Revealing a Character's Identity (Spoilers Extended)

Background

One of the biggest things that people tend to post about/discuss is how due to the description "character X is actually ...". And while sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, GRRM has shown that he does like to not only hide characters like this, but he will steadily foreshadow their identity. In this post I thought it would be interesting to look at how GRRM reveals a hidden character's identity to the reader.

If interested: Obvious in Retrospect: Example - The Red Wedding

Arstan = Barristan

The biggest example of this in the book series is probably the disappearance of Ser Barristan from King's Landing in AGoT and subsequent appearance as Arstan in ACoK and reveal to Daenerys/the reader as Barristan in ASoS.

George masterly continues to reference Barristan's honor/showing up for the "true king" throughout ACoK:

"I know that old man. He needs a king to guard, or who is he? Yet he never came to me, and Lady Catelyn says he is not with Robb Stark at Riverrun. Where else but with Stannis?" -ACOK, Catelyn IV

If interested: The Arstan Reveal

Reek = Ramsay Snow

After what he does to Lady Hornwood, what is believed to be Ramsay is put to death (it was actually the original Reek):

Roose Bolton's bastard had meant less to him than one of his dogs, to judge from the tone of the queer cold letter Edmure had gotten from him not three days past. He had crossed the Trident and was marching on Harrenhal as commanded, he wrote. "A strong castle, and well garrisoned, but His Grace shall have it, if I must kill every living soul within to make it so." He hoped His Grace would weigh that against the crimes of his bastard son, whom Ser Rodrik Cassel had put to death. "A fate he no doubt earned," Bolton had written. "Tainted blood is ever treacherous, and Ramsay's nature was sly, greedy, and cruel. I count myself well rid of him. The trueborn sons my young wife has promised me would never have been safe while he lived." -ACOK, Catelyn V

And Ramsay replaces Reek and begins to assist Theon:

 Reek was at his elbow.
Theon had not heard him approach, nor smelled him either. He could not think of anyone he wanted to see less. It made him uneasy to see the man walking around breathing, with what he knew. I should have had him killed after he did the others, he reflected, but the notion made him nervous. Unlikely as it seemed, Reek could read and write, and he was possessed of enough base cunning to have hidden an account of what they'd done. -ACOK, Theon V

before it is revealed that Ramsay was Reek all along:

“Reek,” Theon said, disquieted. How did a serving man get such fine armor?
... “And now, my sweet prince, there was a woman promised me, if I brought two hundred men. Well, I brought three times as many, and no green boys nor fieldhands neither, but my father’s own garrison.”
Theon had given his word. This was not the time to flinch. Pay him his pound of flesh and deal with him later. “Harrag,” he said, “go to the kennels and bring Palla out for …?”
“Ramsay.” There was a smile on his plump lips, but none in those pale pale eyes. “Snow, my wife called me before she ate her fingers, but I say Bolton.” -ACOK, Theon VI

Rattleshirt = Mance Rayder

This is slightly different as Melisandre is using a glamour to alter Rattleshirt's appearance:

Melisandre touched the ruby at her neck and spoke a word.
The sound echoed queerly from the corners of the room and twisted like a worm inside their ears. The wildling heard one word, the crow another. Neither was the word that left her lips. The ruby on the wildling's wrist darkened, and the wisps of light and shadow around him writhed and faded. -ADWD, Melisandre I

but GRRM still lays down clues that this isn't Mance burning:

The wildling king recoiled from the sight. "No," he cried, "mercy. This is not right, I'm not the king, they—" -ADWD, Jon III

and:

Inside his cage, Mance Rayder clawed at the noose about his neck with bound hands and screamed incoherently of treachery and witchery, denying his kingship, denying his people, denying his name, denying all that he had ever been. He shrieked for mercy and cursed the red woman and began to laugh hysterically. -ADWD, Jon III

If interested: Glamored Characters/Items

Mance = Abel

This is also a bit different as readers knew what Jon was up to:

A grey girl on a dying horse, fleeing from her marriage. On the strength of those words he had loosed Mance Rayder and six spearwives on the north. "Young ones, and pretty," Mance had said. The unburnt king supplied some names, and Dolorous Edd had done the rest, smuggling them from Mole's Town. It seemed like madness now. He might have done better to strike down Mance the moment he revealed himself. Jon had a certain grudging admiration for the late King-Beyond-the-Wall, but the man was an oathbreaker and a turncloak. He had even less trust in Melisandre. Yet somehow here he was, pinning his hopes on them. All to save my sister. But the men of the Night's Watch have no sisters. -ADWD, Jon VI

and:

Up near the dais, Abel was plucking at his lute and singing "Fair Maids of Summer." He calls himself a bard. In truth he's more a pander. Lord Manderly had brought musicians from White Harbor, but none were singers, so when Abel turned up at the gates with a lute and six women, he had been made welcome. "Two sisters, two daughters, one wife, and my old mother," the singer claimed, though not one looked like him. "Some dance, some sing, one plays the pipe and one the drums. Good washerwomen too." -ADWD, The Prince of Winterfell

