The Ship of the Dead

The Ship of the Dead is the third and final book in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series by Rick Riordan.

Development
The book title was announced at the back of The Hammer of Thor. An iTunes preview containing the first three chapters of the books was released on September 16th, 2017.

Synopsis
Magnus Chase, a once-homeless teen, is a resident of the Hotel Valhalla and one of Odin's chosen warriors. As the son of Frey, the god of summer, fertility, and health, Magnus isn't naturally inclined to fight. But he has strong and steadfast friends, including Hearthstone the elf, Blitzen the dwarf, and Samirah the Valkyrie, and together they have achieved brave deeds, such as defeating Fenris Wolf and battling giants for Thor's hammer, Mjölnir. Now Magnus and his crew must sail to the farthest borders of Jotunheim and Niflheim in pursuit of Asgard's greatest threat. Will they succeed in their perilous journey, or is Ragnarok lurking on the horizon?

Meeting Percy and traveling to the Chase Mansion
Percy Jackson gives Magnus a lesson in surviving on the ocean. Magnus introduces Jack to Percy and Annabeth Chase, who are surprised the sword can talk. Jack sniffs around Percy's pocket and finds Anaklusmos, who he reveals is female. Jack proceeds to flirt with Riptide. Annabeth, Percy, Magnus and Alex Fierro have lunch, while Alex tells them they should have already left to find Loki's ship located between Niflheim and Jotunheim. Percy gives Magnus a piece of advice that sea gods are vain and possessive when it comes to their weapons, and also tells him he has a good team.

Alex and Magnus go to Randolph's mansion, where they find a dead wolf at the entrance. Another wolf is seen looking for a book but is killed by Alex. Magnus finds some notes scribbled by Randolph, the older notes on the Sword of Summer. Alex feels that the newer notes mean that Randolph made a possible plan to stop Loki.

Leaving Valhalla
Alex receives a message from T.J. that they are leaving that day. Magnus travels back to Valhalla and meets Mallory Keen, Halfborn Gunderson and Thomas Jefferson Jr. He magnifies his handkerchief and summons the Big Banana—which is named by Alex for its yellow color—and plan to pick up Blitzen and Hearthstone on the way. Magnus mentions Bolverk to Hunding, who looks like he has seen a ghost.

Aegir's Court
When Magnus and his crew talk to each other, they are overheard talking about mead by the Nine Billow Maidens and brought to their court. Their father, Aegir, grants them guest rights and tells them they are safe as long as they don't have anyone named Magnus Chase among them. The crew is surprised to find Blitzen and Hearth as the main course. They manage to free them with excuses of Halaal and vegetarianism. Ran's eldest daughter figures out that the "blonde guy" is Magnus Chase and shouts this. Magnus tells Aegir that he himself will defeat Loki in a flyting contest and Aegir's revenge will be complete. Not wanting to offend his wife Ran, Aegir agrees to let them go if they win a fight against his daughters. The crew manages to escape with help from Magnus's grandfather Njord.

The Chat with Njord
While Magnus and the crew relax on board, Njord brags about his feet and how he won Skadi the ice giantess. They also talk about their upcoming quest. Njord explains that to get to the Ship of the Dead, they must pass Niflheim and Jotunheim, and have a very small chance of surviving even though they could seek help by Skadi along the way. He also explains that in order to win the flyting against Loki, Magnus must get Kvasir's Mead, the most valuable elixir protected by the giants. It was created from all of the Norse gods' spit, and out came Kvasir. But in order to kill the giants secretly guarding the mead, Blitz and Hearth are supposed to get Bolverk's whetstone. After much arguing, Magnus reluctantly lets Blitz and Hearth go on their duo quest.

Once Blitz and Hearth are whisked away onto their quest, Njord tells Magnus that his crew must travel to Jorvik and challenge the giant Hrungnir to battle. If they win, which is a slim chance they will, they will ask for the location of the mead, travel to the Ship of the Dead, and defeat Loki in the flyting and restore him to his bonds. On that note, Njord leaves.

Crew Members’ Background History
As the crew head to Jorvik, Mallory and Halfborn are disgruntled because of where they died: Mallory died in Ireland, and Halfborn died near Jorvik. TJ also had some bad experience: Since he was a son of Tyr, then he always could not resist one on one battles, even if it was a hopeless one, and that was why T.J. died in the first place. He told Magnus that even he had a one on one challenge to face himself and he should prepare for: the flyting with Loki.

More Tormenting Dreams
Magnus does not see how Sam could survive Ramadan. Sam argues that it actually helps her focus and feel clearer. When Magnus fell asleep from all the combined exertion when he put Jack on his chain again, he got to witness another horrid dream.

In the dream, Magnus saw how smart and respected Kvasir was treated. One day, he met the brothers Fjalar and Gjalar. They wanted help from him about paperwork that needed to be done, and Kvasir gets killed taking the bait.

Magnus’s next dream is about Alex Fierro. She was literally kicked out of her house by her intimidating dad. He angrily says that she should be normal. She says that she IS normal, and her dad replies with having so much potential with something about craft and art. With that, he slams the door behind him, officially disowning Alex. Then Magnus wakes back up with a start, in the Big Banana at Jorvik.

Meeting Hrungnir
When the crew arrived at Old York, sailing up the River Ouse, Halfborn and Mallory explain to watch out for the vatnavaettir, water horses. They could destroy the ship and stampede on it, drag them under, and make them drown. After arguing, Samirah, Halfborn, and Mallory decided to defend the ship while “Blond Guy”, T.J, and Alex go find the giant.

