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The Dragon Has Three Heads – Origins?


Mithras

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“The Dragon has three heads” is one of the most famous sentences in the series and it is widely speculated by the readers. But in many of the threads I read on this subject, I never found anything about the origins of this phrase. Where does it come from? And even more importantly, what is this? A prophecy? A quote from a book? A motto of Targaryens? A saying? A line from a song?



I think this is the most important thing that we should decide before producing our interpretations about this phrase. In this thread, I only want to discuss the origins of this phrase, not its interpretations.



Here is a chronological study about its occurrence in the series.



The Targaryen banner is a three-headed dragon, red on black, the three heads representing Aegon and his sisters.


Appendix, AGoT



The first bit of information comes from the Appendix of AGoT where the three-headed dragon is said to be the banner of House Targaryen and the three heads represent Aegon and his sisters. This information should base on a common history book which should be taught to every noble by maesters. We know that learning the words and banners of other Houses is an important part of lordly training and the Royal House should be the priority of such lessons. However, we do not know that “the dragon has three heads” is a phrase found in common history books.



“Aegon,” he said to a woman nursing a newborn babe in a great wooden bed. “What better name for a king?”


“Will you make a song for him?” the woman asked.


“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.”


Chapter 48 (Dany IV), ACoK



. . . mother of dragons . . . child of three . . .


“Three?” She did not understand.


. . . three heads has the dragon . . .


Chapter 48 (Dany IV), ACoK



Now we hear this phrase in HotU for the first time. After the birth of Aegon, Rhaegar implied that he should have another kid because the dragon has three heads. This was a vision and it is most probably the real stuff in the past because Dany saw Aerys ordering the wildfire plot in a vision too and that was confirmed to be real by Jaime.



BTW, Rhaegar’s interpretation is completely aligned with the information in the Appendix. Aegon and his two sisters were the three heads of the dragon and apparently, Rhaegar wants his son Aegon to have two sisters in order to form the three heads of the dragon again.



However, this phrase does not sound like a prophecy as far as we can tell. It is unknown that whether this phrase was part of the prince that was promised prophecy or a prophetic dream seen by any Targaryen or something Rhaegar found in a book (early in his life, Rhaegar read a certain book and then he claimed that he must be a warrior).



The words of the Undying do not matter much because their account comes after Dany sees the vision. It is likely that they know everything Dany saw and heard the phrase from Rhaegar.



So far, Rhaegar is the only source of this phrase and it is not known that what his source was. The interpretation in the Appendix should be a common knowledge but the Rhaegar goes one step further and claims that Aegon is the prince that was promised and he along with his sisters will represent the three heads of the dragon just like Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters did.



The dragon has three heads,” she sighed. “Do you know what that means, Jorah?”


“Your Grace? The sigil of House Targaryen is a three-headed dragon, red on black.”


“I know that. But there are no three-headed dragons.”


“The three heads were Aegon and his sisters.”


“Visenya and Rhaenys,” she recalled.


Chapter 63 (Dany V), ACoK



Here it is confirmed by Jorah that three heads were Aegon I and his sisters. Hence the information in the Appendix should be common knowledge and every lord trained by a maester should know it.



Dany could not let it go. “His is the song of ice and fire, my brother said. I’m certain it was my brother. Not Viserys, Rhaegar. He had a harp with silver strings.”Ser Jorah’s frown deepened until his eyebrows came together. “Prince Rhaegar played such a harp,” he conceded. “You saw him?”


She nodded. “There was a woman in a bed with a babe at her breast. My brother said the babe was the prince that was promised and told her to name him Aegon.”


“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.”


“I remember,” Dany said sadly. “They murdered Rhaegar’s daughter as well, the little princess. Rhaenys, she was named, like Aegon’s sister. There was no Visenya, but he said the dragon has three heads. What is the song of ice and fire?”


“It’s no song I’ve ever heard.”


Chapter 63 (Dany V), ACoK



“It is no matter,” boomed Belwas. “We take all. The fat man hires three ships for his little silverhair queen.”


“It is so, Your Grace,” Arstan Whitebeard said. “The great cog Saduleon is berthed at the end of the quay, and the galleys Summer Sun and Joso’s Prank are anchored beyond the breakwater.”


