The Mystery Knight: Dunk & Egg #3 Explained (Game of Thrones prequel)

HBO is making a Game of Thrones prequel TV show called House of the Dragon, based on the Targaryen history book Fire & Blood. But they’re also developing another prequel show based on the Tales of Dunk and Egg, a series of novellas set ninety years before A Game of Thrones. Dunk is a young hedge knight. He’s not particularly smart or skilled but he’s tall and strong, and he’s determined to be an honourable knight. Egg is his loyal squire. He has a bald head and a big mouth, and he’s secretly a Targaryen prince, and future king of Westeros. We’ve already made videos about their first two stories, where Dunk fights in a trial at a tournament, then in a conflict between minor lords. But the third story is called The Mystery Knight, and it’s a tale of conspiracy, sorcery, prophecy, a dragon egg, painted dwarfs, homoerotic ‘jousting’ jokes and a lil baby Walder Frey. The Mystery Knight was adapted to a graphic novel, with art by Mike S Miller. At the start of the story, Dunk and Egg are travelling north towards Winterfell, planning to help the Starks fight against the ironborn. This is a time of political tension in Westeros. Cause the King, Aerys Targaryen, is seen as “weak”, and he lets his uncle Bloodraven rule the kingdom for him. Many people hate Bloodraven – they call him a sorcerer, a bastard.. and a kinslayer. Cause sixteen years ago, Bloodraven’s half-brother Daemon Blackfyre, started a rebellion to take the Throne. But at the Battle of the Redgrass Field, Bloodraven killed his half-brother in a hail of arrows, and Daemon’s surviving sons fled east across the sea. Now, sixteen years later, some people want the Blackfyres to return. Dunk and Egg see a preacher who says Bloodraven is evil and the Blackfyres should rule Westeros. Bloodraven doesn’t tolerate treason – so he has the preacher killed. Bloodraven has spies all over Westeros, it’s said he has “A thousand eyes, and one” –one eye on his face, cause he lost an eye in the Blackfyre Rebellion, and the thousand eyes of his spies. Dunk and Egg take care while travelling, cause there are “perilous times”. Also, Egg gets a new hat, and he gives his old hat to their mule, and even cuts out little holes cut out for his ears, which is adorable. The mule is named Maester, because it was given to them by Egg’s brother, a young Maester Aemon. On the road, Dunk and Egg meet a group of lords – there’s Gormon Peake, Alyn Cockshaw, and this guy who calls himself “John the Fiddler”. Peake and Cockshaw are both rude to Dunk, but the Fiddler is friendly. He says he’s a humble travelling hedge knight, like Dunk, all like ‘how do you do, “fellow hedge knights”’. But he wears rich clothes, and talks like a lord, so he’s obviously not who he says he is – the Fiddler and his friends are up to something. The Fiddler hits on Dunk – admiring how “large” Dunk is, saying he would love to “cross swords” with Dunk, and wants to try his lance on him, but Dunk is oblivious to the flirting. The Fiddler is going to a castle called Whitewalls, for a wedding and a tournament held by Lord Butterwell. So Dunk and Egg head there too – they hope to win some money at the jousting, and eat some good food at the feast. Along the way, they meet some knights. There’s Kyle the Cat who has “ginger whiskers”, like a cat, a mysterious man called Maynard Plumm, and a proud young knight called Glendon Ball. Glendon says he’s the son of Quentyn Ball, a famous knight nicknamed “Fireball”. Fireball was the master-at-arms who taught young Targaryens how to fight – he trained King Aerys, and Egg’s father Maekar, and taught Bloodraven and Daemon Blackfyre. When Daemon started his rebellion, Fireball joined the Blackfyres, but died before the Redgrass Field. Glendon hopes to prove himself as a great knight like Fireball by winning the tournament at Whitewalls, and getting the grand prize – a dragon egg. The last dragon died sixty years ago, and the remaining dragon eggs haven’t hatched since. So a famously unworthy king called Aegon the Unworthy once gave a dragon egg to a Lord Butterwell in return for his daughters. Now, Lord Butterwell is offering this egg as a tournament prize, and Dunk wonders why he’d give away something so valuable. At Whitewalls, Lord Butterwell marries a daughter of Lord Frey. We