The phrase "why must there always be a Stark in Winterfell" signifies more than just political tradition; it points to a deep, ancient magical connection between House Stark and Winterfell, rooted in its very foundation and the crypts below.
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why must there always be a Stark in
Winterfell it's a phrase that keeps on
cropping Up In A Song of Ice and Fire
but why is there something magic going
on hi everyone this is Robert welcome to
indeep geek particularly if you're here
for the first time welcome this is the
first in a series of videos about the
Starks and their centrality to the plot
of A Song of Ice and Fire seven of the
first eight chapters of book one are
from the Stark's perspective and over
70% of all of a name of Thrones we know
they are Central to the plot but how why
did George Oram Martin decide to make
them the people we should sympathize
with at the start of this story because
he surely does want to make us
sympathize with them I'm sure there are
a lot of answers to that and we'll try
to cover them all in this series but
let's start by focusing in on their link
to Winterfell and the many secrets that
lie there in particular this time why
must there always be a stark at
Winterfell well we should acknowledge
that there is definitely a practical
benefit of the saying to the Starks it
adds legitimacy to their rule the Starks
didn't just rule from winterfeld because
they always have or because they have a
big army no they must be there for vague
historical or possibly even magical
reasons the north is built on tradition
and the Starks being in Winterfell is
one of the central parts of that so I'm
sure the Starks were happy to keep on
repeating the phrase to support their
rule but crucially the saying also ties
the Starks to the castle they couldn't
move to a bigger or cooler or better
situated castle for example as far as we
can tell until bran and rickon fled
Winterfell at the end of a Clash of
Kings there had been a Stark in
Winterfell without break for Millennia
this sometimes had amusing or
consequential implications for the
Starks trying to juggle their family
members amid various crises so as to
ensure there was always a Stark in
Winterfell for example Lord Rickard sent
all his children to the tney at Haren
Hall but himself stayed in Winterfell
until benjin returned All the Way North
to tag team him in so to speak so he
could then head south for Brandon's
planned wedding and then benjin had to
stay in Winterfell throughout the
entirity of Robert's Rebellion until Ned
returned when he could then safely leave
to join the knight's watch so let's take
the reasonable starting position that
this saying is there to ensure that the
Starks both remain in power and remain
in Winterfell why well let's dig into
the history a bit Winterfell has been
the home of the Starks for perhaps 8,000
years in fact for as long as house Stark
has existed this timing is crucial
because it means that it was built at
about the same time as the wall by bran
the Builder who was the founding father
of house Stark in other words the
founding of the Stark Dynasty is
connected inextricably with both the
building of Winterfell and the defeat of
the White Walkers the first time around
or more precisely the defenses built
against their return hold on to that
thought we'll come back to it a few
times in the next few videos house Stark
isn't just an old ruling house they were
Central to the plans to defend westos
against The Return by the others from
the start that said it would be wrong to
imagine the Starks sitting in Winterfell
Castle all that time because as far as
we can tell when it was first built
Winterfell was not a castle in fact
there's a very real chance that there
was no overground structure at all as
with most castles in Westeros and in the
real world Winterfell has been added to
and altered many times over the years as
its population has grown and
Architectural Styles have changed but
the oldest surviving structure is known
as the first keep the name obviously
implies that it was the first proper
keep this is what bran was climbing when
he spied Jamie and Cersei Lannister way
back at the beginning of the story
however as old as it is even the first
keep appears not to be original it's
rounded architectural style shows that
it is from after the andle invasion of
Westeros so at least 2,000 years after
Winterfell was apparently built and
there is no evidence of what if anything
was there before the first keep given
the different ground levels of the
castle it was certainly not a large
structure the ground levels in
Winterfell are fascinating incidentally
the site wasn't leveled before
construction to an alarming extent you
can enter one building on the first
floor cross a bridge and leave another
on the third floor the castle complex
clearly wasn't all built at one time or
with a master plan in mind just adding
bits peace meal to fit onto what was
already there over time which is
obviously strange because the other
things brand the Builder apparently
built the wall the high tower Storm's
end if the rumors are true have been
incredibly robust kept in place for
Millennia by strong magic and haven't
really been added to so it's reasonable
to conclude that what we understand to
be Winterfell Castle today the huge
overground castle is not what brand the
Builder spent his time building and it's
not what links the place to the Starks
and to preparations for the return of
the others so if bran the Builder didn't
build a great castle at Winterfell what
did he build he built what we now know
as the crypts of Winterfell our view of
them is sometimes a bit clouded by what
we saw on the TV show impressive but
limited but in the books they are
described as cavernous bigger even than
the expanse of the castle above and
descending many levels deep underground
the deepest of which are inaccessible
from ages past a mighty feat of
engineering indeed worthy of bran the
Builder and there's something odd about
these Crypts a few odd things to be
honest but let's focus on the design for
now with most Crypts the oldest part is
the closest to the surface when an extra
room is needed another chamber is dug
and then another with the newest being
the furthest in or the deepest but
winterfell's Crypt seems to be the
opposite way around the kings of winter
from Millennia past are buried at the
furthest deepest part of the complex
with the more recent Lords of Winterfell
on the level closest to the surface this
is curious and at a sort of countdown as
more and more Stark Generations are born
live and are buried the closer to the
surface we get and there are now a lot
of starks buried there if it is 8,000
years and there were say 20 years per
generation of starks as a ballpark
figure that makes 400 or so Stark rulers
