Harrion Karstark

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Eddard Karstark
Biographical information
Died	Killed fighting by Robb Stark's side in the War of the Five Kings
World of Westeros
Season(s)	2

Eddard Karstark is an unseen character mentioned in the second season. Eddard Karstark is a son of Rickard Karstark, Lord of Karhold and head of House Karstark. He is fighting alongside his father for King Robb Stark in the War of the Five Kings. He is killed during the war.

Biography

Season 2

Rickard tells Catelyn Stark that Eddard was killed fighting by Robb's side.

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Eddard Karstark is the third son of Lord Rickard, and also joins his father and brothers, Harrion, the eldest, and Torrhen, the second son, as part of the Northern forces in the War of the Five Kings. Eddard was named after Eddard Stark, Lord Rickard's liege lord at the time of his birth.

However, he ia killed by Jaime Lannister during the Battle of the Whispering Wood. He serves alongside his brother Torrhen as part of Robb Stark's personal bodyguard. When Jaime realizes that his army is lost during the Battle of the Whispering Wood, he makes a final push to single-handedly carve his way through the Northern army in an attempt to kill Robb Stark in single combat. Jaime manages to reach Robb's personal bodyguard and kill several of them being knocked unconscious. Both Torrhen and Eddard Karstark were among those in Robb's personal bodyguard that Jaime killed during the battle.

The TV series' depiction of an escape attempt by Jaime, during which he kills Torrhen Karstark, is a very loose adaptation of events in the books. In the TV version, Jaime kills Torrhen because he was guarding his cell, which causes Lord Rickard Karstark to become enraged and demand revenge, to the point that Catelyn releases Jaime (in promise of her daughters' safe return from King's Landing) because she fears he won't live out the night. In the books, Jaime killed Rickard's sons Torrhen and Eddard Karstark at the Battle of the Whispering Wood (Eddard Karstark's death is apparently unchanged in the TV version). While Lord Karstark was certainly upset in the books, he wasn't going to disobey Robb's direct command as his liege-lord that Jaime must remain unharmed (at least because he thought they'd execute him eventually). Catelyn's decision to exchange Jaime as a prisoner isn't rushed by pressure from within the Stark camp, but is rather due to her grief at hearing the (false) report that Bran and Rickon have been killed by Theon at Winterfell. Believing (somewhat justifiably) that even holding Jaime as prisoner is no guarantee that the crazed Joffrey won't have her daughters killed on a whim, Catelyn decides that keeping her remaining children safe is what matters most, so she releases Jaime, sending him under escort by Brienne to King's Landing. Rickard Karstark only truly becomes enraged after Catelyn releases Jaime, because he never thought they'd release the killer of his sons, as well as because it is a very poor exchange to trade a prominent Lannister warrior for two girls. The TV series may have moved Torrhen's death around to make it closer to Jaime's release, instead of just mentioning that Jaime killed Torrhen at the end of Season 1 and expecting the audience to remember this over a season later.

See also

• Eddard Karstark at A Wiki of Ice and Fire (spoilers from the books)

References

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