Hey Youtubers, it's Charlie
This week's Game of Thrones bonus video is going to be all about the history of Winterfell
and you know a little bit about The North
You can't really talk about Winterfell without talking about the rest of The North
Just to start, let's do a recap of where we're at right now and what's been going on at Winterfell
since the show has started.
Where we are on the show right now, the Boltons have control of Winterfell
Tywin Lannister made Roose Bolton Warden of the North
in exchange for his help getting rid of Robb Stark
If you've noticed, they actually have like a little flayed man
on top of the 3D model of Winterfell in the opening credits
That's why the flayed man is there because the Bolton's currently control Winterfell
And even though technically they have control over the North politically,
that doesn't mean they have the support of the North.
Remember that funny scene with Stannis and Jon Snow
Stannis had asked for the support of Bear Island
House Mormont are traditionally bannermen to the Starks
Lyanna Mormont said that there is only one king in the North and his name is Stark
That's a reminder that most of the North, still only recognizes House Stark as their true leader.
So right now, the Bolton's hold on the North is very precarious.
That's what season 5 is going to deal with, the Bolton's trying to hold the North
so it'll be really interesting to see how that goes down.
Most people do not know that Sansa is still alive
Like if Cersei and the Lannisters still knew where she was,
they would probably try to hunt her down and kill her.
That's why Littlefinger has been protecting her.
Why she's been living under a false name.
She is the true heir of Winterfell right now because as we saw, Jon Snow did not take Stannis's deal
to legitimize him.
If he had taken it, most of the North would have rallied around him
but Sansa still would have had a claim being of more pure blood so
you could have gotten into like a Targaryen civil war situation
where people argue over the blood rights of succession
I don't think there's any way Jon Snow would ever ever fight against one of his family members
So it's a moot point.
And if you're still wondering who Lyanna Mormont is
she's the niece of Jeor Mormont, the former Lord Commander
Also the niece of Ser Jorah Mormont here.
That's where we are on the show right now
There are like aeons of history of the North and Winterfell that predate the show
that George RR Martin hasn't written yet.
I know a lot of you are wondering where history on the show comes from
Usually what happens is, characters will talk to other characters anecdotally about past events
or you'd see them reading passages out of books.
That's usually where most of the ancient history on the show comes from
Like Old Nan's stories too. People telling stories to other characters.
There is World of Ice and Fire, but that's kind of an offshoot
and it doesn't get like super specific into past events
it just kind of extrapolates based on the stuff we already know
Most of you have probably heard that Bran the Builder is the one that built Winterfell
He's the same person that's credited with building The Wall after The Long Night
But the history of House Stark can be traced all the way back to the High King of the First Men,
Garth Greenhand
He's one of the former rulers of the First Men
that a lot of people up in The North can trace their lineage to
Just like a common ancestor
It's like Genghis Khan. I think it's like something over fifty percent of the people in China
have like some common DNA with Genghis Khan
just because he sired soo many children
So yes, House Stark can trace their lineage to the High King of the First Men
but so can a lot of other people
For example, on of his sons, Garth the Gardener, went on to find House Gardener
Obviously we know during Aegon’s Conquest of Westeros
House Gardener fell, and House Tyrell kind of took their place
But the Starks in general just trace their lineage to the First Men
Much more so than some of the other houses which trace their lineage more to the Andals
Or say like the Martells in the South, who trace their lineage to the Rhoynar
The House Starks though, you know, much more than say some of the other great houses of Westeros
trace their lineage to the First Men and the Children of the Forest
Most maesters in the Citadel believe though, that Garth was just like a war chief
like a typical war chief, that led people across the Arm of Dorne into Westeros
The First Men migrated to Westeros using the Arm of Dorne
There’s a lot of argument as to who the first official leader of the First Men was
Mostly they just call him the First King
That was about twelve thousand years before Aegon’s Conquest
so there’s no promise that George RR Martin is ever going to explore this
Moving down the Stark line, it’s believed that one of Garth’s other sons, Bran the Bloody Blade
was Brandon the Builder’s father.
The only thing of note that he is really credited with
is driving the giants north of The Reach and driving out a lot of the Children of the Forest
There’s a lot more that’s known about Bran the Builder
but still a lot of the history that was recorded around his time
was written by maesters that lived thousands of years after he was alive
So you know, you could view it some of it as conjecture
But generally you know, he lived towards the end of the Age of Heroes
The Age of Heroes began around the time the First Men signed a peace treaty
with the Children of the Forest and they stopped fighting each other.
As part of the pact, the Children of the Forest just took to the forest
and the First Men kept to the South
Most of the traditions that survived from this time, we’ve actually seen on the show
Like worshipping of the Old Gods in the Godswood
That’s what the heart trees are for. The Weirwoods.
Then there’s the laws of hospitality. That gets into Red Wedding territory.
That just says you’re honor bound to take care of people that you bring in and feed
So you invite someone for a meal, even if they’re your bitter enemy, you can’t kill them
A lot of you have also probably heard the term ‘Kings of Winter’
so that’s just the term given to rulers of House Stark
Like rulers of The North that predated Aegon’s Conquest
By that logic, you could call King Torrhen Stark the Last King of Winter
Because he was the one that bowed to Aegon the Conqueror
That’s why there's no Stark blade inside the Iron Throne
Aegon the Conqueror only melted down the blades of people that refused to bend the knee
This is what the Iron Throne is really supposed to look like
you know the show made it a lot smaller
so you could see that there is a lot of people that did not bend the knee
I know that there's a lot of confusion about that because they said that
all of the former kings of Westeros had their blades melted down
but technically in the books, it's only the kings that did not bend the knee
when Aegon asked them to
It was a situation where he was like, "You can either bend the knee, or I'll melt you with my dragons."