As T.J. was greeting everyone in York for not supporting the Confederacy, the three found a shop called the Jorvik Viking Centre, which they thought they should check out. When they tried to break in, Alex found out a part of a wall moved, which actually was the stone giant Hrungnir perfectly blending in to the limestone. Magnus tries to bargain with the giant, and for the location of Kvasir’s Mead, he wants to have a two-on-two duel with TJ. Alex seemed to know what he was talking about, so she accepted and led them to a pottery studio.

Creating Pottery Barn
T.J, Alex, and Magnus all go to a pottery studio and Alex paid the owner for 24-hour exclusive use. Alex explains to Magnus that while TJ fights the stone giant, they have to create a ceramic warrior to fight Hrungnir’s warrior. She gets to work with the pottery wheel as Magnus rolls coils of clay and TJ cut the slab and used the kiln.

Magnus asks if Alex has done pottery before, and she replies saying that her family had a company called the Fierro Ceramics, and her grandfather made pottery for a very long time. Then her father started making tons and tons of pots that were bad quality, and the company went down. Magnus remembers in his dream that her father said that she had so much potential in using the craft. He wonders if this is what she was talking about. By evening, the ceramic warrior’s pieces were all laid out.

Daily (Nightly?) Dreams
The three eat at Mr. Chippy, and they walk back to the pottery studio and Alex crashes for the night. Magnus marvels at how well TJ could be so calm for fighting such a tall monster the next day. TJ explains that whenever he’s hooked up in a challenge, he feels closer to his dad. The bayonet TJ uses was left for him by his father Tyr.

When the son of Tyr crashes, Magnus worries that he will lose the flyting with Loki, which is followed with nightmares of the deceiving god’s ship of nails. Magnus seems an extremely old giant with a battle-ax and a shield. He has another dream with Odin, in disguise as Bolverk. The god shows him a whetstone. All of the sudden, the dream shifts to glowing green eyes, leathery nostrils, and huge teeth to slice Magnus in half.

Magnus wakes up and TJ is wearing glasses saying that he had a dream killing Hrungnir and his amber eyes. The clay warrior is named Pottery Barn and the gender is not specific, so Alex decided to use pronouns, like “they and them”. They head out to the streets.

Chapter Titles

 * 1) Percy Jackson Does His Level Best to Kill Me
 * 2) Falafel Sandwiches with a Side Order of Ragnarok
 * 3) I Inherit a Dead Wolf and Some Underwear
 * 4) But wait. Act Now, and You Get a Second Wolf Free!
 * 5) I Bid Farewell to Erik, Erik, Erik and Also Erik
 * 6) I Have a Nightmare About Toenails
 * 7) We All Drown
 * 8) In the Hall of the Huffy Hipster
 * 9) I Become a Temporary Vegetarian
 * 10) Can We Talk About Mead?
 * 11) My Sword Takes You to (Dramatic Pause) Funkytown
 * 12) The Guy With the Feet
 * 13) Stupid Exploding Grandfathers
 * 14) Nothing Happens. It's a Miracle
 * 15) Monkey!
 * 16) Spit Man Versus Chain Saw. Guess Who Wins
 * 17) We Are Ambushed by a Pile of Rocks
 * 18) I Roll Play-Doh to the Death
 * 19) I Attend a Zombie Pep Rally
 * 20) Tveirvigi = Worst Vigi
 * 21) Fun with Open-Heart Surgery
 * 22) I Have Bad News and - No, Actually I Just Have Bad News
 * 23) Follow the Smell of Dead Frogs (to the Tune of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road")
 * 24) I Liked Hearthstone's Dad Better as a Cow-Abducting Alien
 * 25) We Devise a Fabulously Horrible Plan
 * 26) Things Get Wyrd
 * 27) We Win a Small Rock
 * 28) Don't Ever Ask Me to Cook My Enemy's Heart
 * 29) We Almost Become a Norwegian Tourist Attraction
 * 30) Flām, Bomb, Thank You, Mom
 * 31) Mallory Gets Nuts
 * 32) Mallory Also Gets Fruit
 * 33) We Devise a Horribly Fabulous Plan
 * 34) First Prize: A Giant! Second Prize: Two Giants!
 * 35) I Get an Assist from the Murder Murder
 * 36) The Ballad of Halfborn, Hovel-Hero
 * 37) Alex Bites My Face Off
 * 38) Skadi Knows All, Shoots All
 * 39) I Become as Poetic as... Like, a Poetic Person
 * 40) I Get a Collect Call from Hel
 * 41) I Call a Time-Out
 * 42) I Start Small
 * 43) I Have a Big Finish
 * 44) Why Do They Get Cannons? I Want Cannons
 * 45) If You Understand What Happens in This Chapter, Please Tell Me, Because I Have No Clue
 * 46) I Win a Fluffy Bathrobe
 * 47) Surprises All Around, Some of Them Even Good
 * 48) The Chase Space Becomes a Place

Characters

 * Magnus Chase
 * Samirah al-Abbas
 * Sumarbrander
 * Alex Fierro
 * Loki
 * Blitzen
 * Hearthstone
 * Annabeth Chase
 * Percy Jackson
 * Thomas Jefferson Jr.
 * Mallory Keen
 * Halfborn Gunderson
 * Helgi
 * Alderman
 * Njord
 * Aegir
 * Nine Billow Maidens
 * Odin
 * Tyr
 * Thor
 * Freya
 * Frey
 * Frigg
 * Amir Fadlan

Trivia

 * Rick announced on his Twitter page that Percy's little sister's name is released in this book. Her name was later revealed to be Estelle.