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4.2. The Greyjoys
  • The Lords Greyjoy still style themselves as Kings of Salt and Rock, Sons of the Sea Wind, and Lord Reapers of Pyke (I: 689)
  • The Greyjoys were the chief of the reavers of the Iron Islands (II: 131)
  • The jealousy and desire for heirship is such that in the distant past it has occasioned that brothers have murdered their own siblings at Pyke (II: 133)
  • The Seastone Chair is the seat of the Lord of Pyke (II: 284)
  • Nine-tenths of the Iron Fleet could sail in a ragged column extending for leagues (IV: 256)
  • The ships of the Iron Fleet are larger than longships, made for battle rather than raids. Most are equal in size and speed to lesser war galleys elsewhere in the Seven Kingdoms (IV: 474)
  • The only fleets comparable to the Greyjoy fleet in the Seven Kingdoms are the royal fleet and the Redwyne fleet based at the Arbor (SSM: 1)
Last revised July 29, 2009
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4.2.1. Pyke
  • There is no safe anchorage on Pyke (II: 121)
  • The shore of Pyke is full of jagged outcroppings of rock and cliffs, and the castle seems a part of the rest with its towers, walls, and bridges quarried of the same grey-black stone, wetted by the same waves, covered with the same patches of dark green lichen, and speckled with the droppings of the same sea birds (II: 121)
  • The point of land on which Pyke was raised had once thrust out like a sword into the ocean, but the waves had broken and shattered it thousands of years past. All that remain are three bare islands and a dozen stacks of towering rock. Atop those islands and pillars Pyke stands (II: 121)
  • Pyke is almost a part of the rock it stands on, its curtain wall closing off the headland around the foot of the great stone bridge that goes from clifftop to the largest of the islets, dominated by the massive size of the Great Keep (II: 121, 122)
  • Further out from the Great Keep are the Kitchen Keep and the Bloody Keep, each on its own island (II: 122)
  • Towers and outbuildings cling to the stacks beyond the islands, linked to one another by covered archways when the pillars stand close and by long walks of wood and rope when they don't (II: 122)
  • The Sea Tower rises from the outmost island at the point of the broken sword. It is the oldest part of the castle, tall and round, the pillar of rock it stands on sheer sided and half-eaten through by the battering of the waves (II: 122)
  • The base of the Sea Tower is white from centuries of salt spray and the upper stories are green from lichen, while the jagged crown is blackened with the soot from the nightly watchfire (II: 122)
  • A gatehouse guards the great bridge the spans the distance from the clifftop to the Great Keep (II: 122)
  • Lordsport is on the other side of Pyke from the Greyjoy keep (II: 126, 287)
  • The walls of Pyke run as a crescent from cliff to cliff. The gatehouse is in its center, with three square towers to either side of it. One of them, the south tower, collapsed as it was breached by Robert Baratheon's forces (II: 132)
  • The gatehouse gates are supplemented by an iron portcullis (II: 132)
  • Beyond the curtain wall is half a hundred acres of headland. The stables, kennels, other outbuildings, sheep and swine pens are all there (II: 132)
  • To the south of the curtain wall are the cliffs and the wide stone bridge that leads to the Great Keep (II: 132)
  • The lord of Pyke resides in the Sea Tower (II: 133)
  • The Bloody Keep is larger and better furnished than the Sea Tower, the ceilings of its suite so high that it is lost in the gloom (II: 133)
  • The Bloody Keep was given its name for the bloody butchering of the sons of the old River King a thousand years before (II: 133)
  • From the Bloody Keep, a covered stone walkway leads back to the Great Keep. From there to the Sea Tower one must cross three further bridges, each narrow than the last. The final one is of rope and wood (II: 134)
