The Mystery Knight (Part 2)

Greetings fellow acolytes. Welcome to another episode of The Westerosi Primer. My name is Liz. If you’re new to this podcast, welcome! I hope you enjoy this journey of all things Westeros. And in this episode, I’ll be finishing my discussion of the third novella titled “The Mystery Knight.” If you haven’t listened to the previous episode, you really should stop this episode and do that. This is literally the second half of the novella. I’ll be making references to events I discussed last episode with minimal to no explanation.

Before I get into the episode, I just want to let everyone know that you need to listen to the very end. I have really important information to share with you about the rest of this season of the podcast. I also have another really important reminder about the survey I’ve been running. Now with all that out of the way, let’s continue!

We get to the next morning. Everyone is trying to recover from their hangovers because it’s now the celebratory jousts. There are of course a few rounds of jousting, but I’ll just highlight a handful of notable ones worth mentioning. It’s interesting that Glendon is introduced as Glendon Flowers instead of Ball like he’s been using. Flowers is the common bastard name for people from the Reach.

Egg cautions Dunk about the jousting. Egg points out aside from Ashford, Dunk hasn’t done much practice with using lances and jousting. He’s clearly more skilled in melee, but that’s not an event being held this time. Dunk wants to do it anyway because he’s going in confident. And then he proceeds to lose his one and only bout. And now he has to surrender his horse and equipment to his opponent, Uthor Underleaf. Dunk was knocked out for a few hours.

He leaves what is essentially a first aid tent to find Egg. On the way he runs into Maynard Plumm who warns him to leave with Egg as soon as possible. Plumm hints that there’s something fishy about this tourney and the sooner they leave, the better for their safety. Dunk is starting to wonder how would Plumm know this. Is he a spy? Could he be working for Bloodraven?

Dunk soon finds Egg, who is taking care of Thunder and his equipment like a good squire should. He has no money to spare for ransom. Egg suggests they head to Summerhall next instead of The North. Dunk doesn’t want to do that and arrive as essentially a begger. Dunk believes he can talk to Uthor and come to some sort of agreement. Egg is skeptical of this and seems like he wants to do something to help Dunk, which we’ll see later.

Dunk finds Uthor’s tent and sees Uthor lecturing to his squire Will about checking coins. Clearly Uthor has been collecting ransom money from the other competitors he’s defeated.  Why the lecture? One of the coins handed to him isn’t normal. Dunk looks and doesn’t see the issue. Uthor tells him to look carefully. Despite being illiterate, Dunk soon realizes there is something off with the coin. The image on the coin isn’t of Daeron II or Aerys I. It’s an image of Daemon Blackfyre. That’s how audacious and confident Daemon was, he had coins minted with his image on them.

Will just thinks gold is gold so what’s the big deal. Uthor tells him it’s literally treason to carry around coins with Daemon’s face on it. Will leaves and Dunk starts to negotiate. Uthor basically explains that Dunk’s horse and armor aren’t worth much to him. Dunk’s stuff is lower quality than a noble’s so Uthor has no need to keep it. He can’t even get much money by reselling Dunk’s stuff. He’d rather get money and it shows with the pretty luxurious tent and belongings on display.

Uthor also shares some interesting gossip. He reveals the truth about Glendon. He reveals that Glendon was the son of a sex worker in the Reach. Ultimately she died when he was child and the other working girls she was friends with raised him. They are the ones who tell Glendon his father is Quentyn Ball. It’s hard to say whether they were telling the truth or not. Regardless, he’s an illegitimate kid so he has no right to the name Ball by Westerosi standards even if Ball was his father. How did Glendon get his knighthood? That’s where it gets even more scandalous.

Not too long ago, a bunch of knights arrived at the brothel where they lived. One of the knights seemed interested in Glendon’s sister, because of course he has one. She’s a virgin and unsurprisingly a client has to pay more to have sex with her. The knight exchanges dubbing Glendon a knight in exchange for a night with the sister. And that’s how Glendon got his title.

