A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2026) s01e01 Episode Script
The Hedge Knight
1
[RAIN FALLING]
[HORSE NEIGHING]
[DUNK GRUNTING]
[DISTANT THUNDER RUMBLING]
- [WHISPERING] Hey.
- [HORSE NICKERING]
[GRUNTING]
- [THUNDER RUMBLING]
- [HORSE NEIGHING]
[GRUNTING]
[SIGHS]
I don't know the right words.
Ought to be a septon here.
You were a true knight.
You never beat me
when I didn't deserve it.
[SHOUTING]
- Fuck.
- [GRUNTING]
Except that time in Maidenpool.
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
It was the inn boy
ate the widow woman's pie.
Not me. I told you.
[ROOSTER CROWING]
Why, you [GRUNTING]
[SNIFFING]
Doesn't matter now.
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
I'd leave your sword, but it
it would only rust in the ground.
[SNIFFING]
[SOBBING]
I wish you didn't die, ser.
[WHIMPERING]
I'll take good care of the horses.
[DISTANT SHEEP BLEATING]
[HORSE NICKERING]
[BIRDSONG]
Eat like a king if I sold you three.
[HORSE NEIGHING]
For a year or two.
- Then what?
- [HORSE NEIGHING]
That road ends in outlawry or beggary.
[WIND WHISTLING]
We could go to a city.
[HORSE NICKERING]
King's Landing? Lannisport?
[HORSE HUFFING]
Could join the City Watch.
[HORSES SNORTING, NICKERING]
Stop raping, ser.
[HORSE NEIGHING]
Fits my grip as well as it ever fit his.
[WIND INTENSIFYING]
And there is a tourney
at Ashford Meadow.
[DRAMATIC THEME PLAYING]
- [WET SPLATTING]
- [RELIEVING SIGHS]
[CONTINUES SIGHING]
[BIRD CHIRPING]
[CHIRPING CONTINUES]
[GRUNTING]
[MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING]
[HORSE NICKERING]
[DOG BARKING]
[CROWS CAWING]
Hello there. Are you the stableboy?
I want the palfrey rubbed down.
And oats for all three.
You tend to them?
I could, if I wanted.
[DUNK] None of that. See to the horses.
You'll get a copper if you do well,
and a clout in the ear if not.
[LIQUID BUBBLING]
[DOOR OPENS]
[POTS CLANGING]
Sit where you like.
[POTS CONTINUE CLANGING]
There's good lamb
roasted with a crust of herbs
and some ducks my son shot down.
Which will you have?
Both.
[LAUGHING]
You're big enough for it.
[CHAIR SCRAPING]
[CLEARS THROAT]
- How much farther to Ashford?
- Day's ride.
Is my boy seeing to your horses
or has he run off again?
[SNIFFING] No, he's there.
Half the town's gone down the tourney.
Mine would, too, if I allowed it.
[CHUCKLES]
I swear, I couldn't tell you why.
Knights are built the same as other men.
And I never knew a joust
to change the price of eggs.
Bound for the tourney yourself?
[GUEST] I dreamed of you.
Stay the fuck away from me. You hear?
My lord?
[BLOWS FORCEFULLY]
- [HEAVY FOOTFALL]
- [STAIRS CREAKING]
[COINS JINGLING]
Never you mind that one, ser.
I'll see about your food.
- [DOOR CLOSES]
- [DOG BARKING]
[HORSE WHINNYING]
- [STABLEBOY] Hiya! Take that! Yah!
- [HORSE NEIGHING]
[VOCALIZING]
- Oi!
- [GASPS] My lord.
- You thief!
- I I did not mean to offend you.
Take that armor off you. Now!
And be glad Thunder didn't
kick you in that fool head of yours.
He's a war horse, not a boy's pony.
I could ride him as well as you.
- [HORSE HUFFING]
- Close your insolent mouth.
I
I'm a knight, I'll have you know.
You don't look to be a knight.
What, all knights look the same,
do they?
No.
But they don't look like you either.
Your belt's made of rope.
So long as it holds
my scabbard, it serves.
Are you going to the tourney, then?
Do you mean to enter the lists?
Yeah, I suppose I do.
Take me with you, ser. Please.
And what might your mother say to that?
Not much.
- She's dead.
- [SCOFFS]
Is the innkeeper not your
You're an orphan boy.
Are you?
I was. Once.
Till my ser took me in.
Taught me arms and riding, and
and taught me everything, really.
[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]
- Best he could.
- [HORSE NICKERING]
If you could bring me to Ashford,
I could squire for you, ser.
- [SIGHS]
- And you can teach me best you can.
No, I have no need for a squire, lad.
Every knight needs a squire.
And you look like you need one
more than most.
And you look like you need
a good clout in the ear.
Fill me a sack of oats.
I'm off for Ashford. Alone.
Look, lad, I promise you
you're better off not squiring
for the likes of me.
- For your help.
- [COIN PINGS]
- [DOG BARKING IN DISTANCE]
- [DUNK SCOFFS]
Sulk all you wish.
I know you'll scoop it up
as soon as I'm gone.
[HORSE NICKERING]
[SOFT MUSIC PLAYING]
- [HORSE NEIGHING]
- [PEOPLE CHATTERING IN DISTANCE]
[INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
♪
Sorry.
[SOLDIER SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
- Piss off.
- [SOLDIERS LAUGHING]
Beg pardon, men.
I wish to speak
to the master of the games.
[CHILDREN GRUNTING]
- [HEAD THUDS]
- Oh!
- [CHILDREN CONTINUE PLAYING]
- What do you want, man?
[CHILD] Got you again!
I, uh, came for the tourney.
My lord's tourney
is a contest for knights.
- You a knight?
- Hyah!
