Title: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Author: George R. R. Martin
Published by: HarperCollins
Published on: 2017
Pages: 355
Kings rise and fall, Dunk thought, and cows and smallfolk go about their business.
The Hedge Knight
Welcome to yet another side project of GRRM's in the Ice and Fire world. He's often too invested in these side projects to appease readers that I hope he doesn't forget what we're actually waiting for. *coughs TWoW cOUGHS*
Aanyway, so most of you are probably wondering what the bloody hell is Dunk and Egg. Or rather -- who are Dunk and Egg? I'll give you a hint: this is actually a prequel to the ASoIaF series. ;)
Meet Dunk, an honourable hedge knight with a heart of gold. He used to squire for one Ser Arlan who died of old age, but not before knighting Dunk. This newly knighted knight (?) then decided to join a tourney at Ashford to test his luck. Along the way, Dunk met a bald, sassy 8-year-old boy who introduced himself by the name of Egg. The kid insisted that he wanted to squire for him, which Dunk refuted. Egg didn't give up though -- he followed him through to Ashford. Devastated yet impressed, Dunk reluctantly agreed to accept him as a squire.
It was during the reign of King Daeron II Targaryen, and the tourney was held in honour of Lord Ashford's daughter's thirteenth birthday. As usual, most of Westeros nobilities were there, including Prince Baelor and Prince Maekar, King Daeron's sons, and their children as well. Dunk's claim as a knight was highly doubted by the officials, until Prince Baelor vouched for him. Too bad that on the first day of the tourney, Dunk had an incident with Aeron, Prince Maekar's son. See, Aeron was a drunk bastard and he decided it was a good day to physically abuse a peasant puppetteer girl whom Dunk had a crush on. Dunk couldn't take it and reacted. And since monarchy was a shitty governmental system, Dunk was accused of attacking a member of the royal family. Before things turned even more sour, Egg revealed himself to be none other than Aegon Targaryen -- Prince Maekar's youngest son. The reason why he was bald? So no one would notice his silver hair.
*WINK WINK*
Thanks to Egg, Dunk didn't have to face death sentence. But Aeron was a true shithead of a Targaryen. Unwilling to let the one man who dared stand up to him go, he decided to change the accusation to one of kidnapping. Kidnapping who? His little brother Egg, of course.
Dunk to Aeron: Dude, more like he kidnapped ME.
So Dunk had to choose: either having his hand, used to strike Aeron's face, cut off or trial by combat? I think we all know the obvious choice here. ;)
The Hedge Knight is only the first story out of three originally published in Dunk and Egg novellas. The other two are The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight, both revolving around the Blackfyre Rebellion. It's a nice window into the past to see the Targaryen history from first hand account. Also, Blackfyre Rebellion is an important subject to our current ASoIaF series.
EGGLYSIS
Guess where Egg & Co. got its namesake from? *drumrolls*
I love, love Egg! He's sassy and matter of factly, and his pairing with Dunk is just a given. It's quite intriguing to match up this Egg to the wise and dearly beloved King Aegon V the Unlikely. Also, did you notice that Dunk is actually Ser Duncan the tall, King Aegon's beloved Lord Commander of the Kingsguard?
I know I only touch a bit of the Blackfyre Rebellion, but why GRRM chose to tell this story instead of The She-wolves of Winterfell (rumoured to be the third novella released, before he decided on The Mystery Knight) was very strategic. See, it was published quite close to A Dance with the Dragons, and by this point we were already introduced to the Young Griff plot. Die-hard fans across the realm have long concluded that Young Griff was the cloth dragon Dany saw in her vision in the House of the Undying, and that he was in fact a Blackfyre.
Ignoring all the foreshadowing, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is quite a fun read. Which is saying something to a story set in the Ice and Fire universe. You can read it on whichever level you choose and still doesn't diminish the enjoyment.
Overall, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms...
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