How Big Was the Cannibal Dragon? Compared to the other Biggest Dragons

We all know that there are quite a lot of dragons in the Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon storylines. Of course, there were only three dragons that appeared in Game of Thrones, but what we know is that House of the Dragon will show more dragons because the dragons were still quite prominent in Westeros during that era. While there were a lot of great dragons during the Targaryen dynasty, one such dragon that was never tamed was the large and wild dragon named Cannibal. So, how big was the Cannibal compared to the other biggest dragons?

The Cannibal was the biggest of the wild dragons dwelling on Dragonstone and was said to be quite old as well. Rumors say that he might have been just as old as Balerion, although there is no evidence to that claim. Nevertheless, the Cannibal was only behind Balerion, Vhagar, and Meraxes in size.

It was the sheer ferocity of the Cannibal that made it impossible to tame for any of the Targaryens and their bastards during the Dance of the Dragons. In that regard, no one knew what happened to the Cannibal after the war, except for the fact that it was one of the few dragons that survived. And, after the war, it was already the biggest dragon in the world. Now, let’s look at what we know about the Cannibal’s size.

What Is The Cannibal Dragon?

There are a lot of things that we can say about the Targaryens, but the one thing that we know for a fact is that House Targaryen was only the ruling dynasty of the Seven Kingdoms for nearly three centuries because it had dragons on its side during the earlier part of its reign. In fact, Aegon the Conqueror only needed two years to conquer most of Westeros because he had three gigantic dragons, led by Balerion the Black Dread, on his side.

Of course, after the conquest of Westeros, Aegon and the rest of House Targaryen continued to breed dragons so that they could make sure that these creatures would never go extinct and that the entire family could hold on to the Iron Throne for as long as possible. And that’s why there were still quite a number of dragons that became prominent long after Aegon had died.

While there were plenty of dragons that ended up becoming loyal to their Targaryen riders, there were some dragons that were untamed throughout most of their entire lives because they were simply too ferocious and too uncontrollable for any member of House Targaryen to mount. These were the wild dragons. And among the wild dragons that roamed Dragonstone, the greatest was a dragon that the smallfolk of Dragonstone began calling the Cannibal.

The Cannibal, of course, was aptly named. That’s because this dragon developed a taste for its own kin as it had a habit of eating smaller dragons. It often feasted on dragon eggs, newborn dragons, and dead dragons. And there were reasons to believe that it might have hunted down and feasted on smaller adult dragons as well due to how it simply loved eating its own kind.

Because of the fact that the Cannibal was so wild and ferocious, no one was ever able to tame this large dragon. In fact, those who tried taming it ended up getting killed or eaten, as the lair of the Cannibal is littered with the bones of dead dragons and people who tried to claim it. As such, it became the most feared dragon during the better half of the Targaryen dynasty.

How Big Was The Cannibal?

One of the things that we know about the dragons in the world of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon is that they don’t stop growing. That means that older dragons are more likely to be bigger than younger dragons, although genetics still do play a role. But the point of the matter is that dragons that tend to be older also tend to be much larger than most dragons.

So, in the Cannibal’s case, it was the oldest of the wild dragons roaming Dragonstone. That means that it is older than even Sheepstealer itself, which was born during the early reign of Old King Jaehaerys Targaryen. The reign of Jaehaerys began on 48 AC, and it is possible that Sheepstealer was born during that time. And because the Cannibal was older than Sheepstealer, then it is possible that this dragon was born much earlier than that.

There were rumors that the Cannibal was born a hundred years, even before the Targaryens moved to Dragonstone, and that could mean that he might have been born on the island and was a Westerosi dragon. If that were true, then that would mean that it might have been just as old as Balerion the Black Dread. Nevertheless, the maesters believed that there was no evidence to support the claim that the Cannibal was this old. Still, the fact of the matter is that this dragon was quite old and might have been close to Vhagar’s age.

Due to its age, the Cannibal was an incredibly huge dragon that dwarfed almost all of the other dragons in Westeros. At one point, it was able to chase off Sheepstealer, which was also a huge dragon. But the fact that the Cannibal was able to scare away this large dragon suggests that it was much larger than Sheepstealer.

We have numbers that could help explain just how big the Cannibal was, but we could compare its size to the other dragons in the history of Westeros and even the other famous dragons in fiction so that we could get a better look at just how big this beast was.

Balerion

Balerion the Black Dread was the biggest and greatest of the dragons that the Targaryens had under their care. He was the mightiest of the dragons that conquered Westeros and was able to live up to two centuries before he died due to old age. At that time, he was right around 453 feet in terms of its size, but that is just a rough estimate because there are no official measurements for just how big the Game of Thrones dragons are.

Compared to the Cannibal, Balerion was much bigger because Vhagar was the only dragon that came close to its size. As such, the rumors of the Cannibal being as old or even older than Balerion probably aren’t true because the Cannibal should have been closer to Balerion’s size than Vhagar.

Vhagar

While Vhagar was the smallest of the three dragons that conquered Westeros, it was able to live longer than Meraxes. As such, it became the closest thing to Balerion’s size as it grew old enough to be close enough to the Black Dread. That is why Vhagar is quite possibly bigger than the Cannibal, as it is possible that it is older than the wild dragon.

Meraxes

During the time of Aegon’s Conquest, Meraxes was bigger than Vhagar. However, it never had a chance to grow to a size close to Balerion because it died quite early. Nevertheless, had it lived as long as Vhagar did, Meraxes could have been just as big as Balerion. And because Meraxes is smaller than Vhagar’s prime size, there is a good chance that this dragon was just as big or slightly bigger than the Cannibal, who was said to be incredibly large and was much larger than the large Sheepstealer.

Smaug

Smaug is not from Game of Thrones but is from The Hobbit, as this serpentine dragon was incredibly large due to its elongated body. The VFX people behind The Hobbit claim that Smaug was around the size of two jumbo jets and is somewhere close to 427 feet. As such, it is possible that Smaug was right around the size of the Cannibal, which was said to be the second-largest dragon during the Dance of the Dragons.

Vermithor

While Vhagar was the largest dragon during the Dance of the Dragons, Vermithor was the second-largest dragon that was tamed by a dragonrider. It was already around a hundred years old during the Dance of the Dragons, and that means that it is older and larger than Sheepstealer. But because the Cannibal was the second-largest dragon of all of the dragons during the Targaryen civil war, it was larger than Vermithor.

Caraxes

According to the analysis above, it is possible that Caraxes and Drogon are just big as each other, except for the fact that Drogon is bulkier while Caraxes is quite possibly longer. It can be estimated that they are both somewhere around 120 feet. However, given that Caraxes was comparatively younger compared to the abovementioned dragons, it still had room to grow. As such, the Cannibal would have tried to cannibalize on Caraxes had it been given a chance to do so.

What Happened To The Cannibal?

Out of the three large wild dragons that existed during the Dance of the Dragons, the Cannibal was the only one that either survived or was left untamed. Sheepstealer was tamed and was never seen again when it and its rider ran away from the war. Meanwhile, Grey Ghost was killed and partially eaten by Sunfyre, the personal dragon of Aegon II. 

Nobody knew what happened to the Cannibal, as the last time it was seen was during the sea burial of Corlys Velaryon. Nevertheless, it was the largest living dragon at the end of the Dance of the Dragons, as Vhagar and Vermithor had perished during the war. It is possible that it died a natural death because it no longer had any dragons to feed on. But what we are sure of is that it probably did indeed perish because there were no longer any dragons in the world by the time the last known dragon died in 153 AC.