Three days ride from Winterfell, however, the farmland gave way to dense wood, and the kingsroad grew lonely. The flint hills rose higher and wilder with each passing mile, until by the fifth day they had turned into mountains, cold blue-grey giants with jagged promontories and snow on their shoulders. When the wind blew from the north, long plumes of ice crystals flew from the high peaks like banners.
然而好景不长,离开临冬城三日之后,农田退去,只见茂密深林,国王大道也越来越人迹罕至。丘陵则日益陡峭,到了第五天,已经成了山脉,宛如肩负陈雪和陡峭岩峰的灰蓝巨人。当北风吹起,长长的冰针像旗帜一般从高耸的峰峦间飞溅而下。
With the mountains a wall to the west, the road veered north by northeast through the wood, a forest of oak and evergreen and black brier that seemed older and darker than any Tyrion had ever seen. “The wolfswood,” Benjen Stark called it, and indeed their nights came alive with the howls of distant packs, and some not so distant. Jon Snow’s albino direwolf pricked up his ears at the nightly howling, but never raised his own voice in reply. There was something very unsettling about that animal, Tyrion thought.
山在西方,路往东北,蜿蜒穿过树林。班扬·史塔克称这座满是橡树、常青树和黑荆棘,看起来比提利昂所见过任何林子都要古老的森林为"狼林",每到夜晚,森林里也确实传来远方狼群此起彼落的嚎叫,有时离他们还不甚远。雪诺的白子冰原狼听到便会竖起耳朵,却从不应和。提利昂总觉得那只东西有种令人极端不安的感觉。
There were eight in the party by then, not counting the wolf. Tyrion traveled with two of his own men, as befit a Lannister. Benjen Stark had only his bastard nephew and some fresh mounts for the Night’s Watch, but at the edge of the wolfswood they stayed a night behind the wooden walls of a forest holdfast, and there joined up with another of the black brothers, one Yoren. Yoren was stooped and sinister, his features hidden behind a beard as black as his clothing, but he seemed as tough as an old root and as hard as stone. With him were a pair of ragged peasant boys from the Fingers. “Rapers,” Yoren said with a cold look at his charges. Tyrion understood. Life on the Wall was said to be hard, but no doubt it was preferable to castration.
扣除小狼不算,他们一行八人。首先提利昂依照兰尼斯特家的排场,带了两个随从。班扬·史塔克则只带着他的私生子侄儿,还有守夜人部队的一些牲口。但当他们在狼林边缘一栋木造庄园过夜时,又有一位叫尤伦的黑衣弟兄加入他们。这个尤伦驼着背,模样颇为阴狠,五官都躲在他那跟制服一般黑的胡子后面,但不难看出他是条汉子。他带了两个来自五指半岛,衣着破烂的农家子弟。"强奸犯。"尤伦冷冷地看着他们说。提利昂顿时领悟,长城上的日子虽然艰苦,但总比阉刑好得多。
背景介绍:
《权力的游戏》是一部中世纪史诗奇幻题材的电视连续剧。该剧以美国作家乔治·R·R·马丁的奇幻巨作《冰与火之歌》七部曲为基础改编创作,由大卫·贝尼奥夫和丹尼尔·威斯编剧、HBO电视网推出。乔治·雷蒙德·理查德·马丁是欧美奇幻小说大师。马丁的作品主要以人物为关注点,描写细腻丰富,突破了幻想文学界固有的创作模式,多次引领阅读潮流。由于马丁的辉煌成就,他被誉为美国的托尔金和新世纪的海明威。从1989年开始,马丁淡出文学界,转而投身演艺界发展,1996年他才重返文坛而开始奇幻文学的创作,处女作便是《权力的游戏》,即为《冰与火之歌》的首部曲。《权力的游戏》甫出便拿下了British Fantasy Society、 世界奇幻奖和星云奖年度最佳幻想作品提名,在非官方的不记名奇幻作品投票中,《冰与火之歌》俨然已经可以和《魔戒》平起平坐,作者网站的访问量也是和斯蒂芬·金、J.K.罗琳等不相上下,其受欢迎的程度可见一斑。乔治马丁被时代杂志评选为2011年影响世界的一百人之一。