Who is Azor Ahai?

It’s a fan-favorite question in Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire. Who is the mysterious hero foretold in prophecy? Well, in short: everyone is Azor Ahai.

I’m going to first lay out the Azor Ahai myth to make sure we get its component parts. Then we’re going to look at the people who, in ASOIAF so far, have done Azor Ahai-like things. Then we’re going to look at the potential for more Azor Ahais to pop out of the woodwork – yes, including Jon Snow. Lastly, we’ll wrap it up by talking about what George R. R. Martin is doing with this myth and how it relates to our own idea of the monomythical hero.

Salt and Smoke: The Azor Ahai Checklist

Before we get any further, let’s get down and dirty with the prophecy.

There will come a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls heavy on the world. In this dread hour a warrior shall draw from the fire a burning sword. And that sword shall be Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and he who clasps it shall be Azor Ahai come again, and the darkness shall flee before him.

From Davos I, in A Clash of Kings.

In addition to this prophecy, we get a few more tantalizing details:

When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone.

From Jon X, in A Dance with Dragons

There’s another piece to the legend: the sword Lightbringer. The story goes that Lightbringer was forged by Azor Ahai to fight the darkness covering the world. He worked for thirty days, but when he tempered the steel in water it shattered. Then he worked for fifty days and tried tempering the steel in a lion’s heart (why not, right?), but it shattered again. He then worked for a hundred days and finally tempered the steel in his wife Nissa Nissa’s heart. This made the blade magical, but killed Nissa Nissa.

To begin with – there are some excellent, excellent essays out there breaking this mythology down in detail. So I won’t waste your time doing that here. Instead, check out the Astronomy of Ice and Fire, from which I am certainly going to steal some ideas.

To recap – the essential legend regarding Azor Ahai’s return is:

There will be a long summer

The stars – the red star, maybe – will bleed

The darkness gathers

Azor Ahai themselves will also have been born out of salt and smoke, and will wake dragons out of stone. He/she will be wielding Lightbringer, which itself was forged in water, a beast, and a woman.

Now, if there’s one thing GRRM likes to tell us over and over, it’s that prophecy is a fickle wench.

…a prophecy is like a treacherous woman. She takes your member in her mouth, and you moan with the pleasure of it and think, how sweet, how fine, how good this is … and then her teeth snap shut and your moans turn to screams. That is the nature of prophecy. Prophecy will bite your prick off every time.

From Samwell V, A Feast for Crows.

We know that prophecies in ASOIAF are, in fact, symbolic. That is – when someone has a vision, it can be metaphorical. In The Mystery Knight, John the Fiddler has a vision of a dragon hatching at Whitewalls. No literal dragon hatches, but Egg reveals himself as a Targaryen at the tournament. This neat little prophecy demonstrates that visions aren’t always literal. Now, this opens up a whole world of possibility, because all of a sudden things like “salt and smoke” or even water, lions, and a woman take on whole new meanings depending on the context.

Existing Candidates – The Story So Far

Who matches the criteria thus far in the story, then? Let’s start with the big one: Daenerys Targaryen.

Dany matches the criteria almost to a T. She is Stormborn, born among salty seawater and the smoke of the wrecked fleet on Dragonstone. She is also born again in salt and smoke, when she steps into the funeral pyre of Drogo. Overhead, the red star blazes in the sky. Darkness is gathering beyond the Wall as the Others start trucking along. She also has Lightbringer in the form of dragons – she woke dragons from stone, too. If there’s anyone who seems to be straight-up perfect as Azor Ahai, it’s Dany. Even the Red Priests of Volantis are starting to recognize this.

But there’s more: Beric Dondarrion.

Beric should be our biggest clue that Azor Ahai is not an exclusive club. Thoros of Myr accidentally resurrects Beric from the dead. He is born again amid salt and smoke as the red star bleeds overhead and the Others gather in the far north. Additionally, he has an actual magic flaming sword. Where Thoros used wildfire to artificially make his sword red (and, it’s implied, Melisandre is using a glamour on Stannis’ sword), Beric actually uses his blood to make the sword catch flame, in a rare example of genuine magic.

In other words, Beric also seems to be infused with this Azor Ahai magic. But it doesn’t stop with him. He, in turn, raises Catelyn Stark from the dead, giving his borrowed life to her. Now, we could jump in an start doing a Lightbringer analysis here – first the life force is tempered in water, with Beric’s death, then in a beast, with Cat’s death, and might finish in something else? Or maybe the life force was tempered in Thoros, then in Beric, and finally in Cat?

The point is that Beric’s story can be stretched to fit with the Azor Ahai mythos. And there is also unambiguous magic involved here: Beric dies six times before giving up the ghost to Cat, and his blood can set steel on fire. That’s magic. So what’s going on here?