Three heads has the dragon, Dany thought, wondering. “I shall tell my people to make ready to depart at once. But the ships that bring me home must bear different names.”


“As you wish,” said Arstan. “What names would you prefer?”


Vhagar,” Daenerys told him. “Meraxes. And Balerion. Paint the names on their hulls in golden letters three feet high, Arstan. I want every man who sees them to know the dragons are returned.”


Chapter 63 (Dany V), ACoK



Dany is still unsure about the subject. She most probably knew beforehand that the three heads of Targaryen dragon in their banner represent Aegon and his sisters but she is not able to make the connection with SOIAF and tPtwP.



“Your Grace,” he conceded, “the dragon has three heads, remember? You have wondered at that, ever since you heard it from the warlocks in the House of Dust. Well, here’s your meaning: Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar, ridden by Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya. The three-headed dragon of House Targaryen—three dragons, and three riders.”


“Yes,” said Dany, “but my brothers are dead.”


“Rhaenys and Visenya were Aegon’s wives as well as his sisters. You have no brothers, but you can take husbands. And I tell you truly, Daenerys, there is no man in all the world who will ever be half so true to you as me.”


Chapter 8 (Dany I), ASoS



When Brown Ben left, she lay back on her cushions. “If you were grown,” she told Drogon, scratching him between the horns, “I’d fly you over the walls and melt that harpy down to slag.” But it would be years before her dragons were large enough to ride. And when they are, who shall ride them? The dragon has three heads, but I have only one.


Chapter 57 (Dany V), ASoS



The dragon has three heads. There are two men in the world who I can trust, if I can find them. I will not be alone then. We will be three against the world, like Aegon and his sisters.


Chapter 71 (Dany VI), ASoS



Now we see that with the influence of Jorah and her own knowledge, Dany is convinced that she needs two people to trust and they will be the riders of Rhaegal and Viserion. The three dragonriders will be the three heads of the dragon.



The dragon has three heads,” he announced in his soft Dornish drawl.


“Is this a riddle?” Roone wanted to know. “Sphinxes always speak in riddles in the tales.”


“No riddle.” Alleras sipped his wine.



“No dragon has ever had three heads except on shields and banners,” Armen the Acolyte said firmly. “That was a heraldic charge, no more. Furthermore, the Targaryens are all dead.”


“Not all,” said Alleras. “The Beggar King had a sister.”


“I thought her head was smashed against a wall,” said Roone.


“No,” said Alleras. “It was Prince Rhaegar’s young son Aegon whose head was dashed against the wall by the Lion of Lannister’s brave men. We speak of Rhaegar’s sister, born on Dragonstone before its fall. The one they called Daenerys.”


“The Stormborn. I recall her now.”


Prologue, AFfC



This is getting intriguing. This is the first time we hear this phrase from somebody not originating from Rhaegar (or is she?). Sarella is a daughter of Oberyn and niece of Elia, who was present when Rhaegar used the exact same phrase.



However, whether they are talking about the common heraldic interpretation is unknown. Armen definitely knows the heraldic knowledge but he never mentions that Aegon and his sisters are the three heads of the Targaryen dragon in their heralds. But as we know from Jorah, this knowledge is basic. However, it is certain that Armen never heard of “the dragon has three heads” before.



That had been one of his last good days. After that the old man spent more time sleeping than awake, curled up beneath a pile of furs in the captain’s cabin. Sometimes he would mutter in his sleep. When he woke he’d call for Sam, insisting that he had to tell him something, but oft as not he would have forgotten what he meant to say by the time that Sam arrived. Even when he did recall, his talk was all a jumble. He spoke of dreams and never named the dreamer, of a glass candle that could not be lit and eggs that would not hatch. He said the sphinx was the riddle, not the riddler, whatever that meant. He asked Sam to read for him from a book by Septon Barth, whose writings had been burned during the reign of Baelor the Blessed. Once he woke up weeping. “The dragon must have three heads,” he wailed, “but I am too old and frail to be one of them. I should be with her, showing her the way, but my body has betrayed me.”


