Andals
The Andals are one of the three major ethnic groups from whom the humans of Westeros descend, the others being the First Men and the Rhoynar. The coming of the Andals to Westeros caused the fall of many kingdoms of the First Men which had developed in the wake of their Pact with the children of the forest. The Andals also brought the Faith of the Seven to the continent. The Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, the king on the Iron Throne, claims to be the King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men.[1]
The Dothraki refer to Westeros as Rhaesh Andahli, the land of the Andals.[2] Ser Jorah Mormont, a northman, is called "The Andal" in Essos,[3] even though the Andal influence is less in the north of Westeros.[4]
Contents
Culture
Religion
The Andals followed the Faith of the Seven, believing that the Seven once walked the hills of Andalos in human form.[5] Displaying a seven-pointed star,[6] they brought their religion across the narrow sea to Westeros.[7] They chiseled axes and stars in the Vale,[8][9] although this practice declined as they expanded beyond the Vale.[10]
Social hierarchy
The Andals were led by war chiefs, warlords, and petty kings.[11][12][13] The Faith of the Seven opposed incest[14][15] and slavery.[16] Regarding inheritance, Andal tradition holds that the rights of a trueborn son come before those of a daughter.[17]
Knighthood came to Westeros with the Andals.[18] Trial of seven was practiced in Andalos.[14]
Military
The Andals are said to have learned ironworking from the Rhoynar.[10][5] Andals used iron weapons and plate against the native tribes of what would become Andalos,[10] and their steel swords and iron ringmail[11] also surpassed the bronze equipment of the First Men of Westeros.[10] Andals were skilled craftsmen, especially their blacksmiths and stonemasons.[18]
Ancient Andal warriors painted and carved seven-pointed stars on their flesh.[19][20] The Andals brought the warrior tradition of the knight to Westeros.[18]
Unlike the First Men, the Andals were fearless[21] seafarers who used longships.[22][23][11]
Like the First Men, the early Andals built square towers and keeps, with round fortifications coming later.[24] Andals built walled towns and stout stone-and-timber castles to protect their coasts.[21] Andals also fortified some of their septs.[22]
History
Andals in Essos
The Andals were a tall and fair-haired people[19][25] said to have originated in the Axe of northern Essos,[10] although some say they came from south of the Silver Sea.[26] They migrated and established Andalos in northwestern Essos, stretching south as far as the Flatlands and the Velvet Hills and engaging in conflict with the tribes that inhabited those lands, such as the so-called "hairy men".[10] Legend tells that they were visited by the incarnations of the Seven, who crowned their first king, Hugor of the Hill.[5] They learned the art of working iron from the Rhoynar who lived along the Rhoyne.[5]
Septons and septas teach that the Seven had promised Hugor and his descendants great kingdoms in a foreign land, and this is why the Andals eventually left Essos for Westeros.[10] Maesters, however, generally believe that the Andals fled because of the expanding Valyrian Freehold.[10] The Valyrians established Myr in place of a walled Andal town,[27] and many of the Valyrian colonists of Pentos intermarried with local Andals.[28] Archmaester Perestan suggests that Norvos was originally founded by Andals.[9] Before the Scouring of Lorath by Valyrian dragonlords, the Lorathi isles were ruled by Qarlon the Great, who desired to be King of All Andals.[13]
Migration to Westeros
It is unknown when the Andals sailed west across the narrow sea from Andalos; some sources date the coming of the Andals to Westeros to six thousand years ago.[29] According to the True History, it occurred four thousand years ago, and some maesters instead claim it was only two thousand years ago.[30]
Andals first landed in the Fingers and attacked the First Men living in the Vale. They burned weirwood groves, hacked down heart trees, and slaughtered the children of the forest. Everywhere they proclaimed the triumph of the Seven over the old gods.[19]
A hill in the riverlands, now known to the Westerosi as High Heart, was sacred to the children of the forest. There, the Andal king Erreg the Kinslayer cut down the children’s grove of thirty-one weirwoods.[31] It is said that the First Men killed half of the children of the forest with bronze blades, and the Andals finished the job with iron.[32]
After several hundred years of war, Andal warlords and adventurers conquered or married into the southern kingdoms of the First Men and created their own. They eventually conquered even the Iron Islands, though the Faith of the Seven was unable to take root in the archipelago.[10] Only the Kings of Winter resisted the Andals successfully, stopping them at Moat Cailin and preventing them from conquering the north.[19][10] After fending off an Andal invasion led by Argos Sevenstar in the Battle of the Weeping Water, King Theon Stark responded by raiding the coast of Andalos.[22]
Due to migration and invasion, little is left of the original Andal culture in Andalos in Essos.[33]
Andal Dominance
