House of the Dragon: Corlys Velaryon and the wealth of his House

House of the Dragon

Corlys Velaryon is played by Steve Toussaint in House of the Dragon. We have seen him, together with Daemon Targaryen, struggling with the Nutrigranchi in the War in the Stepstones and we know that he is the first Lord Commander of the Royal Guard, as well as the famous navigator at the head of a very rich House, indeed, the richest in all of Westeros. In this article, we will get to know both Corlys Velaryon and his house better.

WARNING THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS!

From this point on there will be some spoilers about House of the Dragon, so we invite you to proceed with the reading with caution.

House of the Dragon: Corlys Velaryon and the wealth of his House

Who is Corlys Velaryon? Why is his house so rich?

Who is Corlys Velaryon?

Corlys Velaryon is also the husband of Rhaenys Targaryen, the Queen Who Never Was who was preferred as heir to the Iron Throne, her cousin Viserys. Furthermore, he is the best known navigator of Westeros, and is also called Sea Serpent (Seasnake in the original language), because this is the name of his ship. Thanks to his imposing fleet, he also makes many commercial trips to Essos, the Eastern Continent, and that is why his family, whose headquarters is Altamarea, is very rich. But the Velaryon house is not only rich: it is also very powerful.

Retrieve our article The 7 most important events that happened before House of the Dragon

The Valaryons have their roots in Ancient Valyria, just like the Targaryens and, according to what Corlys Velaryon tells us, according to some texts his House is even older than House Targaryen. This position of prestige was then reinforced by the long-standing alliance with the Targaryens.

Why is your House so rich?

Retrieve our article All dragons from House of the Dragon

The first 3 episodes of House of the Dragon are already available in Italy in V.O. subtitled exclusively on Sky and streaming on demand only on NOW TV at the same time as the United States, while the new episodes will be broadcast every Monday for another 7 weeks, and from 29 August the episodes dubbed in Italian will also be available. On these pages you will find our preview review of the first 6 episodes of the series. To take advantage of these and many other contents, you can buy NOW TV Stick with the first 3 months of your choice between Cinema or Entertainment directly here on Amazon.

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‘House of the Dragon’: Speaking Valyrian Milly Alcock’s ‘Mouth Was on Auto-Pilot’

House of the Dragon takes place more than 172 years before Game of Thrones, but it is very much in the same world. Westeros looks just as epic. Dragons are alive and well. They also speak Valyrian, the language of Westeros royalty. Milly Alcock had to learn it to play Rhaenyra Targaryan. 

L-R: Julian Jones, Milly Alcock and Fabien Frankel | Olly Upton/HBO

Alcock was a guest on the House of the Dragon podcast for episode 3, “Second of His Name.” She told the hosts about learning High Valyrian for scenes in the show. New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays on HBO Max.

The ‘Game of Thrones’ books invented High Valyrian

Before Game of Thrones was on HBO, George R.R. Martin wrote the books. He conceived of the new language they speak in the kingdoms of Westeros. However, the Valyrian passages Martin wrote wouldn’t be enough for the show. 

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Enter David J. Petersen. In order to script full scenes in High Valyrian, Game of Thrones hired Petersen to turn Martin’s writing into a full language. Now you can take courses in High Valyrian via Duolingo and people speak it just like Klingon or Quenya from Lord of the Rings.

Milly Alcock learned Valyrian for her ‘House of the Dragon’ scenes 

Rhaenyra has some House of the Dragon scenes in Valyrian. While she did not have time to get fluent in the language, Alcock did learn to form the words and speak it. 

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“[It was] actually really fun,” Alcock said on the House of the Dragon podcast. “It was just kind of like learning another song in another language basically. I would learn the scene in English and then I would have it printed out on a sheet. They would have it phonetically and then they would have an audio recording 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.”

Milly Alcock still got some High Valyrian wrong on ‘House of the Dragon’

Alcock may sound like a High Valyrian expert on the show, but she admits she often gets the language wrong. She said sometimes she forgets the words and starts mumbling gibberish, and has to confer with the dialect coach. Other times, she can’t shake old lines she memorized from previous House of the Dragon episodes. 

“Or, or, or I would find myself saying old lines in High Valyrian because my mouth would know the patterns,” Alcock said. “So if they were too similar, I would just find myself saying the wrong line because they would start similarly and then I would go back and then Miguel [Sapochnik] would be like, ‘Milly, that was episode 2.’ I’d be like, ‘Oh sh** sorry, my bad.’”

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