The Crypts

An old ironwood door, heavy and set at a slant, opens near the First Keep onto a narrow stair that turns down into the cold. Below, a long vaulted passage runs between pairs of granite pillars. Between the pillars lie the lords and kings of House Stark, and above each tomb sits his likeness carved in stone.

A stone direwolf curls at every pair of feet. Across every lap lies a longsword of iron, put there so that the dead stay where they are laid. On the oldest tombs the iron has rusted away entirely, and only a red mark on the stone shows where a sword once rested. Statues are carved only for the kings and the lords of Winterfell; others of the blood rest without a likeness.

The newest tombs belong to Lord Rickard and two of his children, Brandon and Lyanna; Lord Eddard had statues made for his brother and sister though neither ruled. Beyond them the rows run on, empty and unsealed. Below this level lie older ones, darker and lower, where the first kings sit, and the deepest is said to be partly fallen in.