The Sea of Trolls

“And Jack, without knowing exactly what he was supposed to see, climbed the long hills to their summits. He crouched in old sheep byres when the weather was foul. He stretched out in meadows when the weather was fair. He watched puffy white clouds hurry across the sky and hawks drop like arrows to catch unlucky mice.”

Farmer’s use of visual imagery, such as “puffy white clouds,” depicts the tranquility of the Saxon village Jack calls home. These sensory details also illustrate the protagonist’s growing awareness of the world around him, an essential part of his training as the Bard’s apprentice. Similarly, the simile comparing hawks to arrows reflects that the protagonist is becoming more perceptive through his daily practice of observing nature.

“Jack knew he looked forward to the tales as much as Lucy did. The boy understood—how had he changed so much in a few weeks?—that these, too, were a comfort to his father. Giles Crookleg might grumble like a crow, but he lost himself like a bird in the clouds of his own imaginings. He no longer had to set foot on the earth or know that he was doomed to creep upon it.”

The similes describing how Jack’s father “grumble[s] like a crow” and becomes “lost […] like a bird in the clouds of his own imaginings” demonstrate the main character’s growing understanding of humanity and underline that this growth arises from his observations of the natural world. The author’s use of dashes to interrupt the second sentence calls attention to the protagonist’s rapidly developing compassion, one of his most significant character traits. Additionally, this passage develops the theme of The Power of Belief by showing how Giles’s imagination frees him. This foreshadows the refuge that the man’s stories offer his daughter in times of crisis.