Venture high into the peaks of Westerosi politics and history with a trek through the Vale of Arryn, where the very stones whisper tales of ancient conflicts and noble bloodlines. We scale the storied heights of the Eyrie, scrutinizing the precarious path trodden by the lords of House Arryn, from the rivalries with the North to their capitulation under Targaryen rule. Through the annals of the First Men and Andal invaders, we explore the Vale's place in the chronicles of the Seven Kingdoms. We examine the intricate alliances formed through marriages like that of Princess Daella and Lord Rodrick Arryn. With each step, the formidable landscape and the looming shadow of the Giant's Lance serve as silent witnesses to the tales of power that's etched into the very fabric of this high and mighty kingdom. Share your thoughts, unveil your theories, and join the ever-growing chorus of voices at thewesterosiprimer.com.
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Welcome to another episode of The Westerosi Primer. My name is Liz. And in this episode, I will be talking about the Vale of Arryn or The Vale for short. I’ll be discussing some of the notable people, places, and historical events that happened in this mountainous kingdom.
Before I start the discussion, there are a couple of things to note. First there will be some potential spoilers for people who have not read the novels in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” saga. There may also be potential spoilers for House of the Dragon and other future shows that may be adapted by Max in the future. So if you’re okay with this, then please continue listening.
Second, this will not be a definitive episode of everything about the Vale as there really is a lot of information about all the notable houses mentioned in the novels and the additional information written by George R. R. Martin and collected by various fans including the contributors of Westeros.org.
Throughout this season of the Westerosi Primer, I will be using information gathered from the novel series, Westeros.org, The World of Ice and Fire, and The Lands of Ice and Fire. Check out the full show notes and other links located on this show’s website: thewesterosiprimer.com With that said, let’s begin!
The Vale of Arryn is located just southeast of the North. As mentioned in the previous episode, historically there has been rivalry and disputes between the North and the Vale of Arryn because of both conflicts between First Men and Andals and also the border between the two kingdoms around The Three Sisters.
To the west of the Vale is the Riverlands, which we will remember back in Season 1 of Game of Thrones, Catelyn Stark captured Tyrion Lannister while they were in the Riverlands. She took him off to the Eyrie, where her sister Lysa Arryn rules as the regent of the Vale in place of her son, Robert Arryn, or Robin in the TV show. To the South are the Crownlands previously controlled by House Targaryen, and later the Baratheons and then the Lannisters.
The Vale is known for being a very mountainous region in Westeros. The population prides itself on being primarily Andal in origin and worshiping the Seven who Are One also known as the New Gods. However there are groups of people in the Vale who claim some First Men ancestry.
During the earlier invasion of Westeros by the Andals, they manage defeat the First Men and took control of the kingdom from a legendary First Men king only known as The Griffin King. King Artys Arryn became the first Andal King of Mountain and Vale. It is later generations of Arryns who built their stronghold, The Eyrie, which is famously the castle we see in Game of Thrones where Lysa rules from and has their moon doors. The Eyrie is built on a mountain called The Giant’s Lance. There are actually three castles on The Giant’s Lance that act as waycastles between the Eyrie and the bottom of the mountain. These three castles are called Stone, Snow, and Sky.
Some of the defeated First Men surrendered to House Arryn’s leadership, but some rebelled and refused to surrender. They fled further up into the mountains and later became known as the Mountain clans. We actually meet some of them when Tyrion left the Vale and managed to convince some of the hill tribe clans to follow him for rewards from House Lannister.
Eventually the Arryns lost their crown to House Targaryen. During Aegon’s Conquest, the king was a young boy named Ronnel Arryn and his mother Sharra Arryn was his regent. She and the other Vale lords were mustering an army when Queen Visenya arrived on the back of Vhagar. Queen Sharra was shocked to see her young son sitting on Visenya’s lap. Her young son innocently asks if he could take a ride on the dragon. This made a very clear point that just because you have a mountain fortress, it doesn’t protect you from fiery assault from a dragon. They bent the knee and were granted continued lordship over the Vale in Aegon’s name. Instead of King of Mountain and Vale, the Arryns became Lord of the Eyrie, Defender of the Vale, and Warden of the East.
Since I’ve already discussed a bit about House Arryn, I’ll mention a few interesting members of this ruling family before I talk about some of the other notable Vale lords. There are a couple occasions in which Arryns married Targaryens!
King Jaehaerys, who was the old king we saw briefly in the first episode of House of the Dragon, had many children with his sister-wife, Alysanne. One of the was a Princess Daella. Daella was married to Lord Rodrik Arryn as his second wife. Their only child was Aemma Arryn, who later marries her cousin prince Viserys Targaryen. As we know from House of the Dragon, she had multiple pregnancies and her only surviving child is Rhaenyra. So yes some of the Targaryens in later generations have Andal Arryn blood in their veins.
This is a very important point I want to mention because this means during the upcoming war in House of the Dragon, the Lord of the Eyrie is Jeyne Arryn, one of Rhaenyra’s cousins. Martin hasn’t really made clear the exact placement of Jeyne in the Arryn family tree. However it is possible that Lady Jeyne’s mother could have been Queen Aemma’s half-brother. But we don’t truly know. In any event, this means that lords of the Vale are pretty likely to be one of the Blacks, which are Rhaenyra’s faction.
A few generations later, Lady Alys Arryn was married to Prince Rhaegel Targaryen, a son of King Daeron II. One interesting fact is that one of her brothers-in-law was King Maekar I, who is the father of elderly Maester Aemon Targaryen of the Night’s Watch. Game of Thrones viewers should of course remember the blind elderly maester who provided guidance to Jon Snow at The Wall.
