| War Across the Water Worthless War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location |
Bite North Vale of Arryn | ||||||||
| Battles | Rape of the Three Sisters | ||||||||
| Result | House Arryn rule over the Three Sisters established and consolidated | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The War Across the Water, known to some as the Worthless War, was a war between the Kings of Mountain and Vale from House Arryn and the Kings in the North from House Stark over control of the Three Sisters in the Bite.[1]
History
The war was the result of the Rape of the Three Sisters two thousand years ago, when northmen occupied the previously-independent islands known as the Three Sisters. In response, the pirate kings of the Sistermen bent the knee to King Mathos II Arryn in exchange for the Vale of Arryn's assistance in driving out the northmen.[2][1]
Mathos sailed for Sisterton with a hundred warships. Although he never returned from war, his sons and descendants continued the fight against the northmen for a thousand years.[1]
Control of the Three Sisters changed more than twelve times. Northmen landed on the Fingers three times;[1] King Theon Stark once conquered the islands and landed an army on the Fingers,[3] though it is unknown if this was part of the Worthless War or during a different time. A northern castle, the Wolf's Den at the mouth of the White Knife, was besieged by King Osgood Arryn and burned by his son, Oswin the Talon.[4] The Starks attacked Gulltown in response and, unable to overcome its walls, burned hundreds of ships in the city's harbor.[1]
The war eventually ended when House Stark simply lost interest in controlling the Three Sisters.[1]
Aftermath
The war is described in Archmaester Perestan's A Consideration of History.[1]
Rule by the triumphant Arryns over the Three Sisters has remained tenuous.[2] Some Sistermen still resent northmen for the invasion.[2]
Quotes
When his lady wife questioned the wisdom of involving the Vale in this War Across the Water, His Grace famously replied that he would sooner have a pirate than a wolf for his neighbor.[1]
—writings of Yandel
This was not a case of the Eyrie winning so much as Winterfell losing interest. For ten long centuries the direwolf and the falcon had fought and bled over three rocks, until one day the wolf awoke as from a dream and realized it was only stone between his teeth, whence he spat it out and walked away.[1]
The wolf and the falcon fought over us for a thousand years, till between the two of them they had gnawed all the fat and flesh off the bones of these poor islands.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 The World of Ice & Fire, The Vale.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 9, Davos I.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The North: The Kings of Winter.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 29, Davos IV.