Knighthood and the tourney
What a knight swears, how a man is made one, and the contests where reputations are won and lost — set beside the plain truth that the anointing makes the ser, but only the man makes the knight.
The vows and the making of a knight
Knighthood is a creature of the Faith of the Seven, and it took root only where the Andals and their gods took root: there are few true knights in the North, where men keep the old gods, and none among the free folk. A knight is a warrior sworn to a code — to defend the young, the weak, and women, to keep the faith, and to be brave — though the chronicles are full of men who wore the spurs and kept none of it.
The oaths
At his dubbing a knight swears before gods and men to protect the weak and innocent, to defend women and children, to obey his liege, to be just and brave. Those who take the vows most solemnly keep a vigil in a sept the night before, are anointed with the seven oils by a septon, and rise as knights of the Faith as much as of the sword. The words are the same across the Seven Kingdoms; the keeping of them is the great inconstant.
SourcesA Feast for CrowsThe World of Ice & FireAny knight may make a knight
No king's leave and no lord's charter is needed to raise a man to knighthood — by ancient custom, any anointed knight may make another. The maker lays the flat of his sword upon the candidate's shoulders, names the virtues he must keep, and bids him rise a knight. It is done in septs with oil and vigil, and it is done on battlefields in a moment, when a man has earned his spurs in blood. This single custom is why knighthood can never be wholly controlled from a throne, and why its ranks hold saints and monsters alike.
SourcesA Storm of SwordsThe World of Ice & FireHedge knights
A knight need hold no land and serve no lord. The hedge knights are the wandering poor of the order — men who own little but a horse, a sword, and their arms, who take their name from sleeping under hedges when no inn will have them. They sell their swords at tourneys and in petty wars, and a lucky or gifted one may rise to a household knight in some lord's hall, or even to lands of his own. The great houses look down on them; yet more than one hedge knight has proven worthier of the spurs than the lords who scorned him.
SourcesThe Hedge KnightThe World of Ice & Fire
The forms of the tourney
A tourney is at once a festival, a marriage market, and a proving-ground where reputations and fortunes are made and broken in an afternoon. Its contests take a few well-worn forms.
The joust
The lists are the heart of any great tourney: two mounted knights charging along a barrier with blunted lances, each striving to unhorse or break lances upon the other, until one rider is thrown or yields. The champion of the lists often crowns a lady of his choosing the queen of love and beauty, a small honour with a long history of causing large trouble.
SourcesA Game of ThronesThe World of Ice & FireThe melee
Where the joust is a duel, the melee is a mock battle — a press of armoured men afoot or ahorse laying about one another with blunted arms until only one is left unbeaten. It is the older and bloodier contest; the blunting of weapons is no sure guard, and men are maimed and killed in melees in most every generation. Archery butts and other games of skill round out the days of a proper tourney.
SourcesA Storm of SwordsThe World of Ice & FireThe trial of seven
Rarest of all is the trial of seven, a form of trial by combat blessed by the Faith, in which seven champions stand for the accuser and seven for the accused, so that the seven gods may look down and judge. It is invoked only when a knight's honour or life is at stake and single combat will not serve. The most famous in living memory was fought at Ashford Meadow, where a hedge knight demanded a trial of seven to answer for striking a prince — a day the singers have not let go of since.
In the chronicleThe tourney at Ashford MeadowSourcesThe Hedge Knight
Tourneys the chronicles remember
- c. 209 AC
The tourney at Ashford Meadow
Held in the Reach in the reign of Aerys I, remembered above all for the trial of seven that grew out of it, and for the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall, who came to the lists a nobody and rode out of them into legend.
In the chronicleThe tourney at Ashford MeadowSourcesThe Hedge Knight - 281 AC
The great tourney at Harrenhal
The largest tourney of the age, thrown by Lord Whent in the year men later called the year of the false spring. Prince Rhaegar Targaryen won the lists — and then, riding past his own wife, laid the crown of the queen of love and beauty in the lap of Lyanna Stark. The chronicles are near unanimous that the seeds of Robert's Rebellion were sown that afternoon, though what passed in men's hearts there is beyond a maester's reckoning.
SourcesA Game of ThronesA Storm of SwordsThe World of Ice & Fire These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
The vow and the man
No study of knighthood can honestly end with the vows. The order holds within it both its ideal and its betrayal, and the chronicles set them side by side.
The true knight
Ser Duncan the Tall was born in the gutters of King's Landing and raised to knighthood by a hedge knight of no great name. He held no lands worth the naming for most of his life, yet he kept the vows others merely swore — standing between the strong and the weak because a true knight, as he understood it, is nothing else. The order's ideal is not the lord in gilded plate but the poor man who does the thing the oaths describe.
SourcesThe Hedge KnightThe Sworn SwordThese partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
What does a knight swear?
At his dubbing a knight swears before gods and men to protect the weak and the innocent, to defend women and children, to be just and brave, and to keep the faith. The words are the same across the Seven Kingdoms; the chronicles are full of men who wore the spurs and kept none of it.
Can any knight make another knight?
Yes. By ancient custom any anointed knight may raise another, needing no king's leave or lord's charter. The maker lays the flat of his sword on the candidate's shoulders, names the virtues he must keep, and bids him rise a knight — a thing done in septs with oil and vigil, and on battlefields in a single moment. It is why the order holds saints and monsters alike.
What is a hedge knight?
A hedge knight is a landless wandering knight who serves no lord and owns little but a horse, a sword, and his arms — named for sleeping under hedges when no inn will have him. Such men sell their swords at tourneys and in petty wars, and the gifted or lucky may rise to a household knight or even to lands of their own.
What is a trial of seven?
A trial of seven is a rare form of trial by combat blessed by the Faith, in which seven champions stand for the accuser and seven for the accused, so that the seven gods may judge. It is invoked only when a knight's honour or life is at stake; the most famous was fought at Ashford Meadow, where a hedge knight demanded one to answer for striking a prince.