Before Chivalry Died: Everything You Need to Know about “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Game of Thrones up through the most recent season.

Earlier this month, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a (quasi) new novel by Game of Thrones author George RR Martin was published. To fulfill my duties as a Raleigh & Co’s maester, I’ve read the book from cover to cover and am here to answer all of your questions.

Is this the next book in A Song of Ice and Fire?

No. While there is speculation that the next book in George RR Martin’s series will be released sometime in the next six months, that book is named The Winds of Winter and fans of the series have been waiting on it for over four years now.

So does that mean we still don’t know if Jon Snow is really dead?

Yep. Though come on man he’s totally alive. Even if you don’t read the interviews or casting rumors, there is way too much that has been foreshadowed about his character’s origin and destiny for the most likable bastard on TV to be truly dead.

So what is this book then? Does it even have anything to do with Game of Thrones?

To answer the latter question first, yes it does. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set in Westeros roughly a century before the events in A Game of Thrones at a time when the Targaryen dynasty still ruled the seven kingdoms. The two main characters are Ser Duncan the Tall (more commonly called “Dunk”), a hedge knight and his squire Egg, who has a surprising connection to the Targaryen royal family.

Wait so George RR Martin is busy writing stories about Westeros that aren’t The Winds of Winter instead of finishing his series?

Actually no — or at least not in this case. This gets back to why I called this a semi-new book. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is actually a compilation of three separate novellas previous published by Martin in various anthologies — The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight. Aside from augmenting Martin’s own personal Iron Bank, it turns out that the novellas and their respective anthologies aren’t exactly easy to find. Thus this is the first time since Game of Thrones became a pop-culture phenomenon these stories have been widely available to the masses.

Okay back to the story itself. Have we actually ever seen or heard of any of the characters in this book?

Given the time difference between A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and A Game of Thrones only the centigenarians could have lived to bridge that gap. As it so happens there is such an individual — Maester Aemon Targaryen of Castle Black. While Aemon himself is only mentioned in passing, he does memorably mention “Egg” on his deathbed in Season 5. Other characters including Ser Duncan have been mentioned in passing, and one — Lord Brynden Rivers, a legitimized Targaryen Bastard and infamous sorcerer — may end up playing a prominent role in upcoming seasons of the show.

Is it as dark and hopeless as Game of Thrones?

For the most part no. While the Westeros of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is essentially the same Westeros in Game of Thrones — heads on spikes, whores, and treachery still abound — those are all pushed to the periphery. There are no rape scenes, no sadistic torture, and no surprise beheadings. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is at its core a tale of chivalry at its best, or at least the best it can possibly be in Westeros. Rather than subverting conventional genre storytelling, Martin embraces it here while still anchoring the narrative in his genre-subverting setting of Westeros.

In other words while Dunk and Egg hold true to the lofty values of knighthood, they are surrounded by a world that eschews their more glossy view of morality. So while there are jousting tournaments and thrilling trials by combat, there is also deceptive scheming behind the scenes and tragic collateral damage.

Ultimately A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms tells two stories. In the forefront are the heroic adventures of a hedge knight and his precocious squire, but ever present in the background is the broader tale of the beginning of the end of the Targaryen Dynasty. The action takes place in the decades following a bloody rebellion during which trueborn Targaryen heirs fought the legitimized bastards of the previous king known as “Aegon the Unworthy”. While the “good guys” won, through the eyes of Dunk and Egg we see the lingering effects of the rebellion among the lesser lords and commonfolk of Westeros. Thus rather than concerning itself with the players in the proverbial “game of thrones,” A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms instead exposes the toll the game takes on all of the pawns.

This all sounds great but I’ve heard that Martin’s books are obscenely long. Should I just wait around until HBO decides to make this into a show?

While the books of A Song of Ice and Fire are notoriously long — A Dance with Dragons checks in at 959 pages — A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a relatively quick read at 355 pages (including illustrations by Gary Gianni). Furthermore, the narrative is limited to the point of view of Ser Duncan as opposed to the shifting of POV characters between chapters in A Song of Ice and Fire, which makes it much easier to keep track of the story.

As far as whether these stories will eventually make their way to HBO, it’s tough to say. There is far less overall content than any of the books in A Game of Thrones, and it would be tough to even stretch into one ten episode season. That said Martin has expressed a desire to write more stories about these two characters, so perhaps there eventually will be enough material for some sort of adaptation.

Ultimately if you have read all the books in A Song of Ice and Fire you should definitely read A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. If you love the show and want some more Westeros to hold you over but aren’t sure you want to tackle the leviathan that is A Song of Ice and Fire then this is a nice alternative and a good way to get a taste of Martin’s writing style. If you casually watch Game of Thrones but otherwise have disdain for fantasy then you’re probably safe skipping A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms without feeling in the dark for upcoming seasons of Game of Thrones.

I skipped to the end of this article to find out if Jon Snow is alive. Is he?

Nope. Totally dead.

Originally published at raleighco.com on October 19, 2015.