73 pages • 2 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Hammer of Thor
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Have You or Someone You Love Ever Suffered from Lindworms?”
As the group advances through combat, Magnus attempts to get to know Alex. Alex also lived without a home in Boston, and she deflects any questions about her identity by bluntly stating she’s gender-fluid and transgender and that Magnus can look up those terms if he doesn’t understand them because “it’s not my job to educate” (54). Having known lots of kids who were kicked out of their homes because their families didn’t accept who they were, Magnus isn’t surprised by this, but he fails to convey his lack of surprise in a way that convinces Alex.
Before Magnus can ask more questions, a lindworm attacks their group. Alex recognizes the lindworm as one of the oldest and most powerful and suddenly looks terrified, saying, “He sent it for me. He knows I’m here” (57). She orders Magnus to distract the lindworm before she climbs a nearby tree. After hesitating, Magnus charges, only to fall to his knees as a vision of Loki and his Uncle Randolph overtakes him.
Chapter 8 Summary: “I Am Saved from Certain Death by Being Killed”
Magnus’s physical form stays on the battlefield while his spirit inhabits his uncle’s body. Loki invites Magnus to a wedding in five days, to which he must bring the bride (Sam) and the “bride-price” (the Skofnung Sword). If Magnus refuses, there will be “war, invasion, Ragnarok, et cetera” (63). Meanwhile, Alex and the others defeat the lindworm, and Alex notices that Loki is overloading Magnus with power that will make him explode. To stop it, she beheads Magnus.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Never Take a Bubble Bath with a Decapitated God”
While he’s dead, Magnus dreams about his uncle at sea and his head in a bubble bath with Mimir, the disembodied-head god of wisdom, who tells Hearth and Blitz they need to help Magnus. After that, Magnus’s disembodied head appears in a pickle jar at a bar, where someone named Thrynga yells at her brother, Thrym, for making a deal with Loki to wed Sam and trading away Thor’s hammer. Magnus makes a noise, which causes Thrynga to destroy his pickle jar, and Magnus wakes in his room at the hotel.
While he puzzles over what the dreams mean, Magnus realizes he’s late for dinner and Alex’s introduction to the hotel. Hurrying out of his room, he slips Jack’s pendant over his head, glad to have his sword back because it felt like “things were about to get Jack-worthy” (73).
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Most Awkward Viking Luau Ever”
Thursday is also theme night at dinner, and tonight’s theme is Hawaiian luau. Magnus weaves his way through einherjar wearing leis and Valkyries in grass skirts to sit with his hallmates. As usual, Odin’s throne is empty, and the only two sitting at the honored table are Sam and a terrifyingly furious-looking Alex. Alex was the only person in the Nine Worlds to die bravely in the last 24 hours, and Magnus can’t help but feel that’s because “they didn’t want to share a table with Alex” (76). Magnus fills his roommates in on his visit from Loki and the following dreams, making them wonder if Loki sent Alex to Valhalla.
Chapter 11 Summary: “What’s a Guy Gotta Do to Get a Standing Ovation?”
After a bit, the hall watches Alex’s death in Valkyrie Vision—the video Valkyries take of a heroic death. But Sam started recording much too early in the day, capturing footage of her betrothed, Amir, looking heartbroken. The video fast-forwards to show three glowing wolves cornering a man in an alley. Alex attacks the wolves, fighting bravely but being overpowered, and the video ends with Sam reaping Alex’s spirit. The hall bursts into raucous applause, but Alex stares at the blank Valkyrie Vision screen “as if she could make her death rewind by sheer force of will” (88). Movement from above catches Magnus’s eye, and he glances up to see the assassin who killed Otis in the tree above the hall. Before Magnus can say anything, the assassin disappears.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Samirah and Magnus Sitting in a Tree, T-A-L-K-I-N-G”
As soon as dinner is over, Sam and Magnus meet in the tree above the dining hall, where Sam explains that Alex was afraid to come to Valhalla because Alex thought being an einherji would trap her in one gender. Magnus asks if Alex’s identity bothers Sam, and Sam says it doesn’t because she’s come to terms with many things being a Muslim Valkyrie. Rather, she’s worried about Alex’s shape-shifting because Alex may not understand “how dangerous it is to rely on Loki’s power” (94-95).
