One of the very distinct religions to exist outside the continent of Westeros is the Dothraki horse god The Great Stallion in the faraway lands of Vaes Dothrak and the Dothraki Great Grass Sea. This deity, while appearing as more of a ‘savage’ religion in comparison to the house of the Seven and the Lord of the Light, actually contains many formal, if not henotheistic structures, with its own clergy (Dosh khaleen).
Despite the custom of ravishing and reaving through other cultures, namely the Lhazareen “sheep people”who live beyond the southern border of the Dothraki Sea, worshippers of the Great Stallion do accept the existence of other deities, namely the Great Shepherd, which is worshiped by the Lhazareen. They do assert strongly that their god is assuredly superior to the Shepherd of the Lhazareen.This is evidenced in the Dothraki language itself: when planning an invasion of Westeros, Khal Drogo declares:
Anha aqorisok chiories mori, vazzafrok yal mori, ma afichak vojjor samva Vaesaan Dothrak!” (“I will rape their women, take their children as slaves, and bring their broken gods back to Vaes Dothrak!”)
Brutal and vicious, this kind of claim is historically common for warring tribes and religions whose customs entail raping and pillaging to honor their gods or spiritual deities. It’s the kind of feverish sentiment that captivates Daenerys Targaryen when she is khaleesi, although her objections to the rape of women and enslavement of children is more than palpable.
The Dothraki traditionally burn their dead in funeral pyres, so that their spirit may go on to the Night Lands. It is considered a terrible dishonor not to burn a dead Dothraki. This aspect reveals one of the beautiful elements of the deity of the Great Stallion, showing the blend of spiritual mysticism with nature and animistic practices.
Found on http://beautifuldeath.com/
As far as comparisons go, there are a few relevant options. The first idea that may come to mind is the animistic spirituality of Native American deities, but when observing the henothestic qualities of the Great Stallion more thoroughly, we can recognize this transitional stage between polytheism and strict monotheism in early, pre-Babylonian Captivity Judaism and other early Canaanite religions.
The central story of the Israelite nation is the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt under the guidance of Moses, followed by the conquest of the Promised Land of Canaan, reminding us of the Dothraki following their Khal across a continent to Vaes Dothrak.
When asked if the Dothraki were monotheistic or polytheistic, language consultant and creator of the Dothraki language David J. Peterson responded:
- “The Dothraki religion is, of course, up to George R. R. Martin. I’ve tried to encode it the best I can in the Dothraki language, to the extent that there’s material available. I believe that there’s a lot to back up the point of view that the Dothraki believe that other gods may, in fact, exist, and that by stealing and destroying their statues, they are defeating them. (This type of belief was quite common to many ancient peoples in our world.)
- This was actually the inspiration for the word for “deity” in Dothraki, which is the same as the word for “statue” [vojjor].
- That said, I don’t think this is tantamount to saying the Dothraki are polytheistic. Though they believe that these gods are real, they’re not their gods, if that makes sense, and I haven’t seen evidence in the books of any other god but the Great Horse God, which Dany prays to at one point. They refer to the moon as a goddess (the wife of the sun), but I’m not sure that’s enough to say that they worship the moon and sun as personified gods.”
When the term “henotheism” was subsequently pointed out to Peterson, he said that this matched his earlier observation (that “this type of belief was quite common to many ancient peoples in our world”) and he responded:”I think that rather hits the nail on the end. Again, we’d need to wait for confirmation from GRRM, but that gels with my interpretation.”
Life of Ice and Fire 