also see Lord Frey’s four-year-old son, who ninety years later, grows up to be Lord Walder Frey in the main series. Dunk says this kid is “snot-nosed” and “hideous”, and has such an “irritating laugh” that he wants to throw the boy down a well. If he did, then maybe the Red Wedding wouldn’t have happened, ninety years later. The lords propose toasts to the bride and groom, to the king, and to the king’s Hand, Bloodraven. But many at the feast hate Bloodraven and refuse to toast him. And when they toast to the king, Glendon holds his wine cup over a basin of water. This is a reference to a real historical practice. In the 1700s, Britain was ruled by House Hanover, but a group called the Jacobites wanted the Stuarts to be king. Charles Stuart lived in exile overseas in France [and elsewhere in continental Europe]. So when the Jacobites toasted to the king, they held their cups over water to show that their king is Charles Stuart, the king ‘over the water'. In The Mystery Knight, Glendon does the same thing, showing that he supports the Blackfyres ‘over the water’ in Essos. Real history inspired a lot of this series. So Dunk and Egg start to realise that many people at this tournament support the Blackfyres, not the Targaryens – Egg says “This is a traitors’ tourney”. Still, Dunk enjoys the feast, and drinks a lot, and when he goes out for a piss, he overhears a conversation between Gormon Peake, and Butterwell’s son-in-law, “Black” Tom Heddle. Tom complains that they don’t have Bittersteel’s support. Bittersteel is the half-brother of Daemon Blackfyre, and was one of his main supporters in the Blackfyre Rebellion. When Daemon was killed, Bittersteel went east with Daemon’s sons, and has plotted invasion of Westeros ever since. Peake says they don’t need Bittersteel’s help, because their prince had a dream that the dragon egg will hatch. So Peake and Black Tom and Lord Butterwell and Frey are plotting a second Blackfyre rebellion. This whole tournament and wedding is an excuse to bring together Blackfyre supporters, to kick off a war for the throne. But who is their prince with these dreams? At the feast, some dwarfs perform, and Dunk carries the bride to her bedding. Dunk is really drunk by then, so he goes for some air, and finds John the Fiddler. The Fiddler is also pretty wasted, and he says that his dreams come true – like, he once dreamed that his brothers would die and then they died. He also had a dream that Dunk will join the Kingsguard, the greatest knights in the realm. And he dreamed that a dragon egg will hatch at Whitewalls. The Fiddler believes he will win the dragon egg at this tournament, hatch a dragon, and become the king of Westeros, with Dunk in his Kingsguard. So the Fiddler is the prince in Peake’s conspiracy. Cause his real name is Daemon Blackfyre the Second, son of Daemon the First – he came across the sea to start a new war for the throne. And there were hints of this earlier – the Fiddler gives a toast to his “brave brothers”, which refers to his dead Blackfyre brothers. The Fiddler smells of “eastern spice” – because he just came across from Essos in the east. The Fiddler dyes his hair black to hide the blonde, but his eyes are the purple of Targaryens and Blackfyres. Peake shuts up the Fiddler before he gives away their whole conspiracy, and Dunk falls into bed. In the morning, it’s hot, Dunk is super hung over, he barely remembers that Blackfyre stuff, and he just wants to get through the jousting tournament without throwing up. Dunk isn’t actually very good at jousting with a lance – he’s better with a sword in a fight. But he just needs to win two jousts to make some money. His first opponent is some guy called Uthor the Snail, so like how tough can he be, right? Dunk and the Snail charge at each other, and Dunk.. gets smashed in the head really hard, and falls down. Dunk wakes up hours later with the mother of all headaches, but alive. He says hi to the dwarfs from the feast last night, and one of them smells like a toilet which is weird…? but Dunk has bigger problems. Cause at this tournament, when you’re defeated in a joust, the knight who beat you gets your horse and sword and armour, and you’ve got to pay a ransom to get your stuff back. But Dunk lost his first joust, and he doesn’t have the money for a ransom, so.. it looks like his life