Why Tommen is called "first of his name" while there has been a ?
121781
Tommen ascends to the Iron Throne after his brother Joffrey's death, and at least in the TV series is referred to as being the "First of his Name". However, there were already at least two Lannister Kings of the West, or the Westerlands, or of Casterly Rock, named Tommen.   So, why isn't the books' King Tommen the third of his name?
89996
Gendry was born in the Crownlands and should therefore be referred to as Gendry Waters. However, he refers to himself as Gendry Rivers.   Did showrunners forget or is Gendry ignorant of the customs?
24208
My question comes from what I learned in the movies, considering I have not yet been able to read the books. I would just like to know why Severus Snape called himself the Half-Blood Prince? Did many people call him that or did he just think that it was a cool nickname? This question might be answered in the books so feel free to quote from it.
81100
Here's a fragment from Jack London's Star Rover:     Wordsworth knew. He was neither seer nor prophet, but just ordinary man like you or any man. What he knew you know, any man knows. But he most aptly stated it in his passage that begins "Not in utter nakedness, not in entire forgetfulness.   To the best of my — admittedly sketchy — knowledge of grammar, the second sentence should read neither a seer nor (a) prophet, but just an ordinary man. Even if we accept the seer and the prophet as "poetic entities" ("father and son," "robber and robbed," "man to man," or whatever), logic would still dictate that ordinary man should be preceded by an an.  It is a well-known fact that Jack London's usage wasn't always up to par; his grammar, on the other hand, was always top-notch.  Logically, the sentence is grammatically incorrect (correct me if I'm wrong: no pun intended).  Illogically, it reads smoothly: intuitively, a native speaker understands that there's nothing wrong here.  However, those to whom English is not the first language cannot be expected to be intuitive in this case and would want an explanation. Any suggestions?
5715
Why did Tom Riddle change his name to Voldemort? What was the point of Lord Voldemort, specifically, not Lord Tom or, Lord Riddle? Tom Riddle was his officially documented name, after all...
112776
I’m currently reading George Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire novels in English. As a non-native speaker (I’m German), I stumbled upon some grammatical constructs that I’ve never seen before, one of them being the Why at beginning of sentences.  Examples:   Tyrion gave the rotting head a second look. Why, it almost looks as if those lips are smiling. Did he use that word? Why, the boy has a singer's soul . . . though if you believe that song, you may well be dimmer than the first Reek.   These kind of sentences are obviously different from sentences like Why is the sky blue?  I’d like to know if that construct is archaic, or could be used in everyday language, and how one could rephrase that kind of sentences. Can it be rephrased at all? To me it seems like the Why is just used to give the sentence a kind of “cynical” taste.
50100
Pursuant to , it's plausible that the typical witch or wizard would use 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' (if they assume Taboo Spell is intact after death of Voldemort). But, why would the Aurors and those in the Ministry of Magic (who had first rate protection) also use it? Even Snape (the Half-Blood Prince) hesitated to say 'Voldemort', and he was under the protection of Dumbledore, Dumbledore being the only wizard Voldemort ever feared.  What was the point of the Death Eaters being scared to say 'Voldemort' when, ostensibly, Voldemort wasn't even alive? Yes, it's true that some believed Voldemort would return, but, at the time, it was just that -- a belief. Were people scared that the Death Eaters might give a list of all those who used Voldemort's name to Voldemort upon his return?
109479
Right from The Philosopher's Stone to The Goblet of Fire, as far as the magical community was concerned, "The Boy who Lived" had lived while Voldemort had been defeated.  It's understandable that Voldemort had created for himself quite a reputation as a evil wizard whose very name made people shudder.  But once he was "dead and gone" , why worry? Surely, his name wasn't "taboo" at that time. The Death Eaters couldn't track the people who said his name openly.
81158
Night's Watch deserters are sentenced to death, as we've seen in the very first episode of Game of Thrones. A man dressed all in black is apprehended by Stark men and brought before Lord Eddard Stark. Lord Stark sees him as a deserter and sentences him to die (and then executes that death penalty).  However, there are men of the Night's Watch south of the Wall, on a legitimate mission or on some kind of allowed leave. For instance, we have Benjen Stark visiting Winterfell when the king and his party is there. There is also Yoren, who travels around Westeros in search of new recruits.  I could imagine that the Warden of the North (and other lords in the northern part of Westeros) would have a good idea of who would be allowed further south and whose appearance would raise suspicion. But I reckon the southern lords don't have as many visits from the Night's Watch, so they might not know who would be allowed to be there and who wouldn't.  How would lords who are rather unfamiliar with the specific brothers of the Night's Watch discern deserters from brothers sent out for some reason?  That ends my question, but there is a spoiler from the season 5 finale that continues the question a bit more:      Sam is sent to Oldtown to become a Maester, so he can replace Maester Aemon at Castle Black.  But he is riding together with Gilly (a woman!) and her baby (a baby!), which might raise a lot of suspicion from people who don't know what he is sent out to do.  What prevents southern lords of sentencing Sam as a deserter from the Night's Watch?
