1. How do Susan and Colin differ as characters? How are these differences portrayed? Are these distinctions more or less evident than those between Gowther and Bess Mossock?

2. What aspects of Susan and Colin's story does Garner leave unexplored? For example, why don't they form friendships with peers their age? Why do they never have arguments? What other significant elements of a typical child's life does Garner simplify or leave out?

3. Reflect on this depiction of Grimnir: "He is, or was, a man. Once he studied under the wisest of the wise, and became a great lore-master; but in his lust for knowledge he practiced the forbidden arts, and the black magic ravaged his heart, and made a monster of him." Would it have been better or worse if Garner had written: "He was a man and a great lore-master. But he practiced forbidden arts, and black magic made a monster of him."

4. What events occur on the island of Angharad Goldenhand, Lady of the Lake? Could Garner have devised a simpler way to protect his characters from the mara and the cold? Why did he choose not to?