Follow TV Tropes

Following

Characters / A Song of Ice and Fire - Shield Islands Houses

Go To

This is a listing of the noble houses of the Shield Islands that appear in A Song of Ice and Fire.

For the main character index, see here

For the main Reach entry, see here

The Shield Islands

The Shield Islands, commonly called the Shields or Four Shields', are four islands of the Reach. They are located in the Sunset Sea west of Highgarden and protect the Mander river from the Iron Islands. The islands include: Greenshield, ruled by House Chester; Greyshield, ruled by House Grimm; Oakenshield, ruled by House Hewett; and Southshield, ruled by House Serry


    open/close all folders 

     House Chester 

House Chester of Greenshield

House Chester of Greenshield rules over Greenshield, one of the Shield Islands of the Reach.

According to semi-canon sources they blazon their arms with a green hand on a gold escutcheon on a green field, a border of red rayonne. Their words do not appear in the books.


  • Ambiguously Relatd: Their coat of arms is very similar to that of the defunct House Gardener, causing many fans to suspect that the Chesters are a cadet branch of the Gardener kings, but no one has said anything about them confirming this one way or the other.

Lord Moribald Chester

Lord of Greenshield and head of House Chester.


  • Killed Offscreen: His death is not given a decription; he's killed while the story focused on something else.
  • Red Shirt: His sole act in the series is to die, and even that's off-screen. It's not even mentioned if he died in battle or was executed after the fact.

Maester Kerwin

The former Maester for House Chester, Kerwin was captured by the Ironborn during the fall of Greenshield and made to serve aboard Victarion Greyjoy's ship, the Iron Victory.


  • Brainy Brunette: Kerwin is a smart and highly trained Maester. Pity that does him no good aboard a Ironborn vessel, since many of them despise learning and non-warrior men.
  • Butt-Monkey: He is extremely abused by the crew of the Iron Victory, with some of them even raping him, but nobody onboard cares and the whole situation is treated somewhat humorously.
  • Distressed Dude: It doesn't get more distressed in this series than being kidnapped by a bunch of pirates who despise your profession.
  • Human Sacrifice: Victarion has his throat cut and body thrown overboard as an offering to the Drowned God after the Red Priest Moqorro comes aboard and successfully treats Victarion's wound.
  • The Medic: Victarion has him treat the cut to his hand that he took during the capture of the Shield Islands. It becomes infected, and while Kerwin does his best to treat it, Victarion's patience with him grows short and he comes to suspect that Kerwin is under Euron's orders to ensure the wound grows worse.
  • Non-Action Guy: Victarion gives him a knife so he can protect himself against members of the crew raping him, but Kerwin is too frightened to use it.
  • Perpetual Smiler: When he first came aboard the Iron Victory, he was constantly smiling, despite his situation. He quickly learned not to smile after smiling at the wrong person.
  • Pretty Boy: Unfortunately for him, he looks somewhat girlish, with soft skin and long curly brown hair. This is likely what led to some of the Ironborn raping him after a few weeks at sea with no women.
  • Teeth Flying: Lost four teeth when Burton Humble punched him in the face for smiling at him.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: He is killed in the first chapter he appears in.

     House Grimm 

House Grimm of Greyshield

House Grimm of Greyshield rules the island Greyshield, one of the Shield Islands of the Reach, from their castle, Grimston.

Neither their arms nor their words appear in the books, but according to semi-canon sources they blazon their shield as an iron escutcheon with silver studs on a grey-green field strewn with longships proper.


  • Famous Ancestor: An unnamed Lord Grimm allied with the Blacks during the Dance of the Dragons.

Lord Guthor Grimm

Lord Guthor Grimm is the Lord of Greyshield in the Shield Islands.


     House Hewett 

House Hewett of Oakenshield

House Hewett of Oakenshield rules over Oakenshield, one of the Shield Islands of the Reach.

Lord Hewett's castle, with thick walls and studded oaken gates evoking the ancient arms of the house, sits above the harbor of Lord Hewett's Town, which is a relatively big port.

They blazon their arms with an oaken escutcheon studded with iron, a field bendy of undulating blue and white. Their words are not mentioned in the books.

Lord Humfrey Hewett

Head of House Hewett and Lord of Oakenshield.


