The Bracken and Blackwood Case;A (crack-potish) theory

[Lemon of Lemonwood]

Warning!This theory is more than slightly crack-pot,written solely for fun purposes.Your patience will be highly appreciated ;)

The Bracken and Blackwood Case;A theory

One of the most prevalent feuds in the ASoIaF universe mythos is undoubtedly the age-old rivalry between and the Brackens the Blackwoods. Spanning for thousands of years,it has influenced the history not only of Riverlands,but the Seven Kingdoms as a whole.

Describing that influence in length is,in my opinion,not needed.It has been analyzed by members of this forum far better read than myself and in great detail.

What hasn't been concluded ,though,is How it all started.True enough,we have the two versions of the story given by the respective Houses,with Hoster Blackwood even casting some doubt on the general validity stories himself:

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.

"How did all this begin, between Blackwood and Bracken? Is it written down?"
"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."
Jamie,A Dance with Dragons

So I would like to examine some elements given to us by the texts and shed a new light to them.

A question of fealty

While we knew from the novels that the to houses had bot First Men ancestry,were at some point petty kings and have a different religion,the WoIaF book reveals the possibility of the Blackwoods being not initially native to the Trident.It seems they have an oral tradition of having a northern ancestry:

...And mayhaps even the Blackwoods of Raventree, whose own family traditions insist they once ruled most of the wolfswood before being driven from their lands by the Kings of Winter (certain runic records support this claim, if Maester Barneby’s translations can be trusted)

The World ofIce and Fire,the Riverlands

So,we learn that it seems that at some point,the Kings of Winter ousted them from the North and they relocated to Blackwood Vale.We know the Blackwood Vale had been a forest once.It would seem logical to conclude the Blackwoods settled in an uninhabited forest granted by the Brackens,swearing fealty to them,in the fashion the Manderlys would swear fealty to the Starks after centuries.Their sigil after all,is clearly from after the rivalry had started,showing the heart tree dead.

Well,perhaps the answer is not as simple as it seems.Of the two versions presented,the Bracken story is far less detailed and offers less clues as a result.

So,what about Bracken ancestry?

The Family Name

The Bracken family name is most possibly connected to the plant bracken,a species of ferns.As we read here,bracken is found in almost all natural habitats.It is known to grow in abundance in both forests and fields,but the environment in which it is most prevalent the moorlands.

It should be noted that an interesting parallel can be drown between the properties of the plant and the actions of the House so far in the novel:Bracken is notably hardy,tends to spread rapidly when unchecked,claiming entire areas from other species by chocking them out,.For that and its toxicity to many domestic animals,it is nowadays often considered weed .Similarly,the Brackens throughout their history are locked in a struggle with the Blackwoods for land,have resurfaced many times despite the multiple sackings of Stone Hedge,have been seen to betray their allies and side with pretenders,in general,have a notably arrivist and amoral attitude in comparison to their rivals.
Bracken is shown to grow in the forests of the Riverlands,at least in the northern part,like the forest surrounding Oldstones:

Merrett glanced about, and saw nothing but gorse, bracken, thistle, sedge, and blackberry bushes between the pines and grey-green sentinels.
A Sword of Storms,Epilogue

Ergo,one could say they took the name of local flora for their own,plain and simple.Yet I would disagree.
Why would a ruling house take the name of a minor fern of their woods?In a world were prestige is of paramount importance,wouldn't they more logically choose a more well...prestigious plant?An oak?A willow?
Not if the Brackens were not always royalty and/or lived not in an area bracken is the most prevalent plant .Like in a moor.

I haven't been able to locate any terrain resembling moorlands in the Riverlands,their soil being described as fertile and cultivated.There may be some around the Crossing,but given the proximity with the bogs of the Neck and the low altitude of the ground,I would favor mires to moors .

So is there another moorland habitat around.Maybe in the Westerlands,though by the maps available so far the terrain seems too rocky and mountainous to have one of notable size.Across the Neck?The windswept,tree-less plains of the Barrowlands and the hills of the Rills seem very likely candidates.They have ample water and probably similar temperatures with White Harbor,which suggests moorlands rather than tundra.

