The Sword of Summer

''This article is about the book. You may be looking for sword.''

The Sword of Summer is the first book in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series by Rick Riordan. The book was released on October 6, 2015.

Development
Rick Riordan announced that the new Norse mythology series would be titled Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard on September 23rd, 2014 during a webcast. The title of the first book was revealed early when The Blood of Olympus leaked before its scheduled release date, October 7th, 2014. The title was officially confirmed on October 7th, 2014 when the The Blood of Olympus was released. Then, shortly afterwards, the book appeared on Amazon. In September, multiple previews of chapters were released for free through different media outlets. On September 29th, there was a six chapter preview released exclusively sponsored by Nook.

Synopsis
''Magnus Chase has seen his share of trouble. Since his mother's mysterious death, he's lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, keeping one step ahead of the police and the truant officers. One day, he's tracked down by an uncle he's never met - a man his mother claimed was dangerous. His uncle tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god. The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war. Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years. When an attack by fire giants forces him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents, Magnus makes a fatal decision.''

Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die...

Plot
While sleeping under a bridge, Magnus Chase is awoken by a bum called Blitz with the news that a middle-aged man and a teenage girl are looking for him. Packing his few things, Magnus also learns from Blitz that the man and the girl are expected to pass his way. Before disappearing, Blitz advises Magnus to see Hearth at Copley Square and cryptically states that "they're coming".

Soon, Magnus finds the man and his daughter walking around, whom he recognizes as his Uncle Fredrick and cousin Annabeth Chase. Having been estranged from his relatives for years even after his mother's death, Magnus decides to break into his Uncle Randolph's house for answers as to why he had suddenly contacted Frederick and Annabeth.

While inside the house, he goes into Randolph's office to search for more clues and remembers how his mother had grown up in the house when she was younger. Magnus decides to look out the window and finds that Hearth is outside standing next to a Leif Erikson statue, trying to use sign language to tell Magnus to get out of the house. Once Magnus realizes he needs to leave the house, Uncle Randolph is right behind him and tells Magnus that there are people coming to kill him.

Randolph convinces Magnus to get in his car after telling Magnus he "knows about the wolves" that killed his mother. Once in the car, Randolph explains that he believes that the Norse gods are real and that Magnus is the son of a Norse god. Randolph tells Magnus he believes that a sword was lost at sea and that Magnus can claim it as his birthright.

At Longfellow Bridge, Magnus goes to the edge and "calls" for the Sword to his hand from the bottom of the ocean. The sword is successfully retrieved, but suddenly a large explosion occurs. Surt has come to kill Magnus and acquire the sword from him. While attempting to attack Magnus, Hearth and Blitz intervene. Blitz is quickly knocked out by Surt and Magnus tells Hearth to run with his Uncle. Magnus tells them that he will fight Surt himself. While fighting of Surt, Magnus is hurt by a canonball, but manages to cut of Surt's nose. While on the edge of the pier, Magnus takes his final stand against Surt and dies while protecting everyone else in the area.

While in between death, Magnus talks to a strange man wearing a Red Sox jersey. After hearing the advice of the man, Magnus hears a female voice telling him that he needs to stop struggling. Once Magnus finally comes to, he is in a strange room and has no injuries that he sustained from his battle with Surt. Magnus is greeted by a bell-hop named Hunding, who tells him that he is in fact dead. Hunding takes him to meet the hotel manager, Helgi, who welcomes him to Hotel Valhalla. He explains that the Hotel is where Odin's warriors or einherjar go to train for Ragnarok.

Hunding then takes Magnus to his brand new room on the 19th floor. After getting acquainted with his new room, his Valkyrie, Samirah al-Abbas comes to get him for dinner. Sam explains that Magnus's mother is not here in Valhalla because she is not one of the "chosen ones". Sam takes Magnus down to dinner, after telling him not to embarrass her and passes by his brand new hall mates.

At dinner, Magnus meets Gunilla, daughter of Thor and Captain of the Valkyries, who insults Sam. Gunilla has prepared videos for the brand new warriors, instead of simply letting them give speeches to prove their worthiness for Valhalla. During the showing of Magnus' video, Magnus realizes the film has been altered and he isn't shown dying with his sword in his hand. To enter into the hotel, you must die with a weapon in your hand. The council who oversees demand that Sam, daughter of Loki answer to why Magnus was brought here and claim she is a liar. Before, the council can decide what to do with Magnus, the Norns appear to give a prophecy directly to Magnus. After the prophecy is given the council dismisses Sam as a Valkyrie because she mentions that she chose Magnus "as ordered to".

Once Magnus is back in his cabin, he is invited to breakfast with the rest of his hallmates. There he meets Thomas Jefferson, Jr, X, Mallory Keen, and Halfborn Gunderson. The trio bond over breakfast and tell Magnus about being able to escape the Hotel to go to other worlds. They then take him to training battle against all of the other einherjar, where Magnus is eventually "killed" in battle. While in between reforming again, Magnus meets the god Loki, who warns him about Ragnarok and the choices that Magnus will need to make. Eventually his dream switches, and he sees that Surt is reforming and threatening to murder him.

