Egg

A bald, sharp-tongued little stableboy who attaches himself to the tallest knight he can find ÔÇö and squires far too well for a stableboy. His head is shaved for an excellent reason: hair like his would name him to every man in Westeros.

A soul of House Targaryen, born at Summerhall.

The fuller tale

Season One

In The Hedge Knight ÔÇö A stableboy with suspiciously fine manners and no hair at all. The boy calls himself Egg. He is a better squire than any stableboy has a right to be, and he keeps his hood up around highborn men. In Ashford Meadow ÔÇö Keeps his hood up. There are two very good reasons on this field. In The Lists ÔÇö "He was hurting her!" ÔÇö the hood is off, and the prince is out.

Egg's hood falls back. The stableboy is Aegon Targaryen, Aerion's own brother ÔÇö and Dunk is dragged to a cell to wait on the king's justice. In A Trial of Seven ÔÇö Aegon Targaryen, revealed ÔÇö and it is his word that makes the trial possible at all. In The Judgment of the Gods ÔÇö Watches his family fight itself over the knight he chose. In A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms ÔÇö A prince apprenticed to the realm itself, one muddy road at a time.

Where they stand. Ashford Meadow.

How it ends for them

The chronicle records no death for this soul ÔÇö they are living when the tale leaves them, or their ending is a page the maesters have yet to turn.

Their chapters, book by book

The Sworn Sword 3 chapters that name them

Dunk I Two years on: Dunk and Egg serve old Ser Eustace Osgrey of Standfast as sworn swords through a drought that has burned the Reach brown. Riding home with the brown-shielded Ser Bennis, they find the Chequy Water dammed ÔÇö the stream stolen by the Red Widow of Coldmoat. Dunk VII Egg's counsel and a night's hard thinking. Before Dunk can settle his service, the horizon settles it for him: Wat's Wood burns in the dark, the drought's tinder gone up at a stroke ÔÇö and Ser Eustace names the widow arsonist. Dunk X Dunk wakes at Coldmoat, leeched and alive. Peace is made the old way: Ser Eustace Osgrey weds Lady Rohanne Webber, stream and honor mended in a sept. And the Red Widow pays a hedge knight's fee with a kiss ÔÇö and keeps a lock of his hair in her book of debts before Dunk and Egg take the road again.

The Mystery Knight 4 chapters that name them

Dunk I Near Stoney Sept, Dunk and Egg pass gibbets heavy with hanged men ÔÇö Lord Wyl's brigands, taken by the king's men. The realm is uneasy: Bloodraven hunts traitors, and rumor says the black dragon stirs. Dunk turns their road north, meaning to winter at Winterfell. Dunk VI The Snail proves a tradesman of the tilt: he shows Dunk how the fall was made and offers to buy his services. Egg moves among the squires, hearing what boys hear ÔÇö and Lord Peake watches everything with a hungry eye. Dunk VIII Ser Alyn Cockshaw draws Dunk aside to a quiet well ÔÇö and pays bravos' wages for it. Ser Maynard Plumm proves quicker: Alyn goes down the well, and Plumm shows Dunk that he knows exactly who Egg is, and minds not at all. Dunk X Egg's boot yields Maekar's signet; Dunk spends its weight to buy Ser Glendon a knight's chance: trial by joust against the black dragon himself, the egg-theft charge to stand or fall with the tilt.

Where the page and the screen part

Dexter Sol AnsellÔÇÖs Egg anchors the showÔÇÖs first season as the audienceÔÇÖs other set of eyes ÔÇö precocious, a little insufferable, visibly restraining a princeÔÇÖs vocabulary behind a stableboyÔÇÖs manners ÔÇö and the season leans into the dramatic irony the novella plants early: viewers know what Dunk does not, and get to watch him find out. Reviewers singled out the chemistry between Claffey and Ansell as the thing the whole show is built to sell, which tracks with how the source material works too ÔÇö EggÔÇÖs chapters are almost always really about DunkÔÇÖs growing responsibility for him.

The showÔÇÖs Season 1 covers only The Hedge Knight, which means EggÔÇÖs fuller arc ÔÇö the boot-hidden signet spent at Whitewalls, the slow accumulation of the instincts that make him Aegon V ÔÇö remains ahead of the production rather than behind it. What has aired matches the novella closely enough that longtime readers have had little to complain about beyond the necessary expansions of a six-episode season built from a hundred-odd pages.

Their journey

Where the two tellings send them to the same place the road runs whole; where they part, the screen keeps the left and the books the right.

S1┬ÀE2 ┬À THK 3 Ashford Meadow ÔÇö Egg holds Dunk's horse, shines Dunk's mail, and keeps his hood up ÔÇö because half the men on this field would know that bald head, and both his brothers are in the lists. On the screen In the booksTSS 1 StandfastTSS 10 ColdmoatTMK 1 Stoney SeptTMK 3 Whitewalls