Dunk is surprised about this and questions how Uthor knows this. I mentioned last episode that a knight named Kirby Pimm deescalated a fight Glendon was going to start. Kirby Pimm was one of the knights that went to the brothel that night. He’s a witness to the whole situation and told others like Uthor about it. This also explains why Glendon turned red when Kirby stepped in. Kirby said something to vouch for Glendon. It was probably an innuendo that most people would dismiss, but Glendon understands.

Uthor offers Dunk a proposition. In exchange for returning Dunk’s gear and Thunder, Dunk would act as Uthor’s opponent on the tourney circuit. Dunk would be an easy victory for Uthor and he’d win extra money from wagers. Dunk would then get a cut. Obviously Dunk refuses and just says he’ll start over somehow.

Uthor proceeds to shock Dunk by revealing that someone paid him to kill Dunk. But instead of actually killing Dunk, he opted to just injure Dunk. Just who in the world would want to have him dead? He’s just a hedge knight. Dunk decides to go find Egg and let him know what’s happened. Dunk goes back to the camp site but sees Egg isn’t there. He starts asking around trying to figure out where the disguised prince is.

Dunk runs into Glendon and asks if he has seen Egg. Glendon hasn’t and discusses how he’s thinking about keeping Lord Costayne’s horse instead of getting ransom money. After all this stuff was better quality than what he already owned. Dunk then suggests maybe Glendon should join him and Egg as they head to Winterfell. Glendon turns him down saying he’s determined to prove himself and become a white cloak. He still believes his story that he’s the son of Quentyn Ball. Glendon reveals that Lord Peake tried to bribe him into losing the joust against John the Fiddler. In exchange, he’d be given a place with him and John. Glendon refused as he believes he has the skills to rise up without making deals like that.

Dunk decides to head back to the jousting to see if maybe Egg is there. He observes the next tilt and sees the man who was speaking with Peake last night. The herald announces he is Ser Tom Heddle, Butterworth’s son-in-law. Butterwell and Frey are sitting in the VIP box.

Dunk continues to wander around searching for Egg. He runs into John in his tent where he’s being dressed in his armor for his next round. Alyn is also there and is shocked to see Dunk. John is still really interested in Dunk joining him but Dunk is more focused on finding his squire. John offers to help saying “my men” can look for him. Really odd for a hedge knight to have men working for him. If it wasn’t already obvious by this point, John is a Blackfyre and Dunk has finally started to figure this out.

Lord Peake arrives and wants Dunk gone. It’s pretty obvious that this wedding is a Blackfyre fanclub meeting and this is probably the start of the second rebellion. All the matches end when Peake announces that the egg has been stolen and Glendon is accused of being the thief. This accusation is  possibly a retaliation against Glendon for refusing to accept the bribe. Glendon’s case isn’t helped by the fact he’d been bragging about how he’ll win the egg and claiming to be Ser Quentyn’s son.

Dunk wants to help Glendon, but Alyn warns him to stay out of it or else he won’t help him find Egg. Dunk follows Alyn who implies he can lead him to Egg. But predictably enough it’s a trap and Dunk is probably the only one who didn’t figure it out. Alyn openly reveals something readers figured out paragraphs ago: he’s the one who paid Uthor to kill Dunk. Alyn reveals that his motivation is because he doesn’t want Dunk to “steal him” aka “John.”

Alyn reveals he and John were best friends since they were kids. John’s older brothers were twins who loved to bully the two of them because they were younger and not as great at training. Alyn wants to be a part of John’s kingsguard. Alyn tries to kill Dunk and seems to think he can just order Dunk to do stuff so he can kill him. Alyn is either really stupid or he’s like Uthor and believes Dunk is a lousy knight. Dunk easily turns the tables on Alyn. Instead of Dunk falling down a well, Alyn gets tossed in. It’s implied while he’s down there, he’s drowning and he’s left behind.

