Re-reading Song of Ice and Fire

Chapter 12, Daenerys
Summary
Dany leads her small khalasar in the direction pointed by the red comet. They cross the barren lands with no food or water. When they are close to dying of thirst they stumble into ruins of forgotten city where they find water and fruit. Dany sends her bloodriders in three directions, looking for civilization. Jhogo returns to her with representants of the city of Qarth.

Quotes

“They are mine,” she said fiercely. They had been born from her faith and her need, given life by the deaths of her husband and unborn son and the maegi Mirri Maz Duur. Dany had walked into the flames as they came forth, and they had drunk milk from her swollen breasts. “No man will take them from me while I live.”

The dragons were no larger than the scrawny cats she had once seen skulking along the walls of Magister Illyrio’s estate in Pentos… until they unfolded their wings. Their span was three times their length, each wing a delicate fan of translucent skin, gorgeously colored, stretched taut between long thin bones. When you looked hard, you could see that most of their body was neck, tail, and wing.

Commentary

Finally we’re getting back to Dany. The first book left us holding breath and only now Martin chose fit to show us what happens to Daenerys and her dragons.

Again I have to commend Martin on not letting the magical aspect of the book to take over. The fact that dragons are back in the world is nothing short of a miracle, but by no means it solves all problems. In fact, it makes Dany more vulnerable. There are many would would go great lengths to take the little dragons away from her.

The dragons are portrayed in this chapter as very frail, fragile creatures. Not able to care for themselves yet they are just like Dany’s children. And just like children it will take much time till they have grown. Dany can’t rely on their protection, she has to protect them until the time is right.

In this chapter we’re also taking a peak into Jorah Mormont’s heart. The story of his tragic love and the fact that Dany looks like his unfaithful wife gives us enough hint on the true reasons why Ser Jorah follows her.

Chapter 72, Daenerys, The Final Chapter
Summary
Dany creates the funeral pyre for Drogo. She also asks Jhogo, Aggo and Rkharo to be her bloodriders, however they refuse. Dany names Ser Jorah the first member of her Queensguard. When everything is done she lays the dragon eggs with her husband. Before the pyre is put to fire Dany has Mirri Maz Duur placed with Drogo and the dragon eggs. As the night falls the first star to show up on the sky is a red comet. They pyre is put to fire. Flames consume the maegi as she tries to cast her last spell. Dany hypnotised by the flames steps closer and closer to the fire, her clothes and hair is all burned, but she remains unharmed. Dany has a vision of Drogo raising from ashes on a smoky stallion.

When the fire dies out Ser Jorah finds Dany naked in the ashes. She’s holding three dragons. Jhogo, Aggo and Rkharo swear to be Dany’s bloodriders.

Quotes

When a horselord dies, his horse is slain with him, so he might ride proud into the night lands. The bodies are burned beneath the open sky, and the khal rises on his fiery steed to take his place among the stars. The more fiercely the man burned in life, the brighter his star will shine in the darkness.
Jhogo spied it first. “There, ” he said in a hushed voice. Dany looked and saw it, low in the east. The first star was a comet, burning red. Bloodred; fire red; the dragon’s tail. She could not have asked for a stronger sign.

Her vest had begun to smolder, so Dany shrugged it off and let it fall to the ground. The painted leather burst into sudden flame as she skipped closer to the fire, her breasts bare to the blaze, streams of milk flowing from her red and swollen nipples. Now, she thought, now, and for an instant she glimpsed Khal Drogo before her, mounted on his smoky stallion, a flaming lash in his hand. He smiled, and the whip snaked down at the pyre, hissing.

The cream-and-gold dragon was suckling at her left breast, the green-and-bronze at the right. Her arms cradled them close. The black-and-scarlet beast was draped across her shoulders, its long sinuous neck coiled under her chin. When it saw Jorah, it raised its head and looked at him with eyes as red as coals.

As Daenerys Targaryen rose to her feet, her black hissed, pale smoke venting from its mouth and nostrils. The other two pulled away from her breasts and added their voices to the call, translucent wings unfolding and stirring the air, and for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.

Commentary

Now we’re talking!