So in and around the same time, Brandon the Builder's credited with building The Wall
or starting to build The Wall
He's also credited with starting to build Winterfell
And like most big castles in real life,
it started with a single structure and over time future kings just added to it.
There's a lot of lore that's been generated about the specific location of Winterfell
The main structure of the castle is the Great Keep
That's the one that's built on top of hot springs, you know to keep it warm naturally
It's not the oldest surviving part of the castle
The oldest surviving part of the castle is actually the First Keep right here
but it's in ruins
As we saw on season 1, Winterfell is a really big place so parts of it's in ruin
That's one of the big problems with owning a castle, you have to pay to keep it up
and it's expensive as hell.
The place where Bran witnessed Jaime Cersei twincest is actually the Broken Tower
just a slightly different place, but right near the First Keep
Supposedly, the First Keep was built around the time the Andals invaded
So this would have obviously been like much much later
after Brandon the Builder lived.
The Andal invasion is somewhere around two thousand years after the time of Brandon the Builder
Like I said, a lot of this history was recorded by maesters thousands of years after it happened
though, so you know a lot of the dates can be fuzzy.
So if the oldest surviving structures at Winterfell only go back to the Andal invasion,
then obviously the parts that Brandon the Builder supposedly built have fallen into disrepair
or were just destroyed over time.
Technically, the Godswood would be the oldest part because most of the castle would have
been built around that. The original castle.
It's most likely that the location for Winterfell was chosen for practical reasons
Like it's in a relatively central location
and the hot springs help provide a natural source of heat.
Old Nan tells a story though that there is a sleeping dragon beneath Winterfell
Sleeping in the hot springs
So it's totally possible that there's a clutch of dragon eggs beneath Winterfell
But no one's checked to see.
I know everyone wants to see more dragons on Game of Thrones
for now, it seems like Daenerys's dragons are going to be the only dragons
Don't worry, dragons can change sexes
so a couple of Daenerys's dragons could swap from male to female
and could mate with each other.
As of right now, unless we find more viable dragon eggs
That's the only way we're getting more dragons
So you start to see like how some of history is problematic
you know, built on legends and theories and some of the dates are conflicting
Like for instance, the Night's King
Supposedly, that person we saw at the end of episode 4 from last season
In the history of the series, he was a former Night's Watch Lord Commander
Also supposedly descendant from Bran the Builder
So you could argue that the Night's King is a Stark
or share some DNA with the Starks
That remains unconfirmed. That's just a theory
but that all predates the Andal invasion
so if there's any surviving part of Winterfell
that goes back that far, it's the Godswood.
The lineage of House Stark that George RR Martin has spelled out
you know, per World of Ice and Fire
only goes back about eight generations back to Benjen Stark
That's who Ned Stark's brother, Benjen, is named for
who is still kind of missing in action, as of right now
Some of the other really big locations in Winterfell that we have seen though
include the Great Hall. That's where everyone eats together
There's the glass garden, the crypts, there's the bell tower,
the maesters tower, the library tower, and the guards hall
There are gates on each side of the castle but to the South is Winter Town
We haven't spent a whole lot of time there since season one
but that's where we first find Tyrion in the whore house with Ros
That's right south of Winterfell, right near the south gates
Typically, the population there swells around winter time just for practical reasons
Times get rough up in the North during winter
so naturally everyone is going to like condense down and around the main castle
You may have noticed that in the opening credits sequence, the last couple of seasons
Winterfell has continued to burn
That's just a reminder of where it's at right now
like currently it lied broken. The Boltons are slowly rebuilding it though
so it'll probably stop burning in the opening credits soon
As much as it was a bummer that Theon burned most of the place whenever he sacked it back in season 2,
it was actually burned really badly two other times
Both by rulers of the Dreadfort
It was burned by Royce the Second and later by Royce the Fourth
but both those times predated the Andal invasion
So that's probably why there are no surviving structures from say like,
the time of Bran the Builder, aside from the Godswood.
You have to remember that Winterfell has been around for thousands of years
and there's been numerous invasions, numerous wars
so it's no surprise that it was destroyed a couple of times throughout history and then rebuilt
so the same thing is going to happen again on the show
So here's my big question for you guys:
What part of Winterfell do you really want to see them explore more on the show?
For now it seems like you know, most of the places we'll see will be practical
like the courtyard, the great hall, and then the places associated with lore
the crypts and the godswood
Those are probably the most important locations of Winterfell anyway
But it would be nice at a certain point to get a tour of the grounds
That would mean they would have to spend more money building sets
so maybe in a future season who knows
Just a reminder that my new Game of Thrones episode 3 video is going to post tonight
after the episode airs. Be sure to subscribe to get it
I'm running a new round of the giveaway
If you're not already, you can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook
for updates on you know when videos are coming
so there are links for that in the bottom of the description
So in case you guys haven't seen it, you can click here for my episode 2 video
and you can click here to learn all about the House of Black and White and the Faceless Men
Thank you so much for watching everybody. Let's high five, I'll see you guys tonight.