106 pages • 3 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Sword of Summer
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 18-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary: “I Do Mighty Combat with Eggs”
At breakfast, Magnus gets eggs and settles down with his hallmates: T.J., X, Mallory Keen, and Halfborn Gunderson. The view out a window shows an icy landscape, a far contrast to the summer setting in Magnus’s room. T.J. explains the nine worlds as “different layers of reality, all connected by the World Tree” (113). The explanation doesn’t help much.
The others describe how they died and came to Valhalla. Sam brought X, which is frowned upon since he’s half troll. T.J. also wasn’t welcome at first, despite being found worthy. He understands how Magnus feels and invited him to breakfast so he would stay active waiting for Ragnarok. If he sits alone in his room, he will “start to fade” (116).
Magnus asks if it’s possible to leave Valhalla. It’s not impossible, but it is very difficult. Returning to Midgard complicates things, especially if someone returns before everyone they knew is dead. There are many doors to Boston, though, because it’s “the center of Midgard” (118). Halfborn alludes to Frey’s sword and a legend, but before he elaborates further, a horn sounds. It’s time for battle.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Do Not Call Me Beantown. Like, Ever”
The battle room is a massive space within the hotel walls but with an outside landscape. Horns blare, and battle ensues. Vikings fight in small groups, and Magnus shuffles along with his hallmates. All around him, kids fight and die as if playing a video game. T.J. takes a javelin to the back and dies smiling. When Magnus gets emotional, Mallory drags him along, calling him “Beantown.” When Magnus asks why he’s “Beantown” instead of T.J. (who is also from Boston), Mallory replies, “Because T.J. is slightly less annoying” (125).
Magnus and Mallory scale a hill, and Mallory takes an arrow. Magnus checks on her and can somehow feel the damage from the arrow working through her body. The rest of the teams converge on Magnus, ganging up on him because he’s new. Enraged and cornered, Magnus releases a force “like the Shockwave from a bomb” (128), destroying most of the other kids’ weapons. One opponent congratulates Magnus on his use of alf seidr—elf magic—and then kills Magnus with an undamaged axe made of bone steel.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Come to the Dark Side. We Have Pop-Tarts”
Upon dying, Magnus arrives in a Hlidskjalf (high throne of Odin). Rather than Odin, Loki is there, sitting on Odin’s throne and eating Pop-Tarts. Magnus recognizes him as the man wearing the Red Sox jersey from his dream about Randolph’s office. Magnus questions how Loki can sit on Odin’s throne, something that should be impossible for anyone but Odin or Frigg (queen of the gods). Loki isn’t really there—rather, Magnus sees only a bit of his essence. The real Loki is still imprisoned but can send bits of himself out into the worlds. The only other person who sat upon the throne was Frey. In doing so, he saw what he most desired, which became the “reason he lost his sword” (130).
Loki gives bits and pieces of detail about Frey’s ruin. Magnus isn’t the only one who can wield Frey’s sword. According to the Norns, Surt will strike Frey down with Frey’s blade at Ragnarok, which explains why Surt attacked Magnus. Unless Magnus stops him, Surt plans to begin Ragnarok in eight days by releasing Loki’s son, the Wolf. Loki vanishes, and Surt appears. He warns Magnus he will not be stopped and that “you will start the fire that burns the nine worlds” (133).
Magnus wakes in his room fully healed. Gunilla arrives, surprised to see him resurrected so quickly. She invites him on a tour of the hotel. Magnus accepts in hopes of finding exits and maybe learning if he can help Sam.
Chapters 18-20 Analysis
Chapter 18 continues constructing the hierarchy of Valhalla. T.J. died during the Civil War, and though his death was deemed worthy, he wasn’t accepted by the einherjar because he didn’t fit their ideal. X is a half-troll. Sam brought him to Valhalla about a month ago, and he is not accepted because of his troll blood. Though it’s been over a thousand years since the Vikings explored, old prejudices remain. Anyone who doesn’t fit the ideal einherji image faces resistance, much like the elitism and racism of real life.
The battle in Chapter 19 shows how warriors spend their afterlife. Warriors die smiling and laughing because so long as they die in Valhalla, they will resurrect. As a result, battle is fierce, and Magnus feels out of place both as a newbie and as the son of a non-confrontational god. Mallory’s use of the nickname “Beantown” is meant to spur Magnus into action. The nickname itself refers to the colonial Boston dish of beans slow-baked in molasses, and Mallory gives it to Magnus because he’s from Boston.
The battle also shows how Magnus differs from the other warriors of Valhalla. He does not feel comfortable in combat, as evidenced by how he hides behind his hallmates until they’re all dead. When cornered, Magnus uses alf seidr (a peaceful form of elf magic) rather than fighting. He causes almost everyone to lose their weapons, the opposite of what Valhalla combat is about. Only weapons crafted of bone steel (steel smelted with bone) are not affected by the magic. Magnus feeling Mallory’s injury spread through her body is the first time we see Magnus’s healing powers manifest. The fact that he stops to help her also shows how he differs from the other einherjar. Other warriors fight for themselves. They may team up, but they ultimately battle alone.
Chapter 20 officially introduces Loki. Contrary to the view of the trickster god in Valhalla, Loki seems nice and offers Magnus information about Frey and Surt. That Magnus listens to and even trusts Loki again shows Magnus’s non-confrontational personality. Rather than judging the god based on everyone else’s opinion of him, Magnus forms his own feelings based on how Loki acts in the moment.
Related Titles
By Rick Riordan
