Skulls of the Targaryen dragons
Dragon skulls belonging to House Targaryen used to hang on the walls of the Targaryen's throne room in the Red Keep.
Contents
About
After the fall of House Targaryen King Robert Baratheon replaced the dragon skulls with banners and tapestries. The skulls were stored in a dank cellar in the Red Keep where they remain.
There are nineteen skulls in total. They are various sizes. Some of the skulls have been identified but the identity of most of the dragon skulls are unknown. It is possible that some of the dragon skulls may have been brought to Westeros by the Targaryens when they fled Valyria prior to the Doom. GRRM has said that there were dragons all over, once [1]so it is not impossible that some skulls could have originated from Westeros.
Some of the Dragon Skulls
- Balerion's skull - the largest skull of the nineteen
- Vhagar's skull
- Meraxes's skull
- the last dragon's skull
- a skull belonging to one of the last two hatchlings born on Dragonstone, no bigger than a mastiff dog's
- unidentified skull over three thousand years old
- possibly Meleys, her head was taken to King's Landing
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
On the way to the Wall Tyrion Lannister remembers seeking out the dragon skulls in King's Landing the first time he was there. He recalls having a torch with him when he discovered the skulls and having the sensation that they seemed to like it when he put his torch to them. There were three skulls much larger than the others, the ones that belonged to Vhagar, Meraxes and Balerion.
Arya Stark ends up lost in a dark cellar in the Red Keep, in the gloom she finds the dragon skulls all around her. Initially she is afraid, but she soon overcomes her fear and makes her way over to touch one of the monsters. She can tell it is bone and that it is dead, but has a feeling that it knows she is there and that it does not love her.
A Clash of Kings
In Qarth Daenerys Targaryen sees the dragon skulls in the Red Keep's throne room in one of her visions in the House of the Undying.
A Storm of Swords
Tyrion and Shae rendezvous in the cellar amongst the dragon skulls.
Quotes
Finally a great pair of bronze doors appeared to her left, grander than the rest. They swung open as she neared, and she had to stop and look. Beyond loomed a cavernous stone hall, the largest she had ever seen. The skulls of dead dragons looked down from its walls. [2]
- Daenerys sees the dragon skulls in one of her visions in the House of the Undying
References and Notes
- ↑ Dragons in Westeros. December 11, 1999 So Spake Martin
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 48, Daenerys IV, p 701.