A Game of Thrones

Bran Stark is the young son of Eddard “Ned” Stark, the Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. The Stark family governs the cold, sparse region in the north of the Seven Kingdoms on behalf of King Robert Baratheon. After the encounter beyond the Wall, Gared fled south, and will now be executed for deserting the Night’s Watch. Bran, seven, is excited to be old enough to attend his first execution. Also present are Robb Stark, 14, Ned’s oldest son and presumed heir; Jon Snow, also 14, Ned’s bastard son; Theon Greyjoy, 19, Ned’s ward; and Jory Cassel, the captain of the Winterfell guard. After Gared is executed, the party rides back to Winterfell, the ancestral home of the Starks. Robb praises Gared’s brave death while Jon pities the fear he saw in Gared’s expression. Bran asks if being scared means you cannot still be brave, and Ned assures him that bravery only truly happens when there is also fear. Ned performed the execution himself because, as he explains to Bran, he believes that “the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword” (26). On the journey, Ned’s men find a dead direwolf with a litter of pups. Direwolves are large wolves that live beyond the Wall. They are also the sigil of House Stark but have not been “sighted south of the Wall in two hundred years” (27). Ned pulls a large piece of broken antler from under the wolf’s jaw—it was killed by a deer. Instead of euthanizing the puppies, Jon intervenes. He points out that there are three male and two female pups just like Ned’s “five trueborn children” (29). He views the discovery as a portent, and the puppies are taken to be given to the Stark children to raise. Before they depart, Jon finds a sixth puppy, an albino, and he takes it as his own.

Catelyn Stark, Ned’s wife, finds him after his return in the Winterfell godswood, an ancient, sacred forest at the heart of the castle. Ned sits, cleaning Ice, the family greatsword he used to execute Gared. Catelyn tells Ned the children are enjoying their direwolf pups, but Rickon, three, is hesitant. He tells her that Rickon must learn to confront his fear because “winter is coming” (33), which is the Stark house motto. Catelyn reflects that all the other house mottos refer to positive touchstones, and she finds the Stark’s reminder of suffering odd. Ned tells Catelyn about the execution, mentioning that Gared was “half-mad” (33) and that the Night’s Watch is rapidly losing men to the wildlings. He worries he might have to take his own men to defend the north against Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall. Rayder was a former member of the Night’s Watch who abandoned his post to live among and rule the wildlings. Catelyn reminds Ned that there are more dangerous things on the other side of the Wall, referring to what they call the Others, but Ned is amused that she believes such silly tales. Ned knows Catelyn is uncomfortable in the godswood, so he asks her what news she brings. His friend and former mentor, Jon Arryn, is dead. Jon Arryn was the Hand of the King, who is the King’s closest advisor and can execute commands on the King’s behalf. Jon Arryn raised both Ned and Robert Baratheon, the current King, as wards in his household and “had become a second father” (34) to Ned and Robert. Sixteen years ago, Jon revolted against the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen instead of executing his wards, and Jon and Ned became brothers when they each married a daughter of Lord Hoster Tully. King Robert is now riding north to Winterfell, and Ned is keen to reunite with his old friend. Catelyn is wary because she believes the sign she has seen in the direwolf: the wolf, the sigil of House Stark, was killed by a deer, the sigil of House Baratheon. Ned does not like Robert’s queen, Cersei, or her family, the Lannisters, even though they fought alongside the Starks and the Baratheons in the war to overthrow the Targaryens, which put Robert on the throne of the Seven Kingdoms. Ned remembers that the Lannister family, under the leadership of Tywin Lannister, Cersei’s father, only joined the war “when victory was all but certain” (35).

