Others' Island (spoilers all books incl RWC)

[Nuytsia]

Thanks re your comments on iron. I wondered if this was the case (that it is used elsewhere through the fantasy genre at times, to ward off magic). I can't recall reading anything like that before but then I have not read as much fantasy as most other Hobb fans seem to have I got the feeling that 'iron' took on a couple of meanings eg an iron collar was quite different to the toting of 'cold iron? The former could be specifically used to ward off magic however the latter I took to simply mean a firearm of some sort (not in RotE so much but generally...though I am only going on my limited view of that which is contained in Shaman's Crossing so far!)?

Yep there are a lot of references to iron being able to cause specific harm to magical beings in many fantasy stories. Not sure who first came up with that one, or if it's part of mythology.
OK I had to check good ole wikipedia, and it turns out it IS an old mythology and the article actually has some comments about the term 'cold iron' which I didn't know, so that may answer your question on 'cold iron' Farseer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_in_folklore