The Hedge Knight - Part 2

From George RR Martin's "The Hedge Knight."
If you like what you're hearing, be sure to check out my channel, where you can find all of my A Song of Ice and Fire recorded chapters in order in playlists! And leave a comment! I don't care about any youtube algorithm reach nonsense but I love hearing from people who are listening!
I am in no sense a professional reader, voice actor, or what have you. I began this audiobook project some years ago when some friends of mine jokingly said they'd read A Song of Ice and Fire (my favorite fantasy series) if I personally recorded the whole series in audiobook form and sent it to them. Having now made my way almost through the first two books in the series, I decided to join the small community of people who post their own amateur audibook readings to youtube, and share my efforts.
I have no intention of profiting off of the work that is copyrighted to George RR Martin. This upload is a tribute to a series I deeply love, and I strongly encourage you to purchase these books. You won't regret it.
Also I should give full credit to my cat, Claudio, for the frequent background meows and purring sounds you hear throughout.
Art by BotAgainstHumanity www.deviantart.com/botagainst...

[@oz4087]

Such a fun dynamic between Egg and Dunk

[@The.Kyle.Scott.]

Dunk’s voice is perfect David.

[@alsharpe7213]

Great job Davey! the realm needs this channel !!

[@rexpopuli4833]

Going thru a particularly challenging time rn and I really look forward to your readings each morning. Thanks man!

[@bellamaz1972]

Baelor is such a nice guy...

[@joshuamanalakos1128]

BIG THUMBS UP! THANKS AGAIN DAVE

[@jordanlangford6791]

Perfect thing to get me through the second half of work

[@alsharpe7213]

My favorite part of the day!

[@mattsmith4447]

Hell yeah!! I just listened to the first part on the way home from work!! Thanks for uploading!!

[@serdavezilla6494]

Amazing, amazing read. Dunk and Egg are truly my favorites. 🛡🗡

[@DavidReadsASoIaF]

Thank you! Glad you’re enjoying!

[@JayDillDrums]

Bro, this is my recent random binge watch. You are so talented at this bro you bring these characters to life in a way that’s almost better than the show. I literally put this on in my car when I go on long rides and I feel like I’m watching a TV show in my head lol. If they make a series now, I’ll never be able to get that voice of Dunk out of my head. “Of cawse nawt meelawd!!” (Of course not my lord ) lol

[@JayDillDrums]

I love the voice you use for everybody, but especially dunk he’s so wide-eyed and innocent. Crazy to know that he becomes king aegon the fifth. N starts the accidental tragedy at summerhall

[@616thedevil]

forgot grrm is actually a good writer

[@kathigortman4074]

David you are very much appreciated!💙

[@biropgrules]

