Game of Thrones: Explaining how the Ironborn crown a king

Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones gave some insight into how kings in the Iron Islands are crowned and an important aspect of their religion.

Note: This post contains massive spoilers from tonight’s episode of Game of Thrones, so if you have not watched yet turn away now.

After winning the support of the people during the kingsmoot, Euron Greyjoy is set to sit on the Salt Throne and rule the Iron Islands. There is just one more thing that he must survive, drowning.

Instead of following the Faith of the Seven, the Ironborn worship the Drowned god. So they believe that if a person can survive drowning, they have been blessed by the Drowned. To prove their belief, people are drowned in the sea, and brought back to life by the priest who uses CPR – they don’t know what that is so it is seen as the Drowned god’s blessing. That is why the Ironborn say “what is dead may never die”.

So before Euron can take the throne, he needed to prove that he was worthy in the eyes of the Drowned god. That is why he could only be crowned king after coming back from being drowned by the priest – in the books, the priest is another of Balon Greyjoy’s brothers. The show limits the priest’s role in bringing Euron back from the dead, but the result is the same, Euron has been deemed the rightful king by the Drowned god and is worthy of wearing the crown.