The Sigil

Could the Brackens come also from the North?Maybe their sigil can give something out.
The Bracken sigil is pretty straightforward.This is clearly a house that used to or even still does make the best part of their income by breeding and selling horses.Indeed,Hoster the Hostages story seems to point that out.

Concerning the age of the sigil,it is rather simple as a subject,as one would expect from a First Men house.The colouring is little peculiar though,because gold was not used in the North and is not prevalent in the northern heraldry.In fact,only three known sigils have gold in them:House Ironsmith,House Overton and,most importantly,House Stout.A house in the Barrowlands,with brown and gold on their sigil.

Still,the similar coloring may be entirely circumstancial,though it should be noted that brown is not a very common color in the known heraldry,less so brown and gold.What truly gives the clue is the horse.Firstly introduced to Westeros by the First Men,it is considered a symbol of status and a great advantage in the feudal society.But it happens to be also not very usual in heraldry on its own ,both of Andal and First Men families,and among those horses found alone on sields of noble houses are a seahorse,unicorns and a centaur.

So, is there is a house in the general area of the North proposed that has a horse in it's sigil?As it happens there is one:House Ryswell.

A possible relative in the North?

Really,the idea that two houses with similar sigils being potential relatives is not that new.For example:

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.
A Feast for Crows,Jaime III

The Ryswells are also a very old house of First Men,known to be horse breeders and have an equestrian tradition in the North.From what we gather from the tale of the 79 sentinels,their original seat was not in the Rills but in the Barrowlands,so it safe to assume that they were worn to the Dustins at some point .Furthermore,their horsehead,though not red does have a red mane and its fiery eyes might bring in mind the proud,defiant poise of the Bracken stallion.

It could be those houses were closely related once,or even the one was an offshoot of the other.Mayhaps they both served the Dustins,mayhaps one the Dustins and one the Ryders.The general idea is that those houses may hae co-existed for a time in the extended Rills-Barrowlands area.

The million dragons question

So,there we have a silly little theory claiming the Brackens may too have been initially a Northern house.So what?How does it answer the basic question of who was the liege of whom first?

The likely answer can be found again in the WoIaF section of the North.

We read the Starks chased the Blackwood out of the wolfswood in the days the Kings of Winter forget thei kingdom.Also,we know that King Theon "the Hungry Wolf" Stark put down a revolt in the Rills.Given the previous ownership of the area by House Ryder and its later demise,it might have been then that the Rills passed to the Ryswells.

Would that have caused the Brackens to flee too?In Westerosi History we have many examples were relatives struggled for power,like the Peake-Manderly feud.An ill considered alliance leading to the Brackens fleeing for their lives doesn't seem that far-fetched.For all we know,they could be the last Ryders,changing name and shield to hide themselves better.The finally get to a fertile land away from the Wolves and carve their new petty kingdom.In time,another refugee northern house called Blackwood joins them only to stab them later in the back.Or vice-versa.

Checking the map of the North,strategically it would seem prudent to securer the Wolfswood first and then attack the Barrowlands and the Rills.It can be argue of course that the woods might be harder to conquer than a town,but I would go for the former.

Thus,the Blackwoods were in the Trident first.In time,the Brackens betrayed them,forsook their ancestry and eventually even converted to the Faith to make themselves more likable to the locals and the Andal newcomers respectively.A blood feud was born.

Through sounder choices of allies ,good connections,and partaking insome nobble,if lost causes,the Blackwoods would be cast in a more positive light by the historians like Yandel,seen as noble,honorable and proud even in defeat ,plus as the family with probably the most influential women in Westeros.Meanwhile the Brackens would side with usurpers and invaders,looking more like land-grabbers and arivists.Where their choices wiser,they might have actually been cast as a house desperate too avenge the wrongs done to them.All while,the feud would spun for too many centuries weakening the Riverlands and even Westeros as a whole,with no clear winner so far.

So perhaps the true million dragons quesion is not who is right but:

Does it really matter?

In the end,I think that as in most feuds,real world and imaginary,not that much.

