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| “ | What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger. | „ |
| ~ A phrase commonly associated with the Drowned God |
| “ | Since the Dawn Age, the ironborn have followed the Drowned God, who plucked fire from the sea and made us to reave and sack and carve out our names in blood and song. | „ |
| ~ Yara Greyjoy on the ironborn's worshipping of the Drowned God. |
| “ | God of my fathers, if you can hear me in your watery halls beneath the waves, grant me just one small throwing axe.' The Drowned God did not answer. He seldom did. That was the trouble with gods. | „ |
| ~ Asha Greyjoy praying to the Drowned God |
| “ | Your Drowned God is a demon, he is no more than a thrall of the Other, the dark god whose name must not be spoken. | „ |
| ~ Moqorro to Victarion Greyjoy |
The Drowned God, also known as He Who Dwells Beneath the Waves, is a sea deity that is associated with reaving, raiding, pillaging, plundering, and the sea. He is worshipped in the Iron Islands by the ironborn, who believed themselves to be created by the Drowned God for the purpose of reaving and sacking, forging their legacies through only fire, steel, and song, and holding dominion over the sea.
The religion of the Drowned God dates back to antiquity, during the age of the First Men, long before the coming of the Andals, who attempted yet failed to supplant the religion with that of the Seven in the Iron Islands. The Drowned God supports the ironborn's naval, pirate, and reaver culture.
Beliefs[]
The Drowned God is mainly worshipped all throughout the Iron Islands, as he is believed to have created the seas and the ironborn, who believe they originated from his watery halls. The Drowned God is said to have made the ironborn in his own likeness and gave them the purpose of reaving, raping, carving out kingdoms, making their names known through fire, blood, steel, and song, and holding dominion over all the waters of the Known world.
The ironborn believe that the Drowned God is opposed by his sworn enemy, the Storm God, a malignant deity who dwells in the sky in a cloudy hall. Having a strong hatred for men and all their works, the Storm God would send in cruel winds, lashing rains, thunder, and lightning down upon men. The Drowned God and the Storm God are said to have been at war against one another for "a thousand thousand years".
The ironborn believe that the Drowned God has less power if they are further away from the sea. Even in strange lands where other gods are worshipped, some ironborn might believe that a large number of men who have been drowned gave the Drowned God strength in that area.
Most ironborn have nothing but scorn for the Faith of the Seven of the mainland of Westeros and the Old Gods of the north.
Clergy and religion[]
Priests[]
Priests who worship the Drowned God are known as Priests of the Drowned God. They are ill-clad and appear unkempt. They wear mottled robes of grey, green, and blue, as those colors are associated with the Drowned God. Underneath, they wear a clout made of sealskin. When trimming their long hair and untrimmed beard, the priests would use seaweed, and they would wear a waterskin on a leather strap. A notable example is Aeron "Damphair" Greyjoy, who did not cut his hair after being raised by the Drowned God and becoming a priest. Most drowned priests do not bathe themselves in any other water but the sea, and they would walk barefoot. As they don't have a permanent home of their own, they would wander the Iron Islands while at the same time not straying too far from the sea.
Lords and peasants who live in the Iron Islands are obliged to provide the priests with food and shelter in the name of the Drowned God. To strengthen their faith, drowned priests would drink sea water and eat only fish. As they speak the voice of their god, they hold great power over the ironborn, being able to call in a Kingsmoot. As many of the priests are illiterate, holy rituals and prayers are taught orally. Due to being associated with anything aquatic-related, they would primarily make use of things that come from the sea, such as making shelters out of driftwood and tents out of sealskin.
It is said that a drowned priest is able to make wells sour and make women barren with his gaze.
Drowned Men[]
Drowned Men are Aeron Greyjoy's acolytes. Like the drowned priests, they wear mottled robes. Their weapons are cudgels made of driftwood, which is a sign of their devotion. To other drowned priests, it is unknown if their respective groups of acolytes are also called Drowned Men.
Practices[]
Unlike other religions and similar to the Old Gods of the North, the Drowned God has no temples, holy books, or idols. However, in the TV series, several statues depict the Drowned God as a vaguely-shaped humanoid.
The ironborn believed that every man was given a gift by the Drowned God, and it's something that they excel at. In addition, it is also believed that the Drowned God helps bold men but not cowards.
Some say that "the Drowned God wakes" when waves grow larger and the winds rise. Children who are born from a thrall are given freedom as long as they worship the Drowned God.
Seastone Chair[]
The ironborn believe that the Drowned God decides who will sit on the Seastone Chair, and that person will not be a woman nor a godless man. However, this belief would prove to be hypocritical, as Euron Greyjoy, during the Kingsmoot of 300 AC, was chosen to be king, despite the fact that he is a godless man himself, although his coronation is still met with mild opposition. During his ongoing invasion of the Reach and its western islands, and before it, King Euron III has been repeatedly giving human sacrifices to both the Drowned God and the Storm God.
Drowned priests can have the power to summon all ironborn captains on Nagga's Hill for a kingsmoot in the name of the Drowned God.
