House Farman
| House Farman of Faircastle | |
|---|---|
 The Wind Our Steed
| |
| Coat of arms |
Three silver ships on blue, a border of crimson and gold (Azure, three galleys argent within a bordure compony gules and or) |
| Seat | Faircastle, Fair Isle[2] |
| Head | Lord Sebaston Farman[1] |
| Region | Westerlands[1] |
| Titles |
|
| Overlord | House Lannister[1] |
| Vassal | House Clifton[1] |
| Founded | Dawn Age[2] |
House Farman of Faircastle is a noble house from Faircastle on Fair Isle, off the coast of the westerlands. They are sworn to House Lannister of Casterly Rock, and are considered among their principal bannermen. The Farmans are known for their hatred of the ironborn from the Iron Islands.[3]
House Farman's words are The Wind Our Steed.[2] They blazon their arms with three silver ships on blue, a border of crimson and gold.[4]
History
Age of Heroes
The Farmans are an ancient line, dating back to the Dawn Age[2] and the days of the First Men when they ruled as petty kings of Fair Isle and guarded the western coast of Westeros from ironborn reavers with their longships.[3]
The Farmans became famous for hatred of the ironborn.[3] During the era of the driftwood kings, Fair Isle fell to the domains of the Iron Islands. However, as the strength of the westerlands grew while the power of the driftwood kings dwindled, Fair Isle was the first to be liberated from ironborn occupation when Gylbert Farman incited a smallfolk uprising. King Erich V Harlaw later retook Fair Isle in his youth, but lost it in his old age.[5]
In the decades that followed the arrival of the Andals in the westerlands, the Farmans knelt to Tommen I Lannister, King of the Rock, when he raised a great fleet and married the daughter of the last Farman king. As bannermen of the Lannister kings, the Farmans helped shield the western coast of the Kingdom of the Rock.[3]
Rhaena Targaryen
When Prince Aegon rebelled against his uncle Maegor I Targaryen, House Farman joined the prince against the king in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye in 43 AC. In the ensuring battle, Lord Farman and his eldest son perished alongside Aegon the Uncrowned. Farman's second son Marq succeeded him as Lord of Fair Isle. The widowed Rhaena Targaryen fled from Maegor to Fair Isle, where Lord Marq granted her the hospitality of Faircastle.[6] When Rhaena was summoned to King's Landing by Maegor the Cruel in 47 AC, she went as she had grown fond of Lord Farman and even more than fond of his second son Androw, and ignoring Maegor's summon would bring the king with his dragon Balerion down on Fair Isle.[6]
After Maegor's death and the coronation of King Jaehaerys I, Rhaena returned to Fair Isle,[7] where she quietly married Androw Farman. The marriage had been conducted without the Crown's leave, and angered many at court believing Rhaena had married below her station.[8] While Rhaena insisted she married Androw as he was kind to her, Lord Farman's maester Smike suggested that Rhaena had fallen in love with Androw's sister, Elissa. The marriage caused discord on Fair Isle, with some Fair Islanders fearing her dragon Dreamfyre, while court life at Faircastle became centered around Rhaena and her companions, earning them the resentment of Lord Farman's heir, Ser Franklyn. While Lord Marq was a happy host of Rhaena, he died choking on a fish bone in 50 AC and Franklyn succeeded him as Lord of Fair Isle. Franklyn was quick to dispel Rhaena and Androw from Fair Isle, and Elissa followed them despite his efforts to keep her at Faircastle.[2]