[King of Winter-ish Stuff]

Seems good. I like the idea that the Blackwoods were driven from the North, set up new lands in the Riverlands, and then garnered a kingdom in which the Brackens were their vassals and ultimately betrayed them (mainly because I hate Jonos Bracken). The Blackwoods also just seem to have a more kingly attitude. Seemingly more regal. The Brackens always come across petty and jealous.

[Lemon of Lemonwood]

You could say that and since the Blackwoods were connected with many important people at the time his book was written,Yandel's writings are not exactly objective.I like the Blackwoods too(who can't really,they have produced some of the most astonishing women in Westerosi history),but I can't eliminate the possibility the Brackens were originally right and have been struggling ever since to regain their lands.

I have an inkling we 'll get some more on the subject in the Village Hero.That and why Pennytree is a royal fief-smells like Egg to me-

Until we get more information on the Kings of Winter and the Age of Dawn in general,my theory does makes some very shaky claims.

[Andreas88]

Does it really matter?

In the end,I think that as in most feuds,real world and imaginary,not that much.

I think this is really the baseline, we as readers will probably never know who started, and after that many years of feuds it doesn't matter anymore.

[CJ McLannister]

I like it. It will probably never be settled one way or the other, but it adds some richness of the history.

[aryagonnakill#2]

I recently read a theory that the Blackwoods were the warg kings mentioned in the North section of TWOIAF. The Starks beat them and married the daughter of the last warg king. We know Blackwoods can warg via BR, and they claim to have originally been kings in the area of the warg king.

[TreeFaces]

Seems good. I like the idea that the Blackwoods were driven from the North, set up new lands in the Riverlands, and then garnered a kingdom in which the Brackens were their vassals and ultimately betrayed them (mainly because I hate Jonos Bracken). The Blackwoods also just seem to have a more kingly attitude. Seemingly more regal. The Brackens always come across petty and jealous.

I got this vibe too. The ADWD chapters where Jaime meets Tytos Blackwood at Raventree Hall is one of my favorite chapters and I am not sure why (because nothing really happens besides a brief muddled history lesson of the feud). It makes sense to have the Blackwoods be a displaced Northern house.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

I recently read a theory that the Blackwoods were the warg kings mentioned in the North section of TWOIAF. The Starks beat them and married the daughter of the last warg king. We know Blackwoods can warg via BR, and they claim to have originally been kings in the area of the warg king.

Ooh! I like this idea!

Makes sense too, given that House Stark would go on to marry into House Blackwood again, and it's only after that marriage that we end up with a generation in which all of the Stark children have skinchanging ability, and one is an extremely powerful greenseer. Bloodraven's mother was a Blackwood, as was Aegon V's wife, and so Daenerys, Stannis, Shireen, Aegon (if real), and Jon (if Rhaegar's son) could have some ability as well.

I don't think we'll ever find out what really happened between the Blackwoods and Brackens (unless Old Nan was wrong and NK was a Bracken). But I'd like to see the feud ended once and for all. And I'd really like to know what happened to Bloodraven's sisters (who should have been legitimized along with the rest of Aegon the Skank's noble-born bastards).

[Eddy of the Godswood]

I really like most of this theory, but on the Brackens' name I disagree.

I believe that after their revolt, they were banished to the riverlands and changed their name. They didn't want to be thought of as traitors (*cough* turned on Robb *cough*) or dishonourable people. Now, a type of riverwater called brackish is caused when a freshwater and a saltwater stream flow into each other. When their house came down to the Riverlands they set up near a brackish river close to the coastline after being granted land by the Blackwoods, which connects to the next part of my take on this theory.

I believe the Blackwoods were banished a good deal of time before the Brackens. Here is my evidence supporting that:

And mayhaps even the Blackwoods of Raventree, whose own family traditions insist they once ruled most of the wolfswood before being driven from their lands by the Kings of Winter (certain runic records support this claim, if Maester Barneby’s translations can be trusted)

~Courtesy of The World of Ice and Fire

As you can see, that only records of this events are translated from ancient runes, which points to fact that the exile took place long ago.

