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5. The Riverlands
  • Tristifer, the Fourth of his Name, King of the Rivers and the Hills, ruled from the Trident to the Neck thousands of years before Jenny of Oldstones and her prince, in the days when the kingdoms of the First Men were falling one after the other before the Andals. He was called the Hammer of Justice, and the singers say that he fought a hundred battles and won nine-and-ninety. When he raised his castle, now a ruin known only as Oldstones, it was the strongest in Westeros (III: 520)
  • Tristifer IV was killed in his hundredth battle, when seven Andal kings joined forces against him. His son, Tristifer V, was not his equal, and soon the realm was lost, and the castle, and then the line. With Tristifer V died House Mudd, that had ruled the riverlands for a thousand years before the Andals came (III: 520)
  • Old King Andahar and his two-headed water horse is mentioned. The "water horse" is a great flat-bottomed oared boat that crosses the Trident at Lord Harroway's Town, controlled by Lord Roote (III: 538, 539. SSM: 1)
  • Lord Commander Tristan Mudd of the Night's Watch was among a handful of Lords Commander who have been more proud and ambitious than wise, nearly destroying the Watch when they forgot their vows (III: 612)
  • Snow in autumn is very rare (III: 915)
  • The smallfolk in the wetlands northwest of Maidenpool are shy and live quite apart from one another. They live in huts made of mud and straw, or in houses built on rickety stilts with rope ladders to be able to enter them above the dunes. They fish in leather coracles or collect clams (IV: 371-372, 374)
    • 3lackfyre rose in rebellion, and the black iron dragon was cut down by Lord Darry, who was fiercely loyal to King Daeron II. The inn became known as the River Inn, as the river was right up against it and some of the rooms were built over the water. The river changed its course in the 220th or 230th year (IV: 548)
  • Wine is made in the riverlands (TMK: 679)
  • The riverlands are rich, fertile, and populous (SSM: 1)
Last revised March 04, 2013
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5.1. Geography
  • The Isle of Faces in the Gods Eye holds the order of the green men, who tend the last remaining weirwoods in the south (I: 19, 617)
  • A large, three-story stone inn is not far downstream of the ruby ford on the kingsroad. It can hold perhaps 120 people. It was originally called the Old Inn, but it was a successor to other inns that had been there before it for hundreds of years. The Old Inn was raised in the reign of King Jaehaerys, who is said to have stayed there with his queen during their journies. The inn was known as the Two Crowns in their honor. Then a belltower was built, and it was known as the Bellringer Inn. Later a crippled knight, Long John Heddle, took it over wen he was to old to fight. Taking up ironworking, he made a sign for the inn, a black iron three-headed dragon which clanked in the wind and earned the inn a new name, the Clanking Dragon. When his son was old, Daemon Blackfyre rose in rebellion, and the black iron dragon was cut down by Lord Darry, who was fiercely loyal to King Daeron II and ruled the area. The inn became known as the River Inn, as the river was right up against it and some of the rooms were built over the water. The river changed its course in the 220th or 230th year (I: 117. IV: 548)
  • The ruby ford (probably named so after Rhaegar's death) is at at a bend of the Green Fork of the Trident (I: 124)
  • The Darry lands and castle are half a day's ride south of the Trident (I: 128)
  • It takes two weeks to ride from the Trident to King's Landing (I: 164)
  • There is an inn at the crossroads north of the confluence of the Trident (I: 239)
  • The inn sits across from a marketplace, and a village with half a hundred white cottages surrounding a small sept is a mile further north (I: 241)
  • Along the Green Fork are fertile valleys and green woodlands, thriving towns and strong holdfasts and the castles of the river lords (I: 241)
  • The towns and villages of Sherrer, Wendish Town, and Mummer's Ford (I: 387)
  • The holdfast of Wendish Town is timbered, while that of Sherrer is of stone (I: 388)
  • The Mummer's Ford is upriver of Sherrer (I: 388)
  • There's no crossing on the Green Fork south of the Twins until the ruby ford (I: 505)
  • A small pinched valley called the Whispering Wood, a stream running its rocky way along its floor. It is south of the Blue Fork (I: 581, 582, 660. III: 518)
  • There are roads which lead north through the riverlands besides the kingsroad, but many are narrow and little more than unmaintained ruts through weeds. Traffic on these is small (II: 101)
  • The land south of the God's Eye is made up of rolling hills, terraced fields, meadows, woodlands, and valleys where willows crowd near slow and shallow streams (II: 101)
  • Cutting west away from the kingsroad, south of the God's Eye, the land is more forested, the villages and holdfasts smaller and further apart, and the hills are higher while the valleys are deeper (II: 102)
  • A holdfast named Briarwhite (II: 103)
  • Some eight or nine hours south of the place where the God's Eye meets the river, a covered wooden bridge can be found (II: 157)
  • There is a town where the God's Eye and its river meet, with a stone holdfast and a towerhouse for its lord (II: 157)
  • On the north edge of the God's Eye is Harrentown (II: 157)
  • A river track runs along the east side of the river flowing from the God's Eye, although it's use is not difficult for all that it is unpaved (II: 157)
  • The God's Eye is so large that the far shore cannot be seen from its edge (II: 158)
  • The town where the God's Eye and the river meet is made up of white houses spread out around the walls of the holdfast, a large sept with a shingled wooden roof, and the lord's towerhouse on a small rise to the west. There is an inn built on pilings directly over the water of the lake, and docks to east and west of it (II: 158)
  • The town's holdfast has gates studded with iron nails, which can be barred from within bars of iron the size of saplings which fit into post holes in the ground and metal brackets on the gate; when slotted through the brackets, the bars make a large X brace (II: 160)
  • The walls of the holdfast are of rough unmortared stone some teen feet high, with a wooden catwalk inside the battlements. There is a postern gate to the north (II: 160)
  • Within the holdfast, an old wooden barn large enough to have held half the animals in the town, has a trap which leads to a tunnel. The tunnel is long and damp, and opens near the lake (II: 160)
  • The holdfast's haven is even larger than the barn, built of stone (II: 160)
  • There is a large kitchen in the holdfast (II: 160)
  • The towerhouse of the lord of the town on the edge of the God's Eye has only one entrance, a second-story door that can only be reached by a ladder (II: 213)
  • Along the eastern shore of the God's Eye there are many villages, farms, castles, septs, and barns (II: 213)
  • Village roofs of thatch, and a rare one with slate roofing (II:2 15)
  • Harrenhal is near the fords of the Trident which provide access to the lands south of it (II: 235)
  • Marching north following the shore of the God's Eye, there comes a point where the trees thin and give way to rolling hills, meandering streams, sunlit fields, and various holdfasts. Another day's march will bring Harrenhal to view, hard against the lake (II: 307)