  • The door into the Sea Tower is of grey wood, studded with iron (II: 134)
  • The Sea Tower has a damp and draughty solar (II: 134, 289)
  • The water about the towers of Pyke are green if the sun shines (II: 287)
  • The hall of the Greyjoys is long and smoky, with room enough to seat more than four hundred men (II: 287)
  • The lands and keep of House Wynch are on the other side of the island from the Greyjoy castle at Pyke (II: 287)
  • The Seastone Chair is a massive block of oily black stone, carved into the shape of a kraken. It sits on a dais in the great hall of the Greyjoys (II: 287)
  • Feasts in Pyke are meagre enough, plain fare of salted fish and fish stews, unspiced goat, and black bread being served (II: 289)
  • Atop the Flint Cliffs is the Blind Lord’s tower, said to be haunted (IV: 21)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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4.2.2. Ancestors and History
  • When Aegon slew Black Harren, Harren's brother was Lord Commander of the Watch and had 10,000 swords at his command; but he did not march (I: 553)
  • During the Wars of Conquest, the riverlands belonged to Harren the Black, King of the Isles (I: 684)
  • Harren's grandfather, Harwyn Hardhand, took the Trident from Arrec the Storm King whose ancestors had won lands up to the Neck 300 years earlier by killing the last River King (I: 684)
  • Harren the Black was a vain and bloody tyrant, little loved. When Aegon the Conqueror threatened, many of his lords deserted him to join Aegon's host (I: 684)
  • Harren the Black and his line died in the burning of Harrenhal by Aegon the Conqueror (I: 684)
  • The Greyjoys claim descent from the Grey King of the Age of Heroes, who was supposed to have ruled the western isles and the sea itself, taking a mermaid as his wife (I: 687)
  • King Urron of House Greyiron made the High Kingship of the Isles hereditary choosing some 5,000 years ago by slaying all the other kings when they had assembled for the choosing. These events, called the kingsmoot, has traditionally been held at the hill of Nagga on Old Wyk, where the Grey King's Hall was said to have stood. (I: 688. IV: 29. SSM: 1)
  • The line of King Urron was ended when the Andals swept over the islands a thousand years after his line became hereditary High Kings. The Greyjoys, like other lords, intermarried with the conquerors (I: 688)
  • King Qhored boasted, truthfully, that his laws were known wherever men could smell salt water or hear the crash of waves (I: 688)
  • Qhored's descendants lost the Arbor, Oldtown, Bear Island, and much of the western shore over the centuries (I: 688)
  • Harren the Black ruled all the lands between the mountains from the Neck to the Blackwater Rush (I: 688)
  • Lord Vickon Greyjoy of Pyke was chosen by the surviving ironborn lords to have primacy over them after Aegon conquered them (I: 688)
  • Harren the Black had completed Harrenhal and had finally took up residence when word came on that very day of Aegon the Conqueror's landing (II: 88)
  • Harren had desired the highest hall and the most colossal towers in the Seven Kingdoms. The construction of his dream took forty years. Thousands of captives from the other realms died in the quarries chained to sledges or laboring on the five huge towers. Weirwoods were cut down to provide rafters and beams (II: 88)
  • Harren the Black beggared the riverlands and the Iron Islands to make Harrenhal (II: 88)
  • The point of land on which Pyke was raised had once thrust out like a sword into the ocean, but the waves had broken and shattered it thousands of years past (II: 121)
  • Thousands of years before, King Urron Redhand said "The Drowned God makes men, but it's men who make crowns" (II: 123)
  • Rodrik Greyjoy, son to Balon Greyjoy, assaulted Seagard during his father's great rebellion. Jason Mallister slew him beneath the castle's walls and threw the ironborn reavers back into the sea (II: 131)
