The sphinx was the riddle, not the riddler.

[TedBear]

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."

This has always intrigued me. It could refer to Alleras, the Valyrian sphinx that Tyrion saw on the road, how the Dragon bond works, skinchangers or maybe it has more than one meaning. 

What do you think Aemon meant? 

[Targaryen Restoration]

Alleras will be a dragon rider?  Anyone who rides dragons become important.  

The glass candles are lit.  The dragon eggs have hatched.  It means the mumbo jumbo words and ceremony did not hatch the dragons.  The magic is in the hatcher of the dragons.  It's not the words that mattered.  It is Daenerys herself who hatched the eggs and lit the candles.  

[The Map Guy]

6 hours ago, TedBear said:

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."

The Dreamer = Daenerys Targaryen
Glass Candle = Dragonglass+Fire = formula to end the Long Night = a female Stark-Targaryen
Unhatched Egg = Secret male descendant of Egg, unaware of his origins = Jaime Lannister-Targaryen

Sphinx = A creature = A dragon
Riddle = The dragon must have three heads = A Song of Ice and Fire
RiDDleR =  A person = A RiDeR

"He said the sphinx was the riddle, not the riddler"
Map Guy's Translation:
He said the Dragons were the riddle to the Three Heads, not the Riders

One head is a song of ice
Another head is a song of fire
...but there must be one more!

Once he woke up weeping. The dragon must have three heads, he wailed.

Spoiler

BOOM BOOM DOOM-DOOM!
BOOM BOOM DOOM-DOOM!
BOOM BOOM DOOM-DOOM!
BOOM BOOM DOOM-DOOM!
Ah-ahhhhhhhhhhhhh-ah!
Ah-ahhhhhhhhhhhhh-ah!

 

Riddles are a lot easier on the Dark Side of A Song of Ice and Fire!

What did you guys think "A Song of Ice and Fire" is? Some library book in the Citadel? Geeez that would be pathetically disappointing and anticlimactic after all the years of investment.

[rotting sea cow]

It's related to the-dragon-has-three-heads prophesy. One of them is a sphinx and that's the riddle. Probably predicts Tyrion as a dragonrider,  a lion head over a dragon as in valyrian sphinxes.

 

[TedBear]

4 hours ago, The Map Guy said:

What did you guys think "A Song of Ice and Fire" is? Some library book in the Citadel?

"A song" seems to be something that is in balance, a song is composed of sounds from different instruments that must be in harmony. Ice and fire are the opposite, excessive heat or cold are not good, but when balanced they are fundamental, Martin also linked fire and ice to human feelings.

[Hodor the Articulate]

I'm not normally a fan of ASOIAF youtubers but The Disputed Lands did an interesting video on this topic. Their theory is that the answer to the riddle of who AAR/PTWP is, lies in the sphinx. Pate describes the sphinx as being made up of three parts: a human face, a body of lion, and the wings of a hawk. The dragon has three heads. Putting this all together, each part of the sphinx represents a dragon rider, who are, combined, AAR/PTWP. Thus, the sphinx is the riddle.

I've long speculated that the prophesied prince was actually multiple people - the "three heads" (Dany, Jon, and Tyrion for me), so I'm obviously quite drawn to this theory. There are some holes in it though. Valyrian sphinxes are a human's face on a dragon's body and the sphinxes in the Citadel are made up of four parts (human face, lion body, eagle wings, serpent tale).

[Alexis-something-Rose]

17 hours ago, TedBear said:

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."

This has always intrigued me. It could refer to Alleras, the Valyrian sphinx that Tyrion saw on the road, how the Dragon bond works, skinchangers or maybe it has more than one meaning. 

What do you think Aemon meant? 

I think someone entered Aemon's dreams and that Sam has a lot more to say about what Aemon told him. I think he understands what Aemon told him about as much as you and I understand it, so he seems to have chalked up most of it to the ravings of an old dying man. 

This is part of a conversation between Tyrion and Brown Ben Plumm about his two drops of dragon blood.

"No one. Most of the stories you hear about dragons are fodder for fools. Talking dragons, dragons hoarding gold and gems, dragons with four legs and bellies big as elephants, dragons riddling with sphinxes . . . nonsense, all of it. But there are truths in the old books as well. Not only do I know that the queen's dragons took to you, but I know why." (Tyrion XI, ADwD 57)

Dragons riddling with sphinxes. The dragon part was not mentioned in Sam's POV. The dragon is the riddler, the sphinx is the riddle.