as a knight is over. Maynard Plumm says Dunk should just keep his stuff and run. But Dunk refuses to cheat. So he gives his stuff to Uthor the Snail. Uthor’s tent looks plain from the outside, but inside, it’s luxurious and comfortable – Uthor lurks inside here like a snail in his shell. It turns out that Uthor is like a professional jousting grifter. Cause he’s really good at jousting, but he hides his skill. He deliberately never wins tournaments, only getting second or third prize, so that people always underestimate him. And he bribes the people running this tournament so he goes up against knights who look tough but actually suck, so the Snail and his squire can make money by taking bets against himself. Uthor offers to give Dunk his arms back if he joins in on Uthor’s con. But Dunk refuses this dishonesty and corruption – he’d rather give up his knighthood than his honour. Uthor tells Dunk the story of Glendon Ball, the kid who says he’s the son of Fireball. Apparently, Glendon’s mother was a camp follower called Penny Jenny who was with so many soldiers that there’s no way of knowing if Fireball really is Glendon’s father. Glendon was raised in a brothel, and he was only knighted.. in return for a knight having his sister. So all the lords at this tournament look down on Glendon as the baseborn son of a whore, knighted dishonourably. Glendon hoped to win some respect in the jousting – cause Glendon is really talented knight. But no matter how many times he proves his skill, the lords still treat him like trash. Dunk sympathises – he’s often been treated the same way, as a bastard orphan from Flea Bottom. It’s so unfair that in this class system, people are judged by who their parents were instead of by their actions and their talent. As a Japanese philosopher once said, “the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are”. It's ironic that Glendon and Dunk treated like they’re not real knights, when these guys are practically the only honest honourable knights here. Uthor has his jousting grift, Maynard says to break the rules, Kyle the Cat deliberately loses his joust to suck up to a lord. And it turns out that Peake is bribing people to make sure Daemon wins the tournament. But when he tries to bribe Glendon to lose to Daemon, Glendon refuses. So Glendon might not really be Quentyn Ball’s son, and Dunk might not really have been knighted in his first story. But these guys are the truest knights here, and they become friends. As the jousting continues, rain falls down from dark ominous clouds. Butterwell’s dragon egg mysteriously goes missing, so Peake falsely accuses Glendon of stealing it. And then a different egg goes missing – Dunk’s squire Egg.. disappears. Alyn Cockshaw says he knows where to find Egg, so Dunk follows him into a trap. It turns out, Alyn is in love with Daemon, they’d had a relationship for years – and it’s hinted that Daemon being gay was why Bittersteel didn’t support his rebellion. But Alyn is jealous that Daemon now wants Dunk instead of him. So Alyn actually paid Uthor to kill Dunk in the joust, and that’s why he hit Dunk in the head. Since that didn’t work, Alyn tries to kill Dunk himself. He attacks Dunk with a dagger, so Dunk beats him with a rock, and throws him down a well. The excellent Radio Westeros podcast points out that this fight between Dunk and Alyn is similar to a fight in the main books between Brienne and a guy called Shagwell, which also involves a dagger and a rock and a well. In Dunk’s fight, rock beats dagger, but in Brienne’s fight dagger beats rock – it’s like rock paper scissors. And in the previous Dunk and Egg story, Dunk fought a man in a stream – which is similar to Brienne’s fight with Jaime, which, in the books, happens in a stream. And in the first Dunk and Egg story, Dunk defeats Aerion in a similar way to how Brienne defeats Loras Tyrell – by knocking him down, raising his visor, and making him yield. So in each of these three fights, Brienne’s story echoes Dunk’s story. Which makes sense, because author George Martin has said that Dunk and Brienne are related – he might be her great-grandfather. Dunk and Brienne are both tall powerful warriors who travel Westeros with their loyal squires by their sides, struggling to be true knights in a society that looks down on them. So Dunk kills Alyn, then