George R. R. Martin has announced via his Not A Blog that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will be published by Bantam on October 6th 2015.
This publication collects the three pre-existing Tales of Dunk & Egg novellas (The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight) into one tome.
The novellas follow the adventures of the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall and his young squire Egg. While existing in the same Westeros we all love from Game of Thrones, the stories take place roughly one hundred years before the main Ice and Fire saga, and are notably lighter in tone.
As of now, the novellas are only available as individual parts of three separate short-story collections; Legends, Legends II, and Warriors. This re-publication will make the stories much more accessible to general audiences.
According to GRRM, there will be art on “virtually every page”. Artist Gary Gianni will already be familiar to Ice and Fire fans as the man who provided art for the 2014 edition of the ASOIAF calendar. Some samples of his work from that publication can be seen below.
As for the future of Dunk and Egg, we know that GRRM has at least two more novellas planned with the working titles of The She-Wolves of Winterfell and The Village Hero.
Hodor!
Also, hope we get to see these in live action one day!
Maybe they’d make better movies as there aren’t 500 characters and 15 separate storylines to follow. Though I’m still hoping we get at least part of ADOS as a big budget movie, especially after seeing GoT in IMAX!
‘While existing in the same Westeros we all love from Game of Thrones, the stories take place roughly one hundred years before the main Ice and Fire saga, and are notably lighter in tone.’
So this is GRRM’s Hobbit equivalent to his Thrones/Rings lol
I can feel the excitement.
Just wanted to say that “The She-Wolves of Winterfell” isn’t going to be the title of the fourth novella.
Someone Somewhere,
My bad. I didn’t specify that they’re working titles.
Should be really cool
HouseMartellBitches,
I’d love to see Dunk & Egg movies, but it seems like the rights situation is quite complicated as GRRM detailed on his Not A Blog some time ago:
I am frequently asked whether or not there are any plans for Dunk & Egg movies or television shows. There has been interest, yes, but the rights situation is complicated. Film and television rights to the characters and the three published Dunk & Egg stories remain with me at present… but HBO, when acquiring the rights to the SONG OF ICE & FIRE novels, also acquired film and television rights to the world of Westeros. So if we did Dunk & Egg with anyone else, we would need to remove all the references to House Targaryen, the Iron Throne, etc… not completely impossible, but certainly undesireable. Whereas if HBO decided they wanted to make a Dunk & Egg miniseries or TV movies, they’d first need to buy the stories. That’s a much more attractive proposition for all concerned, I think… but if it happens, it will happen years from now, not tomorrow, and not next week.
http://grrm.livejournal.com/365715.html
Also, they’re basically PG-13 already, so they wouldn’t have to be watered down to appeal to a mass audience.
Don’t care. I want a real book, not “Here’s old stuff to keep everyone sending me money.”
Cian,
I can’t wait to read them, probably at some point in 2025 or after.
When is this half hour video we were promised coming out?
Why would GRRM write Westeros in a “lighter tone”?
Although I am happy that these colorful stories are no longer buried in anthologies to boost sales, I am a bit disappointed that there is nothing new. Gianni’s artwork is great, but the fandom is basically celebrating GRRM for doing nothing. Most “greatest hits” albums include a new track or two these days. Throw us a real bone, dude.
If the collection contained the fourth Dunk and Egg story, I’d buy it. That installment, by the way, was several weeks from completion … two years ago. I do wish people weren’t so eager to jump on Martin’s repackaged works, but it is nice to have all three in one place.
I’ve never read the stories before, so this is just as good as a new work to me. 🙂
Looking forward to getting it and diving in.
Buttplugged Bear,
Tomorrow.
The man has no shame.
Next year he will republish it with tales and wisdom of Tyrion Lannister addded .
#WRITETHEBOOKSGEORGE
Hoyti Von Totiy,
I think he’s trying to get all the money he can together because he may have to pay back the Winds advance for not getting it done in a timely manner.
It’s strange to me that the Dunk and Egg stories are only now being compiled in a single book in the US. Why only now? In other countries this has already been done long ago.
I bought mine last year 🙂
This is great for me too because ive been holding off reading dunk and egg for a while. Also, anyone ever think of a song of ice and fire animated show? I mean dunk and egg seems right for it and then u can really expand into the world and have no constraints. I think it could work well if one would do it right in terms of animation. The last airbender was basically an epic fantasy and that was pretty cool although id prefer something more serious. Has hbo ever had a big time animated series? It would probably be ideal for netflix.
