This week marked the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, and while shows Widow's Bay may have swept the proceedings with an impressive 14 wins, Westeros received quite a lot of love as well. The newest Game of Thrones prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, was up for the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series; it ultimately lost to its fellow HBO show The Pitt, but the fact that it was nominated at all served as a great excuse for the awards ceremony to honor the world of Game of Thrones, and honor it it did.
From fun photos during the pre-show to appearances from key creatives like Thrones co-showrunner David Benioff, AKOTSK showrunner Ira Parker, Westeros creator George R.R. Martin and more, in some ways, the Emmys felt like a celebration of Westeros' vaunted place in TV history.
One of the highlights was when Thrones' Emilia Clarke and House of the Dragon's Emma D'Arcy took to the stage together to present the award for Lead Actress in a Limited Anthology Series or Movie. While it was clear this was going to contain some fun bits from the outset thanks to a tongue-in-cheek introduction from host Mariska Hargitay — who was clad in a Jon Snow costume complete with the Valyrian steel sword Longclaw — the icing on the cake came when Clarke busted out an extensive speech in High Valyrian, which D'Arcy succinctly translated as "good evening."
Yeah, it's safe to say that Emilia Clarke has still got it. I didn't realize just how much I missed hearing her speak in High Valyrian until watching this presentation. While House of the Dragon has even more of Martin's fictional language than its predecessor, and D'Arcy and her co-star Matt Smith are undeniably fantastic at speaking it, there's just something about listening to the original High Valyrian speaker of the franchise return to her roots. The Game of Thrones franchise has given us many beloved characters, but few come close to Emilia Clarke's star-making, eight-season turn as Daenerys Targaryen.
Despite the fun quip, you may be wondering what it was that Clarke actually said in High Valyrian. Fortunately, we have a translation straight from the source.
What did Emilia Clarke's High Valyrian speech at the Emmys actually mean?
It should come as no surprise that these lines for Clarke were created by David J. Peterson, the same conlanger who built the language of High Valyrian for Game of Thrones, as well as Dothraki and all the other fictional tongues we hear in the show. Peterson not only revealed the translation for Clarke's speech, but that he only got the request to write it a mere two days before the ceremony — which means Clarke herself had even less time to prepare to say it on live television.
"It was an honor to be able to do a bit of High Valyrian translation for Emilia Clarke again for the Emmys tonight," Peterson wrote on Instagram. "It was a challenging translation (seriously, the syntax of that…), and also challenging to perform, since there were no real breaks—no places to pause and catch one's breath—let alone that it was, you know, live in front of a star-studded audience, broadcast to the world. Oh, and, by the way, I got this translation request two days ago—which means that Emilia only got it after I was done! But, of course, she smashed it. It was so lovely to hear her speak Valyrian for years on Game of Thrones and it was a treat to be able to hear it once more. For those who tuned in, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did."
I think it's safe to say that Peterson's hope panned out; Thrones fans across the internet turned out to praise the Mother of Dragons.
Peterson also provided a translation for fans, complete with phonetic pronunciations in case you want to take a crack at some High Valyrian yourself. Here's the full translation of Emilia Clarke's High Valyrian speech during the award presentation: "It is an honor and a privilege to be amongst you all, Emmy nominees and winners—television royalty who sit proudly on the Iron Throne that is television—on this wonderful evening."
Peterson also translated "And the Emmy goes to..." for Clarke as well, though that wasn't part of the initial speech introducing the contenders for obvious reasons.
Daenerys Targaryen remains as eloquent as ever, proving once more that High Valyrian truly is the mother tongue of House Targaryen. If you want to see more of Emilia Clarke and Emma D'Arcy speaking in High Valyrian, you can watch both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon on HBO Max.
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