Dunk sees that Maynard Plumm found him and compliments that fight. It’s pretty clear in the conversation that Plumm is aware of the plot happening at the wedding feast. That’s why he tried to warn Dunk to leave with Egg. However Dunk’s pride and stubbornness is responsible for the two of them being here. Dunk suspects that Egg tried to use “his boot” to help him, which makes Dunk feel guilty and angry at himself. Plumm then tells Dunk that Egg is in the castle sept.

Dunk hurries to Uthor’s tent and promptly takes back all the stuff he gave up for losing the joust. He goes to the sept to find Butterwell and Egg under the watch of guards. Egg had actually gone off to send a letter though he doesn’t explain who the letter was sent to. It seems the maester had seen the ring somehow and brought Egg to see Butterwell. Egg decided to take advantage of the confusion and claim he had been sent to monitor Butterwell. Obviously, Egg does this to scare Butterwell and create chaos. Considering Bloodraven is famous for his hatred of the Blackfyres and his reputation? It’s not that far-fetched and I’ve mentioned this in the other novellas too.

It seems that Lord Frey found out about Egg’s identity and had already left with the rest of his household. Butterwell was the one who decided to take Egg to the sept as a way to keep themselves safe from the other conspirators. Butterwell is a coward and is more interested in saving his hide. He’s hoping to find a way to sneak out before the alleged army arrives to arrest them all. Dunk is understandably worried about what will happen if the supposed army doesn’t appear.

Just as he’s thinking this, Tom Heddle arrives with some other soldiers stating he wants Egg. It’s pretty clear he wants Egg as a hostage for the possible army coming to arrest them. Butterwell cries he wants no further part of this scheme and Tom can’t just take Egg. Heddle calls him a coward and orders his men to take Egg. Obviously just like Alyn, he probably assumed Dunk is bad at fighting because he got knocked out so easily at the Joust. Dunk naturally springs into action and either knocks out or kills a bunch of the attackers, including Heddle. Two men however managed to run out possibly to warn people what’s going on.

Butterwell makes it clear he’s planning to leave now before it’s too late. Dunk tells Egg he should follow Butterwell and then run to Maidenpool. At any time, Butterwell could decide to make Egg his hostage for negotiations. As for Dunk? He heads back to the feasting hall.

It’s not clear if the people in the hall don’t quite realize what’s happened or they just don’t care. I’m leaning towards them not realizing the chaos happening with Egg’s identity. Dunk calls out and openly addresses John as “Daemon.” So at this point I’ll also call him Daemon for the rest of the episode. Dunk argues that Glendon couldn’t have stolen the egg since he was seen by multiple people during the time the egg could have been taken.

Peake proceeds to accuse Dunk of being a co-conspirator since he had shown up with Glendon. Also Dunk was clearly friendly with him. Dunk then points out that the egg could have been a painted stone. He also mentioned that Peake had been bribing Daemon’s competitors to make sure he won the joust. Peake replies Glendon was currently being questioned. Dunk counters that it’s more likely to be torture. The teenager would have claimed he killed Daemon Blackfyre if asked. Peake threatens to have Dunk punished and Dunk just dares him to try it.

Daemon claims he wants to be a fair and just king, so the guards should bring Glendon to them. Glendon is brought to the hall under guard. It’s not a surprise he’s badly injured and the only chance he has is a trial by combat. Glendon wonders if he’s jousting Tom Heddle. Dunk tells him he’s jousting Daemon since Dunk already killed Heddle. Glendon is slightly bitter saying that had he known, he would have sided with Daemon without question. However he refuses to be bribed or just let someone beat him without actual effort.

At the jousting area, Daemon is openly using the Blackfyre sigil on his shield and his hair is no longer dyed black. He has the silvery blond hair color of a Valyrian. So the joust happens and Daemon is easily knocked off by a super injured Glendon. Then they hear the sound of trumpets announcing an army is approaching. From the look of the various sigils, the army consists of many loyalist lords. One noticeable sigil in the group is the personal sigil of Brynden Rivers aka Bloodraven.

