Not all guests at a wedding feast enjoy the merriment. Some stay away from the laughs and songs. Somehow the occasion makes resurface the regrets of their lives, lost opportunities, cruelty of fate, their own weakness and failures, and above all the feeling that the wheel has turned. They drown their sadness, chagrin or bitterness in the wine that is to be found in abundance, and later in the night try to find oblivion, or understanding in another suffering soul, or initiate a fight, or cover themselves with ridicule in some other way, or simply keep their dignity and march on.

Barbrey Dustin is one such. The best of us sometimes develop compassion and wisdom in the face of disappointment, a sense of a higher purpose. But not Barbrey, at least not in the sense we might hope for, it seems to me.

All the north loves the Starks. Their rule goes back thousand of years, to the satisfaction of highborn and common people and mountain clans alike. We see the Hornwoods, Karstarks, Mormonts, Flints, Umbers, Manderlys, Glovers, Reeds, Wulls willing to give their lives for their king. Loyalty to House Stark is a moral norm in the north.

The betrayal of the Starks by the Bolton is a tradition of this house, and is furthermore to be justified by the particular nature of Roose Bolton. All this is summarized by Barbrey Dustin.

...but the northmen ... they fear the Dreadfort, but they love the Starks.”
“Not you,” said Theon. “Not me,” the Lady of Barrowton confessed

Barbrey has spent years in bitterness following her treatment by the Starks in Winterfell. But the opportunity presents itself to get rid of the Starks for all times.

Given how large the direwolf looms over the north, a durable dynastic change needs the destruction of whatever has made House Stark endure and rule throughout the ages, and it needs a legitimacy comparable to the eight thousand years of existence of Winterfell.

As we will see, there is a possibility for both requirements, with an unlikely echo of the long time we spent with the Dothraki early in the story.


Contents

1. House Ryswell and the Barrowlands
2. House Ryswell and Horses
3. The First King of the First Men
4. Lady Dustin and Roose Bolton
5. The Banner with fiery Eyes
6. The Ryswells at the Winterfell Wedding
7. House Dustin
8. The Descent into the Crypts
9. A loyal Vassal?
10. The Maesters
11. Lady Dustin at the Wedding
12. Barbrey and Abel?
    
13. House Stout
14. The Horse Lords of the Stone Hedge

1. House Ryswell and the Barrowlands

Barbrey Dustin is a daughter of Rodrik Ryswell, lord of the Rills. First we learn of the Ryswells at the Nightfort from the tale of the seventy nine sentinels.

“There are ghosts here,” Bran said. Hodor had heard all the stories before, but Jojen might not have. “Old ghosts, from before the Old King, even before Aegon the Dragon, seventy-nine deserters who went south to be outlaws. One was Lord Ryswell’s youngest son, so when they reached the barrowlands they sought shelter at his castle, but Lord Ryswell took them captive and returned them to the Nightfort. The Lord Commander had holes hewn in the top of the Wall and he put the deserters in them and sealed them up alive in the ice. They have spears and horns and they all face north. The seventy-nine sentinels, they’re called. They left their posts in life, so in death their watch goes on forever. Years later, when Lord Ryswell was old and dying, he had himself carried to the Nightfort so he could take the black and stand beside his son. He’d sent him back to the Wall for honor’s sake, but he loved him still, so he came to share his watch.”

At that time House Ryswell seems to have been seated in the Barrowlands, not in the Rills. Did they lose their original seat somehow?

The Barrowlands made two appearances early in the story: In Greatjon Umber's declaration of independence.

“MY LORDS!” he shouted, his voice booming off the rafters. “Here is what I say to these two kings!” He spat. “Renly Baratheon is nothing to me, nor Stannis neither. Why should they rule over me and mine, from some flowery seat in Highgarden or Dorne? What do they know of the Wall or the wolfswood or the barrows of the First Men? Even their gods are wrong. The Others take the Lannisters too, I’ve had a bellyful of them.”

They appear as well a setting for a conversation between Ned Stark and King Robert on the way to King's Landing. Here is a short extract.

The rising sun sent fingers of light through the pale white mists of dawn. A wide plain spread out beneath them, bare and brown, its flatness here and there relieved by long, low hummocks. Ned pointed them out to his king. “The barrows of the First Men.”
Robert frowned. “Have we ridden onto a graveyard?”
“There are barrows everywhere in the north, Your Grace,” Ned told him. “This land is old.”

Both passages give credence to the idea that the Barrowlands have some historical importance, and played a role in the ancient history of the First Men.

2. House Ryswell and Horses

The sigil of house Ryswell seems to be a black horse's head, eyes and mane red, on bronze within a black engrailed border.

The theme of the red horse would come up from time to time in the books. It is generally associated with a particular prestige (Khal Drogo has one, as does Tyrion when he enters King's Landing as Hand of the King, the Brackens have one on their banners). The Ryswell banner is consistent with what Melisandre saw in her flames:

I saw a town with wooden walls and wooden streets, filled with men. Banners flew above its walls: a moose, a battle-axe, three pine trees, longaxes crossed beneath a crown, a horse’s head with fiery eyes.

There are four banners in Winterfell for the wedding, with horses of different colors. But we'll return to that. Horses are omnipresent in Ryswell culture. Indeed, here is the gift given by Barbrey Dustin to her husband before he left with Ned Stark.

I gave him a horse the day he set out, a red stallion with a fiery mane, the pride of my lord father’s herds. My lord swore that he would ride him home when the war was done.
“Ned Stark returned the horse to me on his way back home to Winterfell.

We hear Lady Dustin praise Brandon Stark as a rider.

“Brandon was fostered at Barrowton with old Lord Dustin, the father of the one I’d later wed, but he spent most of his time riding the Rills. He loved to ride. His little sister took after him in that. A pair of centaurs, those two.

Domeric Bolton had a Ryswell mother, Bethany, and served as a page for Lady Dustin. Roose praises his horsemanship.

Domeric. A quiet boy, but most accomplished. He served four years as Lady Dustin’s page, and three in the Vale as a squire to Lord Redfort. He played the high harp, read histories, and rode like the wind. Horses ... the boy was mad for horses, Lady Dustin will tell you. Not even Lord Rickard’s daughter could outrace him, and that one was half a horse herself. Redfort said he showed great promise in the lists. A great jouster must be a great horseman first.

Now a brief detour via the First Men, according to maester Luwin.

“But some twelve thousand years ago, the First Men appeared from the east, crossing the Broken Arm of Dorne before it was broken. They came with bronze swords and great leathern shields, riding horses. No horse had ever been seen on this side of the narrow sea. No doubt the children were as frightened by the horses as the First Men were by the faces in the trees.

The culture of the First Men deserves a separate discussion, but it would take us too far. Let's just keep in mind that the First Men were noted for being horsemen, and that the horsemen were frightened by the heart trees of the children.

We had an extended view of the Dothraki culture early in the story. The Dothraki's way of life is certainly the clearest example of a "horse culture" we have. Even if the Dothraki were marginal until a few centuries ago, it's tempting to ask whether they did not come from the same cradle than the First Men, and whether the First Men diverged from this cultural model when they made peace with the autochtonous inhabitants of Westeros and converted to the old gods. We will return to this connection below.

3. The First King of the First Men

Here is Theon at Barrow Hall.

As he climbed a wide flight of wooden steps to the hall, Reek’s legs began to shake. He had to stop to steady them, staring up at the grassy slopes of the Great Barrow. Some claimed it was the grave of the First King, who had led the First Men to Westeros. Others argued that it must be some King of the Giants who was buried there, to account for its size. A few had even been known to say it was no barrow, just a hill, but if so it was a lonely hill, for most of the barrowlands were flat and windswept.

Whatever the truth about the Great Barrow, there is a legend of the First King of the First Men, possibly a horse lord, buried in the Barrowlands, the ancestral home of the Ryswells. Moreover, here are the banners at Barrow Hall.

...the banners were those of the late Lord Dustin and his widowed wife. His showed a spiked crown above crossed longaxes; hers quartered those same arms with Rodrik Ryswell’s golden horse head.

A crown on a banner refers to a kingdom, if only a lost one. There were once a hundred kingdoms in Westeros. But the king in question refers to the very beginning the history of Westeros. Since the First King of the First Men is supposed to be buried nearby, the crown probably refers to that Kingdom – the first Kingdom in Westeros, well before the Starks, let alone the Targaryens. Lady Dustin's banner is revealing: she crowned her father's horse head (It's similar to the Baratheon banner after Robert took the throne: a crowned stag). I guess the history is the following: the ancient Ryswell banner was a crowned horse. When House Ryswell lost the Barrowlands, the crown on the banner was inherited by the new lord, perhaps a Dustin, who added elements of his own household sigil (axes for the Dustins), but discarded the Ryswell horse.

The crown is described as spiked. In the TV show, it is black. Perhaps it is spiked and black. Let's compare with Robb's crown.

The ancient crown of the Kings of Winter had been lost three centuries ago, yielded up to Aegon the Conqueror when Torrhen Stark knelt in submission. What Aegon had done with it no man could say. Lord Hoster’s smith had done his work well, and Robb’s crown looked much as the other was said to have looked in the tales told of the Stark kings of old; an open circlet of hammered bronze incised with the runes of the First Men, surmounted by nine black iron spikes wrought in the shape of longswords. Of gold and silver and gemstones, it had none; bronze and iron were the metals of winter, dark and strong to fight against the cold.

The iron part of the crown of Winter, that is the nine swords of black iron, could correspond to the the crown of Barrowton. The bronze part appears independently when Val is crowned by Stannis at the Wall. 

The king’s eyes were blue bruises, sunk deep in a hollow face. He wore grey plate, a fur-trimmed cloak of cloth-of-gold flowing from his broad shoulders. His breastplate had a flaming heart inlaid above his own. Girding his brows was a red-gold crown with points like twisting flames. Val stood beside him, tall and fair. They had crowned her with a simple circlet of dark bronze, yet she looked more regal in bronze than Stannis did in gold. Her eyes were grey and fearless, unflinching. Beneath an ermine cloak, she wore white and gold. Her honey-blond hair had been done up in a thick braid that hung over her right shoulder to her waist. The chill in the air had put color in her cheeks.

So it's tempting to believe that the crown of Winter is a combination of two older crowns: an iron one, represented on the Barrowton banner, and a bronze one which made its way on Val's head (another story irrelevant here).

In a couple of instances, Lady Dustin expresses a desire for royalty.

