Fire & Blood Files: Rhaena Targaryen And Dreamfyre’s Egg Clutch Explained

Because of the origin of dragons in Game of Thrones — hatched in fire & blood from stone eggs long-thought dormant — any time a clutch of dragon eggs pops up in a story somewhere, fans’ eyebrows raise, wondering, could *this* be the source of Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) brood?

House of the Dragon already triggered one such eyebrow-raise last season, when Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Daemon’s (Matt Smith) young sons were sent to Essos with a clutch of eggs in their possession. And it did so again this season, in “Faceless Men,” when Alice Rivers (Gayle Rankin) revealed to Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) that the dragon Dreamfyre had left eggs, now turned to stone, behind when her rider Rhaena Targaryen had stayed at Harrenhal. Thus, with another batch of dragon eggs inserted into the story — eggs that are already in the same condition as the ones Daenerys received — it’s easy to wonder: are these those dragon eggs?

The short answer is “probably not.” The longer answer is, of course, a bit more complicated.

To answer that, let’s look at the history of Rhaena Targaryen. Rhaena (an ancestor of the Rhaena currently played on the series by Phoebe Campbell) was the first granddaughter of Aegon the Conqueror, the eldest daughter of his eldest son Aenys. She bonded with and was the first rider of Dreamfyre, currently bonded to Helaena (Phia Saban), though we’ve never seen her ride Dreamfyre on the show. As a young woman, Rhaena was relatively shy and withdrawn, though prone to selecting a female favorite on whom she showered particular attention and affection, a habit that would continue well into her adulthood.

After the death of Aegon and the ascendance of her father to the throne, Rhaena wed her younger brother Aegon, heir to the Iron Throne (over the objections of the Faith, who were especially concerned with Targaryen incest that early in their reign). When Aenys died young, his aunt/stepmother, Aegon’s remaining sister-wife, Visenya, orchestrated a coup, putting her son, Aenys’ half-brother Maegor, on the throne over Aenys’ son and heir Aegon. Together, Aegon and Rhaena fled west, where they raised an army against Maegor. After Aegon died above the God’s Eye leading that army against Maegor, Rhaena was forced to marry her uncle Maegor (who was looking to unite the dual claims to the throne) to protect her children, becoming one of his “Black Brides.”

Following the marriage, Rhaena’s eldest daughter Aerea was named heir to the childless Maegor, while at the same time the younger brother of Rhaena and the deceased Aegon, Jaehaerys, was disinherited. But when Jaehaerys pressed his claim against Maegor, Rhaena fled from her husband on Dreamfyre along with Aerea, joining Jaehaerys out west to aid him, and finding shelter in Oldtown, seat of House Hightower. After Maegor’s death (which is itself a tale with echoes that are relevant to events in House of the Dragon), Rhaena flew with Jaehaerys and his sister-wife Alysanne on their dragons to claim the throne.

While some argued that Aerea, as the eldest child of the usurped but deceased Aegon, should be crowned queen, her young age and the prevailing “a woman in charge? well, I never!” attitude led to the crown passing to Jaehaerys, with Rhaena raising no objections. After a lengthy reign, the crown would then pass from Jaehaerys to Viserys (Paddy Considine), father of Rhaenrya and brother to Daemon.

Having so often found safety in the west, Rhaena spent a chunk of time there following Jaehaerys’ ascent. She married Androw Farman and settled on Fair Isle — though many suspected she did so simply to be close to Androw’s sister, Elissa. During this time, Rhaena became known as the “Queen in the West,” but tensions amidst the Farmans eventually led Rhaena and Elissa (and Androw) to flee to Casterly Rock and, eventually, return east, to be reunited with Aerea and taking charge of the seat at Dragonstone. There, the adventurous Elissa chafed under the dull monotony of life, and when Rhaena denied her request for gold to build a ship to sail the Sunset Sea (Rhaena couldn’t bear to be apart from her), Elissa found her own way off the island.

And when she left, she stole three dragon eggs on her way out the door — dragon eggs believed by some to have been laid by Rhaena’s own Dreamfyre. Elissa would sell these eggs to the Sea Lord of Braavos to fund her expedition, but when the Iron Throne treated with the Sea Lord for the return of the eggs, he claimed not to have them. These are the eggs generally considered to be Daenerys’ eggs in Game of Thrones.

Back in Westeros, things got worse for Rhaena, with Androw secretly poisoning all the people close to her and her relationship with her daughter Aerea deteriorating. This culminated in Aerea claiming Balerion (the dragon which killed her father, riderless since Maegor’s death) and disappearing. Rhaena, on Dreamfyre, spent much of a year searching across Westeros in vain for Aerea. Rhaena’s daughter would eventually return to the Red Keep, burned & diseased, on the back of Balerion, having apparently flown to the ruins of Old Valyria, and died within hours of her return.

Following Aerea’s death, a despondent Rhaena refused to return to Dragonstone, passed on an offer from her brother Jaehaerys to join his Small Council, and also avoided returning to any of the places where she found joy in her youth. Instead, she took up residence in Harrenhal’s Widow’s Tower (giving it its name), joined by Dreamfyre (this is when Dreamfyre would have laid the clutch of eggs Alice revealed in “Faceless Men”). Rhaena never again set foot on Dragonstone or King’s Landing.

Her hair growing white as she aged, some in the Riverlands began to fear her as a witch, but she eventually became the lady of Harrenhal when its lord died without heirs, and from then on always offered hospitality to any travelers in need of it. When she died, Rhaena was cremated at Harrenhal, with Jaehaerys ordering her ashes to be interred there, not far from where her husband died, instead of Dragonstone (as was tradition).

And Dreamfyre would later be claimed by Helaena — a Targaryen possessed of prophetic dreams who, last season, foresaw the death of her brother at the very place where her dragon left a clutch of eggs, the final resting place of her dragon’s only other rider.

So while those dragon eggs probably aren’t responsible for the return of dragons centuries later, their presence at Harrenhal is nevertheless heavy with significance…