Just a general reply to the ongoing campaign by GRRM’s ardent defenders to say WoW could still be released this year, no it won’t, and you’re not really helping him by raising expectations. Yes, it’s true that his UK publisher’s recent comments have been distorted, but you curiously ignore the widely reported fact that she said 54 weeks ago “it’s almost certainly years away!” 2015 is a pipe dream. I bet he’s not even 2/3 done yet and that’s why we’re being advertised side projects more and more. Gotta keep that cash rolling in.
Yes I believe the 30 min behind the scenes special is airing on HBO this Sunday.
Info here:
http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/production-diary/first-look-got-a-day-in-the-life-special
Cumsprite,
I feel the same way. Obviously GRRM can take as much time as he wants for his books, but the book has not much value imo. You can find the Dunk and Egg stories in other books, they will cost next to nothing if you are wiling to buy used copies, and you get a bunch of other stories. A new Dunk and Egg story would have been a reason to buy “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”.
I have to gree with the sentiments of many of the comments here. I’m getting a little tired of all these repackages, which are clearly meant to distract us from the prolonged wait for TWOW. I know these things don’t particularly take him time to do, but it is almpst the way that he promotes them as i we should be very grateful for them. Whilst he is rolling in cash, he isn’t going to stop all these side projects, like the theatre or the bowling alley/art galllery. I know he needs to have a lie, but when he advertises films on his blog, when only a tiny minority of people can actually watch at his theatre it does grate a little.
Abyss,
They have plenty of value for people who have never read the stories before. Not to mention all the artwork that will be included. This will undoubtedly be the best presentation of the stories available, and it’s definitely how I would like to dive into them for the first time.
Also, I don’t buy used books.
The Dunk & Egg novellas don’t have that light a tone.
John M W,
Hey, of curse, if you don’t have the stories already, buy this book. I just think a new story would have given everybody a reason to buy it. And if you don’t like used books thats of curse also fine, I was just talking about the poor quantitative price/performance ratio.
That “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” has artwork is no plus for me personally, I like to do the artwork in my head. 😉
Abyss,
*pure
By now, I’m almost as anctious to get me some more D&E as more ASOIAF. I really hoped he actually finished She-wolves and that was why the English version was taking forever. Artwork is nice and all, but I would rather have the content sooner to be honest. The same happened with TWOIAF, it was delayed several time because the artwork wasn’t finished.
Totally agree. I think that’s a very misleading descriptor.
These novellas are very difficult to track down, so I’m glad they’re finally compiling them like this.
Both the deleted scenes from s4 are on youtube…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPH8Qtj9P-k
So there you go.
Just what I did. Already have all of the stories in their original volumes (bought used). Soooo disappointed that he hasn’t released anything new. C’mon George…please? Pretty please?
Greenjones,
Thanks for posting those. The Bronn scene was a good one for Jerome Flynn. Makes me afraid for Bronn next season, tho.
Well that rules out TWOW in 2015. I guess there’s still a possibility of March 2016 to get it out before season 6.
Greenjones,
That’s a nice little moment for the character of Bronn, and in a way it foreshadows Shae’s decision, yet not too much. The other one, however, I understand why was cut.
While I love the D&E novellas, and crave more, I will be passing on this and every other rehashed work of George’s. At least AWOIAF had new material, though I thought everything that didn’t deal with the Targaryen reign was rather weak(Maze Makers? Really? Lords Kermit and Elmo?). I’m assuming George wrote all of the history of the Targaryens.
I do hope HBO will one day venture into Westeros again. D&E mini-series would be great. So would Robert’s Rebellion and The Dance Of The Dragons. As profitable as ‘Game Of Thrones’ has been, I can’t imagine they won’t want to try and capitalize on the rich history George has created once more.
Not read the novella yet so I’ll be picking this up. I guess it will be light-hearted until Summerhall!
On the live-action adaptions. Would prefer Robert’s Rebellion first. Perhaps after that we could some Dunk and Egg?
Greenjones,
Ugh. If another topic is started on this I will have to give in and watch, just like I did with the ‘Death Of Kings’ H&L. I wanted to wait until I bought the BR to watch. I do wish they’d release more deleted or extended scenes. I was watching the Alik Sakharov commentary from ‘The Climb’ and he said a long dialogue from Melisandre was cut from the episode because of time constraints. I imagine there are countless examples like this.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
I never really understand this “time constraints” argument. Surely they can have an episode as long, or as short as they like. They don’t need to stick to adverts or anything, so why do they make this argument?
