VALHALLA 11
 

The Mystery of The Magic Mead
 

Synopsis by Henning Kure
 

It's a dark and stormy night. Two enormous, dark figures have just failed

at assaninating Odin in a dark alley.They leave a clue which makes Odin

behave in a rather reckless manner: He mocks his ravens so they refuse

to do their work of intelligence, and he even renounces using his

allseeing eye in the sealed well of Mimer, - omniscience is a mixture of

curiosity plus superior intelligence and an acute sense of deduction, as

he arrogantly points out to Mimer's head. The clue - two daggers bearing the names of the owners, lead to the two dwarves, Fjalar and Galar!

But weren't the thugs huge? Sure, but the dwarves are infamous

assasins. They were disguised. Elementary my dear Mimer!

Of course, the dwarves easily prove their innocense regarding the

attempted murder, they were playing dices with Loke that night.If they

were going to commit a murder, a thing they would never dream of, they

wouldn't have failed, further, they would have left a rune callingcard

behind, a common courtesy towards the customers, and not their

tools.They are strictly professional, they claim, quite indignant at

Odin's accusation.Odin has taken them and Loke by surprise in the early

hours of the morning, they are quite drunk all three of them.Loke is

entertaining with the tale of how he once used his magic to change Quark

into a chicken, thereby outsmarting Udgaardsloke. The stark raving mad

dwarves respond laughing with a tale of they "finished" a hysterical

giantbitch by dropping a millstone on her head.

The dwarves claim that their daggers have been stolen by the giants

Suttung and Bauge, and they describe how they once brewed an extremely

costy mead, (Loke's attention is awoken), with a secret ingredient,

anyone who drank of the mead would become very, very wise and inspired.

As a matter of fact, they¥ve been drinking the last of it this very

night. (Loke looks with amazement at his drinkinghorn).

But one day, flashback, Bauge, whom they didn¥t the know, showed up and

wanted to buy the mead. They would never, ever sell the mead to anyone.

Shotly after that event, Suttung accused them of killing his parents and

demanded the mead as a penance. Of course, they were absolutely

innocent, but circumstances forced them to turn over the mead, and just

then, they found out that Suttung and Bauge were brothers.A conspiracy

to trick them out of their mead.

Loudly, the dwarves took an oath of vengeance and therefore Suttung took

their tools from them right there. Loke tells that Bauge is a

Vanaheim-hoodlum and Suttung is his rather violent brother.

Both of them are too stupid for words.

Odin rides on Sleipnir to Suttung in Vanaheim. He's received by the

daughter, Gunlød, who looks and behaves like the typical cool-hot

Hollywood vamp.Her giant-father isn't at home, she tells him. The idea

that her father and her uncle should have killed her grandparents, to

extract a penance from the dwarves, is preposterous. The giantbrothers

adored their parents. And Gunlød can actually prove that Fjalar and Galar

did kill her grandparents, their callingcard was found at the scene of

the crime. It was the only way the lamebrained father of hers could ever

figure out who the killers were. But then, why didn't Suttung just

avenge himself in the usual way?, Odin wonders.Perhaps because it would

rouse the dwarvenpeople to seek bloodvengeance! -Odin is no longer in

doubt that Suttung and Bauge tried to kill him to get the Asir to avenge

him and kill the dangerous dwarves, before the dwarves could kill the

giants. - But normally, Fjalar and galar only kill for money.So who could

have paid for the murdering of the grandparents? Gunlød hadn't thougt of

that, she turns pale and tells Odin to leave immediately.