SYNOPSIS: THOR'S FIST



Thor's Fist is a Fantasy/Time Travel/Sci-Fi novel based against
a background of Norse Mythology ... on an alternate time-line.



Jerry Haskins is a star salesman for Nationwide Insurance.  He
has two cars, a nice home in the suburbs, and a lovely wife
named Janet.  While returning home one rainy night, the car
skids off the road and overturns.  Janet is thrown clear, but
Jerry is fatally injured.

As Jerry lies dying, a little Hindu mystic, Jarhawalal
Mukkerjee, appears on the scene.  The little man cannot bear to
see Janet's grief, and informs her that there is a way to save
Jerry's life ... his life ... not his body.

"There is no future, only the past," the little man explains.
"Life is like a spear thrusting into the void.  Our present
lives are merely the tip of the spear point, but our existence
extends back along the spear shaft to the hand of the Creator.
A philosopher once said, I think, therefore, I am.  He was not
entirely correct.  He should have said, I remember, therefore I
am.  A man is the total of his memories.  It is possible to send
these memories back along the shaft of the spear to a past
incarnation.

#


Jar Haz the Viking and his war-dog, Bryn, a huge mastiff bitch
are fighting their last fight, alone against overwhelming odds.
In his berserk rage, and to his surprise, he wins ... but not
without a grave wound to the dog, and the loss of his left hand.
He slides, dying, to the bottom of a slope, and a large boulder
rolls to a stop on the stump of his arm, stopping the bleeding.
The Viking sees a large raven fly up until it is out of sight.

The raven returns, and Jar Haz sees the Shining Maids Of Battle,
the Valkyries, coming down the Rainbow Bridge to take him to
Valhalla.

#

Jerry Haskins awakes to find himself looking at a big raven
sitting on the rock pining his arm, and, hearing faint exultant
singing, looks up to see a line of shining horsemen riding up
the flank of a towering thunderhead.  He convinces himself that
it must be a flight of swans.  He hears voices behind him out of
his range of vision, and thinks one might be Janet's.

While he is trying to come to grips with his situation ...  "I
exit one life flat on my back and dying, and enter another, flat
on my back, and dying," ... a huge boulder rotates and lifts,
and out of a concealed tunnel steps a dwarf.

The little man is about four and a half feet tall, with a rugged
face and a short greyish beard.  He is clad in tunic, trousers
cross-gartered to the knee, breastplate and helmet.

The dwarf looks at the corpse-littered battlefield and says, in
a guttural Norse dialect that Jerry is surprised to find he
understands, "Humph, not a bad job o' work ... fer a mortal."

The dwarf, Brokk, puts a tourniquet on Jerry's arm and carries
him and the wounded war-dog down into the underground world of
Svartheim, land of the Dwarfs.

#

Jerry wakes in an underground room to the sound of a hammer
tapping, and a feminine voice singing nearby.  He is astounded
to find that the stump of his arm and his, and the dog's, many
other wounds have healed.

The eager whines of the war-dog bring Brokk's lovely elfin wife.
The beautiful sprite is delighted at Jerry's return to
consciousness.  Brokk enters.

Jerry is informed that he has been, "wanderin' in the Realm o'
Weird fer nigh t' three fortn'ts." Six weeks!  No wonder his arm
is healed!

Freya, the elf-woman, nurses Jerry back to health.  Jerry visits
Brokk's forge, where he marvels at the dwarf's array of weapons
and armor.  "'Tis what we dwarfs do," says Brook.  "We are
miners and workers o' metal."

Jerry is told about the world into which the little Hindu has
propelled him.  Brokk's home is in Svartheim, the underground
dwarfholm in the mountains in the south of the land called
Skandia.  There is Midgard, the World of Men, and far to the
north, ever-frozen, bitterly cold Jotunheim, the Land of the
Giants ... and at the top of the Ultimate Peak, Asgard, City of
the Gods.

Jerry begins to suspect that not only did he go back in time ...
he has changed time-lines as well!

Brokk shows Jerry what he has been working on ... a finely
crafted articulated steel hand, and shows him how to work the
hand via a system of straps that go up his arm and across his
back to the opposite shoulder.

Over a period of time Jerry becomes so proficient, the steel
hand becomes a part of the man.  The steel hand earns Jerry the
name of "Thor's Fist".