Daemon claims that they can win against this army, meanwhile a bunch of knights and lords are trying to sneak out before the loyalist army arrives. Daemon attempts to challenge Bloodraven, but it’s a pretty funny scene of him being pulled off his horse.

One of the Kingsguard who was at Ashford recognizes Dunk and tells him Bloodraven wanted to speak with him. Dunk asks if Ser Crakehall knew what would happen to the people they arrested. He said most likely the lower ranking knights will be pardoned as they would have been following the orders of lords. Some lords might be spared in exchange for hostages if they confess to their part of the conspiracy. The others will either be imprisoned or executed. On the way to Bloodraven’s tent, Dunk see Heddle’s and Peake’s heads on spikes.

When Dunk arrives at the tent, he sees Bloodraven with Egg, Lord Frey, and Lord Butterwell. Egg is dressed in his Targaryen clothes. Lord Butterwell is cowering. Bloodraven doesn’t have Butterwell killed. However Whitewalls is to be confiscated by the Crown and torn down. Also Butterwell has most of his money taken away and he only has 1/10 of his family fortune.

Once the lords are out of the tent, Bloodraven proceeds to lecture Dunk and Egg. He expresses his disapproval of Egg wandering around with a mere hedge knight. It’s especially a problem because Dunk was the one who brought Egg to a Blackfyre supporter’s castle when a conspiracy is happening. Dunk admits that they stumbled into the situation. Bloodraven suggests he’s bringing Egg back to King’s Landing as his “guest.” I’m not sure if he actually means a hostage against Maekar. Not that he would be an actual hostage, but having Egg under Bloodraven’s watch would be a low-key check on Maekar. Egg pushes back and makes it clear he wants to continue traveling with Dunk. Bloodraven decides not to press the idea further.

He does hint at the possibility that Daemon Blackfyre’s dream of an egg hatching might not be the dragon egg, but Egg himself. What does that mean? We are left to wonder. Egg demands that Bloodraven give Dunk the money to get his stuff back from Uthor. Surprisingly Bloodraven agrees to give them the money. The conversation turns to Daemon himself. What will happen to him? Bloodraven surprises them saying that Daemon will be a prisoner rather than executed. Why? As Daemon is the oldest living son, he’s got the “best claim” on the Blackfyre side. As long as Daemon is alive, Bittersteel can’t try to start another rebellion with a claimant to the throne. Also if Daemon dies, he’d be a martyr to the Blackfyre cause.

The final question is where is the egg? It’s not really clear, but there’s a hint that Bloodraven had it stolen. Dunk starts suspecting that some of the dwarves that were hired for entertainment were actually spies for Bloodraven. Long story short, how the egg could have been stolen would have been difficult for most other people. But it was possible for one of those dwarves to climb through a shaft to go in and out with the egg. Whether that’s what happened we don’t know. And that’s the end of the novella.

Let’s talk about the reveal of Daemon Blackfyre II. Though I think the more observant among you listeners (and definitely readers) would have suspected something was off pretty early on. George slips in a lot of clues as to what this novella would be about. Also there are a lot of oddities that don’t make sense except that this is another Blackfyre plot. I’m not going to discuss every single clue, but I’ll mention the major ones and an example of them.

Let’s talk about “John the Fiddler.” From the very beginning when we are first introduced to this character, you should have had alarm bells going off. If you’ve been listening to the previous three episodes, you’d be well aware that hedge knights are bottom of the rung in this society. Hedge knights are above your typical smallfolk like farmers and laborers. However there’s a case to be made they could be lower than some merchants because at least some merchants are wealthy. Hedge knights meanwhile are basically swords for hire constantly looking for a lord to hire them to their service.

John claims to be a hedge knight. Yet he’s a little too friendly with a man we find out is Lord Gormon Peake. We clearly see Gormon sneering at Dunk and yet he’s polite with John. You could argue it’s because Dunk looked like a potential bandit. However this behavior happens to all the other hedge knights in this story except for John the Fiddler. This isn’t consistent with noble behavior so what’s the deal?

