“The Freys may not care, but the northmen … they fear the Dreadfort, but they love the Starks.” (ADWD, The Turncloak) They will also serve as backdrop to how I distinguish the loyalty/disloyalty of the houses about to engage in the Battle of Winterfell. I encourage all of you to read the essays as they are much more in-depth than my short summaries can be. In essence, this theory states that the nobility of the North backing Stannis Baratheon is doing so, so that a Stark can more easily take power in the North. Were they all loyal? Did they have an agenda which ran counter to that of their liege lords? We’ll talk briefly about each of the major houses sworn to Stannis and Roose and their actual loyalty to their liege lords.īut before I get too in-depth with the various houses, I want to point your attention to the Grand Northern Conspiracy Theory. What we really didn’t touch upon was the actual loyalty of those lords. “Singer, give us a song about the Rat Cook.” (ADWD, The Prince of Winterfell)Īs we saw in the first segment, both Stannis Baratheon and Roose Bolton made inroads in winning the allegiance of various Northern Lords. “We should have a song about the Rat Cook,” he was muttering, as he staggered past Theon, leaning on his knights. Lord Manderly was so drunk he required four strong men to help him from the hall.
It’s very possible that none of what I write, some of what I write or most of what I write comes to pass in The Winds of Winter, but if you enjoy speculation on probably the most anticipated book of the decade and one of the most anticipated plots in that book, then I hope you’ll enjoy reading.
Today, I’ll analyze and speculate on strategy and tactics of the battle between Roose Bolton and Stannis Baratheon, and then I’ll predict the outcome of the battle. In part 1, we set the scene for the upcoming Siege of Winterfell.