53 pages • 1 hour read
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
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Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, substance use, physical abuse, animal cruelty and death, and death.
Part 1: “The Hedge Knight”
Part 1, Pages 1-20 Summary
These novellas are set in the world of Westeros, established by Martin in his series, A Song of Ice and Fire. The events of The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight take place roughly 100 years before the events in A Game of Thrones, the first novel in the series.
Dunk, short for Duncan, was a squire for a hedge knight named Ser Arlan of Pennytree, who recently died. Dunk is an orphan from the poor Flea Bottom district of King’s Landing, the capital city of Westeros, and he is “hugely tall for his age” of 16 or 17 (6). Before dying, Ser Arlan knighted Dunk, making him Ser Duncan. Once he has buried Ser Arlan, Dunk wonders what he should do next. The life of a hedge knight is itinerant and difficult, named for the hedges under which the knights sleep while traveling in search of work or tournaments.
Dunk decides to take part in a tourney being held at Ashford. In a tavern along the way, he gives his horse to the young boy who appears to be the stableboy. In the tavern, he is met by an intoxicated lord, who insists that he has seen Dunk in his dreams.
