The Hedge Knight - Part 4

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.

[@graycin3391]

The exposition in these early chapters is masterly done

[@ryanmattox7408]

‘Too bad he wasn’t born a Fossoway. Then he’d think himself an apple and we’d all be safer.’ I love the voice you have Daeron it made me crack up at this line. He’s sounds so hilarious miserable.

[@1997thatperson]

David does the best Edd too lol

[@johnobrien6185]

Great voices David.especially the Fossaway cousins.Raymond one of my favorite characters in the story.

[@oz4087]

Better green than rotten.

[@JessBecause77]

Does anyone else think that the monstrous lie that Dunk is referring to at 8:13 is about the old man knighting him?

[@TheCbot88]

The father. Baelor The warrior. Dunk Steely Pate the smith. Tansel and her aunt the maiden and the crone. Aerion the Stranger. Idk who the Mother is. Maybe she hasn’t made an appearance yet. Everyone’s mom is dead, like they’re all a bunch of Disney princesses. Maybe the mother is the Stranger. 😂😂😂

[@Him_Him_]

Daeron is the mother

[@RomeroPortero]

@@Him_Him_ yeah my mom was always drunk and thought she could tell the future too

[@Admiralmeriweather]

the innkeep could be

[@renaigh]

Dunk is basically a Medieval Cowboy, minus the cow.

[@TheCbot88]

He has a mule in the next book..

[@markbrennan212]

Minus the Western theme, minus the cowboy outfit, minus virtually everything Cowboy related apart from the fact he has a horse.

[@mkat2325]

@@markbrennan212 no. He’s cool like a cowboy

[@leonrobinson8180]

@@markbrennan212 Superficialities. He has the heart of a cowboy.

[@machinegunftw86]

An idiot but very likable 😂😂👍👍👍

[@theelectricprince8231]

38:20 this s*** is making me cry

[@rafmiranda516]

Rymun Fossoway seems like the best of buddies

[@Meriluslff1989]

Daeron don't want no part of anything he just tryna chill and drink lmaooooo

[@throwbackblackcat]

Man, Baelor is so cool!

[@Kingedwardiii2003]

Maekar reminds me a lot of Stannis

[@lupusanthro5021]

I wonder what Dunk meant when he said that the old man (Ser Arlan) did not follow the vow to protect the innocent as well toward the end.

[@biropgrules]

this ive wondered about as well, but what i think this means to imply is that Arlan's deterioration was a bit more... harsh on the old knight's mentally than Dunk impllies at the start at the book. like, he probably could barely remember anything, and was raving like a lunatic about things that werent there, or regrets he had, like old Hoster Tully did at his deathbed. its not quite the fate of an alzheimer victim, but keep in mind that dunk would have been taking care of him through the entire fever. seeing your father die by the side of the road feverish and ranting would take a toll on any man, but dunk chooses to remember the good times, and actions rather than the bad.

[@wolfmadej6310]

@@biropgrules i spent like 2 hours trying to answer this yesterday til i gave up lol, this answer is what i was thinking but read way to much into it and did a deep dive to see if Arlan was ever a shitty dude. I would just like to apologize to good Ser Arlan of Pennytree.

[@phyto12]

I think Dunk meant the old man just forgot he had said to Dunk

[@JessBecause77]

I wonder at 8:13 what Dunk meant when he thought "he knew what it felt like to want something so bad that you would tell a monstrous lie to get near it" I feel like it could only be that he lied about the old man knighting him. But don't think that he said the old man forgot those words because he had became old. To me it sounds like the older he became the less truth were in those words because he no longer stayed true to them.

