The Sea of Trolls

Olaf brings Jack and Lucy to his home, where they meet his three wives, Dotti, Lotti, and Heide, his many children, and several thralls who serve his family. He showers his wives and children with gifts that he plundered, including jewelry, knives, and cakes of salt. Olaf reveals that Thorgil plans to give Lucy to Frith so that the queen will allow her to become a berserker. Heide possesses magic, and she predicts that Thorgil’s plan will end in disaster. Olaf, his other wives, and his children are wary and respectful of Heide because they consider her a witch. When Lucy becomes quiet and unresponsive, Heide senses that the girl’s spirit is “wandering in a strange place” (197). The wise woman’s protectiveness of the two siblings leads the rest of the family to treat them with care.

Rune and Thorgil live with Olaf’s family, and the whole household gathers for the most lavish feast Jack has ever seen. The warrior seats Jack beside him in a place of honor and makes Thorgil sit by herself. When Olaf orders her to help the rest of the women and girls with the housework, she furiously declares that women’s work is beneath her and storms out of the house. Despite himself, Jack feels sorry for Thorgil because the orphan seems so utterly alone.

Olaf tells Jack about Thorgil’s father, Thorgrim. Although he was “the greatest berserker who ever lived” (202), no one would marry him because of his uncontrollable rage. His Saxon thrall, Allyson, bore two children, the ill-fated Thorir and Thorgil. Thorgrim was so disappointed that his second child wasn’t a boy that he abandoned her in the forest, which is his legal right in his culture. She was spared when one of the king’s dogs found her in the woods and nursed her, and she remains extremely close to the hounds.

The next morning, Jack is fitted with an iron collar that marks him as a thrall, and he feels “numb with despair” as he begins his forced labor in Olaf’s household (206). When Bold Heart ignores him, Jack falls to the ground and weeps uncontrollably because the bird’s abandonment seems to confirm that he has been robbed of his former identity. The apologetic crow consoles Jack and follows him into the barn.

When the boy tries to muck out the pigpen, an enormous wild boar named Golden Bristles charges him. His fellow thralls intend to let the boar kill him because they resent the favor Olaf shows the boy. Bold Heart gives Jack the idea of singing to the boar the way his mother sang to soothe animals back home. His plan succeeds, and Golden Bristles becomes docile and affectionate toward the boy. Jack confronts the thralls and reminds them that he’s a bard: “If you try to hurt me, I’ll drive you insane—or worse!” (214). The thralls believe his threat and clean out the barn on his orders. Once Jack’s alone, he cries over his brush with death and the odds stacked against him. Bold Heart comforts him.

Two weeks after Ivar’s return, the king invites him to a welcome-home feast. Heide warns her husband that Ivar will want Jack for himself, but he insists on bringing the boy along to sing his praises. The wise woman has had a vision of her husband “lying in a dark forest with [his] lifeblood soaking the earth” (219), but he protests that a warrior fears neither danger nor death.

Jack dreads Lucy’s imminent meeting with the queen, but his sister rejoices, “At last! I’m going to my castle! […] I’m going to see my real parents” (218).

Olaf’s household proceeds to the king and queen’s hall with Golden Bristles. The thralls explain that he is a troll-boar brought across the sea by the Jotuns, and he will be thrown into a fen as a sacrifice to honor the goddess Freya.

When Olaf’s retinue processes into the hall, Jack is stunned by the queen’s supernatural beauty. Rune shakes him out of the enchantment and warns him to guard his mind lest the half-troll “pull [him] to where she is, between the worlds” (225). Frith has nine enormous troll-cats with red-gold fur that matches her hair. 

While their guests enjoy a lavish feast, the king and queen toast Olaf’s valor and generosity. The warrior commends Thorgil’s courage on the expedition, asks that she be made a berserker, and presents Lucy as the shield maiden’s gift to the queen. Lucy amuses Frith by recounting the story Giles told her about her origins as a lost princess. Although the queen accepts Thorgil’s gift, she insults the young fighter instead of agreeing to make her a berserker. Frith also demands that Thorgil give her a beautiful necklace that she took during a raid.

Jack sings the poem that Rune composed in Olaf’s honor. The boy’s music draws the life force to him, and his audience is awestruck by his performance. At Queen Frith’s prodding, Ivar, who is “deathly pale and exhausted, as though some disease ate at him” (233), asks Olaf to give them Jack. When Olaf declines, Ivar respects his decision. Queen Frith continues to press the issue, but Jack reminds her that the king’s word holds sway.

Frith insists that Jack sing a song in her honor, and he improvises a piece about her beauty because he cannot commend her character. Once again, his singing draws upon the life force, and he accidentally makes the queen’s hair fall out with his spell. The wrathful queen transforms into a monster, and the guests flee. Olaf carries Jack to safety, but they are unable to rescue Lucy. Jack and the rest of Olaf’s household hurry into the woods. During their retreat, Jack frees Golden Bristles without anyone noticing.

Heide urges Olaf to flee the king and queen’s ire, but he refuses. Ivar and Frith summon Olaf, Jack, Rune, and Thorgil. When he arrives at the hall, Jack sees that Lucy is alive but vacant and disconnected from reality. The half-troll wants Jack “to suffer as no one has ever suffered before” (241), but she needs him to live so that he can reverse the spell that has robbed her of her beauty. The boy doesn’t know how to undo the spell, so Rune proposes that Jack undertake a quest to Mimir’s Well and drink of the pure life force at Yggdrassil’s roots to gain the necessary knowledge.

The well is in Jotunheim, and Frith gives Jack a golden chess piece so that her mother, the Mountain Queen, will know she sent him to her realm. The young bard will be accompanied by Olaf, Rune, and Thorgil. The half-troll threatens to sacrifice Lucy to Freya if they do not return by the harvest festival. Jack charges at the queen, but he is powerless against her magic. Rune persuades the royals to free Jack and Lucy if the quest is successful. Jack blames himself for the misfortune that befell the Bard and his sister, and he has no hope that he’ll survive the voyage to Jotunheim.