Lord Bolton aspires to more than mere lordship. Why not King of the North? Tywin Lannister is dead, the Kingslayer is maimed, the Imp is fled. The Lannisters are a spent force, and you were kind enough to rid him of the Starks. Old Walder Frey will not object to his fat little Walda becoming a queen. White Harbor might prove troublesome should Lord Wyman survive this coming battle ... but I am quite sure that he will not. No more than Stannis. Roose will remove both of them, as he removed the Young Wolf. Who else is there?”
“You,” said Theon. “There is you. The Lady of Barrowton, a Dustin by marriage, a Ryswell by birth.”

And Barbrey's tongue betrays her clearly.

As Maester Medrick went to one knee to whisper in Bolton’s ear, Lady Dustin’s mouth twisted in distaste. “If I were queen, the first thing I would do would be to kill all those grey rats.

If I were queen...That might be completed by her portrayal of her father.

My father had great ambitions for House Ryswell.

The personal banner of Lady Dustin is a sign that she has not forgotten. One might add her sentiment for the lost kingdom of the north and disdain for Torrhen Stark.

“So many,” Lady Dustin said. “Do you know their names?”
“Once ... but that was a long time ago.” Theon pointed. “The ones on this side were Kings in the North. Torrhen was the last.”
“The King Who Knelt.”

Theon's description of the Great Barrow is striking, since it is treeless landscape. Perhaps it was once like one of the hills crowned with rings of weirwood, and sheltering caves of the Children of the Forest. But in that case, all trees have been cut. Perhaps the First King is buried in such a cave, but it is not within reach of the weirwoods. That reminds me sternly of Maester Luwin's story.

They came with bronze swords and great leathern shields, riding horses. No horse had ever been seen on this side of the narrow sea. No doubt the children were as frightened by the horses as the First Men were by the faces in the trees. As the First Men carved out holdfasts and farms, they cut down the faces and gave them to the fire.

The Barrowton landscape would correspond exactly to a place shaped by those first men who cut down the heart trees.

The barrows of the First Men recall the Dothraki houses of Vaes Dothrak.

Around the hall were broad grassy horse yards fenced with high hedges, firepits, and hundreds of round earthen houses that bulged from the ground like miniature hills, covered with grass.

Barrowhall wooden walls are mirrored in the great hall of the Dothraki.

The “palace” was a cavernous wooden feasting hall, its rough-hewn timbered walls rising forty feet, its roof sewn silk, a vast billowing tent that could be raised to keep out the rare rains, or lowered to admit the endless sky.

The Great Barrow seems an echo of the Mother of Mountains. But I see nothing that corresponds the the Womb of the World. The Ryswells have hardly heard about the Dothraki, but I am tempted to believe that some culture has been transmitted thoughout the centuries, just like the Starks recall Brandon the builder, the Daynes maintain the tradition of the Sword of the Morning. I wonder whether the ancient Dothraki prophecy of the Stallion who Mounts the World has an echo in the Ryswell culture. The non hereditary inheritance customs of the Dothraki might be related to the current quarrel between the Ryswells.

4. Lady Dustin and Roose Bolton

The relation between Roose Bolton and Barbrey Dustin deserves a careful attention.

It take roots in an alliance between House Ryswell and House Bolton which was sealed by the marriage of Bethany Ryswell and Roose. Bethany was Roose's second wife. She is never named in the books, and died of a fever. Roose has little to say about Bethany, beside her use of perfume. Bethany might not have been buried with the Boltons, since Roose says of Domeric.

Now his bones lie beneath the Dreadfort with the bones of his brothers, who died still in the cradle, and I am left with Ramsay.

It would seem more natural to say with the bones of his mother, if Bethany had been under the Dreadfort as well. But Roose seems to have been quite fond of Domeric, who had been Barbrey's page. We have other signs of the Ryswells' interest in Roose Bolton. One of the four Ryswells in Winterfell, the nephew of Lord Rodrik, is called Roose. Stannis has a ready interpretation.

 The king frowned at him, and rattled the parchment angrily. “Rise. Tell me, who is Lyanna Mormont?”
“One of Lady Maege’s daughters, Sire. The youngest. She was named for my lord father’s sister.”
“To curry your lord father’s favor, I don’t doubt. I know how that game is played. How old is this wretched girl child?”

So the Ryswells have tried to please Roose, or more likely house Bolton, at the time of their own Roose's birth. Are there historical connections between the two houses? However two other Ryswells, Rickard and Rodrik, bear typical Stark names. It seems Roose Ryswell is the son of Rodrik Ryswell's brother, who might have been Mark Ryswell.

Roose speaks of Barbrey always in respectful, almost affectionate at times, terms.

“Unlikely. And those boots would come dear. They would cost us Barrowton, House Dustin, and the Ryswells.” Roose Bolton seated himself across the table from his son. “Barbrey Dustin is my second wife’s younger sister, Rodrik Ryswell’s daughter, sister to Roger, Rickard, and mine own namesake, Roose, cousin to the other Ryswells. She was fond of my late son and suspects you of having some part in his demise. Lady Barbrey is a woman who knows how to nurse a grievance. Be grateful for that. Barrowton is staunch for Bolton largely because she still holds Ned Stark to blame for her husband’s death.”

Roose's body language (moving so the table is between his son and himself) would seem to indicate that he would take the side of Barbrey in the dispute.

But Roose's respect for Barbrey is not reciprocated. Indeed, before we saw Lady Dustin for the first time, Roose gave a lesson in manners to Theon.

“Reek,” he said, “if it please my lord.”
“M’lord.” Bolton’s lips parted just enough to show a quarter inch of teeth. It might have been a smile.
“—my lord, when you should have said m’lord. Your tongue betrays your birth with every word you say. If you want to sound a proper peasant, say it as if you had mud in your mouth, or were too stupid to realize it was two words, not just one.”

But here is how Roose was greeted by Lady Dustin a few minutes later as he enters Barrow Hall.

“Who is this?” she said. “Where is the boy? Did your bastard refuse to give him up? Is this old man his ... oh, gods be good, what is that smell? Has this creature soiled himself?”

“He has been with Ramsay. Lady Barbrey, allow me to present the rightful Lord of the Iron Islands, Theon of House Greyjoy.”

No "my lord", no formal greeting. Just rudeness. Roose is the Lord Paramount of the North and therefore Lady Dustin's liege lord. Her manners should be unacceptable, especially for Roose, who seems so attached to correct etiquette. This exchange shows that Lady Dustin has no fear of Roose, and her strange familiarity with Roose indicates more than simply an alliance of circumstances. Either Lady Dustin and Roose are very close or Lady Dustin is the dominant partner in the association.

The merlons of towers and battlements are often compared to crowns (for instance the merlons painted in gold color at Queenscrown). Usually merlons are square. Here are the merlons of the Dreadfort:

Its pale light cast the shadows of the tall triangular merlons across the frozen ground, a line of sharp black teeth.

It seems to recall the crown on the Dustin banner. (This crown is furthermore described as black in the TV show.) So the Dreadfort would evoke the crown of the first King of Westeros?

When Roose comes back from his campaign with the Young Wolf, after he has been named Warden of the north, a letter is sent to (I presume) all northern lords. It is read by Jon Snow.

“Moat Cailin is taken. The flayed corpses of the ironmen have been nailed to posts along the kingsroad. Roose Bolton summons all leal lords to Barrowton, to affirm their loyalty to the Iron Throne and celebrate his son’s wedding to …”

Of course summoning all northern lords to Barrowton is part of Roose's (failed) trick to entice Stannis to come to the Dreadfort while the Boltons are away.

It's worthwhile to reflect a bit more on this. For the first time in eight thousand years the north is going to be ruled by a Bolton, and not a Stark. All northern lords have to affirm their loyalty and acknowledge the change of dynasty. Curiously, Roose does not summon his liege men to the Dreadfort, or to Winterfell, but to Barrowton. Perhaps the location does not matter, or perhaps Roose does not care, or perhaps tactical considerations in the struggle with Stannis are of more importance. However, I wonder if the location does not have to do with the Great Barrow. And Lady Dustin was the host, as if she had authority to witness the passage of power. (Surely a way to honor or flatter her.)

Lady Dustin refused to have Ramsay as guest, it seems. And the bastard felt insulted. It seems she did not want the Frey banner above Barrow Hall. Here are the banners.

Their short journey reached its end at the wooden walls of Barrow Hall. Banners flew from its square towers, flapping in the wind: the flayed man of the Dreadfort, the battle-axe of Cerwyn, Tallhart’s pines, the merman of Manderly, old Lord Locke’s crossed keys, the Umber giant and the stony hand of Flint, the Hornwood moose. For the Stouts, chevrony russet and gold, for Slate, a grey field within a double tressure white. Four horseheads proclaimed the four Ryswells of the Rills—one grey, one black, one gold, one brown. The jape was that the Ryswells could not even agree upon the color of their arms. Above them streamed the stag-and-lion of the boy who sat upon the Iron Throne a thousand leagues away.

However we have the Lannister/Barratheon banner.

Roose is suspicious of everything and everyone. Nevertheless he seems to trust Lady Dustin without reservation. This is illustrated clearly when Theon recalls the arrivals in Winterfell.

Theon arrived in Barbrey Dustin’s train, with her ladyship herself, her Barrowton levies, and the bride-to-be. Lady Dustin had insisted that she should have custody of Lady Arya until such time as she was wed, but now that time was done.

Consequently, Barbrey Dustin knows that "Arya" is an imposter. Otherwise, Roose would never have left the bride in her custody.

Another sign of the closeness between the Dustins, Ryswells and Roose can been in the small enquiry made after the Winterfell murders. Theon is summoned to Lord Stark's solar, where he is to be interrogated.

Lord Bolton was not alone. Lady Dustin sat with him, pale-faced and severe; an iron horsehead brooch clasped Roger Ryswell’s cloak; Aenys Frey stood near the fire, pinched cheeks flushed with cold.

It seems other northern lords, including Ramsay whose man Yellow Dick had just been found dead, were not to be trusted by Roose. But Aenys Frey is the odd duck in this company. There is an exchange about the Red Wedding

Flints, Cerwyns, Tallharts, Slates ... they all had men with the Young Wolf.”
“House Ryswell too,” said Roger Ryswell. “Even Dustins out of Barrowton.” Lady Dustin parted her lips in a thin, feral smile. “The north remembers, Frey.”

There is no mention of Ryswell and Dustin men at the Red Wedding. There were few of them with Rob Stark. Those who were with Roose seem to have been spared the Red Wedding.

“No.” Bolton’s voice was soft, but certain. “I left six hundred men at the ford. Spearmen from the rills, the mountains, and the White Knife, a hundred Hornwood longbows, some freeriders
and hedge knights, and a strong force of Stout and Cerwyn men to stiffen them. Ronnel Stout and Ser Kyle Condon have the command. Ser Kyle was the late Lord Cerwyn’s right hand, as I’m sure you know, my lady. Lions swim no better than wolves. So long as the river runs high, Ser Gregor will not cross.”