Rhaena's party eventually settled on Dragonstone, where Elissa became bored remaining on the island, longing to travel at sea again. With Rhaena's reluctant leave, Elissa set sail for Pentos, but not before stealing three dragon eggs.[9] Elissa would sell the eggs to the Sealord of Braavos and use the money to build a ship to sail the Sunset Sea.[10] Rhaena was enraged at the betrayal, arguing with Androw when she accused him of aiding his sister. Though never passionate, Rhaena's marriage with Androw continued to decline, reaching a low in 54 AC. He often found himself ignored and sidelined at court and by other nobles, with Rhaena even declaring "The wrong Farman ran away." Furious at his own treatment, Androw poisoned Rhaena's companions with tears of Lys. When confronted by Rhaena, he committed suicide by leaping from a window.[9] When her daughter Aerea went missing, Rhaena searched for her on Fair Isle, where Rhaena threatened Lord Franklyn after a heated conversation, appalling King Jaehaerys and his lords alike. In his next progress, the king would omit visiting Fair Isle,[10] which he would not visit until 88 AC when Lord Franklyn had passed.[11]
Later Targaryen reign
During the Dance of the Dragons, Lord Dalton Greyjoy landed longships on Fair Isle while Lord Farman's pleas for help were left unanswered. Faircastle eventually fell to the ironborn and the Red Kraken claimed four of Lord Farman's daughters as salt wives, while giving the fifth "homely one" to his brother, Veron. Lord Farman and his sons were ransomed back to Casterly Rock.[12][13] Lord Farman later perished in the Dance, as did two of his daughters. After the war, Greyjoy was instructed by the Crown to return Fair Isle to the Farmans, though the Red Kraken ignored the edicts.[14] Lord Alyn Velaryon was dispatched to recapture Fair Isle with the Velaryon fleet in 133 AC. While Velaryon was making his way west, the Red Kraken was murdered by a girl named Tess. Much of the Greyjoy fleet fled the island, and the Fair Isle smallfolk and remaining knights rebelled against the ironborn. Only Faircastle remained under ironborn control, until its garrison commanders quarreled over Lysa Farman, one of Dalton's salt wives. When Velaryon arrived, the ironborn had abandoned Fair Isle and it was restored to the Farmans. The Farmans were left to rebuild their fleets.[15]
Two years after the Great Spring Sickness, Lord Dagon Greyjoy sacked Fair Isle and took a hundred women away along with half its wealth. Ser Duncan the Tall considered leaving the service of Ser Eustace Osgrey and pledging his sword to Lord Farman, who was reinforcing the defenses of his island.[16]
Recent history
Some years after Lord Tywin Lannister defeated the Reyne-Tarbeck rebellion, Lord Farman of Faircastle grew truculent. Tywin sent him an envoy, a musician who played "The Rains of Castamere" in his hall, and that was enough to make Lord Farman reconsider his position.[17]
Jeyne Farman was Cersei Lannister's bedmaid at Casterly Rock during her youth, along with another bedmaid and friend, Melara Hetherspoon. In 276 AC, the girls attended the tourney hosted by Lord Tywin Lannister in Lannisport in honor of Prince Viserys's birth. Jeyne accompanied Cersei and Melara to visit witch woman Maggy the Frog on the tourney grounds to have their fortunes told. However, when the maegi opened her yellow and crusted eyes, the sight of them caused Jeyne to flee in fear, and she never heard her future.[18]
Recent Events
A Feast for Crows
Queen Regent Cersei Lannister has a nightmare about the night when she, Jeyne Farman, and Melara Hetherspoon went together to visit Maggy the Frog in Lannisport. Cersei thinks that perhaps Jeyne was the wisest of all of them when she fled without hearing her fortune, since afterwards she had a pleasant life, marrying one of her brother Lord Sebaston's bannermen and whelping a dozen children.[18][19]
House Farman at the end of the third century
The known Farmans during the timespan of the events described in A Song of Ice and Fire are:
- Lord Sebaston Farman, Lord of Fair Isle.[1]
- Jeyne Farman, his sister. The wife of Ser Gareth Clifton, they have a dozen children.[1][18]
Historical Farmans
- The unnamed last Farman King.[3]
- His daughter, married to King Tommen I Lannister.[3]
- Gylbert Farman, who led a smallfolk uprising that expelled the ironborn from Fair Isle.[5]
- Lord Farman, who died at Battle Beneath the Gods Eye in 43 AC fighting for Prince Aegon the Uncrowned.
- His first son, who died at Battle Beneath the Gods Eye in 43 AC.
