#icefall

Quote 7

"In their flight across the sky, they stirred up the winds and trampled the clouds, and as Thor coursed over a lonely fjord, he spied a single nanny goat below. Though old, he could see she was a noble beast, and had given her long life in service to her masters. And as her reward, berserker men were about to slaughter her for meat.

"Thor descended in his chariot but did not reach the warriors in time to save her. So the Thunderer waited until after she was butchered and then gathered up the nanny goat's skin. With it, he flew to his father Odin's great hall. And there he laid the skin upon the ground, and with Mjollnir restored to him, he used the hammer's power to fill the skin with flesh and bone and bring her back to life.

"And as soon as the nanny goat leapt to her feet, she pranced right up to one of Odin's enormous hall doors and butted it with her head, asking to be let in."

At that image of my Hilda, I laugh, this time with tears.

"And behold," Alric says. "The great doors opened, the goat was welcomed, and in she walked to find a place to sleep among our fallen heroes who wait in Odin's hall."

Quote 122

– Icefall, Matthew J. Kirby

A storyteller tells a version of the story of Thor's hammer being stolen and ends it with the main character's pet goat being welcomed in Valhalla after she was mistakenly slaughtered.

"I'll tell them how I survive it. I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away. That's when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I've seen someone do. It's like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years.

But there are much worse games to play."

– The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins