We might not have Game of Thrones if it weren’t for Dunk and Egg, the lead characters of HBO’s new series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
The duo first appeared in a novella called The Hedge Knight, tucked in the back of a 1998 fantasy anthology titled Legends. Its author, George RR Martin, who'd won awards for A Game of Thrones a year earlier, was not yet a genre all-star and writers such as Stephen King, Robert Jordan and Raymond E Feist took top billing.
But the underdog story proved so compelling that it brought tens of thousands of new readers to Westeros when the second book in the series, A Clash of Kings, was published several months later.
“For that I credit Dunk and Egg,” Martin wrote on his blog in 2025. “This one ranks as one of the best stories I’ve ever written.”
So if you’re wondering why you should care about yet another spin-off of a series that had lost much of its goodwill by the time it ended in 2019 – especially after its other prequel, House of the Dragon, stumbled in its second season – it’s because this tale is why we are here in the first place. Quite simply, it’s the condensed magic of Martin’s storytelling.
It takes a few episodes for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' brilliance to become clear, though it’s joyful from its opening moments – a feeling that’s also been in short supply from this franchise for a dog’s age.
We follow Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), a hulking common-born knight-for-hire who spends his nights beneath whichever tree offers the best protection from the rain. He’s not particularly clever, nor is he much of a swordsman. But after the death of his mentor, for whom he squired, he’s off to test his worth at a tournament that will either make or break him, quite literally.
He meets his opposite early on – a diminutive, bald child named Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), with a quick wit and a keen eye for the machinations of power across the kingdoms. He offers to become Duncan’s squire, and Duncan initially refuses – as mentioned, he’s not the cleverest but his heart is in the right place.
When they arrive for the tourney at Ashford Meadow, we start to hear names that may be more familiar to long-time fans – Targaryen, Baratheon. But if they’re new to you, that’s fine too. This is 100 years before Game of Thrones, and much like its source material, it remains an ideal entry point.
If you have seen that series, however, think of this as if Brienne and Pod or the Hound and Arya were given their own show. The humour is lighthearted and at times juvenile and crude – and, in a first for Westeros, introduces cutaway gags.
Claffey, a former rugby player and as unproven in the field as his character, is a genuine find – though it may be difficult for him to shed a role he so completely embodies as his career progresses. He’s an amiable presence, gentle in spirit, and his strapping physicality projects both latent strength and lumbering inconvenience.
His 11-year-old co-star is a charming foil – capable of hearty banter and, as the series progresses, genuine pathos.
And good riddance to all the dragons, ice monsters, tree elves and time-travelling ravens. This is a human story, and by focusing on the multitudes contained in its characters, we're reminded of why no other fantasy series quite scratches the itch of Thrones.
You'll see what I mean halfway through the series, when the clash between the highborn and the low comes to a head, and the series goes from an appealing 30-minute comedy to a gripping drama.
By the end of episode four, I felt like I could run through fire. In the final moments of five, my heart ached. It did that by keeping things zoomed in – the gorgeous, smoke-filled combat sequence works well because we feel as claustrophobic as Dunk does.
This is a hero's tale, but there is no prince that has been promised. Destiny feels irrelevant. Dunk is a hero simply because he believes in the ideals that his mentor instilled in him, and is willing to stand up for them when challenged. When the weak are downtrodden, he is duty-bound to protect them. He does these things just because that's what we're supposed to do, even if we might lose trying to defend them.
I haven't read the books, so I don't know where this will go next. Three tales of Dunk and Egg have been published, and the second will form the basis of the second season they're filming now in Belfast.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' co-creator Ira Parker told me that Martin has shared up to 12 outlines for books he has planned with the two characters, taking them up to the end of their lives.
If that means this show will run longer than Game of Thrones, that's welcome news for me. For the first time in years, I feel ready to invest in characters for the long haul. I'm sure many others will too.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres Monday on OSN+ in the Middle East
