The North

The North is one of the constituent regions of the continent of Westeros, and was formerly a sovereign nation known as the Kingdom of the North before the Targaryen conquest. The North is ruled from the castle of Winterfell by House Stark. It is the largest of the nine major regions of the continent, almost equal in size to the other eight combined.

In the books
In the Song of Ice and Fire novels, the North is an area vast in size but relatively light in population. The North, due to its location, is particularly badly affected during the long winters, with thousands of people killed and famine not an uncommon occurrence due to the inability to raise crops for years on end, outside of special greenhouses and castles built on or near hot springs, like Winterfell, or volcanic vents, like the Dreadfort of House Bolton.

The people of the North, popularly called 'northmen', are known as a hardy, tough breed who hold the comforts of the warm, 'soft' south in disdain. They worship the old gods of the forest, and the 'new gods' of the Andals have made little headway in the North. With a few exceptions, the warriors of the North refuse to take holy orders and thus cannot become knights.

Some of the northmen live in remote, distant areas where they act little more as clans and tribes of savage warriors. Even these remote folk are vassals of the Starks, however, and are allowed to maintain their own ways and traditions as long as they remain loyal to Winterfell.

The borders of the North are held to be the sea to the west and east, the Wall to the north and the hills and bogs of the Neck to the south. Greywater Watch and its ruling house, House Reed, are the southern-most noble family owing fealty to Winterfell.

Bastards born in the North are given the surname Snow.