The Guest House
Guests of rank do not sleep in the family’s keep. They are lodged in the Guest House, which stands at the edge of the godswood on the side far from the heart tree. The hot springs feed it, so that visitors from the south, used to gentler winters, sleep warm.
Below its windows the springs rise in three small pools, and in the cold their steam drifts up past the sills. Moss grows thick on the stone above the water. A southern guest wakes here with the old forest at his window.
Whoever lodges under this roof has eaten the Starks’ bread and salt, and while he stays no one in the house may do him harm, nor he them.
Read next
The Godswood
Three acres of the old forest, never cut, kept inside the walls because the castle was raised around them.
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 Hot Springs
Winterfell stands over hot springs whose water is piped through its walls, so the castle stays warm while the North freezes.