New 'Game of Thrones' Book Might Explain Where Daenerys's Dragon Eggs Came From

Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin released a new book this month titled Fire & Blood, and while it takes place hundreds of years before the main series, one major connection has caught fans' attention.

In Martin's novels -- A Song of Ice and Fire -- and in the HBO series based on them, one of the strongest contender for the throne in Daenerys Targaryen. The last descendant of an ancient dragon-riding house, Daenerys receives three old dragon eggs as a wedding gift in early on. They are thought to be very old and likely inert, as Illyrio Mopatis tells her "the eons have turned them to stone."

Judging by Martin's latest writing, however, that may not be the case. His latest book, Fire & Blood, chronicles the rule of House Targaryen in painstaking detail. It tells how the family kept dragons on the island of Dragonstone, where many laid clutches of eggs. The eggs were put into cradles with Targaryen children and often hatched. Those that did not were put aside for later Targaryens to try and hatch.

Fire & Blood covers many generations of Targaryen history. It spends a lot of time with Princess Rhaena and her retinue of friends and followers, who notably lost three invaluable dragon eggs.

More than 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, Rhaena Targaryen held Dragonstone while her nephew, King Jaeharys, ruled on the Iron Throne. Rhaena had traveled the kingdom in her youth, and kept a lot of friends in her court. Among them was Lady Elissa Farman of Fair Isle, who repeatedly asked Rhaena for money to build a ship and sail around the world.

When Rhaena repeatedly refused, Elissa eventually left the island in the dead of night. She made off with three dragon eggs, which she later sold in exchange for a massive ship. Despite the king's best efforts, the eggs could not be recovered, leaving the looming fear that other dragon-riders from another family would rise up against the Targaryens.

Eventually, Elissa resurfaced in the story, appearing once far in the west on the Sunset Sea, and years later, all the way in the east, in the ports of Asshai-by-the-Shadow. Whether she still had the dragon eggs is left ambiguous, but in A Game of Thrones, Asshai is where Daenarys dragon eggs are rumored to have come from.

It seems highly likely that Martin put this tid-bit into his book so that fans would believe these eggs went on to become Daenerys's dragons. In the very first synopsis for Fire & Blood, Martin suggested that it would tell the origin of Daenerys's dragon eggs, and while there are a whole lot of plot threads to read into in the book, this seems like the top contender.

Fire & Blood is available now wherever books are sold. Game of Thrones returns for its final season on HBO in April of 2019.