Alleras = Sarella

I like this example because while it is not confirmed in world, it is all but confirmed to the fandom. I feel like similar to Barristan, once GRRM reveals that Sarella = Alleras, we will be able to look back at quotes like these to show what she was up to in Oldtown:

Alleras was the same: his father was a Dornishman, his mother a black-skinned Summer Islander. -AFFC, Prologue

and:

"Yes, she wants to set the torch to Oldtown. She hates that city as much as our little sister loves it." -AFFC, The Captain of the Guards

and:

Unless she returns to Dorne, there's naught I can do about Sarella save pray that she shows more sense than her sisters. Leave her to her . . . game.  -AFFC, The Captain of the Guards

especially since GRRM had this to say about her:

• Introduce the dramatis personae of the Citadel, i.e. archmaesters, novices, etc. Two of the Citadel characters the reader meets will be important to Sam's story when he arrives... Lazy Leo Tyrell and Alleras the Sphinx. But George says he doesn't want to tip his hand, and so was attempting to hide those two among the bit players like Armen and Mollander. In fact, Emma the serving wench and her daughter Rosie were originally intended to be important as well, but George changed his mind. The third important player in the prologue is Marwyn the Mage. But George says he hasn't gotten a handle on Marwyn yet, either his role in the prologue or his role in the overall series.

If interested: The Lazy Rose and the Sphinx in TWoW

Gravedigger = Sandor Clegane

Another example that is not confirmed but that GRRM has laid it on pretty thick is that of Sandor Clegane as the Gravedigger on the Quiet Isle.

While the Hound is "dead" (and by dead I mean has become a legacy character a la the Dread Pirate Roberts), the Elder Brother responds as such when Brienne says Sandor is dead:

The horse. She had seen the stallion, had heard it kicking, but she had not understood. Destriers were trained to kick and bite. In war they were a weapon, like the men who rode them. Like the Hound. "It is true, then," she said dully. "Sandor Clegane is dead."
"He is at rest." -AFFC, Brienne VI

and Sandor hides his face:

On the upper slopes they saw three boys driving sheep, and higher still they passed a lichyard where a brother bigger than Brienne was struggling to dig a grave. From the way he moved, it was plain to see that he was lame. As he flung a spadeful of the stony soil over one shoulder, some chanced to spatter against their feet. "Be more watchful there," chided Brother Narbert. "Septon Meribald might have gotten a mouthful of dirt." The gravedigger lowered his head. When Dog went to sniff him he dropped his spade and scratched his ear. -AFFC, Brienne VI

but I do not expect Sandor to be here long:

The Lord of Light is not yet done with Joffrey's Hound, it would seem." -ASOS, Arya VII

and:

But when the work was done and the tall wooden palisade was finished, the village elder made it plain that there was no place for them. "Come winter, we will be hard pressed to feed our own," he explained. "And you . . . a man like you brings blood with him."
Sandor's mouth tightened. "So you do know who I am." -ASOS, Arya XII

If interested: The Brotherhood & the Quiet Isle

Richard Lonmouth = Lem Lemoncloak

This one is far less confirmed than the ones that I listed above, but similar to each of them, there is a plotline that GRRM may have been setting up this entire time and that is one between Lem Lemoncloak and Jaime Lannister:

Jaime and Lem seemingly don't get along:

Nor did His Grace agree to appoint Lord Tywin's son Jaime as squire to Prince Rhaegar; that honor he granted instead to the sons of several of his own favorites, men known to be no friends of House Lannister or the Hand. TWOIAF, The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II

and Lem's interest in capturing Jaime/anger when he escapes:

Lem cracked his knuckles and said, "Wouldn't Lord Beric love to capture Jaime Lannister, though . . ." -ASOS, Arya III

and interested here:

"Did they say how Lannister came to escape?" Lem asked.
"They did," said Lady Smallwood. "Not that I believe a word of it. They claimed that Lady Catelyn set him free." -ASOS, Arya IV

and angry here:

"Lannisters," Thoros said. "Roaring red and gold." He lurched to his feet and went to Lord Beric. Lem and Tom wasted no time joining them. Arya could not make out what they were saying, but the singer kept glancing at her, and one time Lem got so angry he pounded a fist against the wall. -ASOS, Arya VIII

and:

". . . before his friends cut her throat for her, that must have been," said the big man in the yellow cloak. "We all know about the Kingslayer and his oaths." -AFFC, Brienne VIII

so if/when Jaime and Brienne get back to the Brotherhood, they could recognize each other.

If interested: The Brotherhood without Banners: History with Jaime Lannister

Other Upcoming?

• Coldhands = ??? (I used to think he was a member of the Raven's Teeth and/or related to House Blackwood, but now I think he was from the AGoT Prologue)

TLDR: Just some examples of how GRRM has done a character's identity reveal (Barristan = Arstan, etc) and some potential future examples (Sarella/Alleras, Gravedigger = Sandor Clegane) and how GRRM foreshadows the upcoming reveal.