Vhagar; A She Dragon Ridden by Many
She was a dragon from House Targaryen named Vhagar. During Aegon’s Conquest, Queen Visenya Targaryen rode her along with Balerion, Aegon the Conqueror’s horse, and Meraxes, Rhaenys’s horse. Prince Baelon Targaryen, Lady Laena Velaryon, and Prince Aemond Targaryen are known to ride Vhagar. Its name comes from the name of an Old Valyrian god.
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How Vhagar Looks Like; Color Appearance and More
It is not written in the books what color Vhagar’s scales, horns, wings, wing bones, spine crest, and flame are. Sam Hogg, the artist hired to make the 2021 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar, asked George R. R. Martin’s team for more information and was told that Vhagar was “bronze with greenish blue highlights and bright green eyes.”
Tyrell Lannister said Vhagar was so big that a horse could be ridden down her throat. His breath was said to be so hot that it could melt a knight’s armor and cook him from the inside out.
Vhagar had been through a hundred fights and was the oldest and biggest dragon in Westeros during the Dance of the Dragons. He had gotten almost as big as Balerion. That roar of hers was so strong that it could shake Storm’s End to its core. No other dragon was as big or dangerous as she was.
Hatching, Riders and Journey to the Death
At the start of the Century of Blood, Vhagar was an egg that hatched on Dragonstone. She was named after a Valyrian Freehold god. Visenya Targaryen claimed Vhagar at some point. Visenya first rode Vhagar to show she could ride a dragon before marrying her brother Aegon.
Aegon’s Conquest
Visenya flew Vhagar to Stokeworth after Aegon arrived on Westeros and started to take it over. There, crossbowmen fired bolts at the dragon, which set fire to the roofs of the castle keep. Following Aegon’s first coronation, Visenya went to Vhagar with Daemon Velaryon’s Targaryen force to take Gulltown.
The Arryn fleet beat the Targaryen fleet in the fight off the coast of Gulltown. The Arryn fleet sank a third of the Targaryen ships, capturing almost as many. Then Visenya came down and set fire to the Arryn fleet’s ships.
Visenya then flew to Crackclaw Point with Vhagar to get many war pledges from the lords there. Then she flew Vhagar to Stoney Sept to meet up with her brothers, their dragons, and Aegon’s army. As they moved south, the decisive Field of Fire was fought by all three dragons.
This was the only fight during Aegon’s Conquest where all three dragons of the Targaryen family took to the sky at the same time. Vhagar, Meraxes, and Balerion killed 4,000 men by setting them on fire and burning them alive. King Mern IX Gardener and House Gardener both died. The army was broken up, and House Targaryen won.
Visenya then flew Vhagar to the Trident in the riverlands, where she met her brother, sister, and their dragons to prepare to fight King in the North Keep Stark. Brandon Snow, Torrhen’s bastard brother, offered to sneak into the Targaryen camp at night and kill the dragons, but the Northern King turned him down and sent his brother as a messenger instead, who finally submitted to the Targaryens.
Visenya then flew Vhagar back to the Vale and made ground in the Eyrie’s inner courtyard with her dragon. When Dowager Queen Sharra Arryn got to the courtyard, she saw her young son, King Ronnel Arryn, sitting on Visenya’s knee and looking at Vhagar with wide eyes. The little King asked his mom to let him ride on Vhagar’s back. Sharra bowed her head and gave in, and Ronnel rode Vhagar across the Giant’s Lance on ice.
First Dornish War
Following the deaths of Rhaenys and Meraxes in 10 AC at Hellholt in Dorne, Aegon and Visenya burned every Dornish fortress at least once during a two-year time known as the Dragon’s Shadow City. Archmaester Timotty says the Targaryens may have planned to turn the other Dornish houses against the Martells. Still, the Dornish say the Targaryens didn’t attack Sunspear because they were afraid that Princess Meria Martell had bought a device from Lys to kill Vhagar and Balerion.