The Blackwoods settled in the environment they knew best, the woodlands, as they originated from the wolfswood. The Brackens come down from barrowlands with all their horses, and the Blackwoods pull a Stark and allow them to settle near the brackish streams, where their horses could wander up to the divide and drink from the freshwater tributary, as long as they continue to provide the Blackwoods with mounts aplenty.

The Brackens do exactly what they're told to do until they do exactly what they did before in the barrowlands and start a rebellion, refusing to provide the Blackwoods with horse and thus ending the possibly of mounted forces to quell the rebellion.

Feedback would be nice, thanks.

[SirCharles of HouseBarkley]

I would bet that BR has traced the feud back to the beginning. He could have a throw away comment in WOW about what started it all, although it would be a very pro-Blackwood view of the events.

[Veltigar]

Like any reader, I love the Blackwoods. GRRM has really set them up as one of the most interesting minor houses. He's clearly biased against the Brackens, since the only sort of admirable member of their house was the Brute of Bracken, who refused to help Dunk in THK, but who at the very least was honest as to his reasons. Because of this clear bias, I would love it if the Bracken version of the story is the correct one. They are the house of petty dicks, locked in eternal conflict with the house of badass women and mysterious men, but there was a time in history when the Blackwoods were the villains, not the Brackens. It fits more into the general greyness of the world. It would be rather black and white for the cool badass warrior house to be on the side of the righteous all the time.

[Lemon of Lemonwood]

But I'd like to see the feud ended once and for all. And I'd really like to know what happened to Bloodraven's sisters (who should have been legitimized along with the rest of Aegon the Skank's noble-born bastards).

Living in a place were feud culture is still strong,a feud usually ends either by marriage or the total anhiliation of one party.Seeing the marriage solution didn't work that well... the best thing would be finding both houses two very,very stimulating and mind diverting hobbies. :wacko:

Now, a type of riverwater called brackish is caused when a freshwater and a saltwater stream flow into each other. When their house came down to the Riverlands they set up near a brackish river close to the coastline after being granted land by the Blackwoods, which connects to the next part of my take on this theory.

I believe the Blackwoods were banished a good deal of time before the Brackens.

Eddy,

About the brackish water,while it is a very nice alternative,I think it is probably mistaken.If Stone Hedge was buil someplace near,say,Lord Harroway's Town,it could make sense,yet it is buillt approximately in the middle of the Trident by the Red Fork,well after its juncture with Tumblestone .Now,we know that both rivers spring in the Westrlands hills,with the Red Fork being called so because of the clay it carries,while Tumblestone seems to be very clear.

So,unless there are mineral salt deposits close to their headwaters I can't see their waters being brackish.Of course,if you have a text citation at hand about it,correct me at once please!

As for the chrnology,my problem I faced trying to establish the Blackwoods coming to the Riverlands first and connecting the possible Bracken descent to the revolt quashed by Theon Stark in the Rills is that we don't for sure which happened first.The runes can give validity to the event happening 3000+ years ago instead of 350 years,but not on whether it happened 3000+or 2950+,unless we have a king's name for both event and the succession line.

Like any reader, I love the Blackwoods. GRRM has really set them up as one of the most interesting minor houses. He's clearly biased against the Brackens, since the only sort of admirable member of their house was the Brute of Bracken, who refused to help Dunk in THK, but who at the very least was honest as to his reasons. Because of this clear bias, I would love it if the Bracken version of the story is the correct one. They are the house of petty dicks, locked in eternal conflict with the house of badass women and mysterious men, but there was a time in history when the Blackwoods were the villains, not the Brackens. It fits more into the general greyness of the world. It would be rather black and white for the cool badass warrior house to be on the side of the righteous all the time.

I thought so too while writing the theory.It would be splendid irony to have a dick-ish house suddenly becoming the most wronged and unlucky family of Westeros.

[Municipal Engines]

Maybe it's like the Battle of Koom Valley where both sides ambushed each other at exactly the same time; here both sides betrayed each other at exactly the same time. :laugh:

[Nic G]

Bittersteel is better then brother killing child shooting oath breaking deserting bloodraven anyday. Honor vs. results.

