in a song of ice and fire and game of thrones,dragonglass, or obsidian, is a mysterious material with special magical properties relatingto white walkers and dragons. it’s used by the children of the forest and the night’swatch, and may play an important role in the ending of the series. so let’s have a look.obsidian exists in the real world – it’s a volcanic glass that forms from cooled lava.historically, obsidian’s been highly valued,
game of thrones books a dance with dragons, because as well as being quite beautiful,it can be fractured to form really sharp edges. so for thousands of years, all over the world, it’s been used to make tools and weapons like blades and arrowheads, as well as objectsof artistic and religious significance. on easter island, the moai statues had obsidianfor eyes, in anatolia, mirrors were made out
of obsidian, and in mesoamerica, the aztecsused obsidian knives in bloodletting rituals and human sacrifice. now, obsidian is usedto make surgical scalpels with blades sharper than steel, is considered a magical stoneby various new-agey folks, and is a high-tier crafting material in minecraft and terraria,so in a way, we still seem to value obsidian to this day.anyway, in game of thrones, obsidian has basically the same physical properties that it has inthe real world. it’s apparently formed from volcanic activity though there are alternativetheories . it’s “slick and shiny†and usually black, though can be other colours. it’s very “brittleâ€, and can form “razor sharp†edges. and it’s been usedby ancient peoples for thousands of years,
though in game of thrones, those people aren’thumans. the original inhabitants of westeros are the giants, and the children of the forest. the giants apparently “knew of no better tools or weapons than branches pulled fromtrees†, but the children of the forest “had great art in working obsidianâ€, andused it “to make tools and weapons for hunting†. eventually, human settlers came to westeros– the first men, and later the andals, who all but wiped out the giants and children,who now only survive in small numbers north of the wall . but the humans value obsidiantoo – it’s traded , and used in ornamentation – in sword hilts, and rings and things – crowfoodumber wears a chunk of dragonglass in his empty eye socket . so obsidian is, around,in small amounts, but it’s only during the
events of a song of ice and fire that peoplestart to realise just how important obsidian is.in clash, jon snow finds a cache of obsidian weapons, wrapped up in a night’s watch cloakand buried on the fist of the first men . the cloak hasn’t rotted, suggesting that theobsidian was recently buried , so it might have been benjen stark who left it , or maybecoldhands for bloodraven. in the show it’s a bit different – grenn and sam find thecache beneath a stone marked with runes of the first men, suggesting that it might havebeen left by ancient night’s watchmen . whoever buried it, jon takes some of the obsidian,and gives it to his friends in the watch . sam gets one of the daggers , and discovers itsimportance when the others come.
the others, or white walkers, are “strangeâ€icy creatures from beyond the wall who’ve been killing humans and raising them as wights,basically zombies, in an army of the dead, apparently intent on killing everything thatlives . it may actually be more complicated than that, but either way, it is looking likethe night’s watch will have to stop them. the wights can be killed with fire , or bychopping them into bits , but the others are really hard to kill – they’re apparentlyinvulnerable to most normal blades , and we’ve never seen them hurt by fire. the only thingthat we’ve seen kill a white walker, at least in the books, is sam’s obsidian dagger. when sam stabs a walker with obsidian, the walker dissolves, melts away, its body smokingand steaming where it touches the dagger – this
stuff is, like, white walker kryptonite, ithas a fiery magic to it which is hugely destructive to the icy white walkers . so the night’swatch wants more obsidian . all they have now are the few daggers and arrowheads andstuff that jon took from the first of the first men , and also some wildlings have obsidianweapons . there’s still lots more obsidian at the fist – or at hardhome, in the show– but with all these wights and walkers around, it’d be too dangerous to go backfor the cache. so as jeor mormont says, they “need to find dragonglass someplace elseâ€. luckily for the watch, there are at least four different places they could get some.firstly, when stannis baratheon comes to the wall, he agrees with the watch that they needto get more obsidian to fight the others.