Brokk councils Jerry that he must be a warrior of note to
survive in a world where "he who fights best, lives longest."

Jerry mentions that he had been on the fencing team at college,
and the dwarf fashions him a rapier.

#

During his coma, Jerry has babbled about his wife, Janet, and as
Brokk put it, "chancy journeys on th' misty river o' time."

Freya, the elf-woman, insists that Brokk take Jerry to Asgard to
seek the help of the gods in finding a way for Jerry to get back
to his Janet.

The journey must go from Svartheim, in the far south, across
Midgard, across the Blue Earth ... Trollheim, land of the Cursed
of Odin, the trolls ... monstrous creatures "wi' two heads, more
arms an' legs than ever Odin gave t' dwarf, or elf, or giant, or
man, or goblin," ... across Ginungagap, the Chasm of Chasms, and
finally across Jotunheim to the Ultimate Peak.

"Not exactly a stroll down Market Street," comments Jerry.

Brokk tells Jerry that he is waiting the arrival of one to guide
them on their journey, Ulf the Far Traveled ... a goblin.

Jerry meets Ulf.  The goblin has spindly arms and legs, a
twisted hump, a short trunk instead of a nose, and a mouthful of
fangs.  Jerry tries to conceal his shock, then he sees the
goblin's eyes, the humor, good-will, and compassion mirrored in
them, and never again thinks of Ulf as ugly.

Ulf laughs, a deep, warm laugh.  "I congratulate you, Jerry Jar
Haz.  Most of the man-kind faint at seeing me for the first time."

Jerry and Ulf become good friends.

#

Jerry tells Brokk that he was a member of the fencing team at
college, and explains the use of the rapier.  Brokk crafts him
one.  The dwarf also fashions an articulated steel hand powered
by straps running across his back to the opposite shoulder to
replace the one lost by the Viking.  With it, Jerry can crush
rocks or tear chunks from an opponent's shield.  The steel hand
earns him the name, Thor's Fist.

Jerry practices with his rapier, and his fencing style is deadly
against the cut and slash of the period ... and the steel hand
is devastating.

#

Brokk, Ulf, Freya and Jerry set out for Asgard.  The raven,
Odin's Messenger returns.  With her elfin communication with the
animals, Freya informs Jerry that the bird has carried his story
to the gods, and that Odin has taken an interest in helping him
find his Janet.

#

They meet three giant brothers nine to twelve feet tall.
Hrimgrimner, Hradalfar, and Hradnir, who are old acquaintances
of Brokk's, are on their way to Svartheim to trade for weapons
to help them in their revolt against Thrym the Frost King who is
a ruthless tyrant.

#

Jerry witnesses an altercation between members of a mercenary
band when three object to the five who are about to rape a young
girl.  The three quickly slay the rapists, and rescue the girl.

Jerry persuades the three, Olin, Lars, and Orm, to take service
under Brokk.  After subduing their fear of the goblin and the
Little People, they do so.

Brokk's party is set upon by the mercenaries of a local baron,
who are repulsed after a bloody action.  Brokk knows the they
will come again.  Freya telepathically sends out a plea for help
to the elves of the forest, and contacts Gorm of the Woods
Elves, who agrees to meet with her.

Gorm is one of the Tall Elves who are indistinguishable from the
human-kind.  He is a Skald ... a singer of history ... and as
such, the little harp he carries is more protection than the
heaviest armor, as no one would dare harm a skald.

Instead of doing battle, however, the Singer proposes the use of
"elfin magic" ... telepathy and telekinesis.

To demonstrate his point, Gorm causes Ulf, who is an old friend,
to disappear and reappear before the eyes of the group.  "I did
nothing to the goblin," the Singer explains, "I but placed in
your minds the thought that he was not there.  Your eyes,
believing this, saw him not."

Brokk chuckles.  "I see.  When th' Baron's men return ye but
wave yer hand, and we disappear."

The Tall Elf explains that it is not that easy.  To vanish one
man before a small company is no great thing, but to vanish a
group, their cart and horses, required more.  He summons more
elves.

One of the arriving elves is a chubby sprite named Krupp the
Round.  On hearing that Brokk's party is for Asgard, Krupp
determines to accompany them.

