Today is the day for my namesake. Brandon of House Stark, known also the Builder. I took the name Bran the Builder, because it fit what I do among the community, build theories. This is what the wiki has to say about Bran,
Image from http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Brandon_Stark_(Builder)
Brandon Stark, also known as Brandon the Builder and Bran the Builder, was the legendary founder of House Stark who is said to have lived during the Age of Heroes. Scholars believe an ancient king's actions have been exaggerated into legend, or the reigns of multiple kings have been remembered as one through the passage of time.
*Tales from the Reach claim that Brandon the Builder was a descendant of Brandon of the Bloody Blade, a son of the mythical Garth Greenhand.
According to legend, Brandon built the Wall and Winterfell; some stories say he did this with the help of giants. According to a ballad in Maester Childer's Winter's Kings, or the Legends and Lineages of the Starks of Winterfell, Brandon also sought assistance from the children of the forest.
Tales from the stormlands claim Brandon helped Durran Godsgrief build Storm's End when he was a boy. Some stories claim King Uthor of the High Tower commissioned Brandon to design the stone Hightower at Oldtown, while others state it was Brandon's son, who was also named Brandon.
It is said that Brandon gave the Night's Watch Brandon's Gift, a stretch of land twenty-five leagues wide, though some maesters argue this was done by another Brandon of House Stark. The Kings of Winter and Lords of Winterfell from House Stark descended from Brandon.
From A Wiki of Ice and Fire
This is a Brandon from ancient history, so long ago it's said he founded House Stark. The way Martin writes from the point of view characters, he has structured it to make the Starks seems like the "good guys." Unfortunately, I don't necessarily agree with that assumption for the original Starks.
Firstly, I am partial to what the Maesters tell us, Bran the Builder(BTB for short) was the son of Brandon of the Bloody Blade. I also believe his mother was Rose of Red Lake. Rose has direct ties the Red Lake, and Brandon of the Bloody Blade was said to have killed so many children of the forest at Blue Lake, men renamed it Red Lake. I first heard this theory from the Youtubers Order of the Greenhand so check them out. They have extensive theories, that are well researched, well structured, and well presented. Many argue, the Starks get their Warging abilities from history, when the kill the Warg King and take his daughters as wives, which may be true, but the scenario with Rose being his mother, lays out a history of warging abilities even before the house was truly founded. Rose of Red Lake was said to be able to change into a crane. [edit I was corrected lol]
I don't know what all to believe when it comes to the amazing feats of engineering surrounding BTB. He supposedly helped Durran Godsgrief in building Storms End, built Winterfell, and was possibly aided by giants and the children of the forest, to build the Wall. Those are amazing enough, but some accounts even having him helping to build the Hightower for Uthor Hightower, though it is said it may have been a son named Brandon. For one person to have overseen all these constructions from start to finish would be impossible if not for a magically prolonged life. I'll share a blog I did soon, but basically what I showed by the mathematics was if BTB was able to lay 5 miles of ice a day(implying there was an endless amount of ice and the collective were able to lay that much a day), and there was no added time for building upward, it would take 70+ years to complete. He would have had to have lived an extra long life to accomplish even one other project much less two or three.
Another detail many people forget, is that the first Starks were conquerors. They came into the North, taking it from the Barrow Kings. They came into an unknown land, and took what they wanted. We see in the current timeline, Martin tries to stay fairly accurate to how events really would play out. Given his style, I doubt he would have made the original Starks an honorable type of conqueror. They most likely raped, pillaged, and murdered like any other conquering force.
And to end it, I want to bring up the multitude of theories that state that BTB could have been the Night's King of lore. Old Nan tells us in A Game if Thrones she thinks the Night's King was a Stark most likely named Brandon. Old Nan had a way of being eerily accurate. Whether it's the same Brandon or not, its a detail that will most likely be lost in history, but the possibility still remains. There's also a possibility that he was the heroic figure Azor Ahai which would be an opposing force, so he could have been battling against the Night's King. There are even theories that the Night's King and Azor Ahai were the same person, Brandon the Builder, which play into the more gray aspect Martin writes so often in his stories.
Whichever the reality, we the reader, most likely will never know definitively. Martin will leave many of the questions we have about the little details to our imaginations. He is mirroring history in many ways, and this is just another that makes it feel like real events. It's his way of making everything in his stories relatable. It's all part of the mad genius that is George RR Martin.
Thank you for your time,
-Brandon the Builder
Image created by my friend Aashi