Indeed, the Rills belong to the Ryswells. Ronnel Stout, possibly a son of Harwood Stout, a member of House Stout under all probability, was leading the Barrowton men, those sent by Lady Dustin when she said.

Barrowton sent men with the Young Wolf as well. I gave him as few men as I dared, but I knew that I must needs give him some or risk the wroth of Winterfell.

The Ryswell and Dustin men seem to have been spared the Red Wedding.

It's unknown what the six hundred men became. Did they disband in the Riverlands? Did they join the Brotherhood? Did they eventually come back with Roose?

In addition to Lord Dustin, there was one Mark Ryswell with Ned Stark at the Tower of Joy. He wasn't the Lord of the Rills, since Rodrik Ryswell was the one who gave the red horse to Lord Dustin.

5. The Banner with Fiery Eyes

Let's turn to the living Ryswells. There are four of them in Winterfell: Rodrik, his sons Roger and Rickard, and their cousin Roose. They are described as quarrelsome. Nevertheless all four came to the wedding, under four different banners. The reason and the legitimacy for the banners are unclear. Even the banner of Rodrik Ryswell does not seem to be the traditional Ryswell banner. Perhaps the Ryswell family has a special system of inheritance? Here is the description of the banners above Barrow Hall.

Four horseheads proclaimed the four Ryswells of the Rills—one grey, one black, one gold, one brown.

And in Winterfell.

Along the walls the banners hung: the horseheads of the Ryswells in gold, brown, grey, and black;

Curiously, much before Melisandre had a vision in her flames.

I saw a town with wooden walls and wooden streets, filled with men. Banners flew above its walls: a moose, a battle-axe, three pine trees, longaxes crossed beneath a crown, a horse’s head with fiery eyes.

...horse’s head with fiery eyes. The town is Barrowton. It's the host assembled to besiege Moat Cailin. The moose is for House Hornwood, the battle-axe for the Cerwyns, the pines trees for the Tallharts, the crossed longaxes for the Dustins, and the horse's head for the Rywells.

The vision took place before Roose came back from the south, and probably when Ramsay was still at the Dreadfort. Of course Melisandre can see future events in the flames, but it seems that we have here a current event.

Ramsay was almost certainly not present in Barrowton, despite the Hornwood banner. Indeed, at the same time he was riding with Whoresbane from the Dreadfort to Moat Cailin. It is clearly said later that Ramsay is not welcome at Barrowton and the Umber banner would be there is Whoresbane attended the Barrowton reunion. Moreover, it is not clear that he has taken possession of the Hornwood yet.

House Tallhart is based in Thorren's Square which has been occupied by Dagmer Cleftjaw and other ironmen. The remaining Tallharts are likely prisoner there. So it's unclear who the banner represents.

Lady Cerwyn is probably present at Barrowton. She would sign later a few letters send by Roose. But she wouldn't come to the Winterfell wedding, which is attended by cousins instead.

The Dustin banner is the banner of lord Dustin. We do not see Lady Dustin personal banner.

No banner of the king of the Seven Kingdoms is present at this point, as there would be later in Barrowton.

The Ryswell banner seems to be the traditional one. Was Melisandre's vision literal (the Ryswell banner was a horse's head with fiery eyes and was later exchanged for the four banners)? or was it symbolic (the banner refers to something House Ryswell stands for, perhaps some former glory of House Ryswell)? Is there some missing overlord for the Ryswells? The Ryswell Banner is close to the Bittersteel personal banner (a red dragon with black wings, upon a golden field) and to the Bracken banner (red stallion upon a golden escutcheon on brown). We will return to the last point.

The significance of the horsehead with fiery eyes, and its subsequent replacement by the four banners of the Ryswells, is a mystery.

The fiery eye is part of the imagery of R'hllor. Indeed, here is the prayer of the Queen's men.

“Oh, Lord of Light, we beseech you, cast your fiery eye upon us and keep us safe and warm,” they sang to the flames, “for the night is dark and full of terrors.”

Queen Selyse refers to a fiery gaze.

“... such a beautiful rite,” the queen was saying. “I could feel our lord’s fiery gaze upon us. Oh, you cannot know how many times I have begged Stannis to let us be wed again, a true joining of body and spirit blessed by the Lord of Light. I know that I could give His Grace more children if we were bound in fire.”

It is curious that Melisandre did not express anything at the sight of the horse fiery eyes. The reference should have been unmistakable for her.

Was it inappropriate to show the fiery eyes at the wedding, in view of the whole northern nobility and the Freys?

One has the feeling that Lady Dustin sheltered the Tallharts, Cerwyns, and Hornwoods traumatized by the Winterfell battle, and the massacre at the hand of Ramsay. It seems they are all Ramsay's enemies. The Cerwyn and Hornwood maesters, that we would see later in Winterfell are probably there.

However those houses (Cerwyn, Hornwood, Tallhart, Ryswell and Dustin) did not suffer from the Red Wedding, as we saw above. Roose took care of keeping the Hornwoods, Stouts (from Barrowtown), Ryswells, and Cerwyns away from the tragedy at the Twins. Was it calculated by Roose alone? Was it agreed with Lady Dustin? Note that Roose had sent the Tallharts together with the Glovers to their deaths in Duskendale. Whether enough has transpired to blame Roose for this unknown.

At the Winterfell wedding, one sees another display of banners.

Along the walls the banners hung: the horseheads of the Ryswells in gold, brown, grey, and black; the roaring giant of House Umber; the stone hand of House Flint of Flint’s Finger; the moose of Hornwood and the merman of Manderly; Cerwyn’s black battle-axe and the Tallhart pines.

Note that several banners are missing: Stout, Slate, Locke and Dustin. The Frey banner is missing as well. The first three houses can be thought as too minor to have their banners displayed in the Great Hall. But the absence of the Dustin banner, while Lady Dustin is one of the organizers of the wedding, requires an explanation. Perhaps the presence of a crown was not appropriate along the Bolton and Baratheon banner.

It's not said how the four banners correspond to the four Ryswells, except that Rodrik Ryswell has the gold banner. Gold is not common in the north (apparently not used as a currency).

It's not absolutely certain that Lady Dustin is a sincere ally of Roose. The first assembly in Barrowton, including the Cerwyns, Tallharts and Hornwoods, would seem to be an anti-Ramsay alliance. Her hate for Ramsay seems profound, and she mentions several times Lady Hornwood. First she tells Theon in the crypts:

And do you imagine the Hornwood men have forgotten the Bastard’s last marriage, and how his lady wife was left to starve, chewing her own fingers?

She tells Aenys Frey:

If you did not hold the Greatjon, he would pull out your entrails and make you eat them, as Lady Hornwood ate her fingers.

I would conclude that Lady Dustin's plans for the north do not include Ramsay as lord paramount or king. At some point Roose will have to choose. If he wants to keep Ramsay as his heir, he might lose every ally, since Ramsay has no friend, and is unacceptable. The alternative for Roose would be to sacrifice Ramsay, and possibly the Freys, to earn respect among the nobility of the north.

6. The four Ryswells at the Winterfell Wedding

Let's look at the behavior of the Ryswells.

Lord Rodrik does not say a single word that we hear, despite his presence at the wedding. He is Roose's former father-in-law. Let's not forget that Ramsay is reputed to have killed Rodrik's grandson, Domeric. It's likely that the Ryswells hate Ramsay no less than Lady Dustin does. However, we see no expression of that sentiment.

I can see two explanations for Rodrik's behavior. He might be an old man. Barbrey was likely of similar age as Brandon Stark, who would be forty years old. She wasn't Rodrik's eldest daughter. Therefore, Rodrik is probably over sixty, perhaps seventy. He might very well be diminished by his advanced age. Barbrey spoke of him in the past tense.

My father had great ambitions for House Ryswell.

All indicates a man whose time has passed, and who lingers in this world. Another explanation would be that Lord Rodrik has stayed at home. But wouldn't that be contradicted by the presence of his personal banner?

Rickard is inconsequential. He is seen with one of the washerwomen.

Beneath the Burned Tower, he passed Rickard Ryswell nuzzling at the neck of another one of Abel’s washerwomen, the plump one with the apple cheeks and pug nose.

And he laughs at trivial japes.

“Or he’ll be sucking Lord Stannis’s cock before the sun goes down,” Whoresbane Umber threw back.
“He best take care it don’t break off,” laughed Rickard Ryswell. “Any man out there in this, his cock is frozen hard.”

Roger Ryswell seems to be a man of more consequence. He doesn't deplore the death of one of his men.

By the time Ben Bones pulled them off, Grey Jeyne had eaten so much of the dead man’s face that half the day was gone before they knew for certain who he’d been: a man-at-arms of four-and-forty years who had marched north with Roger Ryswell. “A drunk,” Ryswell declared. “Pissing off the wall, I’ll wager. He slipped and fell.”

And later he calms the Freys and Manderly.

Wyman Manderly laughed, but half a dozen of his knights were on their feet at once. It fell to Roger Ryswell and Barbrey Dustin to calm them with quiet words.

He is present with Aenys Frey, Roger, and Lady Dustin when they interrogate Theon about the murders.

Steelshanks led him back to the Great Keep and the solar that had once been Eddard Stark’s. Lord Bolton was not alone. Lady Dustin sat with him, pale-faced and severe; an iron horsehead brooch clasped Roger Ryswell’s cloak; Aenys Frey stood near the fire, pinched cheeks flushed with cold.

The iron horsehead seems a like a poor ornament – almost always these brooches are made of silver, or better.

Theon wore black and gold, his cloak pinned to his shoulder by a crude iron kraken that a smith in Barrowton had hammered together for him.

So, the iron horsehead should not be what pins Roger Ryswell's cloak. It's likely a poor replacement. Since a silver brooch appeared on Holly's cloak the next morning, I wonder... (See the discussion of the washerwoman Holly.) Given that iron is black or grey, often black in heraldry, it might mean that Roger Ryswell is the black Ryswell, or the the grey Ryswell. I lean towards black.

Roger seemed relaxed the next morning, as the tension was mounting.

Up on the dais, Ramsay was arguing with his father. They were too far away for Theon to make out any of the words, but the fear on Fat Walda’s round pink face spoke volumes. He did hear Wyman Manderly calling for more sausages and Roger Ryswell’s laughter at some jape from one-armed Harwood Stout.

Roose Ryswell is seldom mentioned, and only in references to his riders and scouts.

“Stannis?” laughed one of Roose Ryswell’s riders. “Stannis is snowed to death by now. Else he’s run back to the Wall with his tail froze between his legs.”

And Roose is heard directly once.