When Magnus asks about the wedding, Sam explains that Loki hand-delivered invitations to Sam’s family, the cause of her betrothed looking heartbroken in Alex’s death video. Magnus promises they’ll fix everything, and Sam leaves, telling Magnus to be ready to go to the wight’s barrow first thing in the morning.
Chapters 7-12 Analysis
These chapters focus on introducing Alex, in terms of both her personal identity and her narrative role. In Chapter 7, when Alex and Magnus discuss her identity, Alex offers little explanation. She doesn’t owe one, and her lack of desire to provide one shows she’s been forced to explain herself many times, something that’s made her mistrustful. However, Magnus understands the terms “gender-fluid” (which describes someone who is fluid in their gender identity or expression) and “transgender” (which describes a person whose gender identity or expression does not match the gender they were assigned at birth). Additionally, his experience seeing kids who were thrown out of their homes or left behind because their families didn’t support them allows him to gain Alex’s trust over time because he doesn’t judge or try to change her. The story explores many different forms and layers of friendship, and the relationship between Magnus and Alex is particularly complex in its development across the narrative. While these two characters occupy the center of the theme The Different Roles of Friendship, the idea reaches its fullest expression in group dynamics involving several characters. One of the common threads in these friendships, though, are the elements of trust and trustworthiness—and it is principally these elements that will forge the bond between Magnus and Alex.
While the pottery with Loki’s symbol made Magnus wonder if Alex was in league with the god, Alex’s reaction to the lindworm suggests she fears Loki tracking her down in Valhalla. These opposing pieces of evidence are the first in a line of things Alex says or does that make her stance on Loki unclear. Alex’s understanding of how to cut Magnus off from Loki’s power in Chapter 8 shows Alex is familiar with how Loki’s power works. In Chapter 10, Alex looks unhappy to be in Valhalla, and anger and disapproval inspire Magnus’s quip that no one else wanted to die bravely because then they’d have to face Alex. The conversation between Sam and Magnus in Chapter 11 reveals that, while Sam avoids using the powers she inherited from Loki, Alex embraces them, shape-shifting often. Sam believes Alex doesn’t realize how dangerous shape-shifting is, but Magnus wonders if Alex’s use of Loki’s powers means Alex is a spy for Loki.
Chapter 9 foreshadows several events. The dream about Randolph and his family foreshadows Randolph ultimately finding his way to Helheim (realm of the underworld) where his family is, though it’s unclear if he’s reunited with them. The dream of Mimir talking to Blitz and Hearth reminds the reader of the dwarf’s and elf’s indentured servitude to the god, and it also foreshadows Blitz’s life-threatening injury, as well as the journey to Alfheim and Hearth’s childhood home. Thrynga and Thrym are the giants who made a deal with Loki—Sam and Thor’s hammer for the Skofnung Sword and Stone. Magnus being privy to their conversation shows how einherjar travel in their sleep. Altogether, the three dreams mean einherjar can see things that have happened, are happening, and might happen in the future. It may be that they possess this power because they are technically dead and, therefore, outside the timeline of the Nine Worlds. Magnus’s final thought in Chapter 9 is a reference to impending threats and his faith that, as one of the most powerful weapons in the Nine Worlds, Jack can take on many dangers.
Alex’s death video in Chapter 11 and the conversation between Sam and Magnus in Chapter 12 reveal additional context about the internal and external conflicts facing Sam and Alex, which in turn reinforces the theme of How Identity, Culture, and Heritage Shape Us, particularly in light of Sam’s and Amir’s attitudes. Sam has been betrothed to and in love with Amir for years, and during the video, Loki had just told Sam’s family that she’ll be married off to Thrym. Amir’s appearance in the video foreshadows his mind being opened to the Norse gods later in this book. In Chapter 12, Sam explains she’s learned to live with many things that don’t conform to her Islam worldview, including the Norse gods themselves and Alex’s gender identity. Sam’s greater concern for Alex’s involvement with Loki shows how we can compartmentalize what troubles us. Sam cares for Alex because they are both children of Loki, and that concern overpowers any trouble Sam might have with accepting Alex’s identity. As the story progresses and Sam becomes even more tolerant of things that are new to her, she symbolizes that a person’s identification is less important than the fact that all people, regardless of identity, deserve to be treated with respect.
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By Rick Riordan
