Lore archive
An archive of Winterfell and the North, written in our own words from the published books: places, houses, customs, the Kings of Winter, the Wall.
The line of years
- Dawn AgeIn the Dawn AgeThe First Men and the Pact
- Age of HeroesEight thousand years ago, by the old talesThe Long Night
- At the end of the Long NightBrandon the Builder raises the Wall
- Kings of WinterOver thousands of yearsThe Kings of Winter
- When the Andals crossed the narrow seaThe Andals stopped at the Neck
- Long before the dragons cameWhite Harbor given to the Manderlys
- After the ConquestThree hundred years before the storyTorrhen Stark kneels to Aegon
- In the reign of the Old KingThe New Gift
- Some hundred and seventy years before the storyThe Hour of the Wolf
- Eve of the StoryFifteen years before the storyRobert’s Rebellion
- On the eve of the storyWinter is coming
Entries
Barrowton
A timber-walled town around the Great Barrow, where the First King of the First Men is said to lie.
Bear Island
A cold, forested island in the Bay of Ice, held by House Mormont, where the women learned long ago to fight.
The Bell Tower
One of Winterfell’s towers, joined to the rookery by a covered bridge that runs from its fourth floor to the rookery’s second.
Brandon the Builder
The founder of House Stark in the Age of Heroes, said to have raised Winterfell and the Wall with giants’ help.
The Broken Tower
Once Winterfell’s tallest watchtower, struck by lightning long ago and never rebuilt; crows hold the top of it now.
Castle Black
Seat of the Night’s Watch, a castle with no curtain wall, its towers backed against the ice where the kingsroad ends.
The Courtyard
The greatest of Winterfell’s many yards, beaten hard by drill and hooves, with the Great Hall’s doors on one side.
The Crypts
Under the castle the dead Starks keep their seats in stone, stone wolves at their feet, iron swords across their knees.
Deepwood Motte
The Glovers’ timber stronghold on a flat-topped hill deep in the wolfswood, ringed by a palisade and a dry ditch.
Direwolves
Wolves the size of ponies, the beast on the Stark banner, unseen south of the Wall for two hundred years.
The Dreadfort
Seat of House Bolton on the Weeping Water, thick-walled and ill-famed, under the banner of the flayed man.
The East Gate
The gate on the eastern side of Winterfell, opening toward the kingsroad for riders bound north to the Wall or south.
The First Keep
The oldest part of Winterfell, a round keep empty for centuries, its gargoyles weathered almost shapeless.
The First Men
The first men in Westeros, who crossed the land bridge with bronze and horses; the North is still theirs by blood.
The Gatehouse
The main gate of Winterfell, where the road from the winter town crosses the moat and passes under both walls.
The Gift
The land below the Wall given to the Night’s Watch for its upkeep, fifty leagues deep in two grants.
The Glass Gardens
Glasshouses warmed by the springs, where fruit and greens ripen while snow lies on the panes.
The Godswood
Three acres of the old forest, never cut, kept inside the walls because the castle was raised around them.
The Great Hall
The castle’s long hall, where the household eats together below the dais and the lord feeds his guests.
The Guest House
Lodging for Winterfell’s guests, on the edge of the godswood across from the heart tree, with warm pools below its windows.
Guest Right
The oldest law of hospitality: a guest who has eaten under a host’s roof may not be harmed, nor may he harm.
The Heart Tree
The pale weirwood at the centre of the godswood, with a long, grave face cut into the trunk above a dark pool.
The Hot Springs
Winterfell stands over hot springs whose water is piped through its walls, so the castle stays warm while the North freezes.
House Stark
The Starks, Kings of Winter and Kings in the North for thousands of years, and Wardens of the North since the dragons.
The Hunter’s Gate
The gate on the far side of Winterfell from the main gate, opening straight onto fields with the wolfswood beyond.
Karhold
Seat of House Karstark in the east, raised a thousand years ago by a younger son of Winterfell who had earned it.
The Kings of Winter
The old Stark kings who conquered the North from Winterfell and sit now in stone in the deeper crypts.
The Kingsroad
The long road of the dragon kings, running from the Wall past Winterfell and down through the Neck to the south.
Last Hearth
The Umbers’ castle in the forests of the far north, the last great hearth before the Gift and the Wall.
The Library Tower
The tower that keeps Winterfell’s books, more than a hundred volumes, with a stair that winds around its outside.
The Lichyard
An old burial ground in the shadow of the First Keep, where the Kings of Winter laid their most trusted servants.
The Long Night
A winter that lasted a generation, some eight thousand years ago, when the Others came out of the dark.
Moat Cailin
The ruined stronghold of the First Men where the Neck opens into the North; three towers still hold the causeway.
The Neck
The wet country between the North and the south, bog and drowned forest, held by the crannogmen of House Reed.
The Nightfort
The first and largest castle on the Wall, abandoned two hundred years ago and left to the stories told about it.
The Night’s Watch
The sworn brotherhood in black that has held the Wall since the Long Night, now fewer than a thousand men.
The Old Gods
The nameless gods of stone, stream and tree, first kept by the children of the forest and still kept in the North.
Torrhen Stark, the King Who Knelt
The last King in the North, who marched thirty thousand men to the Trident and knelt there to save them.
Torrhen’s Square
The Tallharts’ stone castle south-west of Winterfell, square-towered, standing near a lake below the wolfswood.
Valyrian Steel
Spell-forged steel from old Valyria, lighter and keener than any castle-forged blade, whose making was lost with the Doom.
The Wall
A wall of ice seven hundred feet high and three hundred miles long, raised in the Age of Heroes against the Others.
The Walls
Two rings of grey granite, the outer eighty feet high and the inner more than a hundred, with a moat between them.
Weirwood
The pale tree with red leaves and red sap that never rots, holy to the old gods and carved with their faces.
White Harbor
The North’s one city, whitewashed stone at the mouth of the White Knife, held by House Manderly for the Starks.
Winter Is Coming
The words of House Stark, a warning in a land where summers end and winters can last for years.
Wintertown
The town outside Winterfell’s gates, four houses in five empty in summer, full when the snows drive the smallfolk in.
The Wolfswood
The great forest west of Winterfell, where wolves are heard at night and Deepwood Motte stands on its hill.