The Terror
Darien is afraid, very afraid. “Terror was a clawed thing in his throat.” This metaphor out of context would seem almost certainly to apply to some sort of beast, such a bird with powerful talons. The use of metaphor allows for imagination, however, and there are other things which have claws. By this point in the story, multiple references have been made to a hammer of the gods. Some hammers have claws, and this metaphor is an imaginative linking of the metaphorical imagery.
The Fear
On the other hand, references to claws within the description of terror often does refer to the most obvious idea. “Powerless, a prisoner, fear within her like a living, sharp-clawed creature.” In this instance, the piercing talons of terror situated within a simile that actually does satisfy the like initial assumption. The examples of fear and terror producing metaphorical language comparing the dread to claws illuminates one of the advantages of working in the fantasy fiction genre where hammers of gods and malevolent creatures with claws co-exist easily within the world figurative language characters might quickly turn to.
The Revelation
Needless to say, this fantasy world induces terror in a number of different ways and quite often. “Terror burst inside her, sharper even than in the dream. For what had been only foreknowing then, and so removed a little, was present, now, and above her.” No claws here, but that is likely because this metaphor describes a much different sort of terror. Still sharp, obviously, but dulled by the absence of genuine danger. This is the terror of knowing a moment is coming that builds anxiety until it turns out not to be terror-inducing as feared. This is the unease that comes with preparing to see a teenager literally born just a year before.
Sharp Things
Everything seems to have a sharp edge in Fionavar. Terror most certainly produces a fear of embodying sharp things. It is not alone in this regard. “The memory was like a blade, or the wound made by a blade. Either, or both.” The comparison being made in this simile becomes interesting as a result of the addendum. The question situated here is whether memory is sharp—like a tool—or whether the emotion produced by the memory is sharp. The implication is that the person experiencing a memory—Darien, in this case, remembering the moment he touched the Circlet of Lisen stone—could experience that same memory within a different context without it producing a response described as sharp.
Darkness
Considering that darkness is very probably the most omnipresent metaphor of the modern age, it would seem inconceivable that it wouldn’t show up in a book with this title. It is only as the result of a random pick that it applies specifically to Jennifer in this example. “It was her own burgeoning thought, a hint, a kernel of brightness in the darkness that surrounded her.” The example could just as easily have applied to Finn, “who’d told him to love the Light, had gone away without a farewell to find a kind of darkness of his own.” Or to Kim, who recognizes that she is “an invoker, a war cry in darkness.” While darkness as a metaphor pops up at least more often than not in novels written since the dawn of the 20th century, it here a metaphorical entity that absolutely integral to the narrative.