plus their families that makes
thousands and to clear up a popular
misunderstanding all Starks can be
buried there Arya remember Rob taking
her and her siblings down there and
showing them the tombs that would be
theirs it's just the statues that are
only for the kings of winter and the
Lords of Winterfell that's the
convention that Ned broke lyanna should
definitely have been buried in the
crypts as should Brandon but they
probably shouldn't have had statues made
of them and placed down there despite a
recent precedent but we're getting ahead
of ourselves there's a lot to be said
about the statues but I'll focus on that
in a future video for now let's just
note that the fact that all all the
Starks are buried in the Crypt the
original Winterfell is important in some
deep magical way the Starks are
connected to the Crypt and have been for
Millennia many of them have dreams about
it Lanna apparently made Ned promise to
take her body hundreds of miles north to
be buried there Aya bran and rickon all
think about it many times and play there
often even Ned not a man to give in
easily to Superstition could feel the
eyes of the Dead Stark on him when he
was talking to King Robert there they
were all listening he
knew in contrast Theon and John a secret
Targaryen remember feel that it isn't a
place for them Robert Baratheon thinks
of it as cold and dark it's only a place
for Starks there deep underground more
than anywhere else is the spiritual home
of the Starks not the castle above
ground that is where the Starks belong
and no one else at which point it's
worth taking a step back to remind
ourselves of what the original site of
Winterfell must therefore have looked
like a lone weirwood tree standing a top
of a massive cave system that stretches
deep underground with space for
thousands of starks to be buried over
the years to come in this context it
seems pretty clear that there must
always be a Stark in Winterfell wasn't
just about political power they didn't
rule all the north for Millennia or even
to keep them in the Castle which wasn't
even there at the time but to ensure
that the Starks would always be buried
down in that crypt the site was well
chosen to allow the Starks to survive
there even through the harshest of
winters whoever picked the location
wanted people to be able to stay there
and guard the location regardless of the
weather or climate and the Starks
definitely made best use of it as the
castle was built the hot spring water
that bubbled up to the ground nearby was
piped through the walls to keep the main
Castle warm they set up wells and
fountains in Courtyards outside the
castle to keep the small folk gathered
from afar alive in the harshest of
winters and even created a massive
Greenhouse called the glass garden to
trap the heat in and allow them to grow
vegetables all year round the Starks
could survive without ever relocating
and even magnanimously support their
vassels in times of need there was never
a reason for them to move
elsewhere one other thing is worth
noting about that original plan of
catacombs beneath a weirwood tree if it
sounds familiar that may be because it's
very reminiscent of what we see and read
about in blood Raven's cave north of the
wall that also consisted of caves lined
with the dead and forgotten in a Hollow
Hill beneath the massive weirwood tree
which suggests that the plan for
Winterfell was not just a human plan but
from the children of the forest and the
wewood trees themselves which makes
Winterfell much more than just stone
walls one of the most noticeable things
about the first few chapters of book one
is how the language used to describe
Winterfell is that of a living organic
being the hot water is pumped around the
castle like blood through veins we're
told the air in the Crypt is said to
move up the stairwell in chill breaths
the castle is said to have grown like a
monstrous Stone tree its roots sunk deep
into the Earth the imagery is strong
some book fans have suggested and I tend
to agree with them that the final Vision
that bran has through the weirwood tree
of a sacrifice of someone probably also
named Bran and probably also an ancestor
of his bran the Builder perhaps before
the Winterfell weirwood may have been
sealing a packed of sort the magic that
founded Winterfell we don't have enough
to go on yet to confirm that but it
makes sense that a ceremony and
sacrifice like that did happen tying the
Starks to Winterfell so why must there
always be a Stark in Winterfell yes
there are political reasons and
traditions can be strongly ingrained in
a culture but it seems that the original
reason was to tie the Starks to that
place and in particular to ensure that
the Starks were buried in that Crypt
generation after
generation there are obviously a number
of questions that flow on from this what
were the terms of The Pact why the
Starks and what happens when there isn't
a Stark in Winterfell I'll cover all of
them in this series of videos but that
last one is probably one of the biggest
bits of evidence we have on this topic
if there must always be a stark and
Winterfell is just a cool phrase or
tradition or a clever political slogan
the answer is that when there are no
Starks in Winterfell nothing would
happen but if there is a magical reason
why there must always be a Stark in
Winterfell then we should expect some
magical consequence of there being no
Stark in Winterfell and of course at the
end of a Clash of Kings when bran and
rickon abandon Winterfell there are no
Starks there for the first time in
perhaps Millennia what happens well
quite a lot that is perhaps not
immediately obvious on a first read
through and the language used to
describe it well here's an example from
theon's POV as he returned to the
godswood sometime
later it felt like some strange
underworld some Timeless Place between
the worlds where the Damned wandered
mournfully for a time before finding
their way down to what ever hell their
sins had earned them are we all dead
then he thought that's pretty bleak and
not just an isolated passage Bran's
final thought as he looked back on
Winterfell for the last time was that
Winterfell was
broken and that's what we will look at
next time what magical impacts are there
when there are no Starks in Winterfell
because they are already having a huge
impact on the story and it seems that
almost no characters in the story have
even made the link yet but what do you
think why do you think there must always
be a Stark in Winterfell let me know in
the comment section below for more
videos in this series as I make them
there's a link to the playlist on the
left of your screen or to support this
channel thank you there's a link to my
patreon page on the right of your screen
that's all for this time thanks for
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