Another clue is that at Whitewalls when John approaches Dunk and his eating companions, he says he was sitting at the dais. This again makes no sense because the dais is basically the head table in this context. Typically the dais is where the host, his family and the highest ranking guests are placed. It makes sense at this wedding feast Butterwell would have the Freys sitting with him. Why would some random hedge knight be sitting up there while other hedge knights sit further back in the feasting hall?

Whenever Dunk is around John, he says he keeps smelling citrus and spices around the man. It’s not really clear from any sources I can find in particular that Tyrosh specializes in growing those things. However it is a trade city and the Blackfyres lived in exile there. What George intended with this description you can speculate. It could just be an indication he’s not from Westeros.

And then you had that weird conversation Dunk overhears. By this point if you didn’t already start piecing it together, I don’t know what else to tell you. If you’re curious about the aftermath of this incident, you can find out in episode 2.16 of this podcast as I did briefly talk about it. Bittersteel was one of Daemon Blackfyre’s biggest supporters. If he’s not backing a plan, it’s something suspect.

We actually had some hints that Daemon II, really isn’t the right kind of person to fight for the throne. We got a feel for the character in his appearances throughout the novella. I personally think they were lying and probably humoring him or giving him some self-esteem. That’s why Peake was doing everything he could to make sure Daemon would be the right figurehead to get the throne. Just my opinion but I think Peake was just really eager to get the connection to the throne if he could help Daemon become king. He’d be in a more influential position than Bittersteel.

Before I end the episode, I have that really a major announcement to make. If you’ve been listening to the episodes this season, you should be aware that I’m splitting this season into two parts. These episodes I’ve done so far is the first half. The second half I will be doing weekly reactions to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which airs on January 18, 2026. That means I’m going to be going on another hiatus for the next two months. If you’d like to make sure you get the next episode, subscribe or follow this podcast on your preferred platform. You can find a list of all the directories and apps that this podcast is available on at thewesterosiprimer.com

I sporadically post on social media. I have created an Instagram and a Bluesky account for this podcast. You can follow TheWesterosiPrimer on Instagram. On Bluesky you can follow Thewesterosiprimer.com. It’s pretty cool I was able to use the website domain name as the handle on there. You can also sign up to the newsletter! As of right now, I have my newsletter on Substack. However during the hiatus, I’m going to be looking into transferring the newsletter to a different provider. It’s a long story I won’t get into here, but sign up anyway if you’re interested. Once I have the situation sorted out, I plan to update and post periodic newsletters. I swear.

As a final reminder to everyone, I really would like you all to do the survey and also check out the past episodes if you haven’t already. This survey is really important and I’d like more of you listeners to participate. Let your voices be heard! The point of the survey is picking the concept of a future season of the podcast. There are currently 5 choices you can choose from. The survey will be up until February 22 and I’ll be announcing the results on February 25, which is the reaction to the tv show finale. After that episode airs, I’ll be going on another hiatus.

If you need another motivation to vote? Just recently there’s been a second vote! Currently I have received 1 vote for an explanation of book theories that tv watchers don’t know about. The other vote is an “other” vote and it’s someone who wants me to explain more about Bloodraven and the Blackfyre Rebellions. Now I have no idea who submitted this vote, but I’m guessing it’s a newer listener. I have actually talked about Bloodraven and the Blackfyre Rebellions in Season 2 of the podcast. I discussed them in episodes 2.14 to 2.18.

However if more people really want me to talk about them again in a future season I will. Though I will warn you that if that becomes the winning choice, I’ll be repeating most of the information from Season 2. I might add some stuff I skipped in those earlier episodes, but a bulk of the info will be the same. If you agree or disagree with these votes? You will need to participate in the survey and let me know what you are you interested in.

And that just about covers the third novella in the Tales of Dunk and Egg. If you’re interested in finding out more for yourself, feel free to go to the full show notes where I will have links. Though be aware there will be spoilers to the novellas and the TV series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

Thank you for listening and tune in to the next episode where I’ll be reacting to episode 1 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Let’s meet again in January 2026! Valar morgulis.