  • Abusive Parents: He made his bastard daughter Falia a serving girl so she could wait on him, her stepmother and her trueborn sisters.
  • Alliterative Name: Humfrey Hewett.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Granted, he didn't exactly treat his bastard child that well, but seeing most of his female relatives raped before him is going way, way beyond what any of them deserved.
  • Forced to Watch: Euron ties Humfrey up in his dining hall and muzzles him after conquering Oakenshield, and then makes him watch as the Ironborn force his wife and daughters to serve them naked. Later he witnesses Left-Hand Lucas Codd rape one of his daughters.
  • Jerkass: Made his bastard daughter serve him and his family as a servant. Even though bastards enjoy very low status everywhere except for Dorne, most noblemen tend to treat their bastards better than Lord Hewett (even Roose Bolton provided for Ramsey and his mother).
  • Killed Offscreen: In King's Landing it is later reported Lord Humfrey is dead.
  • Uncertain Doom: Given how often those reported dead turn up alive again (Case in point: Davos), it's left ambiguous if he's actually dead... but given that Euron's at play, it might be better for him if he's dead.

Falia Flowers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/falia_flowers_by_rae_lavergne.jpg
"Good ladies. Falia is concerned for your fine gowns [...] So you had best disrobe."
King Euron Greyjoy

Humfrey's bastard daughter who works as a servant in the Hewetts' castle.


  • Adopt-a-Servant: While her trueborn half-sisters lived in luxury, she was made a serving girl for her father's family.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: She comes off as more pitiable than despicable in The Winds Of Winter. It appears that she genuinely loved Euron and wished to have a family with him, not realizing until it's too late that he only saw her as disposable. It helps that however bad she is, Euron is one-hundred percent worse. Aeron manages to sympathize with her, comforting her when they are both sent to their deaths.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: She jumps at the chance to become the mistress of Euron Greyjoy, a psychotic, murderous pirate and rapist considered terrifying even by Ironborn standards. It ends with her being tied naked to the prow of the Silence with her tongue cut out and presumably sacrificed to the Drowned God.
  • Alliterative Name: Falia Flowers.
  • Asshole Victim: After Euron Greyjoy conquers the castle, Falia laughs to see her trueborn half-sisters degraded and raped. Not too long afterwards, she herself is the victim of Euron's cruelty: she has her tongue cut out and is stripped naked and strapped to the figurehead of the Silence, and left to die of exposure and starvation while pregnant with Euron's child.
  • Bastard Angst: Her status as a bastard may have allowed her to live in a castle, but it was as a servant who was abused by her half-siblings and their mother. This treatment clearly caused some significant damage to her morals and she quite eagerly jumps at the chance to take revenge upon them when Euron attacks.
  • Bastard Bastard: Mistreated or not, what she does to her half-sisters and their mother when the Ironborn take over Oakenshield makes her one of these.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: She is described as buxom and very pretty.
  • Dark Mistress: She falls for Euron Greyjoy and seems to share some of his sadism. In the Winds of Winter, she turns out to be a subversion. While she wants to be Euron's salt mistress, she learns the hard way that Euron cares nothing for her: once he gets her pregnant, he cuts her tongue out and ties her to the Silence's prow to die.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Years of mistreatment does not justify forcing your step-mom and half-siblings (some of them just children who likely had no part in her mistreatment) to serve a bunch of pirates who had just conquered their home in the nude, and then leave them to get raped.
  • The Dog Bites Back: After years of being made to work in the kitchens for her trueborn half-siblings and wait on them at table, Falia delights in joining the Ironborn invaders in finding ways to humiliate them - such as suggesting that they be forced to serve their captors naked.
  • Expy: Her character strongly resembles Jenny from The Threepenny Opera, a maid who hates her humiliating service job and dreams that pirates will one days show up and allow her to take revenge.
  • Fractured Fairy Tale: Once upon a time, there was a girl growing up in her father's house with a Wicked Stepmother and her evil stepsisters, who forced her to live amongst the servants and do all the chores. Then one day, their household was set upon by Ironborn reavers, who took the place over and raped everyone, except pretty Falia Flowers who became the willing mistress of the evil-but-very-pretty Pirate King Euron. She persuaded Euron to make her stepmother and half-sisters serve in the nude while her poor father watched, and she laughed and laughed and laughed. The End.
    • Except that wasn't really the end - not long afterwards, Euron got her pregnant. Then he cut her tongue out. Then he lashed her to the prow of his ship and left her to die, for absolutely no reason. The Real End.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: She believes that Euron is genuinely in love with her and is going to marry her, because he helped her get revenge on her stepmother and half-sisters and gives her gifts of silks and jewels. Even seeing his brother Aeron chained up and suffering in the hold of the Silence isn't enough to convince her of the man's true nature. He ends up tying her to the prow of the Silence and leaving her to die of exposure, while pregnant no less.
  • Hot Consort: Hot Concubine, to be precise. She is content in being Euron's salt-wife while Daenerys will be his Top Wife with Falia referring to her as "sister". Or would have if Euron hadn't grown bored of Falia and disposed her.
  • I Just Want to Be Loved: Implied. She tells Aeron that she's going to be his kin, wants to have many sons, and thinks that she and Daenerys will be as close as sisters. It's likely that because she felt unloved by her actual family, she hopes that being with Euron means she'll gain a new family.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: She pays back her family for making her a servant by turning her stepmother and half-sisters into serving maids for the Ironborn, while her father is Forced to Watch.
  • Pet the Dog: When Aeron is being tormented while imprisoned by Euron in the hold of the Silence, Falia feeds him porridge sweetened with honey. Later, he returns the favor when they are both tied to the prow of the Silence as Euron sails to battle, telling her they will soon be in the Drowned God's halls.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After betraying her family, she's tied to the prow of a ship by Euron and left to die from exposure and starvation.
    • While Falia was a jerk to the Hewetts after the Ironborn took over, whether it can be construed as betrayal of her family is up for discussion, as it's pretty clear that the Hewetts never bothered to treat her as a respected retainer, let alone as a family member.

