(Spoilers ACOK) Does Rakharo find Balerion's skull?

ACOK

In the first Daenerys chapter when she sends her Bloodriders out in the Red Waste to see where they are, Rakharo returns first and it says, "He had passed the bones of a dragon, he swore, so immense that he had ridden his horse through its great black jaws."

Is this Balerion's skull he found? In one of Tyrion's AGOT chapter's he mentions Balerion's jaws were big enough to swallow a mammoth whole, and in this same Daenerys chapter she says Balerion's scales and flames were black, so I could imagine his bones were black too (or turned black over time in the desert).

Posted May 15, 2015, 4:43 PM UTC

06
AryaTheBAMFSTOP....Question Time!•

Balerion's skull is in the deep cellars/basement of King's Landing. Arya stumbles across it while chasing an old haggard black cat....presumably Rhaenys Targ's old cat also named Balerion....gotta love GRRM

7
Vaxis7Goldenhand of Godsgrace•

All dragonbone is black, due to its high iron content.

That wasn't Balerion, his skull in in the cellars of the Red Keep along with the other Targaryen dragons. The one Rakharo found is probably ancient from the days of the Valyrian Freehold.

7
TheRockefellersAn uncommonly sinful horse.•

I took that passage as a pretty foreboding omen. The Khalisar sees the skeleton of a great dragon dead in the red waste, while another dragon (specifically a Targaryen) is wandering through that exact same waste. It's very on the nose.

I think it's a not-so-subtle reminder that, in this world, the greatest of things can be laid low by circumstances beyond their control. No one is immortal. Valar morghulis. And what do you know? Shortly after that, we're treated to the scene at Qarth, where the Khalisar is almost left to rot in the waste.

Of course, I guess the warning is sort of wasted on what is now the most Mary Sue character in the books.

2
BertMaclanLanswole Gainnister•

Dragonbone is black because of it's high iron I think.

3
gorgossiaA Song of Mormont & Mormont•

Bones bleach in the sun. Is dragon bone super high in carbon/would that make them react differently in the desert?

1
dasunt•

Could be Spoilers TP&TQ.

As far as I know, he's the only named dragon that's unaccounted for.

1
CABRALFAN27•

Some people, including myself, speculate it to be Sheepstealer, a dragon from the Dance of the Dragons that mysteriously went missing on the Narrow Sea.

1