Some recent reports and finds on the web have helped clarify something of which of the more minor tertiary roles will be cut, reduced, or kept in place in the course of HBO’s adaption of A Song of Ice and Fire.
Lord Ned’s Head reports that at this weekend’s LepreCon convention, GRRM discussed the HBO series as part of a Q&A. He indicated that Syrio Forel remains (he’s written “scenes” for him in episode 8), but that the guardsman Desmond is gone. Other roles, such as Jon Snow’s fellow recruits, may be reduced to just a few line (e.g. Grenn and Pyp) or be cut entirely or be reduced to background characters with no lines (e.g. Toad, Rast, and so on).
raijap tweeted about this webpage for actress Caroline Grace-Cassidy, which states that she auditioned this month (possibly in the recent Dublin auditions?) for the role of the wildling woman, Osha, which certainly suggests that character is planned to be in the series.