But you just have to look at how GRRM has described the two houses to see which side he comes down on: the Blackwoods worship the Old Gods and have a cool weirwood tree for their sigil, the Brackens converted to the New Gods and have…a horse; Missy Blackwood is loved by all, but Barba Bracken is a callous schemer who gets exiled from court and her poor sister meets an even worse fate; Otho Bracken is a “brute” and won’t help Dunk; Jonos Bracken is a womanizing tool who sides (or is it “sides”?) with the Lannisters while Tytos Blackwood is an honorable Stark loyalist (with a kickass ravenfeather cloak); hell, when GRRM wants to have the Three Stooges enter his series, they show up as Bracken sworn swords!
So while I think the thematic argument that GRRM is trying to make is that both sides are equally to blame for the feud, his aesthetics aren’t matching up. Poets being of the devil’s party and so forth.
I think it’s more vast than you think, given how many different areas of land it includes:
Lord Jonos drained the last of his ale and tossed the horn aside. “What of the lands and castles we were promised?”
“What lands were these?”
“The east bank of the Widow’s Wash, from Crossbow Ridge to Rutting Meadow, and all the islands in the stream. Grindcorn Mill and Lord’s Mill, the ruins of Muddy Hall, the Ravishment, Battle Valley, Oldforge, the villages of Buckle, Blackbuckle, Cairns, and Claypool, and the market town at Mudgrave. Waspwood, Lorgen’s Wood, Greenhill, and Barba’s Teats. Missy’s Teats, the Blackwoods call them, but they were Barba’s first. Honeytree and all the hives. Here, I’ve marked them out if my lord would like a look.” He rooted about on a table and produced a parchment map.
Jaime took it with his good hand, but he had to use the gold to open it and hold it flat. “This is a deal of land,” he observed. “You will be increasing your domains by a quarter.”
Bracken’s mouth set stubbornly. “All these lands belonged to Stone Hedge once. The Blackwoods stole them from us.”
“What about this village here, between the Teats?” Jaime tapped the map with a gilded knuckle.
“Pennytree. That was ours once too, but it’s been a royal fief for a hundred years. Leave that out. We ask only for the lands stolen by the Blackwoods. Your lord father promised to restore them to us if we would subdue Lord Tytos for him.”
The entire bank of a river, two ruined strongholds and one ruined town, a valley, four villages (maybe five depending on whether Honeytree is a village, a town, or a stronghold), a market town, two woods, three hills…and all of this is just the disputed lands between House Bracken and House Blackwood that would represent a fourth of House Bracken’s current holdings.
To me, this suggests that House Blackwood probably holds most of the lands between the Red Fork and the Blue Fork (there’s not a lot of other Houses from that region – notably Fairmarket and Oldstones don’t seem to have houses associated with them) and a fair bit of land on the southern bank of the Red Fork, given Lord Bracken’s complaints. For their part, I think House Bracken controls most or all of the hill country east of Pinkmaiden and west of Harrenhal and from the south bank of the Red Fork to however far north Harrenhal’s demense runs.
In other words, between them the Bracken and Blackwoods likely control most of the central Riverlands, making them extremely difficult to control, especially if they temporarily band together against an outside intervention.
“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.”
And so they would remain for more than three centuries, though the riverlords rose against Storm’s End at least once each generation. A dozen pretenders from as many houses would adopt the style of River King or King of the Trident and vow to throw off the yoke of the stormlanders. Some even succeeded…for a fortnight, a moon’s turn, even a year. But their thrones were built on mud and sand, and in the end a fresh host would march from Storm’s End to topple them and hang the men who’d presumed to sit upon them. Thus ended the brief inglorious reigns of Lucifer Justman (Lucifer the Liar), Marq Mudd (the Mad Bard), Lord Robert Vance, Lord Petyr Mallister, Lady Jeyne Nutt, the bastard king Ser Addam Rivers, the peasant king Pate of Fairmarket, and Ser Lymond Fisher, Knight of Oldstones, along with a dozen more…
As the ironborn moved up and down the rivers, reaving and raiding as they pleased, a bold young knight named Samwell Rivers, a natural son of Tommen Tully, Lord of Riverrun, assembled a small host and met King Harwyn on the Tumblestone, but his lines shattered…Lord Tully abandoned Riverrun without a fight, fleeing with all his strength to join the host gathering at Raventree Hall under Lady Agnes Blackwood and her sons. But when Lady Agnes advanced upon the ironborn, her belligerent neighbor Lord Lothar Bracken fell upon her rear with all his strength and put her men to flight.
…Many of the riverlords had joined the ironmen by then. Under the command of the Lords Goodbrook, Paege, and Vypren, they slipped across the Blackwater and fell upon the slowmoving baggage train before it reached the river, putting King Arrec’s rear guard to flight and seizing his supplies. Thus it was a stumbling, starving host of stormlanders who finally faced Harwyn Hardhand at Fairmarket, where Lothar Bracken, Theo Charlton, and a score of other riverlords had joined him.
House Durrandon had failed to establish any kind of legitimate claim to the Riverlands and clearly lacked any support aside from their Blackwood kin and a few other houses. By contrast, the Brackens had every reason to want a change of government – the Brackens had been loyal to the Teague Kings and wanted vengeance against the Blackwoods who had betrayed the Teagues to the Storm Kings.
And clearly the Brackens weren’t alone – it’s quite likely that they were joined by other former Teague loyalists (and Seven worshippers) to fight a dynasty they viewed as foreign invaders.
The Brackens have a history of being opportunists. They even kind of remind me of the Campbells.
When the Ironborn attack, Lord Bracken betrays his fellow riverlords to join them in hopes of a reward. He was an idiot to think it would be a crown. They also fought for the Blackfyres thanks in no small part to Bittersteel who was using Daemon to secure a place at the royal court. Now we see Jonos Bracken fighting his former ally on behalf of the Lannisters who attacked his fief without provocation, and burned his castle and raped one of his daughters. Something tells me he’ll join Aegon.
On top of that, Bracken was responsible for “they lay with lions,” and isn’t loyal to his wives or his fellow riverlords.
What do you think?
Honestly, I kind of feel bad for the Brackens, because GRRM has clearly picked them out to be an family of heels (in the wrestling sense), similar to the Peakes, Florents, etc. Compared to the Blackwoods, who are clearly his special favorites – they follow the Old Gods, they’ve got a special weirwood tree, they’ve got magic in their background, etc. The Brackens almost always end up on the losing side of any conflict – whether it’s the Dance of Dragons, Aegon IV’s mistresses, the Blackfyre Rebellions, etc.
And honestly? I think the Brackens are probably in the right, to the extent that anyone can be in the right of a blood feud. Let’s take the origin of their dispute:
“The Blackwoods say they were kings and the Brackens little more than petty lords set on betraying and deposing them, while the Brackens say much the same about the Blackwoods.”
Given that the Blackwoods were originally a Northern House who had to immigrate to the South (”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”), it’s a lot more likely that the Brackens were the kings and the Blackwoods the disloyal vassals than vice versa. Sort of puts the whole dispute in a different light, doesn’t it?
And if you look deeply, there’s always two sides to the same story – the Brackens backed the Ironborn because the Blackwoods had invited the Storm Kings to invade the Riverlands to make Lord Rodrick Blackwood King of the Rivers and Hills, which makes the Blackwoods rather horrendous traitors to their liege lords the Teagues. (Although they’d say they were fighting for their faith)
RFTIT Tumblr Backup 