NOTE: The following article contains spoilers for Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon episode 4.
Sharp-eyed viewers won't have missed the appearance of the Catspaw Dagger in the first episode of HBO's House of the Dragon and the iconic weapon returned for a crucial cameo in the fourth episode.
Game of Thrones fans remember the Valyrian steel dagger from the very first episode of the hit fantasy series, in which a Catspaw assassin tried to murder Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright), only to be killed by the youngster's dire wolf, Summer.
Later in the series, Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) gave it to Bran, who in turn gave it to his sister Arya Stark, who used it to kill the Night King, in the epic third episode of the final season, "The Long Night."
It felt like a fitting plot arc for the prop, yet we had no idea of the knife's full story until King Viserys (Paddy Considine) began explaining how tightly the weapon's fate is intertwined with the past, present and future of Westeros.
Where did the Catspaw Dagger come from?
The Catspaw Dagger was forged in Valyria, centuries before the events of House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones. The blade was made from Valyrian steel and decorated with dragonglass, which explains why it was able to kill the Night King.
In this week's fourth episode of HOTD, King Viserys told his daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) that the dagger once belonged to Aegon the Conqueror, who left Valyria and arrived in Westeros with a host of dragons and became the first Targaryen to ascend the Iron Throne.
He also revealed that before it belonged to Aegon, it was the property of Aenar Targaryen, who moved his family to Dragonstone after his daughter Daenys the Dreamer predicted the Doom of Valyria, making them the only surviving family of dragonlords.
Since then it has been passed down the line of Targaryen rulers, from King to heir, until it arrived in the hands of Viserys.
What is the Catspaw Dagger prophecy?
At the start of the series, King Viserys tells his daughter that just as Daenys foresaw the end of Valyria, Aegon had a dream that foresaw the end of the world of men, beginning with a terrible winter that destroyed all before it. The dream became known as "A Song of Fire and Ice," the name George R. R. Martin used for his entire series of novels.
He told Rhaenyra that when that winter did come a Targaryen strong enough to unite Westeros must be seated on the Iron Throne, otherwise, the world would be doomed.
Yet when House of the Dragon premiered we learned a little bit more about that prophecy, when Viserys explained that, before Aegon's death, the last of the Valyrian pyromancers hid his song in the Valyrian steel of the Catspaw dagger.
When the dagger was heated in the fire, Rhaenyra was clearly able to read the High Valyrian script, which said... "From my blood, come the prince that was promised and his will be the song of ice and fire."
What does the Catspaw Dagger prophecy mean?
Even people who've never seen an episode of Game of Thrones are aware of the doom-laden words "Winter Is Coming," so it doesn't take a Grand Maester to work out what part of the saga Aegon's dream refers to.
As for the referring to a prince from "my blood," surely Aegon is referring to Jon Snow — who was revealed to be the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Ned Stark's sister, Lysa.
Rhaegar was the son of the Mad King Aerys II and older brother to Daenerys, making him the direct ancestor of Aegon, Viserys — and maybe Rhaenyra too. Technically Jon Snow wasn't on the throne when the white walkers arrived in Westeros and it was Arya who ended the war, but the prophecy is broadly correct.
Yet when we start to look at the 170 years that come in between the rule of King Viserys and Game of Thrones, things start to become more interesting.
If we presume the prophecy continued to be passed down through the Targaryen generations then it may explain the final words of Aerys — aka The Mad King — who was pushed off the Iron Throne by Robert Baratheon immediately before the events seen in Game of Thrones.
"Burn them all" he is said to have spent hours saying before Jamie Lannister killed him. Could he have been referring to the white walkers he knew were coming? Aerys was also known to have had a keen interest in wildfire, with Tyrion using the silo he created to defend King's Landing during The Battle of the Blackwater. With no dragons alive during his reign, it makes sense that Aerys would have been interested in finding another way of fighting the wights he knew were coming.
With Alicent Hightower (played by Olivia Cooke) seen charging at Princess Rhaenyra during a trailer for the show (below) it's clear we haven't seen the last of the weapon yet and who knows what other secrets it's keeping.
What does the future hold for the Catspaw Dagger?
With two books still to come in his A Song of Fire and Ice series of novels — Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring — it's possible that George R. R. Martin has added the prophecy to the show as part of a grand plan.
The author, who has been a consultant on House of the Dragon has revealed his literary series won't end in the same way as the TV series — who can blame him? — so maybe he's laying the foundations for the end of the saga. Let's just hope he has time to finish it!
What do The House of the Dragon showrunners say about the Catspaw Dagger?
Ryan Condal has described the Catspaw dagger as "connective tissue to the original Game of Thrones series."
"There's gonna be a lot of linkage in terms of places you go and buildings you see," he told EW. "That's 200 years before the original show. So there's gonna be a ton of shared imagery."
"It's a line to walk in terms of things that you bring back from the original show and pass in a different way. I think that it's important to have connective tissue there to show people that it is the same world and history reflects on objects and the cast of people and sigils as we move on down through time without it becoming too self-referential."
Condal also explained that the Targaryen's ability to produce Valyrian steel was lost during the Doom of Valyria, so the dagger would be an extremely precious commodity in both House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones.
"It's a technology that doesn't exist anymore. Their blades are not made anew," he explains. "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."
How was the Catspaw Dagger made?
In an interview with the Game of Thrones studio tour in Northern Ireland (where the original Catspaw Dagger is currently on display alongside costumes and other props from the show) the series' weapon master, Tommy Dunne, revealed his inspiration behind the making of the storied weapon.
"The only brief I was given for the Catspaw Dagger was that the 'opulence' had to be there and that it needed to have a Targaryen look and feel to it", he said, adding that seeing it reappear in House of the Dragon was a "very proud moment" for him.
"For me, it joins up the two worlds. I am proud of all the equipment and weapons made for Game of Thrones. It's great that fans can watch the world of Westeros on screen, whilst also delving behind the scenes of the making of this world at Game of Thrones Studio Tour.”
New House of the Dragon episodes air every Sunday on HBO and HBO Max in the US and on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK.
