53 pages • 1 hour read
Piper CJThe Deer and the Dragon
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Aloisa’s Sølje
Marlow’s great-grandmother Aloisa had a daughter, Dagny, with the Norse fae male called Geir. When she died, she left Dagny a trunk with a traditional Norwegian dress, called a bunad, and some other keepsakes, including her broach, which Fauna calls a sølje. It has a very particular tree in the center and is made of silver; as soon as Fauna asks Marlow about it, Marlow can recall it with “unique clarity.” The sølje symbolizes Marlow’s maternal family line and the past she tried to escape.
For a long time, Marlow is unable to separate her ideas about Christianity and the world from her rejection of her mother’s church and zealotry. She believes that Lisbeth’s “discernment,” as her mother’s church calls it, is a form of mental illness. Marlow abandons her mother and familial heritage, and Aloisa’s sølje signifies the entirety of that heritage, which is why Marlow must return to her mother’s home to retrieve it. The broach’s depiction of a tree, a common symbol for family genealogy, reinforces this association.
Retrieving the sølje aids Marlow in her deepening connection with the supernatural world, allowing her to fully embrace her true identity. As Betty tells Marlow, “[Y]our heirloom is the gift of a thousand lifetimes. It’ll allow you to walk with Fauna between realms” (162). Indeed, it does allow Marlow to realm-jump, helping her locate Caliban and potentially freeing him from Astarte’s Bellfield trap. The sølje connects Marlow to Aloisa and all the women in between, and Marlow’s acceptance of the sølje indicates her attempts to deal with the trauma of her upbringing and reckon with her natural human limitations. It is through embracing her past, which is bound up in the sølje, that allows her to have a potential future with Caliban.
Names
Names form an important motif in the text, revealing important aspects of characterization and power dynamics. Characters’ names reveal much about their motivations, personalities, and symbolism. Fauna, for example, points out that Marlow’s name means “driftwood,” which Fauna muses is suitable because Marlow is “floating between kingdoms” (139). Though Fauna realizes that Lisbeth probably didn’t consider the meaning of Marlow’s name when she chose it, it foreshadowed her future experience in the fae realms. In a similar vein, Fauna explains that “Lisbeth” means “God’s oath […]. No beating around the bush with that one” (256). An oath is a promise, with Lisbeth’s name reflecting her strong, rigid religious beliefs in the Christian God.
Later, Fauna learns that Marlow’s middle name is Esther—which means “star”—a name that is especially appropriate for Marlow given her relationship with Caliban, whom she associates with the moon. Marlow also nicknames the Prince of Hell “Caliban,” an allusion to Shakespeare’s Caliban in The Tempest. Marlow explains that she chose the nickname because Shakespeare’s Caliban “was the son of a witch” and “always seemed so magical” (126). Without realizing it, Marlow has already picked up on certain aspects of her lover’s nature and identity, hinting at the longstanding intimacy between them over several lifetimes.
The characters in the text also associate knowing someone’s true name with having power over that person or a special connection to them. Fauna and Azrames repeatedly warn Marlow about divulging her real name in the supernatural realm, as doing so can make her vulnerable. In these ways, names also reflect levels of intimacy and loyalty between supernatural entities, with Marlow’s revelation of her real name at the fertility clinic triggering a crisis for her and Caliban.
Sigil
Caliban’s true-sight sigil is a symbol that emphasizes The Limits of Human Life and Logic. It is only the combination of Marlow’s one-eighth fae blood and the true-sight sigil that Caliban paints over her front door that allows her to see Silas and Fauna. When Marlow leaves her apartment, the drawing of the sigil that she carries enables her to see Richard’s parasite. As Fauna says, “It’s in your blood, of course, but when combined with this sigil…I’m just fascinated it worked on you even while out of the house” (122). Then, when Marlow gets the sigil tattooed on her arm, she can see Azrames, Anath, and the other fae that are normally invisible to humans.
Even though Marlow is part fae, the sigil has to be extremely powerful to overcome her human limitations. When Fauna first sees the sigil, she says, “I haven’t seen that particular bit of art in the better part of a thousand years” (114). It is a mighty and ancient symbol, something that Fauna recognizes must be connected to a powerful immortal, like the Prince of Hell. Again, it is Fauna who points out that “if anyone could make something so powerful, it would be the Prince” (121). It requires something quite powerful to enable even one who is the great-granddaughter of a fae male to transcend her mortal limits, signifying just how limited humanity’s sight and comprehension are.
