The largest castle in Westeros is Harrenhal.
Many claim that Harrenhal is cursed due to the grim fates of many of those who tried
to rule from there, starting with King from whom the castle was named after.
King Harren Hoare also known as Black Harren and Harren the Black.
Archmaester Hake once said that the kings of House Hoare were, “black of hair, black
of eye, and black of heart.”
What they lacked in valor they made up for in cunning and cruelty.
Few of their subjects ever loved them, but many had good reason to fear their wroth.
Black Harren’s grandfather was King Harwyn Hardhand.
King of the Iron Islands.
Harwyn conquered the Riverlands, becoming the first King of Isles and the Rivers.
The reign of his son, Halleck, was even bloodier than his own.
Halleck warred against the westermen, the stormlanders, and even the Vale three times
though all three failed attempts ended in disaster at the Bloody Gate.
However, Halleck was able to extend his domains all the way east to Duskendale and Rosby.
And his son was the infamous Harren the Black.
Aegon’s Conquest began with him sending out a cloud of ravens.
To the seven kings they flew, to the Citadel of Oldtown, to lords both great and small.
All carried the same message: from this day forth there would be but one king in Westeros.
Those who bent the knee to Aegon of House Targaryen would keep their lands and titles.
Those who took up arms against him would be thrown down, humbled, and destroyed.
At the beginning of his conquest, Aegon sent Rhaenys and Orys Baratheon south to Storm’s
End, and he sent Visenya north to the Vale.
Meanwhile, Aegon himself marched northeast to the Gods Eye and Harrenhal.
Aegon was attacked on the south shore of the Gods Eye, not once but twice.
The Battle of the Reeds was a Targaryen victory, but they suffered heavy losses at the Wailing
Willows when two of King Harren’s sons crossed the lake in longboats with muffled oars and
fell upon their rear.
When Harren’s sons returned across the lake to Harrenhal, Balerion fell upon them out
of the morning sky.
Harren’s longboats burned, and so did Harren’s sons.
No king in Westeros was more feared than Black Harren, whose cruelty had become legendary
all through the Seven Kingdoms.
But that cruelty haunted him in the end.
Black Harren had devoted close on forty years to building a gigantic castle beside the Gods
Eye.
But it came at a great cost.
Harren had plundered the riverlands for materials, beggared lords and smallfolk alike, and drove
thousands to their deaths in the building of his great castle.
So the men of the Trident had no love for Harren of House Hoare.
When Black Harren summoned Lord Edmyn Tully of Riverrun to the defense of Harrenhal, Tully
declared for House Targaryen instead, raised the dragon banner over his castle, and rode
forth with his knights and archers to join his strength to Aegon’s.
His defiance gave heart to the other riverlords.
One by one, the lords of the Trident renounced Harren and declared for Aegon the Dragon.
Blackwoods, Mallisters, Vances, Brackens, Pipers, Freys, and Strongs.
They all summoned their levies and descended on Harrenhal.
King Harren took refuge in his supposedly impregnable stronghold.
Harrenhal was the largest castle ever raised in Westeros.
It boasted five gargantuan towers, an inexhaustible source of fresh water, huge, subterranean
vaults well stocked with provisions, and massive walls of black stone.
Harren barred his gates and settled down with his remaining sons and supporters to withstand
a siege.
Aegon of Dragonstone was of a different mind.
He sent his maester to the gates under a peace banner, and Harren emerged to meet him.
Harren was an old man by this time.
Grey, yet still fierce in his black armor.
Both kings had their banner-bearers and maesters in attendance, so the words that they exchanged
are still remembered.
“Yield now,” Aegon began, “and you may remain as Lord of the Iron Islands.
Yield now, and your sons will live to rule after you.
I have eight thousand men outside your walls.”
“What is outside my walls is of no concern to me,” said Harren.
“Those walls are strong and thick.”
“But not so high as to keep out dragons,” Aegon pointed out.
“Dragons fly.”
“I built in stone,” said Harren.
“Stone does not burn.”
To which Aegon said, “When the sun sets, your line shall end.”
It is said that Harren spat at that and returned to his castle.
Once inside, he sent every man of his to the parapets, armed with spears and bows and crossbows,
promising lands and riches to whichever of them could bring the dragon down.
Harren the Black then returned to his tower, surrounded by his household guard, to sup
with his remaining sons.
As the last light of the sun faded, Black Harren’s men stared into the gathering darkness,
clutching their spears and crossbows.
When no dragon appeared, some may have thought that Aegon’s threats had been hollow until
Aegon Targaryen plunged down through the night on Balerion, roaring his fury as he bathed
the great towers in black fire, shot through with swirls of red.
Stone does not burn, Harren had boasted, but his castle was not made of stone alone.
Wood and wool, hemp and straw, bread and salted beef and grain, all took fire.
And so did Harren’s men.
The riverlords outside the castle walls said that the towers of Harrenhal glowed red against
the night, like five great candles … and like candles, they began to twist and melt,
as runnels of molten stone ran down their side.
Harren and his last sons died in the fires that engulfed his monstrous fortress that
night.
House Hoare died with him, and so too did the Iron Islands’ hold on the riverlands.
The next day, outside the smoking ruins of Harrenhal, King Aegon accepted an oath of
fealty from Edmyn Tully, Lord of Riverrun, and named him Lord Paramount of the Trident.
When the ashes had cooled enough to allow men to enter the castle safely, the swords
of the fallen were gathered and sent back to the Aegonfort in wagons.
Some of the many swords that would later be forged into the Iron Throne.