Younger son of Brandon the Boastful and Lord of Winterfell for more than twenty years through the long reign of Jaehaerys I. He wed a daughter of House Mormont of Bear Island and fathered at least three children, two sons whose names the records have lost and a daughter, Alarra. In 58 AC, when Queen Alysanne Targaryen came north with her king on the wings of Silverwing, Alaric received them coldly at first, for he had not forgiven the crown the death of his brother Walton; Alysanne's wit and Alarra's eager friendship thawed him by degrees, and before the visit was done he had granted, with much complaint, the lands men would come to call the New Gift to the Night's Watch.
He set his bannermen to laying up half their harvest in anticipation of the winter of 59–60 AC, but not all heeded the warning and famine struck the north all the same; through the Shivers that followed, no chronicle records his death. He survived into 72 AC, by which time both his sons were dead before him, and was succeeded by his grandson Edric. The Citadel's letters from him on the question of the New Gift survive as the clearest record of a Stark trying, and failing, to talk his Targaryen overlords out of a royal gift.