A NOTE ON CHRONOLOGY

A Song of Ice and Fire is told through the eyes of characters who are sometimeshundreds or even thousands of miles apart from one another. Some chapters cover a day, someonly an hour; others might span¹ a fortnight, a month, half a year. With such a structure, thenarrative cannot be strictly² sequential; sometimes important things are happeningsimultaneously, a thousand leagues apart.

In the case of the volume now in hand, the reader should realize that the openingchapters of A Storm of Swords do not follow the closing chapters of A Clash³ of Kings so much asoverlap them. I open with a look at some of the things that were happening on the Fist of theFirst Men, at Riverrun, Harrenhal, and on the Trident while the Battle of the Blackwater wasbeing fought at King’s Landing, and during its aftermath...


GEORGE R. R. MARTIN

1 span   

n.跨度，跨距，范围；vt.持续，贯穿，跨越

参考例句：

• The time span of these documents from 1954 to 2009.这些文件的时间跨度为1954年至2009年。
• The measurement span is determined by the higher and lower range values.测量量程由上限值和下限值决定。

2 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

3 clash   

vi.冲突，不协调，砰地相撞；n.冲突，不协调

参考例句：

• There is a clash between two classes at 2 p.m. on Thursday.星期四下午两点有两堂课是冲突的。
• The pot came down on the stone floor with a clash.锅“当”地一声掉到石地上。