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. He warns Dunk to “stay well away” from him (10). Upon leaving the tavern, Dunk finds the stable boy on his warhorse, Thunder. The boy—who is bald with strange purple eyes—wants to be Dunk’s squire. Presuming he is the innkeeper’s son, Dunk refuses his request.
Dunk arrives in Ashford, noting the heraldry and elaborate pavilions of the powerful lords and knights who will take part in the tourney. Dunk makes his own camp in the woods and remembers Ser Arlan’s story about seeing the last living Targaryen dragon. Since the death of the last dragon, the summers have shortened, and the winters have become more difficult.
Dunk must buy armor if he is to take part in the tournament. While searching for a merchant, a young woman operating a puppet show catches his attention. He finds an armorer named Steely Pate and agrees to find the money to buy the armor, claiming that he intends to be “a champion.” He must sell one of Ser Arlan’s horses but believes it is a worthwhile gamble. If he can win even one joust, he will be able to ransom his defeated foe’s horse and armor to fund his adventures. If he loses, however, he will have no money, no armor, and no horse.
Part 1, Pages 21-43 Summary
When Dunk returns to his camp, he finds the stable boy there. The boy introduces himself as Egg, and Dunk eventually agrees to Egg’s insistent requests to be taken on as squire, presuming that the boy is “another wretch from Flea Bottom” (22).
The next day, Dunk tries to enter himself in the tournament lists. Since no one knows him and there were no witnesses to his knighting, he needs to find someone who can vouch for him or Ser Arlan. A party of wealthy lords arrives, and Dunk recognizes them as members of the Targaryen family, the rulers of Westeros. One of the princelings, Valarr, mistakes Dunk for a stableboy and mocks his claim to be a hedge knight.
Dunk sells his horse and, while returning to Steely Pate, passes Ser Steffon Fossoway. Ser Steffon loudly invites Dunk to spar with him, but Dunk declines; instead, he makes friends with Raymun Fossoway, Ser Steffon’s squire. Dunk then sees Ser Manfred Dondarrion and hopes he will vouch for him, as Ser Arlan once served his father, but Ser Manfred has no memory of Ser Arlan and dismisses Dunk.
Part 1, Pages 43-67 Summary
While searching for the tournament steward, Dunk overhears a conversation between Baelor Targaryen—the crown prince of Westeros—and his younger brother, Maekar. Maekar hopes that his sons will triumph over Baelor’s sons in the tournament. However, two of his sons, Daeron and Aegon, have gone missing, and he has sent the Kingsguard to search for them. When they see Dunk, he tries to explain himself. Baelor remembers competing in a tournament against Ser Arlan and vouches for Dunk’s place in the lists. Baelor suggests that Dunk change his sigil, however, as such sigils can only be inherited by a “trueborn son.”
Afterward, Dunk finds Egg watching the puppet show. He strikes up a conversation with the girl who runs the show, who is named Tanselle. She agrees to paint him a new sigil, depicting a shooting star above an elm tree.
The tournament begins. Five pre-selected champions will represent Lady Ashford, in whose name the tournament is being held. The knights can challenge any of the champions and, if successful, will then take their place. Dunk studies the knights carefully to find the easiest challenge. He believes he could beat Prince Valarr, Baelor’s eldest son and a reckless fighter, but he does not want to be accused of injuring a prince—the reason so many who challenge Prince Valarr fall meekly in the field.
Aerion Brightflame, Maekar’s second son, challenges Ser Humfrey Hardyng, who has already defeated 14 formidable foes. Aerion impales Ser Humfrey’s horse with his lance; the horse falls, and Ser Humfrey’s leg is broken. It is a poor display of chivalry, and at Baelor’s suggestion, Lord Ashford gives Aerion’s horse to Ser Humfrey, who is declared the winner. Egg watches intensely. He knows the sigils of all the knights and insists to Dunk that Aerion killed the horse deliberately. Dunk is not sure that any knight could be so unchivalrous.
Part 1, Pages 67-90 Summary
Later, Dunk drinks wine with Raymun, and they chat about the knights in the tournament. Raymun mentions the two missing princes, “Daeron the Drunken” and his young brother (70). Egg rushes in to say that Aerion has attacked the puppet show and is hurting Tanselle. He is accusing her of treason because a dragon dies in her show.
Dunk runs to help, and he sees Aerion break one of Tanselle’s fingers. Before stopping to think, Dunk knocks Aerion down and is seized by the prince’s men. Aerion, noting that Dunk has loosened one of his teeth, threatens to have him executed. Egg stops him by revealing himself to be Aerion’s younger brother, the missing Prince Aegon. He cut his hair, he says, because he did not want to look like his brother.
Dunk is thrown in a cell. He hears the second day of the tourney and tries to imagine what is happening. He fears he may be executed. He is also confused by Egg’s true identity, feeling betrayed and foolish for not realizing that the youngster is a Targaryen. Egg comes to the cell with food and apologizes. He explains that Egg is a nickname, given to him by his brother Aemon.
