A Clash of Kings — Catelyn VI
Edmure musters every sword to hold the fords of the Trident against Tywin's host — a victory, Catelyn fears, that wins the wrong battle.
The chapter retold
At Riverrun, Edmure Tully musters every sword the riverlands can spare to hold the fords of the Trident against Tywin Lannister’s advancing host — a defensive stand that looks, on its face, like exactly the kind of victory the war needs. Catelyn watches her brother’s plan take shape with something closer to dread than pride.
Her fear is strategic rather than sentimental: holding the fords may cost Tywin a battle he can afford to lose while doing nothing to protect Robb’s actual objectives further afield. It’s the book’s clearest illustration of how a tactical win can be a strategic trap — Edmure gets the glory he’s hungry for, and the war’s real shape shifts somewhere else entirely while everyone celebrates a fight that might not have mattered.
This movement: The March on the City
- Stannis's fleet and host converge on King's Landing; Tyrion counts chain links and wildfire pots.
- Robb wins the Crag in the west while his cause rots behind him; Catelyn frees the Kingslayer for two girls' lives.
- Arya spends her third death to buy Harrenhal's gate — the man offers more, and Jaqen gives her a coin and a phrase.
- Jon, taken in the Frostfangs, kills the Halfhand at his order and kneels to Mance Rayder with clean hands and a black heart.