  • A thousand years earlier, the sons of the River King were butchered in their beds at Pyke so that the pieces of their bodies might be sent back to their father on the mainland (II: 133)
  • Greyjoys were not murdered in Pyke, unless it was once in a great while by their own brothers (II: 133)
  • Maron Greyjoy, the second of Balon Greyjoys sons, was killed in the collapse of the old south tower along the curtain wall (II: 136)
  • Victarion, Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet and brother to Lord Balon Greyjoy, sailed into Lannisport with his other brother Euron Croweye and burned the ships there. Victarion is a fearsome warrior, sung of in the alehouses, but it was Euron who made the plan (II: 284)
  • The Seastone Chair, a massive block of oily black stone carved in the shape of a great kraken, was reputedly found on the shore of Old Wyk by the First Men when they first came to the Iron Islands thousands of years ago (II: 287)
  • In 211, reavers out of the Iron Islands were known to raid coastal villages of the Reach and the Westerlands, even going as far south as the Arbor, under the auspices of Lord Dagon Greyjoy (TSS: 82, 83, 121)
  • Ironborn reavers carried off half the wealth and some hundred women of Fair Isle in 211 (TSS: 121)
  • No woman has ever ruled the ironborn (IV: 23)
  • In old times, kings were chosen by the kingsmoot. Among the kings so chosen as High King were Urras Ironfoot, Sylas Flatnose, Harrag Hoare, and the Old Kraken (IV: 29)
  • The Old Kraken was an ancestor of the Greyjoys (IV: 29, 278)
  • Haereg's History of the Ironborn discusses Urron of Orkmont's massacre at a kingsmoot to establish House Greyiron's rule in the Iron Islands until the Andals came a thousand years later (IV: 165)
  • Though it's traditionally said the last kingsmoot took place four thousand years ago, Denestan's Questions suggests the true date is less than half that (IV: 165)
  • It's said no woman has ever ruled over the ironborn (IV: 165)
  • Beneath Nagga's Ribs, every captain stands as an equal (IV: 166)
  • The kings of the ironborn wore driftwood crowns (IV: 255, 263)
  • No king of the Iron Isles ever needed a Hand (IV: 265)
  • In ancient days, the ironborn would sail their ships up the Mander as far as Bitterbridge, plundering and reaving with impunity. This changed when the Gardeners armed the fisherfolk of the Shield Islands some two thousand years ago (IV: 431)
  • Black Harren's line still exists through the female line (IV: 439)
  • The ironborn have not dared to raid the Reach since the days of Dagon Greyjoy. Lord Dagon was wont to flee back to the Iron Islands whenever ships were sent after his raiders (IV: 474)
  • The reaving of the ironborn under Lord Dagon led the Lannisters to begin to build ships for an attack against the Iron Islands while Lord Beron Stark was gathering swords at Winterfell to drive the ironmen from his shores (TMK: 664)
  • The Seven Kingdoms were seemingly left to fend for themselves against Lord Dagon Greyjoy and his ironborn reavers troubling all the lands on the western coast, as King Aerys I ignored the trouble so he could be closeted with his books, while Prince Rhaegal was said to be so mad as to dance naked in the halls of the Red Keep and Prince Maekar so angry at his brother and his advisors that he sat and brooded at Summerhall. Some blamed Lord Bloodraven, the Hand of the King, for this state of affairs, while others claimed his attention was focused on Tyrosh where the sons of Daemon Blackfyre and Bittersteel plotted another attempt to seize the Iron Throne (TMK: 664)
  • House Hoare was the house of Harwyn Hardhand and Harren the Black (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. (SSM: 1, 2)
Last revised September 04, 2012
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4.2.3. Bannerhouses
