Feastfires

Feastfires appears in the account of the Dance’s aftermath as a western stronghold with a direct role in the struggle for Fair Isle. Its walls sheltered the assembly of Lady Johanna Lannister’s improvised fleet, while its surrounding waters later formed part of the naval concentration Dalton Greyjoy gathered against Alyn Velaryon. The place thus links a failed expedition to the larger contest for control of the western seas.

Position and Strategic Role

Feastfires is identified through its walls and its position in the west. In 133 AC, Lady Johanna used the stronghold as a base for assembling fishing boats and cogs into a force intended to strike at the ironborn-held Fair Isle. The account later places more of Dalton Greyjoy’s longships off Feastfires, alongside concentrations near Kayce and Lannisport. Its importance in these episodes is practical: it is a point from which ships and troops could be gathered for operations along the western coast.

Lady Johanna’s Failed Expedition

Seeking to follow her victory at Kayce with another blow against Dalton Greyjoy, Lady Johanna assembled a makeshift fleet beneath the walls of Feastfires. She put one hundred knights and three thousand men-at-arms aboard fishing boats and cogs, then sent them out under cover of darkness. The plan depended on reaching the southern end of Fair Isle without being detected, but the ironborn had been warned and their longships were waiting. The expedition failed, and its commanders—Lord Prester, Lord Tarbeck, and Ser Erwin Lannister—were killed. Dalton sent their heads to Casterly Rock and described the action as payment for his uncle, making the failed landing an act of retaliation as well as a defeat for Johanna’s campaign.

A Gathering Point in the Naval Contest

Feastfires appears again as Alyn Velaryon advanced north along the western coast. Dalton Greyjoy, forewarned of the approaching fleet, gathered hundreds of longships in the waters south of Fair Isle and stationed more near Feastfires, Kayce, and Lannisport. He planned not only to meet Alyn’s force but, if victorious, to carry the war toward the Shields, Oldtown, Sunspear, and Driftmark. The text does not describe a battle at Feastfires; its significance lies in the way its waters became one of several gathering points in Greyjoy’s wider preparations. Paired with Johanna’s earlier attempt to launch from the stronghold, this makes Feastfires a recurring point of departure and concentration in the western maritime struggle.