Teaser by HBO Nordic, Game of Thrones (season 6): “3 days left” (Photo by: HBO Nordic)

It is not unlikely that there still exists dragons in the Land of the Vikings. Could this be the reason why a Tagaryen dragon (Game of Trhones, season 6) has found its way to the Preacher’s Pulpit at the north side of the Lysefjord in Western Norway?

All Game of Thrones fans know that the House Targaryen used the last surviving dragons to defeat and unify the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros three hundred years before the War of the Five Kings.

However, the Targaryen dragons died out about a century and a half later after which the species was considered extinct.

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Preacher’s Pulpit, Norway (Photo by: Aconcagua / Wikimedia Commons)

At the same time that the War of the Five Kings began in Westeros, Daenerys Targaryen – last scion of the deposed House Targaryen, miraculously hatched three new dragons from their eggs.

Viking Dragon Ships

The Vikings often decorated their largest longships with a dragon or a serpents head at the bow to indicate that it belonged to a king or powerful chieftain, and in the Middle Ages several ships were given names like “Dreki” or “Drekinn”, which means “Dragon”.

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Carved dragonhead from the Oseberg burial mound (Photo by: Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo / Eirik Irgens Johnsen)

It was customary to place the bravest warriors right behind the dragonhead, the so-called “Stavnbuer” (English: “Bow Archers”).

According to the sagas, several ships had decorated dragonheads on the bow and often a serpent’s tail on the stern:

The Oseberg ship, dating back to the year 820 AD, had a carved dragonhead on the bow.

“Ormen Lange” (English: “The Long Serpent”), King Olav Tryggvason’s longship possibly built around the year 995, had a gilded dragonhead on the bow and a gilded serpent’s tail on the stern.

Hakon Håkonsson’s “Dragon” dating back to the years 1226 to 1249, is described as a very beautiful ship according to the Saga of Haakon Haakonarson.

There is no doubt that there were real dragons in the Viking world – and now they have returned home through Game of Thrones.

Text by: Thor Lanesskog, ThorNews

Categories: Culture, History, Travel, Vikings, Western Norway