When the Baron's men come, the elves link minds, and the
mercenaries see nothing.

Krupp the Round, joining the party, finds that his kinswoman,
Freya, knows only a little of her elfin heritage, having married
young, and moved with Brokk to Svartheim.  He undertakes to
expand her knowledge.  Young Maryam, the girl rescued by Olin
and his friends, listens to the elf's teachings.  Krupp has no
hesitation in discussing these things before the girl as, one,
she has been adopted by Brokk and Freya, and two, she is a
human, and incapable of putting the knowledge to use.

#

Jerry discovers that all goblins suffer from a phobia of running
water.  Jerry is aware that all goblins, except a few Rovers
like Ulf, who have broken with their kind, are filled with hate
for all otherkind, and wage ceaseless war.  Brokk explains that
in ancient times Odin tired of their cruelty, drove them into a
land surrounded by rivers and streams and laid a crippling fear
of running water on them.  Centuries later, the goblins broke
out of their prison, but the fear remained.

This fear causes Ulf to avoid one trail, and unknowingly lead
the party into the forest of flesh-eating trees.  They escape
with only the loss of a horse and a mule.

#

Orm, riding point with Ulf, spots a mercenary sentry whom he
recognizes as one of a Free Company with which he and Lars and
Olin once served.

Hjalmar the Axeman led the only such band that was comprised of
fighters, not drunken hangmen.

Word is passed back to the Axeman, who rides out to meet with
Brokk.  Brokk hires the Company.  Hjalmar rides back to his camp
to warn the men of the arrival of a goblin and a dwarf.  Brokk's
party, following, is set upon by henchmen of a local thane.
Hjalmar and a group ride to their assistance, but when the melee
is over, Ulf and Maryam are found to be missing.

A rescue is complicated by the fact that Ethelstane Keep, the
thane's castle, is perched atop a two hundred foot spire of rock
an equal distance from the rim of the canyon in which the spire
sits.  It can only be approached by a natural causeway
additionally protected by a fifteen foot gap, and drawbridge and
portcullis.

Hjalmar's remark that they would have to be birds sets Jerry to
thinking of hang gliders.  He determines that there is a hill
from which to launch such an assault.  The local villagers are
willing to do anything to rid themselves of the evil thane, and
provide Jerry with parchment from every window in the dorp.

Jerry sets the women to scraping the parchment thin enough to
see through, and the men to constructing frames from split reeds
according to a diagram he draws for Brokk.  A tall tree serves
as a point from which to launch training flights.  After a few
broken bones, but no fatalities, Jerry has his "airborne
rangers".

#

In her cell in the dungeons below Ethelstane Keep, Maryam is
terrified for herself and for Ulf, who is to be tortured for the
amusement of the thane and his men.

The girl finds herself thinking of Krupp's lessons on
telekinesis.  Almost unconsciously, she forms in her mind a
picture of the bowl in which her food had been served.  Sees it
rise and speed across the cell to smash against the wall, and
wills.  To her surprise, the bowl does so.  She visualizes the
cell door bursting outward, and wills.  The door rips from its
hinges.  Maryam frees Ulf, but before they can go far, Elford,
the thane's torturer steps from a door concealed in the wall,
and confronts them.  In a panic, Maryam lashes out with her as
yet uncontrolled power, and smashes the torturer to bloody ruin.

The secret door from which Elford had come proves to be an
escape route to the foot of the spire.  Ulf arms himself from
the torture room, and he and the girl descend to the canyon
floor.  They hear sounds of battle from the castle atop the
pinnacle.

The battle for the castle is carried, but Orm, the young
mercenary, is killed.  Lars, Krupp, and a band of villagers who
joined in the attack, see the Valkyries take Orm's spirit up
into the clouds.

#

Ulf and the girl find the trail leading up out of the canyon.
At one point the path crosses a bridge over a rushing waterfall.
Maryam slips on the wet planks and plunges into the maelstrom.
The goblin sees her head surface twice, then disappear.  He
searches for over an hour before giving up.  As the goblin
proceeds up the path, he is attacked by a huge bear, and left
with a broken leg.  He drags himself to the top and is found by
Hjalmar's men, but it is three days before he comes out of his
coma to tell the band of Maryam's disappearance.

