Is Vhagar bigger than Balerion? Warning minor spoilers for House of the Dragon episode 10 ahead. In the final episode of House of the Dragon, we saw how terrifyingly large Vhagar truly was when she went up against the diminutive Arrax.
This got us wondering, though, who’s the largest dragon in the fantasy series? Is it Aegon the Conqueror’s companion Balerion the Black Dread, or has Vhagar outgrown the shadow of her brood mate? To get to the bottom of this question, we’ve consulted the source material and gathered a few quotes to see whether Vhagar is bigger than Balerion.
Is Vhagar bigger than Balerion?
During the Dance of the Dragons, Vhagar was said to rival Balerion in size, but it seems like the Black Dread was still slightly bigger. In Clash of Kings, Daenerys claims that Balerion was the largest dragon the Targaryen family ever controlled and although she’s not an omniscient narrator, all of George RR Martin’s texts seem to support this claim.
Balerion’s described as having wings so wide that whole towns were covered in his shadow when he flew over, and he could apparently swallow aurochs and mammoths whole.
Vhagar, meanwhile, is described as the “greatest of the Targaryen dragons since the passing of Balerion the Black Dread”, which implies Balerion always had the edge on Vhagar. Fun fact, Vhagar was actually the smallest of the original Targaryen dragons, as Meraxes was larger than Vhagar.
Finally, if dragons truly get bigger with age, we can take the fact that Vhagar only lived 180 years, compared to Balerion’s 200 years, that she just didn’t have the opportunity to grow as big as the Black Dread. Still, at least she’s bigger than Caraxes and Syrax.
If you can’t get enough blood and fire, check out our list of the best Game of Thrones characters, or we have guides to Daemon Targaryen, the White Worm, Larys Strong, Alicent Hightower, King Viserys Targaryen, Otto Hightower, and Ser Criston Cole if you want to learn more about the best House of the Dragon characters.
If that’s not enough, we have an article all about House of the Dragon season 2 as well, and we’ve examined if there’s a chance of Daenerys Targaryen returning for a Game of Thrones season 9 alongside the rest of the Game of Thrones cast.