I think the sphinx has more to with one's identity than skinchanging or dragon bonding. Alleras is one of those hidden identities, the difference is that she knows who she is, while everyone around her is clueless. 

I think there are more "sphinxes" in the story. I think Jon Snow is one and it so happens that his BFF is now in contact with Sarella.

[Texas Hold Em]

23 hours ago, Targaryen Restoration said:

Alleras will be a dragon rider?  Anyone who rides dragons become important.  

The glass candles are lit.  The dragon eggs have hatched.  It means the mumbo jumbo words and ceremony did not hatch the dragons.  The magic is in the hatcher of the dragons.  It's not the words that mattered.  It is Daenerys herself who hatched the eggs and lit the candles.  

It means don't worry about the magic and the prophecies.  What is important are the magicians and the prophets.  The descendant of Daenys the Dreamer.  Aemon's mind was on Daenerys at this time.  She has ancestors coming from many families.  Culturally, she is Westerosi, Valyrian, Dothraki, and Ghiscari.  Daenerys also speaks many languages.  

16 hours ago, The Map Guy said:

What did you guys think "A Song of Ice and Fire" is? Some library book in the Citadel? Geeez that would be pathetically disappointing and anticlimactic after all the years of investment.

The meaning of "song" across the story varies.  Courtship, conflict, puppet strings among others.  Fire and Ice oppose but one cannot get rid of the other.  It is an eternal conflict.  Song is also courtship.  Frog was singing to Queen Daenerys in Meereen.  Song is also the tune through which ice and fire dance to.  The characters dance to this song.  Some pied piper plays the song and people are manipulated to do things.  

[Van Gogh]

I thought Alleras was the riddle at first but Aemon has no reason to be thinking of a minor character during his last few moments of life.  He was also not thinking of Jon Snow or Arya Stark. He was trying to reach Daenerys Targaryen.  She is the Sphinx.  Basically, he was lamenting the investments he made in prophecies.  Rhaegar must have corresponded with him concerning these matters and each man spent effort in learning the prophecies.  He now realized they were wasted time.  Rhaegar was the riddler, but not the riddle.  Meaning Rhaegar is not as important as they both originally believed.  He is not the promised prince and definitely not Azor Ahai.  They were both wrong.  Maester Aemon realized, but realized too late. 

[Megorova]

My guess is that maester Aemon was talking about Quaithe/Shiera Seastar, and her riddles given to Dany. What is important is not what she said, she herself is the mystery. And she is the dreamer - "He spoke of dreams and never named the dreamer".

Or it's about Dany and Rhaego, and Shiera, who was assisting Dany during Rhaego's birth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphinx#Riddle_of_the_Sphinx

"There are mythic, anthropological, psychoanalytic and parodic interpretations of the Riddle of the Sphinx, and of Oedipus's answer to it. Sigmund Freud describes "the question of where babies come from" as a riddle of the Sphinx.^[19]"

<- Out of the red door.

Dany's fevered dream in AGOT described process of Rhaego's birth, thru Rhaego's POV mixed with Dany's POV, in which he went thru the red door.

In Greek mythology the sphinx has the head of a woman, thus Aemon's riddle/riddler/sphinx is, most likely, also a woman. And there's no better candidate than Shiera Seastar.

[Ser Leftwich]

IMHO:

1)dreams and never named the dreamer, - This is something to do about a dream that his brother Daeron the Drunk had that we have not heard about yet.

2) of a glass candle that could not be lit and - This pertains to something Aemon learned in the Citadel during his studies. The nature of magic or the like, as we know about the glass candle test that is part of becoming a maester.

3) eggs that would not hatch. - This is something to do the Tragedy of Summerhall.

4) He said the sphinx was the riddle, not the riddler, whatever that meant. This is something to do the PtwP prophecy, the mis-translation of 'prince' vs. 'princess.'

 

Ultimately, we will likely not learn any more about these in the main series, since Aemon is dead. If anything, they may come up in the Dunk & Egg stories, since we will learn more about Egg, his brothers, and Summerhall.