Chapter 35 (Dany IV), AFfC



And here we have Aemon independently using the phrase (or is he?). He interpreted it same as Rhaegar and we know that he communicated with Rhaegar about prophecies.



Both Aemon and Sarella’s lore about the subject can be attributed to Rhaegar: Sarella through Oberyn, who was very close with Elia and Aemon from Rhaegar himself. Or Rhaegar learned it from Aemon.



Another important point from this quote is the mention of Septon Barth. Aemon had quoted from Barth and now he ordered Sam to read from his book. Note that this book (Dragons, Wyrms, and Wyverns: Their Unnatural History) was banned during Baelor I’s reign and all the copies were burned. However, it is certain that they keep a full copy in the Citadel. Tyrion , the other person who quoted from Barth, only found fragment.



There are two places that might have been spared from king’s decree: Dorne because they were not part of the Seven Kingdoms yet and possibly the Wall. The law ends at the Wall, as we are told. Perhaps the maester/LC/librarian at the Wall did not burn the book if they had it.



Aemon took a chest-full of books that he thought the Citadel would require. We also know that he sent a lot of ravens to the archmaesters involving his opinions about prophecies, which he admits that looked like the ravings of a mad man.



I am very suspicious of Aemon’s journey to Oldtown. There was extremely zero threat to him yet Jon swallowed his excuse and sent him away. Stannis was trying to win the Northern Lords, the NW, wildlings etc. What would happen if he burned Aemon or the wildling babe for a spell? Goodbye Stannis’s claim. That would be a PR disaster. Mel never seemed to be demanding kingsblood all through ADwD.



Therefore, I think Aemon used this excuse to leave the Wall and go to gods know where. I don’t think he was planning to go to Oldtown. I think he saw a Targaryen type dream involving the return of dragons and he hoped to get the news of Dany and go to her. I expect a fully surviving copy of Barth’s book was in that chest too, which Aemon found at the Wall. Note that Aemon was never trusted by the grey sheep, so it is unlikely that Aemon found a chance to read the hidden books in the Citadel.



Now, Marwyn probably took that chest and he is finishing Aemon’s quest, i.e. go to Dany with those books.



The dragon has three heads,” Dany said when they were on the final flight. “My marriage need not be the end of all your hopes. I know why you are here.”


“For you,” said Quentyn, all awkward gallantry.


“No,” said Dany. “For fire and blood.”


Chapter 50 (Dany VIII), ADwD



“ ‘The dragon has three heads,’ she said to me. ‘My marriage need not be the end of all your hopes,’ she said. ‘I know why you are here. For fire and blood.’ I have Targaryen blood in me, you know that. I can trace my lineage back—”


“Fuck your lineage,” said Gerris. “The dragons won’t care about your blood, except maybe how it tastes. You cannot tame a dragon with a history lesson. They’re monsters, not maesters. Quent, is this truly what you want to do?”


Chapter 60 (The Spurned Suitor), ADwD



We also see that Quentyn does not know anything about this phrase. Doran gave a suspicious book to Arianne which was about dragonlore. Bran Vras suggests that the book might be Barth’s. It is also interesting that Doran never gave that book to Quentyn although he knew Dany’s dragons.



Speculation



1. I think this phrase (the dragon has three heads) is a quote from Barth’s book.


2. Aemon found a surviving copy at the Wall. Perhaps that was the reason he went there.


3. Aemon learned the phrase and passed the knowledge to Rhaegar.


4. HotU vision.


5. Elia shared the knowledge with Oberyn and possibly Doran too. This might happen after Rhaegar went missing.


6. Sarella the curious girl learned the phrase through the family.


7. The dragon book Doran gave to Arianne is another surviving copy of the book. This book might become important during the second Dance.


8. Marwyn is taking Aemon’s book to Dany.


9. Without the context, I don’t think we can decipher this phrase. I think the context will be revealed when Marwyn reaches Dany.


10. I don’t think Dany’s interpretation (three heads = three dragonriders) is right.



Speculation #2



Or this phrase originates from Signs and Portents. In that case, it might be part of tPtwP prophecy or another prophetic dream of Daenys, which I posted here.