Oi! Psst!
A knight with a name, mayhaps?
Uh, Dunk.
Ser Dunk.
I I was squire to Ser Arlan
of Pennytree since I was a boy.
He knighted me before he passed,
with his own sword.
That's his penny there in the hilt.
Well, a sword it is for a certainty.
But I've never heard
of this Arlan of Pennytree.
You were his squire, you say?
He always meant for me
to be a knight one day
as he was.
Am I to be a knight one day, ser?
As you are?
[SHEEP BLEATING]
[SPITTING]
When he was dying,
he called for his longsword
and bade me kneel.
Charged me to be a good knight.
- [INSECT BUZZING]
- To defend the weak and the innocent.
Serve the realm with all my might.
And I swore that I would.
[SNORTING, HOCKING LOUDLY]
[SPITTING]
Any knight can make a knight, it's true.
Were there witnesses to your dubbing?
Only a robin in a thorn tree. [CHUCKLES]
This is Ashford town, lad.
Know what comes to men here
who pretend at sacred oaths?
- I'm I'm not
- We hang you
naked by your hands and your feet
lower you down asshole first
onto a sharpened point
and fuck you dry.
Call it the Ashford chair.
So, I ask you again.
Were there witnesses to your dubbing
besides a fuckin' songbird?
Well, the see, it was raining.
- Uh
- I'm bullshitting you.
[LAUGHING]
[CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY]
"Ashford chair."
You take a boot to the head?
This is the Reach, not the Riverlands.
- "Ashford chair." [CHUCKLES]
- Think we're fending off
some scourge of cottagers,
scuttling about,
entering tourneys?
[SNORTING, HOCKING LOUDLY]
You'd need coin. [SPITTING] Armor.
Horses. Men.
Training, gods be good.
Imagine the poor farmer charging down
Lyonel Baratheon in the lists.
Mm, that would be
A different sort of entertainment.
Mm. Well, I'm no farmer.
Yet you've come dressed as one.
Look, man, my Lord Ashford
fancies himself of great import.
Gods know why.
Well, that means I'm to
ward off every landed knight
and sellsword vying to challenge.
You understand? There are princes about.
No, of course.
[SWORDS CLANGING IN DISTANCE]
Your late master.
He'll be known to the true
knights here assembled?
There was a pavilion
flying the banner of House Dondarrion.
Aye, Ser Manfred of that house.
Ser Arlan served
his lord father in Dorne
a few years past.
Ser Manfred will remember us.
By scent alone, no doubt.
If he'll speak to your good honor,
bring him here with you
before the tourney begins on the morrow.
Leave your escorts behind.
[INSECTS BUZZING]
- As you say.
- Aye.
You are aware that those
vanquished in tourney
forfeit their arms, armor, and horse
to the victors,
and must ransom them back?
- Aye.
- And you have coin
- to pay such ransom?
- Oh, gods, no.
I I mean, I won't have need of coin.
- [THUD]
- [GROANING]
Seven fu
[HORSE NEIGHING]
[FIDDLE PLAYING FAINTLY]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
[CHATTER AND LAUGHTER]
- Mind those two. Good girl.
- [HORSE NICKERING]
[CHATTER, LAUGHTER CONTINUE]
Uh, pardon, sers.
I I need speak with Ser Manfred.
[LORDLING] [BELCHING] Good.
He's napping, ser. Wake him for a stag.
I, uh [CLEARING THROAT]
I don't I don't have a stag.
What kind of knight don't got a stag?
- It's a hedge knight, ain't it?
- What?
It's like a knight, but sadder.
No, I'm I'm not sad
He's gotta sleep in the hedges
'cause no lord'll have it.
Aw. That is sad.
And Ser Manfred's fucked its wife, too.
- No, I I don't have a wife.
- Oh!
'Cause we're used
to husbands coming 'round.
Likes fucking wives, that one.
Near as much as he likes fucking us.
Told me he's on a mission
to turn the whole world red.
- Well, we're already red.
- So we are.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Well, um, when do you expect
Ser Manfred to wake, then?
It might wanna try back at evenfall.
Evenfall.
- Goodbye.
- Yeah. [CLEARING THROAT]
Arse.
[GIRLS LAUGHING]
[KNIGHTS SHOUTING]
- [HORSE NICKERING]
- Why'd she say that, huh?
We're not sad.
[HORSE NEIGHING]
Certainly not rising-to-the-level-
of-a-comment sad.
[HORSE NICKERING]
Besides, Ser Arlan always said that
a hedge knight
was the truest kind of knight.
When we win our first tilt,
we'll have the loser's armor
- and horse, or his gold.
- [HORSE NICKERING]
- [KNIGHTS SHOUTING]
- Won't be sad then.
[GRUNTING]
[HORSE NEIGHING]
I know. Said if we did win.
Look, it's not a crime against the king
to enjoy a nice thought for a trice.
[GRUNTING]
- [HORSE NEIGHING]
- Do not muck about with me, Raymun.
- [GROANING]
- You're a good-for-nothing useless rat.
[GRUNTING]
What are you gawping at,
you blue-eyed cunt?
That's a longsword you wear?
Uh, yes, it is mine by right.
That's an odd thing to say.
I'm Ser Steffon Fossoway.
Come try me.
As you see, me cousin here
is not ripe yet.
Do it, ser.
I may not be ripe,
but my cousin's rotten to the core.
- Knock the seeds out of him.
- Quiet!
I I thank you,
but I have matters to attend.
What, matters of the hedge,
I have no doubt.
[LAUGHING]
Fucking size of ya.
Stupid bastard.
Ser Grance!
Perhaps we should seek
quieter accommodations.
