Game of Thrones' "Prince That Was Promised" Prophecy, Explained

This page features information from the TV series as well as the novels, and contains spoilers

Prophecies hold great power in the world of Game of Thrones. Many religious factions and practitioners of magic put a great amount of faith into prophetic visions and ancient texts.

When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt.

In the HBO series, the prophecy of the "Prince That Was Promised" is a foretelling of the return of Azor Ahai. It is told by the followers of the Lord of Light, such as Melisandre and Thoros of Myr.

In ancient times, Azor Ahai was a legendary warrior who was called upon to defeat the White Walkers. The followers of the Lord of Light believe that the "Prince" will be a reincarnation of Azor Ahai, called upon when the White Walkers return. 

In the books, there is an extended version of this prophecy:

There will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him.

However, the books are not clear if the "Prince That Was Promised" and Azor Ahai are the same person, or if they are even a part of the same prophecy.

The "Prince" is actually introduced in a single line, with no mention of Azor Ahai. It occurs during a vision Daenerys Targaryen has of Rhaegar Targaryen.

Daenerys sees Rhaegar holding his son Aegon, and saying:

He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire. 

It is possible that these two prophecies are referring to different people.

A prince is riding. I've heard the thunder of his hooves. Swift as the wind he rides. His enemies will cower before him, and their wives will weep tears of blood... The Stallion Who Mounts the World.

In the Dothraki religion, the Stallion Who Mounts The World is a prophesied figure who will unite their people into a single khalasar, leading them on a path of conquest across the world.

In the first season of the show, the dosh khaleen of Vaes Dothrak predict that Daenerys Targaryen's unborn child will be the Stallion. However, the maegi Mirrir Maz Duur tricks Dany into sacrificing her child, in order to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled. 

The Wood Witch and Cersei

Queen you shall be, until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.

As a child, Cersei Lannister visits a wood witch named Maggy the Frog. Maggy uses a drop of Cersei's blood to predict her future. 

In the show, there were three major components of her prophecy:

• Cersei will not wed a prince, she will wed a king.
• Cersei will be the queen, until a "younger and more beautiful" person replaces her.
• Cersei's husband will have 16 children, while Cersei herself will have three. Additionally, "Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds," implying they will all die before her.

Most of this prophecy has either already been fulfilled, or seems to be heading in that direction.

Cersei did not end up marrying Rhaegar Targaryen as she believed she would as a child. Instead, she married Robert Baratheon, who became king.

Cersei worries that she will be replaced by Queen Margaery Tyrell, who is currently married to Cersei's son, Tommen. 

Finally, Robert Baratheon had many bastard children, none of which were with Cersei. Meanwhile, two of Cersei's three children (who she had with her brother, Jaime) have died so far.

In the books, there is a fourth line to the prophecy:

And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.

"Valonqar" means "little brother" in High Valyrian.

While this has not yet been featured in the TV series, one of the most important prophecies in the books pertains to the Doom of Valyria.

Daenys, often called "Daenys the Dreamer," was a Targaryen who lived centuries before the event of Game of Thrones. She had powerful prophetic abilities, and wrote down her predictions in a book called Signs and Portents. Her most important prophecy was of a great catastrophe that would end the Valyrian civilization.

Her foresight enabled House Targaryen to escape the Doom, traveling to Dragonstone and eventually conquering Westeros.

Quaithe, a minor character in the TV series, plays a bigger role in the books. On two occasions, she provides Daenerys Targaryen prescient, although vague, information.

She first gives Daenerys this cryptic instruction, which Dany interprets as traveling to the city of Asshai:

To go north, you must go south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.

Later, Quaithe returns to tell Dany an equally enigmatic, but much more pressing prophecy: 

Soon comes the pale mare, and after her the others. Kraken and dark flame, lion and griffin, the sun's son and the mummer's dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal.

When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child. Then he will return, and not before.

While this is most likely a curse, some believe that Mirri Maz Duur's message to Daenerys Targaryen may actually be prophetic in nature.

In the books, Stannis Baratheon's court fool, Patchface, sings phrases that most pass off as nonsense. However, many of these jingles seem to contain information about future events.

For example, in this song, he seems to predict the Red Wedding:

Fool's blood, king’s blood, blood on the maiden’s thigh, but chains for the guests and chains for the bridegroom, aye aye aye.

Farther on she came upon a feast of corpses. Savagely slaughtered, the feasters lay strewn across overturned chairs and hacked trestle tables, asprawl in pools of congealing blood. Some had lost limbs, even heads. Savaged limbs clutched bloody cups, wooden spoons, roast fowl, heels of bread. On a throne above them sat a dead man with the head of a wolf. He wore an iron crown and held a leg of lamb in one hand as a king might hold a sceptre, and his eyes followed Dany with mute appeal

While the TV series did not include most of this material, the book version of Daenerys's encounter in the House of the Undying contains many potentially prophetic visions, including one of the Red Wedding.

The Warlocks also predict that, "three fires must you light... one for life and one for death and one to love... three mounts must you ride... one to bed and one to dread and one to love... three treasons will you know... once for blood and once for gold and once for love..."

Additionally, this section of the book is the first mention of the "Prince That Was Promised," a prophecy detailed above.

Prophecies and Dreams

The books also contain many examples of dreams that foretell future events.

• Bran Stark has several prophetic dreams after his fall from the tower, including a vision of what appears to be the death of Jon Snow.

• Soon after her marriage to Khal Drogo, Daenerys Targaryen dreams of a dragon hatching. 

• Jojen Reed has "green dreams," which he believes always come true. He seemingly predicts the sacking of Winterfell by Theon Greyjoy, and some of the events that followed.

• Jon Snow has several dreams that imply he will find out that he is not actually of Stark blood.

• In an era approximately a century before the events of Game of Thrones, Prince Daeron Targareyn often had prophetic dreams. One his dreams predicted the return of dragons.  

• Tyrion Lannister has a dream of what appears to be Daenerys Targaryen's army invading Westeros.

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