Sylvie and Bruno

Narrator

An unnamed first-person narrator who witnesses events in Outland and Elfland, then wakes during a railway journey. He is Arthur Forester’s old friend and accompanies Sylvie and Bruno through dreamlike adventures, including their performance for the frogs.

Lord Chancellor

Also known as Chancellor

Outland's Lord Chancellor, who helps the Sub-Warden manipulate the Warden and stage a political conspiracy.

Bruno

The Warden's young son and Sylvie's brother, affectionate and generous, and named as heir to the Wardenship. He travels through Dogland toward Fairyland, turns an attempt to spoil Sylvie's garden into a loving gift, and stages an improvised birthday treat for the frogs.

Sub-Warden

Also known as Vice-Warden · His Sub-Excellency · His Excellency

The Warden's scheming brother, who conspires to seize power and divert the treasury. He is Uggug's father and the husband of the Wardeness.

Warden

Also known as His High Excellency · Sylvie and Bruno's father · King of Elfland · old Beggar

Sylvie and Bruno's father, a kind ruler of Outland who leaves his brother in charge while he travels. He is also the newly elected King of Elfland, first met by the children disguised as a beggar; the Professor says he is presumed dead, though the evidence is hearsay.

Sylvie

Also known as Lady Sylvie

The Warden's thoughtful, compassionate daughter and Bruno's sister. She carries a red magic locket, travels with Bruno toward Fairyland, and helps oversee his theatrical birthday treat for the frogs.

Professor

A learned, eccentric man who travels with Sylvie and Bruno and invents impractical devices, including machines that change the length of things. He serves as Outland's Court-Professor and Court-Physician to Prince Uggug, and creates an Outlandish Watch that can reverse time.

Other Professor

A second professor, dreamy and absorbed in books, who speaks in poems and gives lectures on abstract science.

Sub-Warden's wife

Also known as my Lady · Lady · Wardeness · Vice-Wardeness · Her Excellency · Tabby · Empress

The Warden's sister and the Sub-Warden's wife, a large, foolish woman who dotes on Uggug and supports her husband's power grab. As Empress, she expects the Professor to remain in attendance on Prince Uggug.

Uggug

Also known as Prince Uggug

The Sub-Warden and his wife's spoiled, cruel son. The conspirators secretly replace Bruno's name with his in the succession agreement; he is also called Prince Uggug.

Waiter

An unnamed palace waiter who serves the Lord Chancellor an egg-and-sherry drink before his speech.

Liveried attendant

An unnamed palace attendant who directs Bruno to the Warden's study.

Man with the green flag

An unnamed man beneath the window who signals and directs the procession in the market-place.

Arthur Forester

Also known as Arthur

The narrator's old friend, a young doctor living in Elveston. He loves Lady Muriel Orme, accepts her engagement to Eric Lindon with sorrow, and prepares to begin a new life and work in India.

Lady Muriel Orme

Also known as my Lady · the Incognita

A young woman travelling to Elveston who talks with the narrator on the train. She resembles Sylvie, is loved by Arthur Forester, and is the daughter of the Earl of Ainslie; she becomes engaged to Eric Lindon.

Station-master

An unnamed railway station-master who orders an elderly passenger off the bench to make room for Lady Muriel. Later, he catches and saves Sylvie as she rushes toward the railway tracks.

Old man at Fayfield Junction

An unnamed, frail passenger in a smock frock who is turned away from the station bench and helped onto a third-class train carriage.

Gardener

An eccentric, song-singing gardener in Outland who controls the garden door. He sometimes lets Sylvie and Bruno pass through, though he follows rules and refuses them at other times.

Footman

An unnamed footman who meets Lady Muriel at Elveston Station and carries her belongings to her carriage.

Baron Doppelgeist

Also known as His Adiposity the Baron Doppelgeist · the Baron

An ambassador from Elfland who brings the invitation for the Warden to become king and for Bruno to be regarded as heir-apparent. The Sub-Warden and his wife try to impress and drive him away.

Alexander Selkirk

A person mentioned by Lady Muriel, whose words she recalls while discussing railway ghost stories.

Hamlet

A character in Shakespeare's play, referenced by Lady Muriel and the narrator in their conversation about ghosts and later acted by Bruno for the frogs.

Shakespeare

The playwright mentioned in the narrator and Lady Muriel's discussion of Hamlet and ghosts. Bruno performs improvised scenes from his plays for the frogs.

