Silverwing, A She Dragon Riden By Queen Alysanne Targaryen
Silverwing was a she-dragon from House Targaryen that was silver. Queen Alysanne Targaryen rode her and then by Ulf White during the Dance of the Dragons. Silverwing has been called a “silvery dragon.” To strangers, she was considered docile and approachable. Vermithor and Silverwing often went in a coil.
Contents
Silverswing’s Journey Over the Years, and End Life
Alysanne Targaryen, The First Rider
Alysanne Targaryen’s sister Rhaena hatched a dragon egg in her cradle in 36 AC, and Silverwing was the result.
In 42 AD, at Dragons Tone, Silverwing, Quicksilver, and Dragons all donated flames to the burial pyre of King Aenys I Targaryen.
As prisoners of Dowager Queen Visenya Targaryen in 44 AC, Alysanne, her brother Jaehaerys, and their mother Alyssa Velaryon lived on Dragonstone. In the chaos that followed Visenya’s natural death that year, Alysanne, Jaehaerys, Alyssa, and their dragons, Silverwing for Alysanne and Vermithor for Jaehaerys, left the island.
By 48 AC, Silverwing had agreed to have Alysanne as a rider. For her sister Rhaena to claim the Iron Throne, Alysanne went to King’s Landing with her dragons, Vermithor and Dreamfyre.
Alysanne and Jaehaerys flew Vermithor and Silverwing from the Red Keep to Dragonstone to secretly marry in 49 AC. They did this without the approval of the Queen Regent Alyssa Velaryon or the Hand of the King Rogar Baratheon. For the rest of the king’s minority, Dragonstone was their safe haven.
During Jaehaerys’s long reign, he spent much time staying with lords or meeting with people in towns and villages. Queen Alysanne would fly with him on Silverwing while he flew there on Vermithor.
In 54 AC, Alysanne took Silverwing to Oldtown for the High Septon’s burial. The city gasped when the dragon landed on top of the Hightower and used her wings to fan the flames of the tower’s signal. Alysanne and Jaehaerys flew Silverwing and Vermithor to Storm’s End later that year to be with their mother Alyssa when she died while giving birth.
Alysanne later flew Silverwing to Dragonstone to comfort her sister Rhaena, who was sad about the deaths of her friends. When Rhaena flew to King’s Landing at the end of the year to look for her lost daughter Aerea, Silverwing and Vermithor roared when Dreamfyre arrived. People who were watching were afraid the dragons would fight.
Silverwing and Vermithor did not go with Balerion and three younger dragons when the Targaryens started to house dragons in the Dragonpit in 56 AC. Instead, they stayed at the Red Keep to be close to their riders.
In the year 58 AC, Alysanne flew Silverwing to White Harbor, then to Winterfell, and finally to the Wall. This was part of a planned royal journey that Jaehaerys couldn’t join at first because he had to do work in King’s Landing. Tens of thousands of people from the north came to White Harbor to cheer for Alysanne and stare in shock and fear at Silverwing.
Lord Alaric Stark wouldn’t let Silverwing inside at Winterfell because of what happened with Harrenhal. In the end, Alysanne’s charm made him cautiously approach Silverwing. As Alysanne waited for Jaehaerys to arrive at Winterfell, she got antsy. She took Silverwing to the Wall, stopping at Last Hearth and a few smaller keeps, including Queenscrown, along the way.
As in White Harbor, the men of the Night’s Watch at Castle Black were amazed by Silverwing. However, Alysanne said that Silverwing “does not like this Wall.” Whenever a cold wind came down from the Wall, the dragon would hiss and snap.
Alysanne attempted to fly Silverwing beyond the Wall thrice, but the dragon veered south each time. Alysanne wrote to Jaehaerys that she was concerned that Silverwing was refusing to fly over the Wall despite never doing so.
Later, Alysanne flew Silverwing back to Winterfell to reunite with Jaehaerys. From there, they traveled to Torrhen’s Square, Barrowton, and King’s Landing.
In the year 82 AC, Alysanne flew Silverwing to the Eyrie to be with her daughter Daella Targaryen while she gave birth to her first child.
