The Sea of Trolls

Published in 2004, Nancy Farmer’s The Sea of Trolls is a middle grade historical fantasy novel that blends Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon culture, and folklore into an adventurous quest narrative. The story follows Jack, an eighth-century Saxon boy who becomes the apprentice of a Druid bard. After Jack and his little sister, Lucy, are captured by Vikings, he must journey to Jotunheim, home of the ice trolls, to save Lucy from the wicked Viking queen, who is holding her hostage. As the first installment of The Sea of Trolls trilogy, the novel was named a Notable Children’s Book by the Association for Library Service to Children and explores themes including Compassion as the True Measure of Heroism, The Power of Belief, and The Relentless Struggle for Survival.

This study guide refers to the e-book edition released by Simon & Schuster in 2015.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of bullying, cursing, ableism, gender discrimination, child abuse, pregnancy loss, child death, suicidal ideation, animal cruelty and death, graphic violence, mental illness, illness, and death.

Language Note: The source material uses offensive terms to refer to mental illness, which are replicated in this guide only in direct quotes and titles.

Plot Summary

In the year 793, an 11-year-old Saxon boy named Jack lives in England with his father, his mother, and his five-year-old sister, Lucy. Their village is also home to a mysterious man known as the Bard, who has magical powers. Jack becomes the Bard’s apprentice, and the elderly man teaches him how to sing, play the harp, observe the natural world, and connect with the life force that fills all things and makes magic possible. A few weeks into Jack’s training, the Bard accidentally strikes Jack with magic. Some of the Bard’s life force flows into Jack in that moment, rapidly increasing the boy’s powers of perception as well as his sense of compassion.

A malevolent half-troll named Queen Frith is searching for the Bard because he helped the legendary hero Beowulf kill her sister. Queen Frith’s husband is Ivar the Boneless, a king of the Northmen. To shield Jack from the queen’s attacks, the Bard gives Jack a rune of protection in the form of a golden pendant. 

About a year into Jack’s apprenticeship, Queen Frith sends a band of berserkers (warriors) to England. With Jack’s help, the Bard creates a thick fog to conceal the village. After two days of working this powerful magic, the elderly man becomes ill and exhausted. Queen Frith unleashes a psychic attack on the Bard while he is in this weakened state. Although he survives, he becomes like an infant.

Jack tries to protect his loved ones by summoning a fog to conceal the road to the village by himself. However, Lucy follows him and reveals their location to a passing band of berserkers, and the siblings are taken on board the raiders’ ship. The band’s leader, Olaf One-Brow, claims Jack as part of his spoils of war, and a vicious young shield maiden named Thorgil claims Lucy. During his time aboard Olaf’s ship, Jack learns about the Northmen’s language and culture. He earns the men’s respect by calming a storm and by summoning a crow named Bold Heart. Olaf decides to appoint Jack as his personal bard.

After witnessing one of the berserkers’ raids firsthand, Jack becomes so distraught that he almost drowns himself, but the rune of protection convinces him to go on living. One of the members of Olaf’s crew is an elderly man named Rune, who trained to be a bard before his throat was wounded in battle. Knowing that Olaf will kill Jack if the boy disappoints him, Rune composes a song praising Olaf and teaches it to Jack.

When the ship arrives in the Northmen’s homeland, Olaf brings Jack and Lucy to his household, which includes his three wives, his many children, Rune, and Thorgil. The other thralls, or enslaved people, who serve Olaf’s family resent the favor he bestows on Jack and try to kill the young bard by sending him into a pen with a ferocious boar named Golden Bristles. Jack wins the animal’s friendship with his magical song and emerges unharmed.

King Ivar and Queen Frith throw a feast to welcome Olaf home, and Jack sings Rune’s poem at the celebration. Impressed with the boy’s performance, the queen demands a song in her honor. Jack improvises a poem, and his magic robs the queen of her hair, the source of her supernatural beauty. Jack didn’t intend to cast a spell upon her, and he doesn’t know how to reverse it. Queen Frith sends Jack on a quest to Mimir’s Well in Jotunheim, where he can drink pure life force and gain the knowledge he needs to break the spell. She threatens to kill Lucy unless he returns by the harvest festival.

Jack, Olaf, Thorgil, and Bold Heart sail across the Sea of Trolls to Jotunheim. On the third day of their journey inland, a troll-bear pursues them. Jack pleads with the warriors to flee, but Olaf and Thorgil attack the creature. Thorgil breaks her ankle in the ensuing battle, and Olaf is mortally wounded. As the warrior lies dying, he adopts Thorgil as his daughter and urges her and Jack to work together to complete the quest.

A few days after Olaf’s death, Jack and Thorgil are captured by a dragon, who tries to feed them to her offspring. They escape thanks to Bold Heart’s cleverness and Thorgil’s fighting prowess, but they lose most of their supplies. The adventurers discover a peaceful valley where they rest and recover their strength before continuing on their arduous journey to the castle of Jotunheim’s ruler, the Mountain Queen.

Jack was taught that trolls are loathsome monsters, but when they arrive at her home, the Mountain Queen and her daughters welcome him and his companions and nurse them back to health. The Queen invites the Norns, the supernatural entities who tend to Yggdrassil, to her palace. The Norns magically transport Jack and Thorgil back to the valley, where they find Yggdrassil.

At first, the children are unable to draw water from Mimir’s Well, which sits at the base of Yggdrassil’s roots. Convinced that her gods have rejected her and that she has no reason to live now that Olaf is dead, Thorgil attempts to die by suicide. Jack saves her by giving her the rune of protection, which fills her with a desire to live and takes away her thirst for bloodshed. Now that he has lost his treasured pendant, and she has lost her ability to be a berserker, they are allowed to drink from the well. The water gives Jack knowledge and Thorgil a new zeal for life.

The Norns send Jack and Thorgil back to the Mountain Queen’s palace, and the children return to King Ivar and Queen Frith’s domain. The Norns speak through Jack and tell Queen Frith how to restore her beauty, but she ignores their instructions and is transformed into a monster. Queen Frith vanishes into a dangerous marsh, never to be seen again. Ivar’s people are deeply grateful to Jack for freeing them from the queen and pledge never to attack his village again.

A group of Northmen, including Thorgil and Rune, bring Jack and Lucy back home to England. Although he is saddened to be parted from his friends, he’s overjoyed to be reunited with his family. The Bard is in the same infant-like state that he was in when Jack was abducted months ago, but he recovers when Jack administers to him the last drops of water from Mimir’s Well. The Bard explains that he traded bodies with Bold Heart and that it was he who accompanied the boy throughout his adventures.