Charles Darwin

Also known as Darwin

The naturalist mentioned by Lady Muriel when she jokes about how railway literature might develop.

Music-master

An unnamed, fierce-looking little man who is summoned to accompany Uggug's supposed piano performance. He is ordered to turn the music pages while another person plays.

Tailor

An unnamed creditor who visits the Professor to collect a bill that has doubled over the years; persuaded to wait another year, he leaves without payment.

Mastiff Sentinel

Also known as Sentinel

A mastiff in Dogland who guards the Dog-King's palace and brings Sylvie and Bruno before the King.

Dog-King

Also known as His Majesty · King of Dogland · Dog-King

An enormous Newfoundland who rules Dogland. He befriends Sylvie and Bruno, escorts them toward Fairyland, and enjoys playing fetch away from court.

Master of Ceremonies

Also known as Master

An unnamed Dogland court official who guides the narrator and children through palace ceremonies and insists the narrator should go to bed.

Head-Growler

A dignified Dogland officer whose duty is to bring visitors to the King and escort them to the border. The Dog-King sets aside his escort role.

Spaniel

A benevolent Spaniel who attends Sylvie and Bruno after breakfast in Dogland.

Earl of Ainslie

Also known as the Earl

Lady Muriel's father, a gentle, dignified, genial older man who has taken the Hall for the season. He joins Lady Muriel, Arthur, and the narrator at a picnic and is passionate about botany.

Beetle

A beetle Sylvie helps after it falls onto its back. She scolds it for being conceited and sends it to seek salve from a frog.

Frog behind the buttercup

Also known as frog

A frog who lives behind a buttercup and has salve that Sylvie left with him. She tells the beetle to ask him for help.

First caterpillar

Also known as caterpillar carrying a moth's wing

One of two caterpillars Bruno saw by the brook; it carries a dry moth's wing, apparently trying to keep the other caterpillar from seeing it.

Second caterpillar

Also known as other caterpillar

The caterpillar accompanying the one that carries a moth's wing in Bruno's account.

Snail

A large snail Bruno tries to drag over a blade of grass while he and the narrator work on Sylvie's garden.

Oberon

Also known as Fairy-King · Fairy King

The Fairy-King who lives across a lake and is welcomed by the elves in Bruno's song.

Crocodile

Also known as changed crocodile

A crocodile Sylvie and Bruno once took to the Professor's machine to be shortened and then lengthened again. Bruno says it was proud of its restored tail; a crocodile also appears as a character in Bruno's invented story for the frogs.

Eric Lindon

Also known as Captain Lindon · Honorable Eric Lindon · Eric

Lady Muriel's handsome cousin and a young soldier. He is kind to the children, saves Bruno from an oncoming train, and becomes engaged to Lady Muriel after receiving his commission.

Broad-built art lecturer

Also known as orator

An unnamed man at the picnic who delivers a ponderous lecture about the ruin and the surrounding landscape as though they were arranged for artistic effect.

Young lady in spectacles

Also known as fair Scientist · metaphysical young lady

An unnamed picnic guest who praises the scenery, speaks confidently about science and philosophy, and discusses abstract ideas with Arthur.

Conceited young artist

Also known as young artist

An unnamed artist whom the Earl once accompanied to an art exhibition; the Earl says he tormented him with criticism of the pictures.

Dr. Watts

Also known as Watts

A person cited by Arthur as having written a question about why one should deprive a neighbour of their goods. His catechisms are also mentioned in Lady Muriel's account of a child's strict Sundays.

Herbert Spencer

Also known as Spencer

A thinker whose philosophical wording Arthur invokes while teasing the young lady in spectacles.

Shelley

The poet whose lyric 'I arise from dreams of thee' is mentioned in the narrator's comic reflection on songs at social gatherings.

The three Badgers

Also known as Badgers

Three brothers in Lady Muriel's song who sit on a mossy stone while their father languishes alone, then bring three Herrings home.

The three Herrings

Also known as Herrings

Three sisters in Lady Muriel's song who leave their mother and encounter the Badgers.

Father-Badger

Also known as old Father Badger

The father of the three Badgers in Lady Muriel's song, who calls for his sons to return and promises them buns.

Mother-Herring

Also known as Mother Herring

The mother of the three Herrings in Lady Muriel's song, who searches for her missing daughters.

Guileless peasant

An unnamed man carrying two buckets whom the Professor asks for directions to Outland. He refuses to answer after the Professor warns that his words may be used in evidence.

