Wolf's Den

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Wolf's Den
Prison, former Castle
Location White Harbor, the North
Government House Manderly (abandoned)
House Greystark (extinct), Feudal lords
Religion Faith of the Seven

The Wolf's Den is an ancient castle[1] in White Harbor that now serves as a prison. It has crumbling black walls which loom large over houses that cling to them.[2]

History

King Jon Stark raised the Wolf's Den to defend the mouth of the White Knife from raiders from the sea. It was the seat of younger sons, brothers, uncles and cousins to the King in the North. Some passed the castle to their sons and grandsons, and cadet branches of House Stark had arisen. The Greystarks lasted the longest, holding the Wolf's Den for five centuries, until they joined the Dreadfort in rebellion against the Starks of Winterfell.

After the Greystarks, the castle switched many hands. House Flint held it for century, and House Locke for almost two. Slates, Longs, Holts and Ashwoods held the Wolf's Den, charged by Winterfell to keep the river safe. Reavers from the Three Sisters took the castle once, and made it their toehold in the north. During the wars between the North and the Vale, it was besieged by Osgood Arryn, the Old Falcon, and burned by his son, called the Talon.

The Wolf's Den was captured by slavers from the Stepstones when Edrick Stark had grown too feeble to defend his realm. A long, cruel winter came that froze the White Knife, when the slavers were huddled around their fires, Edrick's great-grandson, the new king called "Ice Eyes", took back the Wolf's Den. He stripped the slavers naked and gave them to the slaves chained up in the dungeon. They, among those Ser Bartimus's ancestors, hung the slavers' entrails in the branches of the heart tree as an offering to the old gods.

A thousand years before the War of Conquest, the Manderlys received the Wolf's Den from the Starks. They took oaths before the old gods and the new to be the Starks' men forever in return for protection from their enemies and the land that became the city of White Harbor.[3] The Manderlys eventually built the New Castle as a replacement for the aging Wolf's Den and converted the latter to a prison.[2]

Ser Bartimus received the Wolf's Den from Lord Wyman Manderly as a reward for saving his life at the Battle of the Trident.[4]

Recent Events

A Dance with Dragons

Lord Wyman Manderly rejects Lord Davos Seaworth's attempt to gain House Manderly for the cause of King Stannis Baratheon and instead has Davos imprisoned within the Wolf's Den.[3] Later, Robett Glover releases Davos from his cell and brings him to Wyman through a secret passage connecting the Wolf's Den and the New Castle. Wyman tasks Davos with finding Rickon Stark.[4]

Layout

The ground floor contains a barracks. The cell that Davos is imprisoned in is large and unexpectedly comfortable; Davos think it may once have been a lordling's bedchamber. It contains a hearth large enough to hold a kettle and a privy in a corner nook. The cell's floor consists of warped planks. The walls are solid stone and the door is made of oak and iron. Beneath Davos's cell are true dungeons in the castle's cellars, including oubliettes, torture chambers, and rat-filled pits.[4]

The castle contains a godswood with a weirwood heart tree so large its limbs pass through walls and windows. Amongst several cellars, a barrel-vaulted cellar has walls covered with salt and a floor sloshing with seawater. Past the cellars are rows of smaller, foul-smelling cells. There is also a long tunnel that secretly runs below the Castle Stair connecting the Wolf's Den and the New Castle.

Staff

  • Ser Bartimus, castellan of the Wolf’s Den,
  • Garth, a gaoler and headsman,
  • Therry a young turnkey,
  • Six guardsmen,
  • A pair of washerwomen,
  • A cook.[4]

References