Radio Estroes episode 45 in conjunction with history of Westroes the Dance of the Dragons Part One.

Spoils All Books.

The Dance of the Dragons is The Dance of the Dragons is the Flowery Name bestowed upon the savage, in turn assigned struggle for the Iron Throne of Westros, fought between two rival branches of House Targarian during the years 129 to 131 AC.

To characterize the dark, turbulent, bloody doings of this period as a dance strikes us as grotesquely inappropriate.

No doubt the phrase originated with some singer.

The dying of the dragons would be altogether more fitting, but tradition and time have burned the more poetic usage into the pages of history, so we must dance along with the rest.

There were two principal claimants to the Iron Throne upon the death of King Vissaries the First

Targarian, his daughter Renira, the only surviving child of his first marriage,

and Aegon, his eldest son by his second wife.

Amidst the chaos and carnage brought on by their rivalry, other would-be kings would stake claims as well strutting about like mamas on a stage for a fortnight

or a moon's turn only to fall as swiftly as they had risen.

The dance split the Seven Kingdoms in two as Lords, knights and small folk declared for one

side or the other and took up arms against each other. Even House Targaryan itself became divided

when the Kith, kin, and children of each of the claimants became embroiled in the fighting.

Over the two years of struggle a terrible toll was taken of the great

Lords of Westeros together with their banaman, knights, and smallfolk. Whilst the dynasty

survived, the end of the fighting saw Targarian power much diminished and the world's last dragons vastly reduced in number.

The dance was a war unlike any other ever fought in the long history of the Seven

kingdoms. Though armies marched and met in savage battle, much of the slaughter took place on water and especially in the air as

Dragon fought dragon with tooth and claw and flame. It was a war marked by stealth, murder and betrayal as well. A war fought in shadows and stairwells,

council chambers and castle yards, knives and lies and poison.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. Well, of course we couldn't.

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