The Sea of Trolls

The ship sails eastward. When a storm springs up, Olaf asks Jack to work magic. The boy calms the sea by tapping into the life force and calling up fog, an achievement that makes him feel like a real bard. Jack’s connection to the life force allows him to sense that a crow is flying above the ship, and he calls to the exhausted bird: “It’s all right. I’ll save you” (132). Corvids are sacred to Odin, and the Northmen are amazed at seeing one so far out at sea. Jack proclaims that he has many powers, including speaking with animals, and the awed warriors hurry to fetch food and water for him and the bird.

Thorgil questions whether Jack is really a bard, and he discloses his mentor’s identity. The shield maiden knows about the Bard, whom the Northmen call Dragon Tongue, because she and the rest of the band serve Queen Frith and King Ivar. Jack’s connection to Dragon Tongue troubles Olaf, but he believes Jack when the boy claims that the Nightmare killed the Bard. The leader tells his men to conceal the identity of the boy’s teacher from the queen because the knowledge would anger her. Later that day, Jack realizes that the crow is the same bird that came to him after the Bard was attacked by the Nightmare.

The next morning, Jack names the crow Bold Heart because it lost a claw to a predator but survived. Olaf orders Jack to lift the fog, a feat the Bard never taught him. The boy accidentally calls down a deluge that nearly sinks the ship. Just in time, the clouds part, and the sun shines down. Jack isn’t responsible for this stroke of good fortune, but he allows the raiders to believe it’s the result of his magic. At first, Olaf is outraged because the rain destroyed much of their plunder, but soon everyone on the ship is laughing together because they’re relieved to be alive.

The ship resumes its journey. As they row, the men sing songs about life’s troubles and the endurance of a warrior’s glory. Jack sees a sort of courage in them as “murderous scum,” especially when he sees how the rain has ruined the foodstuffs for which the raiders killed innocent people.

When the ship nears land, an elderly crew member named Rune determines that they’re in the territory of Gizur Thumb-Crusher. At this report, Olaf asks his men, “Who wants to go berserk?” (151).

Thorgil is furious when Olaf tells her to remain behind and guard the ship. Her anger intensifies when she learns that Olaf wants the young bard to accompany the raid so he can work it into a song about him later. Olaf explains to Jack that being a berserker is something inherited through a warrior’s bloodline. Most berserkers can choose when they succumb to the frenzy, but Thorgil’s father could not, and he killed his three-year-old son. The men drink a wolf-brew made from bog myrtle, and Olaf rubs the dregs on Jack so that the berserkers will know that he isn’t their enemy when the fit is upon them. Jack stands frozen in place as he watches the berserkers slaughter the men, women, children, and animals of Gizur’s village.

In the morning, the raiders gather their plunder. Overwhelmed by the destruction he’s witnessed, Jack wades into the sea in the hope of drowning and joining the Bard on the Islands of the Blessed. The rune of protection pulses with warmth, and the boy hears his mentor’s voice: “Death must be fought with life, and that means courage and that means joy” (161). He returns to land.

The Northmen feast and rejoice over their spoils, especially a cache of salt. Jack is appalled by their drunken merrymaking and their equally crude songs about the Norse gods’ exploits. Rune refrains from the celebration and speaks to Jack about the Bard, whom he describes as “a good man” and “a true warrior” who “corrupted” him with his zeal for life (164). Rune knows that Jack’s horror of bloodshed bars him from composing the songs that Olaf expects from him and that Olaf will kill the boy if he fails to perform as his personal bard. Rune was a bard before his throat was wounded in battle, and he offers to compose a poem about Olaf and teach it to Jack. During their poetry lessons, Rune teaches Jack that bards’ songs draw magical power from the life force, which Rune understands as Yggdrassil, “the great Tree that rises through the nine worlds” (168).

Olaf carves wooden figurines of people and animals for Lucy, and the girl becomes angry at Bold Heart when the crow steals her toys. The bird listens when Jack tells him to stop teasing his sister. Olaf’s men find Jack’s ability to communicate with Bold Heart eerie, and Thorgil accuses him of witchcraft, a crime punishable by death in their culture. Jack wishes that his mentor was with him or that he was a witch with the power to turn Thorgil into a worm.

Olaf and his men grow more cheerful as they approach their homeland because they expect the queen to welcome them with honor. Olaf shows Jack the Sea of Trolls, an icy, choppy stretch of water that leads to the frozen mountains where the Jotuns are believed to have come from. The man explains that Jotuns can’t lie, but they can look into people’s minds and see what humans plan to do next. For this reason, berserkers are the only warriors known to be able to defeat them; “Jotuns can’t read our minds because we don’t have any!” (176). Olaf claims that trolls would have devoured all humans long ago if not for berserkers.

Jack is terrified of Queen Frith, and he considers giving the rune of protection to Lucy. Thorgil can’t see the object, but she can see that Jack is holding something and tries to take it from him. The pendant burns her, and Olaf punishes her for Jack by forbidding her from the warriors’ place of honor at their welcome-home feast.