- Lord Marq Farman, his second son, Lord of Fair Isle, who gave the hospitality of his home to Rhaena Targaryen.[6]
- Ser Franklyn Farman, his eldest son, Lord of Fair Isle, a rival to Princess Rhaena Targaryen.[2]
- Elissa Farman, his daughter, who sailed the Sunset Sea.[10]
- Androw Farman, his second son, married to Princess Rhaena Targaryen.[8]
- Lord Farman, during the Dance of the Dragons.[13]
- Sons, ransomed back with their father to Casterly Rock for their weights in silver.[13]
- Lysa Farman, daughter of Lord Farman and salt wife of Dalton Greyjoy.[15]
- 3 daughters, salt wives of Dalton Greyjoy.[13]
- 1 daughter, salt wife of Veron Greyjoy.[13]
- Lord Farman, during the reign of King Aerys I Targaryen. He repared his defenses after the attacks of Lord Dagon Greyjoy's ironborn.[16]
- Lord Farman, during the rule of Lord Tytos Lannister.[20]
- Lord Farman, during the early rule of Lord Tywin Lannister.[17]
- Alysanne Farman, married to Lord Gerold Lannister, no issue.[21]
Sworn Houses
Quotes
Wars between the westermen and the ironborn erupted every generation or so; even during periods of peace, the ironmen came raiding after wealth and salt wives. Fair Isle did help shield the coast farther south; for this reason the Farmans have become famous for their hatred of the ironborn.[3]
—writings of Yandel
Behind the Scenes
According to the draft of "The Westerlands" chapter from The World of Ice & Fire, in the years when the weak-willed Lord Tytos Lannister was Warden of the West, Lord Farman built a fleet of warships to defend his coasts from ironborn raiding, against the wishes of Lord Tytos who did not wish to give the Greyjoys offense. Nevertheless, Lord Quellon Greyjoy smashed Lord Farman's fleet and plundered Fair Isle.[20] However, this piece of information is at odds with the peaceful coexistence between the Iron Islands and the rest of the Seven Kingdoms conducted by Quellon during his lordship, and it should not be considered canon.[22][23]
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 A Feast for Crows, Appendix.
- ↑ Jump up to: 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Fire & Blood, A Surfeit of Rulers.
- ↑ Jump up to: 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 The World of Ice & Fire, The Westerlands.
- Jump up ↑ The Citadel. Heraldry: Houses in the Westerlands
- ↑ Jump up to: 5.0 5.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Driftwood Crowns.
- ↑ Jump up to: 6.0 6.1 6.2 Fire & Blood, The Sons of the Dragon.
- Jump up ↑ Fire & Blood, Prince into King - The Ascension of Jaehaerys I.
- ↑ Jump up to: 8.0 8.1 Fire & Blood, The Year of the Three Brides - 49 AC.
- ↑ Jump up to: 9.0 9.1 Fire & Blood, Birth, Death, and Betrayal Under King Jaehaerys I.
- ↑ Jump up to: 10.0 10.1 10.2 Fire & Blood, Jaehaerys and Alysanne - Their Triumphs and Tragedies.
- Jump up ↑ Fire & Blood, Jaehaerys and Alysanne - Policy, Progeny, and Pain.
- Jump up ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Iron Islands: The Red Kraken.
- ↑ Jump up to: 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Triumphant.
- Jump up ↑ Fire & Blood, Under the Regents - The Hooded Hand.
- ↑ Jump up to: 15.0 15.1 Fire & Blood, Under the Regents - The Voyage of Alyn Oakenfist.
- ↑ Jump up to: 16.0 16.1 The Sworn Sword.
- ↑ Jump up to: 17.0 17.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 19, Tyrion III.
- ↑ Jump up to: 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 36, Cersei VIII.
- Jump up ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 12, Cersei III.
- ↑ Jump up to: 20.0 20.1 The World of Ice & Fire: The Westerlands (unabridged). georgerrmartin.com
- Jump up ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Appendix: Lannister Lineage.
- Jump up ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Iron Islands: The Old Way and the New.
- Jump up ↑ asoiaf.westeros.org: The ASOIAF wiki thread, Comment by Ran (February 26, 2025)
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