Dragons, Wyrms, and Wyverns: Their Unnatural History by Septon Barth

Thanks to A Wiki of Ice and Fire

Title: Dragons, Wyrms, and Wyverns: Their Unnatural History 

Author: Septon Barth

Publisher: Not known 

Source book: A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin 

I tried to read Game of Thrones (the first of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books), I really did, but even ignoring the attack of vertigo I suffered after reading about those prison cells with slanting floors and no outside walls (aargh!), I absolutely hated the book and had to stop way before I got to the end. Odd really, considering how many fantasy novels I’ve read over the years. But here I am, relying on A Wiki of Ice and Fire for my facts.

So I gather that Septon Barth began to research his book Unnatural History in A Dance with Dragons, following the death of Princess Aerea Targaryen.

Septon Barth claimed that dragons were neither female nor male, but shift sexes “as changeable as flame”.

The Citadel condemned the book as “provocative but unsound”. On account of Barth’s alleged practice of the higher arts, and his studies (whatever that means), King Baelor Targaryon ordered the book to be expunged and destroyed but it seems that some fragments survived this purge. Otherwise I guess we wouldn’t know about it.

“Death comes out of a dragon’s mouth, but death does not go in that way”.

There is also a fragmentary and blood soaked anonymous book (that sounds jolly) called Blood and Fire, or sometimes The Death of Dragons. The only surviving copy is supposedly hidden  in a locked vault below the Citadel. And then there’s The Fires of the Freehold by Galendro.

A Dance with Dragons is the fifth in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Thanks to DeviantArt