[HORSE GRUNTING]
[JOYFUL WHISTLING MUSIC PLAYING]
[INSECT BUZZING]
[INSECTS CONTINUE BUZZING]
♪
[HORSES NICKERING]
[SNIFFING] Oh. Fuck.
[GRUNTING]
[SNIFFING]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
He's napping still.
- Still?
- Mm.
On account of his gouty toes.
One of life's absurd
little miseries, to be sure.
[DUNK SIGHS]
Makes for restless nights.
The poor dear.
Right, absolutely. It's just [SIGHS]
Well, it is of some urgency
that I speak with him,
so I may enter the lists on the morrow.
- What's this?
- It means the joust.
Awful dangerous, that.
- Yes, well, um
- [WATER POURING]
I'm not troubled with a
wealth of options, am I?
And if I mean
to take service in a castle
It must put its body at hazard
for the pleasure of strangers.
Ain't that our job?
- [GASPS]
- Ah! Shut up!
- You're meant to be dead.
- [SIGHS]
Find a safer trade, lad.
You'll be happier for it.
One whore to another.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Must you mock me?
I was only asking for a bit of help.
I'll try Ser Manfred
back in the morning.
Sorry, lad.
[BEONY] Aye.
We don't mean to mock you.
We see plenty of green boys
- every tourney.
- Mm.
All with glory in their minds,
but never in their hands.
Well, perhaps I will be different.
Be good to your body, knight.
Last one you're like to have.
- [LIVELY STRINGS PLAYING]
- [PEOPLE CHATTERING]
[PERFORMER]
Our brave hero forges on,
leaving all he knows behind.
A father and a friend,
may seem the world unkind.
[DISTANT CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Fate has set his lonely path
A boy from nothing risks it all,
ignoring looks askance.
- Perhaps he's only stupid
- [ACTOR WHOOSHING]
holding fast his mirror shield.
Great honor his ambition,
must keep a truth concealed.
For if his humble shape is bared,
a foul and fiery demise.
Should the dragon discover
none but a man in great disguise.
[DRAGON SCREECHING]
[AUDIENCE GASPING]
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUE]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
- [FIRE WHOOSHING]
- [PEOPLE CHEERING]
Halfman! Halfman!
Do I look like a half man to you?
Aye. Half man, half giant.
Look, I'm sorry.
I should not have urged you
to try my cousin.
He'd have broken your hand
or a knee, if he could.
He likes to batter men in the yard,
you know, in case
he meets them in the lists.
He did not break you.
[SCOFFS] I'm his blood.
Though he is the senior branch
of the apple tree,
which he never ceases to remind me.
Will you and your cousin
ride in the tourney?
He will. I would that I could,
but I'm only a squire.
Fight well for a squire.
You have the look of a challenger.
Whose shield do you mean to strike?
Makes no difference.
[LAUGHING] That's what
you're supposed to say.
Though it makes all the
difference in the world.
[CHUCKLES]
You hungry?
Always.
[MYSTERIOUS, PERCUSSIVE MUSIC PLAYING]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
[KNIGHTS SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
[MUSIC AND CHATTER CONTINUE]
[KNIGHT LAUGHING]
Lyonel Baratheon.
The Laughing Storm, they call him.
I thought he'd be bigger.
[LYONEL BARATHEON]
Four thousand years ago
- Four thousand years
- Where are you going?
ago cunts. I can't hear myself.
I've had a profound thought,
if anyone would care to listen.
- [ROOM QUIETS]
- [TABLE BANGING]
Four thousand years ago,
our ancestors gathered in that
[CLEARING THROAT] big field outside
to blood each other with sticks
and have a little bit of gay fun.
And they say it was
this country's first-ever joust.
Well, I say
Uh, the fuck was I gonna say?
[MUTTERING] "First-ever joust"
Ah.
Men could not have devised such a joy.
So, who was it?
[SIPPING LOUDLY]
[LYONEL] Huh?
Who was it?
[PERSON COUGHING]
Mm.
[LAUGHING]
[SIGHS] Fuck it.
A hundred gold to the man, beast,
or god who sticks me best.
- [ALL CHEERING]
- [MUGS POUNDING]
Now, eat your birds so we can dance!
- [DRUMS BEATING]
- [GUESTS CHATTERING]
- [STRING MUSIC PLAYING]
- [GUESTS SHOUTING, CHEERING]
[MUSIC AND SHOUTING CONTINUE]
[CLAPPING IN RHYTHM]
[MOUTHING SILENTLY]
[MUSIC AND CLAPPING CONTINUE]
[LYONEL SIGHS]
You ever been punched
in the face before?
I beg I beg your pardon, Ser Lyonel?
Big men get punched
more than little men.
Did you know that?
No, but but I believe it.
That why you slouch?
So you don't get punched?
I I don't slouch.
Oh, you've been cowering all evening
like a maiden on her wedding night.
[CHUCKLES]
I I meant no disrespect, ser, honest.
Where I grew up, you
you learn to go unnoticed, is all.
The seven above gave you tallness.
So, be tall.
Or I will name you a heretic
and burn you.
Drown you. Drop you off a tall pl
I don't know.
W-What do they do to heretics?
Burn them, my lord.
- Fine.
- [BLADE CLATTERS]
What have you brought me?
Um
Uh, ser, I [CLEARING THROAT]
beggin' your pardons.
I I didn't realize.
You wish to curry my favor some.
Yet you come with an empty hand.
Lord Cafferen,
the smug cunt in red
[CHEERING, LAUGHTER]
he is scarce to pay his rents.
His people starve each winter,
yet even he shinied up this
bauble from his family's cellars,
for he understands
that all men, in their way,
wish only for your help, or your head.
You've come for my head, then.
W-What?
No! No.
Then, why the fuck are you in my tent?
