Pentos | My Song of Ice and Fire

So she sat in her wedding silks, nursing a cup of honeyed wine, afraid to eat, talking silently to herself. “I am blood of the dragon”, she told herself. “I am Daenerys Stormborn, Princess of Dragonstone, of the blood and seed of Aegon the Conqueror.”
AGOT 11 – DAENERYS II (GRRM)

POV character
Daenerys Targaryen 2

Chapter (AGOT)
12 / 73

Chapter (ASOIAF)
12 / 344

Summary

Khal Drogo has summoned his whole “khalasar” to attend the wedding. 40000 fierce warriors with at least as much children, women and slaves are camping outside of Pentos. This makes the city officials very nervous, but Illyrio seems to manage to keep them calm. Viserys is impatient, but Illyrio and Mormont (who had offered his sword to the Targaryen) assure him, that the Khal will pay his debt as he had promised him a crown. But they also state that the Khal will chose the right time and Viserys has to be patient.

The wedding feast is going on all day and a huge number of people is attending. Her brother is furious (as always) as she is seated “above” him, although his place is one of greatest honor, only below the so-called blood riders of the Khal. Daenerys is afraid, nervous and alone, but she keeps her smile (as her brother told her). She has nobody to talk and is not hungry, she thinks about how she and the Khal do not even share one language.

During the feast there is dancing, fighting, eating and all kinds of “amusement”. Daenerys sees her first man die before noon as warroirs fight over women. The Dothraki customs are raw and savage, and in the end 12 people died at her wedding. Her bride gifts are three female servants by her brother, books in common tongue by Jorah and three petrified dragon eggs from Illyrio.

In addition Drogo’s bloodriders offer three weapons (as is custom) and she refuses them (as is custom) and gives them to her husband (as is custom). She receives more gifts by others and in the end she has “more gifts than she could want or use”. In the end the Khal himself brings his gift -a splendid, invaluable grey horse with silver mane. Successfully she rides the filly through the khalasar and after that Drogo smiles for the first time.

The fear comes back to Daenerys afterwards, because the most fearsome thing is about to happen: the wedding night. Drogo and she ride into the dark grassland where they find a spot and undress each other. Drogo is much more gentle than she ever expected and he does take care not hurting her and even (at the last moment) asks for her approval.

Thoughts

This is a POV-chapter from Dany, but especially the first few paragraphs seem not to be written from her point of view. Not even the excuse of her attendance is given here, only a few paragraphs later she thinks about dragons.
I wonder where Illyrio got the eggs from. We know that he and Varys brokered that whole wedding (and Illyrio got horses and slaves), but where did they get the eggs from. Illyrio tells Dany “from the shadow lands of Asshai” – but is this realistic or just his way of telling “from far away”? Asshai is (in my point of view) mostly the “exotic land far away” – at least in Essos. Because in Westeros all of Essos is “exotic and far away”.
Did Illyrio know that the dragons will hatch? That is a very high-stakes gamble, on the other hand dragon-eggs (at least) are still a good “sign” to give a member of the Targaryens. It adds to her whole credibility as offspring from the “House of the Dragon”.
I really could not remember the feast that much, but I am relieved – I somehow did not remember, that Drogo asked for Daenery’s approval and I do not know how it is depicted in the series (still – she is thirteen, that is cringy).
Book vs. show:
- I can not remember how the feast or anything from that chapter is depicted in the show. So no comments on that.

James St. John, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons – Link

Anger flashed in her brother’s lilac eyes. “Do you take me for a fool? – ”The magister bowed slightly. “I take you for a king. Kings lack the caution of common men. My apologies if I have given offense.”
AGOT 03 – DAENERYS I (GRRM)

POV character
Daenerys Targaryen 1

Chapter (AGOT)
4 / 73

Chapter (ASOIAF)
4 / 344

Summary

Daenerys Targaryen and her brother Viserys live as guests in a rich household in the free city of Pentos. Magister Illyrio, the owner, cares for them and supports their cause, but in fact are they dependent on his hospitality. Daenerys asks why Illyrio is so supportive and Viserys says, that Illyrio knows that Viserys will not forget his friends as soon as he has his throne (back). Daenerys is not so sure if Viserys will ever gets his throne or just woves a “web of dreams”. But she avoids questioning that, because her brother has a very ill temper and she fears to “wake the dragon”.