“To fight Lord Stannis we would first need to find him,” Roose Ryswell pointed out. “Our scouts go out the Hunter’s Gate, but of late, none of them return.”

The Ryswells, in particular Roose Ryswell, can communicate with the outside in Winterfell, via their scouts.

However, we are never told of the reason of the quarrel between the Ryswells. Disagreement over the alliance with House Bolton? Conflict of inheritance? If Roose Ryswell is in charge of the scouts, and in bad terms with his relatives, is it possible that he let in the castle people clandestinely? What seems to have been the standard Ryswell sigil, the horse with fiery eyes, has been replaced by four horses. If we take the change as a sign of the quarrel, it means that the Ryswells came to disagree after the first Barrow Hall meeting. And all four Ryswells came to the wedding with their own banners (gold, grey, brown and black). The golden banner is Rodrik's and it will discussed below. The most intriguing hose is the grey one – a Stark color. If the grey horse of the Ryswells is on a white field, it is remarkably close to the Stark banner (grey wolf on a white field). It might be that the grey Ryswell is loyal to the Starks. Who is the grey Ryswell among Rickard, Roger and Roose?

It must mean that the Ryswells have atypical views on shared leadership, since only the leader of the house, in this case Lord Rodrik, should have any legitimacy.

Most curious is the absolute silence of Rodrik Ryswell during the wedding. Is a silence of disapproval? Does he wait for his hour?

7. House Dustin

House Dustin is currently led by Lady Dustin, a Ryswell by birth. She is childless. There is no known Dustin male relative. Here is what we know about that.

Lord Dustin and I had not been married half a year when Robert rose and Ned Stark called his banners. I begged my husband not to go. He had kin he might have sent in his stead. An uncle famed for his prowess with an axe, a great-uncle who had fought in the War of the Ninepenny Kings.

A number of characters in the Seven Kingdoms have fought the War of the Ninepenny Kings (Septon Meribald, Brienne's master at arms, Barristan Selmy). I have the impression that northmen were too remote to be involved in this particular story. It's not known on which side the uncle fought the war, which was, after all, a Blackfyre rebellion. Depending on the uncle's real allegiance, it's possible that the uncle has left some descendant with the Golden Company. A possibility to keep an eye on.

Another possibility, that we are not given much to believe in, is that the Late Lord Dustin might have been the type to father bastards. Here he is during Catelyn Stark's wedding night.

When Lord Dustin had beheld her naked, he’d told Ned that her breasts were enough to make him wish he’d never been weaned. Poor man, she thought. He had ridden south with Ned, never to return.

I don't have the impression that Lady Dustin has the type of breast that would have satisfied her husband. Indeed she seems to be of the tall, thin type. Let's turn to more substantial questions.

Why did Lady Dustin never remarry? There is no apparent heir for Barrowton. So the situation of Lady Dustin is identical to the situation of Lady Hornwood, who was under intense pressure to take another husband and to clarify the inheritance of her late husband's seat. At the Harvest Feast in Winterfell, Lady Hornwood was pressed to remarry and had to refuse Manderly, Crowfood even Rodrik Cassel. We have no sign that anyone would propose the widow of Barrowton. Some heir of Barrowton must have been named. Or shall we consider again the possibility of the heir in exile, the descendant of the great uncle who fought during the war of the Ninepenny Kings? Who is the heir of Barrow Hall?

A few words about Barrowton. Architecturally, the town is clearly different from Winterfell and White Harbor. It is a wooden town, while Winterfell itself is made of granite, and White Harbor received its name from the color of its stone dwellings. There seems to be an east-west divide in the north according to building material. As far as we know, Winterfell, the Dreadfort and White Harbor are made of stone. But Deepwood Motte, Barrow Hall, and the longhall of Bear Island were built with wood. Does the divide reflect some ancient cultural divide? Does it reflect how certain cultural changes affected the north?

Barrowton is a walled.

The moon was rising over the wooden walls of Barrowton when they stepped outside. Reek could hear the wind sweeping across the rolling plains beyond the town. It was less than a mile from Barrow Hall to Harwood Stout’s modest keep beside the eastern gates.

The town seems pleasant enough.

“What would you have me call you?” the lord asked, as they trotted down the broad straight streets of Barrowton.

But Ramsay had plans for Barrowton, when Roose defended Barbrey Dustin.

“Staunch?” Ramsay seethed. “All she does is spit on me. The day will come when I’ll set her precious wooden town afire. Let her spit on that, see if it puts out the flames.”

Finally, there is an enigmatic passage when Roose and Theon rode to Barrow Hall.

They rode past a stable and a shuttered inn with a wheat sheaf painted on its sign. Reek heard music coming through its windows.

There is a seeming contradiction in the Ryswell family, as Rickard and Roger are described in the appendices of AFfC and ADwD as Rodrik's cousins not his sons. Since they are mentioned twice in the text as Rickard's sons I have opted for this interpretation.

If they are cousins of Rodrik, the Ryswell family situation is curiously similar to the Harlaw.

Amongst the banners, she saw the silver fish of Botley, the stone tree of the Stonetrees, the black leviathan of Volmark, the nooses of the Myres. The rest were Harlaw scythes. Boremund placed his upon a pale blue field, Hotho’s was girdled within an embattled border, and the Knight had quartered his with the gaudy peacock of his mother’s House. Even Sigfryd Silverhair showed two scythes counterchanged on a field divided bendwise. Only the Lord Harlaw displayed the silver scythe plain upon a night-black field, as it had flown in the dawn of days: Rodrik, called the Reader, Lord of the Ten Towers, Lord of Harlaw, Harlaw of Harlaw... her favorite uncle.

There is a latent conflict among the Harlaws.

True enough. Damp, decaying Harlaw Hall belonged to old Sigfryd Harlaw the Silverhair; humpbacked Hotho Harlaw had his seat at the Tower of Glimmering, on a crag above the western coast. The Knight, Ser Harras Harlaw, kept court at Grey Garden; Boremund the Blue ruled atop Harridan Hill. But each was subject to Lord Rodrik. “Boremund has three sons, Sigfryd Silverhair has grandsons, and Hotho has ambitions,” Asha said. “They all mean to follow you, even Sigfryd. That one intends to live forever.”

One wonders how far the parallel goes between the Harlaws and the Ryswells. Does the unexplained Ryswell quarrel concern inheritance?

I find more likely that it has to do with the policies of House Ryswells following the fall of the Starks. Many northern houses saw internal conflicts over the course to follow after Roose Bolton asked for fealty: House Manderly, House Umber, House Karstark. It is conceivable that the Ryswells had a dispute for this reason. Perhaps one of the them, who had a passion for the Starks, put a grey horse on his personal banner.

8. The Descent into the Crypts

The descent of Barbrey into the crypts of Winterfell is almost a copy of Robert's visit. Let's compare the behaviour of both characters.

Here is Robert on his way down the crypts.

“And the girls, Ned!” he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling. “I swear, women lose all modesty in the heat. They swim naked in the river, right beneath the castle. Even in the streets, it’s too damn hot for wool or fur, so they go around in these short gowns, silk if they have the silver and cotton if not, but it’s all the same when they start sweating and the cloth sticks to their skin, they might as well be naked.” The king laughed happily.

And here is Barbrey.

“The bride weeps,” Lady Dustin said, as they made their way down, step by careful step. “Our little Lady Arya.”
Take care now. Take care, take care. He put one hand on the wall. The shifting torchlight made the steps seem to move beneath his feet. “As ... as you say, m’lady.”
“Roose is not pleased. Tell your bastard that.”
He is not my bastard, he wanted to say, but another voice inside him said, He is, he is. Reek
belongs to Ramsay, and Ramsay belongs to Reek. You must not forget your name.
“Dressing her in grey and white serves no good if the girl is left to sob. The Freys may not care, but the northmen ... they fear the Dreadfort, but they love the Starks.”
“Not you,” said Theon. “Not me,” the Lady of Barrowton confessed, “but the rest, yes. Old Whoresbane is only here because the Freys hold the Greatjon captive. And do you imagine the Hornwood men have forgotten the Bastard’s last marriage, and how his lady wife was left to starve, chewing her own fingers? What do you think passes through their heads when they hear the new bride weeping? Valiant Ned’s precious little girl.”

Barbrey comes out as more decent. I believe she is not fooled by the imposture, but she is compassionate towards "Arya"'s suffering. Both characters are transformed in presence of the tombs.

Here is Robert facing the tomb.

Robert nodded silently, knelt, and bowed his head.
[…]
“She was more beautiful than that,” the king said after a silence. His eyes lingered on Lyanna’s face, as if he could will her back to life. Finally he rose, made awkward by his weight. “Ah, damn it, Ned, did you have to bury her in a place like this?” His voice was hoarse with remembered grief. “She deserved more than darkness...”
“She was a Stark of Winterfell,” Ned said quietly. “This is her place.”
“She should be on a hill somewhere, under a fruit tree, with the sun and clouds above her and the rain to wash her clean.”
[…]
The king touched her cheek, his fingers brushing across the rough stone as gently as if it were living flesh. “I vowed to kill Rhaegar for what he did to her.”
“You did,” Ned reminded him.
“Only once,” Robert said bitterly.
[…]
“In my dreams, I kill him every night,” Robert admitted. “A thousand deaths will still be less than he deserves.”

Now Barbrey.