he says that on the island of dragonstone,where he originally ruled, there are tunnels full of obsidian, whole “chunks of it, boulders[and] ledgesâ€. so stannis orders his men back on dragonstone to start mining this obsidian. the only problem is that, in the next book, dragonstone is besieged and captured by theforces of king tommen , and we don’t know whether any of stannis’ obsidian makes itoff the island. mace tyrell says that after its capture, “no wealth [is] found on dragonstoneâ€,that “every inch†of the island is searched, and not “a single gemstone or speck of goldâ€[is] found , though kevan lannister doubts this . so basically it’s uncertain, butpossible, that some of the obsidian mined on dragonstone makes it off the island andis shipped towards the wall – maybe to arrive
in the next book.the second way the watch could get obsidian is from skagos. skagos is a big island justeast of the wall, and its people, the skagosi, are infamous for savagery, cannibalism , humansacrifice, and, apparently, riding unicorns . in dance, davos sets sail for skagos becauseapparently rickon stark is taken there by osha . so it looks like skagos will be animportant location in the next book, and the thing is, the skagosi are known to offer obsidianblades in trade – skagos may be a source of obsidian for the watch. so with any luck,we’ll soon see rickon stark riding a unicorn to the wall, with a big stash of dragonglassto fight the others. the third possible source of obsidian is valyria.valyria is where the targaryens and their
dragons originally came from – it was oncethe centre of a huge, powerful empire , but was destroyed in a massive, mysterious, fieryapocalypse known as the doom of valyria. we don’t really know what caused the doom,but it seems to have been volcanic , and part of the destruction involved dragonglass rainingdown from the sky – so presumably there’s a whole lot of obsidian still lying aroundin the ruins of valyria. valyria is now considered a cursed , dangerous place, avoided by justabout everyone , but if, say, daenerys targaryen was brave enough to stop off at her ancestralhomeland on her way to westeros, she might just be able to pick up a supply of obsidian.imagine her turning up at the wall when the walkers come knocking, bringing not only fire-breathingdragons but enough obsidian to arm every man
on the wall – that would be a perfect wayto stop the others – and for daenerys to prove herself to the realm she intends torule. this is just speculation, and george martin has been kind of ambivalent about whetherwe’ll actually see valyria – though it has been shown in the show – so, we don’tknow. it seems – maybe not likely, but surely possible – that dany will deliver obsidianfrom valyria. the fourth possible source of obsidian isthe children of the forest . we know that they’ve used obsidian for thousands of years,we know that the children still exist north of the wall, and we are told that last timethe others came, thousands of years ago, they were stopped with the help of the childrenof the forest , which seems to have involved
the children providing the night’s watchwith obsidian . this may also be related to the legendary hero azor ahai, or the “lastheroâ€, a figure who apparently led humanity against the white walkers with a flaming swordcalled lightbringer . some fans speculate that this magic sword may have been made ofobsidian, or some obsidian alloy, because many of the powers of lightbringer can beexplained by the properties of obsidian – it kills white walkers, it burns without beingconsumed , it can emit bright light . a tale of azor ahai says when he stabbed a monsterwith lightbringer, the creature steamed and smoked and melted – just as a white walkersteams and smokes and melts when sam stabs it with obsidian . so there seems to be aconnection here between azor ahai’s magical
sword and obsidian. maybe the children ofthe forest will help azor ahai forge another lightbringer – or maybe lightbringer wasactually not one sword, but the many hundreds of obsidian weapons given to the night’swatch by the children – which, over thousands of years, became the myth of a single heroand his magic sword saving the world. for now, we don’t know. the point here is thatthe children of the forest may give the watch obsidian, and this could also be related tothis azor ahai prophecy business somehow. that makes four really cool ways that thenight’s watch could get obsidian to fight the others, and decide the outcome of whatmay be the biggest conflict in the conclusion of the series.but there’s still another reason why obsidian
is important – glass candles. glass candlesare magical artefacts from valyria, tall, twisted chunks of obsidian that can functionas candles. they seem to be closely connected to the power of magic in the world – apparentlyno one had succeeded in lighting a glass candle for many many years , until the recent reawakeningof magic with the birth of new dragons, and the return of the white walkers . in feast,we see that marwyn the mage has succeeded in lighting a glass candle, which symbolisesthis magical reawakening. but glass candles aren’t just symbolic, they’re also verypowerful tools. marwyn says that “the sorcerers of [valyria] could see across mountains, seas,and deserts with … glass candles. they could enter a man’s dreams and give him visions,and speak to one another half a world apartâ€
. we’ve actually already seen this magicat work – quaithe, the mysterious asshai’i shadowbinder, appears to daenerys in strangedreams and gives her cryptic advice, apparently using a glass candle . this use of fire magicto see across long distances and enter peoples’ dreams contrasts with the magic of the oldgods and the weirwoods, which bloodraven and bran use to do the same things – to seeacross long distances , and enter peoples’ dreams . the way melisandre and moqorro seevisions in their flames may also be related here, cause it also seems a similar magic– using fire to see images. so all this gives a sense of order to the magic in thisworld. anyway we know marwyn and quaithe have glass candles, and it’s actually possiblethat using them to communicate and work together
– because when quaithe warns daenerys abouteveryone who’s coming for her, she leaves out marwyn. as well as quaithe and marwyn,glass candles are owned by the other maesters of the citadel, someone called urrathon night-walkerin qarth, and also the targaryens of aemon’s day seem to have had some. we don’t knowmuch about how these candles are being used, but they’re obviously very powerful, andcould maybe play a big role in the future of the series. hopefully we’ll learn moreabout glass candles while sam is at the citadel. anyway. that is pretty much everything weknow about obsidian. it kills white walkers, so the night’s watch will probably needsome, and luckily, there are a bunch of interesting ways they could get more. there also glasscandles, which we don’t know much about,
but could also be really important later on.thanks for watching. feel free to like and subscribe if you’d like to see more, andthanks also to all the patrons who support this channel, including travis cook, carsonwilds, carolinefaye, hon monster, mugchip,
marshall snow, and to @vineyarddawg, who requestedthis topic. special thanks also to shawn woods, who kindly allowed the use of his video aboutmaking obsidian arrowheads – there’s a link in the description if you’d like tocheck out his channel. so thank you all again, and comment below to let us know what you’dlike to see next. cheers.
