Saltpans

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The Riverlands and the location of Saltpans
The Riverlands and the location of Saltpans
Saltpans
The Riverlands and the location of Saltpans

Saltpans is a town in the Riverlands that sits on the Bay of Crabs and the seat of House Cox. It has never been an important trading port but ships do call there from time to time. [1] A small castle dominates the town. A tall, square keep with a bailey and a curtain wall.[2] The castle overlooks the harbor.[3]

Recent Events

A Storm of Swords

After being attacked at the Inn at the Crossroads, a wounded Sandor Clegane and Arya Stark set out for Saltpans. Six days after abandoning the dying Hound Arya sees a town appear before her. She hopes it is the Saltpans. She sees that a small castle dominates the town; no more than a holdfast, and also observes a single tall square keep with a bailey and a curtain wall. Arya sees that most of the shops and inns and alehouses around the harbor have been plundered or burned, though some still look inhabited. [4]

She notices that the port is still there and eastward spreads the Bay of Crabs, its waters shimmering blue and green in the sun. Arya also notices that there are three ships. Two are only river galleys but the third is bigger with furled purple sails and a hull that has been painted purple. She rides Craven for a better look at the ships and realises that she needs silver to pay for sea passage.

She learns from a boy at the docks that the towns stable had been burnt but the woman who owned it was still trading behind the sept. Arya finds her easily, and sells Craven for far less than her worth to the woman, much to Arya’s annoyance. [4]

Arya then walks back to the docks to the purple galley and demands to see the captain and informs him she wants to go North to the Wall, to the castle by the sea. Arya does not have enough silver and neither is the captain remotely interested in sailing north. She asks what ship it is and is told that it is the galleas Titan's Daughter, of the Free City of Braavos.

As captain Ternesio Terys is turning away Arya suddenly remembers the iron coin Jaqen H'ghar gave to her and shows it to him and says to the shocked captain "Valar Morghulis", to which he replies "Valar Dohaeris" and tells her that of course she shall have a cabin. [4] Arya sets sail for Braavos.

A Feast for Crows

By now it is believed that Sandor Clegane led the Saltpans massacre when it was in fact Rorge wearing the Hound's distinctive helm who committed the atrocities. The rest of the raiders were members of the Brave Companions.

Cersei Lannister tells her uncle Kevan that the nearby town of Saltpans had been savagely raided by a band of outlaws, and some of the survivors claimed a roaring brute in a hound’s head helm was amongst the raiders. Supposedly he’d killed a dozen men and raped a girl of twelve. [5]

When talking to Kevan Jaime reflects that he had heard about the Saltpans, and by now half the realm had heard too. The raid had been exceptionally savage. Women raped and mutilated, children butchered in their mother’s arms and half the town put to the torch. [6]

While confronting Timeon at the Whispers he informs Brienne that the Brave Companions all went their own ways after they left Harrenhal, and that Rorge thought he might slip out at Saltpans. [7]. He also tells her that the Hound is the one who has the Stark girl. This (somewhat misleading) information gives Brienne a lead as the location of Sansa Stark and she decides to track down the the Hound.

First she heads back to Maidenpool where Ser Hyle Hunt tells Brienne that his cousin Alyn told him that Sandor Clegane was last seen in the Saltpans, the day of the raid, and at the Saltpans he was looking for a ship. Brienne surmises that if Clegane was last seen at Saltpans, that would be the place to find his trail. Ser Hyle adds that there is no one left at Saltpans but an old knight hiding in his castle. [8] Ser Hyle informs Brienne that septon Meribald always calls at the Saltpans and he is going to make his circuit on the morrow and that they can accompany him. [8]

His High Holyness speaks to Cersei of the Saltpans saying the Hound slew an aged septon and despoiled a girl of twelve, an innocent child promised to the Faith. He goes on to say the Hound wore his armor as he raped the girl and her tender flesh was torn and crushed by his iron mail. When he was done he gave her to his men, who cut of her nose and nipples. [9]

During the dinner held in Jaime’s honour at Castle Darry. Ser Arwood Frey says the Hound slew twenty men at the Saltpans. Ser Arwood Frey insists that there is a knight at the Saltpans and that he hid behind his walls whilst Clegane and his mad dogs ravaged through town.

Ser Arwood himself saw what was done at Saltpans. When news of the raid at Saltpans reached the Twins, Ser Arwood rode to the town with Ser Harys and Ser Donnel Haigh and half a hundred men, archers and men-at-arms to investigate. There they found the knight of Saltpans Ser Quincy Cox sitting behind his walls and the town in ashes. Ser Arnwood says,

All that remains of Saltpans is the castle, and old Ser Quincy so frightened he would not open his gates, but shouted down at them from his battlements. The rest is bones and ashes. A whole town. The Hound put the buildings to the torch and the people to the sword and rode off laughing. The women … you would not believe what he did to some of the women. I will not speak of it at table. It made me sick to see. [10]

Lady Amerei Frey says that she cried when she heard the news of the Saltpans. Ser Arnwood adds there are a few who survived to tell the tale. The girl that was raped, some boys who hid and a woman they found beneath a blackened beam and the fisherfolk who watched the butchery from their boats. [10]

Forty-eight-year-old Brother Clement died of wounds he got at Saltpans. He had taken some of the Quite Isle’s mead to the market there, on the day the outlaws descended on the town. [1]

On the Quiet Isle Elder Brother informed Brienne and her companions that the raiders burned everything at Saltpans save the castle. Only that building was made of stone, though it had as well been made of suet for all the good it made the town. It fell to Elder Brother to treat some of the survivors. The fisherfolk brought them across the bay to him after the flames had gone out and they deemed it safe to land. One poor woman had been raped a dozen times, and her breasts had been torn and chewed and eaten, as if by some cruel beast. Elder Brother says,

I did what I could for her, though that was little enough. As she lay dying, her worst curses were not for the men who had raped her, nor the monster who devoured her living flesh, but for Ser Quincy Cox, who barred his gates when the outlaws entered the town and sat safe behind stone walls as his people screamed and died. [1]

Before they go to eat Septon Meribald, Brienne and her companions go with Elder Brother to the Quiet Isle’s sept, to pray for the souls of the good folk of Saltpans.

Later Elder Brother informs Brienne that only the castle at Saltpans remains. Even the fisherfolk are gone, the fortunate few who were out on the water when the raiders came. They watched their houses burn and listened to screams and cries across the harbor, too fearfull to land their boats. When at last they came ashore, it was to bury friends and kin. What is there for them at Saltpans now but bones and bitter memories. They have moved to Maidenpool or other towns.

Elder Brother tells Brienne that the raiders wanted a galley or a cog to carry them across the narrow sea. When none was at hand they took their rage and desperation out upon the townsfolk. [1]

Quotes

Saltpans was the work of some fell beast in human skin. [10]

– Lady Mariya Darry

References and Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 31, Brienne VI.
  2. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 74, Arya
  3. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 37, Brienne
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 74, Arya XIII.
  5. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 12, Cersei III.
  6. A Feast for Crows, Bad parameter 2: "" is not a recognized chapter.
  7. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 20, Brienne IV.
  8. 8.0 8.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 25, Brienne V.
  9. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 28, Cersei VI.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 30, Jaime IV.