10 Fascinating Facts About ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’

HBO recently announced that a new Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is slated to air its first season later this year. The series follows the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall, better known as Dunk, and his young squire Aegon Targaryen, a.k.a. Egg.

Set roughly 70 years after House of the Dragon and nearly a century before the start of GoT, the prequel series promises to be a tonal departure from both shows. The novellas in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms—originally referred to as The Tales of Dunk and Egg—are far less interested in the political squabbling of the high-born.

Instead, the stories focus more on the daily life of the Westerosi smallfolk. As things evolve, Dunk and Egg come across as a close duo who carry deep affection for each other (despite Dunk’s constant threats to whack Egg in the ear). So, what does an unremarkable hedge knight get up to while the lords of the land are busy scheming against each other? Here’s our chance to find out. 

As we wait for more details about the show’s first season, here are 10 facts about the collection the show is adapting. Warning: mild spoilers for the novellas (and the main GoT series) below.

1. Author George R.R. Martin wrote the first novella back in the ‘90s.
2. The TV show will shed some extra light on Brynden Rivers, a.k.a. Bloodraven.
3. Dunk and Egg both get shoutouts in the original series. 
4. Dragons have died out in Westeros by the start of the series.
5. The Targaryen family tree gets really complicated.
6. Dunk doesn’t officially have children, but fans sure have theories.
7. Dunk and Egg’s deaths have already been revealed. 
8. George R.R. Martin had big plans for the series. 
9. The novellas introduce a handful of characters that are important in the main series.
10. The novellas also leave a lot to the imagination.

Author George R.R. Martin wrote the first novella back in the ‘90s.

Martin wrote the first novella after AGoT was published in 1996. He was supposed to be finishing up A Clash of Kings, the first sequel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Instead, he submitted the novella to the Legends anthology book, edited by sci-fi great Robert Silverberg. Martin ended up pausing his Clash of Kings work to write The Hedge Knight, and the gamble paid off: Not only was The Hedge Knight accepted into the anthology, but the novella attracted a lot of new eyes to Martin’s writing.

Today, Martin attributes ACoK’s strong sales numbers in 1998 in part to the success of The Hedge Knight’s publication just a few months earlier. The second novella, The Sworn Sword, was published in the Legends II anthology in 2003, between the publications of A Storm of Swords in 2000 and A Feast for Crows in 2005. The final novella, The Mystery Knight, was published in the 2010 anthology Warriors, edited by Martin and Gardner Dozois. In 2015, the three novellas were combined into a single anthology book, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. They’ve since been adapted as graphic novels.

The TV show will shed some extra light on Brynden Rivers, a.k.a. Bloodraven.

The three AKotSK novellas take place during the famous Bloodraven’s reign as Hand of the King. Who is this Bloodraven? He’s a mysterious Targaryen bastard who lost an eye in a previous battle and often leaves the empty socket exposed in public to intimidate his potential enemies. Despite missing an eye, he’s described in the tales as having had “a thousand eyes, and one.” He seems to know about things before they happen; this, combined with his unsettling appearance and bastard origins, makes him a major source of fear and speculation throughout Westeros.

Readers don’t know a ton about large periods of Rivers’s life. However, we know he joins the Wall, disappears, and is still alive a hundred years later in the GoT series to teach Bran Stark about how to open his third eye. Bloodraven doesn’t get much page time in the book since Dunk has few opportunities to cross paths with him. Still, given the fairly short source material and the show’s potential to move beyond just Dunk’s perspective, there’s a good chance the show will expand his role a bit.

Dunk and Egg both get shoutouts in the original series. 

Throughout the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, we get a few brief mentions of Dunk and Egg. We know that Dunk eventually becomes a knight of the Kingsguard and that he loses a tourney at one point to a 16-year-old Barristan Selmy. 

As for Egg? We know he unexpectedly becomes king of the Seven Kingdoms after a series of sudden deaths among his uncles and older brothers. He also has a strong brotherly bond with Aemon Targaryen (better known among GoT fans as Maester Aemon), who survives long enough on the Wall to connect with Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly. On Aemon’s deathbed in A Feast for Crows, he deliriously starts talking to his brother Aegon, delivering the heartbreaking line, “Egg, I dreamed I was old.”

Dragons have died out in Westeros by the start of the series.

If you’re hoping to get more fun dragon action with the adaptation, prepare to be disappointed. After the Dance of the Dragons (which HotD deals with), all of the known dragons in this world have died. By the time AKotSK kicks off, only a few of the oldest people in Westeros have even seen a dragon with their own eyes.

That said, dragons still loom large over the series. Like most of his Targaryen family members, Egg was gifted a dragon’s egg when he was born, although it’s never hatched. There’s still hope in Westeros that the dragons will return, and the third novella in particular (The Mystery Knight) bases a lot of its plot around this idea. 

The Targaryen family tree gets really complicated.

