The Sword of Summer

Sam is one of the four major characters in the book. She has eyes that glow like they had “absorbed millions of years of memories” (73), a description that represents how complex her character is. She is a Muslim, a Valkyrie, and a daughter of Loki, but none of these things on their own encompasses all she is. Sam symbolizes how people are not just one thing and how labels only partly define us. In Chapter 32, she explains her situation to Magnus: how a Valkyrie’s ability of flight fulfills a lifelong love but that she also wants to marry Amir and have a family when she’s older. Sam knows serving the Pagan Norse gods conflicts with her religion, but she is still fiercely dedicated to Islam and its traditions. Her strength, both physical and emotional, demonstrates her success at integrating the various aspects of her identity and indicates that she isn’t afraid to take what she wants.

Sam foils Magnus in terms of their godly parents. While Magnus comes to understand and appreciate his demigod nature and Frey, Sam struggles with having Loki for a father. People assume she’s a liar and trickster because of Loki, and they don’t give her a chance to show her true self. Sam is reluctant to use any ability associated with Loki because doing so pushes her further toward his evil nature. As the book goes on, she uses those abilities more. Once she has Magnus’s trust, her willingness to shapeshift increases. Before the duel with Junior, she refused to discuss shape shifting but wound up helping because, even if it is an ability from Loki, it could help a friend. During the battle with Fenris, she shifts into a lioness without being asked or pressured. Shifting is the only way for her to fight the wolf, and Sam’s loyalty to her friends trumps her fear of becoming like Loki.

Blitz is a dwarf who has a “permanently alarmed expression” (4). He’s spent the two years preceding the book’s start watching over Magnus on Boston’s streets. Blitz’s character arc shows that it’s all right to be different from the culture we came from. Dwarves are serious creatures who live underground and thrive at crafting items. Unlike his kin, Blitz has never been good at crafting. He needs time and quiet to do his best work, whereas most dwarves can craft under almost any circumstances. Blitz’s dream is to make and sell his own clothes, a career viewed as unworthy by dwarven culture.

During the crafting contest in Chapter 43, Blitz finds his place as an individual among dwarves. Magnus’s suggestion to craft fashionable armor allows Blitz to use crafting (an essential part of dwarven culture) to design his own fashions (something dwarves have no use for). His success jumpstarts his confidence. He no longer feels like a failure and embraces who he is, even though he’ll never be like his fellow dwarves. Blitz’s armored necktie saves his life in the battle with Fenris, both literally and metaphorically. Literally, the tie blocks a fatal blow from the wolf. Metaphorically, Blitz’s uniqueness allowed him to create something fashionable that also worked for its intended purpose, an ability that saves him from losing himself by conforming to dwarven cultural norms.

Hearth is an elf and the book’s fourth major character. His gaze is intense, and Magnus describes it as Hearth looking at him “like he was waiting for me to explode” (16). His outward intensity covers the deep emotional pain of his parents’ rejection. As a deaf elf, Hearth is considered useless by his family. Rather than letting this destroy him, Hearth uses his pain to become stronger. When offered the choice by Lord Mimir, Hearth chose to remain deaf so he could practice rune magic, the most powerful magic in the Norse worlds. Hearth symbolizes how pain is not a purely destructive force. Hearth also represents how a disability does not define a person. His deafness doesn’t stop him from learning magic or protecting his friends. In the battle with Fenris, his deafness allows him to remain free of the wolf’s influence; his disability is also a strength.

Loki is the trickster god and has a gaze that flits around “like the fire in the hearth, pushed by the wind” (130). Like his eyes, he darts from place to place, sending out bits of his essence to bend the worlds to his desires. Though imprisoned for murdering Odin’s son, Loki influences Surt, Magnus, and even Odin, suggesting he is the most powerful of the gods.

Loki’s situation shows how might is right, even if it is not just. After the murder of Odin’s son, Odin exacted punishment on both Loki and his children. In Chapter 46, Loki tells Magnus the story behind his imprisonment, for which Magnus offers the god sympathy. Though Loki is a liar and murderer, his suffering seems disproportionate to his crime, which explains his motivation for wanting Ragnarok to come early.

Fenris is a child of Loki who was imprisoned for becoming “so savage he would’ve devoured the gods” (194). He sent the wolf-like creatures who killed Magnus’s mother and represents Magnus’s fear of wolves. Until seeing him, Magnus pictures Fenris as an enormous beast but, in reality, finds the wolf normal-sized. Magnus’s assumption shows how fear distorts the truth.

Fenris represents the dichotomy of desire and need. He claims he influenced Odin to make Sam a Valkyrie and Surt to start Ragnarok. Later, Odin asserts he acted of his own free will, which means either that Fenris lied (which keeps with his character) or that Fenris’s influence was powerful enough to overcome the king of the gods. If Fenris did exert control over events, it is never made clear if these things would have happened without his influence. If Fenris hadn’t told Odin to add Sam to the Valkyries, Sam may have never known about the Norse world. She would have continued on her path to marry Amir. Alternatively, without the Valkyries to ground her, Loki’s influence may have tugged her away from goodness and caused her to lose all she held dear. Similarly, Surt may not have moved to start Ragnarok yet without Fenris’s prompting.

