George R.R. Martin has built a powerful, but complicated world with Westeros over the years. With House of the Dragon following Game of Thrones, the ever-expanding fan base suddenly had even more treachery, war, and dragons than they ever could have asked for. The latest series set in Martin’s world, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is lighter and comical, with a dash of hope sprinkled in for good measure. Those aren’t sentiments fans usually associate with the Game of Thrones universe, and as expected, the adventures of Dunk and Egg are still pretty dark.
Long before HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, back in 2001, a strikingly similar tale was told in the movie A Knight’s Tale, starring Heath Ledger, Rufus Sewell, Paul Bettany, and Alan Tudyk. Die-hard fans already know that Martin’s stories came three years before A Knight’s Tale, but they may not realize both of these stories draw from the same well of inspiration. One of them just so happened to do it a little better.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms & A Knight’s Tale Are Cut from the Same Cloth
©Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
Loosely inspired by the first story told in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, A Knight’s Tale follows a young squire on his way to tourney after Sir Ector, the knight he serves, dies unexpectedly on the roadside from bowel troubles. Broke and aimless without Sir Ector to guide them, his squires, William, Roland and Wat, hatch a plan for Will to pose as a knight in an upcoming tournament. For Wat and Roland , this sounds like a dangerous scheme to make a little money, but Will wants desperately to change his fortune.
Working together to help train him, the three arrive in time for the tourney, but Will needs a patent of nobility in order to join the lists. Coincidentally running into a naked Geoffrey Chaucer, who lost his clothes gambling, Chaucer agrees to create a convincing scroll of pedigree for William, naming him Ser Ulrich von Liechtenstein of Gelderland. Chaucer also uses his eloquence to hype William up during the tournament, quickly building a rabid fan base that can’t get enough of this handsome knight no one’s ever heard of.
Of course, there’s a beautiful girl, Lady Jocelyn, whom William falls head over heels in love with at first sight. Unfortunately, Jocelyn has heard it all. As a headstrong young lady who knows what she wants, she’s immune to the way men offer to win their matches in her honor. Refusing to be treated like she is little more than a prize to be won, she challenges Ser Ulrich to prove his love by throwing his next match.
Will’s dangerous rival for Jocelyn’s affections, Count Adhemar de Anjou will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He attempts to humiliate Sir Ulrich at every turn, mocking his alleged country of origin and even going so far as to eventually expose him as the peasant he is. With tournaments reserved for the nobility alone, Will’s crime as an impostor should earn him a death penalty. Fortunately, his unyielding honor catches the eye of Prince Edward the Black, and he is knighted just in time to face Adhemar fair and square on the jousting circuit.
At its heart, A Knight’s Tale is as much a love story as it is a hopeful reminder that fate or destiny aren’t responsible for a person’s future prospects. Regardless of birth or station, it’s up to an individual to change their stars if they want to live a life better than the one circumstance forced on them at birth. It’s lighthearted and optimistic, and vastly different from the source material that inspired it.
Chaucer Is Firmly Rooted at the Heart of Both Knight’s Tales
Dunk (Peter Claffey) and Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) on A Knight of the Seven KingdomsImage via HBO
For fans drawing attention to the similarities between A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and A Knight’s Tale, they’re not wrong. Sir Duncan the Tall and Heath Ledger’s William Thatcher have a lot in common from the start. They’re both without family, squiring to a knight of little renown, and dreaming of a future far above their station.
Martin drew his inspiration for the jousting tournaments in The Hedge Knight from the film adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. Scott references Chaucer regularly in his work, which explains some of the similarities. Martin has always been known for the realism in his fiction because of his attention to detail and diligence in research. That doesn’t just mean that he drew information and inspiration from non-fiction accounts of events like the War of the Roses and the Crusades.
All throughout Martin’s high-fantasy fiction and its adaptations, Shakespeare’s influence can be seen. The prophecies that led Stannis Baratheon and Cersei Lannister on their troubled paths, for instance. Martin’s love of tragedy and hard-to-fully-hate antiheroes is equally Shakespearean. The moments of crude and bawdy comic relief found throughout Westeros are reminiscent of both Shakespeare and Chaucer, both of whom are known for their wit and humor.
Martin’s First Novella in The Tales of Dunk and Egg Precedes A Knight’s Tale
Paul Bettany in A Knight’s TaleSony Pictures Releasing
HBO’s adaptation of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms comes two-and-a-half decades after A Knight’s Tale. While Martin’s novellas may have lent inspiration to A Knight’s Tale, it can also be said that A Knight’s Tale had just as much influence over the scenes fans see in early episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Both exhibit the same attention to the uproarious, fickle crowd on the sidelines. They cheer for blood and glory, and their loyalties shift with the wind. Turning the lens on a bloodthirsty society hanging onto entertainment (and entertainers) is as modern as it gets as a subtle reminder of humanity’s craving for spectacle. The bloodier it is, the better.
The one thing that sets the A Knight’s Tale movie above A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the underlying, hopeful sentiment clinging to ever frame. Fans want William Thatcher to rise above it. They want to see him become a shining example for every kid, regardless of birth and station, encouraging them to reach for the stars.
Ser Duncan the Tall and his quirky squire, Egg, live in a world viewers have come to expect the worst from. Martin’s world is a grittier, more realistic place, where hope isn’t often a luxury its people can spare. Even as fans of the Game of Thrones’ universe clamor for blood and guts and glory, everyone needs a little hope now and then. Those same fans already know looking for it in Westeros is a lost cause.
