Many stories of fiction are contrived from aspects of reality. One trope that pops up in the fantasy genre is incest. Also known as inbreeding, many tales, such as the worlds created by George R.R. Martin (Westeros) and J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter), have dove into this a lot in their works. It has also been seen as a rather interesting discussion point.
The world of Westeros has always featured incest as a way of keeping certain bloodlines “pure.” The Targaryens were well-known for practising inbreeding to keep their Valyrian blood alive. However, some religious factions, such as the Faith of the Seven, saw this as a sin. For this reason, King Jaehaerys and his sister-wife, Queen Alysanne, had to be married twice.
In Harry Potter, the incest thread doesn’t come up until a few books into the story when the topic of blood purity is discussed. Some wizarding families, such as the Blacks and the Gaunts, were so obsessed with keeping themselves “pure” that they married within their own families. Cousin-to-cousin was a big one.
Incest In Westeros
The Descendants Of Aegon I
When Jaehaerys initially wanted to marry Alysanne, they had to do it secretly for several reasons. The first is that Alysanne was too young at the time for bedding. Point number two is that incest was a touchy subject at the time. Aegon the Conqueror had married both his sisters and had a son with each of them. He was wed to them at the same time. Then there was the union between Aegon and Rhaena, Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s older siblings.
Aegon, the heir to the throne before Jaehaerys, married Rhaena; they were almost killed during a perilous time when the Faith of the Seven had some sway. Aegon and Rhaena were trapped by members of the Seven.
Forbidden Relationships And Daenerys’ Madness
Almost two hundred years later, incest is considered outlawed, but it doesn’t stop twins Cersei and Jaime Lannister from having sex, producing three kids, and passing them off as Robert Baratheon’s heirs.
In the final Season of Game of Thrones, which isn’t based on the books, Daenerys goes crazy despite winning the battle and kills everyone. This leads her lover and nephew, Jon Snow, to assassinate her to stop her. Moreover, this was due to her inbred DNA. Her father, King Aerys, lost his mind and became known as The Mad King due to his incestuous relationship with his sister-wife, Rhaella.
Upon meeting, Daenerys and Jon had no idea they were even related. Jon was the son of her eldest brother, Rhaegar, who died the same year she was born. Also, Jon is the same age as his aunt and was raised as the bastard son of Ned Stark, who was biologically his uncle, as his mother was his sister, Lyanna Stark, who secretly eloped with Rhaegar.
What non-book readers mightn’t know is that incest in the Targaryen dynasty was expected
as they believed they were untouchable as they had “the blood of the dragon” in their veins.
Targaryen Blood Is Not Sacred
Despite being an unreliable source, Fire and Blood claims that Jaehaerys and Alysanne realised a little too late that their bloodline wasn’t invincible. Their six-year-old daughter, Daenerys, became sick with the Shivers and died.
This shocked them as no Targaryen ever got ill, and they thought it was because of their bloodline being connected to dragons. Though they knew they weren’t immortal, as everyone dies eventually, it was hard to believe they could die a mortal death like any other person in Westeros.
The World Of Harry Potter And The Obsession With Blood Purity
Moving over to Harry Potter now and the wizarding world had a few families who couldn’t let go of their blood purity obsession. However, not all pure-blood families practised incest. The two most notable families that did were the Blacks and the Gaunts.
The Black family had cousins marry cousins, as seen with Sirius Black’s parents, Walburga and Orion, who were second cousins.
With the Gaunts, it was challenging to tell as there was not much about them marrying their relatives. However, Marvolo Gaunt’s behaviour and his son’s disfigurement, Morfin, show incest going on. It is still being determined whom Marvolo was married to as no wife was ever mentioned, though he likely married a female relative and produced two children with her. The incest element might explain why Voldemort turned out the way he did.
Various members from both the Gaunt and Black families were considered dangerous individuals. One example in the Black family was Bellatrix Lestrange. She was a devout member of Voldemort’s Death Eaters and was obsessed with her master.
An early line of the Lestrange family did practice incest, too, as Corvus Lestrange I’s grandson, also named Corvus, married his cousin.
Victoire Weasley, Teddy Lupin And The Real-Life Example
Some argue that Victoire Weasley and her boyfriend, Teddy Lupin, were in an inbred relationship as they descended from the House of Black. However, they’re fourth cousins once removed and not closely related. Therefore, this is not considered incest, given the distance.
We can use the real-life argument of Prince William and his wife, Catherine Middleton. They’re twelfth cousins as they share an ancestor. However, this is not considered incest, as the blood relationship is incredibly distant. The same applies to Victoire and Teddy.
Sirius once told Harry that all the pure-blood families were somehow related. Given that Harry was born into a pure-blood family, but as a half-blood, as his mother was muggle-born, he and his godfather could be related somehow.
The Blacks are also linked to the Weasleys. One of their members was the mother of Arthur Weasley, meaning his grandfather was a member of the Black family. It has been pointed out, too, that given how big the Black family used to be, some pure-blood members likely married into the family without realising the blood connection.
There Were Pure Blood Families Who Didn’t Practice Incest
Despite the reputation that many pure-blood families had for being bigoted towards every other blood status, some didn’t practice inbreeding. These included the following:
- Potters
- Weasleys
- Malfoys
- Greengrass family
The Malfoys are interesting because, despite their hatred for every other blood status, they were more than willing to marry half-bloods if they had to. The blood status argument died with Lucius as Draco raised his son, Scorpius, to accept everyone regardless of status.
Draco was raised to think he was better than everyone else due to his bloodline. However, when he married Astoria Greengrass and had been a Death Eater, he realised that blood didn’t matter if you were dead. His parents were disappointed in his choice of wife because Astoria, despite her blood status, didn’t believe in what they did, and this rubbed off on their son and grandson too.