Aenys I and Maegor I
He gave Vhagar the flames that lit King Aegon I’s funeral pyre when he died in 37 AD. Prince Aegon was King Aenys I Targaryen’s oldest son and heir. At his wedding in 41 AC, he was named Prince of Dragonstone. Visenya got angry and ran to Dragonstone. People said that when Vhagar went by the moon, it turned as red as blood.
When King Aenys got to Dragonstone later that year, he was running away from the first rebels in the Faith Militant uprising. Visenya asked him to let her take Vhagar and set the Starry Sept on fire in Oldtown. Aenys said no. In the early hours of 42 AD, the King died. Visenya left Dragonstone within an hour and flew to Pentos, where her son Maegor was living as a refugee.
Visenya went to King’s Landing with Maegor after he won the crown on Dragonstone. They rode Vhagar across Blackwater Bay together. Vivek and Balerion’s return to King’s Landing caused chaos in the city.
Visenya flew Vhagar to Driftmark before Maegor’s wedding to Tyanna of the Tower to get Alyssa Velaryon to attend the wedding. Even after losing the Battle of Stonebridge and the Battle at the Great Fork of the Blackwater, the Faith Militant fought against Maegor’s rule. Visenya rode Vhagar and burned down the seats of House Blanetree, House Terrick, House Deddings, House Lychester, and House Wayn in the Riverlands in one night.
Maegor took Balerion to the western lands and set fire to the houses of House Broom, House Doggett, House Falwell, House Lorch, House Myatt, and other “pious lords” who had refused to follow his royal orders.
In 43 AD, Maegor and Visenya turned toward Oldtown and threatened to burn down the Starry Sept because the High Septon had told him he couldn’t have more than one wife. Only the strange death of the High Septon kept the city from destruction by Dragonfire. This let Lord Martyn Hightower open his walls to Balerion and Vhagar.
Visenya died on Dragonstone in 44 AD, so Vhagar didn’t have a rider.
Reign of Jaehaerys I
After Visenya’s death, Vhagar remained unridden for twenty-nine years, spending most of that time on Dragonstone before taking residence in the Dragonpit in King’s Landing. In 73 AD, Prince Baelon the Brave became a knight and followed his brother Prince Aemon to become a dragonrider and claim Vhagar. With Caraxes and Vermithor, Vhagar set fire to the Dornish fleet that tried to attack the Stormlands during the Fourth Dornish War in 83 AC.
Vhagar became the last of the three Targaryen dragons who had participated in the Conquest after Balerion’s death from old age in 94 AC. When Prince Baelon died in 101 AC, Vhagar was left without a horse again.
Reign of Viserys I
Lady Laena Velaryon, who joined Vhagar’s group as a rider before she turned twelve, was the next known rider. The maester at Driftmark, which is home to House Velaryon, said that Laena loved to fly. Prince Daemon Targaryen and Laena got married in 115 AD. They flew across the narrow sea to Pentos, Volantis, Qohor, and Norvos on their dragons. Huge groups of people followed Vhagar and Caraxes, Daemon’s dragon, everywhere they went.
In the year 116 AC, after Laena gave birth, Daemon brought Vhagar and his own dragon back to Westeros. One of Daemon’s nieces, Rhaenyra Targaryen, became close with Laena and Daemon. They often flew together on their dragons, Vhagar, Caraxes, and Syrax.
Laena died early in the year 120 BC. According to legend, Laena tried to fly one last time to Vhagar during her final hour, but she was unable to do so. Following the funeral for Laena on Driftmark, Aemond Targaryen, the ten-year-old prince, took Vhagar as his own dragon.
Contribution in the Dance of the Dragons
Vhagar was the biggest living dragon at the time (129 AC), almost as big as Balerion had been during Aegon’s Conquest. To get Lord Borros Baratheon to back King Aegon II Targaryen, Prince Aemond flew on Vhagar to Storm’s End. It was at Storm’s End that Aemond met Prince Lucerys Velaryon. He wanted to get Prince Lucerys to back his mother, Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen.
