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help with some English please


DirePenguin

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Wow, what a nice topic! When I read some of the questions I thought that there would be angry responses, but all were very comprehensive and supportive.

English is not my native language, and I have only decided to try my hand at the original books last week, with A Feast for Crows (as a trick to read slower and pay more attention to the details). So far it is not so difficult as I thought it would be, but now and then I get stuck in some sentences.

I'd like to ask a aFFC sentence. Out of context there is no spoiler:

"[...] all we've done is drive the roaches back beneath the rushes."

What does this mean? Is this an idiomatic expression or something like that. "Rushes" is a plant, so this doesn't make sense for me at all.

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Hello Clydas! I wish I could comprehend another language well enough to read ASOIAF - my compliments to you and every other dual language reader!

A rushis a plant, yes. And it was common in earlier times, going back centuries, to cut rushes and lay them on the floor to walk on. The smell was pleasent, and the rushes acted as an absorbing material to pick up the food or drink you dropped on the floor. And if the floor was stone, it made it warmer, and if it was mud it stopped dust from rising.

If you were rich, you had fresh rushes put on the floor every day - think of Arya working for Tywin. Changing the rushes was one of her jobs.

If you only changed the rushes once in a while, you would attract the creepy crawly things that would take up residence and hide in the layers of rush. Since they were also used as bedding to sleep on, there would often be things living in old rushes that would flit in and out and possibly bite you or just annoy you.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yea Bolton didn't appear in Harrenhall at all in season 2. And there was so little warfare going on in the series. Instead we get some uneccesary porn scenes : / Like Joffrey's/

Sorry for the lack of update, I've been busy wiring / preparing ASoIaF wiki in Thai :) It's pretty much a solo project at this point.

http://wiki.gameofthronesfansite.com/Main_Page

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Ah. While you were away Dire Penguin liking posts was disabled. The forum was knocked down for a day. It turned out the 'like' system was a weak point in the security of the forum. So it has been turned off.

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not one of my better notions - not one of my better ideas (with reference to putting Sandor in charge of defending a gate when so much was burning).

Blistering - swearing and shouting, speaking harshly

ready to turn - yes ready to go back to battle you got it :)

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IIRC, the thought crossed Tyrion's mind because he ordered the Hound to go out and fight when the wildfire was blazing, ships were burning, men were aflame, and Tyrion was aware of the story about how Sandor's face was burned. Sandor was obviously stressed about the fire and flames, and Tyrion ordered him to go and fight in spite of a very deeply rooted weakness. Even with such a weakness, Sandor was a valuable soldier to the Lannisters, and by trying to force him to his breaking point, Tyrion has lost that valuable soldier.

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