The Sea of Trolls

Set in the eighth century, the novel situates its narrative within the Viking raids on Anglo-Saxon England, grounding its fantasy elements in a period of real-world cultural clash and expansion. Farmer takes particular inspiration from the first recorded attack on British soil by Scandinavian raiders, the destruction of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne on June 8, 793. Lindisfarne is located a few miles off England’s northeastern Northumberland coast, near the border with Scotland. The abbey was founded in 635 by St. Aidan, an Irish monk, and became “a center of great learning and art” (451). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, historical annals compiled in the late 800s, offers the following account of the raid:

Here terrible portents came about over the land of Northumbria, and miserably frightened the people: these were immense flashes of lightening, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine immediately followed these signs; and a little after that in the same year on 8 June the raiding of heathen men miserably devastated God’s church in Lindisfarne island by looting and slaughter (“Lindisfarne.” Encyclopaedia Romana, 2025).

The omens the annals describe reflect contemporary Europeans’ belief in the influence of the supernatural on everyday life, as well as the terror that the unprecedented attack on the peaceful monastery caused. The attack on Lindisfarne is historically significant because it marked “the beginning of two hundred years of Viking raids on the British Isles” (451). During this time, monasteries remained popular targets of invaders from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, due to their low defenses and abundant valuables. Within the novel, the Holy Isle’s destruction signals an escalation of the novel’s stakes, reveals the berserkers’ imminent march on Jack’s village, and develops the thematic exploration of the struggle for survival.