so, this chapter isnt as illuminating as the last, as its mostly about setting up character stuff, but there is a lot to delve into here regarding Dunk, and how he interacts. The most blatant thing is that he's not only lying about being a knight, he's also obviously reciting a story he's rehearsed in his head, about how he actually became a knight. He acts like someone who is 1. incredibly green behind the ears and therefore nervous, and 2. as someone who cant for the love of him talk naturally. while at first glance one might chock that up to him simply being nervous, when you realise he was never actually knighted, this reads very, very differently. Dunk tells a very plausible lie here, but it is, at the end of the day, a lie. It's very telling we dont get the best insight into his mind when he tells the story, because if we did, we'd seen the lie in full. there is one obvious mistake in the story he tells for example, which the man he tells the tale to either doesnt notice, thinks he's just full of shit but doesnt care to point it out, or thinks is so obvious that dunk didnt bother to mention it. He doesnt actually mention saying the knightly vows during his knighting. now, there is of course the possibility that dunk hasnt actually seen a knighting in person and thus doesnt know that he HAS to say some words in response, sept or no sept. this seems unlikely though. personally i think its either a full mistake on his part, or he purposfully left it out due to guilt over knowing he isnt actually knighted. but then of course there is the meat and potatoes of a GRRM character chapter. subversions. this chapter has plenty of asshole lords and knights, alongside good ones as well, showcasing martins refusal to be generic. reality is complex, and while knighthood produced plenty of bad apples, reality of the matter is that men are men, and there are plenty of good apples in any large group of people, along with the bad ones. The true subversion this chapter comes from the fact that Dunk isnt actually a knight. this repaints his conversations with the assholes and good apples alike. the assholes who doubt his story now has a real point. assholes though they are, they are actually right. Dunk shouldnt be here by all the laws of the realm. on the opposite end there are the good knights who treat him with kindness, in particular baelor breakspear. The prince of Dragonstone is actually standing up for a criminal, an impersonator. a good man true enough, but a breaker of the law nonetheless. and as usual, martin doesnt point this out, he just leaves it for us to draw our own conclusions. then there is Daeron the "Good". this is the first time we ever hear about Daeron, and i'll have plenty to say bout him in book 2 and 3, but in book 1, i wanna focus on the subversion of "Good" king Daeron. Now, the funny thing about Daeron and the way he's described here as having brought the Targs back from the brink to stability for all time is a blatant lie. but how you would look at it, is very different depending on wheter you read it in 1998, when it was released alongside clash of kings, or in 2021. In 1998, you's go, oh its dramatic irony because his descendat Aerys would piss it all away. in 2021 its instead, Daeron is only remembered as the good because he won, and through his own insane decision that Dorne HAD to be brought into the realm come hell or high water, he, through his own decisions managed to lit the fire that would almost see Daemon Blackfyre topple his dynasty. And while he isnt mentioned here, the shadow of Daemon Blackfyre still looms over this story. after all, both Baelor and Maekar were veterans of battle, so who did they fight exactly? not to mention that it was in clash that we were introduced to Blackfyre, so clearly martin had already thought up the backstory at this point. but martin plays the long game, and so doesnt infodump like nobody's business here, which many less experienced ones would have done. finally, i wanna mention a small thing about the world building of this chapter, where martin manages to illustrate completely that Westeros is incredibly backwards despite being set in the late middle ages techvise. Armor is expensive. but an iron hauburk in the age of plate should NOT cost the same price as a horse. That was one of the main points about chainmail that made it attractive even after the inroduction of full plate. its cheap to and easy to make. the fact that it does showcases a pretty abyssmal economy on the westerosis part, which the main series absolutely doubles down on.

[@DavidReadsASoIaF]

When I started this channel I dreamed of getting comments like this. Are you one of those lordly theory essay writers or podcasters? These are a delight to read. Wasn’t Daeron “the good” also the “weak king” who, according to Victarion, allowed Quellon Greyjoy and the iron born to ravage the West Coast? I think that frequent iron man raids are also mentioned in “the sworn sword.” I gotta say, seeing the Targaryen dynasty’s problems and successes on the ground, through rumor and ambient signs of prosperity or lack thereof, through good old dunk’s memories and thoughts, is way more interesting to me than the dry chronicle style we get in fire and blood. Westeros’s economy is a MESS. It also, well, I’ll defend George’s writing to the death but there are some improbable economic arrangements on that continent. Like the Twins linking a fertile food producing region with little commerce to a vast, isolated, forbidding region with basically no commerce outside of white harbor...... and somehow controlling this crossing makes the Freys rich? What, are people buying and hauling literal tons of snow for Grand Master Pycelle’s iced milk in King’s Landing? IMPROBABLE! Though he does a great job depicting how noble liberality and therefore indebtedness (linked to antique notions of “honor”), left ancient houses in a very vulnerable position in the waning days of feudalism and ascendant days of the mercantile classes.

[@jakecollins5438]

@@DavidReadsASoIaF The "Weak King" was Aerys I. He was more interested in his books than ruling, while his hand Bloodraven was more focused on the Blackfyres to the East, which gave the Ironborn free reign.

[@DavidReadsASoIaF]

@@jakecollins5438 Riiiiiiiiight right! I kind of forgot how much the Great Spring Sickness affects things.

[@jakecollins5438]

@@DavidReadsASoIaF The Great Spring Sickness is probably what incentivized the Ironborn. With so many significant Nobles dying, they probably saw the Greenlands as ripe for the taking. Oldtown and Lannisport were right on the coast and hit heavily, weakening them enough that they can't respond to the Raiding right away.

[@ythandlename]

I always thought it's because Pate cheated Dunk with his money because despite being practical, he tried to make simple armor look better than fancy armor and Dunk being naive as he is took his words as the gold he gave him. That's why Egg was being bold about his purchases, he wasn't expecting more out of Dunk but he was expecting him to get a fair price for the horse to buy more than just plain armor. I think Pate means good to Dunk in the end but at the beginning it wouldn't surprise me that he jipped Dunk for his money. Excellent analysis through.

[@TheCbot88]

Ahh Tansel… 🥰😍😍😍

[@jazzminforrestall406]

This is amazing, as always ❤️

[@ayy2193]

Dondarrian the house of extra chances in the face of death , not just berric 34:05

[@oisin3495]

Thanks for the upload

[@BloodyFoxDK]

Great job again,thanks.