Daenerys, 13, and her older brother Viserys, 21, are the last living descendants of the Targaryen family that ruled Westeros for centuries before Robert Baratheon’s successful rebellion. Daenerys and Viserys fled across the sea to the Free City of Pentos under the protection of a merchant named Magister Illyrio, who pampers them in the hopes of gaining favor when Viserys ascends the Iron Throne. Viserys is cruel and quick to anger; he refers to his outbursts as “waking the dragon” (37). With Illyrio’s help, Viserys has arranged for the Daenerys to be married to the leader of the Dothraki, a fierce nomadic people who roam across the continent of Essos. Daenerys expected to eventually marry her brother in the Targaryens tradition; as descendants of the doomed Valyrian civilization, Targaryens were obsessed with genealogical purity. However, Viserys hopes the marriage between Daenerys and Khal Drogo will give him the army he needs to take back the Iron Throne, which he believes is his “blood right” (38). Daenerys’s mother was still pregnant with her when they fled from the uprising, and Daenerys was born during a terrible storm. Her mother died in childbirth, and Viserys resents Daenerys because of this. She barely remembers her childhood; her first memory is of “the big house with the red door” (39) on an island in Braavos. She and her brother traveled from city to city, searching for support, which became harder to find the longer Robert Baratheon ruled. Daenerys does not feel her brother’s strong connection to Westeros. She does not know where her home truly is. As a slave bathes her, Daenerys listens to stories of Khal Drogo’s immense wealth. Meanwhile, Illyrio flatters Viserys, telling him that the people of Westeros “lift secret toasts” (43) to his health.

They travel to the feast where she will be presented to Drogo. As Illyrio points out Ser Jorah Mormont, a Westerosi knight in exile, and Viserys tells Illyrio he would like to speak to him. Daenerys is worried by Drogo’s “hard and cruel” (46) face, but Viserys dismisses her fears. He tells her that Westeros will be her home once he is reinstated as King and that he would let every Dothraki have sex with her “if that was what it took” (47) to get the army he needs.

King Robert’s procession enters Winterfell after a long journey from King’s Landing, the capital city of the Seven Kingdoms. Robert’s first request is to visit the crypts of Winterfell with his oldest and dearest friend, Ned. Robert and Ned visit the tomb of Ned’s sister, Lyanna, who was engaged to marry Robert before she was kidnapped by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, the son of the “mad king” (52) Aerys II Targaryen. This kidnapping instigated Robert’s rebellion and Robert killed Rhaegar in a battle on the Trident River. Lyanna died shortly after the battle; Ned found her at the Tower of Joy where she swore him to a mysterious promise with her dying breath. Robert remembers the “good years” with Ned in Jon Arryn’s house (55). He loathes the political demands of being king. Robert wants Ned to take over as Hand of the King, which would make him “the second-most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms” (56). Robert also suggests that Ned’s 11-year-old daughter Sansa marry his 12-year-old son Joffrey. Ned expected the offer to be Hand but he is surprised by the suggested betrothal. Ned does not want the position nor to leave Winterfell, so he asks for time to think about the propositions.

Winterfell hosts a feast in Robert’s honor. Because Jon is a bastard, he does not sit with the other Stark children, and he is relieved he is not subjected to the dull conversation of the high table. At the feast, he talks to Benjen Stark, his uncle and a member of the Night’s Watch. Jon wants to join the Watch, but Benjen insists he is too young and he “cannot understand what [he] would be giving up” (63) since the Night’s Watch’s oath includes celibacy. Jon becomes drunk, ruminating angrily on the unfairness of his life. He wanders outside and meets Tyrion Lannister in the courtyard. Tyrion is a little person and the brother of Queen Cersei. He is known for his drunkenness and his wit. Tyrion pointedly refers to Jon as a “bastard,” angering Jon. Tyrion advises Jon not to take offense to the labels other people give to him. For his entire life, Tyrion says, he has been mocked due to his dwarfism. Tyrion suggests that Jon use such labels to “armor yourself” against the world (65).

