American Gods

The battle between old and new gods is about to begin though it seems almost surreal. The old gods discuss whether they should start the fight. In the backstage, Shadow feels “empty and cleansed” (330). He finds Whiskey Jack, and unsure whether he is still strapped to the tree, he asks whether he is dead or alive. Whiskey Jack simply says “yes.” Whiskey Jack then talks about his own nature. He is not a god but a culture hero, meaning that he performs a similar role, but he is not worshipped. Indigenous Americans realized many centuries ago, he says, that America is “not a good country for gods” (332). Their religion and beliefs are very different for this reason. When Shadow mentions the war, Whiskey Jack says that it will not be a war, but a “bloodbath.” Shadow realizes that the war is a “two-man con” (332).

Easter and Horus reach the world tree. They recover Shadow and lay his body out, with Horus parting the clouds to reveal the sun. Easter uses her power to revive Shadow. He wakes, displeased that he seemingly has lost his heart and his name. He has also lost his will to fight. Easter says that bringing back life is what she is “best at,” so now Shadow must do what he does best. Shadow mounts a thunderbird and flies to Rock City.

As Laura guides Mr. Town to Rock City, he begins to fall in love with her. He speaks about his grief for the dead Wood and Stone, and once they arrive in Rock City, he offers to rent a motel room for himself and Laura. As he exits the car, she reveals that she killed Stone and Wood, and she kills Mr. Town. Laura then enters Rock City alone. She brings the branch from the world tree but refuses to hand it to Mr. World until he answers her question. Mr. World confesses that Shadow’s vigil was a “distraction” and that he planned to kill Shadow after the battle. Laura uses the stick to stab Mr. World, dedicating “this death to Shadow” (341). At the same time, Mr. World stabs Laura with a knife.

Shadow arrives in Rock City on the back of a thunderbird. His journey has taught him that the eagle stones are rocks inside the thunderbirds that can be used to bring the dead back to life. He rushes into the caves beneath Lookout Mountain and finds Wednesday. As Wednesday speaks about his pride toward his son, Shadow only wants to know about Laura and Loki. In the corner looking “rough,” Loki is clinging to life after Laura stabbed him. Wednesday is similarly only half-alive, appearing in an ethereal, insubstantial “wraith-shape.” Loki planned to betray the new gods and throw the stick from the world tree, which would turn into a spear, and dedicate the sacrifice to Odin. Wednesday admits that he knew Shadow was his son. Loki found Shadow in prison and learned everything about him, allowing Wednesday to plot Laura’s downfall and death. Wednesday believes that the sacrifice made during the battle will be enough to “bring [Loki] back” (345), as well as himself.

Shadow goes backstage. He feels the world and the established order changing around him. He pities the gods, old and new, as they will never be able to keep up with an ever-changing world where the paradigms shift so often. Stumbling into the middle of the battlefield, he loudly reveals Wednesday’s plan, which has been in motion for almost 100 years. There is no winner in this battle; all that matters is that enough gods die in a sacrifice to Wednesday.

The battle never begins. Dispirited, the gods begin to drift away. Mr. Nancy helps take Shadow to get out of the backstage. Shadow finds Laura in a cavern, still clinging to what little life she has left. She tells Shadow that she wants to die. Shadow and Laura declare their love for one another, and he removes the gold coin from her neck and blows on it, and the coin disappears.

Taking a VW bus, Shadow and Mr. Nancy travel south to Florida. In response to Mr. Nancy’s questions, Shadow believes that he has learned something, but he is not sure what, exactly. He struggles to describe it, but he wishes he could have kept more of the things that “passed through [his] hands” (353). Mr. Nancy is satisfied with this answer and credits Shadow with a surprising amount of intelligence. Before staying the night at Mr. Nancy’s house, they visit a bar. They drink and sing karaoke. When Shadow falls asleep, he sees the man with the buffalo head again. The man insists that he is not a god, but “the land.” The next day, Shadow wakes up with a headache. Mr. Nancy fetches him medicine, and Shadow is struck by a memory telling him not to “lose” something important. He rushes out of Mr. Nancy’s house without explaining himself.

