Alysanne Targaryen and Alaric Stark

Alysanne Targaryen and Alaric Stark’s relationship developed from a frosty royal reception into a working alliance, without erasing the Stark lord’s reservations about the crown. During Alysanne’s northern progress, Alaric initially met her with blunt warnings about the cold, the cost of hosting her party, and his unwillingness to admit her dragon within Winterfell Castle. Over time, however, her persistence softened his manner; their eventual cooperation helped double the lands available to the Night's Watch.

An uneasy reception at Winterfell Castle

After leaving White Harbor, Alysanne’s retinue traveled up the White Knife and then overland toward Winterfell Castle, while the queen flew ahead on Silverwing. The reception there contrasted sharply with her welcome at White Harbor: Alaric and his sons alone came out to meet her when she landed before the castle gates. His reputation had preceded him. He was regarded as stern, cold, and exceedingly careful with money; even Theomore Manderly, his bannerman, acknowledged that Alaric was respected in the North but not loved.

Alaric’s first words made clear that the visit would not proceed according to southern courtly expectations. Before Alysanne had dismounted, he remarked on how lightly she was dressed for the North. He refused to let Silverwing inside his walls, invoking the destruction of Harrenhal as reason for caution, and warned that Winterfell could not feed a thousand visitors for long. When Alysanne explained that only a tenth that number would come, he answered that fewer would be better still. He also made plain his displeasure that Jaehaerys Targaryen had not accompanied his queen. Alaric admitted he did not know how to entertain a queen and had no intention of providing the balls and dances she might expect.

The exchange revealed differences beyond temperament. Alaric’s concern about provisions reflected the conditions of the North, where winter and distance shaped the limits of hospitality. His refusal to admit the dragon likewise showed how little royal status alone could make him set aside his own judgment. Alysanne arrived as queen, but Alaric treated the visit as a northern household’s responsibility, not an occasion to imitate southern court life.

Alysanne’s appeal and Alaric’s resistance

The clearest early point of disagreement concerned Alaric’s sons and the possibility of southern marriages. Alysanne offered to help arrange matches with daughters of great southern lords. Alaric refused, explaining that his family kept the old gods and that his sons would marry before a heart tree, not in a southern sept. His answer rejected not simply a particular match but the assumption that a royal marriage broker could readily shape northern custom.

Alysanne did not abandon the proposal. She pointed out that southern castles often had godswoods as well as septs, and that some southern houses had never accepted the Seven, naming the Blackwoods among them. Instead of demanding that Alaric yield to a royal command, she answered his religious objection with examples that made marriage across regions seem compatible with northern practice. Even Alaric, described as difficult to move, agreed to consider her argument and raise the matter with his sons. The evidence establishes a change from outright refusal to deliberation, not that a marriage was arranged or that he accepted her offer.

Her approach belongs to a wider pattern of Targaryen efforts to bind the conquered kingdoms through personal and dynastic ties. Aegon I Targaryen encouraged the children of former enemies to serve at court, while his queens arranged marriages between noble houses from distant parts of the realm. Alysanne’s conversation with Alaric drew on that integrative purpose, but also exposed its limits: in the North, any alliance had to account for local faith and custom. Her persuasion worked through accommodation rather than simple insistence.

From reserve to personal trust

The longer Alysanne remained at Winterfell Castle, the warmer Alaric became. Her experience corrected some of the stories told about him: he was careful with coin but not miserly, and his humor, though sharp, was not absent. His children and the people of Winterfell appeared to love him. Those observations complicate the first impression of a joyless, ungenerous lord without turning him into a different man; the same sharpness remained, but familiarity revealed more of his character.

Alaric began to include Alysanne in the life of his household and lands. He took her hunting for elk and wild boar in the wolfswood, showed her the bones of a giant, and let her explore the castle’s modest library. He even approached Silverwing, though warily—a small but telling adjustment after his insistence that the dragon stay outside his walls. The women of Winterfell also warmed to Alysanne, and the queen grew particularly close to Alaric’s daughter, Alarra. When the rest of her party finally arrived after struggling through bogs and summer snows, food and mead were freely provided despite the king’s continued absence.

This thaw was practical as well as personal. Alysanne’s influence did not depend on Alaric suddenly embracing southern courtly habits or becoming a close friend of the royal couple. Instead, sustained contact allowed each side to move beyond an initial judgment: Alysanne saw past the reputation of an unwelcoming lord, while Alaric came to respond to her persistence and charm. The relationship made cooperation possible where a formal royal welcome alone had not.

The New Gift and the limits of accord

Alysanne’s most important appeal to Alaric concerned the Night's Watch. After visiting Brandon’s Gift, the lands south of the Wall granted to the Watch for its support and sustenance, she concluded that the existing provision was inadequate. The soil was thin and stony, the hills sparsely populated, and the Watch lacked money; winter would bring an additional shortage of food. She proposed a New Gift, a further strip of land south of Brandon’s Gift.

Alaric supported the Night's Watch but recognized the political obstacle: the lands Alysanne wanted were held by lords who would object to losing them without consent. She answered that she trusted him to persuade them. Her confidence, and the personal rapport she had built during the visit, helped bring him to agree. The result was that the size of the Gift was doubled. The agreement joined Alysanne’s concern for the Watch’s long-term support to Alaric’s ability to deal with northern lords; it was not merely a private understanding between queen and host, but a consequential settlement requiring local assent.

The accord did not remove the deeper strain between Alaric and Jaehaerys Targaryen. They were never to become fast friends, and the memory of Walton Stark continued to stand between them. Alysanne’s good offices were the means by which they found accord. After another fortnight at Winterfell, she and the king continued their northern journey, later flying back to King’s Landing while their retinue traveled overland to White Harbor and sailed south. Alaric and Alysanne’s relationship therefore ended not in the resolution of every royal-northern grievance, but in a durable instance of trust: she had persuaded him to entertain her arguments, welcome her party, and help secure a major grant for the Watch.