Young Olin Longshanks, her rescuer, is devastated, and insists
on searching for her himself.  Brokk, Freya, Jerry, and the
other two mercenaries descend into the canyon to look.

#

Maryam, battered and bruised, is carried downstream.  She feels
a hand on her ankle pulling her down, and awakes in a dimly
lighted grotto with a pool in the center.  She is frightened to
see a fur-covered humanoid emerge from the pool with a fat trout
in its mouth.  The creature resembles a ten year old girl with
sleek golden fur.  Her face is a cross of the human, and the
round features of an otter.

The little river sprite is friendly as a puppy, and curious as a
kitten.  She offers Maryam the trout.  For three days the water
nymph tries to be helpful, but Maryam cannot get her to
understand that she wants to get back to the surface.

The otter-girl has gone fishing, and Maryam, alone in the
grotto, hears Freya's voice in her head, answered by the river
nymph's chattering, then Freya addresses Maryam directly.

"The water-sprite is coming for you.  Follow her into the pool
and through the tunnel.  It's not far, and the water's not
deep."

Back in camp Maryam is wondering.  "I could have talked to her
all along, and I left you all worrying about me."

"Why," Ulf wanted to know, "didn't you use your power to get out
of the grotto?"

"I didn't know how.  All I know is how to throw things."

Krupp and Freya are surprised at the girl's ability to use even
a little part of the "elfin gift".  Neither they nor Maryam know
that an occasional human has ESP powers, those humans possessing
such gifts hiding them from their fellows in fear of being taken
for a witch or an elf.

Krupp helps the girl.  Her power is much weaker than that of the
elves, but sufficient to protect her in a melee.

The party resumes the trek to Asgard.

As they near the frontier of the Blue Earth, the radioactive
land of the trolls, they find a wounded giant.  It is Hradalfar,
one of the giants known to Brokk.

Freya uses her elfin gift to speed the giant's recovery, and
Hradalfar tells what happened to him and his brothers.

"We were returning to Jotunheim with the weapons to overthrow
wicked Thrym the Frost King, when we met a giant who told us he
represented a cabal who wished to join us.  We were going to
meet with his friends when we were set upon by trolls.  We had
been betrayed.  Thrym had done the unthinkable, he had made a
pact with the trolls.  Hradnir be slain, and Hrimgrimnir taken
prisoner.  He is being held in a cavern a few leagues from
here."

Brokk explains to the others why he must attempt to rescue a
giant, the traditional enemy of both dwarf and man.  Years
before Hrimgrimnir had saved Brokk's life.

Krupp the Round, elfin warrior, is also Krupp the Seneschal,
Keeper of the Ancient Runes.  He recognizes the description of
the cave in which Hrimgrimner is being held, from the
description of a natural stone wall screening the entrance, and
a rock formation resembling a wolf's head.  He tells how the
Blue Earth came to be radioactive.

#

Krupp's voice took on the tone and cadence of one reciting by
rune.  "In the time of Halfin Wolfhead, over ten thousand years
ago," the little man said, "the elves were many in the Valley of
the River Om.  Many were the hills made hollow to house their
villages.  Chief of these villages was Wolfhaven, seat of Halfin
Wolfhead, the strongest of the elves and their acknowledged
king.

"One night came there a mighty whistling in the upper air.  The
eerie sound grew and grew until it became a roar to deafen the
ears.  With it came such a rush of wind that flattened great
trees and blew away the very soil from the ground.

"The elves huddled in their mounds in mortal terror.  Then was
there a mighty concussion as some great object struck the earth,
sending waves like the waters of the Salt Sea rippling through
the very rock of the elf hills."

Sounds like a meteor, a big one, Jerry thought.

"The People cringed in fear for many days before any dared
venture from the mounds.  It was Halfin Wolfhead the King, who
first sallied forth to discover what had happened.

"It was then that they found the forest leveled, and saw a great
pall of smoke rising in the air many leagues to the north.  At
the base of the smoke was a frightening blue glow."

A radioactive meteor!  Jerry shivered.

"Not even Halfin the King had the courage to venture into the
Blue Land that glowed in the night.

"The elves of the Valley of the River Om hunted to the east and
to the west and to the south, but none dared venture to the
north.

"A generation passed.  And another.  And another.

