298 AC, hatched from a petrified egg on Khal Drogo's funeral pyre outside Vaes Dothrak
Died
not recorded — his fate stands unresolved in the published novels
The middle of the three dragons Daenerys Targaryen hatched from petrified eggs on Khal Drogo's funeral pyre outside Vaes Dothrak — his part in the story is still being written in the published novels.
Rhaegal in the novels
This carries how the dragon looks, behaves, and is described in the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
Size
The middling of Daenerys's three in size and temper both — never so vast nor so wild as Drogon, never so gentle as Viserion, a dragon defined in the record so far chiefly by being caught between his brothers.
Temperament
Quicker to bare his teeth than Viserion, by his mother's own private reckoning, though nothing like so wayward as Drogon — a middle child's temperament, watchful and a touch resentful of the chain that has, so far, defined more of his story than anything he's actually done.
Rhaegal takes his name from Rhaegar Targaryen, the prince who died on the Trident, and like his namesake he enters this chronicle as a figure of promise the story has not yet finished paying out. Hatched alongside Drogon and Viserion on Khal Drogo's pyre, he grew through Daenerys's Meereenese years as the least remarked of the three — not so aggressive as his black brother, not so gentle as his cream-and-gold one, and consequently the dragon whose personality the novels have had the least occasion to sketch in detail.
His most consequential act to date, so far as the published books relate, was simply being present when a Meereenese child died in the fighting pits — an act the smallfolk blamed on all three dragons indiscriminately, and which saw Rhaegal chained in the dark beneath the city alongside Viserion while Drogon, the actual culprit by most readings, escaped entirely. He remains there, by the last word the novels have offered, unfed and unvisited for long stretches, his story very much a door the chronicle marks as closed rather than one it presumes to open on its author's behalf.
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.
The fate of Rhaegal
This carries how the dragon's story ends in the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
Chained beneath Meereen alongside his brother Viserion for a killing neither of them committed alone, and left there, by the novels' last word on him, waiting on a story that has not yet returned to say what becomes of him.
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.
SourcesA Game of ThronesA Dance with Dragons
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Riders
Who was Rhaegal?
The middle of the three dragons Daenerys Targaryen hatched from petrified eggs on Khal Drogo's funeral pyre outside Vaes Dothrak — his part in the story is still being written in the published novels.
Is Rhaegal from the books or the show?
Book canon. This entry follows George R. R. Martin's novels and histories, and notes where the television series diverges rather than following it.