  • Just west of Harrenhal is a town, probably Harrentown (II: 308)
  • There's a place called the Rushing Falls (II: 336)
  • There is a for upstream of Riverrun on the Red Fork, where the river makes a wide loop and the water becomes muddy and shallow (II: 411)
  • South of Riverrun the land is open and flat for miles (II: 479)
  • From a tower in Riverrun, the nearest of the fords of the Red Fork is just barely visible miles to the south (II: 479)
  • There are more than four fords on the Red Fork upriver of Riverrun (II: 479, 481)
  • The west bank of the Red Fork is higher than the east and well wooded (II: 480)
  • There is a ford six leagues to the south of Riverrun (II: 481)
  • A place called Stone Mill on the Red Fork (II: 483)
  • An army might march from the upriver fords of the Red Fork to the headwaters of the Blackwater Rush in about 5 days times (II: 484)
  • The villages of Hag's Mire and Sevenstreams, in the Frey lands, lie at the very beginning of the Blue Fork and can be gone through to go around the river (III: 5, 6, 518)
  • The southern bank of the Red Fork is rich with smooth red clay, while the northern bank is wilder wth highy rocky bluffs rising up twenty feet and crowned with stands of beech, oak, and chestnut (III: 19)
  • The forks of the Trident are the easiest way to move goods or men across the riverlands. In times of peace fisherfolk in skiffs, grain barges poled downstream, merchants on floating ships, and even brightly painted mummer's boats with quilted sails of many colors could be found on the rivers (III: 20)
  • The Red Fork is wide and slow, a meandering river of loops and bends dotted with small wooded islets and often choked by sandbars and snags (III: 20)
  • River galleys with as many as eighteen oars can navigate the Red Fork (III: 23)
  • There are woods and streams not far north of Harrenhal (III: 35)
  • The land north of Harrenhal grows progressively hillier (III: 39)
  • There are several rivers between Harrenhal and the Trident: the Darry, the Greenapple, the Maiden, the Little Willow, the Big Willow, Rippledown Rill, and perhaps others (III: 39, 40)
  • The Little Willow flows into the Big Willow, which in turn flows into the Trident (III: 40)
  • Rippledown Rill loops around and flows towards Harrenhal and the God's Eye (III: 40)
  • There is a large inn hugging the south bank of the Red Fork at the point in which the river bends southeastwards. The main building is two stories, made of grey stone on the lower and of whitewashed wood on the upper, with the roof made of slate. There are stables, a smithy, an arbor heavy with vines, apples trees, and a small garden. At the end of it's dock is sign hanging from an iron post that represents a king upon his knees with his hands together in the gesture of fealty. The inn is named the Inn of the Kneeling Man, and is said to stand on the spot where the last King of the North offered his submission to Aegon the Conqueror (III: 120, 125, 148)
  • The Red Fork can be sailed down its entire length, allowing access as far as Maidenpool (III: 123)
  • More than thirty miles downriver from the Inn of the Kneeling Man but before the ruby ford are the Skipping Stones and Red Deer Island (III: 123)
  • Six miles downstream from the Inn of the Kneeling Man is a village, where the road spits. Turning south from there one will come across a stone towerhouse, while continuing on the road leads through the woods south by east (III: 125, 126)
  • The Red Fork is very broad where it bends southeastwards, but shallow, its banks all mud and reeds (III: 126)
  • A mile or two southeast from the Inn of the Kneeling there's a brook that flows into the Trident (III: 148)
  • Lambswold (III: 151)
  • The Trident is generally muddy (III: 151)
  • Tumbler's Falls is on the Blackwater Rush (III: 164)
  • Maidenpool is a town (III: 235)
  • From Maidenpool one can take the Duskendale road south (III: 236)
  • There is a shallow brook not far from Maidenpool to the south (III: 239)
  • The small square keep of House Lychester has a little stone bridge behind it (III: 246)
  • The Hayford road is some three days ride from the keep of the Lychesters (III: 247)
  • The village of Sallydance is some four days ride from the keep of the Lychesters. It has a sept with windows of leaded glass and icons of the Seven with the Mother wearing costly robes, the Crone carrying a gilded lantern, and the Father wearing a silver crown. They have eyes of jet, lapis, and mother-of-pearl. . There is a vault beneath the sept where wine and other things were kept (III: 247)
  • High Heart is a huge hill a day's ride from Sallydance. About its top stand the stumps of thirty-one once-mighty weirwoods, so wide around that a child could use one for a bed. It is so tall that its peak is above low-lying storms (III: 249, 489)
  • The smallfolk shun High Heart, saying it was haunted by ghosts of the children who had died there when the Andal king Erreg the Kinslayer had cut down the grove (III: 249)
  • Acorn Hall is a long day's ride from High Heart (III: 251)
  • Acorn Hall is beside a brook (III: 251)
  • The Threepenny wood (III: 253)
  • Blackbottom Bend is probably near to Acorn Hall (III: 253)
  • Stoney Sept is a large town less than a fortnight from Acorn Hall. It is greater than the castleton of Harrenhal, and is walled for its protection. Its sept stands upon a hill, with a stout holdfast of grey stone below it that seems too small for such a large town. It was the site of the Battle of the Bells during Robert's War (III: 253, 327, 328)
  • Stoney Sept is near the Blackwater Rush (III: 328)
  • At the heart of Stoney Sept is its market square. A fountain stands there, shaped to look like a leaping trout spouting water into a shallow pool. On the east side there's a modest inn and brothel with whitewashed walls, a wooden shingle above the door painted with its namesake, a peach with a bite taken out of it; its stable sits catty-corner in relation to it (III: 328, 330, 332)
  • Stoney Sept is near to Tumbler's Falls (III: 329)
  • Somewhere in the riverlands there is a hollow hill, tangles of weirwood roots showing. It in an old place of refuge, deep and secret (III: 381)
  • Donnelwood (III: 385)
  • Sludgy Pond (III: 385)
  • Fieldstone (III: 385)
  • Mousedown Mill (III: 385)
  • Lancewood (III: 385)
  • Shermer's Grove (III: 385)
  • The Tumblestone is swift and wild, plunging like a spear into the side of the broad Red Fork at Riverrun, its blue-white current churning the muddy red-brown flow of the greater river (III: 393)
  • There is an abandoned village half a day's ride north of High Heart, with a grey stone stable. It belonged to Lord Goodbrook, but when he stayed loyal to the king even after the Tullys declared for Robert, Lord Hoster came down on him with fire and sword (III: 493, 497)
  • Acorn Hall is not far from Lord Goodbrook's burnt out village (III: 498)
  • Six miles east of Harrenhal stands the lake road which runs southwards. A few miles down that road there is a mill, now deserted (III: 501)
  • Fairmarket has a wooden bridge that crosses the Blue Fork. It is some five days ride from the Whispering Wood (III: 518)
  • Ramsford on the Blue Fork, where men and horses can cross the river (III: 518)
  • There is a bridge further upstream from Ramsford, near Oldstones. It is older than the one at Fairmarket, and smaller (III: 518)
  • There are other fords in the region of Oldstones, Ramsford, and Fairmarket (III: 519)
