The seat, the words, the line, and the tale of House Bracken — drawn from the novels and the Citadel's fuller histories, with the television series set aside wherever it parts from the books.
Seat
Stone Hedge
Region
The Riverlands
Founder
kings of the Age of Heroes, by the Brackens' own telling — the Blackwoods tell it otherwise, and no third witness survives to settle which
House Bracken has held Stone Hedge since before living memory can reach, breeding the finest horses on the Trident and quarrelling without pause with its neighbors at Raventree Hall. Where the Blackwoods tell of Bracken usurpers, the Brackens tell precisely the opposite tale, and a visiting maester learns quickly not to repeat either version within earshot of the other house. The Brackens took the Faith of the Seven the Andals brought and the Blackwoods refused, a religious line drawn across an already-ancient land dispute, and the feud has since claimed a king's mistress, a knight killed twice over at a riverside mill, and — in the present war — a lord who mistook a rival's war for his own chance to finally win.
The people of House Bracken
The lords, ladies, and branches of Bracken the books name — the notable, the infamous, and the merely unlucky.
Barba Bracken
mistress to King Aegon IV
fl. 160s–170s AC
An early mistress to King Aegon IV and mother of his son Aegor Rivers, sent from court in disgrace and replaced, pointedly, by a Blackwood woman in her place. Aegon had named a stretch of riverlands hills for her in better days; when Melissa Blackwood succeeded her, the same hills were stripped from House Bracken and renamed for her rival — a slight the Brackens have not forgotten. Barba's son grew into Aegor Rivers, called Bittersteel, sworn enemy of his own Blackwood-born half-brother and, in time, commander of the Golden Company.
Jonos Bracken
Lord of Stone Hedge
fl. 298–300 AC
Took the field for Robb Stark alongside the rest of Hoster Tully's bannermen, agreeing with his old rival Tytos Blackwood on almost nothing except, once, that Lady Catelyn's talk of peace should be refused. Tywin Lannister's offer of a quarter of the Blackwood lands turned his sword against his own side, and his six-month siege of Raventree Hall ended not in victory but in a Jaime Lannister parley that granted him less land than he had been promised.
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.
What the record disputes
Where the sources disagree or a song outruns the maesters, the chronicle marks the doubt rather than settling it.
The Brackens' account of the feud's origin directly inverts the Blackwoods'; the sources consulted offer no third witness capable of settling which telling is correct, and the Chronicle presents both without preference.
No Bracken house words are recorded in any source the Chronicle has consulted; the Chronicle records none rather than invent one.
The exact land grant Tywin Lannister promised Jonos Bracken for besieging Raventree Hall is stated only in general terms in the source consulted; the Chronicle does not sharpen it to a fixed acreage the text itself does not give.
What is House Bracken known for?
House Bracken has held Stone Hedge since before living memory can reach, breeding the finest horses on the Trident and quarrelling without pause with its neighbors at Raventree Hall. Where the Blackwoods tell of Bracken usurpers, the Brackens tell precisely the opposite tale, and a visiting maester learns quickly not to repeat either version within earshot of the other house. The Brackens took the Faith of the Seven the Andals brought and the Blackwoods refused, a religious line drawn across an already-ancient land dispute, and the feud has since claimed a king's mistress, a knight killed twice over at a riverside mill, and — in the present war — a lord who mistook a rival's war for his own chance to finally win.
Where is the seat of House Bracken?
House Bracken holds Stone Hedge, in The Riverlands. The chronicle traces the house from its founding down to its part in the present tale, marking legend as legend wherever the songs run ahead of the record.
Is House Bracken in the books or only the show?
Book canon. This history follows George R. R. Martin's novels first, then the histories — Fire & Blood and The World of Ice & Fire — and does not follow the television series where it diverges.