennel (I: 17)
The godswood of Winterfell is dark, three acres of old forest untouched for 10,000 years, which the castle was raised around. There are sentinel trees, oaks, ironwoods, hawthorns, ash, and soldier pines in it(I: 18. II: 520)
The heart tree of Winterfell has a long and melancholy face, with deep-cut eyes of dried sap, which seem oddly watchful. It sits beside a dark pool (I: 19)
Legend has it that Brandon the Builder laid the first stone of Winterfell (I: 19)
The walls of Winterfell are granite (I: 19)
The crypt of Winterfell is deep under the earth, entered by narrow and winding steps The crypt is always cold (I: 33, 34)
The crypt is long and narrow, with pillars moving two by two along its length. Between pillars stand the sepulchres of the Starks of Winterfell, the likenesses of the dead seated on thrones, iron swords set before them to keep the restless spirits from wandering and snarling direwolves at their feet (I: 34, 35, etc.)
The Great Hall of Winterfell has a large fireplace (I: 41)
A raised platform at one end of the hall seats the Starks and honored guests (I: 41)
Tables and benches seat the garrison, servants, and other folk of the castle (I: 41, 43)
Dogs are allowed in the Great Hall even during feasting of royalty, but they are kept to the far end (I: 43)
The door of the Great Hall opens up on the castle yard. (I: 46)
The Great Hall is within the inner walls of Winterfell (I: 46)
The Lady of Winterfell's chambers in the Great Keep are the warmest in all the castle. In later summer, fires are rarely needed to heat it.(I: 49)
Winterfell had been built over natural hot springs. The water is piped through walls and chambers to heat them, turning the glass gardens into places of moist warmth. (I: 49)
Open pools smoke in a dozen small courtyards (I: 49)
The windows in the Great Keep are high and narrow (I: 49)
There is a covered bridge with a window that connects the Great Keep to the armory. The window overlooks the yard where weapons practice is done (I: 60)
There is a tall sentinel tree growing next to the armory wall, inside the godswood. Branches overhang the armory, roof (I: 66)
Winterfell has many tunnels (I: 66)
Over the centuries, Winterfell has grown into a sprawling complex. Some of the old halls slant up and down (I: 66)
Rainworn gargoyles decorate the First Keep (I: 66)
There are hills and valleys beneath Winterfell. The builders never levelled the ground (I: 66)
A covered bridge leads from the fourth floor of the bell tower to the second floor of the rookery (I: 66)
One can get inside of the inner wall by the south gate, climb three floors and run around Winterfell through a narrow tunnel in the stone, to exit on the ground level at the north gate (I: 67)
The inner wall is 100 feet high and the outer is 80 feet high. Between them is a wide moat (I: 67. II: 528)
There are crows nests atop the broken tower (I: 67)
Small sparrows nest in the cracks between stones (I: 68)
Owls sleep in the dusty loft above the old armory (I: 68)
The broken tower had been the tallest tower in Winterfell, a wall tower. Some 140 years past, it had been hit by lighting and was set afire. The upper two-thirds of the tower collapsed, and no one bothered to rebuild (I: 68)
The mortar that held the stones of the tower has dried and crumbled away, so that the stones are loose (I: 68)
One can leap from the armory roof to the roof of the guard hall, and run across to come up to the blind side of the First Keep (I: 68)
The First Keep is the oldest part of the castle, a squat and round fortress that is taller than it seems (I: 68)
The broken tower leans very closely to the First Keep's north side, near enough that a boy can stretch and grab a hold of it to climb the further ten feet necessary to reach the top (I: 68)
Winterfell may have the only complete copy of Ayrmidon's Engines of War (I: 72)
The library of Winterfell has its own tower. There are exterior stone steps which corkscrew down the tower's length (I: 73)
The library of Winterfell contains a volume on the properties of dragons (I: 101)
The throne of the Lord of Winterfell is cold stone, polished smooth, with carved heads of direwolves snarling at the ends of massive arms. The seat is very large (I: 205)
Beyond the castle lies the market square and the village of small neat houses of wood and undressed stone with chimneys leading up from wood-burning fireplaces (I: 333)