  • Oldstones is some eight days slow riding from Fairmarket. It is a ruined stronghold of the ancient river kings, built upon a hill overlooking the Blue Fork (III: 519)
  • Oldstones foundations remain to show where the walls and keep had stood, but long ago the stones had been quarried by local smallfolk. Its curtain wall once encircled the brow of the hill (III: 519, 920)
  • In the center of what once would have been Oldstones' yard, a great carved sepulcher still rests amidst a stand of ash and high grass. The lid is carved into the likeness of the man whose bones lay beneath it, but the rain and wind have weathered it so that only the beard can be seen obviously, the face only vaguely suggesting nose, mouth, eyes, and crown. His hands hold a stone warhammer once carved with runes that would have told its name and history, but those had been worn away over the centuries (III: 520)
  • Oldstones is the name given to the place by the local smallfolk. No one remembers its original name, when it was still a hall of kings (III: 520)
  • The castle at Oldstones was raised by Tristifer IV, King of the Rivers and the Hills, who ruled a kingdom that had stood a thousand years before the Andals came. Tristifer was killed in his hundredth battle when seven Andal kings ranged against him, and his son Tristifer V lost the realm, the castle, and then his life, ending the line of House Mudd (III: 520)
  • Sevenstreams is at least some days from Oldstones, and is named for the confusion of rills and brooks that flow into the Blue Fork (III: 523)
  • The Cape of Eagles is near Seagard (III: 525)
  • Lord Roote controls Lord Harroway's Town and the "two-headed water horse of Old King Andahar", which is a great flat-bottomed oared ferry that goes back and forth across the Trident. Harroway town has a seven-sided domed sept, an inn, many houses, and a stone roundtower holdfast (III: 538, 539, 540, 545. SSM: 1)
  • After crossing the Trident at Lord Harroway's Town, there's about a day's ride from the north bank to the kingsroad (III: 545)
  • The road connecting the eastern side of the Twins to the kingsroad runs mostly northwest, but turns west between an apple orchard and a field as it approaches the castle (III: 570)
  • Saltpans is a town with a small castle, a port, and a sept. It stands about week's ride along the Trident from the ruby ford, where the river empties into the Bay of Crabs (III: 846, 852, 853)
  • South by east from the stone inn near the ruby ford, there are weedy fields, woods, and marshes. One can ride for hours before reaching the Trident (III: 849)
  • The overgrown and stony road up to Oldstones winds twice around its hill before reaching the summit. Beneath the ruins, the lower slopes of the hill are thickly forested (III: 915)
  • Many of the people of Sevenstreams are closely related (III: 920)
  • The godswood of Oldstones is still intact (III: 921)
  • There’s at least one holy house for brothers of the Faith near Maidenpool (IV: 137)
  • The Stinking Goose is an unsavory tavern near Maidenpool’s harbor, frequented by sailors (IV: 138, 205)
  • A septry on an isle hard by the mouth of the Trident near to the town of Saltpans (IV: 176)
  • Maidenpool has at least two gates, one of which is on the east side (IV: 205)
  • Gulltown is a short sea voyage away from Maidenpool (IV: 206)
  • East of Maidenpool, the hills are wilder and covered with pine (IV: 280)
  • The coast road east from Maidenpool is the shortest, easiest way towards the Whispers. It is seldom out of sight of the bay. There are towns and villages along it, growing progressively less populace the further one travels into Crackclaw Point (IV: 280)
  • The coast road that starts east of Maidenpool eventually gives out in the northern reaches of Crackclaw Point (IV: 280)
  • A crooked track following the Bay of Crabs goes northwest from Maidenpool. The sparsely populated lands there are low wetlands with sandy dunes and salt marshes (IV: 371)
  • It's said that the tidal mudflats along the Bay of Crabs can be dangerous, with places where a man might be swallowed up if he steps wrong (IV: 373)
  • The boundary between the lands sworn to King's Landing and those sworn to Riverrun, marked by a stream, is a mere day's ride north of Sow's Horn, which in turn is perhaps a week's ride north of King's Landing (IV: 400)
  • The land immediately north of the boundary stream are ruled by the knights of House Wode, who are sworn to Harrenhal (IV: 400)
  • Half a mile from the southern shore of the Bay of Crabs, across the water from Saltpans which lies to the north, is an upthrust island crowned by a prosperous septry. The isle is known as the Quiet Isle, because the brothers are penitents who swear vows of silence. It is surrounded by tidal flats, teeming with life. When the tide is out, a winding walk can be made to reach it which might extend a mile and a half or more as one avoids quicksand (IV: 460-461)
  • The currents where the Trident empties into the Bay of Crabs are often at war with one another, so that many unusual things can be found washed up on the shores of the Quiet Isle and other places (IV: 465)
  • Saltpans was not an important port (IV: 468)
  • Before the river changes its course, there was a ferry at the inn by the crossing which carried travellers across the river so they could continue on to Lord Harroway's Town and Whitewalls (IV: 548)
  • The Trident used to move right past the old inn near its crossing, but in 220 or 230 the river changed its course (IV: 548)
  • The old inn at the crossing is west of Saltpans (IV: 548)
  • Nutten and Riverbend are two villages or towns between the old inn at the crossing and Lord Harroway's Town (IV: 552)
  • The old inn at the crossing is known as a chief crossroads, where the kingsroad, the river road following the Red Fork, and the high road into the vale meet (IV: 552-553)
  • The Tumblestone is depper and swifter than the Red Fork near Riverrun, and the nearest fording there is leagues upstream (IV: 568)
  • There is a lake some six days' ride from Stoney Sept, probably the God's Eye, which had an inn by the shore in the days of King Aerys I (TMK: 651)
  • The inn beside the lake, probably the God's Eye, is described as a large, rambling timber structure with turrets. Wooden planks along the lake shore lead to a landing for a ferry (which takes approximately more than an hour for its journey back and forth), and part of the structure is built on pylons over the water. Nearby in the woods are a ring of stumps from an ancient weirwood grove (TMK: 659, 661, 667)
  • Lord Butterwell submitted to Lord Bloodraven's judgment, and lost nine-tenths of his wealth and his pride, Whitewalls. Lord Bloodraven intended to pull the castle down and sow the ground in salt so that it would soon be forgotten (TMK: 733)
  • The riverlands lack natural defensible boundaries, compared to some other regions (SSM: 1)
Last revised March 09, 2013
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5.1.1. Trade and Resources
  • In times of peace fisherfolk in skiffs, grain barges poled downstream, merchants on floating ships, and even brightly painted mummer's boats with quilted sails of many colors could be found on the rivers (III: 20)
  • With so much trade on the rivers, villagers will haul their grain and other goods to it to see it sold and carried elsewhere by the merchants (III: 126)
  • Maidenpool has a busy harbor (IV: 138, 205)
  • Fisherfolk northwest of Maidenpool fish the waters in leather coracles. Others collect clams (IV: 371-372)
  • Wine can be made from small, tart grapes grown in the riverlands (IV: 464)