Bonus



Three heads were on display as well—two men and a woman, their crimes scrawled on tablets underneath them. A pair of spearmen attended them, clad in polished helms and shirts of silver mail. Across their cheeks were tiger stripes as green as jade. From time to time the guards waved their spears to chase away the kestrels, gulls, and carrion crows paying court to the deceased. The birds returned to the heads within moments.


“What did they do?” Tyrion inquired innocently.


The knight glanced at the inscriptions. “The woman was a slave who raised her hand to her mistress. The older man was accused of fomenting rebellion and spying for the dragon queen.”


“And the young one?”


“Killed his father.”


Tyrion gave the rotting head a second look. Why, it almost looks as if those lips are smiling.


Chapter 27 (Tyrion VII), ADwD



I have a hunch that the young one represents Tyrion, the old one represents Victarion and the woman represents Dany somehow.


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Both Aemon and Sarella’s lore about the subject can be attributed to Rhaegar: Sarella through Oberyn, who was very close with Elia and Aemon from Rhaegar himself. Or Rhaegar learned it from Aemon.

why not think that the three heads are part of the prophecy of the PtwP? Aemon, Rhaegar, and Marwyn all knew about it.. Sarella learns about the PtwP from Marwyn..

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why not think that the three heads are part of the prophecy of the PtwP? Aemon, Rhaegar, and Marwyn all knew about it.. Sarella learns about the PtwP from Marwyn..

I think that makes sense, considering Marwyn is the author of "The book of lost books" , which would mean the phrase may have originated from Daenys the dreamer.

There might be a copy in Maester Aemon's trunk... or here at the Citidel, somewhere... ;)

Yea you're right I just remembered, that some of it was spared, so it might be at the citadel or Aemon's trunk as you said.

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“What did they do?” Tyrion inquired innocently.


The knight glanced at the inscriptions. “The woman was a slave who raised her hand to her mistress. The older man was accused of fomenting rebellion and spying for the dragon queen.”


“And the young one?”


“Killed his father.”


Tyrion gave the rotting head a second look. Why, it almost looks as if those lips are smiling.


Chapter 27 (Tyrion VII), ADwD


I think you're probably right about this passage. the woman, like dany fights the slavers, victarion is rebelling against euron, and plans to help dany, and obviously, tyrion killed tywin. I just hope this won't mean the three of them will die



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why not think that the three heads are part of the prophecy of the PtwP? Aemon, Rhaegar, and Marwyn all knew about it.. Sarella learns about the PtwP from Marwyn..

It is possible. Marwyn currently talked about AAR prophecy (Born amidst salt and smoke, beneath a bleeding star). It is possible that he knows something about tPtwP prophecy as well.

BTW, Marwyn probably does not know three key elements that Aemon and Rhaegar knew:

1. The dream of Daeron

2. The prophecy Aerys I read.

3. The Ghost of High Heart’s prophecy (tPtwP would come from Aerys-Rhaella)

Yea you're right I just remembered, that some of it was spared, so it might be at the citadel or Aemon's trunk as you said.

Tyrion was able to find a fragment of his book. As I speculated in the OP, complete copies might have evaded Baelor’s decree in Dorne and the Wall. Dorne was not part of the Realm and Baelor’s decrees meant nothing at that time. “The law ends at the Wall” as Jon said. And I am sure that they have full copies in the Citadel.

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I think that makes sense, considering Marwyn is the author of "The book of lost books" , which would mean the phrase may have originated from Daenys the dreamer.

Yea you're right I just remembered, that some of it was spared, so it might be at the citadel or Aemon's trunk as you said.

I am pretty certain that the 3HotD prophecy came from Daenys the dreamer. Other than the HotU prophecy and Illyrio, the only people who speak of this are Aemon and Marwyn, who had access to Daenys' Signs and Portents. All of the other Essos characters speak only of one individual fulfilling the AA/PTWP prophecy. Anyone who had access to Targaryen writings thinks there will be more than one.

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It is possible. Marwyn currently talked about AAR prophecy (Born amidst salt and smoke, beneath a bleeding star). It is possible that he knows something about tPtwP prophecy as well.

BTW, Marwyn probably does not know three key elements that Aemon and Rhaegar knew:

1. The dream of Daeron

2. The prophecy Aerys I read.

3. The Ghost of High Heart’s prophecy (tPtwP would come from Aerys-Rhaella)

Salt smoke and bleeding star are all elements of the PtwP prophecy as well as Azor Ahai.