Many of the houses are empty in the summer, only some one in five occupied. As summer ends and winter grows stronger, farmers leave their farms and distant holdfasts to take up residence (I: 333)
The Smoking Log is the name of the village's alehouse (I: 333)
There are guard turrets on the outer wall (I: 475)
A series of chisel-cut handholds make a ladder in the stone of guard turret's inner wall (I: 477)
There is a moat between the inner and outer walls (I: 477. II: 489)
Across the godswood from the heart tree, beneath the windows of the Guest House, an underground hot spring feeds three small pools. The wall that looms above them is thick with moss (I: 478)
Beneath the First Keep is an ancient lichyard, headstones covered with pale lichen, where the Kings of Winter laid their faithful servants (I: 481)
The underground crypts of Winterfell are cavernous, longer than the complex above ground, and there are levels underneath the chiefly used one where the older kings were entombed (I: 613)
Ravens reside in the rookery above the maester's tower (I: 615)
The panes of glass in the windows of the towers and halls are diamond-shaped (II: 52)
The pool beneath the heart tree in the godswood is very deep (II: 187)
The doors into the Great Hall are wide and made of oak and iron (II: 237)
The Great Hall can hold eight long rows of trestle tables, four to each side of the central aisle (II: 237)
Winterfell has hosted harvest festivities for centuries (II: 237)
There is an exit in the rear of the Great Hall, which leads to a dimly lit gallery (II: 243)
The maester's turret is below the rookery (II: 323)
There is an iron, barred gate that opens into the godswood. The spaces between bars are barely large enough to fit a hand through (II: 486)
There is flat stone under the dirt which the barred gate is above, so that it cannot be dug under (II: 486)
There are other entrances into the godswood, although those have wooden doors rather than gates (II: 486)
There is a Guards Hall (presumably barracks) (II: 488)
There is a moat around Winterfell (II: 489)
The Bell Tower and glass gardens can be seen from the lord's chambers (II: 525-526, 530)
There is a well in Winterfell's yard (II: 527)
The Hunter's Gate is sited close to the kennels and kitchens. It opens directly on the fields and forests outside of Winterfell, allowing riders to come and go without having to cross through the winter town, so it is favored by hunting parties (II: 527)
The snug room from which the drawbridge is raised or lowered is in the gatehouse (II: 527)
The high inner walls are crenelated. Many watch turrets (more than thirty) line them (II: 528)
Winterfell has a brewhouse (II: 529)
The Great Hall of Winterfell can seat 500 people (II: 587)
There are iron spikes atop of the gatehouse, probably put in place to display the heads of criminals and traitors (II: 592)
Wine is kept in the castle vaults (II: 675)
The old inner ward is an artifact from when Winterfell was smaller. Archery butts can be found there (II: 676)
The old broken wall tower stands behind the old inner ward of Winterfell (II: 676)
There is a well in the center of the winter town's market square (II: 678)
The stable has a thatched roof and sits along the inside of the west wall (II: 680. III: 902)
The twisting stone stair that leads up to ground level from the crypts of Winterfell also lead further down to where vaults hold more ancient kings (II: 703)
The door to the crypts is made of old, heavy ironwood which lays at a slant to the ground. Only one person can approach it at a time (II: 704)
The First Keep shadows the entrance to the crypts (II: 704)
The First Keep has not been used in hundreds of years (II: 705)
The panes of the glass gardens are green and yellow (II: 705)
The Library Tower has hot water running through its walls (II: 705)
The Bell Tower has a turret for the maester at Winterfell (II: 705)
The East Gate exits to the King's Gate (II: 707)
An iron portcullis blocks off the Hunter's Gate (II: 708)
In legend, Brandon the Builder was said to have had the help of giants in raising Winterfell (III: 461)
The armory is a square building while the kitchen is round (III: 902)
Winterfell's gatehouse is made of two huge bulwarks, crenellations all along the top, flanking an arched gate (III: 903)