After the introduction in form of political intrigues the plot thickened when armies of Seven Kingdoms clashed, but the true culmination point is in this last chapter! After hundreds of years dragons are coming back to life! So far we’ve read great stories about Aegon the Conqueror, how he destroyed his enemies with help of the dragons. Well, the myths are coming to life now. We *know* what’s going to happen. Dany is going to take the dragons back to Westeros to win her crown like her great-grandfather did before her. Now if this does not make you want to reach for the next book I don’t know what will.

With amazing skill Martin was building the image of dragons, their power being legendary, their existance being the only thing ensuring the peace and integrity of Seven Kingdoms. Now the legend comes to life. The tension surrounding this chapter was built through hundreds of pages, I can’t imagine a bigger, better moment to end the book. Mr. Martin, nicely done!

The thing that might be easily dismissed in this chapter is the first appearance of the red comet, the same comet that will be adapted as the good sign by all parties. The truth of it is in this very chapter - this is Drogo’s comet. It’s the sign of the ultimate price he and his son paid to bring the dragons back to this world.

Robb is the King in the North, Dany gives life to the only three dragons in the world. How can you not read the next book?

The End of Game of Thrones, Song of Ice and Fire Book 1

Chapter 68, Daenerys
Summary
Dany finally wakes from the nightmares. Her son is dead, Drogo lives, but his spirit is gone, only body remains. Dany learns of maegi’s betrayal. She will not be able to bear children and her husband is gone forever. Dany doesn’t give up, she takes Drogo out to the plains and tries to bring him back using every sex trick she was taught. When night passes and Drogo is still gone she kills him.

Quotes

Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo’s copper skin and her own silver-gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled for her and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash.

“My son was alive and strong when Ser Jorah carried me into this tent,” she said. “I could feel him kicking, fighting to be born.”
“That may be as it may be,” answered Mirri Maz Duur, “yet the creature that came forth from your womb was as I said. Death was in that tent, Khaleesi.”

“Where is Khal Drogo? Show him to me, godswife, maegi, bloodmage, whatever you are. Show me Khal Drogo. Show me what I bought with my son’s life.”

“When will he be as he was?” Dany demanded.
“When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,” said Mirri Maz Duur. “When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before.”

“Tell me again what you saved.”
“Your life.”
Mirri Maz Duur laughed cruelly. “Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone.”

Commentary

Looks like all the characters we sympathized with are going through agonizing pain (or just die). Dany is no exception. Drogo is still technically alive, but the man she loved is gone and so is her child. She paid terrible price for nothing.

This chapter brings a very interesting question of what’s really important in our existance. Is life in itself really that valuable? What is body for if the mind is gone? Drogo did not die, yet as Mirri said, death would be cleaner for him. What is life good for when everything else is gone?

I’ll let everyone digest this tragedy on their own. I want to focus on two things here. One is Mirri’s betrayal. She was definitely pleased with how things turned out. She was proud of the fact that it was her doing that “the stallion who mounts the world will burn no cities”. Was this her plan all along? She didn’t seem to celebrate the victory until Dany faced her. She also made a lot of sense saying that she informed her of risks that come with this spell.

I also keep thinking about the way Dany felt the dragon eggs. Did Mirri’s magic, that turned Dany’s son into a monstrosity, awaken the dragon in her? Targaryens were trying to wake the dragons for hundreds of years. Was Dany son’s sacrifice the first step to bringing the dragons back? It makes a lot of sense to me.

Chapter 64, Daenerys
Summary
Drogo is too weak to ride. He falls from the horse, which in Dorthaki world means that he’s not fit to be a leader. Dany discovers that Drogo’s wound festered and he’s beyond healing. She summons Mirri hoping that she can use her magic to save him. Mirri tells her that there is very dark spell she can try and that she doesn’t know if death is not cleaner. Dany is certain that she wants to save Drogo. During the incantation the situation in Khalasaar erupts. Dorthaki fight among each other to claim the power relinquished by Drogo. Dany starts hurting and looks like she’s going into labor. She is brought to Mirri to deliver the baby.

Quotes

Khal Drogo reeled in the saddle, tilted slowly, and fell heavily from his horse.