Later that night, Catelyn lies in bed with Ned, who plans to decline Robert’s offer because his “duties are here in the north” (68). Catelyn urges him to accept. Maester Luwin interrupts to bring Catelyn a coded message from her sister Lysa, the widow of Jon Arryn. The maesters are an organization of highly trained advisors, one of whom is stationed in every castle and great house in the Seven Kingdoms. Lysa claims her husband was murdered by Queen Cersei and the other Lannisters. Catelyn suggests that Ned accept Robert’s proposal to protect Robert from the Lannisters. Ned reluctantly agrees but commands Catelyn to stay in Winterfell with Robb, who must learn to rule the region. The rest of the children will go to King’s Landing. Ned will not be able to take “a boy with a bastard’s name” (75) like Jon Snow to the royal court, but Catelyn refuses to allow Ned’s illegitimate son to stay at Winterfell. At Luwin’s diplomatic suggestion, Ned agrees that Jon should fulfill his ambition to join the Night’s Watch.

The youngest Stark daughter Arya sits with her older sister Sansa and Princess Myrcella, practicing needlework. Arya, who has been told that she has “the hands of a blacksmith” (77), runs away from the taunts of the other girls and ignores the septa, their governess and a woman of the official, seven-deity Faith of the realm. She takes comfort in her direwolf puppy, Nymeria, who is named after a legendary warrior queen. Sansa named her direwolf Lady, and Jon named his white direwolf Ghost. Arya and Nymeria find Jon and Ghost. To avoid being punished for behaving poorly in front of the princess, Arya goes with Jon to watch Robb and Prince Joffrey “hitting at each other with padded wooden swords” (80). They are being taught sword fighting by Ser Rodrik Cassel, Winterfell’s master of arms, and the Hound, a knight with a scarred face who closely guards Joffrey. Arya would much prefer to train at arms than needlework. She watches Robb soundly beat Joffrey in their training fight. Joffrey is angered by the loss and wants to fight with “live steel” (82), but Rodrik refuses. Joffrey mocks Rodrik and Robb and then struts away. Arya returns to her room, where her mother and the septa are waiting to punish her.

Ned’s entourage prepares to travel south to King’s Landing with Robert. Bran will travel with his father “on a horse of his own” (85). In Winterfell, Bran enjoys climbing over the roofs of the castles, which are like a “second home” (87) to him–the crows that nest on the walls even eat corn out of his hands. During one of his climbing excursions, he overhears Queen Cersei talking to her brother Jaime, a Knight of the Kingsguard, Robert’s royal bodyguards. He hears them discuss Ned in disparaging terms, speculating why he would accept the role of Hand of the King. They view Ned as a danger to their own plans, suggesting that he may accuse them of murdering Jon Arryn. Bran sees Jaime and Cersei begin to have sex. Cersei sees Bran and is worried that he will tell people about the incestuous relationship. Jaime pushes Bran out the window, and the boy lands on the courtyard below.

Four days later, Tyrion Lannister passes the time Winterfell library, studying books about history and the continent’s terrible winters. Seasons last for years instead of months in Westeros, and the worst winters are still talked about. However, the kingdom has been free of a bad winter for many decades, and the current summer has lasted nearly a decade. Tyrion meets Joffrey and the Hound on the way to the feast hall, who complain about Bran’s direwolf howling and want Bran to die faster so the wolf will stop. Bran survived his fall from the tower window, but he is in a coma. Tyrion tells Joffrey it is his duty to offer condolences to the Stark family. When Joffrey says the Starks mean nothing to him and he can’t stand the women crying, Tyrion slaps him and demands he obey. Tyrion joins his twin siblings Jaime and Cersei at breakfast. “[O]nly Jaime had ever shown [Tyrion] the smallest measure of affection or respect” (98), so Tyrion is willing to forgive his brother for almost anything, including that Jaime never seems to take anything seriously. When Cersei complains about the direwolves, Tyrion speculates that the special bond between Bran and his wolf may be all that is “keeping the boy alive” (99). Tyrion mentions that the maester thinks Bran may survive, and he notices the look that passes between Jamie and Cersei. He loudly speculates on what secrets Bran may have to share should he ever regain consciousness. When Jaime comments on Tyrion’s allegiances, Tyrion smirks and assures his brother that he loves the Lannister family.