Viserys tells his sister that she should make herself pretty and show her best side in the evening, as they will meet a powerful man who commands thousands of horses and men – the army he needs for reclaiming the throne of Westeros. When he is gone she thinks about his ambitions and how he talks about regaining lands taken from them that she does not even remember. She was already born while on the run, while he was a boy of eight years. She only knows the stories he told her about the successful rebellion, the death of their father and their brother – the crown prince – and his wife and children by the hands of the Houses Baratheon, Lannister and Stark.

Daenarys and Viserys survived at the island stronghold of Dragonstone, where she also was born, exactly nine months after their flight, during a storm – hence her epithet “Stormborn”. Her mother died at her birth, a fact Viserys never forgave. From there they had to flee with only five loyal men, when Stannis Baratheon (Roberts brother) set sail to claim this last Targaryen castle. She then recalls their journeys from Braavos through all the free cities and how they became more and more desperate and poor. At some point the merchant princes did not believe in their success anymore and Viserys got the mocking title “beggar king”.

She is bathed by slaves – although slavery is forbidden – and it becomes clear that she is expected to marry this man she will meet – the Khal named Drogo. She always assumed she would marry her brother (as is custom for Targaryens) but they are so desperate, that she is now given to this Khal, a barbarian. Illyrio and Viserys sell her to the Khal. She is dressed in the finest clothes with golden jewellery and perfumed before she is brought to the palace where she will meet her future husband.

On their way there Viserys talks with Illyrio about the (secret) support that he has heard his house still has in their old lands and the merchant assures him that it is true. He states that “his agents” tell him how secretly toasts are spoken and banners as sewn in memory of House Targaryen. Daenerys does not believe any of these stories.

In the mansion a big gathering is happening, a lot of powerful figures from exotic places are there. In between there is even an exiled knight of the seven kingdoms. When Daenerys sees her future husband the first time she is afraid and wants to go home, but Viserys forces her to be brave and give in. She is brought before the Khal by Illyrio and tries to show no fear.

Thoughts

Viserys is a terrible creep, its terrible how he treats his only thirteen year old sister.
This is the first instance when we get lots of exposition and the view of “the other side” of the rebellion. I really like that change in perspective – I always liked that, although in some instances GRRM wrote the erratic teeny girl too well.
He [Ser Wilem Darry] never left his bed, though, and the smell of sickness clung to him day and night, a hot, moist, sickly sweet odor.
He might have been poisoned. “Sickly sweet odor” is a strange description. My bet is on Varys here, but why taking Darry away from them?
Who is the owner of the “big house with the red door” that is in Braavos – might look out for it when Arya(?) comes there?
The Usurper’s hired knives were close behind them, he insisted, though Dany had never seen one.
Paranoid as all crazy Targaryens.
Strangely Daenary (and Viserys) always talk about House Baratheon and their “Hounds” Lannister and Stark. But House Arryn is never mentioned, although the Warden of the East sparked the rebellion and (with Baratheon and Tully) was the strongest supporter of House Stark against the crown. Lannister came very late to the cause – but with big bangs, I suppose (Jaime and Clegane).
All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known.
Yeah, I can recall – this is a thing she really never forgets. This will come up very often.
Viserys is in a difficult position. He has to try to raise support – but without powerful supporters showing up, nobody will follow his call. Still – it is expected from him (and it does not help that he clearly shows the crazy side of his family), a vicious circle.
a red priest even fatter than Illyrio
Do we know what red priest is there in the mansion?
I wonder: What was this whole meeting about? There where a huge number of political figuers from all over the place – so many that I wonder if they were only there because the “beggar king” sold his sister to an important horselord. Or was there more going on? Because all those summer islanders and men from Ibben do not take any side in the later conflict as far as I remember.
Book vs. show: I can not remember Illyrio and Viserys in the show at all. Therefore they look to me exactly as before (I can not describe them, but I have for both a vivid image).
Jason Momoa’s Drogo was and is an impressive sight – but while reading the scenes again, I reminded myself about the mustachios that the horselords like to wear, and all my old pictures of the huns and their Khans came back.
Daenerys at last: Very hard to seperate the books from the series. Emilia Clarke was a very good choice. Although the actress is older than Dany, she fits too well. All her scenes would not be possible with a younger actress AND they are even terrible to read – alone the borderline abusive and very creepy Viserys is hard to endure. But as guideline for me to separate book from show: It works to image her lilac eyes and silver hair – something the show did not delivery directly as those white wigs do not look good and not silvery (I think such a color does never work in real life, only in imagination). That helps a little bit.