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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
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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
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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)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.3. The Karstarks of Karhold
  • The Karstarks are able to bring nearly two thousand foot and three hundred horse to the gathering of the northern banners (I: 474)
  • The Karstarks are said to have Stark blood in them from hundreds of years in the past (I: 474)
  • The Karstarks do not look like Starks. The are big, fierce men who often wear thick beards and their hair loose past their shoulders. Their cloaks are made of the pelts of bear and seal and wolf (I: 475)
  • Karstark men-at-arms wears black iron halfhelms and black woolen cloaks patterned with the white sunburst of the house (I: 477)
  • Karhold is a strong castle (III: 108)
  • The Karstarks and the men about their lands tend to be big men with thick beards and long hair (III: 226)
  • The mounted strength of Karhold amounts to some three hundred riders and twice as many mounts (III: 228)
  • Lord Rickard Karstark stood with Lord Eddard Stark on the Trident (III: 231)
  • 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)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.4. The Mormonts of Bear Island
  • While Jeor and Jorah Mormont seem to follow the Faith, Jeor's father seems to have followed the old gods (I: 30, 431. II: 151)
  • The Mormonts are an old house, proud and honorable (I: 93)
  • Bear Island is poor in resources (I: 93)
  • There are no male heirs to Bear Island, so Maege Mormont rules and her daughter stands to inherit (I: 173)
  • The Mormonts have handed the Valyrian steel bastard sword Longclaw from father to son for five centuries. Its original pommel was a silver bear's head, so worn it was all but indistinguishable (I: 547, 548)
  • King Rodrik Stark won Bear Island in a wrestling match and gave it to the Mormonts, or so it's said (I: 613)
  • Bear Island was once conquered by the Iron Kings of the Iron Islands, but over the centuries it was lost to them (I: 688)
  • Bear Island is remote, but beautiful with its ancient trees, flowering thorn bushes, and creeks (II: 145)
  • The hall on Bear Island is made of huge logs, surrounded by an earthen palisade (II: 145)
  • Aside from a few crofters, the people of the island live along the coasts and fish the seas (II: 145)
  • The final battle during the rebellion was at Pyke. When the wall of the castle was breached, Thoros of Myr was the first to go through, but Jorah Mormont was not far behind. He won his knighthood for that act of valor (II: 146)
  • To celebrate his victory against Balon Greyjoy, King Robert had a tourney held in Lannisport. Jorah Mormont won the champion's laurels and because of this received the permission of Lord Leyton Hightower to wed his daughter, Lynesse (II: 146)
  • It takes about a fortnight to sail from Lannisport to Bear Island (II: 146)
  • Bear Island is rich in trees and bears, but poor in everything else (II: 146)
  • All the women of Bear Island are said to be warlike she-bears, for they have needed to be. In old days the ironmen would come raiding in their longboats, or wildlings from the Frozen Shore. The men would be away fishing, like as not, so their wives had to defend themselves and their children or be carried off (III: 522)
  • There is a carving on the gate of the Mormont keep, a woman in a bearskin with a child in one arm suckling at her breast and a battleaxe in the other (III: 522)
  • Jeor Mormont is the 997th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch (III: 612) Bear Island was ruled by the Woodfoots before the ironmen came (III: 630)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.5. The Tallharts of Torrhen’s Square
  • At least some of the Tallharts follow the Faith (I: 500)
  • The Tallharts have their seat at Torrhen's Square (II: 189)
  • The walls of Torrhen's Square are made of stone, thirty feet high with square towers at each corner and a square keep within (II: 399)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.6. The Umbers of Last Hearth
  • The Umber lands are along the shore of the Bay of Seals (II: 188)
  • The Umber lands are rich in pines and old oaks (II: 188)
  • The seat of the Umbers is named Last Hearth (III: 274)
  • The Umbers and their people are mostly east of the kingsroad, but they graze their sheep into the high meadows of the mountains during the summer (III: 275)
  • The Umbers were part of the host that defeated the brother Kings-beyond-the-Wall, Gendel and Gorne, when they broke out past the Wall some 3,000 years ago (III: 300)
  • Wildling raids have increased over the last years as the Watch has grown weaker, and so the places nearest the Wall have been raided so often that people have moved further south into the mountains or into the Umber lands east of the Kingsroad (III: 453)
  • The Umber lands are raided by wildlings on occasion, but not as often as those who live nearer to the Wall in the Gift (III: 453)
