The Sea of Trolls

Thorgil is the youngest member of the Viking band that kidnaps Jack. The narrator offers the following description of the shield maiden in Chapter 11: “Thorgil was handsome, in a sullen way. His eyes were blue, and his hair would have been as golden as Lucy’s if it hadn’t been so dirty” (99). The inaccurate pronouns in this passage reflect Jack’s cultural biases, which lead him to assume that only boys are warriors. 

Thorgil is the daughter of an honored but feared Viking berserker and a Saxon thrall, and her tragic past is marked by her father’s abuse and abandonment and her mother’s murder. These experiences make her desperate to prove her worth as a warrior and leave her embittered and wrathful. She treats Jack with particular loathing and cruelty for much of the novel because his low status reminds her that she was also a thrall until three years ago. Thorgil’s frequent bouts of temper and stubbornness yield serious consequences, most notably when the troll-bear who kills Olaf finds the adventurers because she refuses to bathe. Despite these flaws, Jack admires her valor and declares that he “never dreamed anyone could be that brave” after she slays the dragonlet despite her injuries (310). Thorgil’s loneliness and pain lead her to be stubborn and cruel at times, but her courage makes her an important ally to Jack.

Thorgil serves as the novel’s deuteragonist and a foil character to Jack. She figures prominently in the protagonist’s heroic journey, facing many perils alongside him and ultimately claiming the same reward. She causes the “Crossing the Threshold” step because she’s the one who discovers Jack and Lucy, and in the “Tests, Allies, and Enemies” stage, she slowly goes from Jack’s foe to friend. During “The Ordeal,” saving Thorgil requires Jack to give up the rune of protection, and this sacrifice allows him to claim “The Reward” of drinking from Mimir’s Well. In addition, she secures Glamdis’s defeat by freeing the cats during the climax. 

The stories’ two most important characters are about the same age, but their contrasting backgrounds, beliefs, and personalities create conflict for much of the story. For instance, they harbor clashing views of heroism, with Thorgil believing that “[n]othing is gained without suffering” (363). Her utter disregard for her own life and the lives of others conflicts with Jack’s deep compassion for all creatures and his strong conviction in the sanctity of life. The power of belief plays a key role in Thorgil’s transformation. She symbolically dies when she thinks that her gods have abandoned her and she considers dying by suicide, but she’s reborn when Jack gives her the rune of protection and Mimir’s Well fills her with a zeal for life. In another key moment for the theme of belief, Jack teaches her that there are other paradises besides Valhalla, which has been her goal up to this point in the novel. Thorgil’s transformation takes away her berserker rage and makes the shield maiden a servant of the life force, foreshadowing her reappearance as Jack’s trusted ally later in The Sea of Trolls trilogy.

The Bard is the protagonist’s mentor. He hails from Ireland and worked for a few Viking kings before he arrived in Jack’s Saxon village “dressed in a thick, white cloak” and looking “extremely impressive with his white beard blowing in the wind” (12). The Bard’s appearance conveys the aura of mystery and magic around him, helps to set him apart from the village’s inhabitants, and establishes him as a kind and wise guide. Farmer uses the elderly man’s wit to provide comic relief in a novel that frequently handles heavy subjects, and he displays this wry sense of humor when he observes the main character’s potential at the start of the book: “In my opinion, you aren’t a total waste of time […] Don’t let that go to your head, boy. You could easily be a partial waste of time” (12). His wisdom has a formative influence on Jack. In particular, the Bard instills in the boy his enduring respect for life amidst adversity, advising, “Death must be fought with life, and that means courage and that means joy” (45). The Bard spends a portion of the novel as the crow Bold Heart, and this period highlights his resourcefulness, loyalty, and cleverness, as when he is wounded fighting the troll-bear on Jack’s behalf and when he outwits the dragons.

The Bard’s role as Jack’s mentor makes him an essential figure in the hero’s journey. He issues “The Call to Adventure” and turns the boy from a farmhand into a bard-in-training in the novel’s inciting incident, opening Jack’s eyes to the world around him and his inner magical potential. The Bard’s teachings define Jack’s worldview and crystallize Farmer’s themes. He reinforces that compassion is the true measure of heroism by counseling that “[n]o kindness is ever wasted” (449), and he testifies to the power of belief when he teaches Jack that people decide their eternal destination for themselves, a lesson that brings the young hero comfort and strength throughout his trials. In addition, the Bard gives his student the rune of protection that saves him at multiple points in the story and becomes a motif of the themes of compassion and survival. He also introduces Jack to the story of Beowulf and thus gives the novel Hrothgar’s hall as a motif of the relentless struggle for survival. From tangible gifts like the rune of protection and the intangible gifts of his wisdom to Bold Heart’s aid during Jack’s quest in Jotunheim, the Bard’s support for the protagonist takes many forms. The moment in which Jack heals the Bard and helps him back into his body gives the novel a happy ending filled with reunion and restoration.

Lucy is Jack’s younger sister. She is five years old when the story begins and has “golden hair that made you think of sunlight” and “eyes the color of violets that grew in the deep forest” (3). The young girl’s charming physical appearance proves relevant to the plot because it’s the reason why the berserkers take her captive instead of killing her. Before her abduction, Lucy lives a sheltered life as her father’s favorite child. However, Giles’s indulgence proves detrimental to her well-being, such as when he acquiesces to her demands and relocates the family to their home in the middle of a Viking raid: “‘The forest was nasty! It was all wet and cold,’ Lucy cried. ‘The ground was covered with rocks. It was no place for a lost princess’” (82). This excerpt highlights another of Lucy’s traits: her ignorance of the world and its dangers. Her innocent perspective, shaped largely by her father’s imaginative stories of her royal origins, contrasts markedly with the violence that unfolds around her throughout the story. Because Lucy has no way to understand or cope with her new and frightening circumstances, she retreats into the realm of fantasy and brings out Jack’s protectiveness and determination.

The bond between Lucy and Jack advances the novel’s plot and the theme of the power of belief. Lucy’s inability to distinguish between her father’s stories and reality leads to the siblings’ kidnapping. This provides the “Crossing the Threshold” stage of Jack’s heroic journey and sets most of the plot into motion. As the story unfolds, Lucy continues to cling desperately to her father’s stories, and this teaches Jack that sometimes people need the “enchantment of belief” to persevere through life’s trials (108). Protecting Lucy is the driving motivation behind many of Jack’s most important actions, from his determination to survive the difficult journey to Frith’s domain to his undertaking the quest to Jotunheim to save her life. The danger hanging over the child is central to the novel’s suspense and emphasizes the cruelty of the novel’s antagonist, Queen Frith: “Panic threatened to swamp his mind. Tonight was the harvest moon and tomorrow was the sacrifice to Freya. Lucy would be drawn to Freya’s Meadow, the site of the sacrificial ceremony” (413). Jack’s success in rescuing Lucy during the novel’s climax and their return home together are key to the story’s joyful resolution.

Olaf One-Brow is the leader of the berserkers who kidnap Jack and Lucy. The narrator describes him as a “giant” with “one bushy eyebrow extending across his forehead” and “tree-trunk-size legs” (91). His intimidating appearance evokes the terror Jack feels when he first sees Olaf and reflects his ferocity in battle. Out of all the characters Farmer creates in this novel, Olaf is the closest to the mythic figures like Beowulf and Thor to whom the author frequently alludes. 

Brutally violent at times and lovingly gentle at others, he is arguably the novel’s most complex character. This complexity advances the theme of compassion by showing that Jack’s empathy extends even to those whose choices he strongly disagrees with. As shocking as many of Olaf’s actions are to the young protagonist, they strictly uphold his culture’s sense of honor. For example, when Jack pleads for him to spare the lives of Gizur’s villagers, Olaf exclaims, “What kind of honorless brute do you think I am? If I took Gizur’s wealth without engaging in battle, I would be no better than a thief. It would show him no respect” (156). Although the death and destruction the warrior unleashes devastate Jack, he gradually recognizes Olaf’s positive qualities, such as his courage against terrible odds and his generosity in liberating Thorgil from thralldom.

Olaf serves as the deuteragonist’s father figure and proves instrumental to Jack’s personal growth and understanding of the Northmen, developing the novel’s exploration of diversity. Jack’s abduction at Olaf’s hands marks the young hero’s “Crossing the Threshold,” and Olaf’s dynamic characterization shapes the hero’s experience of the “Tests, Enemies, and Allies” stage. He instructs the boy in the Northmen’s language and culture so that he will “have the words when it comes time to sing [his] praises” (121), and he strives to protect Jack from Frith and the deadly creatures of Jotunheim. Although Olaf is a static character, Jack’s understanding of him changes, giving his character an arc. Jack goes from thinking of him as a monster to weeping at his death and esteeming him as “larger and grander than normal beings” (292). Olaf’s influence continues after his death, inspiring Thorgil to change and cooperate with Jack for the good of the quest. Farmer portrays Olaf as a multi-faceted character, gradually turning Jack’s abductor into one of his greatest allies.