While they were both in Borros’s castle, Aemond wasn’t allowed to attack Lucerys, but he was free to follow him outside. As soon as Lucerys took off on his dragon Arrax, Aemond jumped on Vhagar and followed the young prince. During a great storm over Shipbreaker Bay, the two dragons engaged in combat. Vhagar quickly defeated Arrax, whose cut head and Lucerys’ body would wash up on beach days later.
Even though King Aegon II and Queen Rhaenyra were at odds with each other, Aemond kept flying Vhagar into battle. Vhagar and Aemond, along with King Aegon and Sunfyre, sneaked up on the dragon Meleys and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, who was riding her, during the fight at Rook’s Rest.
Meleys was an old and big dragon. It might have had a chance against Vhagar by itself, but it died in the attack by both of them. Vhagar was the only dragon not getting too badly hurt in the fight.
Prince Aemond was named regent after the battle against the Meleys left Aegon II severely injured and unable to rule. Prince Daemon Targaryen, who was massing armies at Harrenhal, was identified by Aemon as the main danger in the conflict.
Vhagar and most of the green troops from King’s Landing were sent north by Aemond to attack Harrenhal. This left King’s Landing with very little protection. In the time it took Aemond and Vhagar to get to Harrenhal, Daemon had already left to attack King’s Landing, leaving the castle undefended and empty. He had done this to trick Aemond and Vhagar into leaving the city.
The Fall of King’s Landing meant that Prince Aemond and Hand of the King Criston Cole could no longer agree on how to fight the war.
Aemond sent Vhagar on a one-man war to get back at him. The first thing they did was set fire to every wooden building in Harrenhal, which was in the Riverlands. Although Aemond’s choice to leave the army under Criston was a strategic mistake, Vhagar did more damage than an entire army and severely injured Rhaenyra’s allies in the Riverlands.
Without Vhagar to protect them, Cole’s army in the east was later trapped and wiped out in the Butcher’s Ball. This let Rhaenyra’s troops easily take over the east.
As long as Aemond and Vhagar were around, they destroyed more Riverlands and became the Trident’s worst enemies. They were told to go after Aemond. Daemon Targaryen was on his dragon Caraxes, and the dragonseed Nettles was on her dragon Sheepstealer.
Because Lord Manfryd Mooton was afraid of an attack from Vhagar, they were allowed to use Maidenpool as their base. This made him safer. Daemon and Nettles tried to find Vhagar together but failed. Vhagar continued to attack the riverlands.
Daemon sent word that he and Caraxes would be waiting for Aemond and Vhagar at Harrenhal after the First Battle of Tumbleton. Twelve days into Daemon’s watch at Harrenhal, Vhagar came out of the sky taking Aemond and his lover Alys Rivers.
Aemond left Alys in the castle’s yard, and the dragons and their riders took off into the air. In the next battle, “Battle Above the Gods Eye,” all four were killed when the dragons locked together and Caraxes’ jaws closed around Vhagar’s neck. Daemon jumped from his dragon to Vhagar and put Dark Sister through Aemond’s eye, and then the dragons crashed into the lake.
Aemond’s metal bones were still chained to the saddle when Vhagar’s body was found some years after the Dance ended. Vhagar passed away on the twenty-second day of the fifth moon in the year 130 AC. She was 118 years old.
Where does His Skull Rests
Vhagar’s skull was on display in the throne room of the Red Keep, along with eighteen other skeletons of Targaryen dragons. King Robert I Baratheon took the heads out of the throne room after Robert’s Rebellion and put them in a damp cave.
When Tyrion Lannister went to the capital in 284 AD to see his sister Cersei get married to Robert, he saw the heads in the cellar, which included Vhagar’s. In the year 298 AC, Arya Stark came across the dragon heads while she was going through the cellars of the Red Keep.
Illyrio Mopatis sent three ships to Daenerys Targaryen. She had them renamed Vhagar, Meraxes, and Balerion to let everyone know that the dragons were back. This happened in 299 AC.