69773
Who is the Lord, as referred to in the title? Frodo? Sauron? Someone else? Or is it more of an abstract title, not referring to a single person, like "He who wields the One Ring"?
122017
In the preface to The Lord of the Rings:  A Reader's Companion, authors Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull mention a surprising fact:       Dr. Richard E. Blackwelder once counted in The Lord of the Rings 632 named individuals (of which 314 are in the Appendices), a number which soars to 1,648 when one adds titles, nicknames, and descriptive epithets (Sauron alone has 103).   - The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. xii   I can think of several names and epithets related to Sauron:  The Dark Lord, the Enemy, the Lord of Mordor, the Eye, the Nameless, the Great Foe, and of course, he is in fact the title character of the series - the Lord of the Rings.  In other works, he is called Mairon, Annatar, the Necromancer, the Fair, etc.    Robert Foster's Tolkien's World From A to Z:  The Complete Guide to Middle-earth lists 32 titles, names, and epithets, only about a quarter of the number mentioned by Hammond, Scull, and Blackwelder.   The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, Robert Foster, p. 438  But still, if you had asked me how many titles, names, epithets, etc, are attributed to Sauron, I probably would have said something in the neighborhood of 20.  I was shocked to read that the number is so much higher:  103!    Has anyone compiled a list of all these names, titles, epithets, and so on?
30801
When I was a youngster some mumble-mumble-mumble decades ago, I was taught that, in the instances of names of persons, places, and things which carried the definite article the, the article wasn’t capitalised.  Hence, the Batman, the Empire State Building, the Medal of Honor.  In the last twenty years or so, I have seen the capitalisation of the in names proliferate.  Now, it’s The Batman, The Empire State Building, The Medal of Honor.  When I point this out as an error, I’m generally met with the argument, “No, those are names, and all words in a name are capitalised.”  Did I get it wrong, way back when?  Or is it one of those things in which style has trumped rule, and now the standard is to capitalise the definite article in names?
18183
My first question here, so I'm not sure if this OT or not, so please bare with me.  Background: I don't live in US. I'm working with some data that I'm pulling from . Sometimes, I'm getting a city name as St. John and sometimes as Saint Ann.   So my question is, is there an accepted way on how people write a US city names which starts with Saint or is this just some random thing (or just specific to AdWords maybe)?  I'm asking this, because if for example I'll get both St. John and Saint John in the same file, should I consider them the same or should I be suspicious?
50569
So at the end of Season 5 of Game of Thrones,      Stannis Baratheon dies (probably).   Suppose that Tommen is discovered to be the son of Cersei and Jaime, due to      The Spanish Inquisition! Umm, I mean, the meddlesome High Sparrow and the faith militant looking for muck to stick to the current royals.   Also, suppose Gendry is unknown to the general public.  Now, by the laws and customs of the 7 kingdoms, and assuming you're not a Targaryen loyalist - who's next in line for succession?  Also, more specifically,       Are there some distant Baratheons (third-degree cousins or something) who might fit the bill? All of Robert's brothers are dead, and he has no cousines, and IIRC also no second-degree cousins.
50134
In the Game of Thrones Season 8 finale Sansa      demands the freedom of the North. North will be an independent kingdom.   Why did other houses remain silent. They could also demand the same for their own kingdom.  I could guess they are not very powerful to demand anything but there was no harm putting that in front of      the newly elected king.
17650
How did Peter, the surname, Johnson, and the nicknames for William(Willy) and Richard(Dick), come to mean penis?  Was the first instance of these usages, related to a specific person?  Are there more examples in this area? Is this exclusive to English?
117917
I posted a question (  ) and they told me to post that question here. So I'm doing it.   I received answer that John doe is used as anyonymous person (victim in most cases) as placeholder for name.  Is there reason why it's "John Doe"?