Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

Sir Tode, who serves as Peter’s trusty sidekick, has been cursed by a hag and transformed into a combination of cat and horse. More than that, however, he is not a true knight, but an accidentally knighted shepherd, who spends his days trying to live up to the expectations of his title. He adopts the outer trappings of a knight—the bravado, the thirst for heroics, the battle skills—but when faced by a real enemy like the Night Patrol, Sir Tode’s would-courage disappears. Sir Tode’s narrative arc is to find his mettle, to earn the title that was given to him so haphazardly.

Without the burden of carrying the entire narrative load, Sir Tode fills many secondary character roles: He is by turns best friend, mentor, traveling companion, and comic relief. He is the primary reminder that, no matter how resourceful Peter may be, every hero needs help occasionally.

As the daughter of King Hazelgood and the rightful heir to the throne, Peg must earn her place as the kingdom’s ruler. Forced to live in the sewers beneath the palace, Peg develops survival skills almost as sharply honed as those of her lost brother Peter. Peg’s character arc is one of finding her true place in the world. While the few survivors with whom she shares the tunnels recognize and respect her royal lineage, she struggles to command the same respect from anyone else. To her own ears, her voice childish, rather than assertive or authoritative. Peg is often reduced to sibling squabbles with Peter, rolling around in the dust, rather than maintaining regal composure. Yet her bare-bones survival in the fetid subterranean tunnels inures her to the challenge of battle. In the end, when her kingdom is on the line, Peg finds her voice, commanding her subjects to take up arms against the ferocious Night Patrol and becoming a ruler in her own right.

Incarnadine restores what he sees as his birthright by murdering his younger brother Hazelgood and usurping the throne. Like all tyrants, Incarnadine rules through fear and manipulation, keeping his subjects obedient by poisoning their food, terrorizing them with his dreaded Night Patrol, and locking them in their homes at night. His hold on power is so tenuous and his paranoia so deep, that he convinces the adults to fear and forget their own children, who can see through the king’s deception—a dark take on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Incarnadine is vicious and cruel: He enslaves the children in the mines, he severs Peg’s Achilles tendon, and dangles Peter over a precipice to kill him. However, Incarnadine also uses another old trick: withholding knowledge from his subjects. This end up being his undoing: As soon as his subjects are free from the Devil’s Dram, they can no longer fall prey to his rule.

Simon, a raven and the former king’s trusted guard, serves as Peg’s protector and advisor, offering sage counsel when the princess’s youth and temper threaten the safety of her small cadre of subjects. In many ways, Simon is for Peg what Professor Cake is for Peter: a wiser, more experienced adult who mitigates the headlong exuberance of youth. A key difference, however, is that Cake must nudge Peter forward into his adventure while Simon must often pull Peg back. Underlying Simon’s motivations is a deep sense of regret—for not having saved Hazelgood’s life; for abandoning Peter, for watching his beloved kingdom fall under the rule of a tyrant. Simon bears psychological and physical scars from Incarnadine’s reign: His beak was disfigured in the battle between Incarnadine and Hazelgood and he believes himself worthless as a soldier. His journey in the story is to rediscover his worth as a noble member of the royal guard. Even without his primary weapon, he finds other ways to fight, helping his fellow ravens in their battle against the thieves, and propping up Sir Tode’s flagging courage. Simon, the battle-scarred warrior, atones for his guilt and proves his worth to the kingdom and to himself.

Peter Nimble is part of the subgenre of portal fiction, in which a child born into the “real” world enters a mythical land (for other examples, see the Narnia series, The Phantom Tollbooth, and the Oz series). Peter leaves his port town through a door opened by Mr. Pound and Professor Cake, who give Peter the choice of whether to keep going. This chance to choose decides the matter for Peter: “Professor Cake had given him a choice—a gift that no one had ever offered him before” (68). Cake and Pound become Peter’s mentors, providing necessary exposition and helpful tools (the Fantastic Eyes, a boat, and a sidekick).