In the year 92 AC, Alysanne and Jaehaerys fought over Jaehaerys’ choice to put his son Baelon ahead of his niece Rhaenys, the only child of his late eldest son Aemon. Alysanne left King’s Landing and went to Dragonstone on Silverwing.
There, she was separated from Jaehaerys for two years, in a dispute known as the Second Quarrel. With the help of their daughter Septa Maegelle, the couple got back together in 94 AC, but they never agreed on who would be king.
The last time Alysanne rode Silverwing was in 93 AC. Alysanne cried as she slowly climbed down from her dragon’s back. Upon Alysanne’s death in 100 AC, Silverwing became riderless.
Ser Ulf White | The Second Rider
After Alysanne’s death, Silverwing returned to Dragons Tone and set up her lair in one of the smoke caves of the Dragons. She stayed there without a rider until the Dance of the Dragons in 129 AC.
When Prince Jacaerys Velaryon thought that his mother Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen’s group, the blacks, needed more dragonriders, he called for men to claim one of the dragons on Dragonstone that didn’t have a rider. This was the start of an event called the “Sowing of the Seeds.”
In his Testimony, the court fool Mushroom tells a tale about his attempt to mount Silverwing, considered the most docile of the masterless dragons. In the end, Mushroom runs across Dragonstone’s ward with the seat of his pants on fire, almost drowning when he jumps into a well to put out the flames.
It’s a funny but unlikely story. Silverwing is the only dragon claimed during the Sowing that is not said to have killed any man who attempted to ride her. Ultimately, Silverwing chose Ulf the White, a dragonseed man-at-arms, to be her new rider.
Ulf rode Silverwing to the Battle in the Gullet. At the same time as Vermithor, Sheepstealer, Vermax, and Seasmoke, Silverwing attacked the 90 boats flying the flags of the Three Daughters.
People who supported Rhaenyra Targaryen took over King’s Landing. Ulf landed Silverwing on the Hill of Rhaenys, which is not in the Dragonpit. Before flying off to fight, Silverwing built a lair in the Dragonpit. During the first fight at Tumbleton, Ulf rode Silverwing into battle. It was Ulf and Hugh Hammer, another dragonseed, who claimed Vermithor.
But they betrayed Rhaenyra and joined Aegon II Targaryen’s side. Aegon II’s brother Prince Daeron’s dragons, Silverwing, Vermithor, and Tessarion, let loose their flames on Tumbleton, which was then cruelly burned down.
Ulf and Silverwing stayed at Tumbleton with the Hightower host. Beyond the town walls, Silverwing was allowed to fly and hunt without restriction. During the Second Battle of Tumbleton, a group of 4,000 men led by Ser Addam Velaryon on the dragon arm attacked the Hightower force at Tumbleton at night.
Ulf slept through the fight, but Silverwing flew through it despite having no rider. Someone with a crossbow shot a bolt at the dragon at one point. Silverwing didn’t fight anymore and instead flew around the area for hours. Only the following day, after the sun had gone down, did she descend again.
This time, she landed between the slain Vermithor, Seasmoke, and Tessarion. The singers claim that Vermithor attempted to lift Silverwing’s wing on three occasions, but Archmaester Gyldayn thinks that this is probably just a story. Silverwing started to fly aimlessly across the field when the sun came up again, where she ate the burned bodies of men and animals.
King Aegon II was lost, and Prince Aemond and Daeron had died. Ulf White, Silverwing’s rider, demanded that he should become the new king of the Seven Kingdoms. Silverwing became rider less once more after Ser Hobert Hightower, one of the Caltrops, gave Ulf poisoned wine.
End Life
If a hero from a royal family could claim Silverwing at Tumbleton, Lord Unwin Peake would give them a thousand golden dragons. Three men came forward. The first had his arm torn off, and the second was burned to death. After that, the third man changed his mind.
Four dragons lived at the end of the Dance of the Dragons. Silverwing was one of them. Silverwing, who was used to men, became insane during the reign of Aegon III Targaryen and established her lair on a small island in Red Lake, northwest of the Reach.
Aegon turned down Lord Borros Baratheon’s idea of Silverwing as a new dragon to replace the late Sunfyre because he was too weak to mount a grown dragon or travel across the war-torn country to Red Lake.
During King Aegon III Targaryen’s reign, Silverwing kept living at Red Lake.