grammaticality - did and

While reading A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin, I came across the following line which seemed odd to me. (Note, English is only my third language so "seemed odd to me" is about as meaningless as it gets)

[...], even if he did look like a monstrous yellow slug and smell of piss.

The smell part is what seems off to me, though I realize there's an assumed repetition of he did. I guess I just find it sounding odd.

Is the used phrasing correct? Is it also correct to use the following line?

[...], even if he did look like a monstrous yellow slug and smelled of piss.

Which way is most common in English?

Answer

Both are possible. In the original, as you say, he did is understood. You could also write:

... if he did look like a monstrous yellow slug and did smell of piss.

In your example, only the subject he is understood and so you would still need to mark the verb as past. Personally, I don't like the combining of the two different forms of the past tense with and.

For example, I don't like:

He did go home and ate.

This is essentially what your second sentence is.

A better comparison would be:

He is walking and talking on his phone.

He is walking and is talking on his phone.

To me, both are equally correct, but the first is much more common in English. The repetition of the auxiliary verb is (or any other auxiliary for that matter) is more common when there is a large separation between the two verbs. There is no simple rule as to which is the most common.