S-Supper.
[LYONEL LAUGHING]
[LAUGHTER]
[CHUCKLES] Alright.
Actually makes sense.
- Supper.
- What is your name, man?
Dunk Ser Dunk.
That's ridiculous.
[LYONEL CLEARING THROAT]
Do you like dancing?
- [GUESTS STOMPING RHYTHMICALLY]
- Doesn't everyone?
- [UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
- [CHANTING] Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
[CHANTING AND MUSIC CONTINUE]
[EXCLAIMING]
- [STOMPING]
- [DUNK GRUNTING]
- [SHOUTING]
- [GUESTS CHEERING]
- [MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
- [LAUGHING]
[LYONEL CHEERING AND EXCLAIMING]
[MUSIC ENDS ABRUPTLY]
The swells heaved.
You could lick salt from the air.
But I'd come to find what
men do when they die at sea.
So, drove I on into the storm.
[LAUGHING]
- Weren't you afraid?
- Ahh.
Within every man, there are many men.
Mm.
But that I had to do,
Stormlanders had always done.
And if they had done it,
I could do it, too.
Hm.
You know, it's best not to agonize.
Yeah, I I agonize a lot.
[LYONEL] Mm.
Sometimes, I I think
I agonize too much,
and I just end up agonizing over that.
[CHUCKLES]
Mm.
And I'm quick and strong, sure.
- Sure.
- But so are you.
Sure.
Plus, you've trained sword and lance
with the finest
masters-at-arms in the realm.
I mean
what chance do I have? Truly?
Oh, you have no chance. [CHUCKLES]
[DUNK SIGHS]
But it's a great honor to test
oneself against a worthy foe.
- No disrespect, ser.
- Mm.
That's easy for you to say.
You have a name, an inheritance.
One loss, and I won't be able
to ransom back my own horse.
[LAUGHING]
[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]
[BOTH LAUGHING]
A knight without a horse
is no knight at all.
- Aye.
- Mm.
- [MUG SCRAPING]
- [LYONEL SIPPING LOUDLY]
So, what should I do?
I don't know.
I'm really quite drunk.
[STOMPING, GRUNTING]
Okay.
Thanks.
[SIGHS]
[HICCUPING] Sorry.
[DUNK SNIFFING]
[SIGHS]
[GUESTS CHATTERING, LAUGHING]
[DUNK COUGHS]
[COUPLE LAUGHING]
[MANFRED DONDARRION CHUCKLING]
[COMPANIONS GIGGLING]
[ALL GIGGLING]
Ser Arlan of Pennytree.
He he served your Lord Father
to hunt the Vulture King
in the Red Mountains.
I I was only a boy, but
I thought you said
you were a Dornishman.
No, he said he's hung like a Dornishman.
No, I said I've hung Dornishmen.
Perhaps we would speak on the morn.
I know your penny knight not.
Nor you, brother. Be gone.
[CHUCKLES]
But Ser Arlan took a wound
in your father's service.
How could you have forgotten him?
- [SOLDIERS SHOUTING]
- [SWORDS CLANGING]
- [FLESH SQUELCHING]
- [SCREAMING]
My lord father took 800
swords into those mountains.
We've forgotten men who
reaped much more than a wound.
Please, ser, I I will not
be allowed to challenge
unless a knight
or a lord will vouch for me.
And what is that to me?
[CHUCKLING]
- [INSECTS CHIRRING]
- [CHEERING IN DISTANCE]
You!
What
- [HORSE NICKERING]
- What are you doing?
Cooking a fish. Do you want some?
No. I mean, how did you get here?
Did you steal a horse?
I rode in the back of a lamb cart.
[SCOFFS] Lamb cart.
- Well, you best find another one.
- You can't make me go.
I'd had enough of that inn.
Now, listen, I'll have no
more insolence from you, boy.
I should throw you over my
horse and take you home.
You'd need to ride all
the way to King's Landing.
- You'd miss the tourney.
- King's Landing?
- You're from Flea Bottom?
- No.
Aye.
What are those doing there?
I washed them. I made the fire,
caught the fish, and groomed the horses.
I would have raised your pavilion,
but I couldn't find one.
- There's my pavilion.
- That's a tree.
Yes, and it's all the pavilion
a true knight needs.
I'd sooner sleep under the stars
than in some smoky tent.
What if it rains?
The tree will shelter me.
Trees leak.
[SCOFFS]
So they do.
What's your name?
- Dunk.
- Ser Dunk.
That's no name for a knight.
Is it short for Duncan?
Yeah. [CLEARING THROAT] Yes.
Uh, Ser Duncan of
[INHALES SHARPLY]
Ser Duncan the Tall.
Never heard of him.
Do you know every knight
in the Seven Kingdoms, then?
The good ones.
[SCOFFS]
- You got a name, thief?
- Egg.
Egg.
Well, Egg, by rights,
I should beat you bloody,
send you on your way.
But you look as though
you don't eat much.
[SIGHS]
And if you'll swear
to do as you're told
I'll let you serve me for the tourney.
After that, well
we'll see.
I don't have much,
but if you prove worth your keep
you'll have clothes on your back
and food in your belly.
The clothes might be
rough-spun and the food,
salt beef and salt fish,
but you won't go hungry.
I promise not to beat you.
Except when you deserve it.
Yes, my lord.
"Ser."
I'm only a hedge knight.
- [FIRE CRACKLING]
- [INSECTS CHIRRING]
[EGG SIGHS]
A falling star brings luck
to those who see it.
Go to sleep, boy.
All the other knights
are in their pavilions by now,
staring up at silk instead of sky.
Do you want a clout in the ear?
S-So, the luck is ours alone?
[GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING]
♪
[RAIN FALLING]
[HORSE NEIGHING]
[DUNK GRUNTING]
[DISTANT THUNDER RUMBLING]
- [WHISPERING] Hey.
- [HORSE NICKERING]
[GRUNTING]
- [THUNDER RUMBLING]
- [HORSE NEIGHING]
[GRUNTING]
[SIGHS]
I don't know the right words.
Ought to be a septon here.
You were a true knight.
You never beat me
when I didn't deserve it.
[SHOUTING]
- Fuck.
- [GRUNTING]
Except that time in Maidenpool.
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
It was the inn boy
ate the widow woman's pie.
Not me. I told you.
[ROOSTER CROWING]
Why, you [GRUNTING]
[SNIFFING]
Doesn't matter now.
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
[EXHALES SHARPLY]
I'd leave your sword, but it
it would only rust in the ground.
[SNIFFING]
[SOBBING]
I wish you didn't die, ser.
[WHIMPERING]
I'll take good care of the horses.
[DISTANT SHEEP BLEATING]
[HORSE NICKERING]
[BIRDSONG]
Eat like a king if I sold you three.
[HORSE NEIGHING]
For a year or two.
- Then what?
- [HORSE NEIGHING]
That road ends in outlawry or beggary.
[WIND WHISTLING]
We could go to a city.
[HORSE NICKERING]
King's Landing? Lannisport?
[HORSE HUFFING]
Could join the City Watch.
[HORSES SNORTING, NICKERING]
Stop raping, ser.
[HORSE NEIGHING]
Fits my grip as well as it ever fit his.
[WIND INTENSIFYING]
And there is a tourney
at Ashford Meadow.
[DRAMATIC THEME PLAYING]
- [WET SPLATTING]
- [RELIEVING SIGHS]
[CONTINUES SIGHING]
[BIRD CHIRPING]
[CHIRPING CONTINUES]
[GRUNTING]
[MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING]
[HORSE NICKERING]
[DOG BARKING]
[CROWS CAWING]
Hello there. Are you the stableboy?
I want the palfrey rubbed down.
And oats for all three.
You tend to them?
I could, if I wanted.
[DUNK] None of that. See to the horses.
You'll get a copper if you do well,
and a clout in the ear if not.
[LIQUID BUBBLING]
[DOOR OPENS]
[POTS CLANGING]
Sit where you like.
[POTS CONTINUE CLANGING]
There's good lamb
roasted with a crust of herbs
and some ducks my son shot down.
Which will you have?
Both.
[LAUGHING]
You're big enough for it.
[CHAIR SCRAPING]
[CLEARS THROAT]
- How much farther to Ashford?
- Day's ride.
Is my boy seeing to your horses
or has he run off again?
[SNIFFING] No, he's there.
Half the town's gone down the tourney.
Mine would, too, if I allowed it.
[CHUCKLES]
I swear, I couldn't tell you why.
Knights are built the same as other men.
And I never knew a joust
to change the price of eggs.
Bound for the tourney yourself?
[GUEST] I dreamed of you.
Stay the fuck away from me. You hear?
My lord?
[BLOWS FORCEFULLY]
- [HEAVY FOOTFALL]
- [STAIRS CREAKING]
[COINS JINGLING]
Never you mind that one, ser.
I'll see about your food.
- [DOOR CLOSES]
- [DOG BARKING]
[HORSE WHINNYING]
- [STABLEBOY] Hiya! Take that! Yah!
- [HORSE NEIGHING]
[VOCALIZING]
- Oi!
- [GASPS] My lord.
- You thief!
- I I did not mean to offend you.
Take that armor off you. Now!
And be glad Thunder didn't
kick you in that fool head of yours.
He's a war horse, not a boy's pony.
I could ride him as well as you.
- [HORSE HUFFING]
- Close your insolent mouth.
I
I'm a knight, I'll have you know.
You don't look to be a knight.
What, all knights look the same,
do they?
No.
But they don't look like you either.
Your belt's made of rope.
So long as it holds
my scabbard, it serves.
Are you going to the tourney, then?
Do you mean to enter the lists?
Yeah, I suppose I do.
Take me with you, ser. Please.
And what might your mother say to that?
Not much.
- She's dead.
- [SCOFFS]
Is the innkeeper not your
You're an orphan boy.
Are you?
I was. Once.
Till my ser took me in.
Taught me arms and riding, and
and taught me everything, really.
[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]
- Best he could.
- [HORSE NICKERING]
If you could bring me to Ashford,
I could squire for you, ser.
- [SIGHS]
- And you can teach me best you can.
No, I have no need for a squire, lad.
Every knight needs a squire.
And you look like you need one
more than most.
And you look like you need
a good clout in the ear.
Fill me a sack of oats.
I'm off for Ashford. Alone.
Look, lad, I promise you
you're better off not squiring
for the likes of me.
- For your help.
- [COIN PINGS]
- [DOG BARKING IN DISTANCE]
- [DUNK SCOFFS]
Sulk all you wish.
I know you'll scoop it up
as soon as I'm gone.
[HORSE NICKERING]
[SOFT MUSIC PLAYING]
- [HORSE NEIGHING]
- [PEOPLE CHATTERING IN DISTANCE]
[INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
♪
Sorry.
[SOLDIER SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
- Piss off.
- [SOLDIERS LAUGHING]
Beg pardon, men.
I wish to speak
to the master of the games.
[CHILDREN GRUNTING]
- [HEAD THUDS]
- Oh!
- [CHILDREN CONTINUE PLAYING]
- What do you want, man?
[CHILD] Got you again!
I, uh, came for the tourney.
My lord's tourney
is a contest for knights.
- You a knight?
- Hyah!
Oi! Psst!
A knight with a name, mayhaps?