"Halfin Wolfssen, great grandson of The Wolf, ruled in the
Valley when the first of the monsters came down upon them.
Nightmare creatures with more heads, arms, and legs than ever
Odin gave to elf or dwarf or giant or goblin or man.

"More hideous than goblins.  Without soul or humanity.  It was
Halfin Wolfssen who gave them the name of troll."

Krupp shuddered.

"For three generations the elves of the Valley of the River Om
warred with the trolls, then abandoned the Valley to move south,
away from the monsters, the Soulless Ones.

"Wolfhaven was the last bastion of the elves to be given up, and
is remembered in the Runes."

#

The entrance to Wolfhaven is defended by the wall, with a large
killing ground before it.  How to attack without great losses?

Jerry fills hollow gourds with brandy to make Molotov Cocktails
... fire bombs ... while Krupp and Lars search for one of the hidden entrances that are common to all Elf Mounds.

The battle plan is for Jerry and Brokk to lead the frontal
assault, while Krupp and a contingent infiltrate through a
tunnel, and free Hrimgrimnir.

When time comes for the attack, the wounded giant, Hradalfar, is
found to be missing.

The battle does not go as planned.  Instead of defending the
entrance, when the fire bombs come over the wall, the trolls
simply close the huge rock doors, trapping Krupp's troop inside.
The elf and his men stand to be massacred.

At this moment, Hradalfar returns with a dozen giants, who smash
the rock doors with their huge clubs.  The battle is carried,
and Hrimgrimnir rescued.

In gratitude, the giants escort Brokk and his mercenaries across
Trollheim, to Ginnungagap, the bottomless Chasm.  A bargain is
struck with the Ice Elves, who fly the party across to Jotunheim
on their flying dragons ... huge pterodactyls.  Hrimgrimnir
assigns his brother, Hradalfar, and six giants to accompany
Brokk through the frozen land to the Plain of Vigard, half way
up the Ultimate Peak, where those seeking audience with the gods
wait to be called.

The Plain of Vigard is broad and temperate of climate, being
above the frigid jet-stream that keeps Jotunheim a frozen waste.
At the far end, a translucent rainbow arches up into the clouds
... the Bifrost Bridge that leads to the City of the Gods.  At
the foot of the arch is a gatehouse, manned by Heimdall, the
Watcher. 

Brokk and Hjalmar the Axeman set up camp.  Jerry and Ulf go to
the gatehouse.  Heimdall the Watcher informs Jerry that he is
expected, but must go alone.  Ulf returns to camp.

Something about the Watcher clicks in Jerry's head.  Heimdall
the Watcher is an android!

Jerry is directed into a small chamber that turns out to be a
high-speed elevator, and disembarks into a hallway lighted by
fluorescents, and peopled by men and women of great beauty.

A guide leads him to a monster computer room where he is greeted
by a massive redheaded man who grins, and says, "Welcome to
Asgard, Jerry Jar Haz called Thor's Fist ... I'm Thor."

#

When Jerry recovers from his shock, he wonders how all this is
affecting his Skandian friends.  Pe-Trok the Vanir, called Thor,
explains.  "Your friends know nothing of this.  They are seeing
and living exactly what their mythology tells them.  They are
even now visiting Orm, and many old friends in Valhalla."

Pe-Trok introduces Jerry to the other 'gods', and is given a
full explanation.

#

The 'gods' have taken a great interest in Jerry ... their first
time-traveler, and have decided to help him.

Ten thousand years ago the Vanir arrived on earth via shipwreck.
Their nuclear drive started to melt down, but they had time to
salvage a good bit of their stores and equipment.

The Vanir are virtually immortal, so must continually seek new
planets to colonize.  They choose only those planets with low
evolution, and would never have come to earth except for the
crash.

Their arrival triggered several disasters.  The radioactivity
bred the trolls, as the Vanir had been unaware of humans in the
area, or they could have saved them.  When they initiated their
giant radio beam to S.O.S their home planet, the energy released
diverted a frigid jet-stream over the land of the giants,
turning it into a land of everlasting ice and snow.

The Vanir were far more adept in telepathy, hypnosis, and
telekinesis than the elves, and even more rigid in their code of
privacy.

The Vanir felt a great responsibility toward the planet they had
so unintentionally damaged.