“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.

To me it sounds like the PtwP is a prophecy well known amogst scholars.

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Salt smoke and bleeding star are all elements of the PtwP prophecy as well as Azor Ahai.

To me it sounds like the PtwP is a prophecy well known amogst scholars.

Although Armen is an acolyte, he has a copper chain which is for history. Therefore, I expect him to know something about tales and ancient prophecies. He was completely ignorant of the three heads of the dragon.

I am not sure that “the dragon has three heads” is a part of tPtwP prophecy. It makes more sense to think that this phrase is attached to the prophecy by Rhaegar-Aemon after they read it somewhere else and made a connection between it and the original prophecy.

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I agree that the phrase probably originated with Daenys the Dreamer. Her visions were what motivated the Targs to migrate to Dragonstone in the first place and probably had something to do with Aegon and his sisters conquering mainland Westeros and uniting the seven kingdoms.


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If “The dragon has tree heads” originate from Signs and Portents, that can explain how Sarella knew it because she most probably learned it from Marwyn who recovered Signs and Portents. However, we should make an assumption about how Aemon and Rhaegar knew that too. After all, the book is said to be lost.



Did King Aerys I read Signs and Portents? Did the prophecy he read originate from Daenys? Possible, yet it is still unknown how he was able to find that book. Perhaps the Citadel has a hidden copy and Bloodraven somehow stole it or took it by the king’s decree. Or perhaps the book was not lost at his time. In that case, Aemon might have read it too.



He [Aemon] spoke of dreams and never named the dreamer, of a glass candle that could not be lit and eggs that would not hatch.



Perhaps this dreamer is not Daeron as people think but Daenys the Dreamer. I also find it very strange that the failure in burning a glass candle is mentioned with dreams and hatching dragon eggs. As any maester, Aemon should be familiar with the process of standing vigil in the dark with a glass candle and failing to burn it in the Citadel. But within this context, it looks like it is the part of a prophecy too. Perhaps it is written in Signs and Portents that the dragons will return when the glass candles burn again.



“No. Hear me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candles are burning. Soon comes the pale mare, and after her the others. Kraken and dark flame, lion and griffin, the sun’s son and the mummer’s dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal.”



Another person from Asshai also talks about the burning of glass candles as the fulfillment of a prophecy. Marwyn went to Asshai. Perhaps there is another copy of Signs and Portents in Asshai.


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Although Armen is an acolyte, he has a copper chain which is for history. Therefore, I expect him to know something about tales and ancient prophecies. He was completely ignorant of the three heads of the dragon.

I am not sure that “the dragon has three heads” is a part of tPtwP prophecy. It makes more sense to think that this phrase is attached to the prophecy by Rhaegar-Aemon after they read it somewhere else and made a connection between it and the original prophecy.

The Citadel are skeptics about magic and prophecy. This stuff belongs in the realm of the higher mysteries, not in history.

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Signs and Portents may be missing or mostly destroyed, but there could be other writings out there that refer to the prophecies it contained.

I agree that Signs and Portents is another plausible alternative for the source of the dragons has three heads phrase. King Aerys I apparently confirmed Daeron's dream that the dragons would return. The dragons never left until the last dragon died during Aegon III's reign. Hence, the prophecy of Aerys should include the extinction of the dragons as well as their return. This might be one of Daenys's recorded dreams.

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  • 11 months later...

The words of the Undying do not matter much because their account comes after Dany sees the vision. It is likely that they know everything Dany saw and heard the phrase from Rhaegar.


Thought you said you didn't want any interpretation in this thread. This is definitely a strong interpretation.
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Why would an old man spying for Dany be Victarion?  Wouldn't Varys, Ilyrio, Jorah, Barristan, Jon Con, or even Aemon all work better?

 

Victarion is rebelling against Euron and at the same time freeing slaves like Dany.

 

Thought you said you didn't want any interpretation in this thread. This is definitely a strong interpretation.

 

There were some traps/temptations in HotU prepared by the Undying. That means they probably know every vision that goes on in their house.

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