Fall of Harrenhal
| Fall of Harrenhal | |||||||||||||||||
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| Conflict | War of the Five Kings | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | 299 AC | ||||||||||||||||
| Place | Harrenhal | ||||||||||||||||
| Result | Bolton victory | ||||||||||||||||
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The fall of Harrenhal[3] occurs during the War of the Five Kings when control of Harrenhal changes from House Lannister to House Stark.
Contents
Prelude
After being defeated in the battle on the Green Fork, Lord Roose Bolton withdraws his forces to the causeway.[4] When the victorious Lord Tywin Lannister camps at Harrenhal, Roose takes the ruby ford and crossroads.[5][6]
The incognito Arya Stark travels north with a group of Night's Watch recruits led by Yoren. Three recruits — Jaqen H'ghar, Rorge, and Biter — were taken from the black cells of the Red Keep and are traveling fettered in a cage.[7] The company is attacked by raiders under the command of Ser Amory Lorch, a knight in Tywin's service. Yoren is slain, but Arya helps the three prisoners escape a fire before escaping herself with her friends.[8][9] Arya and her companions are eventually captured by the Mountain's men and taken to Harrenhal, where they are made to work as servants.[10] Amory arrives at the castle, and Arya discovers that Rorge, Biter, and Jaqen have joined his column of raiders.[5]
Roose Bolton's liege, King Robb Stark, attacks the westerlands, drawing Tywin out of Harrenhal. Tywin names Ser Amory Lorch as castellan and marches out, leaving as a garrison only two hundred men: one hundred Lannister men-at-arms and a hundred Brave Companions, an unsavory sellsword company from Essos under the command of Vargo Hoat.[11][1]
Battle
Vargo returns to Harrenhal with at least one hundred captives—led by Robett Glover and Aenys Frey, and including men from Houses Bolton, Cerwyn, Frey, Glover, and Karstark—claiming to have beaten Roose when he tried to cross the Trident. Arya Stark, incognito as a servant in Harrenhal called "Weasel", sees an opportunity and blackmails Jaqen H'ghar into helping her free the northern prisoners in the dungeon beneath the Widow's Tower. Jaqen enlists the aid of Rorge and Biter. Under the pretense of bringing onion soup from the kitchens to a group of Amory's guards, the four kill the guards (some with scalding hot soup) and free the northern prisoners.
Unknown to Ser Amory Lorch and independently of Arya and Jaqen, Vargo Hoat had previously approached Roose's encampment and struck a deal to turn over the castle to the Starks. While the freed northmen and rivermen are escaping, the Brave Companions simultaneously turn on their former Lannister allies, killing them in their beds or while they are celebrating in the Barracks Hall.[1]
Aftermath
The bodies of the slain Lannisters are burned in a pyre within Harrenhal's Flowstone Yard. Jaqen assumes a new persona and leaves Harrenhal, while Rorge and Biter join the Brave Companions. Lord Roose Bolton marches on Harrenhal, and Vargo Hoat turns the castle over to him. As a reward for Arya Stark's actions with the "weasel soup", Roose elevates her from a servant drudge to his own cupbearer, and she begins to call herself "Nan". As sport for Vargo's Brave Companions, Ser Amory Lorch is killed by a large black bear in Harrenhal's bear pit.[1]
The loss of Harrenhal traps Lord Tywin Lannister between the forces of Roose at Harrenhal and Ser Edmure Tully at Riverrun, culminating in the next major battle of the War of the Five Kings, the Battle of the Fords.
Quotes
Them Bloody Mummers killed some of Ser Amory's lot in their beds, and the rest at table after they were good and drunk. The new lord will be here before the day's out, with his whole host. He's from the wild north up where that Wall is, and they say he's a hard one. This lord or that lord, there's still work to be done.[1]
—Pinkeye to his subordinates
- What did you die of?
- Hot weasel soup.[1]
—thoughts of Arya Stark
Notes
- ↑ Houses Burley, Condon, Hornwood, Locke, Manderly, Norrey, Ryswell, Stout, and Tallhart are not directly mentioned at this battle, but are mentioned as being under Roose's command in other conflicts of the War of the Five Kings. Men from these Houses may thus be present at Harrenhal. Additionally, Barbrey Dustin mentions that House Dustin men died in the Red Wedding, so Dustins may have participated in earlier battles such as Harrenhal as well.
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 47, Arya IX.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 62, Tyrion VIII.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 53, Tyrion VI.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 71, Catelyn XI.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 30, Arya VII.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 39, Catelyn V.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 5, Arya II.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 14, Arya IV.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 19, Arya V.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 26, Arya VI.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 38, Arya VIII.