Ser Arlan of Pennytree
The old man: a hedge knight of the riverlands who served half a hundred lords and kept his honor through all of it. He took a starved Flea Bottom boy as his squire and taught him everything ÔÇö the lance, the sword, and what a knight is for.
A soul born at Pennytree, sworn to The Hedge Knights.
The fuller tale
Season One
In The Hedge Knight ÔÇö The old man of Pennytree, gone to whatever field the good knights go to.
How it ends for them
On the screen. Died of a chill on the road to Ashford (S1┬ÀE1)
The old hedge knight of Pennytree took a chill on a rain-soaked road and died as quietly as he lived, in a wayside camp with only his squire beside him. Dunk dug the grave on a hillside facing west, so the old man could watch the sun go down ÔÇö and took up his sword, his shield, and his trade.
On the page. Died of a chill on the road to Ashford (THK, ch. 1)
The old man of Pennytree died of a chill on the road to Ashford Meadow, after a lifetime of serving lords who barely remembered his name. His squire buried him on a hillside facing west and inherited everything he owned: a sword, a shield, two horses, and a knight's calling.
The chill that kills Ser Arlan of Pennytree announces itself gradually ÔÇö a cough on a wet road, a fever that will not break, a night when the old man stops arguing that he is fine. He dies in a roadside camp with only his squire for company, having spent his last strength making sure the boy understood what needed doing next. Dunk buries him on a hillside with a westward view, so that whatever remains of Ser Arlan can watch the sun go down the way he always did on the road, and rides on to Ashford Meadow wearing the old manÔÇÖs sword and shield because there was never really a question of doing anything else.
Their chapters, book by book
The Hedge Knight 1 chapter that name them
Where the page and the screen part
Danny Webb plays Ser Arlan in the showÔÇÖs opening episodes with the unshowy warmth the role requires ÔÇö a man whose entire function in the narrative is to be worth mourning quickly and thoroughly, so the story can begin in earnest. The adaptation keeps his death exactly where the novella places it, in the first chapterÔÇÖs closing pages, understanding correctly that delaying it would blunt the emotional shove that sets DunkÔÇÖs whole arc in motion.