Does anyone know of a source that contains a list of all the prophecies that Daenerys saw in the House of the Undying? I would like it to also include discussion/theories on what each one meant.
3 Answers
This page in a great ASoIaF wiki has a list.
Westeros.org is your best place to find ASoIaF information. The forums there are full of discussions. You need to be logged in to use their in-house search (which would make a link nearly useless for this site), so for now find discussions with an external search. You will find many discussions. Many many discussions. Many many many discussions.
Intro
You are right in that when Dany enters the House of the Undying (HotU), under the influence of Nightshade, she has visions and hears things. Some of which turn out to have been prophecies.
Caveat
It is important to note though, that some of the visions she has may be simple nonsense, as denoted by Pyat Pree:
... other doors may open to you. Within, you will see many things that disturb you. Visions of loveliness and visions of horror, wonders and terrors. Sights and sounds of days gone by and days to come and days that never were.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
Break-down
O.K. let's go on a trip with Dany.
Dany drinks her cup of Red Bull Nightshade and enters the House of the Undying. She progresses into the main hall with no event, except for some strange sounds (we won't count those as visions/prophecies). As she continues through, she comes across doors, some of which are opened. She decides against her will to look into them, and here's what she sees.
Random nakedness and generic weird orgy
In one room, a beautiful woman sprawled naked on the floor while four little men crawled over her. They had rattish pointed faces and tiny pink hands, like the servitor who had brought her the glass of shade. One was pumping between her thighs. Another savaged her breasts, worrying at the nipples with his wet red mouth, tearing and chewing.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: Generic creepiness
- Meaning: This is a messed-up world
- Occurrence: Probably never, or present, who knows?
Red Wedding
Now she moves on, and comes across a scene which remarkably resembles the scene at the Red Wedding (remember, she was nowhere near the RW when it happened):
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. Severed hands clutched bloody cups, wooden spoons, roast fowl, heels of bread. in 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 scepter, and his eyes followed Dany with mute appeal.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: Foreshadowing
- Meaning: This is 100% foreshadowing the events of the Red Wedding. Guests at a feast lay dead and sprawled across trestle tables, with nothing but their utensils and cutlery as weapons in their hands. King Robb sits atop a throne with his head replaced with that of a wolf (RobbWind).
- Occurrence: Future. Although we read about the Red Wedding in A Storm of Swords, it is dubious whether or not the Red Wedding had already happened when Dany was in the HotU. Certainly, Dany had not heard of the news yet.
Lemongate
Dany gets scared of RobbWind and tries to run away, but doesn't get far:
She fled from him, but only as far as the next open door. I know this room, she thought. She remembered those great wooden beams and the carved animal faces that adorned them. And there outside the window, a lemon tree! The sight of it made her heart ache with longing. It is the house with the red door, the house in Braavos. No sooner had she thought it than old Ser Willem came into the room, leaning heavily on his stick. “Little princess, there you are,” he said in his gruff kind voice. “Come,” he said, “come to me, my lady, you’re home now, you’re safe now.” His big wrinkled hand reached for her, soft as old leather, and Dany wanted to take it and hold it and kiss it, she wanted that as much as she had ever wanted anything. Her foot edged forward, and then she thought, He’s dead, he’s dead, the sweet old bear, he died a long time ago. She backed away and ran.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: Foreshadowing/memory-insight
Meaning:
This one's a big one. It has sparked controversy all throughout the fandom. Dany has a vision of a house which she seems to clearly remember from her childhood, in Braavos. The house she fondly remembers as "home". It has a red front door and a lemon tree in the yard. She remembers this house many times throughout the series, however, it is doubtful that it is in Braavos, since lemons wouldn't normally grow in the dank environment. Making us all question whether Dany's past is true or fake; aptly dubbed "Lemongate".
Dany realises this is only a vision when she sees the deceased Ser Willem Darry and decides to leg it.Occurrence: Not yet occurred, perhaps future.