They walked on. Barbrey Dustin’s face seemed to harden with every step. She likes this place no more than I do. Theon heard himself say, “My lady, why do you hate the Starks?”
She studied him. “For the same reason you love them.”
Theon stumbled. “Love them? I never ... I took this castle from them, my lady. I had ... had Bran and Rickon put to death, mounted their heads on spikes, I ...”
“... rode south with Robb Stark, fought beside him at the Whispering Wood and Riverrun, returned to the Iron Islands as his envoy to treat with your own father. Barrowton sent men with the Young Wolf as well. I gave him as few men as I dared, but I knew that I must needs give him some or risk the wroth of Winterfell. So I had my own eyes and ears in that host. They kept me well informed. I know who you are. I know what you are. Now answer my question. Why do you love the Starks?”
“I ...” Theon put a gloved hand against a pillar. “... I wanted to be one of them ...”
“And never could. We have more in common than you know, my lord. But come.”
Only a little farther on, three tombs were closely grouped together. That was where they halted. “Lord Rickard,” Lady Dustin observed, studying the central figure. The statue loomed above them— long-faced, bearded, solemn. He had the same stone eyes as the rest, but his looked sad. “He lacks a sword as well.”
It was true. “Someone has been down here stealing swords. Brandon’s is gone as well.”
“He would hate that.” She pulled off her glove and touched his knee, pale flesh against dark stone. “Brandon loved his sword. He loved to hone it. ‘I want it sharp enough to shave the hair from a woman’s cunt,’ he used to say. And how he loved to use it. ‘A bloody sword is a beautiful thing,’ he told me once.”
“You knew him,” Theon said.
The lantern light in her eyes made them seem as if they were afire. “Brandon was fostered at Barrowton with old Lord Dustin, the father of the one I’d later wed, but he spent most of his time riding the Rills. He loved to ride. His little sister took after him in that. A pair of centaurs, those two. And my lord father was always pleased to play host to the heir to Winterfell. My father had great ambitions for House Ryswell. He would have served up my maidenhead to any Stark who happened by, but there was no need. Brandon was never shy about taking what he wanted. I am old now, a dried-up thing, too long a widow, but I still remember the look of my maiden’s blood on his cock the night he claimed me. I think Brandon liked the sight as well. A bloody sword is a beautiful thing, yes. It hurt, but it was a sweet pain.
“The day I learned that Brandon was to marry Catelyn Tully, though ... there was nothing sweet about that pain. He never wanted her, I promise you that. He told me so, on our last night together ... but Rickard Stark had great ambitions too. Southron ambitions that would not be served by having his heir marry the daughter of one of his own vassals. Afterward my father nursed some hope of wedding me to Brandon’s brother Eddard, but Catelyn Tully got that one as well. I was left with young Lord Dustin, until Ned Stark took him from me.”
“Robert’s Rebellion ...”
“Lord Dustin and I had not been married half a year when Robert rose and Ned Stark called his banners. I begged my husband not to go. He had kin he might have sent in his stead. An uncle famed for his prowess with an axe, a great-uncle who had fought in the War of the Ninepenny Kings. But he was a man and full of pride, nothing would serve but that he lead the Barrowton levies himself. I gave him a horse the day he set out, a red stallion with a fiery mane, the pride of my lord father’s herds. My lord swore that he would ride him home when the war was done.
“Ned Stark returned the horse to me on his way back home to Winterfell. He told me that my lord had died an honorable death, that his body had been laid to rest beneath the red mountains of Dorne. He brought his sister’s bones back north, though, and there she rests ... but I promise you, Lord Eddard’s bones will never rest beside hers. I mean to feed them to my dogs.”
Theon did not understand. “His ... his bones ... ?”
Her lips twisted. It was an ugly smile, a smile that reminded him of Ramsay’s. “Catelyn Tully dispatched Lord Eddard’s bones north before the Red Wedding, but your iron uncle seized Moat Cailin and closed the way. I have been watching ever since. Should those bones ever emerge from the swamps, they will get no farther than Barrowton.” She threw one last lingering look at the likeness of Eddard Stark. “We are done here.”

Robert and Barbrey both experience a radical change of mood once they have arrived in the crypts, their outer masks have fallen, revealing some normally hidden parts of their personalities.

Before reaching their former lover, each of them has to pass under the eyes of the dead lords and kings. They feel watched.

As Robert is silent and respectful, Barbrey is burning with passion. Robert touches Lyanna's cheek, Barbrey puts her hand on Brandon's knee (a more erotically charged gesture).

Probably the comparison would illuminate Robert's character, but we are discussing Barbrey now.

Robert and Ned had a long conversation in the crypts. Here is the most salient moment.

“Lord Eddard Stark, I would name you the Hand of the King.”
Ned dropped to one knee.

Compare with Lady Dustin's contempt at the sight of Torrhen Stark's sepulcher.

“Once ... but that was a long time ago.” Theon pointed. “The ones on this side were Kings in the North. Torrhen was the last.”
“The King Who Knelt.”

The scenes strikingly echo each other. At least, King Torrhen bent the knee south of the Neck, but Lord Eddard is in the emblematic Stark place, as he is aware that all the Stark dynasty is watching. Barbrey seems to act in the name of a greater cause than her own ambition (or more accurately perhaps, she has a greater cause to justify her personal ambitions). Barbrey feels she has the right to judge of the Starks and act accordingly.

Let's turn to her sentence.

He brought his sister’s bones back north, though, and there she rests ... but I promise you, Lord Eddard’s bones will never rest beside hers. I mean to feed them to my dogs.

Is it a punishment of Eddard Stark? After all some Stark Kings were not buried in the crypts: Brandon the Shipwright's tomb is empty. Or a final punishment for the whole Stark dynasty? Does she share her ally Roose's assessment?

“What ... what do you owe me, m’lord?”
“The north. The Starks were done and doomed the night that you took Winterfell.”

Barbrey Dustin's is quite remarkably bold in daring to proclaim the end to the Stark dynasty, in the very place where all the dead Starks are felt to be watching.

9. A loyal Vassal?

It's tempting to consider that Barbrey might be still working to restore the Starks in power. It doesn't seem the text supports this notion.

• We just saw that Barbrey expressed her grudge against the Starks in the crypts, facing all the Starks from the beginning of ages. It would seem bizarre to have done all that to have Theon repeat everything to Ramsay. It seemed a truly intimate moment, in particular the final rictus.

• Roose believes sincerely Barbrey to be his ally, as he is skeptical of the loyalty of every other house, except perhaps the Ryswells and Karstarks. And Roose can not be fooled easily.
• Barbrey gave the Young Wolf as few men as she dared. Indeed, House Dustin is practically never mentioned during the war of the five kings. We did not see the Dustin banner when Robb called the banners. So if Barbrey's antipathy towards the Starks is feigned, it seems to have begun before the Bolton treason.
• This seems further confirmed by the fact that Theon had never seen Barbrey Dustin before he met her in Barrowhall. Thus Barbrey never paid a visit to Winterfell during the decade Theon was fostered.
• Since Roose had been married to Barbrey's sister, and had enjoyed close relations to House Ryswell, he was well placed to understand Barbrey's grievance toward the Starks. It's not likely that Barbrey could feign her distaste of the Starks to Roose.
• Barbrey did host "Arya" and Theon when Winterfell was restored for the wedding. It would have been easy to organize "Arya"'s escape or sabotage the wedding or uncover the imposture. In fact, Barbrey took care of organizing many details of the wedding.
• In fact, Barbrey could even have organized a resistance against the Boltons when Roose was still south of the Neck, by taking Moat Cailin and preventing the Bolton/Frey forces from coming north. Indeed we see that the Dustins and Ryswells have armed forces of their own and have not been much touched by the war. They were the first at the siege of Moat Cailin. They could even have allied with Manderly after Lord Wyman has got back his son from the Lannisters. Even the alliance with Stannis was possible. In fact, the enmity of the Dustin/Ryswells would have made Roose's return to his domains very difficult.
• Barbrey told Theon several times that the northmen, especially Whoresbane, are not reliable allies. Why would she say that if she intended to betray the Boltons?
• Barbrey holds Theon no grudge for having caused the fall of Winterfell, and having killed the young Stark boys. She treats him with respect, and even sympathy, never calls him turncloak, and even accept Theon as her neighbor at the high table.I believe she shares Roose's gratitude when he tells Theon, just before meeting Barbrey in Barrow Hall.

“I mean you no harm, you know. I owe you much and more.”
“You do?” Some part of him was screaming, This is a trap, he is playing with you, the son is just the shadow of the father. Lord Ramsay played with his hopes all the time. “What ... what do you owe me, m’lord?”
“The north. The Starks were done and doomed the night that you took Winterfell.”

• Another detail makes me think that Barbrey Dustin is not a Stark loyalist. She prepared the nuptial chamber. The perverse detail of wolfskins on the floor wouldn't be there if Lady Dustin had still respect for the Starks. 

The bedchamber had been well prepared for the consummation. All the furnishings were new, brought up from Barrowton in the baggage train. The canopy bed had a feather mattress and drapes of blood-red velvet. The stone floor was covered with wolfskins.

• The notion that Theon, the very man blamed for the fall of the Starks, should give "Arya" to Ramsay seems to come from Lady Dustin herself.

“Why me?” he had asked when Lady Dustin told him he must give the bride away.
“Her father is dead and all her brothers. Her mother perished at the Twins. Her uncles are lost or dead or captive.”

I am not necessarily claiming that Barbrey will support Roose all along. She might have some other plan in mind, and we saw that the horse with fiery eyes displayed on the Ryswell banner is very intriguing.

10. The Maesters

Here is Barbrey's tirade against the maesters and the Citadel.

As Maester Medrick went to one knee to whisper in Bolton’s ear, Lady Dustin’s mouth twisted in distaste. “If I were queen, the first thing I would do would be to kill all those grey rats. They scurry everywhere, living on the leavings of the lords, chittering to one another, whispering in the ears of their masters. But who are the masters and who are the servants, truly? Every great lord has his maester, every lesser lord aspires to one. If you do not have a maester, it is taken to mean that you are of little consequence. The grey rats read and write our letters, even for such lords as cannot read themselves, and who can say for a certainty that they are not twisting the words for their own ends? What good are they, I ask you?”
“They heal,” said Theon. It seemed to be expected of him.
“They heal, yes. I never said they were not subtle. They tend to us when we are sick and injured, or distraught over the illness of a parent or a child. Whenever we are weakest and most vulnerable, there they are. Sometimes they heal us, and we are duly grateful. When they fail, they console us in our grief, and we are grateful for that as well. Out of gratitude we give them a place beneath our roof and
make them privy to all our shames and secrets, a part of every council. And before too long, the ruler has become the ruled.
“That was how it was with Lord Rickard Stark. Maester Walys was his grey rat’s name. And isn’t it clever how the maesters go by only one name, even those who had two when they first arrived at the Citadel? That way we cannot know who they truly are or where they come from ... but if you are dogged enough, you can still find out. Before he forged his chain, Maester Walys had been known as Walys Flowers. Flowers, Hill, Rivers, Snow ... we give such names to baseborn children to mark them for what they are, but they are always quick to shed them. Walys Flowers had a Hightower girl for a mother ... and an archmaester of the Citadel for a father, it was rumored. The grey rats are not as chaste as they would have us believe. Oldtown maesters are the worst of all. Once he forged his chain, his secret father and his friends wasted no time dispatching him to Winterfell to fill Lord Rickard’s ears with poisoned words as sweet as honey. The Tully marriage was his notion, never doubt it, he—”

We came to know later why Barbrey was so displeased by the Tully marriage.

“The day I learned that Brandon was to marry Catelyn Tully, though ... there was nothing sweet about that pain. He never wanted her, I promise you that. He told me so, on our last night together ... but Rickard Stark had great ambitions too. Southron ambitions that would not be served by having his heir marry the daughter of one of his own vassals. Afterward my father nursed some hope of wedding me to Brandon’s brother Eddard, but Catelyn Tully got that one as well. I was left with young Lord Dustin, until Ned Stark took him from me.”