suddenly Maynard Plumm appears, and helps Dunk with his wound. Maynard seems to know all about Daemon and Peake’s conspiracy, but only gives hints at his own motives and identity. He tells Dunk to find Egg in the sept. Egg had wanted to help Dunk, and to prevent this Blackfyre rebellion against his family the Targaryens, so Egg went to Butterwell, and revealed his true identity as Prince Aegon Targaryen, and threatened him with attack and execution – Egg acts with the confidence and courage of a prince. Black Tom Heddle tries to take Egg hostage, so he and Dunk have a big fight, and Dunk proves that he really is better with a sword than with a lance. It's hitting the fan, so Dunk tells Egg to ride for safety. But Dunk walks right up to Daemon, in front of everyone, reveals his conspiracy, and demands “Justice” “for Glendon Ball”. Dunk knows it’s super dangerous for him to publicly oppose Lord Peake. He’s standing alone against a deadly political conspiracy, to protect this bloke Glendon who he barely knows. Uthor asks if Dunk is gallant or just stupid. But to Dunk, foolishness and heroism are sometimes the same thing. In his first story, Tanselle said “All men are fools, and all men are knights”. Fighting against impossible odds to help others is foolish, but it’s also true heroism. Luckily, Daemon wants the truth – he didn’t know that Peake was rigging the tournament for him. So Daemon challenges Glendon to a trial by combat to decide his innocence. Glendon was “savagely” tortured in the dungeon. He’s burned and beaten, missing teeth and fingernails, and now, to win his life, he’s got to defeat Daemon Blackfyre. Glendon laughs at the irony, cause Glendon wanted to fight for the Blackfyres, just as his father Fireball had. Glendon would have joined Daemon if he’d asked. But since Glendon had refused to cheat and lose for this conspiracy, now he’s gotta fight against Daemon. Daemon washes out his hair dye, and reveals his Blackfyre colours, looking just like his father Daemon the First. Glendon has a fireball on his shield, just like his supposed father, Quentyn. The story asks “is the boy his father’s son?” Is Glendon a great knight like Fireball? Is Daemon a true warrior and leader like his father, Daemon the First? The two knights crash together, and Daemon Blackfyre splats into the mud. The crowd laughs, and calls him “The Brown Dragon”. So Daemon the Second is not a warrior and leader like his father Daemon the First. But Glendon is a great knight like Fireball, even though Fireball probably isn’t Glendon’s father. It’s like how Jon Snow isn’t Ned Stark’s son, but he does embody Ned’s values and legacy. So maybe greatness and family isn’t in your blood. Maybe it’s something you can choose. Suddenly, a Targaryen army arrives to crush this rebellion, led by the Hand of the King, Bloodraven himself. Daemon tries to rally the castle to fight Bloodraven, to rise up in a second Blackfyre rebellion. But Daemon’s cause seems hopeless and false. He didn’t win his tournament, it was rigged, and got beat into the mud by a bastard boy anyway. He doesn’t have a dragon egg, or the dragon he said would hatch. He doesn’t have Bittersteel, or an army. And he doesn’t have the legendary sword Blackfyre, the sword that gave Daemon the First his name. Politics in Westeros is about symbols of power and legitimacy, and Daemon has nothing. So in the end, Daemon rides out alone against Bloodraven. Bloodraven arrests Daemon, and burns his Blackfyre flag. “The First Blackfyre Rebellion had perished on the Redgrass Field in blood and glory. The Second Blackfyre Rebellion ended with a whimper”. Bloodraven arrests everyone, and decides who to pardon and who to kill. He spares Butterwell, but takes his money, and destroys his castle. And he kills Lord Peake. Daemon he keeps as a prisoner, cause so long as he’s alive, his younger brothers in Essos can’t claim to be the new Blackfyre king. Lord Frey, who married his daughter to Lord Butterwell, and seemed involved in the conspiracy, doesn’t get punished, and seems friendly with Bloodraven – it looks like he might have switched sides to inform on the conspiracy to Bloodraven. So even ninety years ago, you can’t trust a bloody Frey. Then Dunk faces Bloodraven’s judgement. Bloodraven got his name from the raven-shaped birthmark on his face. He’s an albino, with