  • The riverlands are rich and fertile (SSM: 1)
Last revised October 13, 2010
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5.2. The Tullys
  • The Tullys have river galleys with as many as eighteen oars at their command (III: 23)
  • The Tullys are not known for surrending easily (III: 32)
  • The Tullys send their dead into the river that gave them their strength. Lords are laid in slender wooden boats, clad in shining silver plate and mail armor, cloaks spread about them. A helm is placed beside their head, a shield is laid at their side, a sword is gripped in their hands is upon their chests, and a hunting horn is at their other side. The rest of the boat is filled with driftwood and kindly and scraps of parchment, and stones to make it heavy in the water (III: 392)
  • Seven men are chosen to push a funeral boat into the river, to honor the seven faces of god (III: 392)
  • The funeral boats have square sails and are rigged to run down the center channel of the Red Fork into the rising sun (III: 393)
  • The funeral boat is set alight by the lord's heir, using a bow and fire arrows (III: 393)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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5.2.1. Riverrun
  • Riverrun sits on the Red Fork of the Trident (I: 18)
  • The godswood is a bright and airy garden, with redwoods, flowers, nesting birds, and streams. (I: 18)
  • Riverrun has a low bailey (I: 367)
  • Riverrun's water stair, connected to the lower bailey, leads to one of the rivers (I: 367)
  • The battlements of Riverrun is crenelated and has arrow loops (I: 581)
  • A siege of Riverrun, in order to succeed, must have three separate camps separated by rivers. There is no other way (I: 582)
  • Riverrun is situated on the point where the Tumblestone River flows into the Red Fork. When danger threatens, sluice gates can be opened to fill a wide moat and leave the castle surrounded on all three sides by water (I: 638)
  • Riverrun's walls rise sheer from the water (I: 638)
  • Riverrun commands a view of many miles (I: 638)
  • Riverrun's moat is west of the rivers (I: 638)
  • The Tumblestone, north of Riverrun, has a strong current (I: 656)
  • The Wheel Tower has a great waterwheel within it which is turned by the Tumblestone whose waters go through it (I: 656)
  • Below the Wheel Tower one makes a wide turn and ends up in churning waters. Eventually one can reach the Water Gate (I: 656)
  • The Water Gate is named so for being half in the water. Its iron portcullis is red with rust in its lower half, and the last foot drips with mud when raised (I: 656)
  • Many boats are tied up within the Water Gate, secured to iron rings in the walls (I: 657)
  • The water stair leads up from the Water Gate (I: 657)
  • Riverrun's walls are massive, made of sandstone (I: 657)
  • Riverrun's guardsmen wear fish-crested helms (I: 658)
  • The inner keep is triangular, like Riverrun itself, and the lord's solar is triangular as well with a stone balcony jutting eastwards. The solar can be reached by a spiral stairway (I: 658)
  • Riverrun's godswood has a slender, carved weirwood (I: 661)
  • Ivy climbs up the Wheel Tower (I: 661)
  • Mint grows in Riverrun's godswood (I: 661)
  • Large councils are held in the Great Hall, where the high seat of the Tullys sits (I: 662)
  • The lord's solar commands a view of the east where the Tumblestone and Red Fork meet (II: 86)
  • Riverrun's sept is made of sandstone, set amidst gardens. Painted marble images represent the Seven (II: 476)
  • Riverrun has a brewhouse (II: 476)
  • Inside Riverrun, the doors are made of heavy redwood (II: 484)
  • The dungeons of Riverrun are windowless (II: 575)
  • The doors of the dungeon cells are heavy and made of wood and iron (II: 576)
  • The walls of the worst cells are patched with nitre (II: 576)
  • Through the stones of the dungeon walls the rush of the Tumblestone can be faintly heard (II: 576)
  • Skiffs are kept at the castle to use on the river (III: 16)
  • The lord's bedchamber is dominated by a huge bed with posts carved to look like leaping trouts (III: 28)
  • The bedchamber is half a turn up the tower steps from the lord's solar (III: 28)
  • The balcony outside the solar is triangular in shape, and has a rough stone balustrade (III: 28)
  • The steward of Riverrun carries a staff with which he bangs the floor to call people forward for their audience or to call the end of audience and dismiss everyone (III: 157, 158)
  • There is a private audience chamber above the Great Hall with a high seat for the lord and a bell to ring for servants (III: 162, 163)
  • The Water Gate is arched (III: 393)
  • Properly garrisoned, Riverrun can hold supplies for men and horses for as long as two years (IV: 491)
  • The Tumblestone is depper and swifter than the Red Fork near Riverrun, and the nearest fording there is leagues upstream (IV: 568)
  • A garrison of two hundred men is larger than Riverrun requires in most circumstances (IV: 660)
Last revised July 18, 2009
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5.2.2. Ancestors and History
  • The Tullys were never kings, but they held rich lands and the castle of Riverrun for a thousand years (I: 684)
  • 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 three hundred years earlier by killing the last River King (I: 684)
  • The first of the riverlords to desert the unloved Harren the Black for Aegon's host was Edmyn Tully (I: 684)
  • Aegon raised Lord Edmyn Tully to overlordship of the Trident, requiring all other lords to swear fealty to him (I: 684)
  • Harren the Black beggared the Iron Islands and the riverlands to make Harrenhal. He had completed Harrenhal and had finally taken up residence when on that very day word came of Aegon the Conqueror's landing. (II: 88)
  • There are claims that Harren the Black and his sons haunt the cellars of the Wailing Tower, even though they died in the Kingspyre Tower (II: 335)
  • Lady Minisa Tully died in childbed trying to give Hoster Tully a second son. The boy died with her (II: 363)
  • Lord Tywin considered marrying his heir Jaime to Lysa Tully of Riverrun (III: 128)
  • Lord Hoster Tully's father died more than thirty years ago, as Catelyn Tully was too young to remember his funeral (III: 395)
  • Counting Lord Hoster, Walder Frey has known four Lord Tullys (III: 559)
  • By 211, Lord Tully was a boy of 8, and was considered incapable of stopping the Blackwoods and Brackens from entering into private war (TSS: 122)
  • Ser Brynden Tully won renown fighting the Ninepenny Kings (IV: 495)
  • Lord Norbert Vance of Atranta and Ser Brynden Tully of Riverrun together served as squires to Lord Darry (IV: 567)
  • Young Lord Tully did not attend Lord Butterwell's wedding (TMK: 674)
  • The Mudds and Fishers were two dynasties of River Kings (among many) who were ended in wars (SSM: 1)
  • The Andal invasion ended the line of the Mudds, who were the last of the First Men to be River Kings (SSM: 1)
Last revised February 21, 2013
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5.2.3. Bannerhouses
  • House Ryger, whose arms are a green willow on white (I: 241. II: 412. III: 24)
  • House Mooton (I: 241)
  • House Wode, knights sworn to Harrenhal who hold two earth-and-timber keeps just north of the stream that separates the riverland from the lands owing fealty to King's Landing (I: 276. IV: 400)
  • House Vance of Wayfarer's Rest (I: 387. III: 961)