Lady Dustin is remarkably aware of the politics at the Citadel. There is no sign that she has lived outside of Barrowton, of that she has well-placed acquaintances. Even in Oldtown or at court, we never heard anybody speak of the Citadel in that light, except the archmaester Marwyn. How could the Lady of Barrowton could be so well informed of the debauchery of the Oldtown maesters? (Note the inelegant behavior of soiling her adversaries by alluding to their sexual life.) How could she know of the parentage of bastard maesters? Is it through Roose, himself on good terms, and perhaps still in contact, with the renegade maester Qyburn? Indeed, Qyburn probably knows the dirty secrets at the Citadel.

The Southron ambitions of Rickard Stark probably inspired him simultaneously to betroth Lyanna to Robert, to send Eddard to the Vale for fostering and to marry Brandon to a Tully. (Perhaps, the fostering of Domeric Bolton was part of this policy as well.) Obviously all this was complemented by the marriage of Lysa Tully to Jon Arryn, by Robert's fostering in the Vale. The network of alliance is extraordinary and certainly meaningful.

But we never heard Eddard or Robert mention any of those southron ambitions. Eddard never doubted the goodwill of maester Luwin. There are a few instances of mistrust of the maesters in the books. They have all to do with family loyalties or cultural differences, and are not caused by the fear of the Citadel as a political entity. Indeed, the Greyjoys seem to dislike maesters, Wyman Manderly suspects his maester to be too close to the Lannisters, Pycelle is not trusted either, the Lannisters do not want Gormon Tyrell as a replacement for Pycelle.

We never see Lady Dustin's maester. I suppose there is one in Barrowton, since maester Aemon sent a raven there.

11. Lady Dustin at the Wedding

Lady Barbrey is always dressed in black, which refers to her widowhood.

Inside the hall, a woman stood beside the hearth, warming thin hands above the embers of a dying fire. She was clad all in black, from head to heel, and wore no gold nor gems, but she was highborn, that was plain to see.

We know that black is indeed the color of mourning in Westeros, since Cersei dresses in black after the death of her relatives. But, being all in black has another connotation, especially in the north: it's the color of the Night's Watch, which means obviously self-sacrifice and duty. Note also that Lady Barbrey is devoid of ornaments, even at the wedding feast.

To his left sat Lady Dustin, clad as ever in black wool, severe in cut and unadorned.

Perhaps, the ever black clothes are meant to indicate how dutiful Lady Barbrey is, to enhance her status among the northmen, etc. Here is a gratuitous association of ideas: the lady in black reminds me of Dany Flint, a woman who passed as a brother of the Night's Watch.

Let's return to Barbrey Dustin. If she does not particularly mourn the late Lord Dustin, who does she wear black for, then?

Barbrey might not be as austere as she seems. Indeed, here she is during the wedding feast:

She gestured toward Lord Manderly with her wine cup.

Lady Dustin held out her wine cup and let him fill it, then gestured for him to do the same for Theon.

She took a sip of wine, her dark eyes sparkling, […]

Another point of comparison with King Robert, it would seem. However, the excessive drinking is just a consolation for Barbrey, as she feels she should have been the bride of Winterfell once, and has been consigned to spend the rest of her life as a widow instead. Weddings are propicious opportunities for the reemergence of regrets.

Barbrey is the only northerner who doesn't shun Theon. She asked for him specifically in Barrowton. When Roose arrived there, she was anxious to have Theon. Here is the scene:

“Who is this?” she said. “Where is the boy? Did your bastard refuse to give him up? Is this old man his ... oh, gods be good, what is that smell? Has this creature soiled himself?”
“He has been with Ramsay. Lady Barbrey, allow me to present the rightful Lord of the Iron Islands, Theon of House Greyjoy.”
No, he thought, no, don’t say that name, Ramsay will hear you, he’ll know, he’ll know, he’ll hurt me.
Her mouth pursed. “He is not what I expected.”
“He is what we have.”
“What did your bastard do to him?”
“Removed some skin, I would imagine. A few small parts. Nothing too essential.” “Is he mad?”
“He may be. Does it matter?”

Roose introduced Theon, not as the turncloak, but as a respectable man of the highest birth. Recall a suggestion made by Roose at the Twins.

“He is Balon Greyjoy’s only living son,” Lord Bolton said softly, as if they had forgotten, “and now rightful King of the Iron Islands. A captive king has great value as a hostage.”
“Hostage?” The word raised Catelyn’s hackles. Hostages were oft exchanged. “Lord Bolton, I hope you are not suggesting that we free the man who killed my sons.”
“Whoever wins the Seastone Chair will want Theon Greyjoy dead,” Bolton pointed out. “Even in chains, he has a better claim than any of his uncles. Hold him, I say, and demand concessions from the ironborn as the price of his execution.”

Barbrey kept Theon with her in Barrowtown while Winterfell was prepared for the wedding. She organized that Theon played the role of the "closest male kin of the bride" gave "Arya" to her groom. Barbrey sat next to Theon at the wedding feast, she confided to him her thoughts about Roose, Manderly, the Lannisters, etc. She drank with him and kept his cup well filled with wine. She used him as a guide to the crypts. She made most intimate confidence (about the Starks etc) while trusting he would hold his tongue. She even called him My Lord at a point, a sign that she bears him no grudge for the treason of the Young Wolf, and she seemed to consider him his equal when she asked why he loves the Starks so much.

Why put so much trust in Theon? Why accept to be seen consorting with the pariah? It might just be personal affinity, or her own fascination with kingship (after all, Theon is the rightful king of the Iron Islands).

The visit in the crypts seems to have been done without Roose's leave. It appears that Roose does not care about the crypts.

Lady Dustin seems to use her serving maid to keep a look on "Arya".

Lady Arya was not there to share the merriment. She had not been seen outside her chambers since her wedding night. Sour Alyn had been saying that Ramsay kept his bride naked and chained to a bedpost, but Theon knew that was only talk. There were no chains, at least none that men could see.
Just a pair of guards outside the bedchamber, to keep the girl from wandering. And she is only naked when she bathes.
That she did most every night, though. Lord Ramsay wanted his wife clean. “She has no handmaids, poor thing,” he had said to Theon. “That leaves you, Reek. Should I put you in a dress?” He laughed. “Perhaps if you beg it of me. Just now, it will suffice for you to be her bath maid. I won’t have her smelling like you.” So whenever Ramsay had an itch to bed his wife, it fell to Theon to borrow some servingwomen from Lady Walda or Lady Dustin and fetch hot water from the kitchens. Though Arya never spoke to any of them, they could not fail to see her bruises.

and later Lady Dustin complains.

“The bride weeps,” Lady Dustin said, as they made their way down, step by careful step. “Our little Lady Arya.”

So Lady Dustin wouldn't know if her serving maid wasn't reporting. Surely, she keeps an eye on Ramsay as well.

Lady Dustin does not speak to Ramsay, it seems. Indeed she insulted him by not allowing him to come to Barrowt Hall. Their relations have not mended at the wedding, since she tells Theon.

“Roose is not pleased. Tell your bastard that.”

Roose gives us the reason of their incompatibility.

She was fond of my late son and suspects you of having some part in his demise.

The reality of Domeric's death deserves a close scrutiny. But let's accept that Barbrey blames Ramsay for Domeric's death. Note that it can only be because Roose told her, since Roose is the one who disputed Maester Uthor diagnosis.

A sickness of the bowels, Maester Uthor says, but I say poison.

At no point, Lady Dustin mentioned Domeric to Theon, perhaps out of concern that Theon would repeat to Ramsay. We only hear of her fondness for Domeric through Roose. But note that she praised Brandon's horsemanship, just like Roose praised Domeric's.

Barbrey's dislike of Ramsay is expressed often. She never spoke to Ramsay, and never pronounced his name. She refused to host him in Barrow Hall. She called him the "Bastard". She often brought up Ramsay's cruelty towards Lady Hornwood and his bride. She made Theon remove his gloves so that everybody can see Theon's treatment.

It is time to analyze Barbrey's political objective. She is allied with Roose, who in turn has Ramsay as apparent heir, and Walda Frey as wife. Ramsay and the Freys compete for the inheritance. Barbrey's actions aim at favoring her family, she is not exception. Under all likehood, she doesn't want Ramsay to inherit the Dreadfort, Winterfell etc. She doesn't seem to like the Freys very much. But she realized that they are damned in the north because of the Red Wedding, and did not see the alliance as politically viable. Though she said, when she contemplated Roose's political prospects.

“Truth be told,” she said, “Lord Bolton aspires to more than mere lordship. Why not King of the North? Tywin Lannister is dead, the Kingslayer is maimed, the Imp is fled. The Lannisters are a spent force, and you were kind enough to rid him of the Starks. Old Walder Frey will not object to his fat little Walda becoming a queen. White Harbor might prove troublesome should Lord Wyman survive this coming battle ... but I am quite sure that he will not. No more than Stannis. Roose will remove both of them, as he removed the Young Wolf. Who else is there?”

She envisions no place for Ramsay here. Of course if Walda is Queen, her children will inherit the throne, not Ramsay. I am not sure it is entirely sincere. She might expect Theon to repeat this to Ramsay, given the tensions between the Freys and Ramsay, that might lead to blood.

It seems to me that Lady Dustin plays also the Freys against Ramsay. She reminds Aenys Frey of Ramsay's cruelty several times.

Lady Dustin spoke up. “Take off your gloves.”
Theon glanced up sharply. “Please, no. I ... I ...”
“Do as she says,” Ser Aenys said. “Show us your hands.”
Theon peeled his gloves off and held his hands up for them to see. It is not as if I stand before them naked. It is not so bad as that. His left hand had three fingers, his right four. Ramsay had taken only the pinky off the one, the ring finger and forefingers from the other.
“The Bastard did this to you,” Lady Dustin said.

“We must look at Manderly,” muttered Ser Aenys Frey. “Lord Wyman loves us not.”
Ryswell was not convinced. “He loves his steaks and chops and meat pies, though. Prowling the castle by dark would require him to leave the table. The only time he does that is when he seeks the privy for one of his hourlong squats.”
“I do not claim Lord Wyman does the deeds himself. He brought three hundred men with him. A hundred knights. Any of them might have—”
“Night work is not knight’s work,” Lady Dustin said. “And Lord Wyman is not the only man who lost kin at your Red Wedding, Frey. Do you imagine Whoresbane loves you any better? If you did not hold the Greatjon, he would pull out your entrails and make you eat them, as Lady Hornwood ate her fingers. Flints, Cerwyns, Tallharts, Slates ... they all had men with the Young Wolf.”
“House Ryswell too,” said Roger Ryswell. “Even Dustins out of Barrowton.” Lady Dustin parted her lips in a thin, feral smile. “The north remembers, Frey.”
Aenys Frey’s mouth quivered with outrage. “Stark dishonored us. That is what you northmen had best remember.”
Roose Bolton rubbed at his chapped lips. “This squabbling will not serve.”

