Walder Frey

"The 'Late Walder Frey', old Tully called me because I didn't get my men to the Trident in time for battle. He thought he was witty. Look at us now Tully! You're dead, your daughter's dead, your grandson's dead, your son spent his wedding night in a dungeon, and I'm Lord of Riverrun."

- Lord Walder Frey

Walder Frey is a recurring character in the first, third and sixth seasons, played by guest star David Bradley. He is the Lord of the Crossing and the head of House Frey, a vassal to House Tully.

Background
Walder Frey is the Lord of the Crossing and the head of House Frey, a vassal family of House Tully of the Riverlands. His house is noted for its overwhelming fertility and he has over one hundred descendents. He rules The Twins and its surrounding lands, controlling the strategically important crossing of the Green Fork. Over the years this great stone bridge and the castles that control it have made House Frey a fortune in crossing fees. He has been married seven times and is almost ninety years old when the series begins.

He is referred to by his liege lord, Hoster Tully, as the "Late Lord Frey" after delaying his arrival to assist Robert's Rebellion until the outcome had already been determined.

Season 1
Catelyn Stark meets a knight with a group of men at arms of House Frey at the Crossroads Inn and asks after Lord Walder's health. The knight replies that Lord Walder is well and is planning to celebrate his 90th birthday by taking a new wife. Tyrion Lannister laughs derisively at the news, making enemies of this group.

When Robb Stark's army arrives at the Twins on its march south, Robb needs to cross the river to gain a tactical advantage over the Lannister forces. As a Tully bannerman, Walder Frey had been called up, but he had delayed going until he saw which side had the advantage. Now that Riverrun is besieged by the Lannisters, Frey wonders why he should risk their fury. Catelyn tells Robb that Walder Frey is slippery and not to be trusted, despite his allegiance to her father. Fearing that Walder would attempt to imprison Robb and sell him to the Lannisters, Catelyn volunteers to negotiate with him.

On entering the Twins Catelyn finds Walder and his vast brood of sons, grandsons and bastards incessantly bickering. Fed up with their whining, Walder agrees to Catelyn's request to dismiss them - including his new fifteen year old wife, Joyeuse Erenford - while they negotiate. An alliance is formed; in return for permission to cross and the service of Walder's troops, Robb will marry one of Walder's daughters or granddaughters, whichever he likes. Additionally Arya, when recovered, will marry Walder's son Waldron. Robb must also take another son, Olyvar Frey, as a squire. Robb consents to the match, even after his mother indicates that Walder's daughters are not particularly attractive.

Season 3
In response to Robb's plea for men to help him capture Casterly Rock, Lord Walder sends his sons Lothar and Black Walder to Riverrun to discuss the terms of a new alliance with him. Lord Walder demands Harrenhal, as well as the marriage between Edmure Tully and his daughter Roslin.

When the King in the North and his entourage arrive, Lord Walder offers them his hospitality, but cannot keep himself from mocking Robb over his broken oath, insulting Queen Talisa and leering over her. Later, he oversees the wedding of Edmure and Roslin, and the following feast. Once the newlyweds retire for the bedding, he has the halls sealed and gives the cue for his men to slaughter the Starks. He watches in rapture and takes sips from his cup as Talisa and Robb's bannermen are killed. In a desperate bid to save her son, Catelyn Stark takes Lady Joyeuse hostage and begs Walder to spare his life, swearing they will take no vengeance. However, Walder hypocritically faults Catelyn for allowing her son to break the oath she swore to him the last time they spoke right there in his castle, even though he had then openly expressed his indifference towards the oath he swore to her father and had now just broken his promised protection of guest right. When Catelyn threatens to cut his wife's throat if he does not comply, Walder shrugs and coldly retorts that he will find another. Robb is then killed by Roose Bolton, who had sealed an alliance with Walder by marrying his granddaughter Walda, Lady Joyeuse is killed by Catelyn, and finally Catelyn is killed by Black Walder.

For his part in the Red Wedding, Lord Walder is granted Riverrun and protection from vengeful Northerners by Tywin Lannister. The next morning, he and Roose Bolton gloat over their victory, though Bolton appears concerned when it is discovered that Robb's great-uncle, Brynden Tully, escaped the massacre, while Frey is undisturbed. Frey voices his contempt for Robb, referring to him as a "stupid boy" and mockingly drinking a toast to him, while Bolton claims that it was precisely Robb's political inexperience that led him to betray him.

Season 4
Lord Walder and the rest of House Frey are now the focus of distaste and hatred for the North and the Riverlands for their part in the Red Wedding, especially since the Riverlands have fallen into disarray and lawlessness since they were granted to the Freys by the Lannisters. None of House Tully's vassals accept Lord Walder as their new liege lord. A farmer claims that Lord Walder himself committed sacrilege by sharing bread and salt with the Starks and Tullys and then slaughtering them, and that he will "burn in the seventh Hell" for it.

Personality
Walder Frey is shown to be an arrogant, domineering, lecherous, and tyrannical man who posseses no shame. He openly admits how little he thinks of the oaths he swears to other houses due to his strategic position, which he uses to extort hefty tolls in exchange for his allegiance, and shows a willingness to switch sides if he thinks it will benefit him more. Walder may see to it that his numerous descendants are provided for but only to further assert his own position as long as he is still living. Despite his advanced age, however, Walder shows little thought or concern for what happens to his house after he dies because like other characters, namely Cersei Lannister and Ramsay Bolton, he is extremely self-centered, not fully considering the long-term consequences of his actions.

