House Tallhart of Torrhen's Square is an ancient northern house sworn to Winterfell, tracing its descent from the First Men. According to tradition, the house's founder, a brigand lord named Torrhen, built a stout keep on the northern shore of a great lake in the years following the Long Night and united the scattered outlaw bands of the region under his banner. Rather than contest the advancing Kings of Winter, Torrhen knelt and pledged his sword to House Stark, receiving in return a formal title to his lands; the three sentinel trees on his arms have flown above Torrhen's Square ever since.
Ser Helman Tallhart, Master of Torrhen's Square, leads the house at the time of the War of the Five Kings. When King Robb Stark calls his banners in answer to Lord Eddard Stark's arrest, Helman marches south with a contingent of northern infantry while his brother Leobald holds the keep in his absence. The Tallharts pay dearly for their loyalty: Dagmer Cleftjaw sacks Torrhen's Square in the ironborn raids that accompany Theon Greyjoy's seizure of Winterfell, and Helman himself falls at Duskendale alongside much of the northern foot, ambushed by the forces of Lord Randyll Tarly. He is succeeded in rule of Torrhen's Square by his daughter Eddara.