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Chapter 63: Catelyn
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 and Khal Drogo ride with Khal Drogo’s khalasar, the nomadic group of Dothraki people that he leads. Six days ago, Drogo tore off the wound dressing that Mirri made for him. It itched too much and began to burn. His own healers replaced that dressing with a poultice of mud. When Dany touches Drogo, his skin is hot against her hand. He falls from his horse. Dany tells the riders nearby that they will stop for the night. Those riders say they won’t take orders from Dany. And Dany knows what’s at stake. A Dothraki man who can’t ride a horse is considered unfit to serve in power. She worries that when word gets out that Khal Drogo fell, he’ll no longer be the Khal, meaning she won’t be the Khaleesi. Dany again commands the men to stop, and they reluctantly follow her orders.
This passage examines Daenerys’s fraught relationship to power within Dothraki culture. She has power by virtue of her husband, but, because Dothraki culture is rigidly patriarchal, Daenerys has no power without Khal Drogo. That kind of power by proxy—power granted to her through relationships but not by virtue of her own standing or skill—is reflected in the attitudes of the men who are reluctant to listen to her commands. Ultimately, they do what she says, but if Drogo stops being their leader (as Daenerys fears), then those men will immediately stop following Daenerys’s orders.
Themes
Dany orders those men to set up a tent for Khal Drogo and to bring Mirri. Again, they are reluctant to follow Dany’s orders. They call Mirri a maegi (a practitioner of dark magic), but they eventually do as Dany says. Ser Jorah comes into the tent and examines Drogo’s wound. He scrapes the mud off, and it’s clear that the wound is infected. He says that Drogo will die soon and that they have to flee. If they don’t run, and Drogo dies, then whoever seizes power will kill Dany’s son as soon as he is born to ensure he doesn’t pose a threat down the line. Dany says she won’t leave Drogo. When Mirri comes, she confirms what Jorah said. She says that Khal Drogo won’t make it through the night.
This passage shows that the Dothraki people play a version of the “game of thrones” similar to the one played in Westeros. If Drogo dies, then Daenerys will face threats to her life and her son’s life from the Dothraki people. Those are the same kinds of threats that Robert has ordered to ensure that Daenerys’s child doesn’t pose a threat to his and his family’s power in Westeros. Since Drogo is on the brink of death, those potential threats put Daenerys in a position where she must find her own way to play the “game of thrones” to ensure that Drogo remains in power.
Themes
Dany asks if there is anything to do to save Khal Drogo’s life, and Mirri says there is one spell that might work. Dany thinks that Mirri must really be a maegi. Mirri says that they’ll have to use blood for the spell to work and that the price for life is death. Dany says to do the spell. Mirri has Drogo’s men find Drogo’s horse and lower Drogo into a bath. They then slit the horse’s throat so the blood flows into the bath. Mirri says that everyone but her must leave the tent, and no one can enter while the spell is underway. Everyone leaves, and Mirri begins to sing and dance in the tent.
Daenerys doesn’t know Mirri especially well but entrusts her with one of the most important moments in her (Daenerys’s) life. Daenerys is again basing that trust on the assumption that Mirri feels goodwill toward her because she intervened to stop Mirri from being raped. Daenerys seems desperate to save Drogo to ensure that she remains in power and that her son’s life is safe, but it also seems as though she has grown to care about Drogo, as well.
Themes
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Some of Khal Drogo’s men revolt. They say that the maegi should never have been allowed near Drogo and that the dark magic is forbidden. As those men approach the tent, Jorah fights them, killing one. Other people in the khalasar pack their things and ride off. Dany is struck by a great pain in her womb. It feels like her unborn son is wielding knives inside her. One of Dany’s servants, Doreah, says to bring Mirri, who has said that she has experience helping with births. Dany tries to object, but when she opens her mouth, she can only scream.
Jorah shows that he is loyal to Daenerys to the point that he is willing to risk his life to protect her and ensure that her wishes are enacted. Daenerys’s objection to seeing Mirri suggests that her opinion regarding Mirri has changed, perhaps because she relates the pain she feels in her womb to Mirri and the spell she is performing to try and save Drogo’s life.
Themes
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