For several hundred years they managed to maintain relations
with the locals, but the goblins murdered a number of the Vanir.
In retaliation, they herded the Twisted Ones into a land
surrounded by streams and rivers, and linking minds, laid a
deathly fear of running water.

During the Goblin War, Pe-Trok decided to mask their real
ability by assuming the guise of the local hierarchy of gods,
himself playing the role of Thor.  Mounted on anti-grav sleds,
and with laser thunderbolts, the goblins were safely isolated
for centuries.

The Vanir began to receive visits from the various races,
seeking help from their gods.  Meaning only to conceal their
real nature, they set up a "Valhalla" manned with androids, and
did what they could to remedy some of the harm they had
inadvertently caused.

#

The Vanir have a problem.  Although virtually immortal, every
couple of thousand years they begin to grow senile.  On their
home planet, this is treated by hypnosis combined with a drug
found only on Vanir.

Most of the supply of this drug is lost in the crash, and the
Vanir's only recourse is to place those affected in cryogenic
sleep until a substitute can be found.

One of the engineers has developed a "think-net" in which
thoughts can be absorbed in a field of free electrons, and
retained.  However not just random thoughts ... a person's whole
recollection.

Could these memories be infused into one of the cryogenically
preserved Vanir?  Yes, but it would only be creating a clone,
and the society could not run on clones.

The think-net is deemed impractical until Pe-Trok, known as Thor
is taking a vacation in Skandian disguise of a wandering
man-at-arms.  In a tavern, the members of a Free Company are
celebrating their brave captain's death and assumed rise to
Valhalla.  "If the gods be not false, if the gods have honor,
Olaf Knutssen be even now drinkin' a horn of mead with the
Allfather."

Pe-Trok gets an idea.  Why not a real Valhalla? The Vanir are
masters of hypnosis.  When a particular warrior distinguishes
himself and is killed, just before death, a group of mento-techs
place the think-net helmet, and save his memories to be infused
into one of the sleeping Vanir.  A stint in Valhalla, where the
dead "Hero" and the blank-minded Vanir are both brought to an
understanding and live together in harmony.  The Vanir being
restored, and the human given a two thousand year extension on
his life-expectancy.

Details are worked out.  The mythology says Odin has two scout
ravens, Hugin and Munin, who bring him news of battles.  Breed a
race of intelligent ravens and plant a couple in every flock.  A
team of mento-techs could be sent to preserve the dying 'hero's'
thoughts and return him to Valhalla.

Through mass hypnosis, both the 'hero' and those around him see
the Valkyries descending a rainbow and carrying the 'hero's'
spirit aloft.

#

The full explanation takes several weeks.  Pe-Trok tells Jerry
that his arrival through time is the most exciting thing in ten
thousand years.  The reason the Vanir left him to trek across
Skandia instead of sending the Valkyries for him, was to give
them time to resurrect and up-date a short-range time machine
project had been shelved.  They are now ready to try an
experiment to return Jerry to the moment he arrived in the body
of Jar Haz.  They are convinced that the voice he had heard was
that of Janet.

The entire party, including Hjalmar's mercenaries, accompany
Jerry back through time.  By Vanirean hypnosis, the Skandians
believe they passed through a mysterious tunnel in the Land of
Weird, when in reality all they did was walk down a hall, and
through the time-chamber.

The party arrives moments before Brokk emerges from the tunnel
beneath the rock, and take cover.  Janet and the Hindu are
there, but in tenuous form, as they had no bodies to inhabit.

After Brokk carries Jerry and the war-dog underground, the troop
emerges.  Janet is introduced.  Jerry and Janet cannot embrace
since Janet has no substance.

Om-Jak, the Vanir who accompanied Jerry, takes the Hindu aside
to discuss the transmigration of Jerry through time.  He returns
to tell Jerry and Janet that the little mystic used his power to
search for an avatar for Janet to infuse.  He has found one in
the person of the wife of one of the warriors who accompanied
Leif Ericssen to America, and who is dying of wounds received in
a battle with Native Americans.  The woman is a distant ancestor
of Janet's, and it is possible for Mukkergee to do for her what
he did for Jerry ... but that means Jerry must go to America to
find her.

#

Jerry and the troop set sail for America.



* * * * *