Abyss,
Hey, I’m not sure if you are a native English speaker, but the word you’re looking for is “course,” not “curse.”
HouseMartellBitches,
No,i don’t,that’s a big fuck you to the loyal audience that payed years for you channel just to watch this show and a GUARENTEED money loser .
KG,
I’m not and sometimes I make stupid mistakes… I bow my head in shame…
KG,
It’s not really that big of a deal,certainly not one that required a reply . BTW in case you feel the need to correct me too,i realise that in my previous comment i wrote payed instead of paid and may have missed an r somewhere,happy now?
Jesterr223456,
You’re supposed to use ‘I’ instead of ‘i’ when talking about yourself too, by the way! 😛
Jesterr223456,
At least for me KG’s correction was not insulting. I do realize that I make mistakes from time to time, especially when I don’t pay enough attention. It’s often late here when I post, so that can absolutely happen. No harm in pointing an error out here and there from time to time. 🙂
Jesterr223456,
Come on now, maybe KG’s comment wasn’t neccesary but neither was yours.
Now, I think that pointing mistakes isn’t that bad unless you’re being disrespectful, and KG wasn’t.
Anyway, I’m also not a native speaker and I don’t mind people correcting me, as long as they’re not trying to make me feel bad.
About those deleted scenes, looks like they wanted to use the Daenerys one (the VFXs were finished).
thank you
Abyss,
You can spell my handle “Hizdahr’s Butter” for all I care. You provide countless minutes of HD insight whenever a major trailer/teaser footage comes into focus. I can’t thank you enough for enhancing my/our excitement for the coming season! In fact, in our breakroom at work, we have some HD screens that often have your GIFs streaming (often leading to long, distracting discussions). You have the respect of many, even if deadlines are missed because of those damn distractions. 🙂
Hodor’s Bastard,
Now I want to work where you work 🙁
But yes, Abyss’ GIFS RULLZ, thanks for always providing them. A Day in the Life premieres this Sunday *hint* *hint* 😉
Hodor’s Bastard,
Thanks for the kind words, Hizdahr’s Butter. 😉 – And you have HD screens with GoT GIFs sometimes in your break room at work? How cool! 😀
Balerion The Cat,
I know. 😉 Could be too much to “GIF” it all, but we will see what I can do. Screen shots, at the very least, will be provided.
You should’ve made the title “GRRM finally announces release date of next book!” then had it be this.
Thanks so much for posting! I hate that they cut the second scene in Mereen. Season 4 had mostly pretty poor writing for the Essos storylines, but to cut a tiny, mostly wordless scene like this, makes little sense to me.
Abyss,
Most of it will be behind the scenes, but we might get glimpses of actual scenes from the show. Enough to satisfy, not too many to gif, maybe?
Luka Nieto,
Yeah, that could be the way to go. We will see what exactly HBO drops on us tomorrow.
yawn.. give me winds you bastard
Greenjones,
WHOA thanks!
I thought he had already released this before. Here in Brazil this book is available in Portuguese since early 2014 if I’m not mistaken.
Greenjones
Thank you for posting those deleted scenes!
Abyss,
I’m not suggesting you change your SN, or anything, but after referring to you the other day as “The Wondrous Abyss,” I think that’s how I may refer to you from now on (unless I’m feeling lazy, in which case it is still implied). 🙂
Nezzer,
This is the weird case when a book is available first in its translated versions and last in the language in which it was originally written.
GRRM said on his blog that it would be out last year in foreign languages, but without the illustrations. Does your book have pictures?
Greg,
Yeah no. I still remember that day Amazon sent me an alert “get George R. R. Martin’s new book!!” which ended up being Dangerous Women… which I had already purchased… from Amazon
Here’s the real question: Will another trailer follow the HBO special tomorrow?
Btw, thanks for posting the deleted scenes Greenjones.
I imagine that immediately after the Bronn/Shae deleted scene, he basically says “So you know how to get to your ship right?” and leaves her in the middle of the path.
LOL what a blatant moneymaker, why can’t you just focus on book 6 G?
I got legends, legends II, and Warriors on my Kindle. I bought the two graphic novels from amazon. I might buy this just for collection reasons.
