House of the Dragon adds to the history of the catspaw dagger in Game of Thrones

Warning: This article contains minor spoilers from House of the Dragon season 1, episode 4.

The Valyrian steel blade most commonly referred to as the "catspaw dagger" has become a significant object in the lore of Game of Thrones. It was the weapon we first saw in the hands of a hired catspaw assassin as he attempted to assassinate a comatose Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) in season 1, an act that would spark the War of the Five Kings. It's also the weapon that ended the Great War against the white walkers when, in the final season, Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) used it to kill the Night King.

The dagger, with a hilt made from dragon bone, pops up again in the Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon in the possession of King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine). In episode 4, the Protector of the Realm reveals just how important this relic actually is — something that teasers for the show have more than hinted at.

The king calls his daughter and heir, Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), to his chambers for another come-to-Jesus conversation. Rhaenyra finds the blade baking in a pot of fire when she arrives, and Viserys tells her the dagger once belonged to Aegon the Conqueror, which we knew. Before Aegon, however, it belonged to Aenar Targaryen, which we didn't know.

Aenar was a dragonlord of Old Valyria, a city in Essos teaming with dragons that was once home to families like House Targaryen and House Velaryon. It was Aenar's daughter, Daenys "the Dreamer," who had the vision (the dragondream) that foretold the destruction of their city. Twelve years later, this dream came to pass when a chain of volcanoes known as the Fourteen Flames erupted, producing a heat intense enough to kill dragon. That, combined with other catastrophic elemental disasters, would be called the Doom of Valyria, an event that fragmented the land into multiple smaller islands.

Daenys had convinced Aenar to leave Valyria before the Doom. The dragonlord would bring his family to settle at Dragonstone, which is now the ancestral seat of House Targaryen in Westeros. The heir to the Targaryen crown also inherits the Dragonstone throne, which is now Rhaenyra's in the context of House of the Dragon.

The dagger seems to have always been connected to prophecy and pivotal events in the history of Game of Thrones. But who was its owner before Aenar? Viserys tells Rhaenyra, "It is difficult to know."

The king, however, reveals to her that the blade is a physical representation of Aegon's vision, the dragondream known as the Song of Ice and Fire. "Before Aegon's death, the last of the Valyrian pyromancers hid his song in the steel," he says, showing the High Valyrian glyphs carved into the blade that can only be seen when heated. The translation, as Rhaenyra recites, reads, "From my blood come the prince that was promised, and his will be the song of ice and fire."

As revealed in House of the Dragon's first episode, Aegon foretold the end of mankind in a vision he called the Song of Ice and Fire, the name Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin gave to his book series on which the shows are based. He saw a vision of an endless winter bursting forth from the north and covering everything in its wake, which we know to be the Night King and his army of white walkers in Game of Thrones. It's this vision that made Aegon want to conquer Westeros, and he believed that as long as a Targaryen with the power of dragons of their side sat on the Iron Throne, they could prevent this fate.

The dagger now travels with Viserys everywhere, a constant reminder of his duty to prevent this future from unfolding. "The responsibility I have handed to you, the burden of this knowledge, 'tis larger than the throne, the king," Viserys tells Rhaenyra. "'Tis larger than you and your desires."

The dagger will feature prominently in at least one more crucial moment in House of the Dragon season 1. Past trailers have hinted at it with footage of Olivia Cooke, who will eventually take over the Alicent Hightower role as an adult, grabbing the weapon from Viserys' pouch and charging towards Rhaenyra. Those who have read Martin's Fire and Blood will recognize this as the "eye for an eye" scene. But we won't get into that now.

The original prop that served as the catspaw dagger in Game of Thrones was flown from its home in Ireland to the set of House of the Dragon, EW previously reported. Production felt the object was a little too "fantasy" for what they were looking for in this new context, so they created a fresh dagger, sources told EW. The prop maintains the same silhouette, but is glossier and shorter in length.

"It's a technology that doesn't exist anymore," series co-creator and co-showrunner Ryan Condal told EW of Valyrian steel. "Their blades are not made anew. So all the Valyrian steel is a fixed number of assets in the world. Even in a time when Targaryens are in power, they themselves as Targaryens are not able to make Valyrian steel. So they're going to take care of it. So it's believable that something that did exist in the original show would've existed here, perhaps in a slightly different packaging."

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