Dragon Must Have Three Heads

[Faith Lienhard]

Viserys, was her first thought the next time she paused, but a second glance told her otherwise. The man had her brother's hair, but he was taller, and his eyes were a dark indigo rather than lilac. "Aegon," he said to a woman nursing a newborn babe in a great wooden bed. "What better name for a king?"

"He has a song," the man replied. "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany's, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. "There must be one more," he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. "The dragon has three heads." He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.

The eye color, the harp, and the melancholy tone leave no doubt that this vision was of Rhaegar. Since the babe was Aegon, the woman must have been Elia. Aemon tells us later that Rhaegar came to believe his son would be the prince that was promised...

On Braavos, it had seemed possible that Aemon might recover. Xhondo's talk of dragons had almost seemed to restore the old man to himself. That night he ate every bite Sam put before him. "No one ever looked for a girl," he said. "It was a prince that was promised, not a princess. Rhaegar, I thought ... the smoke was from the fire that devoured Summerhall on the day of his birth, the salt from the tears shed for those who died. He shared my belief when he was young, but later he became persuaded that it was his own son who fulfilled the prophecy, for a comet had been seen above King's Landing on the night Aegon was conceived, and Rhaegar was certain the bleeding star had to be a comet. What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation. Dragons are neither male nor female, Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years. Daenerys is the one, born amidst salt and smoke. The dragons prove it." Just talking of her seemed to make him stronger. "I must go to her. I must. Would that I was even ten years younger."

Like so many prophecies we've seen in A Song of Ice and Fire, the visionary got this one slightly wrong. Rhaegar's son is the prince that was promised, but it's Jon Snow, rather than Rhaegar's first born son...

"Prince Aegon was Rhaegar's heir by Elia of Dorne," Ser Jorah said. "But if he was this prince that was promised, the promise was broken along with his skull when the Lannisters dashed his head against a wall."

The vision that was Rhaegar was looking at Daeneys when he said, "There must be one more," and, "The dragon has three heads." As Rhaegar's statement, "His is the song of ice and fire," hinted that his son is the prince that was promised, his statement, "The dragon has three heads," hinted that two more Targaryens would be revealed. Daenerys, then, was the first head of Rhaegar's dragon. The most dramatic introduction of a character since our fair dragon queen visited the House of the Undying Ones was the reveal of Aegon at the Bridge of Dream. So, Aegon is the second head of Rhaegar's dragon. Aegon, though is actually the Blackfyre (but see this), not a Targaryen. And we know who the next big reveal is going to be don't we? Jon Snow, of course, is the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna. So, Jon will be the third head of Rhaegar's dragon.

"In ancient books of Asshai it is written that there will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire aburning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him." She lifted her voice, so it carried out over the gathered host. "Azor Ahai, beloved of R'hllor! The Warrior of Light, the Son of Fire! Come forth, your sword awaits you! Come forth and take it into your hand!"

Stannis Baratheon strode forward like a soldier marching into battle. ... Behind, Davos heard a faint clank and clatter of bells. "Under the sea, smoke rises in bubbles, and flames burn green and blue and black," Patchface sang somewhere. "I know, I know, oh, oh, oh."

Now, why do you suppose that the George stuck that in there, in that spot? Not a lot of folks here have tried to answer that question. Before the full title of The Princess and the Queen was released, the best explanation I read was that it was a foreshadowing of Tyrion's wildfire on the Blackwater.

But then, in late 2013, the George gave us the Rosetta Stone when we learned the full title of the Dance of the Dragons novella: The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens. And the George told us that there would be a second Dance of Dragons...

An Aegon was the leader of the greens in the first Dance of Dragons, so it stands to reason that our wee Aegon (there never was a nobler lad) can be associated with green. And, well, the babe was the leader of the blacks, right? So it stands to reason that our babe, the hot chick on the black dragon, can be associated with black. If you search a bit, you'll find all kinds of green and black contrasts and combinations throughout ASOIAF. Perhaps it's nothing more than coincidence, but I highly doubt that. There was a reason for all those green and black color references.

So, when we see black and green together, we can associate Daenerys with black and Aegon with green. Here's my favorite combination of green and black, and it has Jon's blue, too... As Daenerys enters Qarth, she passes under an arch of green, black, and blue snakes...

All the colors that had been missing from Vaes Tolorro had found their way to Qarth; buildings crowded about her fantastical as a fever dream in shades of rose, violet, and umber. She passed under a bronze arch fashioned in the likeness of two snakes mating, their scales delicate flakes of jade, obsidian, and lapis lazuli. Slim towers stood taller than any Dany had ever seen, and elaborate fountains filled every square, wrought in the shapes of griffins and dragons and manticores.

Getting back to Qarth, notice that Daenerys observes fountains wrought in the shapes of griffins and dragons and manticores as well. The griffin and dragon allusions are easy, of course, Jon Connington and Aegon. But the manticore allusion is much more elusive. In case you don't know, the manticore is a chimera, a fantastical beast comprised of the body parts of more than one animal or other mythical beast. The manticore most commonly consisted of a human head, a lion's body, a bat's wings, and a scorpion's tail, but there were other variations. In A Song of Ice and Fire, the manticore was much smaller, with a malign, black face and an arched, venomous tail, with the ability to fold itself into a scarab. In the real world, the manticore and chimeras were depicted in the art of the Romanesque and Renaissance periods to symbolize fraud. So, we have Jon Connington, Aegon, and fraud.

I always enjoy reading these, but I'm one who usually just absorbs the info and doesn't quite draw conclusions. Mostly, this reminded me of a question I've always had about the vision in the HofU concerning Rhaegar, the babe, and all that was said there. I cannot fathom WHY Rhaegar would think a child of Elia would be the song of ice and fire? Are we to believe the vision is really Rhaegar and all he thought, or a combo of that and what Dany thinks and a bit of the truth as well? Are we to believe Dany doesn't understand which child this vision is referring to.....and Rhaegar in the vision already knows that he is dead and was wrong about lots of things? Is this part of Rhaegar stuck somewhere and unable to even tell all he had wrong and he's sad about it, but only has the power to show some scenes of what did happen. Did it take all is effort to turn to her and tell her that there must be one more? I can never get past why Rhaegar would ever think an Aegon born to Elia was a song of ice and fire. It's also hard to believe that Rheagar ever saw Jon, because.......it's hard to believe that Lyanna lasted so long in her bed of blood. I'm confused on it all, in some respects.

Ice and Fire. She doesn't have to have anything against her to simply note that she has no ice symbolism. You could say he could represent fire as Dorne's symbol is a sun which is a giant ball of fire, but the Targs represent fire also, so that's just fire and fire.

Ice and Fire. He doesn't have to have anything against her to simply note that she has no ice symbolism. You could say he could represent fire as Dorne's symbol is a sun which is a giant ball of fire, but the Targs represent fire also, so that's just fire and fire.

Right. I don't see the Dornish Martell's banners, myths, or climate to have anything to do with ICE in any way. If anything, as you point out, plus with some of their own Targ blood added in ancestory, Fire and Fire is what I come up with as well. Nothing in the joining of Targ and Martell speaks of ICE. The idea of Rhaegar suggesting such to me, even in a vision, has always been confusing.

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