Last revised April 09, 2013
PermaLink

3.2.2. Ancestors and History

The first lords of Winterfell had been hard men (I: 34)
There was a King of the North named Jon Stark who drove out sea raiders from the east and built the castle at White Harbor (I: 613)
The son of Jon Stark, Rickard Stark, took the Neck from the Marsh King and married his daughter (I: 613)
King Theon Stark was named the 'Hungry Wolf' because he was constantly at war (I: 613)
Brandon the Shipwright loved the sea. His tomb is empty, as he tried to sail west across the Sunset Sea and never returned. He never succeeded in his crossing (I: 613. SSM: 1)
His son Brandon the Burner was named so for torching all of his father's ships in grief (I: 613)
King Rodrik Stark won Bear Island in a wrestling match and gave it to the Mormonts, or so it's said (I: 613)
The last King of the North, who bent the knee to Aegon the Conqueror, was Torrhen Stark (I: 613)
Cregan Stark once fought Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, who named him the finest swordsman he had ever faced (I: 613)
The Starks trace their ancestry from Brandon the Builder (I: 678)
A book kept in Castle Black on the Wall, written by a ranger named Redwyn in the time of King Dorren Stark, which tells of fighting giants and trading with the Children of the Forest (II: 70)
The crown of the Kings of Winter had been yielded up to Aegon the Conqueror when Torrhen Stark bent the knee. What became of the crown no one knew. It was an open circlet of hammered bronze incised with the runes of the First Men, surmounted by nine black iron spikes wrought as longswords (II: 79)
The North has had no strength at sea for hundreds of years, ever since Brandon the Burner put his father's ships to the torch (II: 183)
Winterfell has hosted harvest festivities for centuries (II: 237)
It has been hundreds and thousands of years since the crannogmen swore their oaths of fealty to the Starks (II: 241)
All the wildling hosts that have attacked southwards have broken their strength on the Wall or by the power of Winterfell beyond (II: 276)
A number of Starks had been slain, flayed, and worn as cloaks in the past before the Boltons had bent the knee (II: 530)
The Boltons bent the knee to Winterfell a thousand years ago (II: 530)
Bael the Bard lived in the time of a Lord Brandon Stark (known to the wildlings as Brandon the Daughterless), who had no other children save a daughter. The story has it that Bael seduced the daughter, who gave birth to a bastard son who eventually inherited Winterfell (II: 544-545)
The stories say that Bael was slain by his bastard son, the young Lord Stark, because he refused to fight his own blood. Because of the kinslaying, the Starks were cursed; the story goes that Lord Stark's mother killed herself when she saw Bael's head upon Lord Stark's spear, and Lord Stark himself did not long outlive her when one of the Bolton lords skinned him (II: 545)
The Starks have been a noble, unbroken line for some 8,000 years (II: 552)
There's a listing of the lords of Winterfell in their tombs that seems to be roughly chronological, starting from Lord Rickard Stark and going back. It goes: Lord Rickard Stark, Lord Edwyle, Lord Willam and his brother Artos the Implacable, Lord Donner, Lord Beron, Lord Rodwell, one-eyed Lord Jonnel, Lord Barth, Lord Brandon, and Lord Cregan who fought Aemon the Dragonknight (II: 702)
There are more Kings of North mentioned (in no clear ordering, although it seems it's going from newer to older): Edwyn the Spring King, Jorah and Jonos, Brandon the Bad, Walton the Moon King, Edderion the Bridegroom, Eyron, Benjen the Sweet and Benjen the Bitter, and King Edrick Snowbeard. Some of them had done terrible things, but their tales are known (II: 703)
It's said that Torrhen, the King Who Knelt, offered his submission to Aegon the Conqueror on the south bank of the Red Fork in the riverlands, at the place where the river bends to flow southeastwards (III: 121)
