They certainly think they do.

From Oldtown to Plankytown and North to the Wall, even most smallfolk knew bits and pieces of the story. At the Tourney of Harrenhall, Lyanna Stark had been named Queen of Love and Beauty by the victorious Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. The Prince had rode past his own wife, Elia Martel, and onwards to give a crown of blue Winter Roses to Lyanna. It wasn't long until Robert's Rebellion broke out. It was a time of many tragedies.

But that had little to do with Jon, at least he thought. Jon's life been fated to begin at Harrenhall, on the shores of the God's Eye, just as so many lives were fated to end as a consequence of the events there. Eddard Stark was just a handsome, single, dour young man in possession of a large fortune. There's a saying about men like that, and it was as true about Eddard as it is about anyone else. Moreover, Eddard was a younger child, a spare, and thus had no wedding arrangements made for him and no plan for his life. He had been fostered at the Eyrie with Robert Baratheon, and his job (as his own Lord Father had intended it) had been more or less accomplished. Robert, the future lord of the Stormlands, loved Eddard almost as much as his foster-father Jon Arryn did. The North's alliances were secure, with marriage ties imminent to two southern houses and strong diplomatic relationships to a third. Eddard's prize, as his father described it, was freedom. As reward for a job well done, he could marry whomever he chose - within reason.

Eddard's choice was well within reason. A tournament in those days was as much about socializing as it was about combat, and the dance at Harrenhall was a stupendous one. Beauties from all across the realm sought matches for themselves. Fathers and Uncles plotted, and boys became men. Eddard's older brother Brandon noticed that Ned had eyes for only one girl there.

She was the most beautiful girl in the room - and it was a large room with many great beauties. The Great Hall in Harren's folly housed, it was said, a hundred hearths. Jon imagined the Eddard gazing at her - his mother with the violet eyes. Ashara Dayne, younger sister of Ser Arthur "the Sword of Morning" Dayne, deigned to dance with Eddard Stark.

He must not have been a bad dancer. Maybe he was unexpectedly smooth - or maybe it was just destiny. The smallfolk say the two danced all night, or at least until it was time for the nobles to head back to their own familial quarters. The smallfolk also say that Ned felt his wolfsblood for the first time, and took Ashara on a small boat over the waters of the Gods Eye to the Isle of Faces.

Under the moonlight, the Old Gods listened to Eddard and Ashara exchange vows before the holiest grove in the world. The cloak that Eddard draped over Ashara's shoulders was covered in leaves and bits of grass when they returned to Harrenhall, and a small life was growing in Lady Dayne's womb.

Or so the story goes. Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell no longer spoke of that night, and hadn't since he had left King's Landing with Jon all those years ago. Nevertheless, Jon knew the story had to be true - at least in part. King Robert certainly believed it, and after all, how else could anyone explain Jon's violet irises, so like his mother's?