All the secret Targaryen theories from the Game of Thrones books

4. Mance Rayder is a secret Targaryen

Okay, this one is extremely far-fetched and I kind of hate it but it is a theory nonetheless so let’s look at it.

Mance Rayder is the King Beyond the Wall, the man who rallies almost all of the wildlings to attack the Knight’s Watch. Unlike in the show, Mance is still alive the last time we saw him. In fact, he’s in Winterfell, where he helps Theon and Jeyne Poole escape from the Boltons. The idea of him being a Targaryen, and specifically Rhaegar Targaryen, is centered around very tiny clues.

The first clue has to do with Mance Rayder’s time as a member of the Knight’s Watch. He gets injured by a shadowcat during a ranging beyond the Wall and is taken to a wildling village to get healed. While he is there, a wildling woman patches his cloak with a strip of red silk from Assai. When he returns to the Shadow Tower, Mance is told that he had to replace this red cloak with one of uniform black. He refused and left the Knight’s Watch because he felt his freedom was being infringed upon.

So basically, Mance’s cloak used to be red and black, the Targaryen colors. That’s the first clue.

The second clue is that Mance and Rhaegar are both musicians. The first song that Jon hears Mance sing is the Dornishman’s wife. This could be a reference to the fact that Rhaegar (or Mance) used to be married to Elia Martel of Dorne. When Mance sings the song again later on, he changes the lyric from “tasted the Dornishmen’s wife” to “tasted the Northman’s daughter,” which could be a reference to Rhaegar getting Lyanna pregnant.

The third clue has to do with a legend called Bael the Bard, who was a singer who fell in love with a Stark woman. Mance is a singer who supposedly fell in love with Lyanna Stark. In A Dance with Dragons, Mance infiltrates Winterfell to rescue a girl that he believes is Arya Stark. He does so while posing as a bard named Abel, which is very close to Bael.

While this is a fun idea, I don’t think Mance being Rhaegar would make the plot more interesting or even make any sense. For one, Mance has brown hair and dark eyes, while Rhaegar famously had the silver hair and purple eyes of a Targaryen. I think most of the “clues” we’ve talked about above are examples of Martin dropping hints about R+L=J. And Mance’s story is meant to mirror Jon’s, as they both will abandon the Knight’s Watch to organize unlikely alliances for the greater good. It also seems extremely unlikely for Rhaegar to just go join the Knight’s Watch after getting beat up and left for dead by Robert Baratheon.

Which Secret Targaryen theories did we miss? Sound off below!

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels