Unhatched Dragon Eggs

[Seams]

Symbolic "hatching" has interested me for some time - Tyrion emerging from the wine barrel in Pentos, for instance, or Jon Snow emerging from under his frozen cloak at Craster's Keep after sleeping under a rock ledge with Ghost and a fire. Butterbumps entreats Sansa to crack open an egg as part of his act before her luncheon with Lady Olenna. On the morning of Tommen's wedding, Cersei cracks open an egg on her breakfast tray and finds a dead fetal chick inside. I recently wrote up some thoughts about dungeons and gaolers, and I suspect that there might be some symbolism that compares hatching from an egg and being liberated from a jail cell.

It occurs to me, finally, that the dragon eggs that never hatched could also be meaningful. To the extent that they are also symbolic, they might provide hints about plot elements yet to come.

The wiki provides what appears to be a comprehensive list of dragon eggs that are mentioned in the writings of GRRM. I notice that most of the references come from the World book or the spin-off stories: The Princess and the Queen, The Mystery Knight, etc. This might mean that symbolism attached to the eggs is not essential to understanding the core novels of ASOIAF. On the other hand, GRRM has taken great care to create meaningful backstories for Westeros and its inhabitants, and we know that elements of the Dunk & Egg stories are relevant to the "current" events in the novels. I'm especially interested to figure out:

• Did Dany's dragon eggs truly came from the Shadowlands, as Ilyrio told her they did;
• Have other characters gotten their hands on some of the old, unhatched eggs;
• If the old eggs are back in play, has anyone else figured out how to hatch them as Dany did or using other techniques;
• Why did the Targaryens seem to lose their traditional power to hatch the eggs around the time that Viserys II and Aegon III sat the Iron Throne?

From what I can piece together using the list of eggs from the wiki and the full Targaryen Lineage from the world book, the last robust dragons to hatch from eggs were hatched by Velaryons: Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffery. Rhaena Targaryen (who is half Velaryon on her mother's side) manages to hatch one egg, but the dragon is sickly and dies shortly after hatching. I'll admit that I'm coming at this with the biased suspicion about the significance of the Velaryon bloodline for dragon hatching: maybe Targaryens aren't as magic as they would have people believe, or the Velaryon bloodline still represents Valyrian heritage while the Targaryen bloodline has been diluted or replaced with babies from another source. Obviously, if the Velaryon bloodline is relevent, Dany's dragon-hatching ability could raise questions about her true origins.

Here is the list of eggs from the wiki. I have reorganized it into two parts - eggs known to have hatched and eggs that are "whereabouts unknown":

• Mysaria's egg - When Prince Daemon Targaryen learned his concubine was pregnant, he presented her with a dragon egg, but King Viserys I Targaryen commanded him to return the egg and send Mysaria away. Whereabouts unknown.
• King Viserys II Targaryen's egg - he possessed an egg during the civil war of the Dance of the Dragons, so far undescribed – whereabouts unknown.
• Lady Rhaena Targaryen's eggs - her first egg hatched into a broken thing that died within hours. She possessed another egg at the start of the civil war, and took three eggs to the Vale with her during the war. Only one egg is known to have hatched, the whereabouts of the others (two eggs) are unknown.
• Prince Maelor Targaryen's egg - he was given an egg at birth, which had not yet hatched by the start of the civil war. It is unknown what happened to the egg after Maelor was killed at Bitterbridge.
• Five eggs - from the last dragon's clutch, so far undescribed – whereabouts unknown.
• Princess Elaena Targaryen's egg - silver and gold in unknown arrangement – whereabouts unknown.
• Prince Daeron Targaryen's egg - known to exist, but so far undescribed – whereabouts unknown.
• Prince Aerion Targaryen's egg - gold and silver, with veins of fiery colors – whereabouts unknown.
• Prince Aemon Targaryen's egg - known to exist, but so far undescribed – whereabouts unknown.
• King Aegon V Targaryen's egg - white and green swirls – whereabouts unknown.
• Lord Ambrose Butterwell's egg - red, with golden flecks and black whorls – whereabouts unknown. (According to the Butterwell wiki entry, Aegon IV gifted Ambrose's grandfather and King's Hand Lord Butterwell with a dragon egg in return for "access" to his three daughters. According to stories Aegon impregnated all three.)
• Seven eggs - used by King Aegon V Targaryen in the ceremony that caused the Tragedy at Summerhall. Some of these may have been the unhatched eggs mentioned above. Whereabouts unknown, but possibly destroyed by the fire.
• King Euron Greyjoy's egg - Euron claimed he had a dragon egg, but threw it into the sea.
• Depending on how one reads a statement in The Mystery Knight, it might be possible that Princesses Rhae and Daella Targaryen had been gifted dragon eggs as well.

