A Thread for Small Questions V

[krakenfisher]

So, was The-King-Beyond-The-Wall actually at the feast or not?

Can't see any reason to assume he wasn't. According to his story, he fell in with Robert's company a day south of Winterfell, and once they got to the castle Mance would have had plenty of opportunity to see the direwolves around the Stark children during the several hours before the feast started, not to mention that the presence of direwolves would have been a topic of gossip for the king's men from the south. Mance doesn't specifically say that it was at the feast he saw them, or even that he actually saw them as opposed to being told about them. As you say, he certainly seems to know plenty of circumstantial detail about what happened.

Of course, it could equally well be a continuity error, but if so it's only a very small one that can be handwaved away as above.

[mummer]

Dacey, I didn't read the scene that way at all. "Did you see where they put the bastard?" seemed to me like a rhetorical question, not a test of Mance's knowledge. Anyone familiar with the customs of Westeros would know that Jon wouldn't have had an honored position at table-- after all, it's considered somewhat unusual that Ned has even taken him into the household as closely as he has. He's just not spelling out the point ("And that's why I resent the Starks and don't have any loyalty to the Seven Kingdoms") on the assumption that Mance will understand what he's getting at.

Jon's own thoughts support this, I think: before he starts the speech that leads up to "Did you see where they put the bastard?", Jon thinks "There is only one tale that he might believe." That makes no sense if he's trying to catch Mance in a lie.

It's an interesting point about the wolves, but I don't think it's that significant. Mance didn't say he saw them sitting at the children's feet at dinner; he just said he saw "Lord Eddard's children and the wolf pups that ran at their heels," which he could've easily seen on the way there before dinner.