Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premiere, “The Hedge Knight” (written by Ira Parker and directed by Owen Harris). Light spoilers also include plot points from Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.
“It’s a great honor to test oneself against a worthy foe.”
Towards the end of the series premiere of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the titular knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, or “Dunk” (Peter Claffey), is reassured by Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings) that he has “no chance” in the tournament he is about to enter the next day. However, just because the task ahead of him is insurmountable, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth pursuing. Testing yourself against a worthy foe is how we grow.
They are comforting words ahead of a dangerous bout the next day, but there is also a larger message at play here for the next chapter in HBO’s Song of Ice and Fire property, added from George R.R. Martin’s works.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, adapted from the three Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, is on a much, much smaller scale than Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon. Set about halfway between those two stories, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms involves a grounded world where the dragons have all died, magic is rare, and there is relative peace throughout the Seven Kingdoms.
Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are the two “worthy foes” that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will test itself against. Game of Thrones may have stumbled at the end, and House of the Dragon has had some structural and pacing problems, but both are cultural monoliths not only in terms of popularity but spectacle as well. Can a lone wolf and cub story on a more grounded level draw the same attention as Thrones and Dragon? Time will tell, but there is seemingly always an appetite for more Song of Ice and Fire content.
The three existing novellas—and there are apparently outlines for 10-12 more—still have plenty of names you will recognize: Stark, Baratheon, Targaryen, etc. But the protagonist in these stories is a simple hedge knight from Fleabottom named Dunk.
Dunk is a giant of a young man, and the first scene of the series shows him digging the grave of the knight for whom he squired for so long, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb). Ser Arlan was a career hedge knight, selling his services to whoever needed a hired sword, and he raised Dunk to believe that hedge knights are the best, purest form of knights.
Just before his unexpected death, Ser Arlan drew his longsword and knighted Dunk, although one of the ongoing problems Dunk experiences in this episode. which will come to play a major role later on, is that no one was around to witness it. Knights can appoint other knights, but what if that knight is not pledged to a house and appoints his squire as a knight in a private ceremony? Is that man still a knight?
Now alone except for his three horses, Dunk calculates that if he can enter a tournament and win, or at least have a strong showing, one of the houses might decide to employ him, and he will have a roof over his head and food in his stomach forever. While he believes in the ethos of a hedge knight, this step up to being in service to a house provides much more security.
On his way to the small capital city of Ashford for the tournament, Dunk meets a young, bald stableboy at a local inn, who says his name is Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Egg is a precocious little guy who admits the lady who runs the inn is not his mother, and he wants nothing more than to be a squire for a mighty knight. Since there are none of those around, he offers his service to Dunk, but he refuses, saying he doesn’t need a squire.
When Dunk arrives at the tournament grounds, he almost immediately realizes he is out of his element. The tournament master informs him that with no one around to vouch for him as a knight, he won’t be able to enter. The house that Ser Arlan used to work for (the Dondarrions) doesn’t want anything to do with him, and he has to rely on the mercy of a squire in House Baratheon to get him into a tent so he can have some food and drink for the night.
It is here that Dunk happens into a conversation with Ser Lyonel Baratheon. Lyonel takes a liking to the lumbering oaf of a man (although Lyonel admits it’s because he is “very drunk”), but Dunk learns for the first time what he is really up against if he hopes to give his hedge knight life a different direction.
“You have no chance,” Lyonel relays to Dunk, but the Baratheons—and everyone else at the tournament—are in the same position we are. We have no idea what kind of chance Ser Duncan the Tall has. We have never seen him in battle or know the level of his training. I feel we may get to see both as this six-episode season progresses.
As Dunk retires to his horses, prepared to sleep under a tree, he finds Egg at his camp, cooking a fish. Admitting he got there by hiding inside a lamb cart, Egg makes his case once again to be Dunk’s squire. In the most poignant moment of the episode, Dunk delivers the same charge that surely came from Ser Arlan many years ago.
“I don’t have much, but if you prove worth your keep, you’ll have clothes on your back and food in your belly. The clothes might be rough-spun, and the food salt beef and salt fish, but you won’t go hungry. I promise not to beat you…unless you deserve it.”
Dunk has no pavilion or tent to sleep under, so the two make camp under the stars and lie down just in time to see a shooting star fly over them. “A falling star brings luck to those who see it,” Egg says. ” All other knights will be in their pavilions by now, staring at silk instead of sky.”
“So the luck is ours alone?” asks Dunk. He will clearly need plenty of it if he is to best some of the fiercest knights the kingdom has to offer.
Does Knight of the Seven Kingdoms need the same luck to rise to the level of Thrones or Dragon? Perhaps, but viewers coming in looking for a different kind of epic story, a story of two people who might find what they are looking for in each other, will likely not be disappointed.