  • House Harlaw of Harlaw (I: 689. II: 129, 285. IV: 159)
  • House Stonehouse of Old Wyk, ruled by the Stonehouse (I: 689. II: 128. IV: 269)
  • House Merlyn of Great Wyk (I: 689, II: 287)
  • House Sunderly of Saltcliffe, ruled by a lord (I: 689. II: 287. IV: 702)
  • House Tawney of Orkmont, ruled by a lord (I: 689. III: 941. IV: 702)
  • House Wynch of Iron Holt, on Pyke, ruled by a lord (I: 689. II: 287, 733)
  • House Drumm on Old Wyk. The Drumm is also known as the Bone Hand, and is Lord of Old Wyk (II: 128, 733. IV: 699)
  • House Blacktyde of Blacktyde (II: 287)
  • House Sparr of Great Wyk, ruled by the Sparr (II: 287. IV: 18)
  • House Saltcliffe of Saltcliffe (II: 287)
  • Thirty longships can carry about 1,000 men (II: 290, 588)
  • House Farwynd of Great Wyk (III: 941)
  • House Volmark of Volmark, on Harlaw (III: 941. IV: 159, 701)
  • House Myre of Harlaw (III: 941. IV: 159)
  • House Stonetree of Harlaw (III: 941. IV: 159)
  • House Kenning of Harlaw (III: 941)
  • House Orkwood of Orkmont, ruled by a lord (III: 941. IV: 700)
  • Pebbleton is a small town of several thousand on Great Wyk, ruled by Lord Merlyn from his square tower. There are turrets upon each of its corners (IV: 21, 26)
  • Petty lords can be found all along the way from the Hardstone Hills to Pebbleton on Great Wyk (IV: 26)
  • The Harlaws have no rival on Harlaw. The Volmarks and Stonetrees have large holdings and many famed captains and warriors, but they bow before the Harlaw. The Myres and Kennings were once bitter foes of the Harlaws, but are now vassals (IV: 165-166)
  • Among the Harlaw of Harlaws vassals are various cadet branches of the house, each ruling a seat (IV: 166-168)
  • Orkwood of Orkmont can raise at least twenty longships (IV: 170)
  • House Codd's words are "Though All Men Do Despise Us". They make use of nets when they fight (IV: 170)
  • Humble lesser houses, of small lineage: Shepherds, Weavers, Netleys, and Humbles (IV: 258)
  • The Humbles are said to be the humblest of all the ironborn houses, descendants of thralls and saltwives (IV: 258)
  • House Sharp (IV: 259)
  • It's claimed that the Volmarks are the true heirs of the "black line", the descendants of Harren the Black (IV: 260)
  • The Farwynds are considered strange by the other ironborn. Holding lands on the westernmost shores of Great Wyk, many of their holdings are on the scattered rocks in the seas beyond, some so small only a single household can reside there. The most distant of these is the Lonely Light, eight days to the northwest from Great Wyk. It's claimed that there are skinchangers among the Farwynds, able to change into sea lions, walruses, and spotted whales (IV: 271)
  • House Ironmaker (IV: 272, 699)
  • The Drumm carries the famous Valyrian steel sword, Red Rain, which his ancestor Hilmar the Cunning took from an armored knight with his wits and a wooden cudgel. The Drumms have an old lineage with many heroes to its credit, including Roryn the Reaver, Dale the Dread, and Gormond the Oldfather who was said to have had had a hundred sons (IV: 273)
  • The ironborn can raise hundreds of ships. Each major house can likely command a hundred vessels (IV: 434-435. SSM: 1)
  • There might be as many as 500 longships and war galleys (IV: 473, 474)
  • House Farwynd of Sealskin Point, on Great Wyk (IV: 702)
  • House Myre was once involved in the hanging of ten men in a single day, which is commemorated on their arms (SSM: 1)
Last revised July 29, 2009
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4.2.3.1. The Botleys of Lordsport
  • Lordsport is on Pyke (II: 126)
  • Above the village of Lordsport is the stronghold of House Botley. Originally the stronghold had been of timber and wattle, but Robert Baratheon had razed it to the ground. Lord Sawane rebuilt in stone, making a small square keep crowning the hill overlooking the village (II: 126)
  • Lordsport was also burned by Robert Baratheon's forces during the putting down of the rebellion (II: 126)
