The Dragonbinder

The Dragonbinder is a horn of legend, a twisted artifact six feet long from end to end, gleaming black and banded with red gold and dark Valyrian steel. Strange sorcerous writings have been cut into the golden bands that gird it, glyphs that the red priest Moqorro could read. The horn is warm and smooth to the touch, and so shiny that a man can see a twisted likeness of his own features in its depths. It was found by Euron Greyjoy, the Crow's Eye, amongst the smoking wastes of great Valyria, and he brought it back to the Iron Islands as a prize beyond price.

Inscription and Prophecy

When Moqorro examined the horn, he deciphered the Valyrian glyphs on its golden bands. One band names the horn: "I am Dragonbinder." Another bears the warning: "No mortal man shall sound me and live." A third band reads: "Blood for fire, fire for blood." The horn's purpose is clear: it is meant to bind dragons to the will of its master, but the man who blows it must die. The dragons will come to the horn's master, but only if the horn is claimed with blood.

The Kingsmoot and the First Sounding

At the kingsmoot on Old Wyk, where Euron Greyjoy was crowned King of the Iron Islands, the hellhorn was sounded for the first time. A huge, shaven-headed man with rings of gold and jet and jade around his arms, and a great hawk tattooed across his chest, blew the horn. The sound it made burned—as if a man's bones were on fire, searing his flesh from within. The writings on the horn glowed red-hot, then white-hot and painful to look upon. The sound seemed to never end, like a long scream, a thousand screams all melted into one. The man who blew the horn died, with blisters on his lips and blood dripping from the hawk tattoo on his chest. He was said to be all burned up inside.

Victarion Greyjoy and the Horn

Euron gave the Dragonbinder to his brother Victarion as a gift, but Victarion knew that Euron's gifts are always poisoned. The horn was meant to bind dragons to Victarion's will, but the price of sounding it was death. Victarion brooded bitterly on his brother's treachery. He brought the horn forth for the first time on his voyage to Slaver's Bay, after his fleet had captured several prizes and the red priest Moqorro had joined his company. Moqorro explained that the horn's master need not be the one who blows it; the dragons will come to the horn's master, and the horn must be claimed with blood. This knowledge gave Victarion a way to use the horn without dying himself, though the full implications of that claim remained to be seen.

Significance

The Dragonbinder represents the intersection of Valyrian sorcery, the ironborn's ambition, and the looming confrontation with Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons. It is a weapon of immense power, but one that demands a terrible sacrifice. Its presence in Victarion's hands sets the stage for a potential clash between the ironborn fleet and the dragon queen, and its true purpose—whether it can actually control dragons, and at what cost—remains one of the great unresolved questions of the story.