Last night’s episode of Game of Thrones featured an extremely important scene from the books, one that shaped and molded Cersei Lannister as she was growing up. But what exactly did it mean, and more importantly, what did the HBO show leave out?
Potential and Actual Spoilers Below.
Maggy the Maegi
The season 5 premiere opens with a young Cersei visiting a local fortune teller/witch in the woods. The locals called her Maggy, although this is likely a mispronunciation of Maegi. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it was the title used by Mirri Maz Duur, the woman who used blood magic to kill Daenerys’s unborn child.
In the books, the Maegi are a blood magic users from Essos, the continent to the east of Westeros. They are one of the few groups of characters (along with the Red Priests) that have shown an actual ability to perform real magic.
The Prophecy
Cersei asks Maggy to read her future, and the answers she got would haunt her well through her adult life. Cersei was allowed to ask three questions, and while Maggy’s answers are vague, they’re pretty straightforward.
Here’s how it played out in the books (the HBO show kept most of the language intact, with one notable omission which we’ll cover below):
Cersei: When will I wed the prince?
Maggy: Never. You will wed the king.
Cersei: I will be queen, though?
Maggy: Queen you shall be… until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear.
Cersei: Will the king and I have children?
Maggy: Oh, aye. Six-and-ten for him, and three for you. Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds.
So let’s break this down. Wedding the king refers to Cersei’s marriage to Robert Baratheon, who was crowned after he won a rebellion against House Targaryen. Up until that rebellion, Cersei had believed she would be wed to Rhaegar Targaryen, who was next in line for the throne.
The next bit of prophecy is a lot less clear. Someone will come along to “cast [her] down,” someone beautiful and younger. The easy answer here is Margaery Tyrell, although that candidate seems a little too convenient. Other possibilities could include Daenerys, or more likely, Sansa Stark.
Finally, the third question is pretty straightforward. Robert has 16 bastard children (including Gendry), while Cersei has three, all through incest with Jaime. That is why Maggy keeps them separate, as Cersei is not the mother of any Robert’s children, and vice versa.
“Gold shall be their crowns” is either (or both) a reference to their golden hair, or the fact that Joffrey and Tommen have both been king. Gold their shrouds refers to Joffrey’s untimely death, and may be a foretelling of what’s in store for Tommen and his sister Myrcella.
That’s Not All Though
Interestingly, this is where the scene in the HBO series ends. That is not the case in the books though, and the show leaves out what’s arguably the most important line of the entire thing.
Here’s the line from the book (A Feast for Crows, the fourth one): “And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”
“Valonqar” is the High Valyrian word for little brother. Cue dramatic music.
Again, the easy answer here is Tyrion (who would certainly love to choke the life out of his sister, no doubt). But George R.R. Martin is not exactly an “easy answer” sort of guy.
The better possibility? Jaime Lannister, who is younger than Cersei by just a hair (Cersei tells Ned Stark that Jaime was the second of the twins to be delivered).
BUT, there are still more options. What if it’s not referring to Cersei’s younger brother… but to Robert’s? Stannis Baratheon does not seem like a guy who’d hesitate to kill Cersei if given the chance. A more outside possibility is Tommen Baratheon, who is also a younger brother. An even stranger reading is that valonqar might be a vague descriptor that can also refer to any younger sibling, allowing Arya to work herself into the prophecy.
To Recap
The prophecy predicts a number of events, and only a few have come to pass so far.
1. Cersei will marry the king and not the prince, check.
2. Cersei will be defeated by a younger, more beautiful queen.
3. Cersei will have three children (check), all of whom will die (two to go).
4. The “younger brother” will choke her to death.
There’s plenty to chew on there, and plenty more to consider given that HBO’s show decided to leave out the final line of the prophecy. What do you think?