[Bullrout]

On 7/18/2020 at 4:44 AM, Van Gogh said:

I thought Alleras was the riddle at first but Aemon has no reason to be thinking of a minor character during his last few moments of life.  He was also not thinking of Jon Snow or Arya Stark. He was trying to reach Daenerys Targaryen.  She is the Sphinx.  Basically, he was lamenting the investments he made in prophecies.  Rhaegar must have corresponded with him concerning these matters and each man spent effort in learning the prophecies.  He now realized they were wasted time.  Rhaegar was the riddler, but not the riddle.  Meaning Rhaegar is not as important as they both originally believed.  He is not the promised prince and definitely not Azor Ahai.  They were both wrong.  Maester Aemon realized, but realized too late. 

Agree, the maester was not thinking of some minor character.  He was at death's door and regretful.  Dany was on his mind the whole time.

[Lost Melnibonean]

On 7/16/2020 at 6:27 PM, TedBear said:

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."

This has always intrigued me. It could refer to Alleras, the Valyrian sphinx that Tyrion saw on the road, how the Dragon bond works, skinchangers or maybe it has more than one meaning. 

What do you think Aemon meant? 

I believe that Aegon is Aemons sphinx, a chimera just like the manticore noted with the griffin and the dragon. 

[Damsel in Distress]

On 7/18/2020 at 4:44 AM, Van Gogh said:

I thought Alleras was the riddle at first but Aemon has no reason to be thinking of a minor character during his last few moments of life.  He was also not thinking of Jon Snow or Arya Stark. He was trying to reach Daenerys Targaryen.  She is the Sphinx.  Basically, he was lamenting the investments he made in prophecies.  Rhaegar must have corresponded with him concerning these matters and each man spent effort in learning the prophecies.  He now realized they were wasted time.  Rhaegar was the riddler, but not the riddle.  Meaning Rhaegar is not as important as they both originally believed.  He is not the promised prince and definitely not Azor Ahai.  They were both wrong.  Maester Aemon realized, but realized too late. 

[Castellan]

On 7/17/2020 at 7:59 PM, rotting sea cow said:

It's related to the-dragon-has-three-heads prophesy. One of them is a sphinx and that's the riddle. Probably predicts Tyrion as a dragonrider,  a lion head over a dragon as in valyrian sphinxes.

 

Yes if the sphinx is the riddle then what is the sphinx? The classical sphinxes could have a male or female head but probably female is the best known in popular culture. The body was a lion and the wings were eagle's. Sometimes the tail was a serpent's not a lion. This lines up with the Citadel's sphinxes. So it definitely reinforces the idea that there is not just one prince who was promised and invites us to think about who they can be.

 

 

 

 

 

[R2D]

It's a riddle

[Frey family reunion]

There appear to be two types of sphinxes.  The first type is the chimera sphinx, made up of bits and pieces of various animals:

Quote

It had been Lazy Leo who dubbed Alleras "the Sphinx."  A sphinx is a bit of this, a bit of that: a human face. the body of a lion, the wings of a hawk...  And like the green marble sphinxes that flanked the Citadel's main gate, Alleras had the eyes of onyx.

So outside the citadel was a sphinx: human face, body of a lion and wings of a hawk.

But there appears to be another type of sphinx, a Valyrian Sphinx.  An example of a Valyrian sphinx is present at the Red Keep at the chambers of the Small Council.

Quote

The walls were hung with tapestries from Norvos and Qohor and Lys, and a pair of Valyrian sphinxes flanked the door, eyes of polished garnet smoldering in black marble faces.

Other than the faces, the Valyrian sphinxes aren't further described until much later in the story in ADWD:

Quote

The next evening they came upon a huge Valyrian sphinx crouched beside the road.  It had a dragon's body and a woman's face.

So as opposed to the sphinxes at the gates of the citadel, the Valyrian sphinx has the body of a dragon with a human face.

So when Aemon referenced a sphinx which sphinx did he mean?  After all Aemon was a maester at the Citadel before he was brought to the Wall, so he certainly would have been familiar with the chimera sphinx at the Citadel.  

But Aemon was also a Valyrian and a member of the Targaryen royal family, so he would have surely been familiar with the Valyrian sphinx.

My guess is Aemon may be referring to both types of sphinx.

The key is the face.  A dragon's body with a human face.  Or to put it more bluntly a human head.  A dragon's body with a human's head, i.e. a human consciousness.  

Aemon's brother Aerion killed himself by drinking wildfire.  He was of the belief that he would be reborn as a dragon.  In other words his consciousness would be in the body of a dragon.