[Paxter Redwyne]

It really annoys me how GRRM is biased in bracken-blackwood feud. If tywin would not command jonos to seize raventree, maybe their feud would not reappear( this time), since both houses fought for robb stark.

[Nittanian]

It really annoys me how GRRM is biased in bracken-blackwood feud. If tywin would not command jonos to seize raventree, maybe their feud would not reappear( this time), since both houses fought for robb stark.

Tywin doesn't command Jonos, actually. From ASOS Tyrion VI:

Jason Mallister and Tytos Blackwood will fight on for honor's sake, but the Freys can keep the Mallisters penned up at Seagard, and with the right inducement Jonos Bracken can be persuaded to change his allegiance and attack the Blackwoods. In the end they will bend the knee, yes. I mean to offer generous terms. Any castle that yields to us will be spared, save one. [Harrenhal because of Vargo Hoat]

[Lady Blizzardborn]

Bittersteel is better then brother killing child shooting oath breaking deserting bloodraven anyday. Honor vs. results.

Someone doesn't understand the difference between murder and battle. Charges of oathbreaking and deserting are unproven. Stick to the facts.

Bittersteel tried to kill his own brother by sticking a knife through his eye. He also betrayed and rebelled against another brother who was his king, and supported continuing rebellions that got thousands of people killed and continued to divide Westeros. How does that make him "better?"

[Lemon of Lemonwood]

It really annoys me how GRRM is biased in bracken-blackwood feud. If tywin would not command jonos to seize raventree, maybe their feud would not reappear( this time), since both houses fought for robb stark.

I agree with Lady Blizzardborn,they would find a reason to fight sooner or later even if Robb was still alive and fighting.

[zrules]

Charges of oathbreaking and deserting are unproven.

WoIaF disagrees. Bloodraven killed a Blackfyre after promising safe passage:

"In 233 AC, hundred of lords great and small assembled in King's Landing. With both of Maekar's elder sons deceased, there were four possible claimants.

...

Even as the Great Council was debating, however, another claimant appeared in King's Landing: none other than Aenys Blackfyre, the fifth of the Black Dragon's seven sons. When the Great Council had first been announced, Aenys had written from exile in Tyrosh, putting forward his case in the hope that his words might win him the Iron Throne that his forebears had thrice failed to win with their swords. Bloodraven, the King's Hand, had responded by offering him a safe conduct, so the pretender might come to King's Landing and present his claim in person.

Unwisely, Aenys accepted. Yet hardly had he entered the city when the gold cloaks seized hold of him and dragged him to the Red Keep, where his head was struck off forthwith and presented to the lords of the Great Council, as a warning to any who might still have Blackfyre sympathies."

- Maekar I

Egg later sent Bloodraven to The Wall in order to distance the crown from Bloodraven's faithlessness.

"The first act of Aegon's reign was the arrest of Brynden Rivers, the King's Hand, for the murder of Aenys Blackfyre. Bloodraven did not deny that he had lured the pretender into his power by the offer of a safe conduct, but contended that he had sacrificed his own personal honor for the good of the realm.

Though many agreed, and were pleased to see another Blackfyre pretender removed, King Aegon felt he had no choice but to condemn the Hand, lest the word of the Iron Throne be seen as worthless. Yet after the sentence of death was pronounced, Aegon offered Bloodraven the chance to take the black and join the Night's Watch. This he did. Ser Brynden Rivers set sail for the Wall late in the year of 233 AC. (No one intercepted his ship). Two hundred men went with him, many of them archers from Bloodraven's personal guard, the Raven's Teeth. The king's brother, Maester Aemon, was also amongst them."

- Aegon V

So, yes, he was an oathbreaker.

On topic: I don't think the Braken's being originally Northerners matters too much. We've had a lot more reason to look at the Blackwoods as a more important house (Bloodraven being the biggest), but it might come to pass that the Brakens become important. I still commend your ideas.

[John Doe]

Bittersteel is better then brother killing child shooting oath breaking deserting bloodraven anyday. Honor vs. results.

True. And the Brackens were attacked during the Hedgeknight, not the other way around.