Great Hall of Winterfell
The Great Hall of Winterfell is the largest hall in Winterfell, the seat of House Stark in the north.[1]
Contents
Layout
The Great Hall has grey stone walls and tall narrow windows.[2] Its wide doors made of oak and iron[3] open to the castle yard,[1] and the lord's door at the rear leads to a dimly-lit gallery.[3] The hall has a pitched roof,[4] and its rafters have been stained by centuries of smoke.[5]
The Great Hall of Winterfell contains the high seat of the old Kings in the North.[3][6] The seat's cold stone has been polished by the many lords who have sat upon it, and its massive arms are decorated with the carved heads of snarling direwolves.[2][7]
The Great Hall can seat five hundred people.[8] One arrangement is for eight long rows of trestle tables, four to each side of the central aisle.[3] The immense castle of Harrenhal has kitchens as large as Winterfell's Great Hall.[9]
History
The family of Lord Eddard Stark often eats in the Great Hall, and Eddard always keeps an extra seat at his table for a servant or adviser to join him.[10] Eddard's goblet has the snarling head of a silver direwolf raised on its side.[3]
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
Lord Eddard Stark holds a welcoming feast for King Robert I Baratheon in the Great Hall. Eddard and Lady Catelyn Stark host Robert and Queen Cersei Lannister on a raised platform, with all of their children seated nearby. Eddard's bastard, Jon Snow, is seated on benches with the lower born, however. When an upset Jon leaves the banquet to go outside, Tyrion Lannister jumps down from the door above the hall.[1]
When Yoren eats in the Great Hall with Robb Stark, a long trestle table is set up near the hearth.[2]
After Eddard's arrest in King's Landing, Robb Stark calls the northern banners to Winterfell. The Great Hall is not large enough to seat all of the visitors at the same time, so Robb hosts them in turn. When Lord Jon Umber challenges Robb's authority, the boy's direwolf, Grey Wind, bites off two of the Greatjon's fingers. A laughing Lord Umber then becomes Robb's strongest supporter.[7]
Jon Snow, fleeing from Castle Black, recalls the Great Hall's smells of smoke and dog and roasting meat.[11]
A Clash of Kings
The harvest feast is held in Winterfell's Great Hall. After the attendees eat, the tables are clearing to allow space for dancing.[3]
Calling himself Prince of Winterfell, Theon Greyjoy claims the high seat during the capture of Winterfell by his ironborn. Theon has the servants gathered to the Great Hall so they can hear Bran Stark relinquish the castle.[6]
After Asha Greyjoy arrives to visit her brother, Theon finds her having breakfast with her men in the Great Hall.[8]
During the sack of Winterfell by House Bolton, Ulf the Ill is killed by crossbow while running for the Great Hall.[12] After the Boltons burn the castle and depart, Bran emerges from the crypt of Winterfell to find the Great Hall's doors charred and smoldering. Its rafters have given way, causing the roof to crash down.[13]
A Storm of Swords
Jon wishes he could show Winterfell to Ygritte and feast with her in the Great Hall.[14] Jon later has a dream in which he is not welcome at a feast in the hall.[15]
Sansa Stark, hiding at the Eyrie, includes the Great Hall while making a snow castle of Winterfell.[4]
A Dance with Dragons
Lord Roose Bolton, the new Warden of the North after the Red Wedding, holds the wedding of his son Ramsay to "Arya Stark" at Winterfell. Roose has squatters quickly build a new roof for the Great Hall, and then he has them all hanged.[5] Raw planks are raised to replaced the original burned doors.[5] The wedding feast is held in the Great Hall, with Abel performing music and Lord Wyman Manderly providing food and drink.[5]
As the army of Stannis Baratheon slowly marches on Winterfell during a blizzard, Roose's supporters enjoy the comforts of the Great Hall. It becomes overcrowded with hundreds of horses, dogs, and men, however.[16] Theon, a captive of the Boltons, prefers the darkened rear of the hall.[17][18]
After several men are found dead at Winterfell, the nobles begin quarreling during their meals in the Great Hall.[16] When Little Walder Frey is found dead, Freys and Manderlys begin fighting each other in the hall.[18]
Quotes
On the benches below, Winterfell men mixed with smallfolk from the winter town, friends from the nearer holdfasts, and the escorts of their lordly guests.[3]
—thoughts of Bran Stark
The night your father feasted Robert, I sat in the back of his hall on a bench with the other freeriders, listening to Orland of Oldtown play the high harp and sing of dead kings beneath the sea. I betook of your lord father's meat and mead, had a look at Kingslayer and Imp ... and made passing note of Lord Eddard's children and the wolf pups that ran at their heels.[19]
—Mance Rayder to Jon Snow
Along the walls the banners hung: the horseheads of the Ryswells in gold, brown, grey, and black; the roaring giant of House Umber; the stone hand of House Flint of Flint's Finger; the moose of Hornwood and the merman of Manderly; Cerwyn's black battle-axe and the Tallhart pines. Yet their bright colors could not entirely cover the blackened walls behind them, nor the boards that closed the holes where windows once had been. Even the roof was wrong, its raw new timbers light and bright, where the old rafters had been stained almost black by centuries of smoke.[5]
—thoughts of Theon Greyjoy
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 5, Jon I.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 24, Bran IV.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 21, Bran III.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 80, Sansa VII.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 37, The Prince of Winterfell.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 46, Bran VI.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 53, Bran VI.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 56, Theon V.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 30, Arya VII.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 22, Arya II.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 70, Jon IX.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 66, Theon VI.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 69, Bran VII.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 41, Jon V.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 64, Jon VIII.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 46, A Ghost in Winterfell.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 41, The Turncloak.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 51, Theon I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 7, Jon I.