What’s going on here is that, I think, GRRM is trying to show us that magic exists but prophecies are just constructions. That is – sure, Beric came back to life, sure Dany raised dragons from stone, and yeah some people called it a long time ago. But like monkeys on typewriters, broken clocks, and internet commenters: they’re bound to be right eventually.

Let’s take a look at another existing candidate: Victarion Greyjoy.

Victarion’s mighty fist can be considered another take on the AA/LB monomyth. His hand (which, by the way, he used to kill his wife) was born again amid salt and smoke when Moqorro did that voodoo that he do. Was the red star bleeding? I dunno, maybe. We could probably shoehorn something into that. Darkness was totally gathering (really, that one is basically auto-completed for our purposes. The Others are moving. Winter is coming. Darkness is gathering Etc.)

Azor Ahai in the Future – Jon Snoe and Everyman

Now we’re going to talk about the people in the books who could be Azor Ahai. You might notice I haven’t talked about Jon Snow yet – I will, trust me. He’s the heart of this stuff. But let’s breeze through a few fun ones first.

Aeron Greyjoy – drowned off the coast of Fair Isle during a battle. Was reborn amid salt and smoke.

Davos Seaworth – nearly died during the Battle of Blackwater. Reborn amid salt and smoke. Red star was bleeding?

Jaime Lannister – Some people think he’ll end up azorring his ahai all over the place when he runs into Lady Stoneheart. Theories include the idea of using Oathkeeper as a Lightbringer, killing Brienne, being killed but resurrected by Cat in an act of forgiveness, et cetera et cetera. Brienne, too, seems like a potential candidate – reborn among salt and smoke when Cat spares her from the noose. Jaime and Brienne are on a collision course with a potential Azor Ahai factory, in other words – lions, water, salt, smoke, love, magic swords, and fiery rebirth are all to be found in spades at this upcoming confluence of stories.

The Hound – the persona of the Hound died with Sandor, but was reborn amid the burning of Saltpans when Rorge took up the helmet. This is one of my favorites, because it’s so metaphorical. It’s about the persona of The Hound, which has taken on this mystique of being the Mad Dog. This is like an Azor Ahai within an Azor Ahai – a title reborn onto a new person.

Gregor Clegane – born again in Qyburn’s dungeons – there was probably some salt and smoke involved. Additionally, the red star was bleeding – after all, what is the Red Viper if not a Red Star?

Okay, I’ll stop dicking around: what about Jon Snow?

There’s a reason Melisandre sees Snow when she looks into the fires. Jon Snow is the Everyman. His name is practically Jon Doe. (does that clarify that stupid pun in the title?). Jon is one of the most common Westerosi names, and Snow is a bastard name, a name with no identity attached to it, a name that can be given to any natural-born child in the north. And Jon Snow, I have no doubt, will be an Azor Ahai. He will be born again amid salt and smoke, he will wield a Lightbringer of some sort, etc etc. But that’s honestly secondary. The details of the prophecy are secondary to the fact that anyone can become an Azor Ahai. What better way to tell us that than by having this symbolic everyman become Azor Ahai?

What is George RR Martin Doing?

We have our own construction of the monomyth, of course. Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, sort of the ur-text for this concept, talks at great length about how the hero narrative is a template, one that many cultures have and have adapted in various ways. But the important takeaway is that the hero is a template, not a single figure.

George R. R. Martin is doing something really interesting here: he’s trying to build a new “hero with a thousand faces,” one whose journey he gets to dictate. And this is an in-universe idea. What I mean is that there is no Azor Ahai, not really. There is only magic. But magic gets used certain ways throughout history in his world, and out of these commonalities there has emerged a narrative about the criteria to be a hero. But those criteria are descriptive, not prescriptive. That is to say – they are based on observations that people have made about the way magic seems to work, but they are by no means an actual strict magic ritual or ruleset. Coming back to our friend Gorghan of Old Ghis – prophecy is treacherous. The reason it’s so treacherous is that it is a crude tool made by man to try and understand the magic that is actually happening in the world.

What does this mean, plot-wise? Well, I think there’s a good chance we’re going to see a sudden upswing in the population of Azor Ahai City, if you get what I’m saying. As magic seems to be on a rising tide, we’re going to see more Beric Dondarrions and Victarion Greyjoys, men and women who receive magical powers under circumstances that kiiiiiiiiinda match up with the Azor Ahai myth. But as with all of ASOIAF, what will ultimately matter are the choices that people make. It doesn’t matter if someone has magic powers or fiery swords, what matters is what they choose to do with those powers. Azor Ahai is a social construct in the universe of ASOIAF, and by no means does it prescribe what characters are going to do with their magical, fiery powers.