Harrenhal

I'm gonna talk about the second season of HBO's Game of Thrones today (as it is coming to a close soon). I think that there are two episodes left (at least that's what the preview indicated this last Sunday).

This is an HBO screen capture of the castle of Harrenhal

More specifically, I wanted to talk about Harrenhal because it's one of the important castles that we see in George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy, A Song of Ice and Fire. Last year, I wrote about the Eyrie, and I compared Ted Nasmith's version of the Eyrie to the one that we saw on film. You can find that post HERE if you want to read it. Now, I'm going to do the same treatment for Harrenhal.

This is concept art for Harrenhal

First, a little history.

In the Song of Ice and Fire novels, Harrenhal is a colossal castle consisting of five massive towers (the Tower of Dread, Widow's Tower, Wailing Tower, Tower of Ghosts and Kingspyre Tower) and immense walls.

Concept art, interior of Harrenhal

The castle was built by House Hoare, the ruling house of the Iron Islands which had overrun and conquered the Riverlands. It took three generations to construct. King Harren the Black completed the castle, boasting that it was impregnable.

Painting of Harrenhal by award-winning artist Ted Nasmith

King Harren was betrayed by his bannermen during the War of Conquest and the castle was largely melted by dragonfire: while Harren had thought the castle's walls were tall enough to withstand any assault, he neglected to consider that the Targaryens' dragons could fly right over them. Aegon the Conqueror roasted Harren alive in the tallest tower of the castle, now known as the Kingspyre.  As a result Harrenhal is half-ruined, with stone towers melted and twisted by the flames of the dragons, giving it an ominous and nightmarish appearance. No lord has held the castle for long since Harren's death.

Since Harren's death the castle has passed through a number of other noble houses (Qoherys, Towers, Harroway, Strong and Lothston), each of which has come to ruin. prior to the War of the Five Kings House Whent, loyal vassals to Lord Hoster Tully of Riverrun.

Harrenhal is technically the biggest castle in Westeros.  It is so ridiculously large that the surrounding area cannot possibly produce the necessary food to support the massive army needed to fully man it. Rulers of Harrenhal usually lose money and resources simply by possessing it. As a result, Harrenhal is rarely if ever fully manned.

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So what do you think? Did Ted Nasmith's vision fully capture Harrenhal? Or do you think HBO nailed it with their version? Or do you think the concept art is closer to how you picture a castle would look that got melted by dragon fire?

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