There is the unspoken threat that the northmen would rally behind Ramsay and make the Freys pay for the Red Wedding. So Lady Dustin plays the Freys and Ramsay against each other. Of course, if both sides are eliminated, Barbrey and the Ryswells will remain as Roose's main ally.

In this exchange, we had a glimpse of the Ryswell family dynamics. Roger Ryswell seems in charge of the Ryswell interest, as testified by his presence in the solar in place of his father. Nevertheless Barbrey seems to be dominant among the siblings: taking the initiative to order Theon to remove his gloves, mocking the Freys, then accusing them.

Another detail, perhaps unimportant, deserves to be noted.

Lady Dustin went to the crypts with two sworn men. The one that carries the lantern is a sergeant called Beron. The name sounds ironborn. Indeed, we see a character called Beron in the Iron Island: Beron Blacktyde. But there is also a lord Beron Stark who fought against the Ironmen at the time Bloodraven ruled the realm. Whether Beron Stark's name came from the Iron Island for some reason has still to be determined.

12. Barbrey and Abel?

Barbrey and Aenys Frey argue about Theon's involvement in the Winterfell murders.

Lady Dustin laughed. “Are all Freys such fools? Look at him. Hold a dagger? He hardly has the strength to hold a spoon. Do you truly think he could have overcome the Bastard’s disgusting creature and shoved his manhood down his throat?”

He hardly has the strength to hold a spoon. She seems to refer to another scene that happened two nights before.

Theon was bent over a wooden bowl finishing the last of his own portion of pease porridge when a light touch on his shoulder made him drop his spoon.

It's Holly coming to ask Theon about the crypts. Here is their conversation.

Some girls like to touch,” she said, with a little half-smile. “If it please m’lord, I’m Holly.”
Holly the whore, he thought, but she was pretty enough. Once he might have laughed and pulled her into his lap, but that day was done. “What do you want?”
“To see these crypts. Where are they, m’lord? Would you show me?” Holly toyed with a strand of her hair, coiling it around her little finger. “Deep and dark, they say. A good place for touching. All the dead kings watching.”

“Did Abel send you to me?”
“Might be. Might be I sent myself. But if it’s Abel you’re wanting, I could bring him. He’ll sing m’lord a sweet song.”

Theon heard Lady Dustin speak just before being touched by Holly. So Barbrey could hear as well what Holly told Theon, and probably did since it is hinted she has noticed him letting his spoon fall. So Lady Dustin might know that Holly, and by extension the washerwomen and Mance, are interested in the crypts. I do not know what to make of it yet.

Perhaps it is worth noting that Holly seems to offer Abel's company to Theon, in place of her own to go to the crypts for touching. I can't help thinking that Lady Dustin might have reflected on that offer as well, given that singers have a reputation for being lovers of highborn ladies (see: Lady Smallwood and Tom Sevenstrings, the fondness that Lysa Arryn has for singers, Dareon found in the bed of Lord Rowan's daughter, the Blue Bard's reputation in King's Landing…). Moreover, the High Septon, in all his misogyny, said:

“These are common sins,” he said. “The wickedness of widows is well-known, and all women are wantons at heart, given to using their wiles and their beauty to work their wills on men.”

I feel the need to insist on this and to provide more interesting details. Here is Mance singing at Roose's command.

Lord Bolton commanded Abel to play for them as they ate. The bard sang “Iron Lances,” then “The Winter Maid.”
When Barbrey Dustin asked for something more cheerful, he gave them “The Queen Took Off Her Sandal, the King Took Off His Crown,” and “The Bear and the Maiden Fair.”

The hint would be clearer if Abel had given her (and not them) the songs, and if Theon had reported looks, smiles etc. However, the formulation is simply Theon's point of view, and we can infer that Theon did not understand that Abel was singing specifically for Lady Dustin. In any case, the first song has been used as the bedding song during the Red Wedding and it involves a royal couple (which is likely to please Lady Dustin, see above). The second song has a well known double meaning, and can be understood as a sexual proposition from a devoted lover.

Rickard Ryswell, Barbrey's brother, showed openly his affection to Frenya. So there is a familial precedent.

Beneath the Burned Tower, he passed Rickard Ryswell nuzzling at the neck of another one of Abel’s washerwomen, the plump one with the apple cheeks and pug nose. The girl was barefoot in the snow, bundled up in a fur cloak. He thought she might be naked underneath. When she saw him, she said something to Ryswell that made him laugh aloud.

Moreover, the passage in the crypts with Theon had surely an erotic effect on Lady Dustin.

“He would hate that.” She pulled off her glove and touched his knee, pale flesh against dark stone. “Brandon loved his sword. He loved to hone it. ‘I want it sharp enough to shave the hair from a woman’s cunt,’ he used to say. And how he loved to use it. ‘A bloody sword is a beautiful thing,’ he told me once.”
“You knew him,” Theon said.
The lantern light in her eyes made them seem as if they were afire.
[…]
I am old now, a dried-up thing, too long a widow, but I still remember the look of my maiden’s blood on his cock the night he claimed me.

The lantern light in her eyes made them seem as if they were afire. Once could find uncertain that Barbrey Dustin, a seemingly austere and dedicated character, would take a singer as a lover, especially given Winterfell's tense circumstances. The scene proves that Barbrey is not a prude, and she is not too old to desire a lover. Given her fantasies of royalty, Mance would possibly appeal to her, if she knew that he is a king in disguise.

A highborn woman would not take openly a lover in the Seven Kingdoms. In the interest of discretion, there is the possibility that Lady Dustin met "Abel", perhaps in the crypts, rather than in her own quarters, the night before the escape. That would solve neatly the problem of why there is no sign that Mance didn't press on with Theon about the crypts, when they planned the escape the following night. (Mance might have, and Theon might have told him. But we have no confirmation in the text from Theon's point of view afterwards.)

The scene when Theon is summoned to Ned Stark's solar happened the evening of the same day. And Theon had this strange thought.

He wondered if Lady Dustin had told them about the crypts, the missing swords.

Then Theon wandered in the castle until the hour of the wolf (middle of the night), before the horn is blown. Then he met Holly, Rowan and Myrtle in the godswood. They brought him to Abel in the burned tower.

Another little detail gives me pause. At breakfast before the escape, Theon expressed his fears to Abel that Ramsay might caught them.

“If the Bastard does come after us, he might live long enough to rue it.”

Besides Rowan, the night before, only one character in Winterfell dared to call Ramsay by that the dreaded word (not to his face, but in the presence of Roose, no less).

“The Bastard did this to you,” Lady Dustin said.

She used the term of few more times, notably in the crypts.

There is little reason for the name "Bastard" to come to Mance's mouth if he never heard call him by that name. Possibly, he took the habit from Lady Dustin. (It seems likely to me that Mance has been in contact with Manderly, Crowfood. He might have been contaminated by that.)

(To summarize, here are the hints: Lady Dustin heard Holly offer Abel to Theon, including the suggestion to go the crypts, Abel played suggestive songs at Barbrey's request, Barbrey appeared genuinely aroused in the presence of the tombs, and there is a need to find someone who showed Abel the location of the crypts.)

If, as it seems, the Dustin and Ryswells have in their cultural background an ancient kingdom of the First Men, Barbrey might have much and more to talk about with Mance, himself quite knowledgeable in ancient lore.

The next morning, that is the morning of the escape, Lady Barbrey was missing at breakfast. Since her brother Roger laughed with her liege man Harwood Stout, it would seem that nothing tragic happened to her. However, Lady Dustin has always been a central player in the Winterfell drama. She seemed present in every scene in the Great Hall but the last one. Hence her absence during the last breakfast is not fortuitous, and has to be explained. Either she left the castle, or something happened to her.

13. House Stout

It's a minor house of Barrowton, sworn to House Dustin. There are two other Stouts in the story: Ronnel Stout is with Robb Stark and Roose Bolton in the South, probably leading the Barrowton men, Ser Wynton Stout is a senile ranger at the Wall, who once came close to becoming Lord Commander. (That Wynton is a knight, might not mean that he worships the Seven. Indeed Ser Bartimus is a follower of the old gods. However, Bartimus is a knight because he saved Manderly's life at the Trident, and Manderly follows the faith of the seven.).

Lord Stout is present in Winterfell. He will not forget Ramsay's visit in their town. Here is a significant passage in the hall of lord Stout.

The dogs enjoyed the run of the hall, however, and provided the night’s best entertainment, when Maude and Grey Jeyne tore into one of Lord Stout’s hounds over an especially meaty bone that Will Short had tossed them. Reek was the only man in the hall who did not watch the three dogs fight. He kept his eyes on Ramsay Bolton.
The fight did not end until their host’s dog was dead. Stout’s old hound never stood a mummer’s chance. He had been one against two, and Ramsay’s bitches were young, strong, and savage.

And another incident.

The riders had been sixteen days on the hunt, with only hard bread and salt beef to eat, aside from the occasional stolen kid, so that night Lord Ramsay commanded that a feast be laid to celebrate his return to Barrow-ton. Their host, a grizzled one-armed petty lord by the name of Harwood Stout, knew better than to refuse him, though by now his larders must be well nigh exhausted. Reek had heard Stout’s servants muttering at how the Bastard and his men were eating through the winter stores. “He’ll bed Lord Eddard’s little girl, they say,” Stout’s cook complained when she did not know that Reek was listening, “but we’re the ones who’ll be fucked when the snows come, you mark my words.”

Clearly Ramsay made himself loathed by the Stout household. Since Lady Dustin appears to hate Ramsay, there should be no disagreement between the Lady of Barrow Hall and her liege man. The relationship of House Stout with Roose is less clear. But note that it is likely that Ronnel Stout led the Barrowton men in Robb Stark's campaign. Ronnel Stout was spared the Red Wedding by Roose.

“I left six hundred men at the ford. Spearmen from the rills, the mountains, and the White Knife, a hundred Hornwood longbows, some freeriders and hedge knights, and a strong force of Stout and Cerwyn men to stiffen them. Ronnel Stout and Ser Kyle Condon have the command.

Harwood Stout himself seems an affable fellow, joking with Roger Ryswell, talking quietly with Whoresbane Umber.

A heraldic remark to conclude, the sigil of House Stout is mentioned in Barrow Hall, but not in Winterfell.

