Simon Strong

Great-uncle to the late Lord Lyonel and castellan of Harrenhal — a courteous old man who surrenders the realm's largest castle with the dignity of a good host.

The fuller tale

Great-uncle to the late Lord Lyonel and, in the vacuum left by Harrenhal's decimated direct line, castellan of the castle through the war's later stages — an old man whose main historical function is simply being present and competent when the ruin his family built finally changes hands again.

When the war's fortunes finally turn against whichever faction currently claims Harrenhal, Simon Strong surrenders the realm's largest castle with a courteous dignity that both tellings treat almost fondly — a small note of decency in a war otherwise not particularly generous with them.

The page and the screen

Simon Strong is a minor figure treated almost identically in both tellings, his brief appearance functioning mainly as a graceful hinge point for Harrenhal's change of hands rather than a subject of significant narrative interest in either version.

Where they stand, season by season

Mentioned in the chronicle

• Daemon flies Caraxes to Harrenhal and takes the greatest castle in Westeros without a blow; Ser Simon Strong yields it with supper. (S2·E3)

Their fate — if death has found them, it is written here. Open at your peril.

The chronicle records no death for this soul — they are living when the tale leaves them, or their ending is a page the maesters have yet to turn.