[@lplp3273]

Love these stories, thank you so much for bringing these to life

[@inoshikachokonoyarobakayar2493]

💯💯💯

[@biropgrules]

so, there is a lot of stuff to unpack here, both foreshadowing, as well as building up on the themes and questions of true knighthood, as well as some foreshadowing for what will happen in the next chapter, which will be an excelent time to discuss what martin's stance on noble succession and its many flaws are. but that is for next time. this video is for knights, and to discuss the hipocrosy of men. Firstly, we had the old knight of pennytree's quote, about hedgeknights being the closest to the true ideal of knighthood. It's a rather poignient question, but to just say that true knighthood ends there is wrong as well. As we see in this chapter, there are several shades of true knighthood, and frankly, i would say that of Dunk's seven, the only ones with somewhat questionable motives is the laughing storm. everyone else has real, honest and just grievances against the accusing prince, and/or believes in Dunk's cause. then of course there are the opposition. the kingsguard is sworn to protect the royal family, and so MUST stand against dunk, even if they believe he was in the right. its not quite up there on the same level as Aerys seven, but its still an exelent example of the problems of the conflicting vows of the white knights. what do you do when the man you protect is a monster? Wheter these men would have stood by while their charges raped a woman, men were excecuted in the great hall in pure tyrrany is a question we shall never know however. then there is Maekar, who in a delightful twist tells dunk that if his cause is just, he will find men willing to fight for it... only to be outraged when his own blood finds said cause just, and does exactly that, and his rage over that decision will have grim and terrible consequences. i could cover the fossaways, but i think there isnt all that much to discuss there. they are mirror counterparts, and rather blatant ones at that. but then we get the audience. the gathered nobles, and their hypocricy. Now, as ive noted in the earlier parts, there is a great amount of ambiguity of wheter Dunk is right about invoking his old master's name to pass as a knight. and one could easily say the same here. but frankly, i think its much, much more telling to take a look at the fact that not a one of these lords is willing to even deign to return the service that ser Arlan of Pennytree gave them. The relationship between a retainer and and their master is supposed to go both ways. the knight provides his arms and loyalty to thei master, in return for a roof, food, and the master's support of them and theirs. Yet none of these lords even deigns to reply, or offer support, either in the form of themselves, or just offer a single knight to fight on Dunk's behalf. to them, even if this Arlan did serve them, he was just one knight amongst hundreds. what does his service or sacrifice matter if he wasnt a knight they personally knew well? not a one even gives a reply, except perhaps the biggest hypocriteof all of these lords. The Brute of Bracken is a surprisingly massive hypocrite, but you wouldnt know that at the first reading, because for this first book, martin has purposfully not mentioned the name, Daemon Blackfyre. Still, the shadow the Black Dragon cast is nontheless present here, in the form of Otho Bracken. During the first Blackfyre Rebellion, the Brackens and the blackwoods unsurprisingly chose opposite sides. the ravens for the red, and horse for the black. Otho would either have been the lord, or the heir to his house at that time. however, what is certain, is that bracken would have been fighting in person for the black dragon. the king who bore the sword. "The Better man", amongst him and Daeron the second as his followers would say. One of the things that his followers would hold up long past his death, was that Deamon blackfyre was THE ideal of Westerosi Knighthood. he was the living embodiment of what all knights across the land aspired to be. and the fact is, that this admiration is not unwarrented. Daemon by all accounts was a true knight in shining armor, who not only spoke the vows of knighthood, but actually lived up to them. there is abosultely not a doubt in my mind, that if he had been at ashford, he would have made the exact same choice as Baelor Breakspear did. He was held up as the true successor of the Targaryen kings, as the true king who should have been, simply on the character of being the true ideal. And yet... what does Otho Bracken, the only one of the men who fought for the black dragon have to say when Dunk asks for his aid? "your cause might be just, but its not MY cause." for a man who rose to seat the black dragon with the justification that he was the heir Aegon IV truely chose, on the merit that he was "Better" than Daeron, and that he truely lived up to those ideals, only for him to essentially tell another knight that embodies the same virtues as Deamon did, by actually following his oaths in letter as well as spirit, no matter the cost to himself, to piss off is... astonisingly hypocritical. This is the chance to truely live up to the ideals that Deamon Blackfyre stood for, and rather than doing that, Otho instead proves how hollow his support for those very ideals actually are. then of course there is the man himself, the man, the legend, Daemon's great enemy, the only man who ever managed to defeat the black dragon in a joust(though wheter he managed to unseat him, or it was by decision we dont know), Prince Baelor Breakspear Targaryen, Hand of the King, and Crown Prince of Westeros. In this story, Bealor represent everything good about not only knighthood, but also nobility. he is a shining example of what could be for the future, the dragon with wings so large they blocked out the sun. He is the man who won the war for Daeron the second, and who around him, flocks all men to his banner. He is also unquestionably a true knight, in every sense of the word, being both one who has sworn his vows(unlike Dunk) and one who follows the spirit of them(Unlike... pretty much every noble watching this bout of 14). and of course, there is what's gonna happen next chapter and the foreshadowing, the meta analysis, and the analysis on the parrallels with another could have been king, who similarily died on the field due to chivalry... but that is for next time.

