Funeral customs in Westeros vary. For most, it is standard earth burial. A body is often given to the Silent Sisters to be prepared for the grave. If it is to lie in state at any time, they will remove the blood and organs and stuff the body with salt and herbs to delay decomposition. If transport is needed, they will reduce the body down to bones. When a body is buried, if a person follows the Faith of the Seven, sometimes a crystal is placed on the grave.
We do know that some Great Houses have specific burial customs, as you mentioned.
- House Targaryen: cremation, in a pyre. (If a dragon is available, its flames light the pyre.) The ashes of some Targaryens are interred beneath the Red Keep, but presumably some were also interred at Dragonstone and Summerhall.
- House Tully: the Hollywood “Viking funeral” – the body is placed on a boat sent out on to the Trident river, and then a flaming arrow is shot to light the pyre.
- House Stark: the family is interred in tombs within the crypts beneath Winterfell. (Every Stark, not just the significant ones.) A King in the North or Lord of Winterfell is given a stone statue outside his tomb, depicting him seated, a sword (a real iron sword) across his lap. Also, faithful servants are buried in the lichyard near the First Keep.
- House Lannister: interred in the Hall of Heroes beneath Casterly Rock. We don’t have many details, but presumably it’s some kind of crypt, where the armor of hundreds
of Lannister knights, lords, and kingsstands guard.
We don’t have any details for the Arryns, Baratheons, Greyjoys, Martells, or Tyrells, I’m afraid. But I could see the Arryns preferring sky burial, especially because of the limited amount of room on the mountain (the Eyrie is the smallest of the great castles), the difficulty of burial in the stony soil, and their association with falcons. Those who follow the Drowned God believe a death at sea is a good death, and believe that “no
true son of the sea would want to rot beneath the ground”, so I could see the Greyjoys (and other ironborn) preferring burial at sea, perhaps with the body sewn in sailcloth, to be sent down to the Drowned God’s watery halls. As for the others, I really couldn’t say – but perhaps we’ll get more information about them as well as the Arryns and Greyjoys, and further info about the Lannisters, in future books.Hope that helps!
I’ve thought about this a couple times!
Arryns: Sky burials, for sure.
Greyjoys: Definitely sending the bodies out to sea, probably wrapped in seaweed and sent to the bottom of the sea for the Drowned God’s watery halls.
Tyrells – I think they decorate/cover the body in foliage, flowers, etc. and then they decompose and become part of the Highgarden for real.
Martells – I really really like the idea that the Martells mummify their dead.
Baratheons – I can’t find anything related specifically to storms, but I think (based on Renly and Robert) that the tradition is to bury them somewhere of personal significance and to have a feast, preferably with things the person hunted (or, if they couldn’t hunt, having a large hunt for something to serve at the funeral).
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