Gunilla is captain of the Valkyries and a daughter of Thor. She is tall and muscular with eyes “as pale blue and cold as a winter sky” (84). Gunilla despises Loki and does everything in her power, including tamper with Magnus’s death video, to get Sam removed from the Valkyries. She is as cold and deadly in combat as her eyes, and her heart, too, suffers from the chill of betrayal. The last child of Loki to walk Valhalla’s halls broke Gunilla’s heart. Since then, her hatred for Loki grew, compounded by her own distrust of herself. She holds on to her anger at the betrayal, which colors her perception of all Loki’s children. Though Sam has done nothing to suggest she works for Loki, Gunilla cannot see past her hurt to understand this. Gunilla represents how emotions blind us to the truth and how they will do so until we deal with their cause.

Jack is the talking-sword titular character and appears as a blade “emblazoned with Viking runes” (44). He’s the only weapon Magnus feels comfortable wielding because Frey left the sword for his offspring to find. Jack doesn’t start speaking until Chapter 45 after Magnus silently chats with him and publicly announces all Jack’s great accomplishments to a mob of angry dwarves. Jack symbolizes the dwarven belief that all items have a history and personality. He initially distrusts Magnus because of Frey’s betrayal but warms up to him as the story progresses. Even after centuries have passed, Jack shuns Frey and Freya, showing that items have long memories in addition to personalities.

Randolph is Magnus’s uncle. Though he’s also the brother of Magnus’s mother, Magnus describes Randolph as dark and imposing and “the exact opposite of my mom” (21). This description sets Randolph’s character up for the rest of the story. He lost his wife and daughter at sea while investigating a sunken Viking ship, and in the Epilogue, we discover he somehow fell in with Loki, who has Randolph’s family trapped. Randolph is desperate, and teaming up with the evil trickster god shows how desperation makes us take actions we wouldn’t normally.

Annabeth is Magnus’s cousin, as well as a main character in Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. She is intimidating and tough, and in Chapter 1, Magnus fears her a bit, thinking if she was searching for him, he “did not want to be found” (7) Annabeth links the Norse world of The Sword of Summer to Riordan’s Greek myth-inspired books. Her appearance in the book’s opening chapter sets her up as a familiar face, telling readers who’ve read Riordan’s other work to expect a similar type of story.

Odin is the king of the gods and overseer of Valhalla. For almost the entire book, he hides among the einherjar as X, a half-troll who is “built like a bomb containment chamber” (76). As X, Odin shows the racism and hierarchical prejudices present in Valhalla. Even honorable warriors have dishonorable qualities. When Odin reveals himself in Chapter 69, he ushers in a new wave of acceptance and tolerance among the einherjar, Valkyries, and thanes both by calling them out on their mistreatment of those seen as unworthy and by recognizing the accomplishments of Magnus, Sam, Blitz, and Hearth (a group of outcasts).

Surt is a fire giant and appears as “a dark man in a dark suit” (34). He is prophesied to start Ragnarok using the Sword of Summer and wants to usher in doomsday early. Fenris influenced Surt to find the sword and go after Magnus, and it is unclear if Surt would have tried to end the world before its time without Fenris’s interference.

Halfborn got his name because he was so big at birth his mother said he “looked like I’d been half born, half carved from rock” (116). He’s been in Valhalla for almost 1,200 years and fought with the original Vikings. Halfborn represents the top of the hierarchy among the einherjar. He also shows what’s required of warriors if they want to mentally survive until Ragnarok. He’s kept busy and maintained his sanity, something that cannot be said for others who’ve been in Valhalla as long as he has.

T.J. is one of Magnus’s hallmates in Valhalla. He died during the Civil War and was a “private in the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts” (114). When he first arrived in the 1860s, he wasn’t welcome because he didn’t match the ideal einherji. As time passed and he proved his battle skills, he came to be accepted, but he still isn’t among the highest ranks of warriors. His loyalty to Magnus, a newbie to Valhalla, shows the bonds that form between outcasts and also that hallmates stand by one another.

Mallory speaks with “a faint Irish brogue” (76). She recently arrived in Valhalla after dying while trying to disarm a car bomb. Her final act shows her fearlessness, as does the serrated knife she carries. Mallory verbally spars with Halfborn, which we later learn hides the love she feels for him. Like T.J., she is loyal to Magnus and sides with him even when he takes actions that are against Valhalla’s rules.

Frey is Magnus’s father and the Norse god of spring and summer, wealth, and peace. Centuries ago, he sat on Odin’s throne, which led to him giving up Jack to find his true love. Frey represents how choices have consequences and that those consequences have positive and negative outcomes.