At the end of Game of Thrones Season Seven, area nerds Samwell Tarly and Bran "Three-Eyed Raven" Stark have a gathering of the minds to conclude that Jon Snow's parents are Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, meaning he's the true heir to the Iron Throne. He's also Daenerys Targaryen's nephew, which will make for an awkward conversation once the two of them find out that their sexy boat cruise was actually some light incest.
But the whole incest thing is a conversation for another time, because one important hurdle that Jon and Sam and Bran will have to overcome is trying to prove that Jon is actually a Targaryen. Is anyone—especially Cersei Lannister—going to take the word of Jon's weirdo little brother who says he can see into the past? Absolutely not! The only other proof they have is an old record from High Septon Maynard that simply states that Rhaegar had annulled his marriage to Elia Martel and married Lyanna Stark in Dorne. But while that's some hot goss from the fallen Targaryen Dynasty, it doesn't really prove anything about Jon's actual identity as Aegon Targaryen.
So what could they possibly do to prove his identity with physical evidence?
One easy possibility is to put Jon on the back of a dragon. Yes, history shows that one doesn't need to be of noble Targaryen birth to ride a dragon, but is anyone actually going to question Jon if he's on the back of a dragon? We've already watched as Drogon took kindly to Jon back in Season Seven when the two first met. Picture Jon on the back of a dragon claiming he's a Targaryen—that in itself would be pretty convincing.
But there could be another way outside of intimidation for Jon to prove his lineage.
First, a little background knowledge of Rhaegar Targaryen, Jon's father. He's described as a brave, kind, and wise man. He was also a gentle romantic. I mean, he put the entire realm at jeopardy to wed the love of his life, Lyanna Stark. But he was also a musician. As Barristan Selmy tells Daenerys Targaryen of Rhaegar in A Storm of Swords:
When you heard him play his high harp with the silver strings and sing of twilights and tears and the death of kings, you could not but feel that he was singing of himself and those he loved.
And as Jon Connington remembers in A Dance of Dragons:
At the welcoming feast, the prince had taken up his silver-stringed harp and played for them. A song of love and doom, Jon Connington recalled, and every woman in the hall was weeping when he put down the harp.
So in other words, the guy was famous for playing the harp. And since the early days of Game of Thrones, there's been a rumour that this famed harp of Rhaegar Targaryen's is down in the Winterfell crypts with Lyanna Stark's body. Now, this would mostly just confirm what we know from Maynard's records, so there must be something more important down there.
Let's go back to the first episode of Game of Thrones, in which Robert Baratheon leaves a feather on Lyanna Stark's grave. This feather has been called back to at multiple times throughout the series, most recently in the latest Thrones teaser showing the destruction of Winterfell. What could be in this grave that is so important?
Now, my personal theory is that Rhaegar wrote an actual Song of Ice and Fire for his young son Aegon. For reference, here is a vision that Dany sees in the House of the Undying from the books:
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." He 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."
Is it possible that the Song of Ice and Fire from which George R.R. Martin's epic book series gets its name is an actual song written by Rhaegar Targaryen to commemorate the birth of his and Lyanna Stark's son Aegon Targaryen? Could it be possible that Rhaegar wrote this song and it is placed with Lyanna stark with his harp in her grave as proof of Jon Snow's true lineage?
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
