The Wall and Beyond
Any talk of Westeros would be incomplete without the tale of the far North. With the acquisition of those lands in the year 340AC the whole continent finally fell under complete control of the Iron Throne. Let us now have a proper look at those wondrous lands.
The Lands Far North
The lands north of the Wall are cold and remote from the warm cities of the south. To many, even learned maesters, the lands north of the Seven Kingdoms are inhospitable wastelands, their few inhabitants too savage, too primitive and too small in number to be concerned about. The men of the Night’s Watch knew better, that the northern lands are vast and it is possible to survive and live there. It is a hard and tough life that breeds hardy and tough people. Before the War for the Snow they called themselves the Free Folk, but were known to the inhabitants of the Seven Kingdoms as the wildlings. Now they are slowly being integrated and recognised across the Realm, but it is still a long road ahead.
The northern lands can be divided into three broad regions: the Lands of Always Winter in the far north and extending for over a thousand miles to the north pole; the Ice River and Frozen Shore regions on the open, cold plains west of the Frostfangs; and the more temperate, warm and better-populated lowlands of the Milkwater Valley and the Haunted Forest to the south-east.
Kingdom of the Free Folk
The Lands of Always Winter terminate in a series of great lakes and rivers which, at least occasionally, thaw in the summer. They also end on the northern slopes of the Frostfangs, the greatest mountain range of the northern lands. These lands south to the Wall are considerably more hospitable than the frozen northern tundra, although they are still cold and growing crops is difficult in all but the longest and warmest summers.
The lands of the (formerly) Free Folk are divided in two by the Frostfangs. The Frostfangs extend in a slightly north-easterly direction for about 750 miles before swinging north-east for about 300 miles. The Frostfangs are tall, jagged and cold. They are also beautiful, with frozen waterfalls that gradually thaw in the spring and high mountain meadows covered in wildflowers in the summer. But in the winter they are grey, dark and uninhabitable, save for a few rumoured valleys where shelter can be found.
There are three principal passes through the Frostfangs: the Milkwater Valley, formed by that great river as it winds its way through the mountains from its source; the Giant’s Stair and the Skirling Pass.
There are numerous mountains in the Frostfangs, but one of the largest and most distinctive is Forktop, so-called for the two peaks that crown it. Some maesters claim that the Frostfangs continue south of the Gorge as the Northern Mountains, whilst others hold them to be a separate range.
The lands to the east of the Frostfangs are more hospitable. The Frostfangs shelter the lands on their eastern side from the harsh winds and cold that lash the western slopes, and there are numerous sheltered valleys along the eastern mountain flanks that are more hospitable. The best-known of these is Thenn. Located near the northern end of the mountains in a bowl-shaped valley, local geographic and climatic conditions make Thenn warmer and more habitable than most of the other lands at that latitude. It is still a hard land and the people of Thenn, known simply as “Thenns”, are certainly fierce and unrelenting warriors. They were also more sophisticated than other wildlings, mining for tin and copper, forging weapons of bronze and engaging in trade while other clans were busy with petty squabbles. They are also close to the few surviving giants of the mountains, having won their trust in ancient times. The Thenns are led by a ruler known as the Magnar, who is considered more god than king. The Thenns’ belief in their Magnar makes them more disciplined and confident than other tribes. They were, arguably, the most formidable of the northernmost tribes, at least before the Snowy War.
Further south along the Frostfangs lie great caverns and cave complexes, some natural, some perhaps dug out in ancient times. Some wildlings made their home in these caves for their natural warmth and defensive benefits until the new inhabitants arrived. The cave-dwellers filed their teeth and painted themselves unusual colours. They are also said to have worshipped bizarre and dark gods.
Running along the feet of the Frostfangs is the Milkwater. The largest and longest river in the lands beyond the Wall, the river consists of two major tributaries. The northern river’s source is in the high Frostfangs, not far south of Thenn. The Milkwater proper is born in a valley north of the Giant’s Stair, a common meeting and gathering spot for the tribes and the seat of House Weg Wun Dar Wun. The two rivers join near the Giant’s Stair and then proceed south-east before swinging south-west and flowing through the Gorge to meet the Bay of Ice. All-told, the river is over 650 miles in length. During the winters the river is a source of food for the local tribes, who engage in ice-fishing along its length. The only major crossing over the river is the Bridge of Skulls which stands in the shadow of the far western end of the Wall. Before the Snowy War the Bridge was held by the Night’s Watch and no crossing of the bridge against a determined opposition was possible. Now it serves as a major trading route. However, there are fords further north and crossing the river when it is frozen during the winter is certainly still possible if desired.