  • House Piper of Pinkmaiden Castle, with a naked dancing maiden for their sigil (I: 257, 388. II: 412. III: 956, 960, 961. IV: 488)
  • The Pipers tend to be small (I: 388. IV: 488)
  • House Paege, ruled by a knight (II: 412. IV: 731)
  • House Grell (II: 412)
  • House Wayn (II: 412)
  • House Ryger (II: 412)
  • The Tullys can muster at least 11,000 men (and this is with the loss of men in war and the need to give some over to the harvest) (II: 416)
  • The Lothstons ruled Harrenhal before the Whents, and within living memory. The last of them was killed several generation's ago. They had a black reputation (II: 497. IV: 60)
  • House Erenford, sworn to House Frey. Their sigil is a heron (II: 739. IV: 569)
  • Ser Myles Mooton had been a squire to Prince Rhaegar, and remained his close companion after winning his knighthood from Rhaegar's own hand (III: 90)
  • The Mootons rule Maidenpool (III: 235)
  • Maidenpool takes its name from the pool where Florian the Fool was said to have first glimped Jonquil bathing with her sisters (III: 235)
  • House Lychester has a small square keep (III: 246, 247)
  • All of Lord Lychester's sons died in Robert's Rebellion, some on one side and some on the other (III: 247)
  • Acorn Hall is a great oaken keep with stone curtain walls, but even so is accounted a rather small castle. It's master is Lord Smallwood, who is vassal to Lord Vance (III: 251, 253)
  • House Charlton, sworn to house Frey. Their sigil is three springs of misteltoe (III: 385. IV: 569)
  • House Roote (III: 385)
  • The wealthy House Deddings (III: 385)
  • There is an abandoned village half a day’s ride north of High Heart, with a grey stone stable. It belonged to Lord Goodbrook, but when he stayed loyal to the king even after the Tullys declared for Robert, Lord Hoster came down on him with fire and sword (III: 493, 497)
  • House Roote controls Lord Harroway's Town and the "two-headed water horse of Old King Andahar", which is a great flat-bottomed oared ferry that goes back and forth across the Trident (III: 538, 539, 545)
  • House Vypren is a noble family (III: 564)
  • House Haigh, its emblem a pitchfork. They are sworn to House Frey (III: 564. IV: 569)
  • Myles Smallwood was renowned for courage in his day, but he was a failure as Hand to his king (III: 604)
  • House Vance of Atranta (III: 961. IV: 567)
  • At least one knight of House Smallwood fought at the Redgrass Field (TSS: 110)
  • House Butterwell, whose lord was Hand to Daeron II during the early part of the first Blackfyre Rebellion, raised a castle called Whitewalls (TSS: 110. TMK: 655)
  • Manfred Lothston betrayed Daemon Blackfyre, which may have been a pivotal factor in his defeat and death (TSS: 135)
  • Lord Lucas the Pander and his son, Manfryd of the Black Hood, were infamous Lothstons (IV: 60)
  • A story is told that Mad Danelle Lothston sent out giant black bats of Harrenhal out to collect bad children for her cooking pots (IV: 132)
  • Maidenpool has at least two gates, one of which on the east side of the town (IV: 205)
  • The Mootons have in the past attempted to send tax collectors into Crackclaw Point, despite the people there being sworn directly to the Iron Throne. If they are sent in force, a handful might return alive (IV: 283)
  • A crooked track following the Bay of Crabs goes northwest from Maidenpool. The lands there are low wetlands with sandy dunes and salt marshes (IV: 371)
  • Lord Mooton's rule extends at least a day's ride to the northwest, in the sparsely populated wetlands. The wetlands are a poor region, easily ignored in the midst of a war (IV: 372)
  • The boundary between the lands sworn to King's Landing and those sworn to Riverrun, marked by a stream, is a mere day's ride north of Sow's Horn, which in turn is perhaps a week's ride north of King's Landing (IV: 400)
  • The Knight of Saltpans is of House Cox (IV: 454, 466, 738)
  • The castle at Saltpans is a square keep within a curtain wall, built to overlook the harbor (IV: 549)
  • Lord Norbert Vance of Atranta and Ser Brynden Tully of Riverrun together served as squires to Lord Darry (IV: 567)
  • A septon preaching against Bloodraven and King Aerys, galling for an uprising in the name of the Blackfyres, was beheaded for treason and his head was displayed on a spike on the walls of Stoney Sept (TMK: 650)
  • Lord Shawney attended Lord Butterwell's wedding tourney at Whitewalls (TMK: 659)
  • It was said that Lord Butterwell had the finest vintages of wine north of the Arbor. He was said to be both very rich and very pious, with the wealth coming from cattle. Both his sons, who fought on either side of the Blackfyre Rebellion, died in the fighting, and his youngest child died during the Great Spring Sickness. This led him to take a bride from House Frey, to attempt to continue the family name (TMK: 662)
  • Ser Morgan Dunstable of Tumbler's Falls, in the reign of Aerys I (TMK: 663)
  • After guesting at Lord Butterwells's castle for a night and allegedly impregnating his host's three maiden daughters, King Aegon IV the Unworthy gave him the gift of a dragon's egg. Butterwell's grandson, the new Lord Butterwell, would make it the prize at his wedding tourney at Whitewalls (TMK: 663)
  • Lord Shawney fought on the right with Bittersteel at the Battle of the Redgrass Field, and was nearly killed there (TMK: 667)
  • Whitewalls was a new castle early in the reign of Aerys I, only forty years old and raised by the grandsire of the Lord Butterwell of that time. The smallfolk called it the Milkhouse, because all of its walls and towers were wrought in finely dress white stone brought from the Vale at great expense. Its floors and pillars were white marble veined with gold, and the rafters were carved from the trunks of weirwoods (TMK: 669)
  • In the reign of Aerys I, the Freys married a daughter of the family to Lord Butterwell, who had been left without heirs after the Blackfyre Rebellion and the Great Spring Sickness. It's claimed that this marriage happened because Lord Frey's daughter had been caught abed with a scullion by her young brother, the heir Walder Frey, who screamed when he saw them in congress (TMK: 662, 679)
  • Lord Butterwell's sons fought on both sides during the first Blackfyre Rebellion (TMK: 687)
  • Lord Smallwood's nephew broke his wrist during Lord Butterwell's wedding tourney in the reign of Aerys I (TMK: 694)
  • The red-haired Mad Danelle Lothston, wearing close-fitted black armor, came in strength to Whitewalls with the host raised by Lord Bloodraven (TMK: 731)
  • Lord Butterwell submitted to Lord Bloodraven's judgment, and lost nine-tenths of his wealth and his pride, Whitewalls. Lord Bloodraven intended to pull the castle down and sow the ground in salt so that it would soon be forgotten (TMK: 733)
Last revised March 09, 2013
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5.2.3.1. The Freys of the Twins
  • The lord of the House is styled Lord of the Crossing (I: 533)
  • The Freys can gather nearly 4,000 soldiers (I: 533)
  • The Freys have held the crossing for six hundred years and grown wealthy on the fees for making use of their bridge (I: 535)
  • The bridge of the Twins is a massive arch of grey rock wide enough for two wagons to cross abreast. The Water Tower rises in the middle and commands road and river with arrow slits, murder holes, and portcullises (I: 535)
  • It had taken the Freys three generations to complete their bridge. When they finished, they raised stout wooden keeps at either end (I: 535)