Jacob

A biblical figure whose words about waking to find the house of God are quoted by the narrator after church.

Fisherman's wife who asks after Martha

An unnamed fisherman's wife who asks another woman to send word when Martha writes, and says Martha can return if she is not suited to her situation.

Fisherman's wife who answers about Martha

An unnamed fisherman's wife who promises to send word if Martha writes and says the people employing her are reliable.

Martha

A woman mentioned by the two fisherman's wives; she has gone to a situation and may return if she is not suited.

Cyclist

Also known as young man on a bicycle · wounded youth

An unnamed young man who crashes his bicycle after swerving to avoid a fallen box. He is injured and taken to the local surgery; the narrator's attempt to reverse the accident is undone when time catches up.

Pug-dog

Also known as small pug-dog

A pug guarding a newspaper on the lawn of a villa. During the narrator's reversed-time visit, it sits up but lets him pass without barking.

Mother in the villa

Also known as Mother

An unnamed woman seated with needlework while her four daughters appear to walk backwards through reversed events. She tells them to get ready for a walk and later leads them toward the dining room.

Four daughters in the villa

Also known as girls

Four unnamed sisters, aged about ten to fourteen, whose sewing, meal, and conversation the narrator observes in reverse order. Their conversation mentions their sister Mary Davenant's upcoming wedding.

Father in the villa

Also known as presiding gentleman · Father

An unnamed, rosy, good-natured man in the villa and father of the four girls. The narrator sees him taking part in their reversed-time meal and conversation.

Mary Davenant

Also known as Mary

A woman mentioned by the girls in the villa; her wedding is scheduled for four weeks from the following Tuesday, and three of her cousins are to be bridesmaids.

Mary Davenant's intended

The unnamed man Mary Davenant is seen bidding farewell to at the Cedars; the girls cannot recall his name.

John

An unnamed man called by an angry mother on the railway platform. He follows with parcels while she pulls along two screaming children.

Angry mother on platform

An unnamed woman at the railway station who drags two screaming children along and calls for John to follow with the parcels.

Two children with the angry mother

Two unnamed children dragged along the railway platform by their mother; they scream as she calls for John.

Nursemaid with the baby

An unnamed, frightened nursemaid carrying a fat, screaming baby through the railway station.

Baby on the platform

Also known as fat baby

An unnamed baby carried by a frightened nursemaid on the railway platform; it screams.

Titania

Also known as the Queen

The Fairy Queen and mother of the lost royal baby, whom Sylvie and Bruno accidentally put inside an unidentified flower.

Queen's Baby

Also known as Titania's Baby · the Baby

Titania's lost baby, whom Bruno put inside an unknown flower while Sylvie picked dandelions; the soldiers search for it.

Young Frog

Also known as little Frog

A young frog Bruno tries to amuse with duckweed and a caddis-worm before the frogs' birthday treat. It sits silently and seems not to hear him.

Oldest and fattest Frog

The oldest and fattest frog at Bruno's improvised theatre, who cannot see the stage and disrupts the other frogs' seating.

Mouse in Bruno's story

Also known as Mouse

A clever mouse in Bruno's improvised story who mistakes a shoe for a mousetrap, finds the man's name in it, and later pulls out all the crocodile's teeth.

Man in Bruno's story

Also known as Man

A man in Bruno's improvised story who loses a shoe and falls into a hole; he escapes while a slow-moving lion leaps toward him and ends up eating someone else.

Goat in Bruno's story

Also known as Goat

A bearded goat in Bruno's story, left to wait under a tree while the man falls into a hole. It sings sadly before the crocodile pursues it.

Lion in Bruno's story

Also known as Lion

A lion in Bruno's story with a mouth like a large cupboard. It leaps so slowly that the man has time to move to another town, and eats the wrong man.

Lady Muriel's old friend

An unnamed woman whose letter describes the joyless, highly regimented Sundays she experienced as a child; Lady Muriel reads from it to Arthur and the narrator.

Child who described Sunday to Arthur

An unnamed little girl who once told Arthur how strict Sunday rules kept her from playing with her doll, running on the sands, or digging in the garden.

The narrator's dear friend

An unnamed friend of the narrator whose sudden death is announced by telegram as the author is writing the preface.

Horace

The Roman poet whose verse about death and exile is quoted in the preface.

David

The biblical figure whose words about the sweetness of God's words are quoted in the preface.