Hedge

The Hedge Knight is on telly as Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I am here more concerned with its sequel, which we stand maybe a 65% chance of getting to watch next: The Sworn Sword. Specifically whether such a thing as a knight-errant existed.

The name is sus, as a mix of Saxon and Norman. Wiki wants me to think it is a creature of romance, like the Japanese ronin. I am unsure. If it be a trope, why is it seen across the globe wherever feudal societies crop up?

The Sworn Sword somewhat illustrates how a knight might end up errant, sleeping in hedges. Feudal lords come into border-disputes. They might reach a deal; that is somewhat the plot of this novella. Sometimes however they fall to blows; and a baron loses his lands, title, even life... but not his men.

Those knights might not have a baron anymore but they still have a king, often the same king as the other lord has. Those now-landless knights are still not traitors; or, if perhaps they were, the king might figure these men are worth some clemency, since they maintained their honour, of a sort, and the king cannot waste good men.

This is how bandits happen of course. Here we may defer to Weis' Daughter of the Empire: knights without portfolio will gladly hire under a lord, or in Weis' case a lady, who promises to restore to them their purpose. For Weis these knights formed a band, and were on their way to banditry - before the lady Acoma rescued them.

But perhaps some knights might hold to their vows ("sigma", Beale might say) to refuse that dubious company.

BACKDATE 2/4.