Uh, Dunk.
Ser Dunk.
I I was squire to Ser Arlan
of Pennytree since I was a boy.
He knighted me before he passed,
with his own sword.
That's his penny there in the hilt.
Well, a sword it is for a certainty.
But I've never heard
of this Arlan of Pennytree.
You were his squire, you say?
He always meant for me
to be a knight one day
as he was.
Am I to be a knight one day, ser?
As you are?
[SHEEP BLEATING]
[SPITTING]
When he was dying,
he called for his longsword
and bade me kneel.
Charged me to be a good knight.
- [INSECT BUZZING]
- To defend the weak and the innocent.
Serve the realm with all my might.
And I swore that I would.
[SNORTING, HOCKING LOUDLY]
[SPITTING]
Any knight can make a knight, it's true.
Were there witnesses to your dubbing?
Only a robin in a thorn tree. [CHUCKLES]
This is Ashford town, lad.
Know what comes to men here
who pretend at sacred oaths?
- I'm I'm not
- We hang you
naked by your hands and your feet
lower you down asshole first
onto a sharpened point
and fuck you dry.
Call it the Ashford chair.
So, I ask you again.
Were there witnesses to your dubbing
besides a fuckin' songbird?
Well, the see, it was raining.
- Uh
- I'm bullshitting you.
[LAUGHING]
[CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY]
"Ashford chair."
You take a boot to the head?
This is the Reach, not the Riverlands.
- "Ashford chair." [CHUCKLES]
- Think we're fending off
some scourge of cottagers,
scuttling about,
entering tourneys?
[SNORTING, HOCKING LOUDLY]
You'd need coin. [SPITTING] Armor.
Horses. Men.
Training, gods be good.
Imagine the poor farmer charging down
Lyonel Baratheon in the lists.
Mm, that would be
A different sort of entertainment.
Mm. Well, I'm no farmer.
Yet you've come dressed as one.
Look, man, my Lord Ashford
fancies himself of great import.
Gods know why.
Well, that means I'm to
ward off every landed knight
and sellsword vying to challenge.
You understand? There are princes about.
No, of course.
[SWORDS CLANGING IN DISTANCE]
Your late master.
He'll be known to the true
knights here assembled?
There was a pavilion
flying the banner of House Dondarrion.
Aye, Ser Manfred of that house.
Ser Arlan served
his lord father in Dorne
a few years past.
Ser Manfred will remember us.
By scent alone, no doubt.
If he'll speak to your good honor,
bring him here with you
before the tourney begins on the morrow.
Leave your escorts behind.
[INSECTS BUZZING]
- As you say.
- Aye.
You are aware that those
vanquished in tourney
forfeit their arms, armor, and horse
to the victors,
and must ransom them back?
- Aye.
- And you have coin
- to pay such ransom?
- Oh, gods, no.
I I mean, I won't have need of coin.
- [THUD]
- [GROANING]
Seven fu
[HORSE NEIGHING]
[FIDDLE PLAYING FAINTLY]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
[CHATTER AND LAUGHTER]
- Mind those two. Good girl.
- [HORSE NICKERING]
[CHATTER, LAUGHTER CONTINUE]
Uh, pardon, sers.
I I need speak with Ser Manfred.
[LORDLING] [BELCHING] Good.
He's napping, ser. Wake him for a stag.
I, uh [CLEARING THROAT]
I don't I don't have a stag.
What kind of knight don't got a stag?
- It's a hedge knight, ain't it?
- What?
It's like a knight, but sadder.
No, I'm I'm not sad
He's gotta sleep in the hedges
'cause no lord'll have it.
Aw. That is sad.
And Ser Manfred's fucked its wife, too.
- No, I I don't have a wife.
- Oh!
'Cause we're used
to husbands coming 'round.
Likes fucking wives, that one.
Near as much as he likes fucking us.
Told me he's on a mission
to turn the whole world red.
- Well, we're already red.
- So we are.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Well, um, when do you expect
Ser Manfred to wake, then?
It might wanna try back at evenfall.
Evenfall.
- Goodbye.
- Yeah. [CLEARING THROAT]
Arse.
[GIRLS LAUGHING]
[KNIGHTS SHOUTING]
- [HORSE NICKERING]
- Why'd she say that, huh?
We're not sad.
[HORSE NEIGHING]
Certainly not rising-to-the-level-
of-a-comment sad.
[HORSE NICKERING]
Besides, Ser Arlan always said that
a hedge knight
was the truest kind of knight.
When we win our first tilt,
we'll have the loser's armor
- and horse, or his gold.
- [HORSE NICKERING]
- [KNIGHTS SHOUTING]
- Won't be sad then.
[GRUNTING]
[HORSE NEIGHING]
I know. Said if we did win.
Look, it's not a crime against the king
to enjoy a nice thought for a trice.
[GRUNTING]
- [HORSE NEIGHING]
- Do not muck about with me, Raymun.
- [GROANING]
- You're a good-for-nothing useless rat.
[GRUNTING]
What are you gawping at,
you blue-eyed cunt?
That's a longsword you wear?
Uh, yes, it is mine by right.
That's an odd thing to say.
I'm Ser Steffon Fossoway.
Come try me.
As you see, me cousin here
is not ripe yet.
Do it, ser.
I may not be ripe,
but my cousin's rotten to the core.
- Knock the seeds out of him.
- Quiet!
I I thank you,
but I have matters to attend.
What, matters of the hedge,
I have no doubt.
[LAUGHING]
Fucking size of ya.
Stupid bastard.
Ser Grance!
Perhaps we should seek
quieter accommodations.
[HORSE GRUNTING]
[JOYFUL WHISTLING MUSIC PLAYING]
[INSECT BUZZING]
[INSECTS CONTINUE BUZZING]
♪
[HORSES NICKERING]
[SNIFFING] Oh. Fuck.
