Passager is a character study; that is, development of a character is the core of the story, making it more important than other elements such as plot and theme. It is also a fine example of wish fulfillment, because Merlin is a seemingly helpless child whose woodland skills and magical abilities give 260 Passager him an unusual degree of power over the adults in his life.

At the start of Passager, Yolen notes: Passager: A falcon caught in the wild and trained by the falconer, but not yet a mature bird.

In Passager, Merlin is a passager, a small, wild bird yet to be tamed. It is strong image, probably inspired by the name Merlin, which is a term for a mature but small falcon. With this central idea of the small falcon Yolen builds the character of Merlin. Abandoned in the woods at age...