The Hedge Knight ÔÇö Dunk I
On a hillside by the roseroad, Dunk digs a grave for Ser Arlan of Pennytree, the old hedge knight he has served since he was a boy of Flea Bottom ÔÇö and decides to take the old man's arms, his horses, and his trade.
The chapter retold
The tale of the greatest knight the Kingsguard ever took begins with a shovel. Dunk buries Ser Arlan of Pennytree on a hillside by the roseroad and, standing over the fresh earth, makes the decision everything else grows from ÔÇö that the old man's knighthood is worth more aboveground than under it. He takes the sword, the shield, the two poor horses and a boyhood's worth of half-remembered lessons, and points them all at Ashford Meadow, where a tourney means a hedge knight might win enough to eat through the winter. Martin opens the whole saga on the least heroic image available: a poor, illiterate boy deciding, entirely on his own authority, that he is a knight ÔÇö and meaning to prove it honestly from that day forward.
This movement: The Road to Ashford
- Ser Arlan of Pennytree dies of a chill by the roseroad, and his towering squire buries him ÔÇö then takes his sword, his shield, and his calling.
- At a wayside inn Dunk acquires an ale, a plan, and a bald stableboy named Egg who will not be left behind.
- Ashford Meadow spreads before them: pavilions, puppeteers, merchants ÔÇö and a tourney with the fair maid of Ashford as its queen of love and beauty.
- Everything Dunk owns buys armor from Steely Pate; Tanselle's brush gives his shield its arms: elm and shooting star.
The fallen ÔÇö spoilers
- Ser Arlan of Pennytree ÔÇö A chill on a wet road, and a quiet end ÔÇö after a lifetime of other men's battles.