[@caionunes8516]

Great analysis, looking forward to what you have to say regarding the next chapter!

[@jakecollins5438]

Ser Otho was not the lord of House Bracken, that would be his father, who was delayed by storms in getting the Sellswords. And depending on his age, it’s entirely possible that Otho was too young to be a part of the Blackfyre Rebellions.

[@PhillW2406]

Love how you've voiced Daeron, A lazy sloppy voice for a wotless character.

[@DavidReadsASoIaF]

I reallylove Daeron. Not that I think he's a great guy or anything, but a scion of a mighty dragonriding dynasty, blessed with magical powers, who ends up being a hopeless, useless drunk because those magical powers lead him to self medicate with lots of booze.... that's that George RR Martin magic, baby!

[@austinmasoni1549]

​@@DavidReadsASoIaF thanks for making another awesome do you plan on reading fire and blood or the world of ice and fire

[@austinmasoni1549]

​​@@DavidReadsASoIaF aerion is an asshole I heard you reading the part egg said about him coming in his bed chamber at night threatening to castrate egg and marry him I was like oh hell no 😤😤😤😤 dunk I hope you put that asshole aerion in the ground and to top it all off he broke the pretty Tanselles fingers and threw eggs cat down a well what a d*ck if you were dunk you'd kick this guys ass 😎😎😎😎😎😎

[@austinmasoni1549]

​@@DavidReadsASoIaF when I heard your dareon voice I was like bro clean yourself too bad westeros doesn't rehab or aa meetings cause then the whole damn content would be in rehab and therapy cause of all the constant trauma these characters have to go through 🥺🥺

[@BloodyFoxDK]

Prince Baelor was the true Knight.

[@alsharpe7213]

The dragon must not lose!!

[@oz4087]

I love seing some of Danies ancestors and how many of theyr traits carried over to her. I wish we could see more ancient Starks as well. Ned and Robb Stark were cool but they dint realy represent the real house Stark, the cold, efficient and ruthless bunch of men and women who did whatever it takes to protect the north and its people and ruthlessly pursued killed and tortured anyone who dared step into theyr lands be it Andal slavers, squids or ice zombies.

[@wolfmadej6310]

Theres supposed to be like 12 dunk and eggs (wishful thinking i know considering we still dont have winds)the next d&e is The She Wolves of Winterfell it'll have some badass starks for sure.

[@oz4087]

@@wolfmadej6310 aww thats a pity, id love to see Starks explored more, despite them being one of the main families of the realm they remain very mysterious, evrything from how Winterfell was built. My personal theory is that the myths of Bael the bard the nights king and others are somehow conected and part of the same tale.

[@wolfmadej6310]

@@oz4087 Yeah its rough when you have gaps in something that seems so much like actual information to learn. Like real world history is all there, but it drives me crazy to have gaps in my Westerosi history.