You might be right
Haven’t read these yet so looking forward to seeing it, eg only learned recently that Brienne repainted her bat shield to make it look like Duncans, and Bran saw Dunk with someone in front of the Winterfell tree but I’m not sure what the significance is
Interestingly I actually like the fact there will be artwork on every page, I pretty much bought WOASOIAF for the artwork and aren’t too bothered if there are a few gaps, in the era of the show the books need to push their own visuality a little bit
While I reckon TV mini-series are more likely to come out of these these perhaps are easier to make into movies given GRRM seems intent on films of some kind
Dolorous Ned,
Didn’t realize GRRM retained the rights to D&E, probably because they are a work in progress and their adventures are not completed yet.
I would say for the foreseeable future, it appears a Robert’s Rebellion prequel mini-series or one/two season limited series is a shoe-in, perhaps a trilogy of theatrical films, which is basically an expensive mini-series.
I could see spin-offs occurring, concentrating on individual Houses, or even lands, the world of ASoIaF is a massive developed world, with plenty of story possibilities.
It would be a waste and a bad executive decision for HBO to not go the route Disney/Marvel has done and create a media machine around GoT.
They need to begin laying the groundwork for the future by 2016, have a master plan just like Disney/Marvel.
Lol, there is now so much publicity because of the Show which amounts to extra book sales
In this case half the reason (emphasis on the word half) is because of his visibility and going on TV shows, eg he is the 3rd most influential writer in Hollywood.
This is basically direct marketing for the show and indirect marketing for the books, and will amount to increased booksales and extra money, so unless they have some pressing debt repayment issues they would discretely waive any WoW advance issues…
Should probably add that the Book publisher also does well out of the show “passing the books” as it becomes a topic a bit like Nights King but also all the discussion starts to turn to “how would that broad plotline translate to the books” given there are extra characters and butterfly deviations.
It’s a bit like the discussion of the original plotline that was just tweeted and the discussions that’s raised, it all means people are discussing the books which means publicity which means interest which means book sales which means money
This really doesn’t require “focus”. The material is already written, the art by others. All he does is sign off on it.
goodkinghenry,
I really don’t get these ‘He’s doing it just for more money’ comments. Until now it was fricking complicated to get the Dunk & Egg stories, isn’t it good for everyone to collect them in one volume? I mean, people don’t have to read them if they’re not interested.
And GRRM already earns millions from the show, whatever he gets from books like this must be peanuts in comparison.
I may get this Dunk & Egg book just to throw at others where I live. “There! There! Gotcha right there!” It’d be the art-work I’d get this for, and the convenience of having all the tales in one book. However, perhaps at least one other tale could’ve made it in this volume.
My wish would be for these to be made as either a movie, and not split over three epics. Episodes have been used in movies before, and work well. Maybe a TV mini-series would work too. We’ve had off-shoots from other shows happen, and be successful.
I liked how GRRM banged someone’s head over the ‘not on schedules’ remark. Sounds like someone took it out of context, and that only makes matters worse.
Really, I’d love GRRM to surprise us all with real news for once! Patience is a virtue, and virtues are easily lost – as the maiden said to her mother after her father fired the gardener, with his checkov’s gun (maybe).
If his publishers are needing to repackage his books to make money, I really wouldn’t mind if they edited A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons into one book and cut down like 40% of it
For it to happen, GRRM should have written it first. But for some years the verbal phrase “writes fiction” is grammatically correct but semantically wrong if its subject is GRRM. If I remember correctly the 4th novella was a month away to be completed some two years ago, according to his cinema and NFL themed blog.
I do wonder about something else though. It’s obvious the publishers are milking his name with puting at least one book in ASOIAF universe signed by him per year. In 2014 we had his cosigned fan fiction, in 2015 we’ll have these novellas, originally written when I was single and pimpled, while now I am already worrying what kind of a grandfather I’ll be, but what about 2016? An illustrated history of Sothoryos with maps and detailed family trees of its incestuous brotherkings and sisterqueens. That’s my bet.
In the responses at his blog, George indicated he might not go to SDCC this year. I think it’s pretty safe to bet that professionally, he’s focusing on writing TWOW (with perhaps some attention to the new Wild Cards book).
Lollius Palicanus,
Or maybe he has decided to “split up” with the show.