Egg takes Dunk to see his uncle, Baelor. Baelor confesses that he would also like to hit Aerion, but he cannot do much about the punishment. If he presses for leniency, the best outcome is that Dunk loses a hand or a foot. His dreams of being a hedge knight will be over. Baelor suggests another way, pointing out that Dunk could request a trial by combat and fight to prove his innocence.
The next day, Aerion insists that the trial by combat be a Trial of Seven. The accusations against Dunk are made worse by Daeron—Egg’s older brother and the intoxicated lordling from the tavern—who lied to his father, claiming that Egg was stolen by Dunk. Rather than just a duel, the Trial of Seven calls for seven men fighting on each side. Dunk doesn’t know six other people, and he feels alone.
When Dunk visits the Fossoway tent in search of fighters, Ser Steffon is enthusiastic. He promises to fight and to find five others. Raymun is less sure, fearing that the famous knights whom Steffon plans to recruit may not actually know Steffon at all. Later, Egg comes to Dunk with Daeron, who says that he, their father, Maekar, and the three members of the Kingsguard will fight alongside Aerion. Egg promises to find more knights, while Daeron admits that he has no interest in fighting, so he will go down easily and then withdraw his complaint against Dunk. Then Dunk only needs to kill Aerion or force him to yield for the trial to be over. Egg and Daeron both believe that Aerion is a monster. Daeron says he foresaw this trial in his dreams, claiming that his dreams often come true. He saw Dunk collapsed but alive, with a dead dragon atop him.
Part 1, Pages 90-118 Summary
Dunk receives his new shield from Steely Pate, emblazoned with Tanselle’s design, although Tanselle herself has fled with her family to Dorne. Dunk notices that many people support him, and Pate claims that they are cheering for “a knight who remembered his vows” (92). Three knights are waiting to fight alongside Dunk: Ser Humfrey Beesbury, Ser Robyn Rhysling, and Ser Humfrey Harding, who is prepared to fight with a broken leg because he is desperate for revenge against Aerion. He will be strapped to his horse. They are joined by Ser Lyonel Baratheon, who was recruited by Egg.
Believing that they nearly have the numbers, they are horrified to discover that Ser Steffon will fight alongside Aerion in the hope of winning a lordship. Raymun is furious, and Ser Lyonel knights him so that he can fight in his cousin’s place. Dunk remains one knight short, and he appeals to the knights who have gathered to watch. They either ignore him or claim not to know him.
As Dunk faces defeat, Prince Baelor arrives. He is dressed in his son’s armor, ready to fight alongside Dunk. Maekar is shocked, but Baelor insists that he will fight alongside the man who “protected the weak, as every true knight must” (99). He is willing to let the Gods decide who is right.
Since the Kingsguard cannot hurt Baelor, he tells the other six that he will take care of them. When the fight starts, Daeron falls quickly and surrenders, just as he promised, but the rest of the fighting is fierce. Dunk confronts Aerion and defeats the prince. Referring to himself as “Dunk of Flea Bottom” (107), he forces Aerion to yield. Surveying the battlefield, Dunk takes in the cost: He is badly hurt, while both Ser Humpfrey Beesbury and Ser Humfrey Harding are dead; two of the Kingsguard are unconscious. Dunk collapses and looks up to see Baelor above him.
Baelor summons a maester to treat Dunk, who pledges himself to Baelor. Pate and Ser Raymun struggle to remove Baelor’s helmet. When it is removed, they reveal a fatal wound in the prince’s skull, likely caused by Maekar’s mace. Baelor collapses onto Dunk, dead. Prince Baelor is burned on a funeral pyre, a Targaryen tradition. Several days later, Maekar talks to Dunk, regretful that his “fatal blow” killed his brother. Dunk believes that he is equally to blame; if he had accepted his punishment and lost a foot or a hand, the dead men would still be alive.
Maekar reveals that Aerion has been sent overseas to Lys. Meanwhile, Egg intends to be a squire, but he refuses to squire for anyone by Dunk. Maekar offers to take Dunk into his household, so that he can live at Summerhall and train Egg as his squire. Dunk believes that Egg should learn as he learned, so he declines Maekar’s offer. Instead, he suggests that Egg squire with him as he travels the country as a hedge knight. Maekar agrees, and the next day, Dunk and Egg set off. Dunk suggests that they travel to Dorne. Egg says he has heard that they “have good puppet shows” in Dorne (118).
