I trust you all caught “The Red Dragon and the Gold,” the fourth episode of season 2 of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. Many of you have been eagerly awaiting action, and I believe this episode delivered it powerfully with the Battle of Rook’s Rest, a true clash of dragons in the skies.
Has there ever been a dragon battle to truly rival it? Perhaps REIGN OF FIRE showcased scenes with a greater number of dragons wheeling through the air. So, yes, maybe that film presented a larger spectacle in terms of dragon count… but a better battle? I seriously doubt it. Our team truly knocked it out of the park, taking on the challenge head-on. And the dragons themselves… magnificent.
Of course, dragons are firmly in the realm of myth. In our real world, the one we inhabit outside the pages of books… dragons have never existed. Yet, creatures reminiscent of them appear in legends across cultures worldwide. Some speculate these tales originated from the discovery of dinosaur bones by farmers tilling their lands. Regardless of their true genesis, dragons have become a cornerstone of fantasy for centuries. And I’ve been captivated by them for as long as I can remember.
Interestingly, I’m even named after a dragonslayer — St. George, naturally. He remains a saint, even after numerous others were removed from the rolls some decades ago… perhaps implying dragons have a certain papal approval. Long before A GAME OF THRONES, I was crafting my own dragon stories. “The Ice Dragon” and “The Way of Cross and Dragon” stand out as two of my personal favorites.
Every culture paints dragons differently. Chinese dragons, for instance, are wingless and lack fire breath. They are symbols of good fortune. Traditional Western dragons, however, are often associated with fire and destruction… though modern fantasy has explored a much wider spectrum. The dragons in ERAGON and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON are vastly different from those in my own A Song of Ice and Fire series. (Toothless is undeniably cute, I’ll admit).
Toothless the Dragon from How to Train Your Dragon, a friendly and endearing dragon in modern fantasy
Tolkien’s dragons were consistently malevolent, servants of Morgoth and Sauron, akin to his orcs and trolls. J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t create dragons as friendly companions. His dragons were intelligent, though. Smaug, notably, speaks. He also possesses a vast hoard of gold, a very classic dragon trait… and famously slumbers upon his treasure for extended periods.
Smaug the Dragon from The Hobbit, a classic portrayal of a greedy and powerful dragon in fantasy literature
Before Peter Jackson’s Smaug, Vermithrax Pejorative from DRAGONSLAYER held the title of the best dragon ever depicted on film. Two legs and two wings, fearsome, fire-breathing, a skilled flyer, non-verbal, and indifferent to gold. An inspiration for all who appreciate dragons.
Vermithrax Pejorative from Dragonslayer movie, a realistic and dangerous dragon with two legs and two wings, a benchmark for dragon design
At the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the dragon from DRAGONHEART (voiced by Sean Connery). Portrayed as fat, four-legged, talking, and a benevolent character who befriends the hero. A significantly less compelling dragon in a considerably less impressive film. Bah, indeed.
In A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, my aim was to fuse the wonder of epic fantasy with the gritty realism found in the best historical fiction. Magic exists in my world, yes… but it is less pervasive than in many fantasy works. (Tolkien’s Middle-earth also featured relatively low magic, and he served as a guiding influence). I wanted Westeros to feel real, to evoke the Crusades, the Hundred Years’ War, and the Wars of the Roses as much as it did J.R.R. Tolkien with his hobbits and magical rings.
Dragons were essential, partly due to my late friend Phyllis Eisenstein, a brilliant fantasy and science fiction writer whom I deeply miss. However, I wanted my dragons to possess a sense of realism and believability, as much as such creatures possibly could. I meticulously designed my dragons. They fly and breathe fire, these traits felt fundamental. They have two legs (never four, absolutely never four) and two wings. Large wings. Many fantasy dragons are depicted with comically small wings that could never lift such a creature. And only two legs; the wings function as forelegs. Four-legged dragons are solely a construct of heraldry. No animal in Earth’s history has ever possessed six limbs. Birds have two legs and two wings, bats follow the same pattern, as do pteranodons and other flying dinosaurs.
Much of the confusion surrounding the correct number of dragon legs stems from medieval heraldry. Initially, both two-legged and four-legged versions appeared on shields and banners. However, as heraldry became standardized, heralds designated the four-legged beasts as dragons and their two-legged counterparts as wyverns. Of course, no one had actually seen a dragon or a wyvern; neither existed outside of legend, giving a somewhat arbitrary nature to this distinction… and medieval heralds weren’t exactly renowned for their zoological expertise, even regarding real-world animals. Just consider their depictions of a seahorse.