  • Now the ends of the bridge are defended by squat, ugly, formidable castles that look exactly alike; high curtain walls, moats, oak-and-iron gates, the bridge footings starting from the inner keeps, barbicans and portcullises on either bank. The arrangement has been so for centuries (I: 535, 536)
  • The seat of the Freys is a tall chair of black oak, the back carved in the shape of two towers linked by a bridge (I: 538)
  • A game that may be unique to Frey children is lord of the crossing, where a child plays at being the lord. Holding a stick he guards the crossing over a pool of water (necessary to the game) and others challenge him. The only way to win is to slip "mayhaps" amidst the play oaths that the lord makes them swear and then to push him into the water. Only the lord carries a stick (II: 56-57)
  • Lord of the crossing usually comes down to shoving, hitting, and falling into the water, with many arguments over whether "mayhaps" has been said or not (II: 57)
  • House Erenford, sworn to House Frey. Their sigil is a heron (II: 739. IV: 569)
  • The villages of Hag's Mire and Sevenstreams are within the Frey lands, which seem to extend to the beginnings of the Blue Fork, and perhaps even beyond (III: 5, 6, 518)
  • At the Twins some say that eating frogs as the crannogmen do will cause teeth to turn green and moss to grow from armpits (III: 104)
  • The Freys can gather a force of some 1,000 horse and nearly 3,000 foot, and still leaving themselves with a strong garrison (III: 160)
  • Other houses of greater lineage look down on the Freys as upstarts (III: 162)
  • The Freys have sought to conquer Greywater in the Neck in the past, and have always failed. They do not like the crannogmen even still, however, and the crannogmen expect to be attacked by them (III: 278, 280)
  • House Charlton, sworn to house Frey. Their sigil is three springs of misteltoe (III: 385. IV: 569)
  • Counting Lord Hoster, Walder Frey has known four Lord Tullys (III: 559)
  • House Haigh, its emblem a pitchfork. They are sworn to House Frey (III: 564. IV: 569)
  • Merrett Frey, one of Lord Walder's sons by his third wife, served alongside Jaime Lannister as squire to Lord Sumner Crakehall. He was captured by Wenda the White Fawn and then ransomed, but shortly after took a blow to the head from one of the outlaws of the Kingswood Brotherhood that ended his fighting days (III: 916, 918, 920)
  • In the reign of Aerys I, the Freys married a daughter of the family to Lord Butterwell, who had been left without heirs after the Blackfyre Rebellion and the Great Spring Sickness. It's claimed that this marriage happened because Lord Frey's daughter had been caught abed with a scullion by her young brother, the heir Walder Frey, who screamed when he saw them in congress (TMK: 662, 679)
  • Ser Addam Frey, a cousin to Lord Butterwell's bride, was defeated at the wedding tourney by Ser Uthor Underleaf, a hedge knight called the Snail (TMK: 695)
  • Lord Frey abandoned the conspiracy to crown Daemon Blackfyre immediately when Prince Aegon, son of Prince Maekar, revealed himself to him and Lord Butterwell and claimed he and Ser Duncan were spies for his father (TMK: 722)
  • Lord Frey was permitted to depart Whitewalls by Lord Bloodraven, without any apparent loss to himself (TMK: 734)
Last revised March 09, 2013
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5.2.3.2. The Whents of Harrenhal
  • House Wode, knights sworn to Harrenhal who hold two earth-and-timber keeps just north of the stream that separates the riverland from the lands owing fealty to King's Landing (I: 276. IV: 400)
  • Harrenhal was a seat of kings (I: 643)
  • Harren the Black and his line died in the burning of Harrenhal by Aegon the Conqueror (I: 684)
  • 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)
  • Every house that has held Harrenhal since Harren the Black died has met misfortune and it is believed to be cursed (II: 88)
  • On the north edge of the God's Eye is Harrentown (II: 157)
  • Ghosts are said to dwell in Harrenhal (II: 157)
  • Harrenhal is one of the richest castles in the Seven Kingdoms. Its lands are broad and rich and fertile (II: 202)
  • Harrenhal is near the fords of the Trident which provide access to the lands south of it (II: 235)
  • Stories have it that Harren the Black mixed the blood of children into the mortar of Harrenhal (II: 307)
  • Just west of Harrenhal is a town, probably Harrentown (II: 308)
  • Harrenhal is built on a gigantic scale, its colossal curtain walls sheer and high as mountain cliffs while atop the battlements the wood-and-iron scorpions seem as small as their namesakes when seen from the ground (II: 308)
  • Harrenhal's gatehouse is as large as Winterfell's Great Keep, and its stone is discoloured and fissured (II: 308)
  • From outside the gatehouse, only the tops of five immense towers can be seen because of the height of the walls obscure the view of them (II: 308)
  • The shortest of Harrenhal's towers is half again as high as the tallest one in Winterfell, yet none of the towers are proper; they're bent and lumped and cracked from the melting of the stone by the Targaryen dragons centuries earlier (II: 308)
  • Harrenhal's bathhouse is large and made of stone and timber. It's on the edge of the Flowstone Yard (II: 308, 655)
  • The occupied towers of Harrenhal are so large that they each have an understeward (II: 309)
  • No one remembers the names that Harren the Black gave to his towers, but now they are called the Tower of Dread, the Widow's Tower, the Wailing Tower, the Tower of Ghosts, and Kingspyre Tower (II: 334)
  • There are cavernous vaults beneath the Wailing Tower (II: 334)
  • Harrenhal's kitchens are inside of a round stone building with a domed roof (II: 334)
  • Servants would eat at the trestle table in the undercrofts of the towers (II: 334)
  • There's a forge in Harrenhal (II: 334)
  • Much of Harrenhal is far gone in decay. The Whents used only the lower thirds of two of the five towers, letting the rest go to ruin (II: 334)
  • Men-at-arms eat in the Barracks Hall above the armory (II: 335)
  • The ground floor of the Wailing Tower is given over to storerooms and granaries. The two floors above would be used to house a garrison (II: 335)
  • The upper stories of the Wailing Tower have not been occupied for eighty years (II: 335)
  • The topmost stories of the towers are infested with nests of huge black bats (II: 335)
  • There are claims that Harren the Black and his sons haunt the cellars of the Wailing Tower, even though they died in the Kingspyre Tower (II: 335)
  • The Wailing Tower is named so because it wails when the wind blows from the north and the air runs through the cracks made by the heat of the burning (II: 335)
  • The Kingspyre Tower is still the tallest of the towers, but it's lopsided under the weight of the slagged stone that make it look like a candle (II: 335)
  • Harrenhal covers three times as much ground as Winterfell and its buildings are so much larger that they can scarcely be compared. Its stables house a thousand horses, its godswood covers 20 acres, its kitchens are as large as Winterfell's Great Hall (II: 336)
  • Harrenhal's great hall is named the Hall of a Hundred Hearths but it has only thirty-three or thirty-five hearths. They are huge, however, with about ten feet separating each (II: 336. III: 421)
  • An entire army of thousands could be feasted in the hall (II: 336)
  • Walls, doors, halls, and steps are all built to a giant scale (II: 336)
  • The Flowstone Yard with its lumpy surface is where men-at-arms and knights might exercise and where squires clean arms and armor (II: 338, 400)
