Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This is our discussion of the short story....

"The Mystery Knight" by George R.R. Martin

From the anthology Epic: Legends of Fantasy edited by John Joseph Adams. See the Epic Legends of Fantasy anthology discussion hub for more info on the anthology and pointers to discussion of its other stories.


"The Mystery Knight" has been reprinted in Martin's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Sigh. I am a Martin fangirl so I hugely immensely wholeheartedly loved this one. Dunno how times I have reread it.

The third book from the Dunk and Egg stories and it is mostly focused on the Blackfyre Rebellion (specifically, the Second Blackfyre Rebellion). And we actually met one of the most mysterious and influential characters from ASOIAF:

(view spoiler)[Bloodraven aka Brynden Rivers aka Three Eyed Crow. (hide spoiler)]

Dunk and Egg's exchanges are so funny sometimes - and I just love the fact that we could see someone who'd become so important in the future spent his childhood travelling across the realm. As to why he travelled with Dunk, one's gotta read The Hedge Knight.

And did anyone realize there's another kid here that would grow up to be one of the most hated characters in the main series? I did not notice it in my first read.

This was probably the most conventional story in the collection. Very typical medieval setting, knights, heraldry, etcetera. I've read only the first novel in his series (the writing was only ok, so i figured it was better to get the story from the tv show), so I didn't really recognize most of the names here, names we were presumably supposed to know. I was unable to tell whenthis story takes place in relation to asoiaf.

Hmm I can see that. The Blackfyre Rebellion was only mentioned from A Storm of Swords (book #3) onwards.

I also think the get more context at least you have to read the first and second Dunk and Egg novella first: The Hedge Knightand The Sworn Sword. The Mystery Knight is the third D&E novella. The Sworn Sword had a more extensive historical background about the rebellion since Dunk and Egg served under a Blackfyre supporter.

The D&E novellas are set around 80 years before events in A Game of Thrones - covering the lives of Sir Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg who is (view spoiler)[actually going to be the king and also great greatfather of Daenerys. (hide spoiler)]

There are some characters appearing in AGOT such as:
(view spoiler)[Maester Aemon -- referred to by Egg as one of his brother
Walder Frey - the snotty boy Lord Frey brought to the wedding (hide spoiler)]