50 Fun Facts About Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard

In Magnus Chase, the magic golden hair of Thor's wife Sif is said to have inspired which fairy tale?

Rapunzel owes her legend to Sif in the books, whose golden hair replaced the locks Loki cut off as a trick. The new hair can be worked into precious objects.

In The Ship of the Dead, Magnus Chase's crew finally imprisons the shrunken god Loki inside what?

A walnut does the job: Loki shrinks to the size of a nut when Magnus answers his insults with praise for his friends, and Mallory Keen snaps the shell shut on him.

Which grunge-era rock star is the blond, long-haired hero Magnus Chase said to resemble?

Kurt Cobain is the comparison the books make for Magnus, with his chin-length blond hair and gray eyes. Dying changes the look: he wakes in Valhalla far more muscular.

Naglfar, the ship Loki means to sail to Ragnarok in Magnus Chase, is built entirely from what?

Fingernails and toenails of the dead make up Naglfar, a detail taken straight from Norse myth. In the books the ship lies frozen in ice until Loki can launch it.

X, the half-troll rooming near Magnus Chase in Hotel Valhalla, is really which god in disguise?

Odin spends the first book undercover as X so he can inspect his own hotel's warriors unnoticed. The staff believed their boss had been missing for two years.

In Magnus Chase as in Norse myth, Ratatosk runs messages along the World Tree as which animal?

A squirrel is the unlikely courier of Norse myth, running between the eagle at the top of the tree and the dragon beneath its roots. The name is thought to mean drill-tooth.

In Magnus Chase, the watchman god Heimdall takes endless selfies using which of his possessions?

His horn, Gjallar, works as both an oversized phone and a selfie stick. Heimdall can see and hear across all Nine Worlds, yet posing keeps him too busy to watch them.

What everyday name does Sumarbrander, the talking Sword of Summer, pick for itself in Magnus Chase?

Jack is the name the sword chooses once Magnus learns it can talk, and it insists on being called he. It can also shrink into a pendant and fight on its own.

Which American city, Rick Riordan's home at the time, is the main setting of Magnus Chase?

Boston is where Magnus sleeps rough, dies and keeps returning from Valhalla. Riordan said he did not pick the setting because he had moved there, though it made research easier.

Which Norse god of fertility and warmth turns out to be the father Magnus Chase never knew?

Frey belongs to the peaceful Vanir tribe rather than the warlike Aesir. The sunny hikes Magnus took with his mother were her way of keeping the boy close to him.

Magnus Chase dies fighting which fire giant on a bridge at the start of The Sword of Summer?

Surt comes for the ancient blade Magnus has just summoned from the Charles River. Magnus wounds him with it, takes him off the bridge and dies himself in the fall.

The Sword of Summer opens, and Magnus Chase dies, on which personal milestone?

His sixteenth birthday is the day relatives come looking for Magnus after two years on the streets and an uncle reveals that his father is a Norse god. The same day ends with him in Valhalla.

Which monster of Norse myth must Magnus Chase keep bound on an island in The Sword of Summer?

The Fenris Wolf sits on an island mortals can reach on just one day a year. Magnus and his friends arrive with a new binding fetched from the world of the dwarves and tie him up again.

Thor's missing hammer, the prize of the second Magnus Chase novel, goes by which Old Norse name?

Mjolnir is in the hands of a giant, and other giants plan to invade once they are sure Thor is unarmed. In the Viking Age small copies of the hammer were commonly worn as pendants.

Otis, who brings Magnus Chase the quest in The Hammer of Thor, is what kind of talking animal?

A goat called Otis is one of Thor's two talking animals; the other is Marvin. The nicknames spare everyone the mouthfuls Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr.

Too much of what slowly turns Blitzen, the dwarf friend of Magnus Chase, to stone?

Sunlight slowly petrifies dwarves like Blitzen, whose home world lies entirely underground. His elf friend Hearthstone has the opposite weakness and suffers in darkness.

Blitzen, a dwarf in Magnus Chase, is mocked by other dwarves for preferring what to forging metal?

Fashion design is his calling, down to the chain-mail bow ties and vests he wears into battle. He beats a rival called Junior in a crafting contest, and Odin later helps him open a clothing shop.

