Oldstones
Oldstones is the name given by smallfolk to a ruined castle in the northern riverlands. Once the seat of House Mudd, its original name has long been lost.[1]
Contents
Layout
The ruined stronghold sits on a hill above the Blue Fork of the Trident.[1] The overgrown and stony road slowly goes twice around the hill before reaching the summit.[2] Beneath the castle ruins, the lower slopes of the hill are thickly forested with ash, elms, oaks, pines, and sentinels. The landscape also contains blackberry, bracken, gorse, sedge, and thistle.[2]
Only the foundations remain among the weeds to show where the dismantled walls of Oldstones had once stood.[1] The curtain wall which once encircled the brow of the hill now consists of waist-high piles of crumbling stone spotted with lichen, and the ruins are extensive near the former gatehouse.[2] The only remnants of the keep are mossy hummocks, behind which is the godswood.[3]
A great carved sepulcher rests in the castle yard, half-hidden in waist-high brown grass among of ash trees. The weathered sepulcher entombs Tristifer IV Mudd, King of the Rivers and the Hills. The stone is cracked and crumbling at the corners and discolored by splotches of white lichen, while wild roses creep up over the king's feet almost to his chest.[1]
Near Oldstones is a bridge across the Blue Fork, older and smaller than the bridge downstream at Fairmarket.[1]
History
The castle now called Oldstones was the last seat of House Mudd, who had succeeded in unifying more of the riverlands than previous First Men dynasties[4] and had ruled for a thousand years.[1] According to Hoster Tully, it was raised by Tristifer IV Mudd, King of the Rivers and Hills, and was the strongest castle in Westeros.[1]
Tristifer, the Hammer of Justice, beheaded Roland II Arryn, King of Mountain and Vale, at Oldstones during the coming of the Andals.[5] However, the Mudds were eventually overwhelmed by Andal warlords such as Armistead Vance,[4] and Oldstones fell during the reign of King Tristifer V Mudd.[1]
Over the centuries, smallfolk have made off with most of the castle's stones to raise barns, holdfasts, and septs.[1]
During the occupation of the riverlands by the Storm Kings from House Durrandon, Ser Lymond Fisher, the Knight of Oldstones, unsuccessfully claimed to be a river king.[4]
There is a song about Jenny of Oldstones,[6][1] a mysterious girl who lived in the ruined castle and married Duncan Targaryen, Prince of Dragonflies.[7]
Hoster, the Lord Paramount of the Trident, once camped at Oldstones with his daughter, Catelyn, and his ward, Petyr Baelish, while traveling to Seagard. Catelyn played at being Jenny, while Petyr pretended to be the Prince of Dragonflies.[1] Hoster once told Catelyn the story of Tristifer IV and Oldstones.[1]
Recent Events
A Storm of Swords
The rising waters of the Blue Fork wash away the bridge near Oldstones.[1] On the way to the Twins, Robb Stark, the King of the Trident, encamps upon the ruins of Oldstone atop the hill. Recalling the fate of King Tristifer IV Mudd, Robb discusses with his mother, Catelyn Stark, whom he will name has his successor, as he and his queen, Jeyne Westerling, have not yet any children. Against his mother's wishes Robb plans to legitimize his half-brother, Jon Snow, and name him his heir.[1] Robb and Catelyn are later betrayed by Houses Frey and Bolton at the Twins and killed in the Red Wedding.[8]
In the aftermath of the Red Wedding, the outlaws of the brotherhood without banners abduct Petyr Frey. Merrett Frey travels from the Twins to the snowy ruins of Oldstones with the ransom for Petyr Pimple, the grandson of his half-brother Stevron. When Merrett enters Oldstones, he hears faint music drifting through the trees from somewhere deep within the castle. As he reaches the site of Tristifer's sepulcher, Merrett finds Tom of Sevenstreams sitting cross-legged atop it, fingering the strings of his woodharp, along with other outlaws. Petyr is revealed to have already been hanged in the godswood. A revived Catelyn allows the outlaws to surround Merrett, take his gold, and hang him for his own involvement in the Red Wedding.[2]
A Feast for Crows
The murderers of Merrett flee Oldstones, with one band escaping Lord Lucias Vypren at Fairmarket.[9]
Quotes
The penultimate and greatest of the river kings to stand before the Andals was Tristifer IV of House Mudd, the Hammer of Justice, who ruled from a great castle called Oldstones, on a hill by the banks of the Blue Fork.[4]
—writings of Yandel
Its foundations remained amongst the weeds to show where the walls and keeps had stood, but the local smallfolk had long ago made off with most of the stones to raise their barns and septs and holdfasts. Yet in the center of what once would have been the castle's yard, a great carved sepulcher still rested, half hidden in waist-high brown grass amongst a stand of ash.[1]
—thoughts of Catelyn Stark
Robb: Does this castle have a name?
Catelyn: Oldstones, all the smallfolk called it when I was a girl, but no doubt it had some other name when it was still a hall of kings.[1]—Robb Stark and Catelyn Stark
He had the gold, all he needed to do was climb to the top of Oldstones, meet the bloody outlaws in the ruined castle, and make the exchange. A simple ransom.[2]
—thoughts of Merrett Frey
—Merrett Frey recalling Jenny's song
Chapters that take place at Oldstones
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 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 45, Catelyn V.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 A Storm of Swords, Epilogue.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Epilogue.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 The World of Ice & Fire, The Riverlands.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Vale: The Eyrie.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 43, Arya VIII.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon V.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 51, Catelyn VII.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 30, Jaime IV.