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“The Sworn Sword”
Legends II, edited
by Robert Silverberg, 2004
Almost 10 years after “The Hedge Knight,” Martin released a
second Dunk and Egg story, this one taking place about a year and a half later.
Dunk and Egg have been travelling all over, spending some
time down in Dorne chasing puppet shows, likely trying to find Tanselle, the
girl Dunk has a crush on from “The Hedge Knight.” Now, Dunk is sworn to Ser
Eustace Osgrey, a very very minor knight in the Reach. Sometime in the last
year and a half, a massive plague rolled through the Seven Kingdoms, killing
thousands throughout the kingdoms but nearly 40% of the populace in King’s
Landing. Now, there’s a drought and terrible summer heat, and a feud starts
between Ser Eustace and the neighboring Lady Rohanne Webber over rights to a
stream.
Pride is the main theme in “The Sworn Sword,” though echoes
of the chivalry/selfishness theme can be seen here, as well. Ser Eustace
remembers when Osgrey was a more prominent house, before the Blackfyre
Rebellion. Lady Webber is young and tiny and holding onto her lands with teeth
and toenails, hampered by her father’s dying order that she marry within two
years Or Else. Egg sometimes has trouble not acting like a Targaryen (he is
only about 10 years old). Even Dunk shows a measure of pride when he discovers
that Ser Eustace fought for the black dragon (the losing and therefore
traitorous side) in the Blackfyre Rebellion; he leaves Ser Eustace’s service
immediately.
And yet Dunk’s chivalrous side still stands up, and he
protects Ser Eustace’s land and people despite having left his service because
it’s the right thing to do. This gets him into yet another trial by combat,
fighting Ser Lucas (who’s been out for Lady Webber’s hand in marriage for a
while) to prove whether Lady Webber did or did not set fire (or send someone to
set fire) to Ser Eustace’s drought-ridden forest.
The conflict begins with the stream, but it’s exacerbated by
Ser Bennis, another hedge knight sworn to Ser Eustace, who’s Dunk’s foil in
this story. He’s rude, slovenly, and quick-tempered. When he and Dunk confront
the smallfolk workers who are building the dam that stops the water from
entering Ser Eustace’s lands, he uses force to intimidate them and ultimately
cuts one of them on the cheek. Up to that point, Ser Eustace had a beef with Lady
Webber, but when Ser Bennis attacks one of Lady Webber’s smallfolk, Lady Webber
now has an even more legitimate beef with Ser Eustace (since it turns out Ser
Eustace has no legal claim to the stream anyway).
Ser Eustace puts Dunk and Bennis in charge of training the
few smallfolk he has (and they actually get names this time!) to fight in case
Lady Webber attacks. Watching this upsets Egg because he knows the farmers have
no chance against knights like Ser Lucas. Part of why he’s out here, of course,
is to learn that smallfolk have names and lives and are people, not cannon-fodder. He still shows some difficulty with
this, throwing Dunk’s remark about knights not naming their horses because it
makes it harder when they die back at him; they shouldn’t have given the
smallfolk their own names (all of them are named some variation of Wat or
Willis) because it will make it harder when they die. That he’s concerned about
the fate of the smallfolk is good; that he’s talking about them like they’re pets
isn’t. Egg wants to stop the whole fight by using the Targaryen signet ring he
keeps in his boot, but Dunk won’t let him, partially because it could put Egg’s
life in danger and partially because this sort of thing is exactly why he’s
squired to a hedge knight.
In order to prevent unnecessary bloodshed, Eustace sends
Dunk to offer Lady Webber a blood price for the injury to her peasant man.
Rohanne isn’t interested, instead insisting that Eustace turn over Bennis.
Eustace isn’t willing to do that, so Rohanne comes to get him—though she denies
burning down the forest. Dunk puts himself in the place of the smallfolk they’ve
been training, despite having left Eustace’s service by this point, and goes to
treat with Rohanne. He sacrifices his own pride by slicing open his cheek as
repayment for the injured smallfolk, then letting her in on Egg’s identity and
what will happen if Dunk dies here. Rohanne takes that, but she also objects to
Eustace accusing her of burning the forest, at which point she demands trial by
combat. In the middle of the stream. Dunk wins, but gets beaten half to death
in the process.
While he’s recuperating, Rohanne and Eustace put aside their
pride enough to talk to each other,
and decide the best way to handle their mutual issues is to get married.
Rohanne needs a husband, Eustace wants the prestige of his house back. Eustace
lost all his children in the Rebellion; Rohanne was in love with one of those
children, who’s now buried on Eustace’s land. Marrying means Eustace’s
smallfolk can have some of the water because the lands are joined. In other
words, all of this could have been
avoided if it weren’t for the pride of the lords and ladies. Given that they’re
very minor lords and ladies, the
amount of pride they have is rather outsized, as well.
Poor Dunk is the only one who comes out of this without his
pride salved. He manages to develop a pretty major crush on Rohanne, as well,
and she says at one point that if he weren’t just a hedge knight, she’d marry
him. While he’s unconscious from the fight, Rohanne and Eustace get married, so
he wakes up to discover that any chance he had for any kind of relationship
with Rohanne is gone. So he leaves, but not before Rohanne gives him a new
horse and he steals a kiss and a lock of hair.
Martin’s issues with the common folk are much less
pronounced in this story than they are in A
Song of Ice and Fire and “The Hedge Knight.” They’re not just a faceless
mob here; they have names and personalities. The nobility still treat them like
trash (Rohanne, for example, turns down Dunk’s offer of a blood price knowing
that the injured peasant—Wolmer—would probably have liked the money and refers
to him as “some peasant”), but at least the narrative shows that this is a really
bad attitude instead of subtly (and probably accidentally) reinforcing it.
His issues with women are also less here; Rohanne is a
well-developed, strong character and the only time her breasts are mentioned is
when Dunk has a dream about her being naked. There are still far more male characters
than female ones, even in Rohanne’s court. Rohanne’s insistence on being “strong”
in a male fashion is explicitly addressed; Rohanne says if she can’t hold the
land the way a man would, she’d be summarily removed from power.
There’s one really interesting side mention that comes up
several times in “The Sworn Sword,” and that’s Brynden “Bloodraven” Rivers’
position as Hand of the King. Those who have read A Song of Ice and Fire and paid close attention will recognize
Brynden as the Targaryen bastard who served Aerys I through three Blackfyre
Rebellions but was imprisoned for murder when Aegon V took the throne. He swore
to the Night’s Watch, was escorted north by Dunk himself (along with Maester
Aemon), became Lord Commander of the Watch, then disappeared while ranging
north of the Wall, reappearing in the narrative when Bran Stark encounters him
in a cave far north, calling himself the three-eyed raven. (On a very side
note, this is why I’m confused that Game
of Thrones calls Bran “the three-eyed crow” like it’s a title; there’s all
sorts of reasons to call Brynden a raven or a crow, but zero reason to refer to
Bran that way.)
Next week: the last of the Dunk and Egg novellas (so far)
sees the duo embroiled in intrigue at a tourney again.
Art by Gary Gianni from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
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