Today we’ll
be looking back at a classic comic from my collection.
Issue: 343
Title: “If I Should Die Before I Wake…”
Art & Story: Walter
Simonson
Colors: Christie Scheele
Lettering: John
Workman, Jr.
Editing: Mark Gruenwald
Editor In Chief: Jim Shooter
Cover: Walter Simonson
In the South
Bronx Fafnir the dragon is wreaking havoc, demanding that Thor come and face
him. The Eyewitness News chopper,
carrying reporter Greg Glenn, follows Fafnir and broadcasts his rampage to the
city. Glenn gives voice to the question
on everyone’s mind, “Where is the
Mighty Thor?” Among those wondering is
Lorelei, who is lounging in her Central Park Penthouse watching the televised
reports.
Thor is in
Antarctic, where we left him last
time, with Eilif the Lost. Thor
tells Eilif that only Odin and the Valkyries can grant access to Valhalla, but
he will take Eilif’s fate into his hands.
Thor tells him to put his armor back on and follow him. They climb one of the peaks surrounding the
valley and wait for a sign. After half
an hour Thor’s Chariot and Cloudrider, the winged horse of the hero Valkyrie,
whose real name is Brunnhilde, appear so that they can ride into battle
together.
In Nornheim,
Karnilla broods over Balder and how he sees only death around him. She (rightly) blames this on Loki and swears
to make him pay. Haag, her servant/counselor,
chides Karnilla for mooning over “a ruined warrior” and teases her about
inviting Odin to dinner. Karnilla throws
her out and thinks how she wanted Balder when he was pure and unspoiled, and
whether it would be worth the effort to try and bring him back to that state.
Back in
Antarctica, Thor and Eilif prepare to ride, but Eilif complains that his old
age has made him worthless in a fight.
Thor doesn’t like this and asks if he seeks “A cheap seat in the halls
of Valhalla”. Eilif is shamed into
rising to the challenge and Thor blesses him with renewed vigor. The mount and are prepared to leave when they
see a stranger watching them. Eilif does
all the talking (as we and Thor know that this is Odin in his guise as The
Wanderer) and gets his spear blessed.
Elsewhere,
the smith is reaching the end of the sword’s forging and he is ready to name
it. “… and the name is – Twilight!”
In the South
Bronx, Fafnir is tearing through the city, and the National Guard, when Thor
and Eilif show up, giving the dragon a hammer to the head. Using Cloudrider and the chariot, Thor and
Eilif evade or block Fafnir’s blows.
We switch
back to Asgard, where Heimdall stands on Bifrost and sees a darkness coming
closer. Out of the darkness comes
Muninn, returned to his normal size, injured and carrying a feather in his
beak. Heimdall turns back the chasing
darkness and dreads that this means some evil is awake. And Odin is not in Asgard to help.
Back at the
battle, we have the first appearance of Chuck Cherkle, giving us a play by play
for On The Spot News. Thor and Eilif are
holding their own, but not making any headway, even when Thor hits Fafnir with
a blow whose force is “…felt as far away as Pennsylvania!” Eilif diflects the dragon fire, but is
knocked off of Cloudrider by Fafnir’s tail. He falls to the ground with a
tremendous “CRASSHH!” Distracted, Thor
is knocked out of his chariot and knocked away by the self-same tail. Eilif emerges from the rubble, looking pretty
bad off, but driven b y his duty to Thor.
He climbs, slowly, up above the dragon, spear in hand. He dives off, using his weight to drive the
spear into Fafnir’s hide, hurting him and getting swatted away for his
trouble. Thor seizes the opportunity and
uses Mjolnir to drive the spear into Fafnir’s heart, killing him
instantly.
Eilif,
however, is also dead and Thor is greatly upset by it. Thor builds a pyre out of the rubble from the
battle and lays Eilif on top of it, with Fafnir at his feet, like the dogs
buried/burned with Vikings of old. He
then calls the storm and uses lightning to start the fire “and the pyre erupts
in glory!” The All-Father is then
glimpsed with Eilif on Cloudrider being guided to Valhalla by the Valkyries.
Thor returns
to him apartment as Sigurd Jarlson and has a visitor. Lorelei, disguised as Melodi, has stopped by
to thank Sigurd for saving her life by giving him a back rub.
Where it comes from: This is pretty much
a straight up fight issue, with a few sub-plots advanced. What I’m going to focus on here, though, is
the worldview of the Norse when it comes to death. There are basically three places that the
dead go. The most well-known is
Valhalla, where the heroes of battle, such as Eilif, are taken to fight all day
and feast all night. This is a place of
warriors and it is meant to gather an army to fight on the side of the Aesir
during Ragnarok. Another destination is Niffleheim,
the primordial realm of ice. This is
where the dishonored dead; the murderers, oath-breakers and outlaws; go to have
Nidhogg, who we’ve seen before,
devour them. The last place would be
Hel, or Helheim, which is where everyone else goes. I discussed Valhalla and Hel last
time, so I won’t get into it again.
I would like
to define some terms, though, for the non-Heathens out there. In the Norse world-view, a “murderer” is
someone who kills another human and does not take credit for it. If you refuse this responsibility, there is
no way retribution, be it wergild or some other punishment, could be rightfully
leveled by the family of the deceased.
An oath-breaker is obviously someone who has gone back on their word,
but when that is what holds the fabric of society together, it is a tremendous
crime. Lastly, when I refer to an “outlaw”,
I don’t mean a Robin Hood type. I mean Utgard, or
outsider. Someone who, for whatever
reason, has been cast out or the tribe and is no longer considered a
person. What I mean by that is they can
be killed without any retribution being taken on the killer or killer’s
family. They are called, and treated
like, a wolf.
Next time we
find out whatever happened to Balder the Brave.
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