[@TheKpa11]

If Duncan really was as thick as a castle wall. He probably would have never found where this tourney was or probably arrive there late, I could have seen that happening

[@goonmobile]

brilliant effort

[@andrzejkopalnia]

Complete mvp ❤

[@codyparker4742]

Thanks for this

[@thesamejackalsniperthatkil117]

Lord Ashford is probably an ancestor of Pycelle, like how Dunk is an ancestor of Brienne. since they sound alike

[@jessicadugan1521]

I really enjoy the dunk and egg novellas, and I know that HBO is considering make a series of them and as much as I would like to see them I’m afraid there is to much inner monologue to translate to TV. 😞

[@mkat2325]

They could just add Egg in some scenes for dunk to talk to, then he could reveal how he feels on the inside. + the people there are pretty clever, I’m sure they could do it

[@user-no4di9ro7c]

Good day, David) My gratitude for your hard work again. Love your Dunk). Can I ask you an unrelated question, though? What are your thoughts on the boy who lived after having his head smashed, cough, cough I mean Aegon. What are your thoughts on him?

[@LordZebra]

Tryion says that his eyes are purple so he must be targaryian. Or atleast i think he is.

[@DavidReadsASoIaF]

I think he's almost certainly not Rhaegar's son, mostly because if the story we get tolk about him is true, Varys would have had to know not only that baby Aegon woiuld be killed, but that he would be killed in such a way as to make him unrecognizable. That's so improbable that it's hard to believe Varys would make such an outcome central to his plan's success. As for the more far reaching theories (Young Griff is Illyrio's son, Varys is supporting him because he's a secret Blackfyre, etc. etc. etc.), I have no idea.

[@abrarbw]

@@LordZebra or a Blackfyre.

[@bensonfang1868]

After listening to you read egg’s voice, it seems that egg has a more “high born” accent (naturally). Being from KL, how wouldn’t dunk notice something off about egg’s accent?

[@DavidReadsASoIaF]

I think George is very inconsistent and unrealistic about stuff like this in his worldbuilding. Later on someone will identify Dunk as a Kingslander by his accent, which makes Dunk not putting two and two together here even more improbable. If Westeros was "realistic" in terms of languages there would likely be at least like a dozen languages and even more distinct regional accents, with the so-called "common tongue" MAYBE being a Valyrian-derived court language imported by the targaryens and imposed/insinuated into the courts of great houses like in Norman England. The Free Folk would have, I dunno, a hundred languages between them? Possibly the people who live closer tot he wall would speak a language somewhat similar to whatever the vernacular in the regions just south of the wall are (sort of like how French and Italian are similar because they're both romance languages). This isn't a criticism - it's a fantasy series, it's not obliged to be totally realistic about all things - just an observation. So, accents tip people off when George wants them to and otherwise don't distinguish people as much as you'd expect they would, from what I've seen of this series.

[@mkat2325]

@@DavidReadsASoIaF dunk would be the type to just trust egg tho lol

[@majesticchinchilla8692]

He is thick as a castle wall.

[@codyparker4742]

Why does Ser Manfred sound like he's from Mississippi? Lol

[@bensonfang1868]

Dave reads all reach nobles except the Tarlys in a southern American accent

[@yaboyed5779]

I love how he sounds like Brienne 🤣😩😩✊🏾✊🏾

[@paulleverton9569]

Some of the accents are a bit weird - one of them sounds more Confederate than medieval, but it's pretty good narration. I've heard professionally created audiobooks that aren't as good.

[@jdizzlethepunisher5892]

Tried to get listen all the way through...I just cant.

[@Mackerlee]

I have listened to David's version more times than I can count. It's very soothing to fall asleep to. I have a hard time listening to the monotone-type audiobooks that are seemingly the norm. Hands down, David's readings are the best Ive ever heard for GoT, ACOK, AFFC, ASOS, ADWD and Dunk and Egg....and they're free.

[@harrisonkeesee]

Don’t really love these southern accents

[@bensonfang1868]

It makes sense-the reach is the southernmost region that is renowned for agriculture

[@idunnygiveafock7640]

It's better than Brianne. Just roll with it. Audibles version isn't any better and this one is free.

[@Mackerlee]

Are you kidding me? David's Olenna Tyrell voice is the best. It cracks me up and totally encapsulates her persona.

[@tatumboyd977]

Brianne sounds like she’s from Boston