red eyes, and his skin and hair are white as bone. Bloodraven looks similar to Elric of Melniboné, a fantasy character by Michael Moorcock who is also a warrior and sorcerer, with red eyes, and skin and hair that’s bone white. Bloodraven asks what the hell Dunk and Prince Egg were doing here in the middle of this rebellion. Dunk says they just sorta accidentally wandered into it, but Egg says they had it all under control. Egg demands gold so Dunk can buy back his arms and armour, and demands that Glendon should be released, and rewarded. Egg finds new confidence in this story – confronting Butterwell, revealing his identity, acting like a prince. And Bloodraven says that this fulfils Daemon’s dream about a dragon hatching – it wasn’t a literal dragon hatching from a literal egg. The egg was Egg, and the dragon is his new confidence as Prince Aegon Targaryen. But what happened to the actual dragon egg? Who stole it? Bloodraven reveals that those dwarfs who performed at the feast worked for him, and one of them climbed up through a toilet, to steal the dragon egg for Bloodraven. That foul-smelling dwarf who Dunk saw was the thief. So Dunk and Egg ride off into the sunset, but there’s another mystery the story doesn’t answer. - the mysterious Maynard Plumm. What was he up to? He’s this knowing, watching figure throughout the story, but at the end, he disappears – right before Bloodraven arrives. Dunk notices there’s something strange about Maynard’s face. For one moment, he appears as “a hooded shape” with “a single pale” eye. It’s implied that Maynard Plumm is actually Bloodraven in disguise. Cause Bloodraven is said to be a sorcerer. That he can “change his face”, and that crows and wolves spy for him. Which is probably true, cause ninety years later, Bloodraven becomes the three-eyed crow, a magical greenseer who trains Bran to control animals to spy. And when Dunk and Egg meet Maynard, he’s in a grove of weirwood stumps, and weirwoods are connected to the magic of the old gods. Butterwell’s castle has rafters made of weirwood, which might also hint that Bloodraven is watching. But Bloodraven’s disguise as Maynard is probably a kind of magic called a glamour. In the main books, Melisandre magically disguises Mance Rayder to look like Rattleshirt. And this magic is connected to a ruby Mance wears. Similarly, Maynard wears this giant moonstone brooch, which might be the key to his magical disguise. So all this time, Bloodraven, the Hand of the King, was watching the treason and conspiracy at Whitewalls, learning who the traitors are, securing the dragon egg, deciding who to execute later. But at the same time, he’s having a whole lotta fun. He drinks and gossips and jokes. He jokes that maybe he’s the son of Aegon Targaryen the Fourth, when Bloodraven really is a bastard son of Aegon the Fourth. He says the north is “too cold” for him, which is funny cause Bloodraven later goes far north beyond the Wall. At the feast, Maynard makes crude jokes about teats, and he calls Lord Butterwell “Lord Butterbutt”. Bloodraven is a ruthless politician spying on his enemies, but he’s also a magical trickster dressing up and getting on the beers with the boys. It’s a lot like the Norse god Odin, who also had one eye, and spied with ravens, and liked to magically disguise himself as a mortal and make jokes about titties. So you can see inspiration from mythology, fantasy, and real-life history in this story. The story also reveals the dangers of dreams and prophecies. Daemon is convinced that his rebellion will succeed because of his dragon dreams – and his dreams do come true, but not in the way he expected – cause the hatching dragon egg is actually a metaphor for Prince Egg. And yeah, Dunk does eventually join the Kingsguard, but he guards King Egg, not King Daemon. Daemon’s dreams don’t lie, he just misinterprets them, believes what he wants to believe. And this happens all throughout the series. Melisandre convinces herself that Stannis is the prophesied hero Azor Ahai. And she mistakes a vision of Alys Karstark for a vision of Arya – the vision was true, but her reading was false. Cersei thinks the prophecy of Maggy the Frog means that Margaery and Tyrion will destroy her – but it might actually be Daenerys and Jaime and Cersei’s own self-destructiveness that will destroy her. And