Ritual drowning[]
Priests of the Drowned God are known to drown men and then revive them with the Kiss of Life. This was done as part of the rites of their god, as they consecrated the drowned person to Drowned God. However, not all men survived the ritual drowning, as men can die from actual drowning while the Kiss of Life may not even work. While a priest or an acolyte of his would use the Kiss of Life on the man who had drowned, others might pray around them. It is custom amongst the ironborn that a newborn child, shortly following their birth, would be given over to the Drowned God. Some drowned priests believed that it should be done in a similar manner, but more frequently, the child should be simply dipped into a tub of seawater to wet the baby's head.
Blessing[]
When blessing a person, a priest will have the person kneel before pouring a stream of water from his sealskin upon the person's head while stating, "Let [person] your servant be born again from the sea, as you were. Bless him with salt, bless him with stone, bless him with steel." The kneeling person will then respond by saying, "What is dead may never die." and the priest will reply, "What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger".
When blessing new ironborn ships, the priests of the Drowned God will speak invocations and pour seawater over the ship's prow.
Ritual executions[]
There are several different types of executions among the followers of the Drowned God. Blood sacrifice is done by slitting the throats of thralls before their bodies are given over to the sea. However, at other times, sacrifice might be done by just drowning someone, preferably in salt water. The executioner who performs the execution should be the person in command.
Death and the afterlife[]
When an ironborn dies, it is said that the Drowned God needed a strong oarsman. On such occasions, the phrase "What is dead may never die" will be uttered. It is believed that the dead after they die will be summoned to the Droned God's watery halls, where they would feast for eternity while mermaids will attend to his every want. The ironborn believed that they should not be buried in the earth as "no true son of the sea would want to rot underground" as they would not be able to find the Drowned God's watery halls.
Similar to in Vaes Dothrak, it is preached by the priests of the Drowned God that no ironborn should shed the blood of another ironborn, though they believe that alternate methods, such as drowning, are acceptable, as no blood would be shed. When an ironborn dies at sea, it is considered to be a good deed from the Drowned God.
The Drowned God and the ocean in other cultures[]
| “ | "So many drowned men, the Drowned God will be strong there," Victarion had thought when he chose the island for the three parts of his fleet to join up again. He was no priest, though. What if he had gotten it backwards? Perhaps the Drowned God had destroyed the island in his wroth. | „ |
| ~ Thoughts of Victarion Greyjoy, thinking about the tsunami during the Doom of Valyria, after a large portion of the Iron Fleet didn't make it to the Isle of Cedars. |
Legends and stories from the Known World seem to agree that other creatures and races live under the sea, which in ironborn culture makes them all creatures of the Drowned God, who controls the seas and oceans and creates everything related to them, including sentient beings, animals, and other bodies of water. Even all sea-related catastrophes are considered the work of the Drowned God, including the massive tsunami during the Doom of Valyria, that flooded the Isle of Cedars and destroyed the cities of Ghozai and Velos.
According to the priests of the Drowned God, the Ironborn came from beneath the oceans and are more kin to fish and merlings than the rest of mankind, making them descendants of other races and theorized civilizations from the sea. Generally, the most accepted origin for the Ironborn is that they descend from First Men who settled upon the Iron Islands thousands of years ago. However, Archmaester Haereg theorized that the Ironborn's ancestors came to the Iron Islands and Westeros from an unknown land west of the Sunset Sea. Their Seastone Chair, carved from oily black stone, is said to have been found on the shores of Old Wyk, the holiest of the Iron Islands, when they first arrived. The Ironborn's religion claim they are the children of the sea and the Drowned God.
In his manuscript Strange Stone, Maester Theron (born a highborn bastard named Theron Pyke) connected the Drowned God's religion with other legends, myths and religions of the Known World, often involving merfolks and other races of sea creatures. Theron suggested that the beliefs and legends of the Ironborn were inspired by sea creatures (and perhaps cosmic entities) who were said to have fathered merlings in the human world. Theron named the creatures "Deep Ones", while Maester Yandel described them a "queer, misshapen race of half men sired by creatures of the salt seas upon human women."
Squishers are creatures of Westerosi folklore in Crackclaw Point in the Crownlands, who likely originated from sea creatures. According to legends, squishers appear human from a distance, but their heads are larger than those of men and they have scales instead of hair. They have webbing between their fingers and toes, and their mouths have rows of green, needle-like teeth. Their bellies are white like those of fishes. It is said all the squishers were killed by the First Men, with Ser Clarence Crabb fighting the squisher king. It is unknown if there is any relation to the squishers and Maester Theron's Deep Ones.
The legends of the Free City of Lorath state the now-vanished race known as the mazemakers were destroyed by creatures of the sea, such as merlings, selkies, or walrus-men. It is unknown if their vanquishers were connected with the Deep Ones.
