The Citadel

The Archive of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Lore

Prophecies

V: 152-153: The Glass Candles

No. Hear me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candles are burning.
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."

The glass candles, which appear to signal a return of magic, are mentioned both in A Clash of Kings and A Feast for Crows. The suggestion seems to be that now that they can be lit once more, certain things will follow.

The pale mare shows up already in A Dance with Dragons in the form of the plague that reaches Meereen. And the rest? Kraken and dark flame would appear to be Victarion and Moqorro (called the Black Flame by the ironmen) and the sun's son is surely Quentyn. It also seems likely that lion is Tyrion and griffin Jon Connington, who were headed towards Daenerys before Tyrion's actions changed their mind. This could prove a very significant deviation from the events apparently seen by Quaithe.

We also have the mummer's dragon, which would seem to call to mind the cloth dragon in the mummer's show that Daenerys sees in her vision in the House of the Undying in A Clash of Kings. A common interpretation of this image is that it represents a false Targaryen. Indeed, Quaithe also counsels Daenerys to "remember the Undying". A candidate for the role of this mummer's dragon is of course the young man that is claimed to be Aegon.

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