Is this newsworthy?
guyz can anyone tell me the song used in the game of owns podcast intro and outro
H. Stark,
Sigh. So many book readers apparently want this to happen for some reason, despite all evidence to the contrary.
They do the same with D&D, seizing any photograph of them not smiling and spreading the rumour that they’re tired of doing the show now. People like gossip, especially the sourcless, invented kind that streaks across the internet.
Valaquen,
I don´t mean it in a bad way. But he has not written an episode for season 5, and because he is far behind with Winds I don´t think he will write one for season 6.
Maybe he wants to concentrate on the books and don´t think about the show catching up.
I agree as well.
Post-dragondance Targ-Blackfyre dysfunction is very apparent throughout the novellas. GRRM does love his dysfunctional dragonfolk, doesn’t he? The Bloodraven insight is quite interesting though.
Prior comments and concerns aside, I guess I am rather intrigued by how Gianni depicts the tourney events (from THK), Lady Rohanne and Dunk’s fight with Ser Lucas (from TSS), and D&E with BR (from TMK). Hopefully, we’ll get some preview illustrations soon.
I just wish Dunk had thrown annoying little Walder Frey down the well when he had the chance… 🙂
H. Stark,
He gave the reason for not writing an episode for Season 5: he wants to concentrate on Winds. Everything else is baseless speculation and essentially fan fiction —that is, a fulfilling fantasy by book literalists about how GRRM is just as pissed off as them about the show’s differences, despite the fact that GRRM knows more than most about the necessities of adaptation and, even more importantly (and rarely discussed), about the creative need to, you know, CREATE, even when it’s not based on the source material.
In his words, he is “gardener and not an architect” in his writing, so he understands more than any of these ASOIAF fundamentalists what it means when a little idea, a small difference from the books (say, Ros), takes hold of you as a creator and blossoms into its own little storyline, even if it’s not based on the books, even if you didn’t plan to diverge so much from the original idea.
GRRM has been more understanding and complimentary of D&D than many book readers apparently care to admit. The only thing they always bring up in favor of their argument is George talking about the butterfly effect —despite the fact that George is saying it mostly to book readers, as a kind of warning. He’s not stupid —he knows D&D are aware of the phenomenon. “The books is the books and the show is the show”, as he says —and that’s a neutral, clarifying statement, not a criticism of the show.
bash,
It’s a restyled version of the main Game of Thrones theme (i.e. the one that plays over the opening credits). I’m afraid I don’t know who made it or if there’s a full version available anywhere. Maybe if you contact Zack, Eric, Kate, or Micah via Twitter or the GOO email address, one of them could tell you.
It was reported last year (maybe here, or back at WiC) that he was sitting out season 5 to focus on TWOW. People along the way have either forgotten that or ignored it to make space for this gossip about there being a falling out between GRRM and the show.
I don’t mean anything malignant, by the by. I’m not directing anything at you personally. It’s just something I’ve noticed here, at Reddit, and around the web.
Valaquen,
He will never say outright that he is unhappy with the showrunners. Its in his best interests to support them publicly. I still think his tone, his attitude, his level of excitement etc. have all changed since the first three seasons.
Usual interpretation is that
Conan,
Those possible “interpretations” are another reason why “She-Wolves” is being delayed. I bet there is a lot of relevant history there that will be emphasized (or further explored) in TWoW as well. Dunk & Egg’s presence in Winterfell mattered in many ways, imho.
Damn GRRM! Enough teasing already!
Jesterr223456,
Wow, insecure much? 🙂 I know that I would want someone to politely correct me if I made an error like that. But clearly, your self-esteem is so shaky that even the threat of a potential correction, based on a post that didn’t involve you in the least, terrified you.
So to you I say, “Fuck off; I wasn’t talking to you.” And now I will be watching your posts and brutally mocking every mistake you make 🙂
See how well that post worked out for you?
KG,
Thank goodness you’re here. Welcome back.
Cumsprite,
(wave)
It is the book we deserve but not the one we need right now…
Finally! 🙂
By the way, what’s interesting – in the Czech Republic, the book is already out under the same name (Rytíř sedmi království = A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms). It contains all the three novellas in the Czech translation. I wanted to buy it in English as soon as I’ve seen it (since I’ve read the whole series in English and the translated names, places etc. would get me confused) but couldn’t find the English edition. So now I am really excited that the novellas will be published in one volume in English as well! 🙂