TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

Norse deity Odin hunts for his two rebellious children in this third volume of Chamberlin’s fantasy series.

In their vibrant youth, Brynhild and Thora had been Valkyries, the warrior daughters of Odin, the All-Father of Norse myth. When they decided to leave his service to start families, the deity cursed them. Odin’s interference caused Thora’s grown children to kill Brynhild’s Christian husband, Siegfried. Now, in the valley beneath the Harz Mountains in Germania, the women join in the Northern people’s Midsummer celebration. Although the women are now elderly “crones,” Odin resents their perseverance, and he’s losing influence in the world as Christianity gains followers. With the help of ravens to spy for him, Odin, taking the form of an old beggar, tracks down his former Valkyries. Brynhild and Thora, meanwhile, plan to travel north to Dane-mark to rescue Yrsa, Thora’s daughter, from the captivity of her sexually abusive father, Helgi Halfdansson. (Readers unfamiliar with the ancient literature that serves as this story’s model may be shocked at how rape, by deities and others, is depicted as commonplace.) Odin’s pursuit grows more complex with the involvement of Attila the Hun and his warriors. In a world of dark mysticism and strange beings, Brynhild and Thora will need to summon their remaining Valkyrie strength to outmaneuver wrathful Odin. Chamberlin’s brooding, philosophical third series entry makes for a fine counterweight to the more garish use of Norse deities, including Odin, in Marvel comics and films. Many details will fascinate history buffs, such as that the Christian “sign of protection” had been a call to the “power of Thor’s hammer” until the new religion absorbed the gesture. Throughout, the prose offers lyrical moments, as when the “elongated hills of Dane-mark” are described as looking as if “some giant with a leaky sand bag” had created them. The characters also make intriguingly complex observations; for instance, Brynhild believes that “the death of a child” isn’t “half the sorrow” that “having to raise one in a brutal setting must be.”

A richly satisfying third series entry with grand actions and emotions.