Post by voice on Jul 23, 2016 17:05:16 GMT
. . . mother of dragons . . . child of three . . .
"Three?" She did not understand.
. . . three heads has the dragon . . . the ghost chorus yammered inside her skull with never a lip moving, never a breath stirring the still blue air. . . . mother of dragons . . . child of storm . . . The whispers became a swirling song. . . . three fires must you light . . . one for life and one for death and one to love . . . Her own heart was beating in unison to the one that floated before her, blue and corrupt . . . three mounts must you ride . . . one to bed and one to dread and one to love . . . The voices were growing louder, she realized, and it seemed her heart was slowing, and even her breath. . . . three treasons will you know . . . once for blood and once for gold and once for love . . .
-Clash, Dany IV
So I've been thinking about this passage a lot recently, with markg171 's (f)Dany essay in mind.
Mother of dragons is pretty straightfoward. She's a mother, and her children are dragons. Thus the subject is clearly Dany, and Dany clearly understands this.
If Dany is the subject in the following phrase, "child of three," that too seems pretty straightforward. Aerys had three children: Rhaegar, Viserys, and Daenerys.
But Dany is baffled by this. Why?
She knows, or at least, she thinks she knows that Aerys had three children and that she is one of them.
Martin didn't write,
Because, I mean, obviously she is the mother of dragons. She calls herself that. She even refers to herself in the third person as a fickle young girl, and not surprisingly, she does not question the "child" part of the following phrase.
Considering how very cryptic the rest of this passage is, the "child of three" part seems very clear. Dany doesn't question that she is a child.
So why is Dany so confused by the number three?
"Three?" She did not understand.
. . . three heads has the dragon . . . the ghost chorus yammered inside her skull with never a lip moving, never a breath stirring the still blue air. . . . mother of dragons . . . child of storm . . . The whispers became a swirling song. . . . three fires must you light . . . one for life and one for death and one to love . . . Her own heart was beating in unison to the one that floated before her, blue and corrupt . . . three mounts must you ride . . . one to bed and one to dread and one to love . . . The voices were growing louder, she realized, and it seemed her heart was slowing, and even her breath. . . . three treasons will you know . . . once for blood and once for gold and once for love . . .
-Clash, Dany IV
So I've been thinking about this passage a lot recently, with markg171 's (f)Dany essay in mind.
Mother of dragons is pretty straightfoward. She's a mother, and her children are dragons. Thus the subject is clearly Dany, and Dany clearly understands this.
If Dany is the subject in the following phrase, "child of three," that too seems pretty straightforward. Aerys had three children: Rhaegar, Viserys, and Daenerys.
But Dany is baffled by this. Why?
She knows, or at least, she thinks she knows that Aerys had three children and that she is one of them.
Martin didn't write,
"Mother?" She did not understand.
Because, I mean, obviously she is the mother of dragons. She calls herself that. She even refers to herself in the third person as a fickle young girl, and not surprisingly, she does not question the "child" part of the following phrase.
Considering how very cryptic the rest of this passage is, the "child of three" part seems very clear. Dany doesn't question that she is a child.
So why is Dany so confused by the number three?
I don't see why Dany would be confused in this elated state if it referred to a non-living sibling(s).