Aerys the cook
Dany continues for a while and eventually comes to another room, the drugs taking full swing now (at this point she should be sloshed, I'm surprised this little girl can handle her drugs so well) and she enters the next phase. In this room she sees what appears to be a Targaryen King:
... Finally a great pair of bronze doors appeared to her left, grander than the rest. They swung open as she neared, and she had to stop and look. Beyond loomed a cavernous stone hall, the largest she had ever seen. The skulls of dead dragons looked down from its walls. Upon a towering barbed throne sat an old man in rich robes, an old man with dark eyes and long silver-grey hair. “Let him be king over charred bones and cooked meat,” he said to a man below him. “Let him be the king of ashes.” Drogon shrieked, his claws digging through silk and skin, but the king on his throne never heard, and Dany moved on.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: History lesson
Meaning:
This is a vision of King Aerys II commanding the Wildfire plot be carried out in his throne room durin the Sack of King's Landing. The story is directly corroborated by Jaime's recount of the event to Brienne in A Storm of Swords:The traitors want my city, I heard him tell Rossart, but I’ll give them naught but ashes. Let Robert be king over charred bones and cooked meat.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Three - A Storm of Swords, Chapter Thirty-Seven (Jaime V).Gah, if only she'd stayed to watch, she would have understood a bit about her daddy's obsession with fyah!
Occurrence: Past
The Prince That Was Promised
The next person Dany sees is someone who resembles her brother Viserys, yet slightly different:
Viserys, was her first thought the next time she paused, but a second glance told her otherwise. The man had her brother’s hair, but he was taller, and his eyes were a dark indigo rather than lilac. “Aegon,” he said to a woman nursing a newborn babe in a great wooden bed. “What better name for a king?”
“Will you make a song for him?” the woman asked.
“He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: History lesson / foreshadowing
- Meaning:
This is a vision of Dany's eldest brother, and perhaps one of the most important characters in the story, Rhaegar Targaryen, with his wife Elia Martell and a newborn son who is introduced as Aegon. Rhaegar seems to believe that this Aegon is the Prince That Was Promised. - Occurrence: Past
Three Heads of the Dragon
Now comes a more ambiguous piece, perhaps some foreshadowing, perhaps nonsense:
He [Rhaegar] looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany’s, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. “There must be one more,” he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. “The dragon has three heads.” He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: Foreshadowing/advice
Meaning:
Rhaegar now looks directly at Dany and speaks to her and tells her about the three-headed dragon, which is the sigil of House Targaryen. This makes Dany believe/realise that there must be three dragon riders for her three dragons.There are a lot of speculations as to who these three heads of the dragon are. The most likely ones are that it will be Dany,
and
However, there are other possibilities as well.
Occurrence: Future
Weird dragging noise
The torches were going out, she realized with a start of fear. Perhaps twenty still burned. Thirty at most. One more guttered out even as she watched, and the darkness came a little farther down the hall, creeping toward her. And as she listened it seemed as if she heard something else coming, shuffling and dragging itself slowly along the faded carpet. Terror filled her.
...
Drogon’s long neck snaked out and he opened his mouth to scream, steam rising from between his teeth. He hears it too.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: Generic creepiness
- Meaning:
Probably nothing - Occurrence: Present
Generic test
She continues for a while and bumps into Pyat Pree, who tells her she must have taken a wrong turn and must follow him. She realises that there's a door to her right still and tells him to piss off... He does.
- Type: Test
- Meaning: Nothing, but she passed
- Occurrence: Present
Doors-r-us
If you thought they weren't going to talk about doors, then you were mistaken:
To her right, a set of wide wooden doors had been thrown open. They were fashioned of ebony and weirwood, the black and white grains swirling and twisting in strange interwoven patterns. They were very beautiful, yet somehow frightening.
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: Generic creepiness
- Meaning: Nothing, however they seem to resemble the door to the House of Black and White
- Occurrence: Present
Halloween Party
Dany has reached what seems to be the peak of her experience. She went "full stoner"... never go "full stoner".
She meets a bunch of people dressed in Halloween attire; they're hanging out having a party and they give her a nice pat on her back for doing well and passing the test. Her reward is knowledge and stuff, yet it seems to come in the form of even more confusing parables.
Dany asks them if what she saw was true or boulder-dash, and one of the wizard queen people decides to elaborate on the three heads of the dragon scenario and breaks Dany's brain even more:
...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...
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: Foreshadowing
Meaning: They are telling Dany that with her everything comes in "threes". Three heads of the dragon, three deaths she must make with fire, or somesuch - it's difficult to tell.
The three fires she must light being:- one for life - the funeral pyre which brought life to her dragons
- one for death - either the funeral pyre (which killed Mirri Maz Dur and Khal Drogo) or a yet to occur one
- one to love - not sure about this one, she definitely hasn't lit a literal fire. Perhaps a fire in her heart for her love of Drogo or one of the other dudes? Not sure
- Occurrence: Future, but could also have been past if you consider Drogo's funeral pyre being the fire she's lit for life - life of her dragons.
Then continues:
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...