East of the Milkwater lies a vast canopy of trees: the Haunted Forest. This forest extends for almost 600 miles from the Wall to the northern lakes and rivers and is over 300 miles across at its thickest point. It is the largest woodland still extant on the continent of Westeros and is vast and foreboding. The thick trees of the forest, particularly the weirwoods, block some of the worst of the freezing cold that runs from the north or off the Shivering Sea. Other trees in the forest include ironwood, sentinel and oak.
The forest is home to many more tribes, such as the Nightrunners and Hornfoots, as well as many individual homesteads, such as the infamous “keep” of the repulsive Craster, and entire villages, such as Whitetree near the Wall. The forest is also the home to many dangerous animals. For example, direwolves can still be found in the deepest parts of the forest.
The forest is also home to ruins. The Children of the Forest lived in the woodlands for millennia, and the First Men also once dwelt there, raising ringforts for defence. The ruins of one such stronghold – the “Fist of the First Men” – can be found on a tall hill in the western forest, overlooking the Milkwater. It is currently being rebuilt and used as a primary seat of the King Beyond the Wall. Many of the tribes claim descent from the First Men and hence kinship with the people of the North in the Seven Kingdoms.
There still are no settlements large enough to be really called towns, let alone cities. This was not always the case. The better part of a thousand years ago, an enterprising wildling chieftain founded a settlement at the northern tip of Storrold’s Point, a great peninsular in the eastern Haunted Forest. This settlement was located on a sheltered bay with a deep natural harbour, capable of keeping the biggest ships afloat. The waters are filled with fish and seals, and wood and stone supplies are plentiful. There are nearby caves providing natural shelter, although the wind had a tendency to run through these caves and make unnerving shrieking noises.
Before long the settlement had turned into a great boom town, Hardhome. Wildling tribes from the interior traded there with ships from the Seven Kingdoms and even the Free Cities (Braavos, located just a couple of weeks to the south and always in need of wood, was particularly well-suited to benefit from this trade). Great trade was made in lumber and fish and word of the town began to spread. Maester Wyllis travelled from the Citadel to Hardhome and established himself there as an advisor to Gorm the Wolf, one of the four warlords who had arisen to rule the settlement. After three years Gorm was murdered and Wyllis rapidly took ship back to Oldtown, where he wrote a respected account of his time amongst the wildlings.
Three centuries before Aegon’s Landing, Hardhome was destroyed. The cause of the devastation is unclear. It is known that the town was razed to the ground and the intensity of the fire was so great that it could be seen from the Wall, almost 200 miles to the south. A vast swathe of surrounding forest was destroyed. Oddly, it appears that there were no survivors at all. What could cause the town to be destroyed so quickly and completely remains unknown.
The wildlings at that time chose not to resettle the ruins, claiming that demons and ghosts prowled the area and the bay was too choked with corpses. Maesters would later theorise that slavers from Skagos or the Free Cities had raided the town and taken the survivors away in chains, but it seems implausible that they would be able to destroy the town so completely. The truth of the affair remains a mystery to this day, but with the current effort to reestablish Hardhome and bring it to its former glory we are eager to discover the clues to this mystery.
The Snow Wars
There are still quite a lot of veterans of the War that made it possible. But the road to this war was long and treacherous.
It all started when a Magnar of the Thenns named Sigorn began his subjugation of the wildling tribes east of the Frostfangs. He was met with fierce opposition but in the year 313AC he declared himself the new King-Beyond-the-Wall and ruled with fear and pain.
Right from the start the new realm fell into a state of constant internal struggles. Traditional battles, fair duels or dishonorable assassination - the end justified the means.
There were also whispers about a boy born to a man named Mance, a mysterious Night’s Watch deserter who tried to unite the tribes with talks of a common enemy coming not from the South but from the North. After Mance’s suspicious death his heavily pregnant wife disappeared.
Years later her son by Mance reappeared with an army of his fellow Free Folk that came from the Gorge. To the Magnar’s surprise that army then marched along the Wall and camped just outside the gates of Castle Black. It was then met by another army that poured through those gates. “The Pair of Dragons” themself were at the helm, although they left the actual dragons south of the Wall. What shocked the Magnar the most though was that instead of battle both armies exchanged some awkward courtesies and marched together all the way to the valley of Thenn. And the rest is history.