  • The old sept of Lordsport was destroyed in the rebellion, but it was never rebuilt (II: 126)
  • Lordsport's town is half the size of Lord Hewett's Town on Oakenshield (IV: 434)
Last revised June 02, 2009
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4.2.3.2. The Goodbrothers of Great Wyk, Old Wyk, and Orkmont
  • The main strength of the Goodbrothers is nearly forty longships (II: 280)
  • Goodbrother men are conspicuous, as they wear striped goat hair sashes (II: 280)
  • There appear to be at least three chief branches of the house, on Old Wyk, Great Wyk, and Orkmont (III: 941. IV: 258)
  • The Goodbrothers of Great Wyk have a black-and-gold warhorn on red as their symbol (IV: 18)
  • The Goodbrothers of Great Wyk have their seat at Hammerhorn amidst the Hardstone Hills. It is as much as six leagues inland from the sea (IV: 20-21)
  • The Hammerhorn is a large, bulky castle with spiked iron battlements. Its stones were quarried from the cliff that looms behind it, and the entrances to caves and mines can be seen beneath its walls. It's gate is of iron (IV: 22)
  • There are several branches of the Goodbrothers throughout Great Wyk. Among them are those who hold the towers of Downdelving, Crow Spike Keep, and Corpse Lake (IV: 26)
  • The Goodbrothers of Orkmont (IV: 258)
  • The Goodbrothers of Old Wyk have a castle near the shore called Shatterstone, across the island from Nagga's Ribs (IV: 260, 702)
Last revised July 18, 2009
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4.2.3.3. The Harlaws of Harlaw
  • House Harlaw of Harlaw (I: 689. II: 129, 285)
  • Longships may moor beneath the castle of Ten Towers (IV: 159)
  • The head of House Harlaw is styled Lord of the Ten Towers, Lord of Harlaw, and the Harlaw of Harlaw (IV: 159)
  • The Widow's Tower is one of the ten that make up Ten Towers, receiving its name recently following Lord Harlaw's sister, Lady Gwynesse, taking up permanent residence there out of mourning for her husband who died off Fair Isle during Greyjoy's Rebellion (IV: 160)
  • Ten Towers is the newest castle on the Iron Islands, raised by Lord Theomore Harlaw some six generations ago (IV: 161-162)
  • Ten Towers is a strange structure, thanks to Lord Theomore's changable nature. Each tower follows a different plan and design from the next, making it look as if ten castles were squeezed together (IV: 161-162)
  • Lord Theomore had six wives over the course of his life. After losing three infant sons to the flooded cellars, damp stones, and nitre of his ancestral seat of Harlaw Hall, he resolved to build a new castle (IV: 162)
  • Ten Towers is warmer, airier, and better sited than Harlaw Hall (IV: 162)
  • The Book Tower is the broadest of the ten towers, octagonal in shape and made out of great, hewn stones. Its stair is built within the thickness of the walls. It has at least five stories, and is named after Lord Harlaw's library that is kept there (IV: 162)
  • There is a village associated with Ten Towers (IV: 163)
  • Harlaw is not the largest of the Iron Islands, but it is the most populous and richest (IV: 165)
  • The Harlaws have no rival on Harlaw. The Volmarks and Stonetrees have large holdings and many famed captains and warriors, but they bow before the Harlaw. The Myres and Kennings were once bitter foes of the Harlaws, but are now vassals (IV: 165-166)
  • Among the Harlaw of Harlaws vassals are various cadet branches of the house, each ruling a seat. Among the seats are Harlaw Hall, the Tower of Glimmering sited on a crag above the western coast, Grey Garden, and Harridan Hill (IV: 167)
  • Lord Rodrik Harlaw's two sons were killed off Fair Isle during Greyjoy's Rebellion (IV: 167)
  • The Harlaws own a storied Valyrian steel sword, Nightfall (IV: 275)
  • Harlaw is larger than the Four Shields combined (IV: 436)
Last revised June 02, 2009
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