Aemon Targaryen (Dragonknight)

Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, a son of King Viserys II Targaryen, was a Sworn Brother of the Kingsguard whose martial prowess and unwavering honor made him the archetypal knight of the Seven Kingdoms. His name was invoked by characters across the social spectrum—from a young boy dreaming of knighthood to a queen remembering the songs of her girlhood—as the embodiment of everything a true knight should be. The Dragonknight's legacy was not merely that of a peerless warrior but of a man whose vows were absolute, a figure whose very existence set a moral benchmark against which all later knights were measured.

Identity and Legendary Status

Aemon Targaryen was the son of King Viserys II and a prince of the royal house, yet he forswore all claims to land, title, and family to serve in the Kingsguard. His epithet, "the Dragonknight," reflected both his Targaryen blood and his preeminence with a blade. In the songs and histories of the realm, his name was always spoken with reverence. Bran Stark, a boy of seven who dreamed of joining the Kingsguard, recited the Dragonknight's name as part of a litany of the order's greatest heroes: "Serwyn of the Mirror Shield. Ser Ryam Redwyne. Prince Aemon the Dragonknight." For Bran, these names were "like music," and the Dragonknight stood among them as a figure of pure, unattainable glory. Sansa Stark, too, thought of him when she imagined her own romantic future, comparing her love for Prince Joffrey to the legendary devotion of "Queen Naerys loved Prince Aemon the Dragonknight." The Dragonknight's story was thus woven into the cultural fabric of the realm, a touchstone for both martial ambition and courtly love.

The Standard of Chivalric Virtue

The Dragonknight's reputation was not merely that of a great fighter but of a man of unimpeachable honor. Ser Barristan Selmy, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard under Robert Baratheon, explicitly invoked the Dragonknight when lamenting the decline of his own order. He contrasted the modern Kingsguard, whom he deemed unworthy of their white cloaks, with the legendary figures of the past, saying, "The days when men like Ryam Redwyne and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight wore the white cloak are gone to dust and song." This placed the Dragonknight at the apex of a lost golden age of knighthood, a time when the vows of the Kingsguard were held sacred. His name was a rebuke to the corruption and cynicism of the present, a reminder of what the order had once been and should be.

Narrative Role and Thematic Significance

Aemon the Dragonknight functions in the narrative as a symbol of an idealized, unrecoverable past. He is a figure from the songs, a legend whose perfection is so absolute that it exists only in memory and story. His name is used by characters to articulate their own aspirations—Bran's dream of becoming a knight, Sansa's fantasy of a perfect love—and by others to measure the depth of the present's moral decay. When Ser Barristan Selmy contrasts the Dragonknight with the current Kingsguard, he is not just criticizing individual knights but diagnosing a systemic failure of honor. The Dragonknight, therefore, is not a character who acts within the story's present but a ghost who haunts it, a constant reminder of the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be. His legend serves as a powerful, if unattainable, ideal against which the actions of every knight in the book are implicitly judged.