Part 1 Analysis
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms begins with the image of Dunk burying his mentor, Ser Arlan. At this point in the story, Dunk is only 16 or 17 years old. He is as unsure of his age as he is of his identity, having not yet finished his training as a knight. As such, the idea of chivalry—or how to exist as a knight in the Seven Kingdoms—is only half-formed in Dunk’s mind. To be a “true knight,” Dunk must put the chivalric code, as taught to him by Ser Arlan, into practice. He must defend the weak and at all times uphold the specific ideals of honor that a knight is supposed to represent. The half-formed nature of Dunk’s understanding of chivalry quickly becomes apparent when he comes into contact with other knights. The novella explores The Disparity Between Noble Heritage and Personal Virtue when Dunk is shown that the most highborn of knights are often the most cynical and the least honorable, while Dunk himself—a lowborn orphan with no money or status—is left to uphold honor by himself. This creates a moment of cognitive dissonance in the young Dunk’s mind. He is “astounded” by the brutal way in which the knights joust and their use of cheap tricks to gain victories. After watching Aerion in particular, Dunk finds it “hard to accept that any knight could be so unchivalrous, least of all one who was blood of the dragon” (67). This early version of Dunk is a naïve youngster who never finished his training, a knight who is truly invested in the idea of knighthood but who is yet to realize that the ideals he tries to uphold are more theoretical than realistic in the world of Westeros. The Hedge Knight, although a standalone story, plots a point on Dunk’s narrative journey throughout the collection, using his idea of chivalry to indicate how much he has to learn about the world.
This world’s jaded view of right and wrong is also evident in the interactions between high and lowborn people. When arriving at the tourney, Dunk is quickly enamored with the puppet show and, in particular, with the woman who runs it. Tanselle is alluring to Dunk, who knows little about women. He quickly becomes attached to her, which only makes him even more horrified when Aerion takes offense to the content of the puppet show and attacks her. The show, Aerion insists, is treasonous because it depicts a dragon being killed. He attacks Tanselle seemingly more for his own pleasure than in defense of the crown. When Dunk is confronted with this scene of cruelty enacted on a poor person for the amusement of a rich person, he can only stand there “stupidly, not quite believing what he saw” (73). The naïve young knight who is so invested in the ideals of chivalry is witnessing one of the kingdom’s most famous knights torturing an innocent young woman. Since Dunk lacks the intellectual complexity needed to navigate this cognitive dissonance, he responds the only way he knows how: by trying to correct the world through physical force. Dunk’s intervention may have been just, but he is thrown in jail and threatened with the loss of a limb (or even his life) due to the crime of laying hands on a prince. This scene offers Dunk another example of how the real world compares to his idealized version. He begins to understand the social imbalance in which chivalric ideals, such as defending the poor and the innocent, mean nothing next to status and power. When he asks for Trial by Combat, hoping that he may be able to defend himself, Aerion’s status again comes to bear when a Trial by Seven is invoked. Dunk’s repeated attempts to appeal to some kind of universal good falter. He begins to understand more fully that personal virtue is irrelevant compared to money, power, and status.
With the atmosphere at the joust, the narrative again quickly reinforces the notion that knighthood is far from romantic. While watching the jousts with Egg, Dunk bears witness to the violence and the brutality of the tourney up close. Aerion lowers his lance to stab Ser Humfrey’s horse through the neck, so the horse collapses, “screaming,” to the ground. Dunk, who feels a close bond with the horses he has inherited from Ser Arlan, cannot remove himself from the emotion of the situation. The horse’s screams are “almost human,” an audible reminder of the cost of the demonstrations of knightly prowess. Dunk is sickened, though Egg is more inured to the ambient level of violence, and in this scene, the novella explores the difference between their two perspectives, highlighting the theme of Loyalty and Mentorship Across Class Divides. While Dunk ruminates on the brutality of true knighthood, Egg can look beyond the bloodshed and glimpse the cynicism of his brother’s actions. At the same time, however, his mouth is “trembling” as he shares his concern with Dunk. In this moment, the narrative reminds the reader that both Dunk and Egg are very young. Dunk is not yet an adult, and Egg is younger still; they are not only surrounded by brutality and bloodshed, but they are expected to take part. This disconnect between them and the rest of the crowd serves as a bond between them, illustrating how each one’s understanding of different elements of the scene can inform their collective perspective. In addition, they offer each other support and reassurance at the brutal scene, developing their bond despite their class differences.
Egg’s experiences at the tournament are an indication of his desire to separate himself from his family history. Aerion’s violence is “no mishap,” he tells Dunk, and he is even more direct with Aerion himself when, upon revealing his true identity, he says he cut his hair because he did not “want to look like [Aerion]” (74). His pale hair would mark him out as a Targaryen, so he actively tries to denude himself of his familial markers. He also allies himself with a lowly hedge knight, seeing in Dunk a more admirable and knightly quality than whatever ideals Aerion claims to embody. Egg’s willingness to join Dunk is a further demonstration of loyalty across class divides, in which a younger, more powerful prince actively chooses to lower his social standing and disguise his privilege in the name of honor. Egg embodies the novella’s separation of honor and social standing, deliberately casting aside his status in the name of virtue. His loyalty to Dunk is strengthened by his rejection of his status, with his choice illustrating the cynicism of status and valor. Egg’s choices separate honor from class by favoring Dunk over Aerion.
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