  • Some say the Night's King was an Umber (III: 630)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.7. The Glovers of Deepwood Motte
  • Deepwood Motte is south of tidal flats and north of Sea Dragon Point (II: 290)
  • Deepwood Motte is north by northwest of Winterfell on the other side of the wolfswood (II: 531)
  • Deepwood Motte is a wooden keep set on a hill (II: 589)
  • Deepwood Motte is near enough to the sea that supplies and men can reach it when there is need (II: 589)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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3.2.3.8. The Reeds of Greywater Watch and the Crannogmen
  • Crannogmen of the Neck are seen disdainfully by some, called frogeaters, mudmen, and bog devils (II: 240. IV: 169)
  • The crannogmen are seen as thieves and cravens (II: 240)
  • Crannogmen use nets, bronze knives, frog spears, and round leather shields (II: 241)
  • It has been hundreds and thousands of years since the crannogmen swore their oaths of fealty to the Starks (II: 241)
  • The fealty oath of the Reeds to the Starks of Winterfell: "To Winterfell we pledge the faith of Greywater. Hearth and heart and harvest we yield up to you, my lord. Our swords and spears and arrows are yours to command. Grant mercy to our weak, help to our helpless, and justice to all, and we shall never fail you." This is spoken together by two people (such as children of Lord Reed) and then one speaks, "I swear it by earth and water," while the other says after "I swear it by bronze and iron." Finally, they finish together with "We swear it by ice and fire" (II: 241)
  • When visiting important personages, crannogmen bring gifts of fish and frog and fowl (II: 241)
  • The crannogmen dwell among the bogs of the Neck and seldom leave their lands (II: 241, 242)
  • The crannogmen are a poor people, fishers and frog-hunters who live in homes made of thatch and woven reeds which are set on floating islands deep in the swamps (II: 242)
  • It is said that the crannogmen are cowardly and fight with poisoned weapons, preferring to hide from foes rather than give open battle (II: 242. IV: 169)
  • Howland Reed had been one of Eddard Stark's staunchest companions during the war against the Targaryens (II: 242)
  • The crannogmen eat frogs, fish, lizard-lions, and all manner of fowl (II: 242)
  • Women are known to fight amongst the crannogmen using nets and spears (II: 319)
  • There are no knights at Greywater Watch, nor master-at-arms or maesters (II: 319)
  • Ravens can't find Greywater Watch because it moves (II: 319)
  • The crannogmen say a person has the greensight if they dream prophetic dreams which always come true (moss-green eyes may come with it) (II: 320)
  • A greenseer sometimes dreams as other people, but the green dreams are different (II: 320)
  • A greenseers dream takes the form of metaphor; for instance, a winged creature bound with grey stone chains to the earth might represent a person who has that creature as an emblem who is chained by preconceptions from achieving his full potential (II: 320)
  • There are foolish stories which say that the crannogmen have a boggy smell like frogs and trees and scummy water. Moss grows under their arms instead of hair, and they can live with nothing to eat but mud and breathe swampwater (II: 534)
  • Histories say the crannogmen grew close to the children of the forest when the greenseers tried to bring the waters down upon the Neck (II: 534-535)
  • All crannogmen are small (III: 104)
  • The hunters of the crannogmen are said to be able to breathe mud and fly through trees (III: 107, 108)
  • There are no knights in the Neck, though it's said that there are many dead ones under it in the bogs (III: 278)
  • Andals and ironmen, Freys and other fools, all have set out to conquer Greywater. Not one of them could find it (III: 278)
  • The Reed children tell a tale from their father, who figures large in it, about the Knight of the Laughing Tree who appeared at the great tournament at Harrenhal in the year of the false spring. Lyanna Stark and her siblings figure largely (III: 279)
  • The crannogmen say they have magics that allow them to breathe mud and run on leaves, on change earth to water and water to earth with no more than a word. They can talk to trees, weave words, and make castles appear and disappear as well, or so they say (III: 279)
  • The crannogmen use little skin boats that are light enough to carry with ease (III: 279, 280)
  • The crannogmen rarely ride horses, and their hands are made for oars rather than lances (III: 282)
  • There are ways through the Neck that are not on any map, known only to the crannogmen, such as narrow trails between the bogs and wet roads through the reeds that only boats can follow (III: 526)
  • The old tongue of the First Men does not seem to be known in the Neck (III: 626)
  • A scratch from a crannogman arrow is said to be enough to leave a man in agony with bloody bowels, screaming as blood and watery feces runs down his legs until he dies (IV: 257)
  • Howland Reed fought with the northern host throughout Robert's rebellion (SSM: 1)
Last revised August 05, 2009
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