Qotho glared down at her, his eyes hard as flint. “The maegi.” He spat. “This I will not do.”
“You will,” Dany said, “or when Drogo wakes, he will hear why you defied me.”

“There is a spell.” Her voice was quiet, scarcely more than a whisper. “But it is hard, lady, and dark. Some would say that death is cleaner. I learned the way in Asshai, and paid dear for the lesson. My teacher was a bloodmage from the Shadow Lands.”

“Only death may pay for life.”
“Death?” Dany wrapped her arms around herself protectively, rocked back and forth on her heels. “My death?” She told herself she would die for him, if she must. She was the blood of the dragon, she would not be afraid. Her brother Rhaegar had died for the woman he loved.
“No,” Mirri Maz Duur promised. “Not your death, Khaleesi.”
Dany trembled with relief. “Do it.”

“The maegi,” someone else said. Was that Aggo? “Take her to the maegi.”
No, Dany wanted to say, no, not that, you mustn’t, but when she opened her mouth, a long wail of pain escaped, and the sweat broke over her skin.

Commentary

I find this chapter very frightening. Martin’s ability to put terror into the heart of the reader really shines here.

One aspect of the fear is caused by the fact that Drogo is dying. The mighty Dorthaki, who promised to conquer Seven Kingdoms, Dany’s Sun and Stars is mortally wounded. And by now we know that it’s not a dramatic effect, that Martin will have no problem letting this character die.

But the really frightening things happen after Dany takes Mirri’s offer. We don’t know what she’s getting into, but the promise of something to which death is cleaner gives enough for every reader’s imagination. The combination of the trauma caused by Dorthaki seeking her death and dark spell being cast by Mirri sends Dany’s heart racing and pushes her over the edge - she goes into labor.

Mirri Maz Duur uses Dany’s unborn son, the Stallion Who Mounts the World to pay for Drogo’s death. Too late Dany decides that the price is too high. By the time she wants to back out she’s being carried to the tent where terrible ritual is taking place and the fate of her child is sealed.

I hate this chapter.
Not because it’s bad. I really appreciate the writing skill of GRRM in this particular part of the book.
I hate the feelings this chapter invokes in me. And I think that next time I re-read the story I’ll just skip it.

Chapter 61, Daenerys
Summary
Khal Drogo’s Khalsaar raids the city of “Lamb Men” in order to buy the passage to Seven Kingdoms on the “wooden horses”. Drogo kills Khal Ogo and then his son, who wanted to raid the city as well. Dany enters the conquered city and stops a number of Drogo’s warriors from raping the women. One of the “rescued” women is Mirri Maz Duur, a healer and maegi. Khal’s Drogo took wounds during the fighting. Dany asks him to accept Mirri’s help.

Quotes

“He slew two khals this day. Khal Ogo first, and then the son, Fogo, who became khal when Ogo fell. His bloodriders cut the bells from their hair, and now Khal Drogo’s every step rings louder than before.”

“Does the horse breed with the sheep?”
Dany turned on him angrily. “The dragon feeds on horse and sheep alike.”
Khal Drogo smiled. “See how fierce she grows!” he said. “It is my son inside her, the stallion who mounts the world, filling her with his fire. Ride slowly, Ootho… if the mother does not burn you where you sit, the son will trample you into the mud.”

Qotho stepped close to Mirri Maz Duur. “Know this, wife of the Lamb God. Harm the khal and you suffer the same.” He drew his skinning knife and showed her the blade.
“She will do no harm.” Dany felt she could trust this old, plainfaced woman with her flat nose; she had saved her from the hard hands of her rapers, after all.

Commentary

Poor, innocent Dany.

The child that did not know the cruelty of the world is not able to comprehend the pain of loss and the hate and need for revenge that dwells in people.

First she tries to apply civilized rules to brutal war waged by, lets face it, savages. Dorthaki see things differently in the time of peace, but when they go to fight, there is only one rule they respect: the strong taking everything from the weak.

Her bigger mistake though was trusting the maegi who she “saved” during the slaughter. Mirri Maz Duur delivered her revenge with cunning and cruelty exploiting Dany’s trust (She had saved her from the hands of her rapers, after all.) I’m wondering though, did the betrayal start right there, or was she really trying to heal Drogo?