The Sword of Summer

Over dinner, Thor regales Magnus with talk of Midgard TV shows. Even though he’s out in the field defending against giants, he keeps current on TV with his hammer, which “got full bars of service and HD resolution in any of the Nine Worlds” (362). Sam questions the past tense of Thor having his hammer, but Thor changes the subject. Magnus explains the Fenris Wolf situation, but Thor refuses to disclose the location of the island. Instead, he deduces Magnus and his friends are there to help find his missing hammer so he can catch up on his shows.

A giant named Geirrod might have the hammer or know who does. Sam tries to argue that storming a giant’s fortress with three people could be tough. A moment later, Blitz drops out of a nearby tree. Thor figures the problem is solved since they now have “four people to storm the giant’s citadel” (367). Thor goes to sleep, and Magnus offers Blitz some Marvin.

After dinner, Blitz and Hearth go to sleep in Thor’s tent, leaving Magnus and Sam, who explains that she can turn into a horsefly and shapeshifted at the contest. Sam doesn’t like to shapeshift because every time she does, she feels “more of my father’s nature trying to take hold of me” (371). Magnus accidentally reveals his unconscious visits from Loki and tells her everything, including Loki’s suggestion Magnus give Jack to Randolph for safekeeping. Sam argues Loki can’t be trusted.

Sam explains her family history with the Norse gods—how an ancient relative set up trade with the Norse settlers and how that intertwined her family with the Norse gods ever since. Between that and being a daughter of Loki, Sam is “fated never to have a normal life. The end” (373). Magnus promises he’ll do whatever it takes for Sam to have everything she wants, and Sam falls asleep feeling thankful.

The next morning, Magnus and his friends set out to infiltrate Geirrod’s fortress. They tie themselves to one another using the rope Junior made and scale the vertical cliff with help from the dead giantess’s prone position and Blitz’s dwarven ability to reshape rock. At the top, they find the giant’s fortress across a mile-wide ravine. The only way there is to climb down the other side of the cliff, which is “just as precipitous as the one we’d climbed” (378). Exhausted, the group makes camp for the night.

The next morning, Hearth casts a rune of transportation, which summons a magnificent eight-legged horse. Sam and Blitz recognize the horse as one of Loki’s offspring, but they don’t know which it is. Needing a name, Magnus decides to call the horse Stanley “because you look like a Stanley” (381). Magnus points out the fortress as their destination and asks Stanley for a stealthy approach. In response, Stanley jumps off the cliff, and the chapter ends with Magnus’s proclamation: “and we all died” (382).