There are naturally many different lords and noble families in the Vale. As I did in the previous episode about the North, I’m going to just briefly talk about some of the important and more notable families in the Vale. Again if you’re interested in me doing a more in-depth discussion about any of these noble families in a future season of this podcast let me know!
They aren’t mentioned much, but during the reign of King Jaehaerys I, an off shoot of House Arryn went to the main city in the Vale, Gulltown, and started a branch of the family there. They aren’t talked about much because they wound up marrying merchant families and expanding on their wealth. Their lack of nobility and pursuit of mercantile interests means they’re not thought much of, especially by the Eyrie Arryns.
House Baelish of the Fingers is a very new house in the Vale and has only existed for two generations unlike many of the other noble houses. Their name spelling and the sigil with a stone head is a reminder of House Baelish’s origins in Essos. A sellsword from Bravos was hired by House Corbray. His son was later knighted and used an image of the Titan of Braavos as his sigil. The next generation was Petyr Baelish’s father who was given the title of lord. Suffice it to say being a minor lord, part of a very new house, and other personal beef Petyr Baelish had with the Starks led to some of the actions we all saw in Game of Thrones.
House Corbray of Heart’s home is an old, but poor noble house in the Vale. They are one of the few families that owns a Valyrian sword called Lady Forlorn. They show up a number of times in Westerosi history as there are members of this house who participated in a number of wars and events including the Dance of the Dragons. I won’t spoil too much about what they do during the Dance, but there some notable things that possibly will happen in the show so I won’t expand upon this in case they do get mentioned. Suffice it to say they’re a bit bigger deal than you’d think as a Game of Thrones watcher.
House Waynwood of Ironoaks is another important house in the Vale. Some notable things to mention about them is that Jon Arryn’s sister Alys was married to Elys Waynwood. This is an important fact that I’ll expand further in a bit. The current head of House Waynwood is Lady Anya Waynwood. She is actually part of a group of lords who oppose Petyr Baelish and this character did have an appearance in Season 4 of Game of Thrones.
House Hardyng is a knightly house and therefore doesn’t have a castle with a special name like most of other houses I’ll be talking about in these episodes. What is important to note is that the only notable character from this house in A Song of Ice and Fire is Harry Hardyng. Harry is a ward of Lady Anya Waynwood because Harry’s mother was a Waynwood. In fact his mother is the daughter of Elys Waynwood and Alys Arryn. This would make Harry Jon Arryn’s great nephew. It also means that hes’s actually Robert/Robin Arryn’s heir until Robert/Robin marries and has kids of his own. There is actually a subplot in the novels different from the tv show involving. In the novels, Littlefinger has Sansa disguised as his bastard daughter Alayne Stone. He arranges for Sansa to be betrothed to Harry Hardyng. It’s a fan theory that Baelish is planning to eventually kill off Robert/Robin, have Harry inherit the Eyrie and then eventually have him killed off so that Sansa would be the puppet ruler of the Vale just like Lysa was.
House Redfort of the Redfort is an old family and one of the notable ones in the Vale that descend from the First Men. So they’ve existed as a house for thousands of years. There’s just a few notable things about this family in Westerosi history. One of Rhaenyra’s Queensguard was a Redfort. Lady Jessamyn Redfort was a companion and suspected lover of Lady Jeyne Arryn. Domeric Bolton, Roose Bolton’s son, was a squire for House Redfort. After his time with the Redforts, he returned home to the North. He meets his bastard brother and conveniently dies not too long afterwards. House Redfort was actually a house that were angry that Lysa Arryn refused to send help to her nephew Robb during his campaign against the Lannisters. They also were part of the group against Littlefinger.
The last houses I’ll talk about are House Royce of Runestone and House Royce of the Gates of the Moon. House Royce of Runestone, like the Redforts, also are a First Men house still ruling in the Vale. In fact they were once called the Bronze kings until the Andals arrived in the Vale. House Royce had a Valyrian steel sword called Lamentation that was unfortunately lost during an event that happens during the Dance, which I won’t discuss due to potential spoilers for House of the Dragon.
A few notable Royces existed in Westerosi history. We of course know that Rhea Royce was Daemon Targaryen’s first wife. One of Walder Frey’s many wives was a Royce. At one point in time Tywin tried to arrange a marriage for Tyrion to a Royce, but that was of course rejected. The lord during Game of thrones was Lord Yohn Royce, who viewers have seen in the show as the lord Royce who winds up giving Sansa valuable council and support. His son Waymar was actually the arrogant scout leader in very first scene of episode one in Game of thrones when Night’s Watchmen were out on patrol and they encounter White Walkers. Yohn was also a lord who was displeased with Lysa refusing to provide aid to Robb Stark. He’s also the leader of the group of Vale Lords against Littlefinger. We did see a little bit of this in the TV series, but not quite as pronounced as in the books.
The Gates of the Moon is actually a castle located at the base of The Giant’s Lance. You would need to pass this castle to reach Stone, Snow, and Sky. A couple notable things about this Royce family. Mya Stone, King Robert’s bastard daughter, serves at the Gates of the Moon. She works as a guide and leads mule trains up The Giant’s Lance. Catelyn meets her when bringing Tyrion to the Eyrie. The current lord is Nestor Royce and he served as the Eyrie’s steward while Jon Arryn was in King’s Landing as Hand of the King. Later Littlefinger gives Nestor the title and lordship of the Gates of Moon therefore creating this new branch of the family.
And that just about covers the basics of whose who in the Vale of Arryn. If you’re interested in finding out more for yourself about any of these houses and other people and places I didn’t discuss in this episode, feel free to go to the full show notes where I will have links. Though be aware if you do any of this research there will be spoilers to the novels and some possible material covered in the future seasons of House of the Dragon.
Thank you for listening and tune in to the next episode where we travel to a region famous for rough seas, howling winds and have a ruling house that definitely lives by their house words: ours is the fury.