You would think dragons would be pretty hard to tame. They're massive, fearsome beasts who can fly and breathe fire. Still, House of the Dragon Episode Seven painted a much different picture of human and dragon interaction. It turns out that dragons are much more like dogs. They understand certain commands like "sit" and "breathe fire," and are quite loyal to their riders. In Episode Six, Laena's dragon Vhagar even responds to the now-famous "dracarys" fire command from Game of Thrones and burns her alive.
All of the dragon commands are given in Old Valyrian. It's the ancient language spoken by Targaryens, Velaryons, and descendants of Valyria before the volcanic island exploded and everyone sailed to Westeros. Valyria is also known as the birthplace of dragons, making its language recognisable to the massive creatures. And recognise it they do! Like a dog rolling over or giving out its paw, there are some seemingly magical Valyrian words that people in House of the Dragon can use to communicate and train these scaly beasts.
Lykiri, the word young Aemond Targaryen uses when he's approaching the great white dragon, Vhagar, simply means calm down. According to fans who have studied High Valyrian, Aemond also says dohaeras, which means obey, and soves, which translates to fly. Simple dragon commands for an elderly dragon. In George R.R. Martin's novel, Fire & Blood, Vhagar is around 180 years old. Is that old for a dragon? Balerion, the great dragon laid to rest in the catacombs of King's Landing, was the oldest living dragon at 200 years old. To put that in context, Daenerys's dragons in Game of Thrones only lived to be around six or seven.
So, when Vhagar hears the ancient dragon's words, she folds as if Aemond had discovered the dragon's Wi-Fi password. The little boy climbs up to her dragon harness and the two of them fly around the beaches of Driftmark. According to Aemond, the dragon is now his to command. It's a massive lift for House Targaryen, as Vhagar is the largest dragon in the world at that point and a seasoned veteran of war from the age of Aegon's Conquest. But we now have some more Valyrian words other than dracarys to play around with. Fans were having fun on social media during last night's episode, comparing the scene to Harry Potter taming Buckbeak, joking that lykiri was now their safe word. The best tweet of the night goes to a viewer asking if Rhaenyra's safe word was uncle, but that's another House of the Dragon mess entirely.
Josh Rosenberg is an Assistant Editor at Esquire, keeping a steady diet of one movie a day. His past work can be found at Spin, CBR, and on his personal blog at Roseandblog.com.