Lady Hewett and her daughters


  • Big Sister Bully: Falia's trueborn half-sisters made her a servant and forced her to wait on them at the table. She repays them by making them serve Euron's pirates in the nude.
  • Harmful to Minors: One of the daughters who is forced to strip naked and serve the Ironborn is a ten-year-old girl.
  • Humiliation Conga: After Euron's Ironborn conquer the castle, they are forced to serve food and drink to the pirates in their own castle (not unlike what they did to Falia), and then made to strip for Falia's amusement, just to rub salt in the wound. And one of them is raped by Left-Hand Lucas Codd. While their lord father/husband is Forced to Watch.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: Lady Hewett is described as "still handsome, though grown somewhat stout."
  • Massive Numbered Siblings: Not counting Falia, the Hewetts have seven daughters and good-daughters.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: They wear fine gowns as befits noble ladies...until Falia decides they would be better off without them.
  • Shameful Strip: They are all subjected to this at the behest of Falia, even the youngest, who is only ten.
  • Shout-Out: Them being forced to serve food to their captors while naked is similar to a scene in the film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom.
  • Swapped Roles: Their half-sister/stepdaughter Falia was forced to be their servant. Then the Ironborn pirates took over the castle and Falia took a place of honor with Euron Greyjoy while they served the pirates.
  • Wicked Stepmother: Lady Hewett made her husband's bastard daughter a servant. Not even Catelyn Stark stooped to such a low.

     House Serry 

House Serry of Southshield

House Serry of Southshield rules over Southshield, the southernmost of the Shield Islands of the Reach.

Their blazon is a white rose upon a red escutcheon upon white, within a red embattled border. Their motto has not appeared in the books.

Lord Osbert Serry

The Lord of Southshield.


  • The Ghost: Mentioned but not seen yet.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the Battle of the Shield Islands, Lord Osbert flees up the Mander to Highgarden with the remnants of the Serry fleet.

Ser Talbert Serry

Victarion: "You! You of the rose! Be you the lord of Southshield?"
Talbert: "His son and heir. Ser Talbert Serry. And who are you. kraken?"
Victarion: "Your death."

Lord Osbert's son and heir.


  • Duel to the Death: With Victarion Greyjoy, which ends with Ser Talbert being thrown off the deck and quite likely drowned.
  • Oh, Crap!: He is quite visibly shocked when Victarion grips his sword's blade in his hand and tosses it off the side of the ship, and is stunned for long enough for Victarion to backhand him off the deck as well.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: Although he only appears for a couple of pages before dying, the injury he give Victarion becomes a major issue for him after it becomes infected and life-threatening. This leads to Victarion being desperate enough to let the Red Priest Moqorro treat him and results in him gaining super-strength and going somewhat mad.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Shows up for a couple pages to have a duel Victarion before being killed.
  • Worthy Opponent: Victarion holds a great deal of respect for him after their duel, considering him almost Ironborn.

Top