  • There is a covered gallery above the Flowstone Yard with arches looking towards it (II: 339)
  • The east gates are portcullised (II: 339)
  • Harrenhal has a brewhouse (II: 403)
  • A stone bridge arches between the Widow's Tower and Kingspyre (II: 403)
  • There is a great cell under the Widow's Tower that's used to keep prisoners (II: 495)
  • When empty, Harrenhal seems strange. Sometimes the stones seem to soak up sound, while at other times echoes are amplified many times over (II: 496)
  • Crossing the middle bailey, one can go around the Tower of Dread to reach the mews where falcons were once raised (and are now said to exist there only as ghosts) (II: 496)
  • The castellan's chambers in Kingspyre are as spacious as that of a lord's (II: 496)
  • There are cellars beneath Kingspyre (II: 496)
  • Harrenhal's forge is in the armory (II: 496)
  • The Lothstons ruled Harrenhal before the Whents, and within living memory. The last of them was killed several generation's ago. They had a black reputation (II: 497. IV: 60)
  • Harrenhal's godswood has a small stream running through it (II: 498)
  • Harrenhal has a weirwood heart tree, its face carved into a terrible visage full of hatred with a twisted mouth and flaring eyes (II: 499)
  • An arched span of bridge divides the outer and the middle wards (II: 501)
  • The Barracks Hall and the armory are across the ward from where the godswood is (II: 501)
  • Just inside the door into the Widow's Tower is a winding stair leading down to the dungeons. The steps reach a dank stone vault which is long, gloomy, and windowless. Scones on the walls hold torches (II: 503)
  • The vault is separated from the cell by heavy iron bars (II: 503)
  • Harrenhal's middle ward has a bear pit (II: 507)
  • There is a well in the Flowstone Yard (II: 648)
  • There is a privy shaft in the lord's chambers (II: 655)
  • The great solar for the lord of Harrenhal is down half a flight of stairs from the bedchamber. It is a spare, draughty room which is as large as the halls of many smaller castles (II: 654)
  • There is a huge oaken table in the lord's solar (II: 654)
  • To get to the godswood from Kingspyre, a person must pass the Wailing Tower (II: 657)
  • Kingspyre's cellar has narrow windows (II: 658)
  • There's a loft in the forge where apprentices sleep (II: 658)
  • There's a postern in the east wall behind the Tower of Ghosts (II: 658)
  • The godswood is walled (II: 659)
  • The Tower of Ghosts is the most ruinous of the Harrenhal's towers. It stands behind the remains of a sept that collapsed when the Targaryens burned the castle with their dragons (II: 660)
  • Weeds grow between the broke stones about the Tower of Ghosts (II: 660)
  • The postern near the Tower of Ghosts is one of the least of Harrenhal's gates, being a narrow door of strong oak studded with iron nails set in an angle of the wall beneath a defensive tower (II: 660)
  • There are woods and streams not far north of Harrenhal (III: 35)
  • The land north of Harrenhal grows progressively hillier (III: 39)
  • There are several rivers between Harrenhal and the Trident: the Darry, the Greenapple, the Maiden, the Little Willow, and perhaps others (III: 39)
  • The Little Willow flows into the Big Willow, which in turn flows into the Trident (III: 40)
  • Many great lords came from all over Westeros to witness or take part in Lord Whent's tourney. Mace Tyrell was among them, and so were northerners from the barrowlands, Hornwoods, Mormonts, and Manderlys (III: 280, 281)
  • Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard was Lord Whent's brother. He and his four nephews swore to defend Lord Whent's daughter as queen of love and beauty (III: 280. SSM: 1)
  • The walls of Harrenhal are so thick that passing beneath them feels like passing through a stone tunnel (III: 347)
  • There are broad stone steps leading from the outer ward to the entrance of one of the collosal round towers (III: 347)
  • Harrenhal's bathhouse is a low-ceilinged room filled with great stone tubs large enough to hold six or seven after the fashion of the Free Cities (III: 416)
  • The Hall of a Hundred Hearths is huge, larger even than the throne room of the Red Keep. There are steps to two galleries above (III: 421)
  • The floor of the great hall is of smooth slate (III: 421)
  • It had been long years since King Aerys had last left the Red Keep when he went to Harrenhal for Lord Whent's tourney (III: 485)
  • Harrenhal's eastern gate is smaller than its main gate (III: 501)
  • Six miles east of Harrenhal stands the lake road which runs southwards (III: 501)
  • Harren the Black had wished to do even his bear-baiting in lavish style, so the bear pit at Harrenhal is ten yards across and five yards deep, walled in stone, floored with sand, and encircled by six tiers of marble benches (III: 510)
  • The boundary between the lands sworn to King's Landing and those sworn to Riverrun, marked by a stream, is a mere day's ride north of Sow's Horn, which in turn is perhaps a week's ride north of King's Landing (IV: 400)
  • Through the main gates, the walls are so thick that no less than a dozen murder holes are passed before one reaches the yard on the other side (IV: 401)
  • Hunter's Hall (IV: 405)
  • Lady Shella Whent was wife to Lord Whent, who hosted the great tourney at Harrenhal. The fair maid was her daughter (SSM: 1)
  • Harrenhal is immensely strong, and a garrison of three hundred men should be able to hold it against a siege for half a year or more (SSM: 1)
  • Harrenhal is so large that a larger-than-normal garrison is needed to hold it against a determined siege (SSM: 1
Last revised August 01, 2009
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5.2.3.3. The Brackens of the Stone Hedge
  • The Brackens and the Blackwoods have been feuding for thousands of years, from the time of the Age of Heroes when they were rivals as kings over the riverlands at various points in time. Matters were not helped when the Brackens abandoned the old gods in favor of the Seven (I: 662. THK: 43. SSM: 1)
  • The feud between the Brackens and the Blackwoods was reinvigorated when Ser Otho Bracken, called the Brute of Bracken, killed Lord Quentyn Blackwood in tourney at King's Landing in about the year 205 (THK: 463)
  • The Bracken lands touch the Red Fork (III: 22)
  • In 211, Lord Bracken was dying a slow death, while his eldest son died of the plague during the Great Spring Sickness. This left Ser Otho, the Brute of Bracken, as heir, a situation which could mean war as the Blackwoods hated him (TSS: 121)
  • Lord Bracken was delayed by storms on the narrow sea, which kept him from arriving with Myrish crossbowmen to support Daemon Blackfyre (TSS: 135-136)
  • Lord Otho Bracken, the Brute of Bracken, was not among those who attended Lord Butterwell's tourney in the reign of King Aerys I (TMK: 672)
  • Bittersteel was Ser Aegor Rivers, the bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy by his fifth mistress, Lady Barba Bracken. Angry at his lot as a bastard, he was dark-haired, lithe, and hard. He wore a horsehead crest upon his helm and his arms featured a red stallion with black dragon wings, snorting flame against a golden field (SSM: 1, 2)
Last revised February 20, 2013
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5.2.3.4. The Blackwoods of Raventree Hall
  • The Blackwoods follow the old gods, and are one of the few southron houses to continue to do so (I: 661. SSM: 1)
