The Hedge Knight — Dunk V
The tourney opens: Lord Ashford's two sons, Ser Humfrey Hardyng, Ser Tybolt Lannister, and Prince Valarr hold the field as champions. Prince Baelor remembers an old knight named Arlan who once unhorsed him.
The chapter retold
The tourney opens in its full splendor, the fair maid's five champions holding the field: Lord Ashford's sons, Ser Humfrey Hardyng, Ser Tybolt Lannister, and the Young Prince Valarr. Dunk, watching from the commons, is a spectator at the very pageantry he came to join — until a small, human moment cracks the grandeur open. Prince Baelor Breakspear, the Hand of the King himself, remembers an old hedge knight named Arlan of Pennytree who once, long ago, unhorsed him. It is the chapter's quiet promise that greatness in this world can still recognize a nobody, and the first thread of the mercy that will later cost Baelor everything.
This movement: The Tourney
- The champions hold the field; the Laughing Storm's bellow rolls over the meadow; Prince Baelor watches everything and says little.
- Aerion Brightflame, unhorsed fair by Ser Humfrey Hardyng, kills the champion's horse with a deliberate lance and leaves him broken beneath it.
- By torchlight the Bright Flame finds the puppet show, decides a wooden dragon is treason, and breaks Tanselle's fingers.
- A hedge knight of no name beats a prince of the blood into the mud — and the stableboy's hood falls back on Aegon Targaryen's shaved head.