[@biropgrules]

Actually, both robb and eddard was very much examples of house stark. What defines stark above anything else is their unbroken devotion to justice. Keep in mind that Eddard wanted to bring the lannisters to justice at the end of roberts rebellion, just like cregan did to Aegon's treacherous council at the end of the dance of the dragon. What that means, is that if Eddard had had his way, Tywin's and Jaime's heads would have decorated the walls of king's landing along with the head of every single man who partook in the sack, and overarching politics be damned. That is not the preferred actions of a soft and honorable man. It is the actions of a man devoted to justice above anything else. The starks were a varied bunch, but it is their attitude to first man justice that defines them above anything else. That is what "Northern Honor" is. Robb isn't any different. He didn't shy away from executing traitors just because it was politically inconvenient for himself.

[@idunnygiveafock7640]

If you really want to hear about an ancient stark or two the Blood and fore history book talks about... I wanna say it's the third lord stark after they gave up their crown. He tells king Jaheri to go fuck himself in essence. Took queen Alysanne to get him to agree to anything.

[@hsgame4088]

Daeron is such a legend lol i love him.

[@theelectricprince8231]

23:07 brings a tear to my eyes

[@wolfmadej6310]

My boi Davey came through when he knew I needed him. Lol love what you're doing for us.After dunk and egg will you do The Rogue Prince and The Princess And The Queen.

[@Meriluslff1989]

Me before who tf is dunk and egg Me now think I might like this more than the OH series

[@DanaDayne7]

Amazing work as always Dave! Thank you!

[@W47689]

What makes men great is no God or vow but the devotion of good and what lengths he'll go. And the best of them do it without thinking just like ser Dunkin

[@AMansWorldPodcast]

Thanks for this your channel is gold👌🏽💯

[@rajond7881]

I wanna party with prince daron lol

[@caionunes8516]

Great read as always man, keep em coming!

[@histoirettes]

10/10 on the accents!

[@jadarad247]

OMG it's getting so good!

[@TheCbot88]

Funny how vulnerable the Trial makes the king’s guard look. Even before they got as bad as they are under Cersei. They need them some blood riders or something. Got their assess handed to them by a few lords and a couple squires. Oh and a dragon but he died.

[@nathan.w9906]

whole reason they lost was baelor was fighting them and they’re not allowed to harm him dude

[@axelNodvon2047]

@@nathan.w9906cant believe he missed this part

[@donovanmcgarry3801]

Why on earth this shield rests above the fireplace on Tarth, is a question I can not wait to have answered. 🛡️

[@JessBecause77]

And what is going to be the real reason Brienne of Tarth is so big..I know GRRM has confirmed she and Hodor are ancestors of Dunk. But how.

[@donovanmcgarry3801]

@@JessBecause77 I think this Evenfall of Tarth, Lord Selwyn, Brianne’s father will have his turn to tell his tale in this next book ; to Tyrion perhaps.

[@gaghhuh2943]

Honestly I like Dareon a lot. If not for his dreams and drinking he would have been a good person

[@pasumechamarimar]

maekars very angry voice is hilarious

[@TheCbot88]

House Dayne followed a falling star. Dunk has a tree and a star on his shield. And Lyanna (maybe) was the knight of the laughing tree. Maybe it was actually Ashara Dayne? I’m almost positive it wasn’t Howland. Lol. Perhaps Dunk is descendant of house Strong, like some think the Starks where once called. Maybe the Strongs where an off-shoot of house Dayne. What are the words of house Dayne?! The star. The sword. The Sword of the Morning. Who leads the light against the terror waiting in the north. The dragon has three heads. So does Trios. One for birth (life), one for death, the other is for? The sword? Love. Three fires, three mounts. It’s so poetic. Stop tryna rush the man! Let George do his thing! Did Aru Iluvitar complete his song in a day? No.

[@leonrobinson8180]

As much as I love those theories of Dunk being of noble blood, I prefer that he was nobody. A noble ancestor would ruin this medieval rags to riches story.

[@Colenelnelson]

​@@leonrobinson8180 Yes Dunk being anything but a commoner ruins his character, especially since Egg already is a secret noble/royal. Hes like Ser Davos in that sense an upwardly mobile commoner from fleabottom whose more noble than born knights.

