‘House of the Dragon’: What Does Lykiri Mean? High Valyrian Commands Fans Should Know
The Targaryens and other Dragonriders in House of the Dragon speak High Valyrian to control their dragons and sometimes converse with each other. While subtitles are included for longer conversations, the commands for dragons aren’t always translated. There are several commands in High Valyrian that House of the Dragon fans should know.
[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 7.]
David Peterson created High Valyrian for ‘Game of Thrones’
Both House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones contain High Valyrian dialogue. George R.R. Martin’s books, on which the shows are based, contain only a few words of High Valyrian. According to Mental Floss, language creator David Peterson created the language for the TV shows.
Additionally, Mental Floss compares High Valyrian to Latin, a language that is only spoken by a select number of people. Like the romance languages, High Valyrian developed into Low Valyrian dialects spoken in various regions over time.
What does lykiri mean? High Valyrian commands ‘House of the Dragon’ fans should know
There are several important commands that Dragonriders use in House of the Dragon. In High Valyrian, “dohearas” is a command that translates to “serve.” Jacaerys uses it while training and trying to establish control over his dragon Vermax in episode 6. Additionally, Aemond uses this command while confronting Vhagar in episode 7.
Another command Aemond uses while face to face with Vhagar is lykiri, which translates to “calm.” Aemond stops Vhagar from breathing fire with this command and manages to mount the dragon. Finally, Aemond uses the command “soves” to get Vhagar to fly.
One of the most important High Valyrian words in House of the Dragon is “dracarys,” the command for fire. It’s been used throughout the series, such as when Rhaenyra lights her mother’s funeral pyre, when Laena begs Vhagar to kill her, and when Jacaerys gives Vermax permission to incinerate a goat.
Milly Alcock learned full conversations in High Valyron
Several cast members in House of the Dragon have full conversations in High Valyrian. Rhaenyra and Daemon especially prefer to speak to each other in the old language. Milly Alcock, who portrayed a young Rhaenyra in episodes 1-5, explained how she learned her High Valyrian lines during an appearance on The Official Game of Thrones Podcast.
“It was just kind of like learning another song in another language. I would learn the scene in English, and then I would have it printed out on a sheet. And they would have it phonetically, and then they would have an audio recording,” the actor said. “And then I would just say it. So it became muscle memory. So I didn’t have to think about what I was saying, it was just like my mouth was on autopilot, basically.”
House of the Dragon airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