 

• {hatched} Prince Jacaerys Velaryon's egg - placed in his cradle at his birth by royal decree, hatched into the dragon Vermax.
• {hatched} Prince Lucerys Velaryon's egg - placed in his cradle at his birth by royal decree, hatched into the dragon Arrax.
• {hatched} Prince Joffrey Velaryon's egg - placed in his cradle at his birth by royal decree, hatched into the dragon Tyraxes.
• {hatched} Drogon's egg - black as the midnight sea, alive with scarlet ripples and swirls.
• {hatched} Rhaegal's egg - deep green, with burnished bronze flecks.
• {hatched} Viserion's egg - colored pale cream, streaked with gold.

There could be as many as 26 eggs unaccounted for, based on this list, but some eggs may have been double-counted, belonging to one person initially and appearing again with someone else later.

The wiki also offers this summary of information in the World book: "Mushroom, a court fool during the reigns of Viserys I, Aegon II, Rhaenyra and Aegon III, claims in The Testimony of Mushroom that the dragon Vermax left a clutch of eggs somewhere in the crypts of Winterfell at the start of the Dance of the Dragons. However, there is no official record that Vermax ever laid a single egg, suggesting the dragon was male, and maesters feel that the wild claim of Mushroom is baseless, typical for his Testimony." GRRM's readers know, when the maesters tell you to ignore someone's writing, you should instead pay attention to that writing. Also, I remember reading somewhere that dragons aren't one sex or the other. (Maybe they are like parrot fish and can change sex when a female is needed by their herd?)

In previous posts, I shared my speculation that Penny and Groat were given dragon eggs by the Sealord of Braavos, who loved their act. (ADwD, Tyrion VIII: "We performed for the Sealord of Braavos once, and he laughed so hard that afterward he gave each of us a . . . a grand gift.") Groat either sold those eggs to Littlefinger's agents, I suspect, or he was killed and the eggs were taken to be hatched and raised at the isolated but sheep-inhabited Baelish ancestral lands.

[Lord Varys]

5 hours ago, Seams said:

Did Dany's dragon eggs truly came from the Shadowlands, as Ilyrio told her they did;

Most likely not since the unaccounted dragon eggs Aerys II found on Dragonstone after Duskendale are much more likely candidates to be Dany's eggs - stolen by Varys during the Sack, given to Illyrio in secret, and made Dany's bride gift in AGoT. At least some of those eggs. There may have been more than just three.

Those are the only eggs that are likely going to play a role in the story. Some of those eggs might have gone to Aegon in one of those chests.

5 hours ago, Seams said:

• Have other characters gotten their hands on some of the old, unhatched eggs;

Possible, we don't know. Seven dragon eggs most likely were destroyed/lost at Summerhall. Some of those eggs would have been Egg's own, Aerion's, Aemon's, Daeron's, the eggs of Egg's sisters, and perhaps others. We don't know.

The last dragon left a clutch of five eggs and during the days of Aerys I they still had more than enough eggs around. They may have misplaced or lost quite a few dragons in the years between that and the Rebellion. Aerys II and Rhaella apparently had no dragon eggs of their own (or if they had they were destroyed at Summerhall). Rhaegar, Viserys, and Dany definitely had no dragon eggs.

