By Jake from Lewisham Branch
Ok, so I am relatively confident that you have all heard of A Game of Thrones. Y’know, the successful TV show based on George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire (ASOIAF) fantasy fiction saga? So I was actually pretty late to the party on this. I hadn’t heard of the books, and I dawdled on giving the show a go because I had heard it was pretty low on the High Fantasy stuff that I dig. But one day my friend Steph sent me a show clip of Oberyn Martell vs The Mountain. The fight choreography was beautiful, and I was tempted to give the show ago.
Entry for Liege Lord from the Oxford English DictionaryIt’s around this time I discovered ASOIAF prequel comic called The Hedge Knight at Downham Library. It was set 100 years before A Game of Thrones so I was fairly confident I could read it without spoiling the show.
I jumped into the World of Ice & Fire for the first time. I actually really enjoyed it, so when I stumbled across it in a collection with two other prequel stories with the same characters called A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms at Lewisham. Inevitably I decided to give it a go.
Our first story is called The Hedge Knight. We are introduced to Dunk,
squire to the recently deceased Hedge Knight Ser Arlan of Pennytree. A
Hedge Knight is an anointed night who serves no particular liege lord.
As Dunk figures out what to do next he is hit with a sudden stroke of
genius. He decides to head off to the tournament at Ashford. Upon the
way he stops at an Inn, and finds a stable boy sat astride his horse.
Dunk introduces himself as Ser Duncan the Tall, and scolds the stable boy. Heading out the next day Ser Duncan enlists in a tournament at Ashford Meadow. Having hidden his horse and armour in nearby woodland he finds it accompanied by the stable boy from the inn. His name is Egg. Reluctantly Dunk accepts Egg as his squire. However little does he know his squire is a royal prince named Aegon.
The Hedge Knight plays out like a classic fantasy story, not dissimilar to Conan the Barbarian stories. However the next two are completely different.
The Sworn Sword catches up with Dunk and Egg after the events of the tournament at Ashford Meadow, in the service of a petty lord who fought during The Blackfyre rebellion against Egg’s grandfather.
The final story is called The Mystery Knight, where Ser Duncan enlists in a tournament for a dragon's egg.
The thing is, each short story is completely different from the last. The
Hedge Knight is an out and out fantasy story, but The Sworn Sword
hearkens back to Westerns of old, with a gun slinger standing alone.
The Mystery Knight even tells you what it is, it’s a mystery story. Such varying styles from the same author over three interlinked tales is not only creatively impressive, but also well incredibly executed. These aren’t the deep epics of ASOIAF, these are fun tales to be enjoyed, rather than reading into the subtext like the main series. Martin has admitted to enjoying writing The Dunk and Egg stories, and it shows in each novel.
They are crafted for the reader's enjoyment with the writer's love.
A selection of Westerns on IndieFlixPersonally, I think The Dunk and Egg stories are the perfect jumping on point for those looking to get into ASOIAF. They’re ideal for dipping your toe in and checking out the water so to speak. That’s what I did and I haven’t looked back since.
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