“Well, it's true I have two beaten swords
and they cost me deep in the purse,
but you will have the better of them
and I will have the worse.

“And you will strike the very first blow
and strike it like a man;
I will strike the very next blow
and I'll kill you if I can.”

—“Matty Groves,” Traditional

Arthur Hazelwood is the firstborn son of the Hazelwood family, wealthy landowners of Bree-town who have long been friends of important families such as the Appledores, the Tenderlarchs, and the Butterburs. Contrary to his family's expectations, however, Arthur quickly grew more fond of fencing and dice than books and manners, and spent much of his teenage years fighting.

When he came of age, he left Hazelwood Manor to make a name for himself as a fencer, fighting many duels in the back alleys of Bree-town and winning no small number of bouts against fencers of different lands. More commonly, however, he has fought against poorer young men of Bree-town who he felt had slighted his honour, gaining his current reputation as a skilled fighter yet an arrogant man with much disdain for the poor and for travellers from beyond the Bree-land.