Dragons do exist in Westeros (and wyverns, down in Sothoryos), so my heralds lacked that excuse. Consequently, in my books, the Targaryen sigil correctly features two legs. Why would any Westerosi depict a dragon with four legs when they could observe the real creature and count its limbs? My wyverns also have two legs; they differ from dragons in size, coloration, and the inability to breathe fire. (It’s crucial to note that while the Targaryen sigil has the correct number of legs (two), it isn’t anatomically perfect. The wings are disproportionately small compared to the body, and naturally, no dragon possesses three heads. That element is purely symbolic, representing Aegon the Conqueror and his two sisters).
For what it’s worth, the shows were partially accurate (both of them). GAME OF THRONES featured the correct two-legged sigils for the first four seasons and much of the fifth. However, when Daenerys’ fleet appeared, all the sails displayed four-legged dragons. Someone likely became careless, or perhaps someone consulted a book on heraldry and grasped just enough to create confusion. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Years later, HOUSE OF THE DRAGON decided to align its heraldry with GAME OF THRONES… but unfortunately, they chose the incorrect sigil over the correct one. That sound you might have heard was me yelling, “no, no, no.” Those extra damned legs have even infiltrated the covers of my books, despite my strenuous objections.
RIGHT
Correct Targaryen Sigil with a two-legged dragon, reflecting anatomical accuracy in dragon design
WRONG
Incorrect Targaryen Sigil with a four-legged dragon, a common heraldic misrepresentation of dragons
Valyrian dragons also differ from Smaug, Toothless, and Vermithrax in other key aspects.
My dragons do not speak. They possess a degree of intelligence, but they remain beasts.
They form bonds with humans… certain humans… and the reasons and mechanics behind this, and its origins, will be explored in greater detail in THE WINDS OF WINTER and A DREAM OF SPRING, and to some extent in FIRE & BLOOD. (Septon Barth understood much of it). Like wolves, bears, and lions, dragons can be trained, but never fully tamed. They will always retain an element of danger. Some are inherently wilder and more willful than others. They are individuals, possessing distinct personalities… and these often mirror the personalities of their riders, due to the profound bond they share. They are indifferent to gold and gems, no more interested than a tiger would be. Unless, perhaps, their rider is obsessed with shiny objects, and even then…
Dragons require sustenance. They also need water, though they lack gills. They must breathe. Some claim Smaug slumbered for sixty years beneath the Lonely Mountain before Bilbo and the dwarves roused him. Valyrian dragons cannot endure such prolonged dormancy. They are creatures of fire, and fire necessitates oxygen. A dragon might dip into the ocean to snatch a fish, perhaps, but they would quickly resurface. If submerged for too long, they would drown, like any other terrestrial animal.
My dragons are predators, carnivores with a preference for well-done meat. They can and do hunt their own prey, and they are territorial creatures. They establish lairs. As beings of the sky, they favor mountaintops, and volcanic mountains are particularly appealing. These are creatures of fire, and the cold, damp caverns that other fantasy authors use to house their dragons are unsuitable for mine. Man-made structures, like the stables of Dragonstone, the towers of the Valyrian Freehold, and the Dragonpit of King’s Landing, are acceptable – and often come with humans who provide food. If such accommodations are unavailable, young dragons will find their own lairs… and fiercely defend them.
My dragons are creatures of the sky. They fly, capable of traversing mountains and plains, covering hundreds of miles… but they do not do so arbitrarily, unless their riders direct them. They are not nomadic. During the height of Valyria, forty dragon-riding families controlled hundreds of dragons… yet (excluding our Targaryens) they all remained close to the Freehold and the Lands of the Long Summer. Occasionally, a dragonrider might visit Volantis or another Valyrian colony, even reside there for a few years, but never permanently relocate. Consider this: if dragons were nomadic, they would have overrun half of Essos, and the Doom would have only eliminated a fraction of them. Similarly, the dragons of Westeros rarely stray far from Dragonstone. Otherwise, after three centuries, dragons would be ubiquitous throughout the realm, and every noble house would possess a few. The three wild dragons mentioned in Fire & Blood have lairs on Dragonstone. The others reside in the Dragonpit of King’s Landing, or within deep caverns beneath the Dragonmont. Luke flies Arrax to Storm’s End and Jace to Winterfell, yes, but the dragons would not have undertaken these journeys independently, except under extraordinary circumstances. You won’t encounter dragons hunting in the riverlands, the Reach, the Vale, roaming the northlands, or the mountains of Dorne. The fiery song of dragons is tied to specific places, their lairs and territories.
Fantasy must be grounded in internal consistency. It is not simply a free pass to do anything imaginable. Smaug and Toothless are both dragons, yet they should never be mistaken for one another. Disregard canon, and the world you’ve painstakingly created crumbles like tissue paper.
Current Mood: thoughtful
Tags: a song of ice and fire, canon, dragons, fire & blood
