SPOILERS: Did Empire Magazine just reveal Jon Snow’s birth name? (UPDATE: No)
(UPDATE: This post is about how Empire Magazine purportedly revealed Jon Snow’s birth name in a recent article. Since then, article author Dan Jolin has admitted that the name was not confirmed by anyone on the cast or crew — he picked it up from a fan theory developed by writer Claire Williams.)
Hold onto your horses…or dragons, depending on who you side with, as there’s a potentially explosive Game of Thrones season 7 rumor floating around! It involves something about Jon Snow — in season 6, we learned that he wasn’t Ned Stark’s bastard son but actually the child of Ned’s sister Lyanna and Rhaegar Targaryen. But before we go any further, this is your mandatory SPOILER warning. If you wish to remain as pure as the driven Jon Snow, then do not proceed past this point.
Redditor theshivsharma from the Freefolk subreddit posted a link to a photo from what is purportedly Empire Magazine’s Game of Thrones season 7 preview, and it appears to reveal Jon Snow’s birth name. Check it out.
"Jon snow’s real name confirmed? Posted in Empire Magazine preview from freefolk"
So per Empire, Jon’s real name is Jaehaerys Targaryen. Whoa.
According to Empire’s website, in its current issue, “we head to Westeros to learn 15 things from the cast, from Targaryen to Lannister and everything in between.” This looks like a spread from that. All hail thing number nine.
Now, to be fair, Empire could have just picked this name up on a fan site and printed it. (UPDATE: That’s exactly what they did.) But it’s far more fun to accept it as legit. If that’s true, then Empire may have just revealed one of the best-kept secrets on Game of Thrones.
Jaehaerys Targaryen is definitely an old Targaryen family name. In fact, if this is Jon’s name, he’ll be Jaehaerys III. The first Jaehaerys was the fourth Targaryen king to sit the Iron Throne. He was known by three names: Jaehaerys the Conciliator, Jaehaerys the Wise, and Jaehaerys the Old King, as he reigned for 55 years, making him the longest reigning Targaryen king.
Jaehaerys II was the father of the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen. He died at the age of 37 and was the sixteenth Targaryen king to sit the Iron Throne. He would also be the great grandfather of Jon Snow, should this prove to be true.
What do you think of Jon Snow’s potential Targaryen name? Does this legitimize him, finally removing the stain of the “bastard” from his name? Let’s discuss!