Tyrion fights at the Green Fork

Tyrion Lannister fights at the Green Fork as the unwilling commander of a ragtag vanguard, a role his father Lord Tywin designed as a feigned rout to lure Robb Stark into a trap. The battle becomes a brutal test of survival for Tyrion, who emerges alive but wounded, only to discover that the Stark boy outmaneuvered the Lannisters entirely.

Causes and Background

Lord Tywin Lannister, having learned that Robb Stark's host was moving south from the Twins, arrayed his army on a hill overlooking the kingsroad. He placed Tyrion and his three hundred mountain clansmen—Stone Crows, Moon Brothers, Black Ears, and Burned Men—in the vanguard on the left flank, under the command of Ser Gregor Clegane. Tyrion understood this as a calculated insult: his father expected the undisciplined wildlings to break, drawing the young Stark into a premature charge that Ser Kevan's pikes and the reserve could then crush. Tyrion was kept ignorant of the plan, told only that he would serve under the Mountain. When he protested, his father dismissed him with cold indifference, and Tyrion walked away from the table without eating, his anger barely contained.

What Happens

At dawn, as the northern drums rumbled and the Lannister trumpets answered, Tyrion led his mismatched band toward the riverbank, shouting, "The river is ours." The vanguard surged forward, and Tyrion found himself in a swirling chaos of spear and steel. He saw Shagga son of Dolf smash a spearman's chest with an axe, saw Chella daughter of Cheyk take ears from the slain, and saw Timett son of Timett vault free as his horse died beneath him. Tyrion himself fought with a battle-axe, unhorsed a knight who demanded his surrender by driving his head into the horse's belly, and then accepted the knight's sword when the animal fell and pinned its rider. His elbow was shattered by a morningstar, his helm spike snapped off, and his shield was hacked to pieces, yet he survived the melee. When the fighting ended, he found that half his three hundred clansmen were dead, including Conn son of Coratt and Ulf son of Umar.

Consequences and Aftermath

After the battle, Tyrion learned that the northern host he had faced was only a diversion. Robb Stark had crossed the Green Fork at the Twins with the bulk of his cavalry and was racing for Riverrun, where he would defeat and capture Jaime Lannister in the Whispering Wood. Lord Tywin admitted that the feigned rout had failed—the Stark boy had proved more cautious than expected—but called it a victory nonetheless. Tyrion, wounded and bitter, confronted his father about the deception. Lord Tywin then revealed that Renly Baratheon had crowned himself king and that he was sending Tyrion to King's Landing to rule as Hand in his stead, a command that carried the unspoken acknowledgment that Jaime was as good as lost. Tyrion left the inn with a new sense of his own precarious position, knowing that his father had given him up for dead and that he was now the only remaining son.