Quotes

 * Spoken by Walder Frey

"Stark, Tully, Lannister, Baratheon... Give me one good reason why I should waste a single thought on any of you."

- Lord Walder Frey

"Your Grace, I fear I've been, remiss in my duties. I've given you meat and wine and music, but, I haven't shown you the hospitality you deserve. My king has married and I owe my new queen a wedding gift."

- Walder Frey gives the cue for his men to slaughter the Starks

"They all laughed at me, all those high lords. They all thought they were better than me. Ned Stark, Hoster Tully... People snigger when I marry a young girl, but who said a word when Jon Arryn married the little Tully bitch?!"

- Lord Walder Frey

"'The Late Lord Frey' my father calls him. At the Trident, he didn't appear until the battle was done. Some men take their oaths more seriously than others."
 * Spoken about Walder Frey

- Catelyn Stark

"Expect nothing of Walder Frey and you'll never be surprised."

- Greatjon Umber

"Walder Frey is a dangerous man to cross."

- Catelyn Stark

"Why should I let that old ferret choose my bride for me?"

- Edmure Tully

"Walder Frey, you fucking traitor..."

- Gregor Forrester

"Walder Frey is many things, but a brave man? No. He never would have risked such an action, unless he had certain assurances."

- Tyrion Lannister

"The current lord, Walder Frey, has seen over ninety namedays and sired near as many children, trueborn or otherwise. A shameful thing on any other lord, but Walder Frey possesses no shame. A dangerous thing for any other lord, but Walder Frey has no concern for heirs or fear of their impatience. Perhaps Lord Frey thinks to outlast them all. Given the infighting he encourages among them, perhaps he will."

- Catelyn Stark

"Yet part of me wonders if Lord Walder waited not out of fear, but hope that we would be destroyed leaving him to assume my family's place as Lord Paramount of the Trident. To buy the respect House Frey have always wanted, but refused to earn. No. Not even Lord Walder could be so disloyal."

- Catelyn Stark

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Walder Frey, the Lord of the Crossing, is an ancient (over 90), irascible and cranky old lord who rules over a vast brood of children, grandchildren, bastards, nieces and nephews. Walder Frey is said to be the only lord who could "field an army from his breeches". Descendents of his include numerous Walders (surnamed Frey or Rivers depending on their legitimacy), Waldas (notably Fat Walda, who is betrothed to Roose Bolton), and at least one Waltyr. He spends much of his time managing his huge family, making advantageous marriages with many of the great houses, this helps maintain the semi-neutrality of House Frey throughout the series. His house has grown rich by building and maintaining the Twins, two castles that control the only crossing over the Green Fork of the River Trident for hundreds of miles. He is proud and haughty, but also crafty. He is also bald and too gouty to move by himself. The fact that he controls such a strategic castle, and that most of the Great Houses have connections to the Freys through marriage, gives him free reign to switch allegiances numerous times, as all sides need him and his castle, and all sides have family connections to his family through his multitude of descendants.

Hoster Tully disparagingly nicknamed him "the Late Walder Frey" when he arrived with his Frey soldiers at the site of the Battle of the Trident after the battle was already over. Walder almost certainly did this on purpose, because he saw no reason to endanger Frey soldiers for the sake of anyone but himself, despite the fact that he had sworn oaths of fealty to the Tullys and it was his duty to aid them in the battle. Nonetheless, Walder maintained a hypocritical grudge against Hoster for years afterwards - because Hoster made the entirely valid and accurate criticism that Walder was disloyal and had failed to uphold his own vows. This is part of the overall pattern of Walder's selfish character: throughout the narrative, Walder seems to be unable to conceptually understand that others will fault him for breaking oaths he has made. In turn, when those he has broken promises to become angered at him, he seems to honestly believe that they are harassing him for no justifiable reason. Similarly, when the War of the Five Kings broke out, Walder Frey should have allowed Robb Stark's army to pass through the Twins, and added his own Frey soldiers to his army, because he was a vassal of House Tully. Other Tully bannermen such as the Blackwoods or Mallisters sent their armies to join Robb at Riverrun simply for the asking, because it was their sworn duty. In contrast, Walder extorted his overlords into promising a marriage-alliance, ignoring all previous oaths he had made to them. Walder later became enraged when Robb Stark broke this promise of a marriage-alliance - but his anger was entirely hypocritical, given that Walder himself is the one who broke his promise of unconditional support for the Tullys, by demanding a marriage-alliance which he had no right to ask for in the first place.

Walder Frey is notable for appearing - as a toddler - in The Mystery Knight, the third of George R.R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg short stories set almost ninety years before the events of the main series, making him the only character to appear in both the prequels and the main saga, though Aemon is also mentioned.

In the books, Lord Walder isn't named the new Lord of Riverrun after the Red Wedding. Instead, Riverrun is granted to Emmon Frey, Walder's second son. Then again, the Lannisters' grant of Riverrun to the Freys is nominal for the moment, as in the immediate aftermath of the Red Wedding the House Tully garrison still holds the castle. Though his allegiance with House Bolton has been solidified, one of Walder's grandsons is killed in Winterfell, possibly by Mance Rayder, though they deny it. Other descendants of his have been murdered by the Brotherhood without Banners and three of them are heavily implied to have been killed by the Northern Lord Wyman Manderly.