At first glance he is a young hunter in a weather-dark cloak, but a second look catches the changes: he stands taller than he used to, his shoulders held forward as if listening with his whole body. His brown hair is darkening toward wet-soil black at the roots. His green eyes water in daylight, and his canine teeth have lengthened into pale, sharp points. He moves with a careful, prowling hitch, testing each patch of ground before putting his weight down. Within a minute of meeting him, most people notice that he keeps rubbing his palms over his lower back, as though trying to smooth away a sensation beneath his skin. Unexpectedly, he keeps a tiny, neat collection of pressed meadow flowers tucked into his bow case.

Before his abduction, Mikkel was reserved but witty, preferring a dry remark to an argument. Now he is louder, more emotionally transparent, and quick to show frustration, yet he still watches people with a hunter's patience. He longs for the comfort of his family but is wary of the home he cannot remember. Around food he can be impulsive and almost cheerful; when pressed about his name or the trolls, he becomes strained and defensive.

Mikkel is the fourth son of Jarl Heimskr, raised among a large household where being observant was easier than being heard. Reserved and quick-witted, he found his own standing in the woods: he became a gifted archer and rider, and spent long days ranging ahead of hunting parties to look for game and signs of trolls. His beloved Fjord horse, Yippie, was both companion and confidant. During a private hunt, a hard spring storm sprang up without warning. Mikkel vanished in the confusion, taken secretly by trolls. In the days after, a farmer's horse disappeared from its stall during the night, strange lights were seen near the woods, and Mikkel's iron-and-emerald signet ring was found at the boundary. The ring has not brought back his name. Now he calls himself Dovre, after a word or sound he cannot explain, and wears rough clothing resembling the trolls' garments over his old ranger gear. He remembers his parents and brothers, but not his home; he can speak his mother tongue, yet its words feel unfamiliar in his mouth. If brought home, he first studies the hall for changes and familiar shapes, then seeks a servant to ask for food. His mother, Svanhild, has made clothes for him, though he has not yet learned how to feel at home in them. His brothers Torvald, Bernji, Gorm, and Jor each represent a different piece of the family life he remembers imperfectly. Jor was himself taken by trolls after a shipwreck, a wound the family has never closed. Mikkel's present problem is immediate: hunger, fear of being misunderstood, and a growing sense that the trolls' way of living is becoming easier to understand than his own.