Hoster Tully

Lord of Riverrun; Lord Paramount of the Trident

House / Order	House Tully
Race / Culture
Status	Deceased
Origin	The Riverlands
Born	244 AC (approx.)
Died	299 AC, at Riverrun
Weapon
Fate	Died of a long illness; given a funeral by water in the river tradition of his house
Portrayed by

Tansy.

Hoster Tully was Lord of Riverrun and Lord Paramount of the Trident, head of House Tully and father to Catelyn Stark, Lysa Arryn, and Edmure Tully. A shrewd and ambitious lord whose word is "Family, Duty, Honor," Hoster bound his house to the great powers of the realm through the marriages of his children, and his long, slow death frames the Riverlands storyline of A Storm of Swords.

Background

Hoster ruled the rich and vulnerable Riverlands from the castle of Riverrun, set where the Tumblestone meets the Red Fork. He fostered Petyr Baelish, a minor lord's son from the Fingers, at Riverrun alongside his daughters. Ambitious for his family's standing, Hoster arranged advantageous matches: his daughter Catelyn was betrothed first to Brandon Stark and, after Brandon's death, to his brother Eddard Stark; his daughter Lysa was wed to the aged Lord Jon Arryn. These alliances tied the Tullys to the North and the Vale in Robert's Rebellion.

Family conflicts

Hoster's pursuit of advantageous marriages came at a cost to his children. He forced Lysa to abort the child she had conceived with Petyr Baelish, and he drove Petyr from Riverrun after the young man dueled Brandon Stark for Catelyn's hand. He also quarreled bitterly with his younger brother, Ser Brynden Tully, the Blackfish, who left Riverrun for years over the dispute.

Death

By the time of the War of the Five Kings, Hoster was bedridden and dying, drifting in and out of lucidity. In his fevered ramblings he repeatedly murmured the word "Tansy," begging forgiveness, a reference understood to relate to the moon tea forced upon Lysa to end her pregnancy. His daughter Catelyn Stark kept vigil at his bedside in his final days. When Hoster died, he was given the traditional Tully funeral: his body was laid in a boat and set adrift down the river, and his son Edmure Tully, grief-stricken, struggled to loose the fire arrow meant to send him off in flames, his uncle the Blackfish finally completing the rite.

Character

Hoster Tully represents the calculating great lord whose devotion to his house's advancement sometimes overrode the happiness of his own children. Proud, capable, and unyielding, he secured his family's place among the realm's powers, but his deathbed remorse over "Tansy" reveals the private griefs hidden beneath a lifetime of duty.

In the television series

In HBO's Game of Thrones, Hoster Tully is portrayed by Christopher Newman, appearing chiefly in his river funeral at Riverrun.

Appearances