The New Gift

In the year 58 after the Conquest, King Jaehaerys I and his sister-wife Alysanne made a royal progress through the North. The queen flew to Winterfell on Silverwing and struck up a warm friendship with Lord Alaric Stark; the couple then reached Castle Black, where they were received by the Lord Commander of the Watch.

Alysanne came away convinced that the land Brandon the Builder had granted the Watch wasn't enough to sustain it, and she urged Jaehaerys to double it, pushing the border another twenty-five leagues south. Alaric Stark was wary: he knew that stripping land from northmen who already worked it would breed trouble.

The chroniclers disagree on how it ended. Archmaester Gyldayn writes that Alysanne won Lord Stark over and that the Starks handed over the land gladly; Maester Yandel claims instead that the grant was forced and left bitterness behind, to the point that one of Alaric's brothers sought out the Citadel's maesters for a legal way out, without success.

That resentment toward the crown, some have suggested, may have lingered for generations: when the Great Council of 101 AC came around, a Stark backed the claims of Lord Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen against the throne.

Later, fleeing north in search of the three-eyed crow, Bran Stark and his companions took shelter in the tower at Queenscrown, within the New Gift.

From hiding they watched a clash between Jon Snow and a band of Thenns, careful not to be seen themselves.

Its people pay what they owe the Night's Watch in goods or labor rather than gold, and that tribute helps feed and clothe the black brothers. Of the northern mountain clans, the Norreys hold the land closest to the New Gift.

Constant wildling raids have left most of its villages empty; people have chosen to move to the mountains or to Umber lands rather than stay.

Lord Eddard Stark once considered putting new lords in charge of the New Gift to check those raids, on condition they answered to Castle Black rather than Winterfell. The idea was left hanging, waiting for the winter to end.