diff --git a/src/uix/soma/components/words/engine/blocks/built-ins.ts b/src/uix/soma/components/words/engine/blocks/built-ins.ts
index 90a2b0ffd..c9a91033a 100644
--- a/src/uix/soma/components/words/engine/blocks/built-ins.ts
+++ b/src/uix/soma/components/words/engine/blocks/built-ins.ts
@@ -361,9 +361,23 @@ const tableSpec: WordsBlockSpec = {
 			group: 'structure',
 			create: () => ({
 				type: 'table',
+				// Cells hold BLOCKS (P5m), not inlines: seed each with an empty
+				// paragraph. Passing bare `emptyText()` (inline nodes) here makes
+				// `normalizeBlock` return undefined for the unrecognized 'text'
+				// type, corrupting the cell (crashes the mark-walk, breaks editing).
 				rows: [
-					{ cells: [{ children: emptyText() }, { children: emptyText() }] },
-					{ cells: [{ children: emptyText() }, { children: emptyText() }] }
+					{
+						cells: [
+							{ children: [{ type: 'paragraph', children: emptyText() }] },
+							{ children: [{ type: 'paragraph', children: emptyText() }] }
+						]
+					},
+					{
+						cells: [
+							{ children: [{ type: 'paragraph', children: emptyText() }] },
+							{ children: [{ type: 'paragraph', children: emptyText() }] }
+						]
+					}
 				]
 			})
 		}
diff --git a/src/uix/soma/components/words/engine/operations/normalize.ts b/src/uix/soma/components/words/engine/operations/normalize.ts
index 2fe1d684d..9a3b21aa4 100644
--- a/src/uix/soma/components/words/engine/operations/normalize.ts
+++ b/src/uix/soma/components/words/engine/operations/normalize.ts
@@ -207,12 +207,16 @@ function normalizeTableCells(
 	}
 	let mutated = false;
 	const next = cells.map((cell) => {
-		// Cells hold blocks (like callout): normalize each child block; seed
-		// an empty paragraph when the cell has none.
-		const children =
-			cell.children.length > 0
-				? cell.children.map((child) => normalizeBlock(child, idGen))
-				: seedCellChildren(idGen);
+		// Cells hold blocks (like callout): normalize each child block, then
+		// DROP any that failed to normalize. A stray inline slot — e.g. a cell
+		// seeded with bare `emptyText()` by the pre-fix table factory — makes
+		// `normalizeBlock` return undefined; keeping it would crash the
+		// mark-walk and break cell editing. Re-seed an empty paragraph when
+		// nothing valid remains, so a cell always holds at least one block.
+		const mapped = cell.children
+			.map((child) => normalizeBlock(child, idGen))
+			.filter((b) => b != null);
+		const children = mapped.length > 0 ? mapped : seedCellChildren(idGen);
 		const cellId = cell.id ?? idGen();
 		const childrenChanged =
 			children.length !== cell.children.length || children.some((c, i) => c !== cell.children[i]);