[@idunnygiveafock7640]

I listened to the whole Playlist and completed my season pass in one day. Cold war season just reset and now I'm lvl 309 and ita ur fault.

[@DavidReadsASoIaF]

So sorry, thanks for listening!

[@frederikjohannsen9190]

Sam + Dolorous Ed = Daeron Targaryen

[@teehines3132]

👏👏👏👏 amazing

[@Meriluslff1989]

One thing about a good Baratheon they the life of the party. (We aint talking bout you stanis ole wet blanket)

[@Amanda-cd6dm]

For your information every time you say the old man all I picture is my grandfather who was the old man

[@valentina9984]

25:50

[@GrantAlGaib]

38:07

[@timothyparker4983]

Dunk is an Ass of Badness!!!

[@jackneumann3781]

Hey David. Was just wondering if you ever watched the show, and if so, did you enjoy their version of the story?

[@DavidReadsASoIaF]

I did watch the show! In fact I read all the books only after I'd watched and loved the first season. It didn't take me too long to sour on it though, and by season 4 I was pretty relentless about how much better I thought the books were, much to the annoyance of some of my friends. The cast did incredible work, even with increasingly crappy material, but I don't think the people who adapted the show really understood the themes that make this series (in my opinion) real literature rather than just really really really really great pulp (I consider, for example, DUNE and The Foundation series to be really really really really great pulp). I felt like I wwas going crazy during that (in my opinion, AWFUL) "Battle of the Bastards" episode, where an unequivocally good guy faces off against an unequivocally bad guy with a bunch of nameless faceless soldiers, and where Sansa feeds Ramsay to ravenous dogs to show that she's empowered and badass now. I, unreasonably, felt personally betrayed watching that garbage. I've probably written this in the comments somewhere else, but I think a scene sums up the show's central thematic problems occured relatively early on, in season 3. Tyrion takes Podrick to an expensive brothel to enjoy the serives of three expensive prostitutes, and then later podrick comes back and says they wouldn't take his money because he was so good at having sex. That was the first majro sign to me that something was going very wrong. We've spent two seasons watching King's Landing sex workers abused, beaten, terrorized, threatened with being chopped up into little pieces, having their babes torn from their breats and murdered, all the gritty nasty violence against women that makes a show a "prestige drama" these days. But OH WAIT these women with their vicious murderous pimps also love working for free if they get that good dick TEE HEE! ' Ultimately it was a show about ogling the naked ladies and their bare breats and round asses, about being titilated by flaying and beheadings and stabbings and burnings, and it had nothing to say about anything, because the adaptors didn't understand any of what the books were trying to say. They cast IAN MCSHANE as a Septon Meribald knockoff named Steve or whatever and they cut the Broken Man speech. I guess they needed to make time to show us that Meryn Trant is a sadistic pedophile and therefore it's good that Arya tortures and mutilates him before killing him. Ultimately it all just left a bad taste in my mouth, and it tears me up that so many will think the books were equally tawdry and thoughtless. No offense to nayone who enjoyed it, though! People like what they like and that's none of my business.

[@fandemusique4693]

@@DavidReadsASoIaF honestly, the show was still good in season 4.

[@Amanda-cd6dm]

Do you mean Tanya from Bible Baptist Tabernacle??....

[@nathanaelsmith1368]

31:18

[@nathanaelsmith1368]

45:39

[@codyparker4742]

I like how some of the characters sound like they're from Alabama lol

[@hello7522]

He should have made the Targaryens sound like they were from Alabama. If you know what I mean.

[@mkat2325]

@@hello7522 LOL

[@iamsheel]

Because they are in the south

[@deepsp_ce]

i wonder if life was actually this way in mediaeval times.. it's insane.. all these nuts are ready to die just because one doosh got put in his place after picking on a woman.

[@fazediamond5671]

Definitely not

[@Tom_Cruise_Missile]

I mean... People die for stupider things today.