Original subtitles

SANSA: With most of the South in Aegon's hands,

the best chance to throw back the Conqueror now lay with the North,

if we cared enough to try.

Unlike our southern rivals,

the Stark Kings of Winter didn't forge the North into one kingdom

for glory or gold,

there is little of either here, but to survive.

Alone in Westeros,

the North remembered when worse than dragons laid waste to armies.

Thousands of years ago,

the sun set on the realms of men and the Long Night began.

A new race emerged from the ice and snow, the White Walkers.

They demanded no crown, offered no terms, spared no life,

and the dead marched with them.

With humanity facing extinction, a Stark sought out the Children of the Forest,

the most ancient beings in Westeros,

and convinced them to ally with the men they'd once fought.

Together the two races pushed the Walkers back into the Land of Always Winter

and sealed it off from the Seven Kingdoms with the Wall,

300 miles of ice, stone and earth rising nearly 700 feet tall.

To guard it, they established the Night's Watch,

a brotherhood sworn to defend the living from the dead,

whose vows erase both titles and crimes.

VISERYS: After the Long Night, the North tried to forget it belonged to the continent,

perhaps through pride, perhaps through sheer ignorance.

You never can tell with the North.

But as news of Aegon's dragons spread,

Torrhen Stark, the King of Winter, knew he couldn't forget Westeros any longer

and summoned his lords to Winterfell.

Many fools shrugged off the threat

while the rest placed wagers on how long the South would take to burn.

Torrhen silenced them with a command to assemble their armies

and descend from the North in force.

SANSA: As the kings of the Rock and the Reach burned on the Field of Fire,

the greatest Northern force since the Long Night

crossed the Neck into the Riverlands.

But when King Torrhen arrived at the Trident,

he saw on the opposing riverbank

the combined strength of all Aegon's conquered kingdoms.

A force larger than Torrhen's own by half, and with three dragons.

VISERYS: That night, King Torrhen called a conference

of all his lords and advisers.

Some wanted to fight, and trust Northern valor to carry the day,

and burn on the Trident.

The wisest of them wanted to withdraw to Moat Cailin,

the fortress which had thrown back every southern invasion, and burn there.

One suicidal lord even wanted to ambush Aegon's camp in the dark

and kill the dragons as they slept, or at the very least their riders.

Hard to tell what would've been his fate.

Burning, beheading, dismemberment?

Perhaps all three.

SANSA: My ancestor listened to their counsel,

- and in the morning crossed the Trident - (HOOVES THUDDING)

under a flag of parley.

Then King Torrhen of House Stark laid his ancient crown at Aegon's feet,

and was named Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North...

VISERYS: And the King Who Knelt.

SANSA: He had no choice,

and thanks to him our soldiers returned to their homes whole and unharmed.

The swords that Aegon took from them were not twisted, burnt or mangled.

VISERYS: Yet.