Words Are Wind: Guest right 

“Words are wind” is a common phrase in A Song of Ice and Fire, usually used to say “talk is cheap.” But that’s a view that underestimates both the power of words and wind themselves. In this “Words Are Wind” column, contributor Scott Andrews discusses some of the more important words in the world of 

“It wasn’t for murder the gods cursed the Rat Cook, or for serving the King’s son in a pie. He killed a guest beneath his roof. That’s something the gods can’t forgive.”

The Red Wedding remains the biggest turning point in the entire

series. The Lannisters, with the Freys and Boltons as their new allies, annihilate the Starks and win the War of the Five Kings. In the process, they murder some of our favorite characters.

But was Robb acting naive, as his father might have, and trusting too blindly in the honor of dishonorable people? Did he walk into a trap so obvious it might as well have been a giant box labeled TRAP with a stick propping it up? Before you condemn him or his mother for the Red Wedding, you need to consider the concept of guest right.

The episode makes a big deal about Robb and his supporters eating bread and salt offered by the Freys. The invited guests are tense until this moment, but they relax once they are given food. What changed? By offering the bread and salt, Walder Frey invoked an ancient Westerosi custom known as “guest right.” Guest right dates back to the time of the First Men. It represents a sacred promise made between guest and host. Once food has been eaten by the guest, the host promises no harm to the guest, and the guest promises no harm to the host.

Those who break this promise are considered condemned by all the gods, both the Old Gods and the Seven. To do so in Westeros is beyond unlawful–it is unthinkable.

We see the political fallout in a post-Wedding episode called Breaker of Chains. A farmer invites Arya and the Hound into his home and feeds them dinner. Over the meal, the farmer discusses just what it is that Walder Frey has done: “[He] committed sacrilege that day. He shared bread and salt with the Starks. He offered them guest right. […] The gods will have their vengeance. Frey will burn in the seventh hell for what he did.”

The Hound replies, “Guest right don’t mean much anymore.” He’s not wrong. It’s indicative of the larger social issue at stake: if a noble family like the Freys violates guest right, then why should the average person obey it? He goes on to rob the farmer of his silver, and Arya calls him “the worst shit in the Seven Kingdoms,” which seems unfair given that they were just talking about the Freys the night before.

The Night’s Watch brothers who kill Craster in his own keep also break the sacred promise of guest right. When Karl kills Craster, Jeor says, “The gods will curse us for this. By all the laws–”

Karl replies, “There are no laws beyond the Wall.”

Martin has said a great deal in interviews about the Red Wedding, guest right, and its historical inspirations. Guest right, or the laws of hospitality, was also a sacred concept in medieval Europe. People of all social strata obeyed it, and those who violated this custom were condemned both by men and by God. But that doesn’t mean it was never put aside to gain advantage.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Martin cited a historical Scottish example. In the fifteenth century, the Douglas clan went to war with King James II. The king invited the Earl of Douglas and the earl’s brother to a dinner in order to make peace. There they were served a boar’s head, a symbol of death. After the meal, they were seized, tried, and beheaded. The king’s chancellor, Sir William Crichton, organized the betrayal. The king was 10 years old at the time, and the earl was 16. The event became known as the Black Dinner.

Martin’s other inspiration was the Glencoe Massacre. In 1692, the Maclain clan hosted a regiment of the English king’s army in Glen Coe, Scotland. Earl Campbell orchestrated the massacre on the excuse that Chief Alastair Maclain hadn’t sworn his oath to the new King William by the given deadline. Campbell disliked the Highland clans and wanted to eradicate them. King William issued the order to kill the Maclains because he believed he was sending the army to disrupt a conclave of thieves in Glencoe Valley.

On the night of  February 12, the regiment killed 38 members of the clan. Another 40 women and children died due to exposure in the Highland winter after their homes were burned. Notably, two members of the regiment broke their swords rather than follow the order. They later testified against their commanding officers.

The concept of guest right dates back to ancient Greece and Rome, where it was known as

Atreus, King of Mycenae, lost his crown to his brother Thyestes. Thyestes conspired with Atreus’s wife to take the kingdom, and Atreus later discovered their affair. He killed Thyestes’s two sons and served them to Thyestes for dinner. After his brother ate their flesh, Atreus taunted Thyestes with the heads of his sons. The gods cursed Atreus and his house for all time–not because of the murders, but because he broke 

with the two boys. The “House of Atreus” was the family of Agamemnon and Menelaus, whose tragedies continued during and especially after the Trojan War.

This myth inspired Martin’s version: the Rat Cook. In the episode Mhysa, Bran tells the story at the Nightfort. He says the cook was a brother of the Night’s Watch who felt wronged by the visiting king. He killed the king’s son and served his flesh to the guests. Because the Rat Cook broke guest right, the gods turned him into a giant rat, doomed to eat nothing but his own young.

With thousands of years of sacred tradition to draw on, Robb was no fool to put his faith in guest right. He had every reason to believe that he and his people were safe once they accepted Walder Frey’s bread and salt. It took an inconceivable act of betrayal to bring down the Starks.

Regardless of how it happened, the Red Wedding is now part of Westerosi history. Will the Freys ever pay for their treachery? We’ll keep watching–and hoping for revenge.

Next: What we know about Game of Thrones Season 5

Tagged Arya, atreus, black dinner, craster\'s keep, glencoe massacre, guest right, rat cook, Red Wedding, Robb Stark, sandor clegane, Walder Frey

Maisie Williams: “No dress is worth giving up a sword” 1 Comments

Earlier this month, Maisie Williams and Aidan Gillen sat down with The Hollywood Reporter during Berlinale, AKA the Berlin International Film Festival. Gillen was there to promote his starring turn in the …

Jonathan Pryce talks Game of Thrones Season 5 and Wolf Hall 14 Comments

Jonathan Pryce will be making his Game of Thrones debut this season, as the High Sparrow. Pryce was interviewed by Liverpool Echo, while he was in Liverpool for a BBC Showcase featuring …

Have you already read all the books and/or don\'t care about spoilers? You can reveal all the spoilers in the comments with the click of a link below.

I really really hope Lord Walder Frey gets his when the time comes,

lady stoneheart certainly has killed off a few Freys after the RW, But i have a little theory about Arya’s direwolf and Walder Frey.

House Frey is my favourite, Robb should have said “mayhaps”. He wouldn’t die then, heh.

MGS commented on Eight possible surprise deaths in Season 5 of Game of Thrones

Daniel Griffin commented on Eight possible surprise deaths in Season 5 of Game of Thrones

James commented on Eight possible surprise deaths in Season 5 of Game of Thrones

Saul commented on George R.R. Martin warns about surprising deaths

An error has occurred, which probably means the feed is down. Try again later.

Winter Is Coming is your source of news, rumors, speculation, and discussion for HBO’s Game of Thrones, the television adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.