For the Stouts, chevrony russet and gold,

As we already remarked, gold is uncommon in the north. It's almost an alien metal. It's not used as a currency, and is not mined anywhere north of the Neck, it seems. We mentioned already the strangeness for Rodrik Ryswell to have a golden horse as a personal banner. So the mention of gold on the banner, the knighthood of Wynton Stout seems to point to southern cultural values for House Stout.

14. The Horselords of the Stone Hedge

Lady Dustin disappeared, it seems, the night before the escape. Between the last two chapters in Winterfell, one can find the only chapter of the book mediated by Jaime Lannister. It happens at Raventree Hall.

The situation at the Blackwood Stronghold might be enlightening about what is going on in Winterfell. First, there is the description of Raventree Hall.

Raventree Hall was old. Moss grew thick between its ancient stones, spiderwebbing up its walls like the veins in a crone’s legs. Two huge towers flanked the castle’s main gate, and smaller ones defended every angle of its walls. All were square.

Ancient castle, square towers: like Winterfell's inner Wall. Inside the castle:

Inside the castle walls, however, a bit of the forest still remained. House Blackwood kept the old gods, and worshiped as the First Men had in the days before the Andals came to Westeros. Some of the trees in their godswood were said to be as old as Raventree’s square towers, especially the heart tree, a weirwood of colossal size whose upper branches could be seen from leagues away, like bony fingers scratching at the sky.

The weirwood is even larger than Winterfell's. From Lord Blackwood's solar, one can see:

Through their thick, diamond-shaped panes of yellow glass Jaime glimpsed the gnarled limbs of the tree from which the castle took its name. It was a weirwood ancient and colossal, ten times the size of the one in the Stone Garden at Casterly Rock. This tree was bare and dead, though.
“The Brackens poisoned it,” said his host. “For a thousand years it has not shown a leaf. In another thousand it will have turned to stone, the maesters say. Weirwoods never rot.”
“And the ravens?” asked Jaime. “Where are they?”
“They come at dusk and roost all night. Hundreds of them. They cover the tree like black leaves, every limb and every branch. They have been coming for thousands of years. How or why, no man can say, yet the tree draws them every night.”

The presence of the ravens reminds me very much of the ravens currently lingering in Winterfell. The coming and going of the ravens recall Coldhands' ravens.

There is another resemblance with the Winterfell weirwood. The Blackwoods and the Starks have similar funerary practices: burying their dead under the heart tree.

Lucas was murdered at the Red Wedding. Walder Frey’s fourth wife was a Blackwood, but kinship counts for no more than guest right at the Twins. I should like to bury Lucas beneath the tree, but the Freys have not yet seen fit to return his bones to me.

The death of the weirwood is the product of the Bracken/Blackwood rivalry if Lord Tytos is to be believed. As it happens, I find much similarity between the Brackens and the Ryswells. Foremost, there is the passion for horses. Here is the Bracken banner, as seen by Jaime on the tent of Lord Bracken.

The tent was brown, like the standard flapping from its center pole, where the red stallion of House Bracken reared upon its gold escutcheon.

The significance of the similarities of banner has been underlined at one point in the books, and it's worth thinking of it from time to time.

At a place called Sow’s Horn they found a tough old knight named Ser Roger Hogg squatting stubbornly in his towerhouse with six men-at- arms, four crossbowmen, and a score of peasants. Ser Roger was as big and bristly as his name and Ser Kennos suggested that he might be some lost Crakehall, since their sigil was a brindled boar. Strongboar seemed to believe it and spent an earnest hour questioning Ser Roger about his ancestors.

I don't know if the Ryswells are lost Brackens or the Brackens lost Ryswells. If the passion the Brackens have for horses is not clearly declared clearly enough on their banners, here is helm on Lord Bracken's head.

He was mounted on an armored destrier and had donned his plate and mail, and a grey steel greathelm with a horsehair crest.

The Blackwood/Bracken rivalry goes far back in time. Here is the Blackwood version.

“It is, my lord,” the boy said, “but some of the histories were penned by their maesters and some by ours, centuries after the events that they purport to chronicle. It goes back to the Age of Heroes. The Blackwoods were kings in those days. The Brackens were petty lords, renowned for breeding horses. Rather than pay their king his just due, they used the gold their horses brought them to hire swords and cast him down.”
“When did all this happen?”
“Five hundred years before the Andals. A thousand, if the True History is to be believed. Only no one knows when the Andals crossed the narrow sea. The True History says four thousand years have passed since then, but some maesters claim that it was only two. Past a certain point, all the dates grow hazy and confused, and the clarity of history becomes the fog of legend.”

The Bracken story would be different.

Before the Andals came to Westeros, House Bracken ruled this river. We were kings and the Blackwoods were our vassals, but they betrayed us and usurped the crown.

I suspect the rivalry goes back to the Dawn Age, or even before. Let's return to Maester Luwin's account of the Dawn Age.

“But some twelve thousand years ago, the First Men appeared from the east, crossing the Broken Arm of Dorne before it was broken. They came with bronze swords and great leathern shields, riding horses. No horse had ever been seen on this side of the narrow sea. No doubt the children were as frightened by the horses as the First Men were by the faces in the trees. As the First Men carved out holdfasts and farms, they cut down the faces and gave them to the fire. Horror-struck, the children went to war. The old songs say that the greenseers used dark magics to make the seas rise and sweep away the land, shattering the Arm, but it was too late to close the door. The wars went on until the earth ran red with blood of men and children both, but more children than men, for men were bigger and stronger, and wood and stone and obsidian make a poor match for bronze. Finally the wise of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the First Men met the greenseers and wood dancers amidst the weirwood groves of a small island in the great lake called Gods Eye.

We'll have a look at the whole story elsewhere. Our main observation resides in the apparent hostility between horses and children of the forest. Horses were evidently important to the first men who came to Westeros. Then we see that some faction among the First Men prevailed over another faction to forge a peace with the children of the forest. We could easily recognize the Blackwoods and Starks in the first category, while the Brackens and Ryswells were on the other side.

The Brackens were once followers of the old gods, but they eventually embraced the church of the Seven, after the Andals came to Westeros. A contrario, the Blackwoods have been constant in their devotion to the old gods, even though they have been under pressure to adopt the new gods for centuries and centuries.

The Ryswells might be in the same situation than the Brackens were before they converted to the Faith of the Seven. They were unenthusiastiac about the old gods, but, as part of northern nobility, they have to obey certain cultural norms. Indeed, when old Lord Locke invoked the old gods for the blizzard over Winterfell, Barbrey Dustin is the one who puts in prosaic terms.

“The gods have turned against us,” old Lord Locke was heard to say in the Great Hall. “This is their wroth. A wind as cold as hell itself and snows that never end. We are cursed.”
“Stannis is cursed,” a Dreadfort man insisted. “He is the one out there in the storm.”

Here is Barbrey.

“Lord Stannis is lost in the storm,” said Lady Dustin. “He’s leagues away, dead or dying. Let winter do its worst. A few more days and the snows will bury him and his army both.”
And us as well, thought Theon, marveling at her folly. Lady Barbrey was of the north and should have known better. The old gods might be listening.

The presence of horses in Winterfell's Great Hall during the last day before the escape has, at least, a symbolic importance. The horses are brought to the Great Hall after the collapse of the stables.

Lord Bolton appeared briefly in the outer ward to inspect the scene, then ordered the remaining horses brought inside, along with the mounts still tethered in the outer ward.

That makes for a change of atmosphere in the Great Hall.

The reek within the Great Hall was palpable by eventide. With hundreds of horses, dogs, and men squeezed underneath one roof, the floors slimy with mud and melting snow, horseshit, dog turds,
and even human feces, the air redolent with the smells of wet dog, wet wool, and sodden horse blankets, there was no comfort to be found amongst the crowded benches, but there was food. The cooks served up great slabs of fresh horsemeat, charred outside and bloody red within, with roast onions and neeps ... and for once, the common soldiers ate as well as the lords and knights.

Living with horses, eating horse's flesh. That recalls the life of the Dothrakis... The morning of the escape the horses are still present.

Theon turned to Abel. “This will not work.” His voice was pitched so low that even the horses could not have overheard.

When the body of Little Walder is brought to the Great Hall.

The scent of it set the horses to screaming.

After the fight.

Even then the rafters still rang with shouts and prayers and curses, the shrieks of terrified horses and the growls of Ramsay’s bitches.

Another house of the seven kingdoms might have cultural affinities with the Ryswells: House Caswell. Beside the similarity in name, the Caswells have an equine sigil: the Centaur. The word centaur is part of Barbrey's vocabulary.

Brandon was fostered at Barrowton with old Lord Dustin, the father of the one I’d later wed, but he spent most of his time riding the Rills. He loved to ride. His little sister took after him in that. A pair of centaurs, those two.

If there were a tradition for skinchanging into horses, the centaur would be the perfect sigil. House Caswell was among the Blackfyre supporters during the second Blackfyre rebellion.

Perhaps, it is time to offer a wild conjecture. The Golden Company has just returned to Westeros and is about to take the Iron Throne. The Company has been founded by Bittersteel, a Bracken by his mother, who still has the Bracken horse on his personal banner, along the Targaryen features of his father (more precisely his personal banner is a red horse, with black dragon wings upon a golden field). Just like Bittersteel's archenemy Bloodraven is still alive and active, I suspect that somehow the golden skull of Bittersteel, who presides over the Golden Company, is a sign of the agency of Aegor Rivers. The horse displayed at the wedding by Rodrik Ryswell is a golden horse – like the sigil of John the Fiddler, who claimed the kingdom as Daemon II, featured gold prominently.

Across his chest an engrailed cross had been embroidered in gold thread, with a golden fiddle in the first and third quarters, a golden sword in the second and the fourth.

We just saw that the Brackens got gold by raising horses, and refused to pay taxes to the Blackwood king. The other horses of the Ryswells are brown, grey and black. The color brown is on the Bracken banner (red stallion upon a golden escutcheon on brown). The other colors are black (black dragon?) and grey. Of course grey is the Stark color, and it is possible that the Ryswell with a grey banner is still faithful to the Starks. Who is the grey Ryswell?

The same golden horse is on Barbrey Dustin's personal banner, the golden horse of her own father, and the black clothes of Lady Dustin might refer to the Black Dragon.

Finally, Barbrey Dustin sees the Lannisters as a spent force.

“Truth be told,” she said, “Lord Bolton aspires to more than mere lordship. Why not King of the North? Tywin Lannister is dead, the Kingslayer is maimed, the Imp is fled. The Lannisters are a spent force, and you were kind enough to rid him of the Starks.”

Barbrey seems well informed on the politics of King's Landing. It is possible that she received reports from Qyburn via Roose. Or are the Ryswells are among the friends that the Golden Company has kept in the Seven Kingdoms?