Laena Velaryon was the elder child and only daughter of Corlys Velaryon and Princess Rhaenys, and claimed the dragon Vhagar — the largest living dragon of her age, and once Queen Visenya's own mount — before she was twelve years old, a feat that marked her as a rider to be reckoned with long before she married into the family that already sat the throne. Wed to Prince Daemon Targaryen in Pentos during his years of self-imposed exile, she gave him twin daughters, Baela and Rhaena, and by every surviving account bore the marriage's stranger arrangements — Daemon's earlier, unhappier first wife, his roving attentions, exile itself — with more equanimity than the match probably deserved.
House Velaryon
Laena Velaryon
- Life
- late 92 AC
- Titles
- Princess, by marriage to Daemon Targaryen
- Seat
- Driftmark (High Tide)
- Religion
- The Faith of the Seven
- Notable for
- Dragonrider of Vhagar, once Queen Visenya's own mount; mother of the twins Baela and Rhaena
A dragonrider of Vhagar whose own story predates the war by nearly a decade — the chronicle keeps the particulars of her ending veiled for readers not yet there.
Key events
- late 92 ACBorn the elder child and only daughter of Corlys Velaryon and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen.
- c. 104 ACClaims the dragon Vhagar, the largest living dragon of her age, before her twelfth year.
- c. 115 ACWeds Prince Daemon Targaryen in Pentos during his years of self-imposed exile.
- c. 116 ACBears Daemon twin daughters, Baela and Rhaena.
- 120 ACDies at Driftmark days after a third child is stillborn, collapsing on the tower steps while trying to reach Vhagar for one last flight.
Reading the character
Laena's story predates the Dance of the Dragons by nearly a decade, but its consequences reach directly into the war's opening moves: her death leaves Vhagar riderless, and it is at her own funeral that the dragon passes to her young cousin Aemond, arming the conflict's most feared partisan with its single most dangerous asset. She is, in that sense, a figure whose influence on the war outlasts her own life by years.
Within her own lifetime, though, she reads as one of the more capable and self-possessed women in Fire & Blood's account of the dynasty — a dragonrider in her own right by twelve, and a wife who navigated an unconventional marriage, an absent and roving husband, and years of exile with more equanimity, by the chroniclers' own admission, than the arrangement probably deserved.
The arc of Laena Velaryon
This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
Sourcesfire-and-bloodthe-princess-and-the-queen
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Dragons ridden
Who is Laena Velaryon?
The daughter of Corlys Velaryon and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, a dragonrider of Vhagar and the second wife of Prince Daemon Targaryen, mother of the twins Baela and Rhaena.
Is Laena Velaryon alive?
No — the chronicle need only say that a difficult third childbirth at Driftmark in 120 AC was her last; the particulars are treated in her veiled record.