"When we first meet Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) in the opening minutes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, he's busy burying Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), the knight he squired for since childhood. "Dunk" claims to be a knight himself, knighted by Ser Arlan. Sure, there were no witnesses. Granted, almost no one in Westeros remembers Ser Arlan, including his former employers."
"At the time, Martin had recently released A Game of Thrones, the first novel in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, and he was a few months away from releasing the second, A Clash of Kings. The world of Westeros was not yet well-known outside of fantasy fiction fandom, and Martin's sprawling saga had yet to become a densely plotted, densely populated, lore-heavy literary behemoth."
"Even compared to the relatively streamlined A Game of Thrones, "The Hedge Knight" is super-simple. The story is about the young and inexperienced Dunk entering a jousting tournament and getting himself into the kind of trouble only Egg can get him out of. That's pretty much it. The plot spans just a few days and features only a handful of characters."
Ser Duncan the Tall buries Ser Arlan, claims knighthood from him despite no witnesses, and presents as naively devoted to chivalry that clashes with reality. Dunk is physically imposing but lacks reputation or proper gear, and he acquires a small squire called Egg who often rescues him. George R.R. Martin introduced Dunk and Egg in 1998's The Hedge Knight during the early rise of A Song of Ice and Fire. The Hedge Knight features a simple, short plot focused on a jousting tournament and a limited cast, creating a deliberately small-scale tale compared with Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.
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