In the infamous, miserable and windy archipelago of the Thousand Islands, in the cold and frozen lands of northern Essos, the inhabitants dread the sea and the fish are described as oddly misshapen, with a bitter and unpleasant taste. Some believe the Thousand Islands are the remnants of a drowned kingdom whose buildings were submerged by the rising sea thousands of years ago. The extremely xenophobic inhabitants seem to disapprove of navigation and are said to sacrifice sailors to squamous and fish-headed gods. As likenesses of these gods are visible along the shores when the tide is low, some theorize there is a submerged civilization living there. The people of the Thousand Islands are so terrified of the ocean that they refuse to set food in the water, even when threatened with death. Even in this case it is unknown if their dreaded gods are the Deep Ones.
Some humans in the Known World resemble fish in physical appearances. It is said the people of the Isle of Toads are reminiscent of fish and have webbed appendages. The ironborn warrior Dagon Codd is physically described resembling a big fish, and he is wide-mouthed and pop-eyed with pale skin.
Maester Theron also drew a connection between the oily black stone of the Seastone Chair of the Iron Islands and that of the ancient fortress that serves as foundation of the Hightower. While the foundation of the Hightower, the Five Forts of Yi Ti, and the Bloodstone Emperor's worshipped stone are all fused black stone. The Iron Islands' Seastone Chair is made of pure black stone. All the buildings of Asshai, the blocks of the ancient ruined city of Yeen in Sothoryos, and the Toad Stone idol in the Isle of Toads are also pure black stone.
Trivia[]
- As it is known that George R. R. Martin is a fan of H. P. Lovecraft's works and pays homage to them multiple times, the majority of the fanbase of the A Song of Ice and Fire readers compare the Drowned God to Cthulhu, one of the cosmic entities known as Great Old Ones. Because of this, the fanbase tends to nickname the Ironborn "Cthulhu-worshipping vikings".
- Other sea horror-like legends of ASoIaF, such as the background of the Thousand Islands, are also considered homages to the Lovecraftian Cthulhu mythos.
- The theorized race of the Deep Ones may also be a reference to Lovecraft's race of the Deep Ones.
- A common ironborn name is "Dagon", another possible nod to Lovecraft's Dagon, a Great Old One and one of the ruling Gods of the Deep Ones.
- The Ironborn Dagon Codd is said to look like a humanoid fish-like man.
- The Drowned God is deemed a demon by some believers of R'hllor, possibly due to his affiliation to cold and the complete darkness of the deep ocean, where R'hllor sunlight can't reach. Red priests deem anything related to darkness, cold, night and dreams as evil, and under the sea it's dark, sunless, cold or icy-cold, and life in it isn't possible for humans. Priests of the Drowned God claim to have prophetic dreams.
- The red priest Moqorro claims the Drowned God is real, but not a god and instead a demon and thrall serving the Great Other, meaning he supports an age of never-ending darkness and winter. Ser Clayton Suggs and other believers sworn to Stannis Baratheon called the Ironborn "demon worshipers", referring to the Drowned God. Patchface's songs about the ocean and its darkness scare the red priestess Melisandre.
- The red priests and their followers' animosity toward the Drowned God is reciprocated by the Ironborn, who in turn call R'hllor a demon and express fear and contempt toward red priests like Moqorro.
- Stannis Baratheon's fool and jester Patchface miraculously survived spending three days on sea. He apparently drowned but was revived, and now makes frequent references to events underwater. He often repeats "it's always summer under the sea", possibly having seen something, and some claim he was saved by a mermaid. This is similar to how Aeron Greyjoy claims to have drowned and witnessed the beautiful sight of the Drowned God's watery halls when he was lost at sea but emerged alive.
- Melisandre, who is extremely afraid of the dark, is terrified of Patchface and disapproves of his presence. It is theorized Patchface may be connected to the Drowned God. This may be why Melisandre considers him dangerous, as she may associate the Drowned God with the Great Other, like other believers of her faith do.
- The Drowned God and the Storm God are very similar to the Sea God and the Goddess of the Wind, two ancient deities and legendary figures from Stormlander myths of the First Men, with the same powers over sea and sky.
- The Sea God is the counterpart of the Drowned God, while the Goddess of the Wind is the counterpart of the Storm God and is identified as female.
- While in Ironborn religion and myths, the Drowned God and the Storm God have always been sworn enemies, in Stormlander mythology, the Sea God and the Goddess of the Wind are married and have children. They commit mass murder, killing the family of the mythic first Storm King Durran Godsgrief and tormented the Kingdom of the Storm with massive storms and tidal waves out of hatred and outrage for Durran having married their daughter Elenei.
- The Sea God is the counterpart of the Drowned God, while the Goddess of the Wind is the counterpart of the Storm God and is identified as female.
- Just like the Drowned God and the Storm God, in Essos R'hllor (god of heat, day and life) and the Great Other (god of cold, night and death) have similar deities with similar roles in Yi Ti: the Maiden-Made-of-Light and the Lion of Night. Even in this case, the YiTish interpretation of the deities of day and night has them married and one of them being female.
External Links[]
- Drowned God on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire.
- Drowned God on the Game of Thrones Wiki