Which item worn by the Valkyrie Samirah al-Abbas in Magnus Chase doubles as a camouflage cloak?

Her hijab is green and can hide her in plain sight. Sam is a practising Muslim who leads a double life, collecting fallen heroes while keeping the night curfew set by her grandparents.

Amir, fiancé of the Valkyrie Samirah al-Abbas in Magnus Chase, works in a family shop selling what?

Falafel is the family trade: Amir's father Abdel owns the shop, a regular haunt of Magnus. The engagement was arranged, though Sam says she fell for Amir when she was twelve.

Which gift from his divine father sets Magnus Chase apart from the fighters of Hotel Valhalla?

Healing is his specialty: with concentration Magnus can mend even mortal wounds, though he often glimpses the patient's memories as he works. He also shrugs off extreme heat and cold.

What does Magnus Chase turn his late uncle's mansion into at the end of The Ship of the Dead?

A homeless youth shelter named the Chase Space is how Magnus spends his reward for stopping Loki. He asks only for the loan of some lawyers, and Alex Fierro offers to help run it.

Which uncle of Magnus Chase, who lost his wife and daughters in a storm, secretly serves Loki?

Randolph helps Loki because the god promises to bring back his dead family. A former history professor, he lost them while hunting for the Sword of Summer off the coast.

In Magnus Chase, which giant ash tree holds all Nine Worlds in its branches?

Yggdrasil is home to a dragon, a hawk and four stags in Norse myth. The second Magnus Chase novel was promoted with an animated trailer explaining how the tree works.

In Magnus Chase, as in Norse myth, which of the Nine Worlds is the home of ordinary humans?

Midgard is simply Earth, the world where Magnus grew up. Thor is its protector, which is why a missing hammer leaves every human at risk of invasion by giants.

Heimdall stands guard in Magnus Chase over which rainbow bridge leading to the realm of the gods?

Bifrost is foretold to be destroyed by the forces of fire at Ragnarok. Some scholars have proposed that the bridge originally stood for the Milky Way rather than a rainbow.

Samirah al-Abbas, the Valkyrie engaged to Amir in Magnus Chase, dreams of which career?

Pilot is the goal, and part of why Sam enjoys being a Valkyrie is that the job lets her fly. Her late mother Ayesha was a doctor who met Loki as one of her patients.

Alex Fierro, the shape-shifting child of Loki in Magnus Chase, fights with which golden weapon?

A garrote wire sharp enough to slice the hardest rock is what Alex carries into battle. Sam, who shares a divine parent with Alex, fights with an axe instead.

Which craft did Alex Fierro in Magnus Chase learn from a supportive grandfather?

Pottery runs deep in the Fierro family, who were making it long before the Aztecs. In the books Alex can sculpt clay figures and bring them to life.

The Hammer of Thor won which American Library Association prize for its portrayal of Alex Fierro?

Stonewall Book Award winners are chosen for merit relating to the LGBTQ experience. The 2017 children's prize recognised the gender-fluid Alex, whom the association called a hero.

Hearth, the deaf elf who watches over Magnus Chase, works his magic by casting what?

Runestones power a kind of magic no elf had taken seriously in a long time, and every casting drains Hearthstone's strength. He carries two sets, one of wood and one of stone.

In The Hammer of Thor, Loki arranges for the Valkyrie Sam to marry which giant holding the hammer?

Thrym expects Sam, but Alex Fierro takes her place as the bride. The swap echoes an old Norse poem in which Thor himself is dressed as a bride to get his hammer back.

Thomas Jefferson Jr., a Civil War soldier in Magnus Chase, is the son of which one-handed Norse god?

Tyr is the god of courage and trial by combat, and his children cannot turn down a challenge. That compulsion is exactly how T.J. met his death on the battlefield.

Mallory Keen learns in The Ship of the Dead that her mother is which queen of the Aesir?

Frigg came to her daughter disguised as an old woman on the day Mallory died, giving her two knives and persuading her to disarm a bomb she had been tricked into planting.

In Magnus Chase, what are the heroic dead who train in Hotel Valhalla for Ragnarok called?

Einherjar earn their place by dying bravely with a weapon in hand. Magnus qualifies by facing a giant with a sword in his grip to protect strangers on a bridge.