The Karstarks trace their descent to Karlon Stark, a younger son of Winterfell who had put down a rebel lord a thousand years ago, and been granted lands for his valor. The castle he built had been named Karl's Hold, but over the centuries it became Karhold and the Karhold Starks became the Karstarks (III: 231, 232)
Lord Eddard's maternal grandmother was a Flint of the mountains. She died before he was born (III: 275, 276)
When Gendel and Gorne, the brother Kings-beyond-the-Wall, managed to pass the Wall some 3,000 years ago, they were met by the force of the King in the North. He was slain by Gorne, but his son took up his crown and banner again and then cut down Gorne (III: 300)
The New Gift belongs to the Night's Watch, as does Brandon's Gift which lies north of it. It's said that Brandon the Builder gave all the land south of the Wall to the black brothers, to a distance of twenty-five leagues, for their sustenance and support, but some maesters say that it was some other Brandon, not the Builder (III: 452, 453)
In legend, Brandon the Builder was said to have had the help of giants in raising the Wall (III: 461)
When King Jaehaerys the Concilliator came to Winterfell in the first years of his reign, he brought his queen, six dragons, and half his court. He had matters to discuss with his Warden of the North, however, and Queen Alysanne grew bored and took her dragon Silverwing northwards for a time. (III: 468)
Lord Rickard had no siblings, but his father had a sister who married a younger son of Lord Raymar Royce, of the junior branch. They had three daughters, all of whom wed Vale lordlings, a Waynwood and a Corbray among them, and perhaps a Templeton (III: 520, 521)
600 years ago, the commanders of the Night's Watch castles of Snowgate and the Nightfort went to war against one another and joined forces to murder their Lord Commander when he tried to stop them. The Stark in Winterfell had to take a hand, and their heads (III: 612)
It's said that the Stark in Winterfell and Joramun of the wildlings joined forces against the Night's King, the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. He was defeated and his name and all records of him were destroyed (III: 629, 630)
Some say the Night's King was a Bolton, or a Magnar out of Skagos, others say he was an Umber, Flint, or Norrey. Others still say he was a Woodfoot, who ruled Bear Island before the ironmen came, but others still say he was a Stark who was brother to the man who brought him down (III: 630)
Tales have it that the heads of giants have been mounted on the walls of Winterfell in the past (III: 906)
A hundred years ago, Skagos rose in a rebellion that lasted years. Before it was put down, a Lord of Winterfell and hundreds of his swords were killed (IV: 220)
Four hundred years before the Conquest, Osric Stark was elected Lord Commander at the age of ten, and served for sixty years. He is one of four Lord Commanders known to have been elected younger than sixteen. All of them were sons, brothers, or bastards of the Kings of the North (IV: 79-80)
The reaving of the ironborn under Lord Dagon led Beron Stark to begin gathering swords so he could drive the ironmen from his shores (TMK: 664)
As a youth, Eddard Stark would have occasionally visited the North or travelled outside of the Vale with Jon Arryn. When he reached his majority, his stays in the North were more frequent, but he would have visited the Vale often as it had become a second home to him, and Jon Arryn a second father (SSM: 1)
Benjen Stark joined the Night's Watch shortly after Lord Eddard had returned to Winterfell and Lady Catelyn had taken up residence with the infant Robb (SSM: 1)
There may be offshoots and branches of the Stark family in the North, most likely in White Harbor and Barrowton (SSM: 1)
Roughly around 210, House Stark was in a difficult situation, with the current lord of the house slowly succumbing to wounds he received fighting the ironborn. Lady Stark and four Stark widows struggled over who would succeed him; these women would be known as the She-Wolves. There were a number of potential heirs, with some ten Stark children about (SSM: 1, 2, 3)

