An original Dragonglass dagger used during the production of HBO’s Game of Thrones, the landmark fantasy series created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, adapted from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels about the noble houses battling for control of the mythical lands of Westeros.
In the world of the series, dragonglass, the people of Westeros’ name for obsidian, is one of the only substances capable of destroying the White Walkers, making these ancient blades among the most important weapons in the war against the dead. This dagger was most prominently seen when Samwell Tarly, Edd, and Grenn of the Night’s Watch discover a bundle of long-buried weapons in the snow at the Fist of the First Men, north of the Wall. It returns when Sam, the unlikeliest hero of the Watch, stuns everyone by killing a White Walker single-handedly with a dragonglass blade, earning the nickname “Sam the Slayer,” and again later when he passes it along to Jon Snow for his journey beyond the Wall to recruit the Wildlings. This particular dagger has a rubber tip on the end, a safety feature built to prevent injury during action scenes, especially those calling for a stab.
The dagger is presented in a custom framed display alongside images from the series. Few objects on the show changed the course of the story as completely as the humble dragonglass blade, the discovery that first gave the living a fighting chance against the Long Night.