Aboard Naglfar in The Ship of the Dead, Magnus Chase takes on Loki in which kind of Norse contest?

A flyting is a ritual exchange of insults, a duel fought entirely with words. Magnus wins by refusing to insult Loki at all and speaking of his love for his friends instead.

Which god, alive only as a severed head, is the boss of Blitzen and Hearthstone in Magnus Chase?

Mimir lost his body in the war between the two tribes of gods. Blitzen and Hearthstone serve him in return for a drink from his well, a debt cancelled when their first quest succeeds.

Which goddess, half beauty and half corpse, tempts Magnus Chase with a reunion with his dead mother?

Hel rules the realm of the unworthy dead and is herself a daughter of Loki. Her price for the reunion is the Sword of Summer, and Magnus turns her down.

In Magnus Chase, Loki is said to have become a mare and given birth to which eight-legged horse?

Sleipnir is described in the myths as the best of all horses. In the Hotel Valhalla guidebook he tells the story of his own birth himself.

Before dying gave him a warrior's strength, Magnus Chase lived with which health condition?

Asthma and a scrawny build made Magnus weak while he was alive. As one of the honoured dead he gains extreme strength and endurance instead.

Mallory Keen, a Hotel Valhalla fighter killed disarming a car bomb in 1972, was born in which city?

Belfast is her birthplace, and the books place her death on Bloody Friday, 21 July 1972, a real day of bombings in the city. Loki had tricked her into planting the device.

What must Magnus Chase drink in The Ship of the Dead to gain the eloquence to out-talk Loki?

Kvasir's mead was made from the blood of a god born from the other gods' saliva, mixed with honey by the two dwarves who killed him. Whoever drinks it gains a poet's skill with words.

Which sea goddess, hoarder of all that sinks, surrenders the Sword of Summer to Magnus Chase?

Ran drags a net that collects anything lost at sea, the sword included. She also owns one of Idun's magic apples but forgets to eat it, which is why she looks so old.

Which sea god and grandfather of Magnus Chase rescues the crew in The Ship of the Dead?

Njord is the god of seafaring and fishing, and a sworn enemy of the other sea powers. He snatches the crew from Aegir's nine daughters and sends them to find his ex-wife in the land of ice.

Which legendary blade in The Hammer of Thor cuts wounds that only its own whetstone can close?

Skofnung comes from the Icelandic sagas, where it is the sword of the Danish king Hrolf Kraki and its wounds need the matching stone. In the novel Loki needs it to cut his bonds.

Thomas Jefferson Jr. of Magnus Chase's Hotel Valhalla died storming which Confederate stronghold?

Fort Wagner in South Carolina was stormed in July 1863, an assault remembered for the valour of the Union's Black soldiers. T.J., whose mother had escaped slavery, was one of them.

Which real Arab chronicler of the Volga Vikings is an ancestor of Samirah al-Abbas in Magnus Chase?

Ibn Fadlan set out from the Abbasid court in the tenth century and left an eyewitness account of a Viking ship burial. His writings later inspired the film The 13th Warrior.

Which wife of Loki walks out on him at the climax of the Magnus Chase novel The Ship of the Dead?

Sigyn spent ages catching snake venom in a bowl to spare her bound husband pain. When Loki boasts that he stands alone she leaves, and Magnus points out that nobody cares for him now.

In The Hammer of Thor, Magnus Chase and Hearthstone seize the cursed ring and gold of which dwarf?

Andvari's ring carries a curse that soon drives Hearthstone's father, Alderman, insane. The pair took the treasure to pay a debt the father demanded over the death of Hearthstone's brother.

Hunding, who writes much of Magnus Chase's Hotel Valhalla guidebook under orders, has which job?

Bellhop Hunding only writes because his boss Helgi, the manager, makes him, and he sounds more fed up with every section. The guide covers the Nine Worlds, their gods and their monsters.

Halfborn Gunderson, 1,200 years a guest of Magnus Chase's Hotel Valhalla, is which kind of warrior?

A berserker fought in a trance-like fury, and Halfborn does it with an axe in each hand. He is also the on-again, off-again boyfriend of his hallmate Mallory Keen.