Warning: This contains SPOILERS for House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones.In House of the Dragon, the catspaw dagger from Game of Thrones is in the possession of King Viserys I Targaryen, but who else owned it before Arya used it to kill the Night King? Save for being described as a Valyrian steel dagger with a dragonbone hilt, no proper name is ascribed to the blade in either House of the Dragon or Game of Thrones. This is despite the Westerosi people’s penchant for naming Valyrian steel blades of religious, political, or traditional significance. Though the Targaryen heirloom dagger is much older than even the Iron Throne, it is simply known to viewers as the “catspaw dagger” — in reference to the unnamed would-be assassin who first held the weapon.
After Catelyn Stark foiled the assassination attempt on her son Bran in the Game of Thrones pilot episode, she showed the catspaw dagger to Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish. He confirmed he once owned the weapon but lost it in a bet with Tyrion Lannister. This led Catelyn to kidnap Tyrion and inadvertently ignite the War of the Five Kings. In season 7, Samwell Tarly saw a picture of the dagger in a book on dragonglass. Littlefinger then gifted the dagger to Bran, who gave it to his sister Arya, who used it to execute both Littlefinger and the Night King.
House of the Dragon season 1, episode 4 revealed more about the catspaw dagger when Viserys put it in a fire to show Rhaenyra how Aegon’s prophetic dream is inscribed on it in High Valyrian: “From my blood comes the prince that was promised, and his will be the Song of Ice and Fire.” Viserys also told Rhaenyra that, although the dagger belongs to their ancestors, it’s difficult to determine its true origin — save for how it was forged by Valyrian pyromancers. Going by the blade’s known history, here’s every confirmed owner of the catspaw dagger before it landed in the deadly hands of Arya Stark in Game of Thrones.
Aenar Targaryen (But The Dagger Likely Pre-Dates Him)
According to Viserys, Aenar Targaryen was the last confirmed owner of the unnamed heirloom dagger. Aenar the Exile was a dragonlord of the Targaryen family, back when House Targaryen lived in the Valyrian Freehold, more than a century before Aegon’s Conquest. In 114 BC, Aenar’s daughter Daenys the Dreamer had a prophetic dream about the Doom of Valyria — 12 years before it happened. This is what led Aenar to sell all his properties in the Valyrian Freehold and move his slaves, wealth, dragons, and entire family to Dragonstone. Aenar Targaryen was the reason why House Targaryen, who were far from being the most powerful dragonlords of Old Valyria, survived the Doom and came to rule Westeros.
Curiously, neither Game of Thrones nor George R. R. Martin’s books reveals anything about how Aenar came to possess the catspaw dagger around two centuries before the Dance of the Dragons, or about when it was first forged by Valyrian pyromancers. However, prior to the Doom of Valyria, the dragonlords’ civilization lasted for 5,000 years, which means that the dagger could be thousands of years old as well.
Aegon The Conqueror
As far as Viserys told Rhaenyra, the catspaw dagger passed from Aenar Targaryen to his grandson Aegon the Conqueror, the most historically significant member of House Targaryen. Aegon didn’t just unite the Seven Kingdoms under one banner, he also created the Kingsguard, built walls around King’s Landing, and ruled Westeros alongside his sister-wives Rhaenys and Visenya Targaryen. Like his mother, Daenys Targaryen, Aegon was a dragon dreamer, and he foresaw the endless winter from the north — the same Song of Ice and Fire immortalized in High Valyrian on the catspaw dagger.
King Viserys I Targaryen (Does He Give The Dagger To Rhaenyra?)
Not only did Viserys name Rhaenyra Targaryen as heir, but he also used the catspaw dagger to once again hammer down his point about Rhaenyra not taking this responsibility seriously. This means that Viserys will most likely pass the dagger down to Rhaenyra. That being said, as the dagger doesn’t even appear in George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood book, it’s difficult to ascertain for sure what will happen to it in House of the Dragon.
Did Rhaegar Targaryen Have The Valyrian Steel Dagger Before Game of Thrones?
It’s likely that the catspaw dagger eventually ended up in the hands of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, who was the firstborn and heir-apparent of Aerys II Targaryen, also known as the “Mad King” — the 17th and last Targaryen to sit on the Iron Throne. Almost two centuries after Viserys’s reign and less than 20 years before the Game of Thrones timeline, Robert Baratheon killed Prince Rhaegar in single combat in the Battle of the Trident, while Aerys was killed by his own Kingsguard, Ser Jaime Lannister. Though Game of Thrones revealed that Lyanna Stark and Prince Rheagar were in love and are Jon Snow’s real parents, the dagger was nowhere to be seen during flashbacks involving both Rheagar and Aerys. During these points in the timeline, it’s viable that Rheagar and Aerys hid the catspaw dagger inside the Iron Keep for safekeeping, just like Viserys does.
How Robert Baratheon Got The Valyrian Steel Dagger
Throughout the books that comprise A Song of Ice and Fire, the catspaw dagger’s history only goes as far back as when King Robert Baratheon won the dagger from Littlefinger during the tourney for Prince Joffrey’s name day. It’s unclear how Littlefinger acquired the dagger, but it likely happened after Robert’s Rebellion, before Game of Thrones, as a result of post-battle looting in the Iron Keep. Later, as Tyrion Lannister deduced, Robert must have forgotten about the dagger after winning it from Littlefinger, leaving it somewhere in the Iron Keep and allowing Joffrey to use it for arming the catspaw he tasked with killing Bran.
House of the Dragon‘s catspaw dagger then came to be owned by Catelyn, Bran, and finally Arya Stark, who used it to end the Long Night — which some interpret as the fulfillment of Aegon’s prophecy. Though it seems strange that such a historically significant weapon still bears no proper name, the term “catspaw dagger” actually fits everyone who ever owned the blade, all of which were tools of destiny. Similar to all the dragons in House of the Dragon, the catspaw dagger introduced in Game of Thrones remains a beautiful and lethal reminder of the responsibility that bears heavily on every Targaryen who sits on the Iron Throne.
House of the Dragon airs new episodes Sundays on HBO/HBO Max.
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