Despite their victory in Westeros, the Andals were outnumbered by the native First Men. The early Andal kings thus often tolerated worship of the old gods in godswoods to prevent religious turmoil,[10] although the Faith of the Seven came to dominate southern Westeros over time. To solidify their right to rule, Andal kings often married the wives and daughters of defeated First Men kings.[10] The Andals adopted the First Men's practice of the first night.[34] According to George R. R. Martin, hardly any Westerosi are pure Andal or First Man after thousands of years of interbreeding.[35]
Runes were used by First Men in antiquity, but not by the Andals. Histories of the Dawn Age and the Age of Heroes were written by septons and maesters after the Andals came to Westeros, sometimes thousands of years after the times described.[10][36]
According to legend, at some point in time at the Nightfort, the Rat Cook served an Andal king, possibly Tywell II Lannister or Oswell I Arryn, a pie made of bacon and, unknown to the king, the king's son.[4] King Sherrit is said to have cursed Andals while at the Nightfort.[37]
Quotes
And those who would not be slaves but were unable to withstand the might of Valyria fled. Many failed and are forgotten. But one people, tall and fair-haired, made courageous and indomitable by their faith, succeeded in their escape from Valyria. And those men are the Andals.[25]
—writings of Yandel
Somewhere beyond the sunset, across the narrow sea, lay a land of green hills and flowered plains and great rushing rivers, where towers of dark stone rose amidst magnificent blue-grey mountains, and armored knights rode to battle beneath the banners of their lords. The Dothraki called that land Rhaesh Andahli, the land of the Andals.[2]
—thoughts of Daenerys Targaryen
The Andals were the first, a race of tall, fair-haired warriors who came with steel and fire and the seven-pointed star of the new gods painted on their chests. The wars lasted hundreds of years, but in the end the six southron kingdoms all fell before them. Only here, where the King in the North threw back every army that tried to cross the Neck, did the rule of the First Men endure. The Andals burnt out the weirwood groves, hacked down the faces, slaughtered the children where they found them, and everywhere proclaimed the triumph of the Seven over the old gods.[19]
—Luwin to Bran Stark
The oldest histories we have were written after the Andals came to Westeros. The First Men only left us runes on rocks, so everything we think we know about the Age of Heroes and the Dawn Age and the Long Night comes from accounts set down by septons thousands of years later. There are archmaesters at the Citadel who question all of it.[36]
References
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 1, Bran I.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 3, Daenerys I.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 64, Daenerys VIII.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The North.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 5, Tyrion II.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 70, Tyrion X.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 48, Jon VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 68, Sansa VI.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Free Cities: Norvos.
- ↑ 10.00 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 10.06 10.07 10.08 10.09 10.10 10.11 10.12 The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Arrival of the Andals.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 The World of Ice & Fire, The Vale.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Stormlands: Andals in the Stormlands.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Free Cities: Lorath.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Fire & Blood, The Sons of the Dragon.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 33, Catelyn IV.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 23, Daenerys II.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - The Blacks and the Greens.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 The World of Ice & Fire, The Reach: Andals in the Reach.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 66, Bran VII.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 4, Brienne I.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Iron Islands: The Iron Kings.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 The World of Ice & Fire, The North: The Kings of Winter.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Riverlands.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The North: Winterfell.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: Valyria's Children.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Beyond the Free Cities: The Grasslands.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Free Cities: The Quarrelsome Daughters: Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Free Cities: Pentos.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones: d20-based Open Gaming RPG.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 48, Jaime I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 22, Arya IV.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 33, Tyrion VIII.
- ↑ So Spake Martin: Yet More Questions, July 22, 2001
- ↑ Fire & Blood, Jaehaerys and Alysanne - Their Triumphs and Tragedies.
- ↑ So Spake Martin: Event Horizon Chat, March 18, 1999
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 5, Samwell I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 56, Bran IV.