From « The Bear and the Maiden Fair » to « The Rains of Castamere, » the world of Westeros is no stranger to catchy, in-universe songs. In its third episode, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms gets in on the musical action itself, incorporating two songs into its storyline, including one sung by Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell).
At first glance, the song is a bawdy, jokey number, one that consistently builds up to curse words only to substitute them with words that sound alike. (Think « ass » and « grass, » or « whore » and « horses. ») It also doubles as a Westerosi history lesson about a key recent event: the Battle of the Redgrass Field, which is the conclusion of the Blackfyre Rebellion. Let’s break it down, starting with the song’s lyrics:
Prince Baelor was the firstborn. Prince Maekar sprang out last.
Daemon was the bastard, so they kicked his bastard —
Grass is green in summer, green grass I adore.
But grass is red all over when you kill a rebel —
Horses die in battle, this battle was the front,
Blackfyre’s not a trueborn, he came from the wrong —
Country was in peril, the anvil was a rock,
The hammer smashed the bastard with his giant veiny
Host of Dornish spearmen.
To understand the meaning of the song, you first have to understand the Blackfyre Rebellion. That rebellion has roots in the relationship between the Seven Kingdoms’ current ruler, King Daeron II Targaryen, and his late father, King Aegon IV Targaryen.
Aegon IV and Daeron II had a rough relationship, especially when it came to the subject of Dorne. By Aegon IV’s reign, Dorne had yet to become a part of the Seven Kingdoms. However, the Seven Kingdoms and Dorne still shared a peaceful relationship, with Daeron II even marrying Dornish Princess Myriah Martell. However, that wasn’t enough for Aegon IV, who planned to attack Dorne unprovoked, despite Daeron II’s protests. Because of Daeron II’s opposition, Aegon IV often threatened that he would make one of his many bastards his new heir. He also spread rumors that Daeron II was a bastard, opting for maximum messiness.
Aegon IV never did name a new heir, but on his deathbed, he chose chaos and legitimized all of his bastards. One of them, Daemon Waters, took the name of Daemon Blackfyre, after the sword of Aegon the Conqueror. Daemon had actually received the sword from his father after winning a tournament at age 12, stoking the idea that he was Aegon IV’s rightful heir instead of Daeron II.
Two camps emerged during the first years of Daeron II’s reign: those who supported him, and those who supported Daemon Blackfyre’s claim to the Iron Throne. Strikes against Daeron included his alliance with and supposed deference to Dorne, which he managed to bring into the Seven Kingdoms without any bloodshed, as well as Aegon IV’s rumors about his legitimacy.
In 196 AC (after Aegon’s conquest), official rebellion broke out as Daemon tried to take the Iron Throne for himself. The resulting conflict, lasting less than a year, was a bloody affair that culminated in the Battle of Redgrass Field. Redgrass Field isn’t the actual name of a place in Westeros: The field just became known by that name due to all of the blood spilled during battle.
These are the events summarized in Egg’s song, which calls out Daemon’s parentage (« Daemon was the bastard ») and Redgrass Field (« grass is red all over when you kill a rebel »).
The song also highlights the hammer and the anvil, a tactic used by Daeron II’s sons, Prince Baelor (Bertie Carvel) and Prince Maekar (Sam Spruell). Baelor and a host of Dornish spearmen slammed into Daemon’s forces and smashed them up against Maekar and his men’s shield wall. That makes Baelor the hammer and Maekar the anvil. (And it made Daemon and his supporters very, very dead.)
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has already hinted at the Battle of Redgrass field, when Dunk mentions how Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb) fought in it in episode 2. Egg’s song simply provides further context.
Egg’s song may also canonically exist in George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas. In The Sworn Sword, the second of the novellas, Dunk speaks to Ser Eustace Osgrey, whose sons died in the Battle of Redgrass Field. He says that « the singers can go on about their hammer and their anvil, » but also reveals that there’s a lot that’s missing from the actual songs.
What’s missing is a story for another season, but you can imagine the singers Eustace is talking about performing the same number Egg does. It’s a fun case of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms extrapolating from a minor detail in a later book.
The song is also an intriguing look at how historical events would be memorialized for Westeros’s smallfolk, who are A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ primary focus. Given a likely lack of literacy and education access, the smallfolk wouldn’t remember Redgrass Field through lessons or history tomes. Instead, these tales would be passed down through song.
New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms air Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
