The Sea of Trolls

Infobox Book |
name = The Sea of Trolls
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition, September 2004
author = Nancy Farmer
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Children's literature and fantasy
publisher = Atheneum Books
release_date = September 2004
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (hardcover & paperback)
pages = 480 pp (first edition, hardcover)
isbn = ISBN 978-0689867446 (first edition, hardcover)
preceded_by =
followed_by = The Land of the Silver Apples

"The Sea of Trolls" is a fantasy novel released in 2004 written by Newbery Honor winning author Nancy Farmer. A sequel was released, called "The Land of the Silver Apples", and another sequel, "The Islands of the Blessed", is scheduled for release in 2009.

Plot summary

The Sea of Trolls is a historical fantasy novel set in a fictional version of 793 in Anglo-Saxon England, Scandinavia, and Jotunheim. It begins when Jack, a young Saxon boy and the protagonist, is accepted as the village bard's apprentice. Jack loves learning from the bard who teaches him to better see, hear, and sense the world around him. Jack is content until Northmen invade his village. With the help of the bard, the villagers are saved, but Jack and his younger sister Lucy are taken as slaves, or thralls, and the bard is left apparently insane and behaving like an animal.

While Jack and Lucy are on the Northmen's ship they meet a few potential murderers, or at least non-antagonists: Olaf One-Brow, the ship's captain and leader of the berserkers; Thorgil, a young girl who wishes to become a berserker; Rune, a skald who had his throat slashed out, and so can no longer sing; and Bold-Heart, a crow. The Northmen intend to sell Jack and Lucy at market but they are kept because Lucy is so adorable, and Jack has great abilities with poetry and magic. Olaf decides to keep Jack as his personal skald (bard) and Thorgil decides to give Lucy as a present to King Ivar the Boneless and his half-troll wife, Queen Frith.

When they arrive at the court nothing goes as planned. Jack inadvertently destroys Queen Frith's magically maintained beauty and she threatens to kill Lucy unless it can be restored. Jack goes with his new-found allies on a quest to Jotunheim to seek the mythic Mimir's Well, a well with magical water (song mead) which gives the drinker knowledge, at the roots of the equally mythic tree Yggdrasil.

On this quest, Jack learns that even people who initially seem cruel can have a deep sense of honor and be capable of love. Olaf gives his life to help Jack and so Jack gives him a worthy burial (a funeral pyre made from the forest Olaf died in). He also develops a strong friendship with Thorgil, restores Rune's voice, and saves his sister. Jack and Lucy are eventually escorted home by the Northmen. The village bard is restored and the children are reunited with their family.

Refers to:

~ Jotuns~ pantheon of Norse gods~ Norns~ Mímir's Well~ Yggdrasil~ Beowulf~ Ivar the Boneless~ Druids~And the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill".