Daenerys eats the horse heart

Daenerys Targaryen's consumption of a raw stallion's heart is the central ordeal of a Dothraki fertility ritual, a brutal test of maternal strength that confirms her son's prophesied destiny as the stallion who mounts the world. The ceremony binds her personal survival to the fate of her unborn child and marks a decisive moment in her transformation from a frightened exile into a khaleesi who commands the respect of her adopted people.

The Ritual and Its Purpose

The ceremony takes place in a chalk-walled pit in Vaes Dothrak, the sacred city of the Dothraki, under the watchful eyes of the ancient crones of the dosh khaleen. Khal Drogo has just killed a wild stallion, and his bloodriders kneel beside the corpse with stone knives. Drogo sets the stallion's heart before Daenerys, raw and bloody, his arms red to the elbow. The Dothraki believe that if the mother can eat the entire heart, her son will be born strong, swift, and fearless; if she chokes or retches, the omens are unfavorable—the child might be stillborn, weak, deformed, or female. To prepare, Daenerys has spent the preceding two moons dining on bowls of half-clotted blood to accustom herself to the taste, and her handmaid Irri has made her chew strips of dried horseflesh until her jaws ached. She also starved herself for a day and a night before the ceremony, hoping hunger would help her keep down the raw meat.

The Ordeal of Consumption

The wild stallion's heart is all muscle, and Daenerys must worry it with her teeth and chew each mouthful a long time. No steel is permitted within the sacred confines of Vaes Dothrak, beneath the shadow of the Mother of Mountains; she must rip the heart apart with teeth and nails. Her stomach roils and heaves, yet she keeps on, her face smeared with heartsblood that sometimes seems to explode against her lips. Khal Drogo stands over her as she eats, his face as hard as a bronze shield. She looks at him whenever she feels her strength failing, and chews and swallows. Toward the end, she glimpses what she believes is a fierce pride in his dark, almond-shaped eyes. Finally, it is done. Her cheeks and fingers are sticky as she forces down the last of it.

The Prophecy and Its Significance

After Daenerys finishes the heart, she proclaims in Dothraki, "A prince rides inside me!" The oldest of the crones, a bent and shriveled woman with a single black eye, raises her arms and shrieks, "The prince is riding!" The other women answer, proclaiming a strong boy. The crone then peers into the smoke of the future and delivers a prophecy: the prince will be as swift as the wind, and behind him his khalasar will cover the earth. He will be fierce as a storm, and his enemies will tremble before him. The old woman declares that he shall be "the stallion who mounts the world." Daenerys names him Rhaego, after her slain brother Rhaegar Targaryen, whom Ser Jorah Mormont described as the last of the dragons. The prophecy is later echoed by Ser Jorah, who explains that the stallion is the khal of khals promised in ancient prophecy, who will unite the Dothraki into a single khalasar and ride to the ends of the earth, with all the people of the world as his herd. This prophecy becomes a central pillar of Daenerys's identity and ambition, though it is ultimately shattered by the tragic outcome of her pregnancy.