The Sword of Summer

The group spends the night at Blitz’s apartment, where Blitz serves egg rolls for dinner and fills in the others on the rules of the contest and his family history. Each participant in the contest makes three items, and a judge assigns points. The dwarf with the most points wins, and in the traditional wager, the loser dies. Most dwarves don’t insist on the traditional wager, but Junior did because of his hatred for Blitz’s family. Junior’s father made some of the most important godly items, including the rope Gleipnir and Thor’s hammer. The rope was “a rush job” (302), as the gods were desperate to bind Fenris Wolf, and Blitz’s father tried and failed to convince Junior it needed to be replaced. Junior turned the dwarves against Blitz’s family, and when Blitz’s father finally went to check on the rope for himself, he never came back.

Blitz excuses himself, leaving Magnus, Sam, and Hearth to ponder the contest. Cheating is allowed in dwarven contests as long as it isn’t obvious. Hearth knows Eitri Junior will cheat and says the only way to beat him is to “mess with Junior” (304). Hearth begs Sam to do something for Blitz again. She refuses to discuss it and storms out.

The next day, Magnus, Hearth, and Blitz arrive at the contest grounds, which resemble a basketball court with forges. Sam never returned to the apartment and is nowhere to be seen. The contest begins, and after an hour, Magnus realizes “crafting was not a fast-moving sport” (307). Except for a few easily disrupted distractions, Magnus does nothing but stand around with his sword. Junior makes great progress until a bug bites him between the eyes, causing a hammer strike to go awry and smash his creation. Blitz ends the first round with a metal duck.

Blitz laments that he’ll die before he ever achieves his dream to make and sell his own clothes. The contest and dwarves only accept useful categories of items, such as armor, which Blitz isn’t good at making. Magnus equates creating clothes to his sword-pendant necklace and Sam’s magical hijab. He asks if “fashionable clothing that doubles as armor” counts as a category (310). It does, and Blitz jumps up, renewed and ready to craft.

Magnus helps Blitz craft his next project. While he does, he thinks about the dwarven idea of all crafted objects having a soul. Magnus has a silent conversation with the sword, which seems to bring him closer to the weapon. At the end of the second session, another bug bites Junior, causing him to destroy his creation. Magnus spends the third session defending from distractions orchestrated by Junior’s people. The third session ends with Junior’s biggest failure yet. A bell rings, signifying the end of the contest and time for “judging the items...and killing the loser” (315).

Sam arrives sporting a swollen lip and black eye. She says she’s fine to Magnus’s inquiry, and they watch the judging. Blitz proudly presents his duck, bulletproof tie, and chainmail vest. By contrast, Eitri Junior sulks and rages over his ruined items. The contest is close, but the judges proclaim Blitz the winner. Blitz announces he doesn’t want to kill Junior. He only wants the new rope, the earrings for Freya, and “a public admission that my father was right about Gleipnir all along” (320). Junior acquiesces, and Blitz gives him the bag of Freya’s tears.

Blitz asks Junior where Fenris Wolf’s island is. Junior doesn’t know but says Thor does. Junior doesn’t know where Thor is either. Magnus calls Sam forward, and Junior recognizes her as the bug that bit him during the contest. Junior calls for Blitz and his team to be killed, and the four respond in perfect unison: “We turned and ran for our lives” (323).