Errors of Ice and Fire

There's a pretty significant one that I spotted some time back, and now I can't remember what book. Basically, the character's name was misspelled for the better part of a chapter.

Of course, I don't remember the name, either.

No, it wasn't a particularly important character, perhaps a lesser maester or someone to that effect. However, the mistake was made over...and over...and over...and finally was righted toward the end of the chapter. Just terrible editing.

The British removed a "U"?

Just as well. Q and U normally have a sick codependent relationship in which U is Q's stalker.

re: A FEAST FOR CROWS

A short list of things I once noticed in AFFC that seemed odd. In fact, I've wondered whether the fourth book made it to press without a full round of edits and proofreads. Perhaps book five was delayed, in part, because Martin spent several years just... irritated about that. 




BRIENNE I (4.04)

Saddlebag Content.  Two mentions of the valuables Brienne found with her horse in the stables at the Red Keep. (Gold, silver, parchment signed by King.) Both different, the first description being vague/mysterious about the parchment - but both appearing in the same chapter. Just seems... a bit redundant:


The Septon and the Definite Article. We're told "the septon" takes ale at the Old Stone Bridge inn where Brienne stops with Illifer and Creighton. I had to look back through the chapter to be sure, but we hadn't been told there was a septon at the inn prior to that point. He's just suddenly drinking ale in the common room, accompanied by that unearned definite article. Not a huge deal, but it seems unlike Martin's style - odd enough to have caught my eye. Makes me wonder if the septon and "poor fellows" met on the road earlier in the chapter were originally to appear at the inn - only to be moved by Martin in a later draft / revision.

"The septon" isn't in Brienne's party, and hadn't been mentioned in the inn at all to this point, and isn't mentioned again:


SAMWELL I (4.05)

"His" Workbench.  Random possessive at the armory. As Sam enters the armory to meet with Jon, we get a description of the place. And right before Sam notices Ghost, we're told that an unfinished mail shirt is left on "his" workbench. Whose workbench? I would assume it was Donal Noye's. But the last mention of Noye was several paragraphs back, and there's really no proper referent for this personal possessive. "Its" would have worked better, if only to refer back to the unfinished mail shirt. Again, leaves me thinking Martin moved some paragraphs around, or inserted some text. (Maybe Sam's encounter with Gilly, which comes after we're told Jon set up shop in the armory, but before Sam actually goes in. That would have put the "workbench" closer to "Noye," in the chapter).



SAMWELL II (4.15)

The Chest. Another inconsistent detail -- which, like "the septon" at the Old Stone Bridge inn, should have been caught on proofread and edited out (or better explained) -- is this mention of "the chest," in AFFC Chapter 15, while Sam listens to Dareon's singing aboard the Blackbird:


I assume this was intended to be the "chest of rare old books" Aemon was bringing along to the Citadel - but the reference is not clear.  The chest of books hasn't been mentioned since it was loaded into one of the wayns at Castle Black (Chapter 5) - and no other wooden chest appears on the Blackbird at all, apart from this one.  

But assuming it is the "chest of rare old books"... then it almost certainly would have been stored below decks in the cabin - and not above decks, "out in the open air [where] Dareon was singing."  But that is in fact the context in which it appears - both this paragraph, and the next paragraph (about Maester Aemon) describe activities taking place above decks.  And one of those - apparently - is that Sam finds himself sitting on this chest, getting ass-splinters.    

Now, I'll concede that the line about fat men taking cushions wherever they go is pretty clever.  Not surprised GRRM wanted to keep that one. But he might should have reconsidered that, too - given this remark from Sam's previous chapter, in the Castle Black stacks:


(Uh, Sam... what about your fleshy buttocks?  Aren't they cushion enough?  C'mon, man...)


ALAYNE I (4.23)

When the Lords Declarant arrive at the Eyrie to meet with Littlefinger, Sansa (Alayne) meets them and serves them:

• "bread and cheese and cups of hot mulled wine in silver cups."

(Initially, I thought Martin had just made another mistake here. But this "cups... in cups" arrangement might be just the Westerosi version of the koozie or (in this case) the cup sleeve. Given how much wine and beer they drink in the Seven Kingdoms, it would be rather surprising if they hadn't come up with some solution for the absence of koozies and cup sleeves. "Cups in cups" would probably work.)

A third of a league.