the Targaryens have been tormented by dreams and prophecies for centuries – King Aerys, King Jaehaerys, Maester Aemon, and Rhaegar, were all obsessed with prophecy, hoping to bring back the dragons or the prince that was promised to save the world. But Aemon says that all of his brothers were killed by their dragon dreams. Daeron drank himself to oblivion, Aerion drank wildfire thinking it’ll transform him into a dragon, and Egg had dragon dreams that led to death at Summerhall – but that’s a story for another video. And above it all, for a hundred years, Bloodraven has watched over House Targaryen, ruthlessly protecting the royal bloodline from the Blackfyres. What dreams and prophecies has he seen? And what do they mean for the destiny of Daenerys and Jon Snow, the last of the Targaryen bloodline, who themselves have prophetic dreams of fighting the dead with fire? If Dunk and Egg is anything to go by, their dreams don’t mean what we think. The Mystery Knight is the third and final of the published Dunk and Egg stories, but author George Martin plans to write more, maybe ten or twelve to tell the whole life stories of Dunk and Egg. He says possible future titles include “The She-Wolves of Winterfell” about the Starks in the north, which some fans think might involve a romance between Dunk and a young Old Nan. “The Village Hero” is set in the Riverlands, and might involve the infamous Brute of Bracken. “The Champion” might be about Dunk’s fight against the Laughing Storm, Lyonel Baratheon. “The Kingsguard” and “The Lord Commander” might be about Dunk in King Egg’s Kingsguard. There are still three more Blackfyre rebellions to cover, and the story of how Egg became king. Dunk might reunite with his crush Tanselle, or with Rohanne, or get revenge on Bennis. There’re lots of possibilities for future Dunk and Egg stories, and maybe their final tale will end with Summerhall. For now there are three published stories, and you can get all of them on audiobook for free right now at audible.com/asx. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms includes all three Dunk and Egg stories, read on audiobook by Harry Lloyd, the actor who played Viserys on Game of Thrones. Or you could get Dune, or His Dark Materials, or The Expanse. Just sign up for a Premium Plus trial membership, and you get an audiobook to keep, even if you cancel the trial later. Membership also includes unlimited access to thousands of audiobooks and shows in the Audible Plus Catalog. The trial is free, so it’s a pretty good deal – sign up at audible.com/asx, or text asx to 500-500. Thanks for watching, and thanks to the Patrons, including Matthew Mchale, Monty, Owen Jones, Luca Maragò Savorelli, Mike Batko, and Willy Hardy. Cheers.

Channel: Alt Shift X

Views: 456,875

Rating: 4.9572859 out of 5

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Id: HJ5_83zkiJc

Length: 29min 5sec (1745 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Mithras_Stoneborn]

Nicely done. A lot of good points I have not seen been discussed before. Such as toasting over the water or the interesting take on nature vs. nurture in the joust of Glendon vs. Daemon.

By the way, twice in a row, Dunk ended up fighting for the honor of the Blackfyres although he is in the Targaryen camp. First he championed an old Blackfyre sympathizer (Eustace) and now he defended a Blackfyre supporter (Glendon). What does that mean for Brienne who is in the Stark camp? Defending Lannisters?

[u/Mithras_Stoneborn]

This sub loves to hate Jon=Aegon but people should at least admit the fact that this is the exact type of prophetic resolution GRRM is known for. Just like Daemon's dreams came true in a member-biting way, so may have Rhaegar's.

"He has a song," the man replied. "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany's, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. "There must be one more," he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. "The dragon has three heads." He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.

Rhaegar believed that his son Aegon was going to be the promised prince, probably based on his own dragon dreams and readings in prophecies. And he was right! But he didn't know he would die and after his death he would have another son named Aegon by Lyanna, which is the member-biting part.