The fords of the Red Fork of the Trident, in the riverlands.
Who fought
Edmure Tully's riverlander defense against Tywin Lannister's army attempting to cross
Outcome
Edmure Tully repelled every Lannister attempt to cross the Red Fork, but in doing so spoiled Robb Stark's planned trap; Tywin's army marched off intact to join forces gathering near King's Landing, in time to fight at the Battle of the Blackwater.
A young lord held every crossing an enemy army tried and called it the finest day of his life — though the histories judge it rather less kindly than he did.
Commanders
Edmure Tully
Ser Tywin Lannister
Ser Gregor Clegane (Stone Mill assault)
What happened
With the northern host campaigning elsewhere, Edmure Tully took it upon himself to defend the riverlands' own ground rather than let an enemy army cross unopposed as his nephew had quietly intended. At every ford Tywin Lannister's men attempted, Edmure's riverlanders threw them back, and the riverlands celebrated a clear, hard-won triumph.
What that triumph cost the wider war — the trap it sprang early, and where the army it turned away marched instead — belongs to a stage of the story this record leaves for readers who have not yet reached it.
The Battle of the Fords in the novels
This carries how the battle plays out in the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
With Robb Stark and the bulk of the northern host campaigning in the west, Robb's unstated hope for his father's old enemy was patience: let Tywin Lannister's army cross the Red Fork unmolested and march on, deeper into the riverlands, where it might in time be caught between the returning northern host and the riverlander forces already in place. Edmure Tully, holding the riverlands in his nephew's absence, had other ideas.
Tywin's men attempted the crossings at several fords at once, the hardest fighting falling at Stone Mill, where Ser Gregor Clegane's men gained the west bank only to be thrown back, badly mauled, by Edmure's reserve. At every ford Edmure's riverlanders held, a string of small victories that had the riverlands celebrating a great triumph. It was, by any narrow tactical measure, exactly that: Tywin Lannister's army failed to force a single crossing and was obliged to turn away south and east instead.
The trouble was the plan Edmure had discarded to win his fight. Denied the fords, but bought time by the very delay Edmure's stand had cost him, Tywin learned of a new alliance forming around King's Landing and marched to join it — his army, whole and intact, going on to fight at the Blackwater not long after, in a battle Robb's trap had been meant to keep it from ever reaching. Edmure's victory was real; so was the price of it.
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
In the timeline
SourcesASOS · Catelyn
Explore further
Commanders
Where it was fought
Houses in the field
Elsewhere in this war
What was The Battle of the Fords?
A young lord held every crossing an enemy army tried and called it the finest day of his life — though the histories judge it rather less kindly than he did.
Is The Battle of the Fords from the books or the show?
Book canon. This entry follows George R. R. Martin's novels and histories, and notes where the television series diverges rather than following it.