Magnus wakes up in his room, where Gunilla comes to greet him and give him a tour of the Hotel. While on the tour, Gunilla threatens Magnus to follow the rules and to not betray her because she will go after him. After Magnus gets back to his room, he finds that Blitz and Hearthstone are outside the hotel in a tree. The duo says that after Surt disappeared they went searching all the worlds to find him. Magnus learns that Hearth is an elf and that Blitz is a dwarf. After talking about needing to escape the hotel, the trio accidentally wake up the squirrel that is in the tree next to Magnus' room.

The squirrel attacks them all and gets into the hotel, where the rest of the 19th floor hallmates attempt to fight him off. The alarm is triggered and the rest of einherjar and Captain Gunilla arrive at the scene. Magnus, Blitz, and Hearthstone manage to escape through the recycling bin to the human world. After escaping to the human world, Magnus is informed that his body was found at the body of the river and that there will be a memorial service for him that day. Hearth and Blitz tell Magnus that their "boss" is the one who told them to follow Magnus. The duo also believe that Sumarbrander is still with Magnus' original body since it died with him.

Once at the memorial home, Magnus attempts to get the sword from his old body, but he cannot find it. Before he leaves, he runs into his cousin, Annabeth, who tells him that he needs to explain everything to her. Magnus tells Annabeth that someone is after him and that he needs to keep a low profile, so Annabeth tells him she "knows a safe place" if he needs somewhere to stay. Magnus declines and tells her that he let her know everything one day. Annabeth leaves and Magnus heads outside to find Heartstone knocked out. He tells Magnus that Sam kicked him in the head.

Sam is after the sword so that she can possible be re-instated as a Valkyrie again. The trio decide to let her tag along after Magnus tells Blitz and Hearth he trusts her. The four of them go meet Mimir, who is Heartstone and Blitz boss. He tells Magnus that he must stop Surt, who wants to free the Fenris Wolf to starting Ragnarok in nine days time. After speaking to Mimir, they head over to a foodcourt to get food from Amir who is Sam's betrothed. While they are eating, a talking pigeon attacks them.

The pigeon then tells them that he knows how to retrieve the Sword, but he wants something in return: Idun's apple of immortality. To get the apple, they will need to attract the sea goddess, Ran. The group go to meet Harald, who owns a boat and does "deep sea excursions". Only Sam and Magnus are allowed on the boat because there isn't enough room for the rest. Once at sea, they cast their bate, a giant bulls head, into the ocean. Soon The World Serpent or Jormungand, attacks the bait and if offended by the bulls head. Ran quickly arrives and warns them that every time shakes that the rest of the earth does. Magnus tells Ran that he will let the World Serpent go if she bargains with him to give him the Sword of Summer. After bargaining his old Sword he got at the Hotel, he arrives back with the items and gives them to the pigeon who reveals himself to be the giant, Utgard-Loki. They decide to go to Nidavellir, which is Blitzen's hometown.

To get to Nidavallir, home of the Elves, they need to climb the world tree. While Magnus is attempting to open it, Gunilla and other Valkyries are there to stop them from "trying to bring Rognarok", but before she can capture them they escape. Once in the world tree, they are attacked by the squirrel, Ratatosk again. They have to leave Hearth and Sam behind to escape the squirrel. After escaping Blitz and Magnus accidentally end up in Folkvanger. The goddess Freya asks the duo to fetch her jewelry from Junior, who hates Blitzen for what Blitz's father did to his father.

They end up at Nabi's Bar and meet him there where Junior refuses to make it unless Blitz challenges him to a mossglow or craftsmanship duel. Blitz is bad at crafting so he's sure he will fail. Hearth and Blitz rejoin the group. Once at the duel, Blitz surprisingly wins all three duels. At the end Junior realizes that a Sam, shapeshifter, has been sabotaging Junior's crafts the whole time. While running, Blitz gets sucked up by his mother, Freya's, portal because she wants her jewelry. Junior and his team go after the rest of them. Magnus learns that his sword can talk and has the ability to hover. The sword defeats Junior and his team and demands a new name: Jack. The group jumps into a chasm and ends up Jotunheim.

While Magnus is knocked out, he speaks with Loki again who tells him to give up trying to defeat Surt. Magnus wakes up getting mouth to mouth with by a goat, Otis, who has lost his master Thor. The group attempt to find Thor and find him in a river about to drown by a Giantess holding him captive. After the group kill the Giantess and rescue Thor he invites them to dinner where he skins Otis and Marvin. They learn that Thor's Hammer, Mjolnor has been "not-officially-missing" and would like the group to attempt to find it, in exchange for details to the location of the island Fenris Wolf resides on. At the end of the talk, Blitzen comes back from his voyage.

