Eyrie

Eyrie
Information
Type	Castle
Location	Giant's Lance, the Vale of Arryn
Rulers	House Arryn
Religion	Faith of the Seven
Places of note	High Hall Sky cells
Founded	Coming of the Andals by Artys Arryn

The Eyrie as seen in the title sequence.

A close-up of the Eyrie in the title sequence.

One of the Eyrie's sky cells, shown from the inside.

The sky cells from outside.

The Moon Door.

Tyrion Lannister: "The Eyrie. They say it's impregnable."

Bronn: "Give me ten good men and some climbing spikes, and I'll impregnate the bitch."

— Tyrion Lannister and Bronn

The Eyrie is the principal stronghold of House Arryn. It is located in the Vale of Arryn near the east coast of Westeros. The Eyrie straddles the top of a peak in the Mountains of the Moon several thousand feet above the valley floor below. It is approached by a narrow causeway and road. Those who would approach the Eyrie must pass through three way-castles guarding the ascent - and then, must proceed in single file, making them very vulnerable to archers. For these reasons, the Eyrie is considered impregnable to any attack that does not involve dragons, and its defenses have never been overcome. It is currently the seat of Robin Arryn – the Warden of the East.

The High Hall of the Eyrie is the main audience chamber, where the Lord of the Vale greets visitors from a throne made of weirwood. A notable feature of the chamber is the Moon Door, a hatch built into the floor through which people can fall to the floor of the Vale far below. Being thrown through the Moon Door is the preferred method of execution at the Eyrie, and is a particular amusement for the intellectually stunted Robin Arryn.

Prisoners at the Eyrie are incarcerated in the sky cells, cells which are open on one side to the air. There is a very slight slope in the cells, and prisoners must be careful not to roll out of the cell in their sleep and plummet to their deaths.

The Eyrie was the ancestral seat of the First Men Mountain Kings until the coming of the Andals, where it was won by Ser Artys Arryn after the Battle of the Seven Stars. He ruled from the Eyrie as King of the Mountain and the Vale and it became the seat of House Arryn. It proved impregnabe by the hostile Hill tribes.

Notable residents of the Eyrie

• Lord {Jon Arryn}, former Defender of the Vale and Warden of the East. Served as Hand of the King to King Robert Baratheon before being poisoned by his wife, Lady Lysa, on the direction of Petyr Baelish.
  • His widow, Lady {Lysa} of House Tully, former Lady Regent of the Vale. Pushed through the moon door by Petyr Baelish.
  • Lord Robin Arryn, Lysa's son and titular head of House Arryn.
• Ser {Vardis Egen}, captain of the guard. Killed at a trial by combat by Bronn.
• Mord, the castle's gaoler and keeper of the sky cells.
• Lord {Petyr Baelish}, widower of Lady Lysa and former Lord Protector of the Vale. Executed by Arya Stark for his many crimes against the North.

Behind the scenes

Production Designer Gemma Jackson said of creating the set for the Eyrie that, "A lot of the mosaics in the Eyrie were based on a beautiful chapel I visited in Rome."

The exterior of the Eyrie has been visibly retconned from its Season 1 look to its reappearance in Season 4. In Season 1, it was shown as a tall, thin building upon a single spire of rock, while in Season 4, it is a somewhat squatter (though overall just as large) building perched atop a pair of rocky outcrops.

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the Eyrie is a mountain-top fortress located on a shoulder of the Giant's Lance, one of the tallest mountains on the continent. It is inhabited by the Arryns during the long springs and summers, before the family removes to the Gates of the Moon at the bottom of the mountain to sit out the winters. The Eyrie is only a small castle itself, but is almost impossible to reach. An invading army would have to overcome the Bloody Gate at the mouth of the Vale before taking the Gates of the Moon. Then, as it advanced up the mountain path to the Eyrie, it would come under sustained attack from the Eyrie and the three way-castles up the path, all of which can drop rocks, boulders and oil on an advancing foe at will.

Unlike the novels, where the Eyrie is a traditional castle sitting on a shoulder of a very tall mountain, the TV version of the castle appears to completely enclose the top of a much smaller butte.

The Eyrie consists of several towers, a great hall, a sept and a number of unique "sky cells". The "Moon Door" is not a hatch that opens to the hollow vault beneath the Eyrie, but a massive door that opens to a precipice.

According to myth, the first Andal invaders landed on the coast of the Vale. The Arryn King, Ser Artys Arryn flew on the back of a giant falcon to slay the Griffin King atop the Giant's Lance and then built a fortress atop the mountain.

The historical truth is that the Eyrie's construction was ordered by King Artys's grandson, Roland I Arryn, though he did not live to see it completed. The construction was stopped under subsequent kings until he was restarted under King Robin Arryn.

Due to its isolated location high in the mountains, the Eyrie is physically the smallest of the great castles of the Seven Kingdoms, and can hold a garrison of only five hundred men. This does not, however, mean it is one of the less defensible castles: the rough terrain of the surrounding mountains makes the fortress practically impregnable, and five hundred men are more than enough to defend it from attacking armies forcing their way through the narrow mountain passes. The Eyrie has never fallen to a conventional army, and it is said that a dozen major assaults were made against it during the Age of Heroes, but all in vain. Similar to Harrenhal, however, it did prove vulnerable to dragons during Aegon's Conquest, but unlike Harrenhal, the Eyrie was not burned with dragonfire. Visenya Targaryen simply flew her dragon Vhagar up over the walls and landed in the courtyard, as a display of supremacy - Visenya arrived at the Eyrie some time after Aegon had burned Harrenhal by simply flying his dragon Balerion over the walls, so the implication was obvious. The inhabitants offered no battle - instead Ronnel Arryn, the current King of the Vale and only a boy, was so excited to see the dragon that he rushed out into the courtyard to greet Visenya. Rather than pointlessly resist the power of the Targaryen dragons, his mother and Queen Regent, Sharra, surrendered after Ronnel stated he wanted a ride on the dragon, which Visenya granted him.

According to the TV series official pronunciation guide developed for the cast and crew, "Eyrie" is pronounced just as it is in normal English: "EAR-ee".

Gallery

The Eyrie in Season 4 behind the Bloody Gate

External links

• Eyrie on A Wiki of Ice and Fire