  • The Brackens and the Blackwoods have been feuding for thousands of years, from the time of the Age of Heroes when they were rivals as kings over the riverlands at various points in time. Matters were not helped when the Brackens abandoned the old gods in favor of the Seven (I: 662. THK: 43. SSM: 1)
  • The feud between the Brackens and the Blackwoods was reinvigorated when Ser Otho Bracken, called the Brute of Bracken, killed Lord Quentyn Blackwood in tourney at King's Landing in about the year 205 (THK: 463)
  • Lord Bloodraven was an albino, marked with a blotch of discolored skin on his chin and across one cheek which some claimed to resemble a raven. His personal guard were called the Raven's Teeth, and he carried the Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister on his hip. He lacked an eye, which he lost to Bittersteel on the Redgrass Field. He was the bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy by his sixth mistress, Lady Mylessa Blackwood, who was known as Missy. His personal arms were a white dragon with red eyes (TSS: 81. SSM: 1)
  • Blackwoods have had wives from House Osgrey in the past (TSS: 112)
  • In 211, Lord Bracken was on his deathbed while his son Ser Otho, the Brute of Bracken, stood as his heir. This was a situation that was considered intolerable for the Blackwoods and could lead to war (TSS: 121)
  • An army appeared outside Whitewalls, a host raised at Lord Bloodraven's command. Lord Blackwood was among its leaders (TMK: 731)
Last revised March 09, 2013
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5.2.3.5. The Mallisters of Seagard
  • Jason Mallister cut down three of Rhaegar Targaryens bannermen at the Trident (I: 247)
  • Seagard was built to defend the coast from ironborn reavers (II: 131)
  • The Booming Tower is named so because of its immense bronze bell, used to call the townsfolk and others into the safety of the castle when longships were sighted (II: 131)
  • The bell of the Booming Tower was rung only once in three hundred years, when Rodrik Greyjoy ventured to raid Seagard during his father's rebellion. Jason Mallister slew him beneath the walls and threw the ironmen back into the bay (II: 131)
  • When Prince Rhaegar was young, he rode brilliantly in a tourney at Storm's End, defeating many notables, including Lord Jason Mallister (III: 485)
  • The Mallisters have some half dozen longships and two war galleys to protect their shores from raiders (III: 525)
  • The Cape of Eagles is near Seagard (III: 525)
  • Ser Denys Mallister once unhorsed Lord Tarly (father to Lord Randyll Tarly) and Lord Alester Florent in a tournament. He was a squire at 12, a knight at 18, and a tourney champion at 22, and he has since gone on to command the Shadow Tower for some 33 years (III: 888, 889)
Last revised February 28, 2007
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5.2.3.6. The Darrys of Darry
  • The Darry lands and castle are modest, half a day’s ride south of the Trident (I: 128)
  • The Darrys fought for the Targaryens in the War of the Usurper (I: 128, 241)
  • There is a song of Lord Deremond (who may have been a Darry) at the Bloody Meadow (II: 476)
  • There is a river named Darry between Harrenhall and the Trident (III: 39)
  • Ser Willem Darry was the master-at-arms of the Red Keep at least from the time that Prince Rhaegar was a boy (III: 91)
  • The Darrys once stood high in King Aerys’s favor, and had been prominent Targaryen loyalists. This cost them half their lands, most of their wealth, and almost all of their power (III: 918)
  • House Darry has ruled its lands since the Andals cast down the First Men in the lands watered by the Trident (IV: 445)
  • The keep of the Darry castle is called the Plowman's Keep (IV: 447)
  • Darry is a small castle as such things go, but the hunting is good along the river (IV: 447)
  • The Darrys were very loyal to the Targaryen kings, and kept tapestries of all the Targaryen kings from Aegon the Conqueror to Aerys the Second (IV: 448)
  • The Darry castle is large enough to hold at least a hundred men in its yards (IV: 455)
  • The sept of the Darry castle is off the inner ward. It is seven-sided but windowless, half-timbered with carved wooden doors and a tiled roof. The Seven loom above carved altars (IV: 455, 456)
  • The castle has a godswood (IV: 459)
  • At the time of Daemon Blackfyre's rebellion, Lord Darry was fiercely loyal to King Daeron the good (IV: 548)
  • The Darrys at one time controlled lands that included the old inn near the crossing of the Trident (IV: 548)
  • Lord Norbert Vance of Atranta and Ser Brynden Tully of Riverrun together served as squires to Lord Darry (IV: 567)
  • Ser Jonothor Darry, brother to Ser Willem Darry, was the second member of the Kingsguard to die at the Trident (SSM: 1)
Last revised July 29, 2009
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5.3. Songs, Stories, and Legends
  • Harrenhal is said to be cursed because of the burning by the Targaryen dragons which led to the deaths of Harren the Black and his line. Every house that has held the castle since has met with misfortune (II: 88)
  • Ghosts are said to dwell in Harrenhal, and stories tell of men who were in their beds asleep are found the following morning all seared and burned mysteriously (II: 157)
  • Stories have it that Harren the Black mixed the blood of children into the mortar of Harrenhal (II: 307)
  • There are claims that Harren the Black and his sons haunt the cellars of the Wailing Tower, even though they died in the Kingspyre Tower (II: 335)
  • There is a song of Lord Deremond (who may have been a Darry) at the Bloody Meadow (II: 476)
  • Harrenhal's mews, where falcons were raised, are said to have only ghostly falcons residing in them (II: 496)
  • Some fools say that eating frogs as the crannogmen do will cause teeth to turn green and moss to grow from armpits (III: 104)
  • Maidenpool takes its name from the pool where Florian the Fool was said to have first glimped Jonquil bathing with her sisters (III: 235)
  • A lyric of "Six Maids in a Pool", presumably concerning Jonquil and her sisters (III: 234)
  • High Heart was sacred to the children of the forest, and their magic is said to linger, protecting anyone who sleeps there from harm (III: 249)
  • The smallfolk shun High Heart, saying it was haunted by ghosts of the children who had died there when the Andal king Erreg the Kingslayer had cut down the grove (III: 249)
  • It's said by some that the Lords of Riverrun sink into the soft mud of the rivers, in the watery halls where they hold eternal court, schools of fish their last attendants (III: 394)
  • Tristifer, the Fourth of his Name, King of the Rivers and the Hills, ruled from the Trident to the Neck thousands of years before Jenny of Oldstones and her prince, in the days when the kingdoms of the First Men were falling one after the other before the Andals. He was called the Hammer of Justice, and the singers say that he fought a hundred battles and won nine-and-ninety. When he raised his castle, now a ruin known only as Oldstones, it was the strongest in Westeros (III: 520)
  • A story is told that Mad Danelle Lothston sent out giant black bats of Harrenhal out to collect bad children for her cooking pots. She bathed in blood and presided over feasts of human flesh (IV: 132, 403)
  • "On a Misty Morn" a song meant for a woman singer representing a mother's lament as she searches a battlefield for her dead only son. The lyrics mention Wendish Town (IV: 149)
Last revised May 26, 2009
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