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S1·E1 — The Hedge Knight

Daeron II Targaryen, the Good holds the throne Hand: Prince Baelor Breakspear

The hour retold

The whole legend of Ser Duncan the Tall begins with the least legendary image imaginable: a big, poor, illiterate young man digging a grave by the roseroad for the old hedge knight he has served since he was a gutter child in Flea Bottom. No maester records the day Dunk becomes a knight because there is nothing to record — Ser Arlan of Pennytree dies of a chill on a wet road, and Dunk simply decides, over the fresh earth, that the knighthood needn't go into the ground with the old man. He takes Arlan's sword, shield and two sorry horses, and rides for Ashford Meadow, where Lord Ashford has called a great tourney, because a hedge knight with no name has to earn one somewhere.

The hour's real gift is the boy. At an inn on the Cockleswhent, Dunk falls in with a bald, sharp-tongued stableboy who minds horses far better than any stableboy should and keeps his hood up whenever a highborn man is near — and who, when Dunk tries to send him home, simply refuses to be sent. He calls himself Egg. The premiere plays their meeting as comedy and lets the mystery sit underneath it in plain sight, a story about honor being invented from scratch by two people the realm was not built for: a knight nobody knighted, and a squire who is clearly nobody's stableboy at all.

What happens

On a hillside by the roseroad, a squire buries the old hedge knight he served since boyhood — and decides the grave needn't take the knighthood too.
Dunk takes Ser Arlan's arms, armor, and horses, and rides for Ashford Meadow, where Lord Ashford has called a great tourney.
At an inn on the Cockleswhent he meets a bald, sharp-tongued stableboy who follows him out the door and will not be sent back.
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.
Ashford Meadow opens before them: a hundred pavilions, a painted viewing stand, and the fair maid of Ashford's five champions to come.

The people of the episode

DtSer Duncan the Tall — Digs a grave, keeps a sword, and aims his whole life at one tourney.EEgg — A stableboy with suspiciously fine manners and no hair at all.AoSer Arlan of Pennytree — The old man of Pennytree, gone to whatever field the good knights go to.BBBaelor Breakspear — The Hand rides out from King's Landing for a country tourney.DIKing Daeron II Targaryen — The Good: bookish, peaceable, and better at ruling than any warrior king.

The fallen — spoilers

Ser Arlan of Pennytree — A chill, a cough, and a quiet end by the road — after a lifetime of other men's battles.