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Harren, also known as Harren the Red and Red Harren, is a minor character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series. He was an outlaw and bandit who claimed to be the grandson of the late Harren Hoare, the last King of the Isles and the Rivers, though whether this is true or not is unknown. Harren the Red is one of four rebels who revolted against House Targaryen during the reign of King Aenys I Targaryen.
Biography[]
Though Aegon I Targaryen had lived throughout his entire reign as a wise ruler, some of his subjects longed for the old days when there were seven kingdoms, but others sought revenge on House Targaryen, as they had lost their loved ones during Aegon's conquest of Westeros and even saw the Targaryens as abominations. As a result, following the ascension of King Aenys Targaryen, the eldest son of the late King Aegon, as all of Westeros sensed weakness in Aenys, four rebels (consisting of Harren the Red, Jonos Arryn, Lodos the Twice-Drowned and the Vulture King) rose in rebellion against the Targaryen Dynasty, with Harren being the first to revolt.
During his uprising, Red Harren seized the ruined castle of Harrenhal from the infamous Lord Gargon Qoherys with the aid of a castle servant, as Gargon had deflowered his daughter. Harren the Red and his fellow outlaws dragged Gargon from his bed to Harrenhal's godswood, where Harren sliced off his genitals before feeding them to a dog while Lord Gargon bled to death. During his stay at Riverrun, the ancestral keep of House Tully, King Aenys learns of Harren the Red. Though Lord Tully urged him to burn the rebels out with his dragon Quicksilver, the weakling Aenys refused and instead commanded him to raise his banners and march on Harrenhal with an army of 1,000 men. Unfortunately for the king, Harren the Red is aware of the slow advance of the royal army, and he puts all the servants in Harrenhal to the sword before fleeing into the woods.
Though Aenys ordered Lord Alyn Stokeworth, his Hand, to sail with a fleet to the Vale to deal with Jonos Arryn, who has usurped power from Lord Ronnel Arryn, he now feared that Red Harren might launch an attack on King's Landing, and so recalled his order at the last moment, causing the time Lord Alyn had spent to be wasted. Changing his order, Aenys instead dispatches Lord Stokeworth to the Riverlands with several hundred men to hunt down Harren the Red.
Harren the Red after being killed by Bernarr Brune.
Lord Alyn was successful in finding the outlaw, and Red Harren was cornered in a village that is located west of the God's Eye. In a battle that followed, Harren slew Alyn Stokeworth but was in turn killed by Bernarr Brune, Alyn's squire. As a reward for his deed, King Aenys gives Bernarr his knighthood while lordship of Harrenhal was given to House Harroway. While the now-dead Harren the Red was the first to revolt against the Targaryen Dynasty, he was also the last rebel to be dealt with.
Trivia[]
- While he never proved that he was truly a grandson of Harren the Black, as he claimed, it is not impossible that he could have been the bastard son of one of Black Harren's sons. Either he was a lying imposter, or he might have genuinely believed himself to be a relative of the Hoares, regardless of whether he was wrong or not.
External Link[]
- Harren the Red on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire.
