The Targaryen Family Tree – Dunk & Egg Era
If you landed here trying to figure out who “Egg” is or how the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms / Dunk and Egg stories connect to the Targaryen family tree, you’re in the right place — and you’re not alone. This is one of the most-searched, most-confusing corners of the entire dynasty, mostly because the story’s hero, Egg, spends the whole series pretending he isn’t a Targaryen at all.
“Egg” is the childhood nickname of Aegon Targaryen — later King Aegon V Targaryen, known historically as “Aegon the Unlikely.”
In the Dunk and Egg novellas, he’s a young prince traveling in disguise as a lowborn squire to the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (“Dunk”), roughly 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones. To hide his royal Targaryen silver hair, his head is shaved clean, revealing a round, pale head that earned him his simple moniker.
“A crown should not be a golden cage, Dunk. Sometimes, to rule a kingdom, one must first walk among the common folk.”
Egg (Aegon V) is a younger son of King Maekar I Targaryen — far enough down the line of succession that no one expects him to ever become king. That changes only after a tragic and chaotic chain of deaths among his older relatives, clearing his path to the Iron Throne.
He later becomes the grandfather of Aerys II (“the Mad King”) — meaning this obscure, barefoot hedge-knight-era prince is a direct ancestor of Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, connecting the quiet roads of the Reach directly to the cataclysmic ash of King’s Landing.
Ser Duncan the Tall — “Dunk” — is not a Targaryen by blood. He is a lowborn orphan from the squalor of Flea Bottom who grew to a towering seven feet.
As a humble hedge knight with no lands or wealth, Dunk takes young Egg on as his squire without initially knowing his true royal identity. Their unlikely, fiercely loyal friendship across an immense class gap forms the emotional and moral center of the novellas, demonstrating what true knighthood means in a world of corrupt lords.
“A knight who remembers his vows, Dunk, is worth more than a thousand kings who forget theirs.”
A look across the centuries of the dragon dynasty, anchoring the travels of Dunk and Egg between two great wars.
The bloody civil war known as “The Dance of the Dragons” devastates the empire. Dragons fight dragons in the skies, spelling the beginning of the end for the beasts of House Targaryen.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, set roughly 90 years before Game of Thrones. The dragons are gone, but tournaments and courtly intrigues mask the rising tensions of the Blackfyre Rebellions.
The fall of Aerys II (“The Mad King”), the rebellion of Robert Baratheon, and the dramatic quest of Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow to reclaim the broken Iron Throne.
Yes — Egg is Aegon V’s nickname during his youth in the Dunk and Egg stories, before he unexpectedly becomes king after a series of tragic succession crises.
He’s a younger son of King Maekar I, far from the throne initially. A series of deaths among older relatives eventually puts him in the line of succession, leading to his crowning.
No. Ser Duncan the Tall is a lowborn hedge knight — his closeness to the dynasty comes entirely through his friendship and travels with Egg, not bloodline.
He’s a direct ancestor. Aegon V is the grandfather of Aerys II (the Mad King), making him Daenerys’s great-grandfather and Jon Snow’s great-great-grandfather.
Yes — set roughly 90 years before A Song of Ice and Fire, focusing on Targaryen history two generations before Aerys II’s reign.