Ned Stark

Eddard "Ned" Stark
A Song of Ice and Fire character Game of Thrones character
Sean Bean as Ned Stark
First appearance	Novel: A Game of Thrones (1996) Television: "Winter Is Coming" (2011)
Last appearance	Novel: A Game of Thrones (1996) Television: "The Winds of Winter" (2016)
Created by	George R. R. Martin
Portrayed by	Sean Bean Sebastian Croft (child) Robert Aramayo (young) (Game of Thrones)
Information
Gender	Male
Title	Lord of Winterfell Warden of the North Hand of the King Protector of the Realm Regent
Family	House Stark
Spouse(s)	Catelyn Tully
Children	Robb Stark Sansa Stark Arya Stark Bran Stark Rickon Stark Jon Snow (Books)
Relatives	Rickard Stark (father) Lyarra Stark (mother) Brandon Stark (brother) Benjen Stark (brother) Lyanna Stark (sister) Jon Snow (nephew/foster son) (TV series)
Kingdom	The North

Eddard "Ned" Stark is a fictional character in the first book of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels and the first season of its television adaptation. Introduced in 1996's A Game of Thrones, Ned is the honorable lord of Winterfell, an ancient fortress in the North of the fictional continent of Westeros. Though the character is established as a primary character in the novel and the TV adaptation, Martin's plot twist at the end involving Ned shocked both readers of the book and viewers of the TV series.

Ned is portrayed by Sean Bean in the first season of HBO's adaptation of the series, Game of Thrones, and as a child and young man by Sebastian Croft and Robert Aramayo respectively in the sixth season. Bean was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television and a Scream Award for Best Fantasy Actor for the role. He and the rest of the cast were nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011.

In A Game of Thrones (1996), Ned Stark is introduced as the virtuous and honorable patriarch of House Stark and the father of six children. The moral compass of the story, he is content to remain far from courtly intrigues and is unwavering in his view of loyalty and honor. His family name, Stark, serves as an indication of his resistance to moral compromise, but his boundaries are increasingly tested over the course of the novel. Finding himself a key player in the escalating political intrigue of King's Landing, Ned struggles as his own sense of honor draws him into corrupt goings-on at court. As the story progresses, he begins to see the importance of moral and practical compromises to achieve a just end, and is ultimately forced to choose between the safety of his family and doing what is right.