Shadow travels back to Lakeside. He has been away for three weeks and was certain that he wouldn’t come back. The klunker is still on the frozen lake, but the ice is beginning to melt. The car may fall through soon. Shadow crosses the lake and opens the trunk of the car. Inside is the missing girl, Alison McGovern, whose dead body has been “here all the time” (359). As Shadow tries to recover her body, the car falls through the ice at the exact time Shadow selected during the raffle draw. Shadow falls to the bottom of the lake with the sinking car. Underwater, he sees “the klunkers of bygone years” (360), and he knows that each is hiding the body of a dead, missing child. Shadow tries to escape the lake but most of the surface is still frozen. Just as he is about to die, a hand drags him from the freezing water. Shadow is pulled from the lake, and in a brief unconsciousness, he dreams about the man with the buffalo head, a woman with “the head of an enormous condor” (361), and a disappointed Whiskey Jack. The figures abandon Shadow, ignoring his pleas that they not give up on him.

Shadow comes to in a bath of hot water, and “everything hurts.” Hinzelmann recused him, and in the course of their conversation, Shadow comes to understand that Hinzelmann is not human. He is an old god who has been in Lakeside for 100 years, and each year, he performs a ritual sacrifice of a child to sustain him. The sacrifices allow Hinzelmann to make Lakeside a “good place”; he protects the residents, and no one can enter Lakeside without his blessing. Hinzelmann was indebted to Wednesday, so he reluctantly agreed to hide Shadow in the town. Hinzelmann orchestrated the arrival of Sam and Audrey to reveal Shadow’s true identity and force him out of Lakeside. Armed with a hot poker from the fire, Hinzelmann says that he could kill Shadow. He killed everyone else who discovered his secret, including Chad Mulligan’s father. Despite knowing Hinzelmann killed hundreds of children, Shadow cannot bring himself to kill a man who saved his life. He understands Hinzelmann has evolved from a sacrificed child to a god, to a spirit known as a “kobold.”

Chad Mulligan is outside Hinzelmann’s house. Though he originally came to tell Hinzelmann about the car falling through the lake, he “heard everything [Hinzelmann] said” (367). He enters, shoots Hinzelmann, and then burns the body. Chad burns down the house and takes Shadow out to his car, claiming that he now plans to kill himself for failing to stop the annual child murders. Shadow uses his magic to uncloud Chad’s mind and convince the police officer that Lakeside needs him, as does Marguerite. He wipes Chad’s memories and leaves.

Samantha Black Crow works in the coffee shop in Madison. She meets her girlfriend, Natalie, and they talk about Sam’s “weird dreams.” As they walk, Natalie realizes that Sam is carrying a bouquet of roses. Neither can remember where the roses came from. They were placed in her hand by Shadow, who slipped away without being noticed.

The following day, Shadow visits Czernobog and the Zorya sisters. He must pay his debt and allow Czernobog to hit him with the hammer. Despite numerous protests, Shadow insists that the debt must be paid. Shadow kneels, and as he talks about the return of the “true spring,” Czernobog taps his hammer against Shadow’s forehead “as gently as a kiss” (375). The debt is paid. Shadow is surprised, and Czernobog says that by the following day, the arrival of spring will mean that he will turn into Bielebog. The next time they play checkers, he will “play white” instead of black.

Months later, Shadow arrives in Reykjavik, Iceland. The date is July 4, and he is “very tired.” Shadow climbs a hill overlooking the city. As he sits, a one-eyed man appears behind him dressed in a “dark gray cloak” (378) and a large hat. The man speaks in Icelandic, then English. His people, he says, went to North America many centuries before. It is a “bad place for gods” (378). The people felt lonely, so they returned home. The old man recognizes Shadow in some way. Both men have spent nine days hanging from a tree. The man reveals that he is Odin, but in a different incarnation than Wednesday. The old man explains that Wednesday is him, but he is not Wednesday.

Odin encourages Shadow to return to the United States, but Shadow is reluctant to return. He shows Odin a magic trick using Wednesday’s glass eye. He hands the eye to Odin, who promises that he will take care of it. Shadow also plucks a gold coin from the air. He tosses it and it hangs, suspended. As the coin floats, Shadow walks away and “[keeps] on walking” (379).