That all indicates that they lost quite a few dragon eggs between TMK and the Rebellion.

5 hours ago, Seams said:

• Why did the Targaryens seem to lose their traditional power to hatch the eggs around the time that Viserys II and Aegon III sat the Iron Throne?

There is no hint that they had any such power. The eggs simply no longer hatched. Why that is we don't know but a good chance is that the Dance killing so many dragons might have had something to do with that. Dragons apparently have influence on magic. If there are no longer dragons around and if there is magic involved in hatching the eggs it makes that it no longer happened. In addition to the last dragons being poisoned, after all.

5 hours ago, Seams said:

From what I can piece together using the list of eggs from the wiki and the full Targaryen Lineage from the world book, the last robust dragons to hatch from eggs were hatched by Velaryons: Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffery. Rhaena Targaryen (who is half Velaryon on her mother's side) manages to hatch one egg, but the dragon is sickly and dies shortly after hatching. I'll admit that I'm coming at this with the biased suspicion about the significance of the Velaryon bloodline for dragon hatching: maybe Targaryens aren't as magic as they would have people believe, or the Velaryon bloodline still represents Valyrian heritage while the Targaryen bloodline has been diluted or replaced with babies from another source. Obviously, if the Velaryon bloodline is relevent, Dany's dragon-hatching ability could raise questions about her true origins.

The last known eggs to hatch all went to Targaryens - those dragons are Stormcloud (Aegon III), Morghul (Jaehaera), Shrykos (Jaehaerys), and Morning (Rhaena). Those were all Targaryens. And we don't know how many dragons hatched during the reign of Aegon III. There is no reason Morning was the last healthy dragon to hatch. The last two dragons only hatched in the 150s, after all.

 

[IceFire125]

If not Drogon, I hope Jon is gonna ride Cannibal. 

"I had bad dreams," Shireen told him. "About the dragons. They were coming to eat me."

I'm of the opinion she will be sacrificed by Mel with the approval of Selyse, to help or resurrect Stannis, but it will be Jon that will be waken up.  The dragon has to be black.

Robb looked relieved. “Good.” He smiled. “The next time I see you, you’ll be all in black.”
Jon forced himself to smile back. “It was always my color.”

“...If your brothers had not fetched you back, you would have been taken along the way, and not by friends. Unless you have a horse with wings like a raven. Do you?”

 

 

[Lady Blizzardborn]

The Targaryens lost the power to hatch not because of anything they did or lacked but because magic was on the wane. Also it's possible that the Maesters were poisoning the dragons, and thus they started laying defective eggs. If that's the case then the older eggs are more likely to hatch, or the ones that were rumored to have been laid at Winterfell.

@IceFire125 Jon's dragon doesn't have to be black. His wolf is white. His bastard Stark colors would be first white, and then silver. If Cannibal is still around, then he'd be bigger than Balerion was even. It would be impressive if anyone could claim him. He can't ride Drogon unless/until Dany is dead. No dragon will take a second rider while the first rider lives.

I agree about Shireen. Poor kid is doomed. Only question is will Jon or Stannis put a sword through Mel's heart when they find out?

While I'd love to see some more dragons hatching, they probably couldn't grow fast enough to be of use against the Others and wights. Though...there's magic in the Wall, maybe a dragon at the Wall would grow a little faster? It would still need to be able to feed freely though and that's not an option unless it goes hunting wights.

 

[Winds of Winter blow cold]

Dany sacrificed a witch to hatch her eggs, no one else has tried that.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

22 hours ago, Winds of Winter blow cold said:

Dany sacrificed a witch to hatch her eggs, no one else has tried that.

And a horse. 

And herself. There is power in kingsblood.

I think I recall a theory somewhere that what MMD was singing or chanting on the pyre might have been a spell to help the eggs hatch, and that her entire purpose in messing with Dany was to bring about prophetic fulfillment. I'd think it was more a "while I'm here, I might as well do one last thing." But it's possible she was indeed working some kind of magic, or trying to.