The Hedge Knight: The Graphic Novel (A Game of Thrones)

The setting for this story is the same as that for George R. R. Martin's acclaimed "A Song of Ice and Fire" epic fantasy series. The time period is about 90-100 years before the events of the first book in the series, "A Game of Thrones". The main character is a very tall young man named Duncan, who was the squire of a hedge knight, Ser Arlen Pennytree.A hedge knight is a freelance fighting man. He makes his living by hiring out his services to lords of the land and also by fighting for the prize money at tournaments. A hedge knight is not beholden to any Lord, and can choose to accept only those jobs that they feel is morally right. However, a hedge knight is landless and must "scrape out" a meager living. Ser Arlen dies from a fever chill on the way to a tournament. Duncan buries his old master beside the road, says a prayer, and decides to compete in the tournament in the place of the deceased hedge knight. He packs the horses and takes the road to Ashford. On the way, he crosses paths with a bald-headed young man called "Egg" and agrees to take the youngster as his own squire.After much trouble, Duncan, who styles himself "Ser Duncan the Tall", finally gets his name on the tournament list. Unfortunately, trouble found him in the form of an altercation with one of the princes of the ruling House Targaryen. Ser Duncan intervenes while Prince Aerion Targaryen is in the process of beating a woman.For his crime, Duncan was to lose a hand and a foot. However, the good Prince Baelor Targaryen gives him a choice: Trial by Combat. After much negotiation with the accusing party, it was agreed that it was to be a Trial of Seven. Prince Aerion would pick seven fighters on his side, and Ser Duncan must find seven to stand with him.On the night prior, Ser Fossoway, promises to help Duncan. Egg, who turned out to be Prince Aegon Targaryen V, also promised to bring in honorable knights to help fight for Duncan's cause. During the morning of the tournament, Ser Fossoway tells Duncan that he has decided to fight for the other side, Aerion having made a promise to grant him his own lands if he were to do so. Meanwhile, Fossoway's squire, enraged by his master's treachery asked to be knighted so that he may fight on Duncan's side. Aegon also brings in four other knights, including two from the Hardyng family and one from the Baratheon clan. Still, they are one knight short. Duncan appeals to the crowd, asking them to fight for his cause. Not one of the noble knights present wanted to risk their lives, or offend their Lord, by fighting for him. However, at the last minute, Prince Baelor Targaryen himself decides to take Duncan's side and agrees to fight for him.During the fight, Prince Aerion unhorses Ser Duncan and proceeds to beat him with a morning star. Obviously at a skill disadvantage, Duncan relies on his great size and street fighting style. He manages to grapple Aerion to the ground and pounds the prince with his shield. The prince yields and withdraws his charge against Duncan.The fight claimed the lives of both of the Hardyngs, as well as the life of Prince Baelor Targaryen. Towards the end, Prince Maekar Targaryen offers Duncan a position among his household knights, and asked him if he would take his son, Aegon V, to be his squire. Aegon had declared that he would never squire for anyone but Ser Duncan the Tall. Ser Duncan agrees to take on Aegon as his squire, but only on the condition that he be allowed to travel and live the life of a hedge knight. And so begins the adventures of "Dunk and Egg".I highly recommend this book to youngsters. Lots of good, moral values there. Here are some that came to my attention:1) There are good, and bad "apples", in every family. Witness the pettiness and cruelty of Prince Aerion Targaryen. Compared to the nobility and generosity of both Aegon Targaryen and Prince Baelor Targaryen. Prince Baelor, considered to be the greatest knight of his generation, willing to die so that a lowly Hedge Knight might prove his innocence.2) Most times, we trade our personal code of ethics for a life of security and prosperity. The knights who refused to lend a hand were all beholden to the service of their lords. They live comfortably in their castles. And yet, it is the hedge knight, a landless knight, who is most true to the vow to "protect the weak" and to stand up for what is right. How many times have you compromised your ethics just to make a sale? As a manager, how many times have you fired employees, knowing they did not deserve it, simply because it served the needs of the employer?3) How many times have we abandoned a friend, or a cause, just because the opposing side had more to offer us?These are just moral themes that came to mind as I was reading this terrific short story. I suggest that if you can afford it, buy a few copies and donate them to your child's school library.

Highly enjoyable. The artwork was beautiful and really helped frame the story. Really easy for me to read, I am 60 years old and vision impaired, so it is very frustrating to read regular books. Graphic novels are great for helping me with this.

This is a classic retelling of the book A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and does a very good job with the illustrations.

If I could, I'd give a copy of this comic book fantasy to every police officer, sheriff's deputy, and constable in the world. The story told is that of a Medieval morality play, in which what is right and what is "officially proper" are at odds with each other, as they often have been (and still are) in the real world. The "hedge knight" Duncan the Tall is a symbol for every good man who defies or fights an evil System for a noble cause. The story offers a reminder that while laws are written by men, morals are not, and that the world is sick when one forbids what the other requires.Seeking fame as a knight, Dunk and his recently acquired young squire go to a tournament. During the games, one of the king's grandsons, Aerion, takes offense at a puppet show being shown by a young woman puppeteer, so he "arrests" her and begins to beat her, breaking her fingers, while his guards hold off the crowd. Duncan hears of the trouble, charges through the crowd, tosses the guards every which way, and falls on the princeling in a fury of fists and feet.Knights must protect the weak and defend the innocent, even if the oppressor is someone with rank.The princeling's guards finally subdue Dunk, and the Aerion has threatened to break out all of Duncan's teeth and then disembowel him, when suddenly Duncan's squire appears and orders Aerion's guards to back off. And they do. It turns out that the squire, whom Duncan had known as "Egg," is in reality a prince himself, shamed so badly by his brother's degeneracy that he ran away from home to live among the peasants.Duncan is charged with treason and held in a prison cell, not allowed to participate in the tournament games. Ancient laws give Sir Duncan the choice, either of having a hand and a foot cut off, or to face the prince in single combat. Duncan chooses the combat. The same ancient laws, however, give the princeling an option. Instead of facing Duncan alone, he can insist that he (and his party) fight Dunk (and his) in a sort of collective duel in which seven knights face seven knights in a joust-like battle -- but with real weapons of war, not with tournament mock weapons. The battle would continue until one side yields or until all the knights on one side are dead.The problem is that Duncan is a "nobody," whereas the princeling can count on the help of several of his royal relatives and can command members of the king's guard to fight on his side. When Duncan protests that he knows of no one who will take his part, he's told (by Aerion's father) that his failure to come up with six champions to fight beside him, in the single day before the battle is to begin, will prove his guilt - the idea being that the world is full of good men, and good men always fight for a just cause.It is an assumption that is largely false, and the pretense to the contrary is no doubt highly convenient to those in power. But, nonetheless, Duncan does find six champions, despite the treacherous defection of one who was expected to volunteer. The last of the champions was Aerion's uncle, Prince Baelor, heir to his father's throne. Of all the royal characters, Baelor is the only one to concede that Duncan did right to punch Aerion in the face, and he is taking Duncan's side for the same reason that Duncan fought Aerion to save a puppetteer.The best moment of the book, though, is when Duncan enters the field early and is joyously mobbed by affectionate peasants. Duncan - never the brightest knight in the realm - asks himself out loud why the peasants love him so well: "What am I to them?"His answer is a reply from the armorer who made his shield: "A knight who remembered his vows."

Really good recommend buying