Diksha Sundriyal
The first season of HBO’s ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ comes to an end with its sixth episode, which sets the characters on new journeys, which shall be explored in the second season. At the same time, it also gives a sense of closure to some characters, especially Dunk, as he starts to fit into the role of a knight and find the purpose that had always evaded him. Before leaving Ashford, he nails a penny to the elm tree that had served as his home during the time he spent in Ashford. This act harkens back to an important story told him by his late master. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Ser Arlan’s Story Inspires Dunk’s Act of Leaving the Penny on the Tree
A flashback in the final episode takes us back to the beginning, right under the tree where the audience meets Dunk for the first time in Episode 1. Ser Arlan is at the end of his rope, and he uses this time to retell the story of Pennytree to Dunk, whom he still hasn’t knighted. He talks about how, when men like him were called to war by their lords, they were told to nail a penny to the big oak tree at the center of the town square. The idea was for the men to take the pennies out on their return. But the wars consumed them such that the ones who left rarely came back, leaving their pennies on the oak, while more men were called to war and had to nail their pennies on the tree.
Over the years, the huge oak tree was covered in pennies, with barely any soldiers returning to take off the pennies they had nailed. Thus, covered in the pennies of dead men, the tree came to be known as Pennytree, and that’s where Ser Arlan was from. The old knight told Dunk this story several times, remembering not just the place he comes from, but all the men that are lost in the wars, all the people that lose their lives over seemingly insignificant quarrels, and the bloodshed and violence that only brings pain and suffering. In a way, nailing the penny becomes a sign of never returning to the place, like a piece of themselves the soldiers leave behind in their home before heading towards certain death. Ashford becomes the same thing for Duncan.
The Penny in the Tree Holds Several Meanings for Dunk
By nailing the penny in the elm tree, Dunk is doing his own version of leaving the place with the knowledge that he will most likely never come back there. The elm tree had been his home, and it has even more emotional value now that Dunk has the tree on his shield as part of his sigil. In the form of the penny, he is leaving a piece of himself behind. It is also his version of a memorial to Baelor, who, like the soldiers of Pennytree, fought someone else’s war and died in it, rather meaninglessly. It is Dunk’s way of remembering the prince who will never return, and the guilt of whose death will likely eat at his soul for the rest of his life. In the same vein, it is also his ode to Ser Arlan’s story and a goodbye to his mentor, whom he had grieved throughout the season.
Since Dunk has never been to Pennytree, at least not with Ser Arlan and not according to the books on which the show is based, he doesn’t know if the old knight ever nailed a penny to the oak tree and returned to take it out. By leaving the penny on the elm tree, Dunk is acknowledging his late master’s departure from the world, saying goodbye to his ghost (who parts ways with him as he leaves the town with Egg). At the same time, Dunk is also remembering him in the way the men in his home are remembered. All these things add significant meaning to Dunk’s seemingly small act, showing that while he is leaving Ashford behind for good, the events that transpired there have left a lasting impact on him and influenced the course of his life in the most unexpected of ways.
Read More: What does the Prophecy About Egg Mean in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?
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