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: Foreshadowing
- Meaning: Dany seems to be heading for three "mounts":
- One to bed - basically friends with benefits, most likely Daario, because who wouldn't want a piece of that?
- One to dread - This one's open to interpretation, however Drogon is her most likely "dreaded" mount
- One to love - most likely Drogo, as Dany ended up loving Drogo. Or could it be someone 'new'?
- Occurrence: Past, future or both.
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...
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: Foreshadowing
- Meaning:
Ok, so, Dany takes this one very seriously. It ultimately plays on her mind very strongly and basically becomes her own version of a self-fulfilling prophecy. She will apparently have three treasons:
- Once for blood: Likely when Mirri Maz Dur betrayed her, blood for blood
- Once for gold: Likely when Xaro Xhoan Daxos betrayed her for her dragons. Or possibly an upcoming event
- Once for love: Uh-oh. Whether this has happened yet or is likely to still happen it plays on Dany's minds extremely strongly. She eventually comes to re-exile Ser Jorah
the explorerMormont, since she believes that he betrayed her for "love".
- Occurrence: Past and future.
Highlight reel
Now the warlocks or whatever the shade/ghost people are start to "show her" what she's asking for. There's an elaborate highlight reel of what has happened, will happen and what might have happened, including:
- Viserys Targaryen's gruesome death.
- A tall lord with copper-skin and silver-gold hair beneath a banner of a fiery stallion, with a burning city in the background (this may be a glimpse at what Rhaego's future would have been).
- A dying prince (likely Rhaegar Targaryen) mutters a woman's name with his last breath, rubies flying from his chest.
- A blue-eyed king who casts no shadow (possibly Stannis Baratheon) raises a red sword in his hand.
- A cloth dragon sways on poles amidst a cheering crowd.
- A great stone beast takes wing from a smoking tower, breathing shadows.
- Daenerys's silver trots through grass to a darkling stream under a sea of stars.
- A corpse standing at the prow of a ship with bright eyes and grey smiling lips.
- A blue flower growing from a chink in a wall of ice, filling the air with sweetness. (This could indicate Jon Snow's true parentage and potential kinship to Daenerys)
-Adapted from: http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_of_the_Undying#Visions_in_the_House_of_the_Undying.
- Type: Mixed
- Meaning: Each part of the vision has a different meaning
- Occurrence: Past, present and future.
Mhysa
Now onto Dany's final vision/experience:
Ten thousand slaves lifted bloodstained hands as she raced by on her silver, riding like the wind. “Mother!” they cried. “Mother, mother!” They were reaching for her, touching her, tugging at her cloak, the hem of her skirt, her foot, her leg, her breast. They wanted her, needed her, the fire, the life, and Dany gasped and opened her arms to give herself to them...
-A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two - A Clash of Kings, Chapter Fourty-Eight (Daenerys IV).
- Type: Foreshadowing
- Meaning: This points to the "Mhysa" scene in future where Dany frees many slaves from Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen. After which the freed slaves surround her calling her "Mhysa", which means "mother" in Ghiscari.
The famous scene can be viewed here from Game of Thrones (Season 3, Episode 10 - Mhysa):
- Occurrence: Future.
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4Excellent work. Already a +1 but on re-reading it, could the naked random orgy be a reference to War of the Five Kings? There were at max four active combatants at one time. (Renly, Robb, Stannis, Joffrey) and (Balon, Robb, Stannis, Joffrey). The beautiful woman could be a euphemism for Westeros and the four naked dwarves could be those Kings, savaging her.– AegonCommented Oct 19, 2016 at 8:53
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@Aegon Thanks mate! I had heard that one before, and although I liked the theory at the time, I sort of didn't remember it.– MöozCommented Oct 19, 2016 at 20:26
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@Aegon According to Alt Shift X, Renly was already dead by the time Dany tripped balls. It stands to reason that the reference is then made to (Balon, Robb, Stannis, Joffrey).– FlaterCommented Jul 26, 2017 at 12:25
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In regards to the weird dragging noise, it seems very reminiscent of the imagery that accompanies the Long Night. Darkness that closes in on her, and something shuffling towards her in the dark (zombies notoriously shuffle).– FlaterCommented Jul 26, 2017 at 12:27
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You can find a very comprehensive list with discussion at Tower of the Hand.
There are also other prophecies discussed there. Before you can read it, you have to set the "scope" first, i.e. you have to choose on the top of the page, which books you have read (spoiler-filter).
visions she saw
orprophecies she heard
(or both)?