Aerys planned to go out along with the rest of King’s Landing in a massive conflagration.  And out of the ashes Aerys believed he would be reborn as a dragon.  Aerys' consciousness in a dragon's body.

I think this was the riddle Aemon was speaking of.  How to transfer a human consciousness into a dragon's body.  I think this is the true significance of the Prince that was Promised Prophecy.  This is why Aemon believed that Dany's dragons were proof that she was the princess that was promised.  She already fulfilled a portion of the prophecy, by bringing back the dragons.  But the next stage was to transfer her consciousness into the dragon.  

This was the last dragon dream Dany had before the funeral pyre.  She didn't dream of hatching dragons, she dreamt of becoming a dragon.  Wings ripping from her back.  Her flying over the land and casting a dragon's shadow over the land.

I think the chimera sphinx may play a part as well.  My guess is that there needs to be a blood sacrifice to bring this about, and I think there needs to be a variety of King's blood.  

Which may be why Melisandre was so insistent on sacrificing Edric Storm to hatch her stone dragon.  A boy who's ancestors were Targaryens, Durrandons, and Gardners.

[Big P]

On 7/18/2020 at 4:44 AM, Van Gogh said:

I thought Alleras was the riddle at first but Aemon has no reason to be thinking of a minor character during his last few moments of life.  He was also not thinking of Jon Snow or Arya Stark. He was trying to reach Daenerys Targaryen.  She is the Sphinx.  Basically, he was lamenting the investments he made in prophecies.  Rhaegar must have corresponded with him concerning these matters and each man spent effort in learning the prophecies.  He now realized they were wasted time.  Rhaegar was the riddler, but not the riddle.  Meaning Rhaegar is not as important as they both originally believed.  He is not the promised prince and definitely not Azor Ahai.  They were both wrong.  Maester Aemon realized, but realized too late. 

That's true.  Aemon was thinking of Dany during his last moments.  I would think she is the sphinx.  She has traveled extensively and came to know many different peoples.  You could say she has assimilated a little bit of their cultures and customs.  She is Daenerys of House Targaryen, true ruler of Westeros, wife of Drogo the Dothraki, Queen of the Ghiscari city of Meereen, and Mother of Dragons.  She is the sphinx.  She is the riddle because her identity was not known until now. Everybody expected the boys in the family to be the big time players.  How wrong they were.  Dany is the promised princess, Azor Ahai. 

[Quoth the raven,]

Van Gogh is right near the target.  There is more though.  Daenerys is the riddle.  A reading of the House of the Undying section in A Clash of Kings proves it.  She is the Child Of Three, Mother Of Dragons, and all of those roles and titles.  Those titles and roles make up who she is. 

Aemon could have been more direct but he was in delirium.  Dragon eggs not hatching? Because they were looking at the technique.  They failed because they were thinking there was a step by step guide.  There's not.  It takes the right person to resurrect the dragons.  The short form of what Aemon was saying: We were blind.  Literally in his case.  They were looking at the wrong clues. 

Sphinx at the citadel will lead Samwell to the wrong conclusion.  He will be looking at the wrong clues because he will naturally focus on the first Sphinx he meets. 

[Only 89 selfies today]

21 hours ago, Quoth the raven, said:

Van Gogh is right near the target.  There is more though.  Daenerys is the riddle.  A reading of the House of the Undying section in A Clash of Kings proves it.  She is the Child Of Three, Mother Of Dragons, and all of those roles and titles.  Those titles and roles make up who she is. 

Yes

21 hours ago, Quoth the raven, said:

Aemon could have been more direct but he was in delirium.  Dragon eggs not hatching? Because they were looking at the technique.  They failed because they were thinking there was a step by step guide.  There's not.  It takes the right person to resurrect the dragons.  The short form of what Aemon was saying: We were blind.  Literally in his case.  They were looking at the wrong clues. 

Rhaegar was the one who was obsessed with prophecies.  I suppose the old maester got caught up in the prince's enthusiasm. 

21 hours ago, Quoth the raven, said:

Sphinx at the citadel will lead Samwell to the wrong conclusion.  He will be looking at the wrong clues because he will naturally focus on the first Sphinx he meets. 

George will send Samwell on the wrong trail here.  He might throw in with the sphinx instead of looking towards the East for the real Sphinx.