[GRUNTING]
[SNIFFING]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
He's napping still.
- Still?
- Mm.
On account of his gouty toes.
One of life's absurd
little miseries, to be sure.
[DUNK SIGHS]
Makes for restless nights.
The poor dear.
Right, absolutely. It's just [SIGHS]
Well, it is of some urgency
that I speak with him,
so I may enter the lists on the morrow.
- What's this?
- It means the joust.
Awful dangerous, that.
- Yes, well, um
- [WATER POURING]
I'm not troubled with a
wealth of options, am I?
And if I mean
to take service in a castle
It must put its body at hazard
for the pleasure of strangers.
Ain't that our job?
- [GASPS]
- Ah! Shut up!
- You're meant to be dead.
- [SIGHS]
Find a safer trade, lad.
You'll be happier for it.
One whore to another.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Must you mock me?
I was only asking for a bit of help.
I'll try Ser Manfred
back in the morning.
Sorry, lad.
[BEONY] Aye.
We don't mean to mock you.
We see plenty of green boys
- every tourney.
- Mm.
All with glory in their minds,
but never in their hands.
Well, perhaps I will be different.
Be good to your body, knight.
Last one you're like to have.
- [LIVELY STRINGS PLAYING]
- [PEOPLE CHATTERING]
[PERFORMER]
Our brave hero forges on,
leaving all he knows behind.
A father and a friend,
may seem the world unkind.
[DISTANT CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Fate has set his lonely path
A boy from nothing risks it all,
ignoring looks askance.
- Perhaps he's only stupid
- [ACTOR WHOOSHING]
holding fast his mirror shield.
Great honor his ambition,
must keep a truth concealed.
For if his humble shape is bared,
a foul and fiery demise.
Should the dragon discover
none but a man in great disguise.
[DRAGON SCREECHING]
[AUDIENCE GASPING]
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUE]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
- [FIRE WHOOSHING]
- [PEOPLE CHEERING]
Halfman! Halfman!
Do I look like a half man to you?
Aye. Half man, half giant.
Look, I'm sorry.
I should not have urged you
to try my cousin.
He'd have broken your hand
or a knee, if he could.
He likes to batter men in the yard,
you know, in case
he meets them in the lists.
He did not break you.
[SCOFFS] I'm his blood.
Though he is the senior branch
of the apple tree,
which he never ceases to remind me.
Will you and your cousin
ride in the tourney?
He will. I would that I could,
but I'm only a squire.
Fight well for a squire.
You have the look of a challenger.
Whose shield do you mean to strike?
Makes no difference.
[LAUGHING] That's what
you're supposed to say.
Though it makes all the
difference in the world.
[CHUCKLES]
You hungry?
Always.
[MYSTERIOUS, PERCUSSIVE MUSIC PLAYING]
[PEOPLE CHATTERING]
[KNIGHTS SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
[MUSIC AND CHATTER CONTINUE]
[KNIGHT LAUGHING]
Lyonel Baratheon.
The Laughing Storm, they call him.
I thought he'd be bigger.
[LYONEL BARATHEON]
Four thousand years ago
- Four thousand years
- Where are you going?
ago cunts. I can't hear myself.
I've had a profound thought,
if anyone would care to listen.
- [ROOM QUIETS]
- [TABLE BANGING]
Four thousand years ago,
our ancestors gathered in that
[CLEARING THROAT] big field outside
to blood each other with sticks
and have a little bit of gay fun.
And they say it was
this country's first-ever joust.
Well, I say
Uh, the fuck was I gonna say?
[MUTTERING] "First-ever joust"
Ah.
Men could not have devised such a joy.
So, who was it?
[SIPPING LOUDLY]
[LYONEL] Huh?
Who was it?
[PERSON COUGHING]
Mm.
[LAUGHING]
[SIGHS] Fuck it.
A hundred gold to the man, beast,
or god who sticks me best.
- [ALL CHEERING]
- [MUGS POUNDING]
Now, eat your birds so we can dance!
- [DRUMS BEATING]
- [GUESTS CHATTERING]
- [STRING MUSIC PLAYING]
- [GUESTS SHOUTING, CHEERING]
[MUSIC AND SHOUTING CONTINUE]
[CLAPPING IN RHYTHM]
[MOUTHING SILENTLY]
[MUSIC AND CLAPPING CONTINUE]
[LYONEL SIGHS]
You ever been punched
in the face before?
I beg I beg your pardon, Ser Lyonel?
Big men get punched
more than little men.
Did you know that?
No, but but I believe it.
That why you slouch?
So you don't get punched?
I I don't slouch.
Oh, you've been cowering all evening
like a maiden on her wedding night.
[CHUCKLES]
I I meant no disrespect, ser, honest.
Where I grew up, you
you learn to go unnoticed, is all.
The seven above gave you tallness.
So, be tall.
Or I will name you a heretic
and burn you.
Drown you. Drop you off a tall pl
I don't know.
W-What do they do to heretics?
Burn them, my lord.
- Fine.
- [BLADE CLATTERS]
What have you brought me?
Um
Uh, ser, I [CLEARING THROAT]
beggin' your pardons.
I I didn't realize.
You wish to curry my favor some.
Yet you come with an empty hand.
Lord Cafferen,
the smug cunt in red
[CHEERING, LAUGHTER]
he is scarce to pay his rents.
His people starve each winter,
yet even he shinied up this
bauble from his family's cellars,
for he understands
that all men, in their way,
wish only for your help, or your head.
You've come for my head, then.
W-What?
No! No.
Then, why the fuck are you in my tent?
S-Supper.
