Fair Isle became a focal point of the western war between Johanna Lannister and Dalton Greyjoy. The island’s capture and attempted recovery brought the conflict’s costs to its inhabitants, while Dalton’s death and a local uprising ended ironborn control before Alyn Velaryon reached its shores.

A Contested Island

During the fighting that continued after the Dance of the Dragons, Dalton Greyjoy held Fair Isle and ignored demands from the Iron Throne to return it to its former lords. The island was among the prizes of his raids in the west, and its occupation formed part of the wider struggle between the ironborn and Johanna Lannister, who resisted their depredations on behalf of her son, Lord Loreon.

Johanna tried to build a fleet capable of taking the fight to the ironborn, but Dalton’s forces burned the shipyards and carried off more women. Her later attempt to retake Fair Isle was a more direct gamble: she assembled fishing boats and cogs at Feastfires, put a hundred knights and three thousand men-at-arms aboard, and sent them under cover of darkness to land on the island’s southern end. The plan depended on reaching shore undetected, but the longships were waiting. Lord Prester, Lord Tarbeck, and Ser Erwin Lannister commanded the disastrous crossing; afterward, Dalton sent their heads to Casterly Rock.

Dalton Greyjoy’s Death at Faircastle

Fair Isle was also the setting for the episode that ended Dalton’s hold over the western campaign. Among his salt wives was Tess, whose identity and history the accounts leave uncertain. On a rainy, windswept night at Faircastle, while the longships gathered below, she killed Dalton with his own dagger as he slept and then threw herself into the sea. The account presents her as the killer of the Red Kraken on the eve of his greatest battle, rather than an enemy defeated in open combat.

Dalton’s death immediately weakened the force assembled on the island. As news spread, its captains began leaving for home, anticipating a struggle over succession. Dalton had left two young sons on Pyke, and the elder, Toron, was not yet six; the dispute over who would rule in his place made the island’s military position precarious even before the rebellion began.

Revolt and Liberation

The smallfolk of Fair Isle and the knights still there rose against the ironborn who remained after the fleet began to disperse. Over three days, hundreds of reavers were killed and their ships burned. The revolt drove the ironborn from the island except for the garrison at Faircastle, whose members included Dalton’s close companions and brothers-in-battle. Its commanders, Alester Wynch and Gunthor Goodbrother, fell into a quarrel that ended with Gunthor killing Alester; the garrison nevertheless continued to hold out.

When Alyn Velaryon finally arrived to aid the west, he found Fair Isle already free, the longships gone, and the fighting over. Johanna welcomed him at Lannisport with public celebrations and gifts. Because the western fleet had been destroyed, she remained concerned that the ironborn might return under Dalton’s successor, and proposed carrying an attack to the Iron Islands. Fair Isle’s liberation had resolved the immediate contest for the island, but had not removed the threat that made its possession so important.