House Flint of the mountains

North of the Wolfswood, in mountains no other house claims, a handful of bloodlines refuse to raise a seat the way the rest of the North's lords do. They have no need of one: the whole mountain range is their territory, and their chief goes by the plain style of the Flint among his own people, though Winterfell calls him Lord Flint out of courtesy.

They call themselves the First Flints, holding that the other two lines bearing their name — Widow's Watch to the southeast, Flint's Finger to the southwest — were founded by younger sons who once left the mountains in search of food, land, and wives. To their eyes, those houses are young branches off a much older trunk.

The Flints of the mountains are thought to share blood with the Flints of Breakstone Hill, who ruled as Kings of the First Men after the Long Night until the Stark Kings of Winter reduced them to vassalage. Among the many identities proposed for the Night's King, a Flint has at times been named.

The memory the clan left on the Night's Watch is not a kind one: Lord Commander Rodrik Flint is remembered as one of the worst men ever to lead the Watch, for trying to crown himself King-Beyond-the-Wall. And one of the darkest legends of the Nightfort, that of young Danny Flint, murdered there, still carries the clan's name.

One branch of the clan held the Wolf's Den for a full century after House Greystark died out, and the hill Flints helped Lord Cregan Stark hunt down the Free Folk raiders led by Sylas the Pale.

Arya Flint, a woman of the mountains, was the maternal grandmother of Lord Eddard Stark, and Old Nan used to tell Bran that his recklessness climbing the walls of Winterfell came from that blood. The clan is also said to have marriage ties to House Hornwood, though no one specifies through which branch.

Life in the mountains has not always been quiet: the Flints have suffered raids from wildlings led by the Weeper, among other dangers they have known coming down from their heights.

When Stannis Baratheon marches to tear the North from the hands of the ironborn and House Bolton, the Flints join his cause hoping to free Arya Stark, Lord Eddard's daughter, from the Boltons. Before the battle for Deepwood Motte, a Flint is among a small group of northmen trying to slip into the castle; the ironborn spot them, and Asha Greyjoy kills the Flint with her own hands.

Torghen Flint later arrives at Castle Black with five warriors and a fourteen-year-old wet nurse for the giant infant they call Monster. Like the Norreys, the Flints distrust Lord Commander Jon Snow's plan to settle the wildlings on the Gift.