“A Song of Ice and Fire” is not only the official title of George R.R. Martin’s entire fantasy saga, but also the name of a prophecy that forms the foundation of the entire work. But what is it really? What does it specifically say, and who is “The Promised Prince” really?
What the Song Says
First of all, the prophecy of Ice and Fire states that the world of the living and the mortal will sooner or later be shaken by a dark and icy threat, enveloping the world in cold and death, but that a Promised Prince (named Azor Ahai) will rise to unite the peoples and fight this threat. Looking at the Game of Thrones universe, it becomes clear that this refers to the coming of the Others and the Long Night, and the final battle between humanity and the undead that we saw in the final season of Game of Thrones.
Specifically, the prophecy states that the Prince Who Was Promised would be born amid certain cosmic and natural events:
the savior would be reborn amid smoke and salt, when a red comet would cross the sky, and would then awaken the dragons from stone.
Now, however, let’s take a step back.
The origins of the prophecy in George R.R. Martin’s books
In Martin’s books—which predate Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon—A Song of Ice and Fire has ancient origins.
It has its roots in the mythology of Essos (the name Azor Ahai was coined in Asshai by followers of the Cult of R’hilor, the Lord of Light) and was later passed down in Ancient Valyria among the very first members of House Targaryen.
It all began with Daenys the Dreamer, who lived about a century before Aegon the Conqueror. She saw the fall of Valyria in a dream, prompting her father, Aenar, to move his family to Dragonstone, the kingdom’s westernmost outpost, which in the centuries that followed became the stronghold of the dragonlords.
House of the Dragon and Aegon’s Dream
This brings us to the HBO series based on Fire & Blood, which has explored in greater depth some details already hinted at by Martin in the books. As King Viserys clearly explained to his daughter Rhaenyra in the first season of House of the Dragon, Aegon the Conqueror, in turn, had a dream influenced by the prophecy: In his vision, the Others came from the North, bringing frost and death to the world, and this is why he began his campaign to conquer Westeros: he wanted to unite the peoples under a single banner to prepare humanity for the apocalypse.
He renamed the prophecy “A Song of Ice and Fire” to emphasize that the final battle for humanity’s salvation would be fought between the Others (Ice) and the Dragons (Fire), hypothesizing that the Prince Who Was Promised would indeed be a Targaryen. Aegon therefore decided that this prophecy would be passed down in secret from heir to heir, from father to son, so that when the Long Night came, a Targaryen would be on the Iron Throne, ready to lead the people in the final battle to save the world. For more details, find out who Aegon the Conqueror really was.
Who Is the Promised Prince?
In A Song of Ice and Fire, there are many contenders for the title of The Promised Prince: Rhaegar, Daenerys’s older brother and Jon Snow’s father, initially believed that the chosen one was one of his sons; Melisandre, at one point, is convinced it might be Stannis Baratheon, but all clues obviously point to the two main protagonists of the series.
Daenerys Targaryen literally embodies almost every element of the prophecy: she was born at Dragonstone (the salt, referring to the sea surrounding the stronghold); she was “reborn” from Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre (the smoke); and she has also awakened three dragons from their respective eggs, which had seemed petrified and unusable. Furthermore, Daenerys also appears in Daemon Targaryen’s visions in House of the Dragon, reaffirming her central role.
Read Also: Who Was Aegon the Conqueror, Really? Discover the Story Behind the Targaryen Myth
Then there’s Jon Snow, who is literally the son of Ice (Lyanna Stark) and Fire (Rhaegar Targaryen), and was born under a red star: at his birth, in the Tower of Joy, his uncle Ned Stark placed the sword Dawn at the foot of the bed—a sword said to have been forged from the heart of a fallen star. Now, however, we know that the Game of Thrones series has partially undermined this theory, because the Night King is killed by Arya Stark, who in doing so takes on the role of Azor Ahai.
It’s important to remember that Rhaegar, obsessed with history and prophecies, reinterpreted the Song, asserting that Azor Ahai would be embodied by three different figures—the “three heads of the dragon” we see on House Targaryen’s sigil: Jon and Daenerys could be the first two, leaving the third to be determined, since Arya Stark is not a Targaryen.
At this point, we’ll have to see if George Martin will also opt for a new plot twist in the books, thereby “setting the lore straight.”
