Previous
Chapter 45: Eddard
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Game of Thrones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics and Power
Climate Change and Collective Action
Gender and Power
Honor and Integrity
Identity
Summary
Analysis
Daenerys eats the heart of a stallion. She’s been preparing for the feat for weeks by ingesting small amounts of blood. And she began starving herself yesterday, hoping that hunger would help her finish the entire heart. The Dothraki believe that eating a stallion’s heart will help her unborn son grow strong, but only if Daenerys finishes the whole thing—it’s a bad omen if she can’t. Daenerys finishes the heart and in Dothraki yells, “A prince rides inside me!” Hundreds of Dothraki people scream back that it will be a boy. Later, people murmur that Dany’s son will be the “stallion who mounts the world.” Dany plans to name her son Rhaego, after her fallen brother Rhaegar.
The seriousness with which Daenerys takes eating the heart of a stallion illustrates again her capacity to adapt and gain power and acceptance in a wide variety of situations. If Viserys were in that situation, it's easy to imagine him dismissing the idea out of hand and refusing to go through with the ritual. Daenerys, however, embraces the ritual and wins the allegiance of the Dothraki people as a result. That capacity to gain allegiances will become one of Daenerys’s defining traits.
Themes
Daenerys sits with Ser Jorah and asks him what the “stallion who mounts the world” means. He says that it is a kind of king of kings who has been promised by Dothraki prophecies. Dany asks where Viserys is, and Jorah says that he left earlier in the morning to look for wine and prospective soldiers for the army he’s trying to build. He also tells her that Viserys tried to steal the dragon eggs until Jorah threatened to cut off his hand. Viserys then returns to the group. He is stumbling because he is drunk, and he has a sword with him. Swords are forbidden in Vaes Dothrak, and Dothraki people nearby hiss at yell at Viserys.
This passage further contrasts Daenerys and Viserys. While Viserys assumes that he has power due to his family lineage and his gender, Daenerys works for power and acceptance among the Dothraki people. Also, while Jorah ostensibly works for Viserys, he shows that he is more loyal to Daenerys than Viserys. And while the Dothraki people believe Daenerys will be the mother of a promised hero, they hiss at Viserys. Each of these facts illustrates that Daenerys is a stronger leader than Viserys could ever hope to be.
Themes
Viserys drunkenly makes his way toward Dany. He points his sword at her stomach and says that he’s going to take Dany and her child if Khal Drogo doesn’t give him the army he promised. Khal Drogo makes his way through the crowd, which falls silent. Drogo says the Viserys will have his crown. He orders his men to seize Viserys. Drogo puts his belt, replete with bells, into a pot over a fire. The bells melt, and Drogo takes the belt out and tells Viserys that this is his crown. He puts it on Viserys’s head and the metal melts over Viserys’s body. Dany looks on, strangely calm, as Viserys dies. Viserys couldn’t have been a dragon, she thinks, because fire cannot kill a dragon.
When Daenerys watches Viserys die, she is witnessing the death of her abuser. Daenerys’s calm upon witnessing Viserys’s death shows how, at that moment, Daenerys seizes the power that her brother had unrightfully claimed for himself. Now that Viserys is no longer able to abuse Daenerys, a major impediment to her power and capacity for self-determination has been removed. She is then free to become the “dragon” Viserys claimed to be—that is, the rightful heir of the Targaryen lineage of power.
Themes