Last revised September 04, 2012
PermaLink

3.2.3. Bannerhouses

House Ryswell of the Rills (I: 354. IV: 728. SSM: 1)
House Dustin (I: 354. SSM: 1)
House Hornwood (I: 476)
House Cerwyn of Castle Cerwyn (I: 476. II: 573)
By the time 12,000 men are gathered, there are perhaps 3,000 armored and mounted lances, of which 3-400 are knights (I: 476)
18,000 men, among them hedge knights, sellswords, and freeriders, march south at the gathering of the northern banners. Another fifteen hundred are brought by the Manderlys (I: 497, 502)
Any one of the lords bannermen to the Starks commands more swords than can be found on the Wall (I: 653)
House Flint of Widow's Watch (I: 679. II: 190)
The lands of the Boltons and the Hornwoods are adjoined (II: 186)
House Locke of Oldcastle (II: 190, 722)
The Cerwyn castle and lands lie half a day's ride from Winterfell (II: 190)
The Hornwood lands are forested (II: 384)
Even with more than 20,000 northmen gone away, more than 2,000 men can still be mustered in the north, and that without several lords unrepresented (II: 672, 679)
House Magnar, lords on Skagos. Magnar means lord in the Old Tongue (III: 80, 550)
The Wulls are west of the mountains along the Bay of Ice (III: 275)
The Harclays are south of the mountains in the foothills (III: 275)
The Knotts, Liddles, Norreys, and even some Flints live in the high places in the mountains (III: 275)
Lord Wull is something of a proper nobleman, but he is known chiefly as the Wull. The Knott, the Norrey, and the Liddle are the same, called lords in Winterfell but not named lords by their own folk (III: 276)
House Stout, petty lords of Barrowton (III: 548, 567. IV: 728)
House Burley has their fastness in the mountains, just as the other mountain clans (III: 566, 615)
House Condon, who may be in the service of the Cerwyns (III: 567)
Lord Commander Rodrik Flint thought to make himself King-beyond-the-Wall (III: 612)
Barrowton and the Rills are castles (III: 615)
Lord Ryswell's castle is in or near the barrowlands (III: 628)
Some say that the Night's King was a Magnar, Flint, or Norrey (III: 630)
The men of Skagos call themselves the stoneborn, but other Northmen call them Skaggs (IV: 220)
The lords of the island of Skagos have little contact with the mainland and, although in theory subject to the Starks, in practice they go largely their own way (SSM: 1)
Some of the mountain families have keeps and fastnesses large enough to be called castles, though they would be small and rude by comparison to the castles of the south (SSM: 1)
The North and the Vale are approximately on par when it comes to military strength. However, the North's population is spread over a much greater area, and harvests are even more important when colder seasons draw near (SSM: 1)

Last revised August 05, 2009
PermaLink

3.2.3.1. The Manderlys of White Harbor

The Manderlys follow the Seven (I: 497)
The Manderlys are able to bring nearly fifteen hundred men to the gathering of Northern banners; twenty-odd knights with as many squires, two hundred lances, swordsmen, and freeriders, and the rest foot armed with spears, pikes, and tridents (I: 497)
The castle at White Harbor was raised by King Jon Stark after he drove out sea raiders from the east (I: 613)
A barge can be taken some of the way from White Harbor to Winterfell (II: 179)
Fish and other seafood are shipped in casks filled with salt and seaweed (II: 238)
White Harbor's fishing is very good (II: 238)
The Manderlys can pack a dozen barges with knights, warhorses, soldiers, and siege engines (II: 589)
King's Landing is many times larger than White Harbor (III: 694)
There are silversmiths at White Harbor (III: 837)
White Harbor is a thriving port, and thanks to that the Manderlys are the richest bannermen of the Starks (V: 53)
The Manderlys were driven from the banks of the the Mander, the great river of the Reach, a thousand years ago. It is suggested that the river takes its name from the family, rather than the other way around (TSS: 128)
House Manderly is heavily into the concept of chivalry. As the major port in the north, they have the most contact and exchange with the south and have more of a mixed population (SSM: 1)
White Harbor is one of the five cities of Westeros. It is about the same size as Gulltown, but is much smaller than Lannisport and very much smaller than King's Landing or Oldtown (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 02, 2016
PermaLink

3.2.3.2. The Boltons of the Dreadfort

It is said that the Boltons hang the skins of their enemies in the Dreadfort (I: 480)
The lands of the Hornwoods and the Boltons are next to each other (II: 186)
The Boltons have a saying: "A naked man has few secrets, but a flayed man has none" (II: 530)
In ages past, certain lords of the Dreadfort had gone so far as to cloak themselves in the skins of their enemies (II: 530)
A number of Starks had been slain, flayed, and worn as cloaks in the past before the Boltons had bent the knee (II: 530)
The Boltons bent the knee to Winterfell a thousand years ago (II: 530)
Even with a force of men following their lord in the south, the Bolton garrison at the Dreadfort numbers 600 men (II: 679)
Some say the Night's King was a Bolton (III: 630)