Template:Lore "The North" is part of the Histories & Lore, a special feature in the Blu-ray of Season 3 of Game of Thrones. It is narrated by Kit Harington as Jon Snow.
Synopsis
Jon Snow reflects on the history and legends of the North, as well as its great houses and their keeps.
Narration
Jon Snow: As a boy, looking out from my father's castle, I thought the sun could never set on the North - so vast did it seem. Part of me still does. The North is by far the largest of the Seven Kingdoms, and can fit the other six inside it - not that the others care. Cold and damp, that's how the southerners see the North. But without the cold, a man cannot appreciate the fire in his hearth. Without the rain, a man cannot appreciate the roof over his head. Let the south have it's sun, flowers and affectations, we Northerners have home.
Mine was once Winterfell, the ancient seat of my... father's family, House Stark; who have ruled the North since the First Men and were once the Kings of Winter. Growing up, Lady Catelyn made sure I knew I wasn't a Stark; no matter how much blood I shared with her trueborn children. But where their name rules over the North, mine is the North: Snow.
The North stretches from the Wall down to the Neck, a narrow land that divides it from the rest of Westeros. Legend has it the the Children of the Forest flooded it in their war against the First Men. If that is true, every Northman owes them a debt of gratitude. The swamps of the Neck are as good as the Wall for keeping out unwelcome armies and if the swamps do not deter them, the crannogmen should. Small, shy people who rarely leave those swamps; and who follow House Reed: the gatekeepers of the North, and among the most important and loyal bannermen of House Stark. Also also a bit strange. I heard their oath of fealty once as a child, which is like no other lord's. Ancient, dark: they swear by earth and water, by bronze and iron, and by ice... and fire.
Where House Reed holds the gate to the North, House Manderly holds the port: White Harbor. The closest thing to a southern city we have, governed by closest thing to a southern family we have. Generations ago, the Manderlys were driven from the Reach, but the Starks gave them their land in return for fealty. Now White Harbor is the richest city of the North, and the Manderlys the richest family. Not in gold and silver like their southern counterparts, but in fish and grain and trade.
As for the other great Northern houses, the Starks brought them into the fold during the Age of Heroes. A Stark wrestled an ironborn for Bear Island and gave it to the Mormonts. A Stark granted a keep and land to a younger son, Karlon, in return for putting down a rebellion. His family then grew up into the Karstarks. Starks fought the wildlings and their Kings-Beyond-the-Wall beside the Umbers of Last Hearth, thus earning their fealty. Boltons? Back then they were the bane of the North. A few were even rumored to wear their enemies' flayed skins as cloaks. But after centuries of war, they too bent the knee.
And so House Stark became the Kings in the North, but never forgot that they weren't the North. When Aegon, and his dragons, landed on Westeros, the Kings of the Rock and the Reach sent all of their men to die to defend their grounds. Torrhen Stark knelt, to spare his people the same fate. He placed duty above pride, just as my's brothers in the Night's Watch had done for thousands of years at the Wall. Many think of it as the end of the world, but it is not.
I've seen seen how the land stretches much farther than any man knows, into the Land of Always Winter, where the White Walkers came from during the Long Night. After the First Men and the Children of the Forest beat them back, Brandon the Builder raised the Wall and set up the Night's Watch to guard the realms of men. He gave us their oath, our castles and the Gift; the lands behind the wall whose farmers and crops sustain us. Southerners may now mock my black brothers as thieves, rapers and worse, and not without cause. But the North remembers why we are there; and if we fall, the south will get a very harsh and very cold reminder.
Appearances
Characters
- Jon Snow
- Lord Eddard Stark (mentioned)
- Robb Stark
- Lady Catelyn Stark (mentioned)
- King Rodrik Stark (indirectly mentioned)
- King Karlon Stark (indirectly mentioned)
- King Aegon I Targaryen, the "Conquerer" (mentioned)
- King Torrhen Stark, the "King who Knelt"
- King Brandon Stark, the "Builder" (mentioned)
Institutions
- Night's Watch (mentioned)
Noble Houses
- House Stark
- House Reed
- House Manderly (mentioned)
- House Mormont
- House Karstark
- House Umber
- House Bolton
- House Gardener (indirectly mentioned)
- House Lannister (indirectly mentioned)
Locations
- Winterfell
- The Neck
- White Harbor
- Bear Island (mentioned)
- Karhold (mentioned)
- Last Hearth (mentioned)
- The Wall
- Castle Black
- Lands of Always Winter (mentioned)
- The Gift
- The Reach (mentioned)
Events
- Wars of the First Men and the Children of the Forest
- Hammer of the waters
- Age of Heroes
- Long Night (mentioned)
Cultures
- First Men (mentioned)
- Crannogmen
- Free Folk (mentioned)
Races
- Children of the Forest (mentioned)
- White Walkers (mentioned)
Titles
- King in the North
- King-Beyond-the-Wall (mentioned)
- King of the Rock (mentioned)
- King of the Reach (mentioned)
Miscellaneous
- Lizard-Lions (not mentioned by name)