[LYONEL LAUGHING]
[LAUGHTER]
[CHUCKLES] Alright.
Actually makes sense.
- Supper.
- What is your name, man?
Dunk Ser Dunk.
That's ridiculous.
[LYONEL CLEARING THROAT]
Do you like dancing?
- [GUESTS STOMPING RHYTHMICALLY]
- Doesn't everyone?
- [UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING]
- [CHANTING] Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
[CHANTING AND MUSIC CONTINUE]
[EXCLAIMING]
- [STOMPING]
- [DUNK GRUNTING]
- [SHOUTING]
- [GUESTS CHEERING]
- [MUSIC CONTINUES PLAYING]
- [LAUGHING]
[LYONEL CHEERING AND EXCLAIMING]
[MUSIC ENDS ABRUPTLY]
The swells heaved.
You could lick salt from the air.
But I'd come to find what
men do when they die at sea.
So, drove I on into the storm.
[LAUGHING]
- Weren't you afraid?
- Ahh.
Within every man, there are many men.
Mm.
But that I had to do,
Stormlanders had always done.
And if they had done it,
I could do it, too.
Hm.
You know, it's best not to agonize.
Yeah, I I agonize a lot.
[LYONEL] Mm.
Sometimes, I I think
I agonize too much,
and I just end up agonizing over that.
[CHUCKLES]
Mm.
And I'm quick and strong, sure.
- Sure.
- But so are you.
Sure.
Plus, you've trained sword and lance
with the finest
masters-at-arms in the realm.
I mean
what chance do I have? Truly?
Oh, you have no chance. [CHUCKLES]
[DUNK SIGHS]
But it's a great honor to test
oneself against a worthy foe.
- No disrespect, ser.
- Mm.
That's easy for you to say.
You have a name, an inheritance.
One loss, and I won't be able
to ransom back my own horse.
[LAUGHING]
[CHUCKLES SOFTLY]
[BOTH LAUGHING]
A knight without a horse
is no knight at all.
- Aye.
- Mm.
- [MUG SCRAPING]
- [LYONEL SIPPING LOUDLY]
So, what should I do?
I don't know.
I'm really quite drunk.
[STOMPING, GRUNTING]
Okay.
Thanks.
[SIGHS]
[HICCUPING] Sorry.
[DUNK SNIFFING]
[SIGHS]
[GUESTS CHATTERING, LAUGHING]
[DUNK COUGHS]
[COUPLE LAUGHING]
[MANFRED DONDARRION CHUCKLING]
[COMPANIONS GIGGLING]
[ALL GIGGLING]
Ser Arlan of Pennytree.
He he served your Lord Father
to hunt the Vulture King
in the Red Mountains.
I I was only a boy, but
I thought you said
you were a Dornishman.
No, he said he's hung like a Dornishman.
No, I said I've hung Dornishmen.
Perhaps we would speak on the morn.
I know your penny knight not.
Nor you, brother. Be gone.
[CHUCKLES]
But Ser Arlan took a wound
in your father's service.
How could you have forgotten him?
- [SOLDIERS SHOUTING]
- [SWORDS CLANGING]
- [FLESH SQUELCHING]
- [SCREAMING]
My lord father took 800
swords into those mountains.
We've forgotten men who
reaped much more than a wound.
Please, ser, I I will not
be allowed to challenge
unless a knight
or a lord will vouch for me.
And what is that to me?
[CHUCKLING]
- [INSECTS CHIRRING]
- [CHEERING IN DISTANCE]
You!
What
- [HORSE NICKERING]
- What are you doing?
Cooking a fish. Do you want some?
No. I mean, how did you get here?
Did you steal a horse?
I rode in the back of a lamb cart.
[SCOFFS] Lamb cart.
- Well, you best find another one.
- You can't make me go.
I'd had enough of that inn.
Now, listen, I'll have no
more insolence from you, boy.
I should throw you over my
horse and take you home.
You'd need to ride all
the way to King's Landing.
- You'd miss the tourney.
- King's Landing?
- You're from Flea Bottom?
- No.
Aye.
What are those doing there?
I washed them. I made the fire,
caught the fish, and groomed the horses.
I would have raised your pavilion,
but I couldn't find one.
- There's my pavilion.
- That's a tree.
Yes, and it's all the pavilion
a true knight needs.
I'd sooner sleep under the stars
than in some smoky tent.
What if it rains?
The tree will shelter me.
Trees leak.
[SCOFFS]
So they do.
What's your name?
- Dunk.
- Ser Dunk.
That's no name for a knight.
Is it short for Duncan?
Yeah. [CLEARING THROAT] Yes.
Uh, Ser Duncan of
[INHALES SHARPLY]
Ser Duncan the Tall.
Never heard of him.
Do you know every knight
in the Seven Kingdoms, then?
The good ones.
[SCOFFS]
- You got a name, thief?
- Egg.
Egg.
Well, Egg, by rights,
I should beat you bloody,
send you on your way.
But you look as though
you don't eat much.
[SIGHS]
And if you'll swear
to do as you're told
I'll let you serve me for the tourney.
After that, well
we'll see.
I don't have much,
but if you prove worth your keep
you'll have clothes on your back
and food in your belly.
The clothes might be
rough-spun and the food,
salt beef and salt fish,
but you won't go hungry.
I promise not to beat you.
Except when you deserve it.
Yes, my lord.
"Ser."
I'm only a hedge knight.
- [FIRE CRACKLING]
- [INSECTS CHIRRING]
[EGG SIGHS]
A falling star brings luck
to those who see it.
Go to sleep, boy.
All the other knights
are in their pavilions by now,
staring up at silk instead of sky.
Do you want a clout in the ear?
S-So, the luck is ours alone?
[GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING]
♪