Chapter 21 | Page 20
on January 10, 2023
at 12:00 am
I’m sure this isn’t foreshadowing anything.
Thistil Mistil Kistil
by Sarah Schanze
Velkommen!
Thistil Mistil Kistil is a comic about vikings, Norse gods, and their adventures together (or against each other). Updates are on Thor’s Day.
Coal really doesn’t like Odin right now.
I really don’t like Odin either right now
I don’t think much of anyone likes Odin rn
You can blame Odin all you like (and you probably should), but remember that Loki started all this by making tools of these mortals, entangling them in the destiny of divine power. As near as I can tell, Loki and Odin only disagree on the manner in which the humans should die. Loki wanted Coal to die a peaceful death, which apparently would have separated Thor from his hammer forever.
Huh. Random thought: Saoirse has a piece of the true cross?
I can’t see Coal killing his friends, so this puts the whole story on a new trajectory. This is exciting. And scary.
Further proof (if any were needed) that the Norse Pantheon is not one bit more moral than the Ancient Greek one. As Odin himself has pointed out, even our guide and ever-helpful friend, Loki, is not above suspicion.
So, Loki stole fragments of the gods’ power and placed them in mortal hands. The pieces will not return to their original places unless they die in a manner fitting for those gods, and he seemed shocked and upset that Coal had not died at the end of a long peaceful life.
Saoirse was doomed to die a slave offering, a very specific sort of death!
I wonder, is Loki trying to re-weave the gods and the afterlives? He himself is doomed to a most horrible fate. He’ll be bound underneath the earth with the entrails of his children, and birds will feast upon his entrails as acid is dripped onto his face, as I recall. What wouldn’t he do to spare himself and his children this fate?
We have confirmation that Loki doesn’t and can’t know what his fate actually is (Chapter 10, page 21, Sigyn has tried to tell him, but he can’t hear her when she does), though he could still be messing with the gods and afterlives just because he thinks it will go against what Odin wants.
Interestingly, the slave offering death may not be terribly specific, because it seems to have basically been a “I want to take my servant with me to the afterlife” deal, so Saoirse may have risked ending up in Hel with that guy as a result. Which actually makes me wonder if Loki’s plot is to get as many pieces of important objects to Hel specifically. It’s the domain of his daughter and in at least the story of Baldr’s death, the gods are powerless to get Baldr back when they fail to meet Hel’s demands, so presumably she’d also be able to deny the return of the pieces.
Oh, good point! I had forgotten about Chapter 10. Still feel like it’s a valid motivation. Sigyn may not be able to tell him his fate, but she sure can screech loudly and say, “oh no oh no oh no!” to the point that he decides to avert it.
That’s a feasible guess with Hel! Here’s hoping you’re right, I wanna read Sarah’s take on her.
Very curious what Saoirse has a piece of now. I assume since Freyr’s sword was among the broken items already, it’s probably not another Vanir item despite Odin’s dismissal of anything not Aesir. Is it then something else in Norse myths, or from a different mythology altogether (the obvious guess would of course be exactly what it looks like, something Christian somehow)
huh
Maybe Loki’s hanging around because Saoirse has something of his? I mean. Why IS he helping?
also odin u suck but like that is not really a surprise
That last panel is a teen internally going “no!” if ever I’ve seen one.
Odin helping explain the birds and the valhalla to inquiring minds.
Maybe he’s born with it, maybe it’s powerful so it’s important.