A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, by George R. R. Martin, is a collection of three prequel novellas (The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight) that take place in the kingdom of Westeros, as established in Martin’s popular series, Song of Ice and Fire. The collection follows the unlikely duo of Ser Duncan the Tall (known as Dunk) and his squire Egg (a secret Targaryen prince) as they roam Westeros a century before the events of A Game of Thrones, the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. Through their adventures, the collection explores themes including Loyalty and Mentorship Across Class Divides, The Disparity Between Noble Heritage and Personal Virtue, and The Quiet Shaping of History Through Small Acts.

This guide is based on the 2015 HarperVoyager edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, death by suicide, physical abuse, child abuse, animal cruelty and death, and substance use.

Plot Summary

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is composed of three novellas that share the same world, the kingdom of Westeros, and feature the same protagonists, Dunk and Egg.

The Hedge Knight

Ser Arlan Pennytree falls sick and dies, and his squire, Dunk, must bury him. Before he died, Ser Arlan knighted Dunk, and after burying him, Dunk debates what he should do next. He inherited Ser Arlan’s horses and equipment, so he chooses to enter a tournament being held in the nearby town of Ashbury. Dunk is not sure whether he is ready to be a true knight, but he hopes that his massive physical size and the chivalry lessons from Ser Arlan may be enough to win some money.

In an inn on the way to Ashbury, Dunk meets a small bald boy. Mistaking the boy for a stable hand, Dunk tells him to take care of the horses. Inside the inn, an intoxicated lord takes offense to Dunk’s presence, claiming to have seen Dunk in a dream. Deciding to leave, Dunk finds the boy riding his horse. The boy asks to be Dunk’s squire, but Dunk declines, presuming that the boy is the innkeeper’s son.

After arriving in Ashbury, Dunk sets up his camp and tries to convince the officials that he truly is a knight. Since few people knew Ser Arlan and no one was present for his knighting, Dunk struggles to convince anyone that he should be allowed to enter the tourney. By chance, Prince Baelor happens to see Dunk; he remembers Ser Arlan from a joust and vouches for Dunk. Dunk is thankful for the help of a member of the ruling Targaryen family.

When Dunk returns to his camp, he finds the young boy waiting. He introduces himself as Egg, and Dunk agrees to take him on as a squire. As the tourney progresses, Dunk waits to enter. He becomes interested in a woman named Tanselle, who runs a puppet show. Prince Baelor’s nephew, Prince Aerion, takes offense at the puppet show’s content and hurts Tanselle. Dunk intervenes, striking Aerion. He is arrested, but before he can be tortured, Egg intervenes, revealing himself to be Aegon Targaryen, Aerion’s younger brother. Dunk is thrown in jail and made to await trial. Instead, he asks for trial by combat.

Aerion talks to his father, Prince Maekar, and demands that the trial by combat be a Trial of Seven, in which two groups of seven knights fight to judge the accused’s innocence. With Egg’s help, Dunk recruits five knights. Prince Baelor himself joins Dunk’s party, and the trial begins. Dunk faces Aerion and forces him to yield, but several men are killed, and Maekar critically injures Bealor.

Dunk is declared victorious and therefore innocent, and after the fight, Maekar visits him. He says that Egg wishes to squire for Dunk and offers him a comfortable position in his castle. Dunk refuses, deciding to remain a hedge knight, but agrees to take Egg on as a squire.

The Sworn Sword

Set in the Reach, the story follows Dunk, now known as Ser Duncan the Tall. He is now sworn to Ser Eustace Osgrey of Standfast, who is in conflict with Lady Rohanne Webber over a petty water dispute. Dunk and Ser Bennis the Brown discover that Lady Rohanne’s peasants have dammed the stream that feeds Standfast. Bennis rashly slashes a peasant’s cheek, ensuring retaliation. To prepare, Eustace orders his villagers to be trained in combat, yet he also sends Dunk to Lady Rohanne’s stronghold, Coldmoat, to seek peace.

There, Dunk learns Lady Rohanne must take a fifth husband by the second anniversary of her father’s death or see her inheritance pass to a male cousin. She has refused her castellan and insistent suitor, Ser Lucas Inchfield. Dunk cannot persuade Lady Rohanne to lower the dam or pardon Bennis. She reveals that Eustace backed Daemon Blackfyre in the rebellion and was stripped of most of his lands when they lost. When Dunk appeals to her memory of Eustace’s youngest son, Addam—once her beloved—she strikes him and drives him out.

Shaken, Dunk returns to Standfast, intending to leave Eustace’s service. That night, Dunk rides alone to parley with Lady Rohanne. Meeting midstream so that neither camp can overhear, he rejects Eustace’s suggestion of murdering Lady Rohanne and instead slices his own cheek, offering her the blood-price for Bennis’s blow. He also reveals Egg’s true identity to her as a warning not to attack Standfast.

Unable to agree, both sides agree to a trial by combat between Dunk and Ser Lucas, fought in the river as neutral ground. Outmatched at first, Dunk drags Lucas under and drowns him, nearly drowning himself before the maester revives him. After the fight, Ser Eustace weds Lady Rohanne, reconciling debts and restoring water. Before Dunk departs, she hints that she might have chosen him but for his low birth. She offers him her best mare and yields a lock of hair after a fierce kiss. Dunk and Egg ride north, bound for the Wall.

The Mystery Knight

Dunk and Egg travel to Winterfell to seek service with Lord Beron Stark, but a detour draws them into a treasonous gathering. On the road, they pass a septon’s severed head, then join knights traveling to Whitewalls for Lord Butterwell’s wedding tourney. The champion will win a dragon egg. Dunk distrusts another knight, Gormon Peake, and Egg explains Peake’s arms of three castles mark estates mostly forfeited after he backed Daemon Blackfyre in the failed rebellion.

Along the way, Dunk befriends three hedge knights: the reserved Maynard Plumm, the roving Kyle the Cat, and Glendon Ball, who claims to be the bastard son of Quentyn “Fireball.” At Whitewalls, the guest list tilts toward former rebels. A charismatic stranger called John the Fiddler singles out Dunk, claiming to have had a prophetic dream of him in Kingsguard white. Riding as the Gallows Knight with a borrowed shield, Dunk enters the lists and is promptly unhorsed by the Snail, Ser Uthor Underleaf. Paying his forfeit, Dunk learns that Underleaf was bribed to kill him.

Before the tournament begins, the dragon egg vanishes. Peake pins the theft on Glendon Ball, who is arrested. While searching for Egg, who has gone missing, Dunk is ambushed by Alyn Cockshaw, the briber, and fights him. Maynard Plumm then reveals himself as an agent of Brynden “Bloodraven” Rivers, and John the Fiddler is unmasked as Daemon Blackfyre’s son.

Dunk finds Egg hiding in the sept with a terrified Butterwell, who panics upon discovering Egg’s royal identity. Another man, Black Tom Heddle, tries to murder Egg to spark war; Dunk kills him and sends Egg away with Butterwell. To buy time, Dunk confronts Daemon, exposes Peake’s frame-up of Glendon, and wins Glendon a trial by combat. Glendon proves his innocence by defeating Daemon.

Outside, Bloodraven’s royal host encircles Whitewalls. Daemon is captured, Peake is beheaded, and Butterwell’s life is spared, but he loses his castle and most of his wealth. Bloodraven keeps Daemon alive as a hostage. At Egg’s urging, he rewards the loyal hedge knights and quietly recovers the missing egg through his own agents.