INTRO
 
Welcome to CHAPTER 66 of the Kinsmen Die podcast, home of fantasy fiction based on Norse mythology that’s written and read by me, Matt Bishop.

In this podcast I read my first novel, Kinsmen Die, one chapter at a time. And, with each episode, when it makes sense, I provide some commentary about the source materials I’ve referenced in the text.

This week, we’re back with Vafthrudnir.

The last time we were with him, Vaft had a front-row seat to the Thor’s destruction of a Jotunn town — which is Odin’s promised retribution for the Jotunn destroying Háls.

Let’s rejoin him now.

Chapter Sixty-Six
Vafthrudnir
Vafthrudnir threw back the flap of Beli’s tent and interrupted the hersir’s war council.
“Hersir, we need to move. Thor’s just destroyed Akrton. We must help the villagers who survived. I’ve already informed Jotunheim, but it will take them several nights to respond. We’re much closer.”
Beli put down the knife he’d been pointing at the map with. “Everyone, please give us a few moments to speak alone.”
When everyone had left, Beli stepped around the table and said with his hands, “We can’t aid them, Vafthrudnir. We’ve been ordered to the northern doorway.”
Vafthrudnir laughed. “I wasn’t clear enough. I don’t mean that Thor burned the town or knocked some houses down. He broke the mountain. It buried the town. It’s all gone.”
Beli’s eyes widened. “He’s never done anything close to that.”
“I saw it myself. A handful of strikes with his hammer. Mjolnir burned like one of Muspell’s sparks when he was done. But he did it.”
Beli leaned against the table. His fingers danced in the Jotunn hand language. “We still can’t go help them, Vaft. A message came from the Skrymir this morning. The shaman watching the northern doorway reported that a small Aesir warband has stepped through and is marching away from it. So the Skrymir’s turned us around and needs us to double our pace. I was just asking the new shamans to spin a snow ship for us.”
“So Vidar made it through?” Vafthrudnir replied with his hands.
“That’s my understanding, yes,” Beli said. “Not many in his warband, but...”
But, indeed. He’d watched Ygg’s son succumb to his fylgja—and then slaughter two Jotunn warbands. With him and Beli opposing Vidar, though, they stood a good chance of sweeping this Odinsson from the tafl board.
Beli continued. “So far, Vidar has only walked through a mine and stepped through the doorway. But this march outward he’s embarked on could complicate things.”
“He found the doorway,” Vafthrudnir corrected. “That’s problematic enough.” 
Beli waved it away. “We expected that.”
“But not before the assault on Gladsheim.” Ama’s destruction of Háls had betrayed one of their greatest secrets. But there was more at risk than just the doorways. If Vidar should reach the frozen lake near the doorway then the Jotunns’ second secret would be exposed. “Which way does Vidar march?”
“Toward the lake.”
Vafthrudnir swore and struck the table. The marker stones jumped and clattered. He and the Skrymir had spent more than two hundred winters planning all of what was now happening. 
Maybe it had been foolish to continue the work knowing that Vidar would find the doorway, but the work couldn’t be stopped. Not now. And not until everything they’d sunk into that lake was reclaimed. But just because Odin’s son saw the work didn’t mean he would understand it—or be allowed to report on it. The villagers would have to fend for themselves after all.
“Show me to the new shamans and my adept. I will help spin the ships.”

OUTRO
Well, folks, that was CHAPTER 66 of Kinsmen Die. I hope you enjoyed it.

Another short chapter. Not much going on here myth wise, but we do get a little more backstory on Vafthrudnir and how long he and the Skrymir have been planning this attack on Gladsheim.

Vaft is also concerned that Vidar will reach the frozen lake. As readers we last saw a frozen lake referenced back in two of Loki’s chapters: 42 and 47. Vaft reveals that the “work” undertaken at the frozen lake represents a second major secret held by the Jotunn — if you recall, the Jotunn were hauling comatose bodies out of the frozen lake and then in the bowels of the secret cavern that Loki entered there were many campfires. And the Skrymir said there were many such caverns scattered across Utgard. The Skrymir also alluded to needing supplies.

Next week we’re back with Frigg.

Until then, if you have the time and inclination, please rate and/or review the podcast — that helps boost the show’s visibility. As does sharing it.
  
As always, I’m going to read from both the Bellows and Larrington translations of the Havamal, the sayings of the High One, Odin himself.

Bellows, Verse 66
Too early to many a meeting I came,
And some too late have I sought;
The beer was all drunk, or not yet brewed;
Little the loathed man finds.

Larrington, Verse 66
Much too early I’ve come to many places,
but sometimes too late;
the ale was all drunk, or sometimes it wasn’t yet brewed, the unpopular man seldom hits on the right moment.

I don’t understand how being either too early or too late will make someone loathed or unpopular.

Kodratoff explains it this way…which I’ve paraphrased for brevity: 

A guest who always arrives too early, or too late, will be bothersome to his host because they do not fit the host’s behavior. 

Because of this, the early or late person will never get into a harmonious relationship with their host. Put another way, being loathed or unpopular is the consequence of the guest’s behavior.

Perhaps it is best to be a wizard, for as Tolkien writes they are never late or early. They always arrive exactly when they mean to.

Thanks for listening.