House Frey of the Crossing is one of the younger houses of the Riverlands. Their main seat is the Twins, a pair of castles that border the green fork of the Trident. Their Lords are called the Lords of the Crossing because their bridge is one of the few that cross that river, and they extract high tolls from anyone wishing to pass.
The house sigil is two blue towers united under a bridge on a silver-grey field, representing The Twins. The current head of the house hold is Walder Frey, the second oldest person in all of Westeros, next to Maester Aemon.
History[]
The Freys of the Riverlands were originally small noble house dating back at least six centuries ago - before the start of the series. The founder of house Frey had a vision to create a great bridge that would connect the Green Forks to the Trident, and soon began the construction of The Twins. The bridge was ultimately completed by the founding Frey's grandson, who had used wooden timber keeps on both side of the bridge. Later generations of the family replaced it with stone keeps and renamed the bridge as The Twins. The Freys than extracted tolls from whoever wanted to cross between the rivers. House Frey quickly became one of the most powerful and richest houses in the Riverlands and the Trident. The house's rise to prominence eventually allowed other houses to look down on them as upstarters.
After Aegon's conquering of the Westeros, House Frey then swore fealty to their new overlords of the Riverlands, House Tully. The current head, Walder Frey, had greatly increase the size of his family, taking several wives and getting all of them with many children, so that he has hundreds of relatives and no one is sure who his lordship will pass to when he dies. Many of his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren fight amongst themselves and half of them are named Walder so as to please him. The Frey are bannermen to Riverrun, but they often refuse to act in wartime until suitably compensated or until they are sure of victory.
In A Clash of Kings, Robb Stark, the King in the North, wins their swords and loyalty by promising to wed a Frey maiden of his choosing. The Freys fought alongside him until A Storm of Swords, when Robb married Jeyne Westerling instead of his promised Frey bride. After, to win back the Freys, Robb and his mother Catelyn go to the Twins with their bannermen and attend the wedding of Edmure Tully (Catelyn's brother) to a Frey woman. After eating and drinking from the Frey's table, which ought to have given them guest rights, the Freys attack and slaughter all of Robb's men. They kill Robb and sew his direwolf's head to his body, and kill Catelyn Stark as well. This event becomes known as the Red Wedding, and damns many Freys in the eyes of other characters in the series.
Notes and References[]
| Houses from the Riverlands | |
| Overlords: | Baelish of Harrenhal |
|---|---|
| Noble houses: | Blackwood | Bracken | Butterwell | Charlton | Deddings | Frey | Frey of Riverrun | Goodbrook Grell | Hawick | Lychester | Mallister | Mooton | Piper | Roote | Ryger | Shawney | Smallwood Vance (Atranta) | Vance (Wayfarer's Rest) | Vypren | Wayn |
| Knightly Houses: | Blanetree | Erenford | Haigh | Nayland | Paege |
| Exiled houses: | Tully |
| Extinct houses: | Darry | Fisher | Harroway | Justman | Lothston | Mudd | Qoherys | Strong Teague | Towers | Whent |