Two POVs In One Chapter

(Turner's "Dutch Boats in a Gale" serves to illustrate Poul Anderson's account of Alori boats in a gale.)

CHAPTER XX on pp. 171-184 of Poul Anderson's The Peregrine (New York, 1979) is an excellent concluding chapter of a novel with, as I argue, just one literary flaw.

The chapter begins:

"Two nights later a gale blew from the southeast, out of the sea and over the island and out to the water again. Trevelyan heard it whistle as if it were calling him." (p. 171)

The opening sentence informs us of an objective condition, a sea gale blowing across an island. The second sentence presents a specific subjective point of view (pov). Trevelyan not only hears the gale but is affected by it in a particular way. Everyone on the island knows about the gale but only Trevelyan knows that it is as if it were calling him - unless and until he tells someone else but, even then, it remains his subjective experience. Others probably experience the gale differently but, even if, e.g., Nicki experiences it in exactly the same way as Trevelyan, it remains the case that the second sentence informs us of his subjective experience and not of hers. (Now I am laboring the point.)

We expect the narrative to continue presenting a single character's pov and it does. The third and fourth sentences read:

"He looked at Nicki, and she was very close and dear in the warm yellow light of his home.
"She smiled, and it struck him with a hideous chill that she might be killed in the escape." (ibid.)

We are told how Nicki looks to him, how he feels about her and what he suddenly fears for her. There is not and cannot be anything here about how he looks to her etc. The fifth sentence does inform us of her feelings but only insofar as she has already articulated them to him:

"But she would not hear other than that she should be with him." (ibid.)

The seventh sentence is less specific:

"The tree was snug, a hearthfire in an endless hooting dark." (ibid.)

The hollow tree which the Alori have given him as a dwelling, "...his home...," might look snug and recall a hearth fire to other observers? However, the eighth sentence reminds us that, so far, this narrative is being presented to us only as experienced by Trevelyan:

"Seated on the mossy floor, he felt the slight tremble of it under the thrust of wind." (ibid.)

(Incidentally, "hearthfire" can only be a comparison because there cannot be a literal fire inside the tree.)

In the ninth sentence, Nicki starts as the door curtain is opened. Although her starting informs us that she is startled, this startlement is described as observed by Trevelyan, not as experienced by her. When Joachim enters, we are told that his eyes look reckless in a way that "...they had never seen before." (ibid.) In isolation, this phrase might have expressed a collective pov encompassing Trevelyan, Nicki and even other Nomads who are not currently present. However, the fact that the entire passage so far has been narrated only from Trevelyan's pov means that it is Trevelyan alone who thinks that they, he and Nicki or he and others, have never seen Joachim like this before. The account of the descent to the beach and the boarding of the boat are all from Trevelyan's pov.

On the boat:

"Trevelyan gasped, shaking his drenched head with wonder. 'We made it,' he breathed." (p. 174)

In isolation, these two sentences might have expressed the pov of another character observing Trevelyan. Anyone can hear him gasp and speak, can see him shake his head and can interpret his head-shaking as expressing wonder. However, the following sentence confirms that we are still in Trevelyan's pov:

"He didn't quite believe it yet." (ibid.)

The following paragraph tells us what is to be seen and that both Trevelyan and Nicki stare straight ahead. That they are both staring might mean that the narrative focus is broadening out to a joint pov although the fact that Trevelyan is mentioned first suggests that the emphasis is still on him. The next paragraph after that begins:

"Joachim crept up the bows, saw the two sitting there, and smiled. Turning, he made his way back sternward, checking on his people." (ibid.)

It is possible that Trevelyan sees Joachim creeping, seeing them, smiling, turning and checking. So far, then, we have not necessarily left Trevelyan's pov. However, in the next three sentences, we do:

"No casualties so far, except poor Alan. Joachim wondered how he was going to tell it to the boy's father.
"When he came to the stern, he saw Sean and Ilaloa helping each other steer." (pp. 174-175)

With Joachim and within his pov, we have left Trevelyan and Nicki at one end of the ship and are now looking at another couple at the other end.