The Mountains of the Moon are a rugged setting on the approaches to the Vale, where difficult terrain and seasonal access shape both raiding and the movement of armies. In the account of the later Targaryen wars, the range is not merely a backdrop: its foothills provide a target for Aemond Targaryen’s attacks, and its high road becomes a route for forces sent to intervene in the Vale.

Setting and Approaches

The text locates Stonyhead in the foothills of the Mountains of the Moon and describes the high road through the range as a route that could become passable again with the coming of spring. These references establish the mountains through the ways people approach or move through them, rather than through a detailed description of their landscape.

The range also figures as a source of danger to the Vale’s settled lands. Large bands of wildlings descended from the Mountains of the Moon to raid and plunder. Their incursions drew Lady Jeyne Arryn away from King’s Landing and back toward Gulltown to defend her people and lands, making the mountains an active frontier rather than a remote geographical marker.

Raids and Wartime Movement

During the war between the rival Targaryen factions, Aemond Targaryen struck at Stonyhead, among a succession of attacks across the riverlands. The account places the settlement in the mountains’ foothills, while describing the attacks as part of a wider pattern of sudden raids: Aemond struck, then vanished before those hunting him could arrive. The region’s connection to this campaign is therefore specific but limited; the text identifies one target there, not a prolonged occupation or set battle in the mountains.

The High Road and the Vale Campaign

In a later struggle over the Vale’s succession, the high road through the Mountains of the Moon was expected to become passable in spring. Five thousand men set out along the kingsroad under Ser Robert Rowan, with levies from Maidenpool, Darry, and Hayford swelling their numbers. After crossing the Trident, the force joined six hundred men of House Frey and a thousand from House Blackwood under Benjicot Blackwood; the combined army entered the mountains nine thousand strong.

The passage links seasonal conditions to military planning: the expected reopening of the high road offered a land route into the Vale, while a separate attack was prepared by sea under Alyn Velaryon. The mountains thus formed one part of a coordinated campaign, with the road enabling an army to approach from inland as the fleet undertook a parallel operation.

Narrative Significance

Across these episodes, the Mountains of the Moon recur at moments when access and security are in question. Wildlings use the range as an approach for raids; Aemond’s campaign reaches its foothills; and the high road’s seasonal availability affects the timing and scale of a royal intervention. The evidence gives no single defining battle or lasting change to the mountains themselves. Instead, their significance lies in how the surrounding conflicts depend on passage through, or danger emerging from, this difficult frontier.