Land of Always Winter
According to Maester Yandel, the children of the forest and giants lived in the Land of Always Winter during the Dawn Age. In the Age of Heroes following the Pact, Westeros was settled by petty kingdoms of the First Men from the Land of Always Winter to the Summer Sea. According to legend, the Others came from the Land of Always Winter during the Long Night.
A Game of Thrones
While comatose, Bran Stark has a vision in which he looks past the Wall far to the north. He is frightened after looking deep into the heart of winter, which may be an allusion to the Land of Always Winter.
And he looked past the Wall, past endless forests cloaked in snow, past the frozen shore and the great blue-white rivers of ice and the dead plains where nothing grew or lived, to the curtain of light at the end of the world, and then beyond that curtain. He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks.—dream of Bran Stark
- A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 51, Theon I.
- The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Dawn Age.
- A Dance with Dragons, Map of Beyond The Wall
- George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Land of Always Winter.
- The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Age of Heroes.
- The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Long Night.
- A Game of Thrones, Chapter 17, Bran III.