3.4.3. Kings-beyond-the-Wall
- Raymun Redbeard once led the wildlings south against the Wall some 150 or more years ago, and before him there was the king Bael the Bard (II: 275)
- Long before Raymun and Bael, there was the Horned Lord and the brother kings Gendel and Gorne (II: 276)
- In ancient times, stories say that Joramun blew the Horn of Winter and woke giants from the earth (II: 276)
- All the wildlings hosts that have attacked southwards have broken their strength on the Wall or by the power of Winterfell beyond (II: 276)
- Bael the Bard is said to have made the song of the winter rose, recounting an adventure in his past. All the wildlings know his songs, which in general have maids falling in love with him all the time (II: 544-545)
- Bael was a great raider before he was King-beyond-the-Wall (II: 544)
- Bael 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 story says 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)
- Wildlings do not name their kings "Your Grace". Most simply refer to them by name without title or style (III: 82)
- Bael the Bard wrote and lived his own songs (III: 83)
- The brother kings Gendel and Gorne existed some three thousand years ago (III: 300)
- Gendel and Gorne are said to have led their host through the network of caves amidst the hills north of the Wall, exiting on the southern side. However, the Starks of Winterfell fell upon them then (III: 300)
- Gorne slew the King in the North in battle, but his son picked up his banner and took the crown from his head, and cut down Gorne in turn (III: 300)
- In the south it's said that Gendel died, as the Watch came to attack him from the north while the King in the North was to the south and the Umbers to the east. The wildlings say differently however, claiming he cut his way free through the Watch and led his people back north into the caves. However, it was Gorne who knew the caves best, and without him to lead them Gendel and his folk were lost. The wildlings believe that Gendel's folk never escaped the caves, but their children's children's children sob under the hills, and are always hungry for the flesh of men (III: 300)
- Lord Commander Rodrik Flint thought to make himself King-beyond-the-Wall (III: 612)
- It's said that Joramun joined forces with the Stark of Winterfell 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)
- The Horned Lord once said that sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it (III: 836)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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