Trying to make sense of the Targaryen family tree is a massive headache waiting to happen. But to put it simply: Egg is Rhaenrya’s great-great-great grandson. He’s also the grandfather of the Mad King Aerys, the guy whose tyrannical reign led to the overthrow of the Targaryen dynasty in Westeros at the hands of Robert Baratheon. Going even further down the family tree, Egg is Daenerys’ great-grandfather, as well as Jon Snow’s great-great-grandfather. 

The published novellas end long before we reach Egg’s ruling years. Still, he’s generally regarded as a good ruler, one who prioritized the well-being of the smallfolk more than nearly any other. And perhaps, if his reign had lasted another decade or so longer, things wouldn’t have gone so poorly for the Targaryens down the line.

Dunk doesn’t officially have children, but fans sure have theories.

Ser Duncan will go on to join the Kingsguard and even become Lord Commander of it, taking a vow of chastity to which he (as far as the historians are aware) stays faithful. However, fans believe he’s got a few illegitimate offspring of his own, and he might not even know about them.

High among the GoT characters often speculated to be Dunk’s relative, there’s Brienne of Tarth, beloved among GoT fans for her unyielding loyalty and honor; she not only shares Dunk’s height and strength, but she ends up donning a shield in A Feast For Crows that’s painted with Dunk’s coat of arms. George R.R. Martin confirmed this theory in 2016, although it’s never been explicitly confirmed in any of his books yet. (It’s also unclear if Martin plans to write a Dunk and Egg novella that shows Duncan in the Kingsguard, but readers know from stray ASoIaF mentions that he’ll get the position through his friendship with Egg.)

Other potential Dunk descendants are Sandor Clegane and Hodor. Sandor being a descendant would mean his villainous brother Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane would also likely be related to Dunk. However, fans seem less interested in that part of the theory. As far as the fandom’s concerned, every minor knight character who’s tall and/or honorable potentially deserves a spot on the list.

Dunk and Egg’s deaths have already been revealed. 

Much like how the ending of HotD was already known by fans of the main series ahead of time, ASoIaF fans have long known how Dunk and Egg’s tale will end. Later in adulthood, Egg (by then known as King Aegon V) attempts through sorcery and fire to make the old, leftover dragon eggs hatch at the castle of Summerhall. The plan backfires, and somehow, both Aegon and Dunk are killed in the flames. 

This might sound like a spoiler, but it’s so far in these characters’ futures that it’s unlikely Martin will ever get around to covering it. And given how few clear details about the event have been written, the showrunners could throw in some surprises if they want to eventually cover it.

George R.R. Martin had big plans for the series. 

“It has always been my intent to write a whole series of novellas about Dunk and Egg, chronicling their entire lives,” Martin wrote in a 2014 blog post. “At various times in various interviews, I may have mentioned seven novellas, or (10, or 12), but none of that is set in stone. There will be as many novellas as it takes to tell their tale, start to finish.”

Of course, it’s been over a decade now since that post, and there haven’t been any new Dunk and Egg tales, as Martin’s still busy focusing on The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in the main series. It’s unlikely we’ll get anywhere close to 12, 10, or even seven novellas, but there’s a chance we’ll get at least one or two more. 

Regarding his planned fourth Dunk and Egg novella, Martin wrote, “The unfinished novella was indeed set in Winterfell, and involved a group of formidable Stark wives, widows, mothers, and grandmothers that I dubbed ‘the She-Wolves,’ but ‘The She-Wolves of Winterfell’ was never meant to be more than a working title.”

The novellas introduce a handful of characters that are important in the main series.

You’d think that Bloodraven would be the only character to still be alive by the time the main series rolls around, but he’s not. Martin also managed to squeeze in an appearance by Walder Frey in The Mystery Knight. Walder is only a small boy in this story, but Martin takes the time to clarify that he was a deeply unpleasant person even back then.

The second novella, The Sworn Sword, introduces Lady Rohanne Webber, a cunning woman who would go on to be Tywin Lannister’s grandmother. With the fourth novella slated to take place in Winterfell, fans are hoping to get some good Old Nan lore sometime soon, too. 

The novellas also leave a lot to the imagination.

Part of what’s made House of the Dragon so much fun, even for book readers, is the way the source material gave the writers a lot of room to improvise. Fire & Blood is a fake history book written long after the literal events in the book take place, so there are plenty of personal details about the characters that Archmaester Gyladyn, the main historian narrator, simply doesn’t know about. 

The Dunk and Egg novellas aren’t as sparse in detail, but there are some fun implications and missing scenes for the show to expand on. For instance, one major fan debate centers around what happens between Dunk and Lady Rohanne in the stable before the narrator skips ahead; many speculate that the two did more than just kiss, whereas others insist that this would be too unknightly an act for Dunk to take part in.

Maybe the biggest fan theory throughout the novellas is that Dunk was never actually knighted, that he lied about Ser Arlan knighting him to get ahead in life. Some think too highly of Dunk to believe he’d lie about such a thing. Other fans have inferred differently from the subtle undercurrent of guilt throughout all of Dunk’s thoughts around his knighthood. There’s a good chance the show will finally put this fan debate to rest.

Read More Stories about A Song of Ice and Fire: