Goldengrove
Sotodeoro
Goldengrove is the castle and town that serve as the seat of House Rowan, in the Reach, between the Red Lake and Highgarden. Its name comes from a legend: that of a tree grown from an apple and a lock of golden hair, whose leaves shone like the precious metal.
As the seat of one of the great houses of the Reach, its walls have seen pacts, armies, and royal visits across the realm's history.
Chapter 1
The golden tree
Books only
Tradition holds that this is where Rowan Goldtree buried an apple wrapped in a lock of his own golden hair, and that from that ground grew a tree whose leaves shone like pure gold.
The castle took its name from that wonder, as did the house that has held it ever since.
Chapter 2
Beneath the castle walls
Books only
When King Garth III the Great sealed pacts of friendship and mutual defense with the neighboring lords, Goldengrove was bound into the realm of the Reach.
Generations later, Loren Lannister, King of the Rock, and Mern IX Gardener, King of the Reach, gathered fifty-five thousand soldiers beneath the castle's walls to face Aegon Targaryen.
Chapter 3
The return that never came
135 ACBooks only
In 135 AC, Lord Thaddeus Rowan left King's Landing, where he had been held prisoner and tortured.
He never saw Goldengrove again: he died on the road home.
Chapter 4
The royal progress that stayed on paper
137 ACBooks only
Torrhen Manderly
Aegon III TargaryenIn 137 AC, Lord Torrhen Manderly, Hand to King Aegon III Targaryen, planned a long royal progress through the realm for the young king and his wife, and Goldengrove was among the intended stops.
The plan never came to pass: once Aegon came of age, he canceled all the journeys that had been arranged.