Hearth summons Slepnier's offspring, a horse named Stanley, to a castle where they believe giants may have Thor's hammer. While in the house, they realize a swan the giants are trying to cook is Captain Gunilla in disguise. The giantesses, Gjalp and Griep, tell them that they have one of Thor's weapon. The group successfully manage to kill the two giants and their father, Gierrod, after he comes home. They save Gunilla and retrieve Thor's Weapon, a staff. Although not the item they were looking for, Thor accepts it and sends the group "wherever they need to go".

While being transported, Magnus' dreams again and meets the goddess Hel who promises Magnus that he can meet his mother if he gives up now. Magnus refuses and wakes up at Malcom X Middle School with Sam. They meet Hearthstone and Blitzen outside of the New England Aquarium where go to pier where the dwarves Fjalar and Gjalar take them to the island, Lyngvi.

Once on the island they meet the Fenris Wolf. Fenris admits that he had wolves come to kill Magnus' mother. Since Jack is prophesied to cut the bonds of the Fenris wolf, he keeps trying to go towards the wolf, but Magnus holds him back. The group decides before Jack attempts to cut the bonds to kill Fenris, but Gunilla, two other Valkyries, and the hallmates of floor 19 intervene and say they are there to arrest Magnus and his friends.

T.J. decides that instead of taking Magnus' group prisoners to join him in killing the Fenris Wolf. Surt makes his way onto the battlefield where Gunilla decides that she will put off arresting Magnus and his friends and attack Surt instead. Everyone goes after their respective enemy. Magnus manages to get Jack to tie the new rope around Fenris to contain him as a golden light surrounds Magnus to "bring back summer". After Fenris is successfully retied again, the group go to help Gunilla too late and Surt kills her and the two Valkyries. Magnus sends Surt and the enemies to another world and the group escape the island. While on a fret boat escaping the island, Magnus uses the last of his strength to heal Halfborn who is dying.

Magnus' knocks out and meets his dad Frey, who tells him to contact his cousin, Annabeth. Magnus wakes up and learns that everyone has been summoned to the feast hall to decide their fate. The group explains their story and before the thanes can give their judgement, X, claims that Odin wants to intercede. It is then revealed that X has secretly been Odin the whole entire time.

After explaining to everyone why he had been secretly hiding as X, he gives a presentation and rewards the heroes with gifts. He let's Sam become a Valkyrie again and work under him for top secret missions. Magnus is offered to return back to the human world, but denies it saying that he would rather be an einherjar. After the dinner, they hold a funeral for the fallen Valkyries. Magnus leaves the others after the funeral because he has an "appointment".

Magnus meets up with Annabeth to scatter the ashes of his late mother. They both decide that they need to explain to each other "everything". Somewhere in Randolph's office, he is mourning the loss of his nephew Magnus. Loki suddenly appears and burns Randolph's face with snake venom for "making excuses" for Magnus messing up his plan. Loki tells Randolph they "are going to have lots of fun" together.

Prophecy
''Wrongly chosen, wrongly slain, A hero Valhalla cannot contain. Nine days hence the sun must go east, Ere Sword of Summer unbinds the beast.''

Unraveling of the Prophecy

 * 1) Magnus was wrongly chosen by Loki, who thought that Magnus could be easily swayed to begin Ragnorök.
 * 2) Magnus ended up leaving Valhalla to travel around the Nine Worlds to complete his quest
 * 3) The quest needed to be completed in nine days or else Ragnorök would begin.
 * 4) Sumarbrander/Jack cut the the magical rope on the Fenris Wolf, before retying him.

Characters

 * Magnus Chase
 * Blitzen
 * Annabeth Chase
 * Frederick Chase
 * Hearthstone
 * Randolph Chase
 * Natalie Chase
 * Surt
 * Samirah Al Abbas
 * Loki
 * Hunding
 * Helgi
 * Thor
 * Halfborn Gunderson
 * Mallory Keen
 * Thomas Jefferson Jr.
 * Heidrun
 * Eikthrymir
 * Gunilla
 * Erik Bloodax
 * Leif Erikson
 * Davy Crockett
 * Lord Nelson
 * Lars Ahlstrom
 * Vala
 * Dede
 * Norns
 * X
 * Eye Patch
 * Ratatosk
 * Gómez
 * Mimir
 * Abdel
 * Amir
 * Harald
 * Jormungand/The World Serpent
 * Ran
 * Utgard-Loki
 * Miles
 * Freya
 * Dmitiri
 * Nabbi
 * Junior
 * Jack/Sumarbrander/Sword of Summer/
 * Otis/Tanngnjóstr
 * Marvin/Tanngrisnr
 * Thor
 * Stanley
 * Gjalp
 * Greip
 * Geirrod
 * Hel
 * Fjalar
 * Gjalar
 * Fenris Wolf
 * Margaret
 * Irene
 * Odin

Chapter List

 * 1) Good Morning! You're Going to Die
 * 2) The Man with the Metal Bra
 * 3) Don't Accept Rides from Strange Relatives
 * 4) Seriously, the Dude Cannot Drive
 * 5) I've Always Wanted to Destroy a Bridge
 * 6) Make Way for Ducklings, or They Will Smack You Upside the Head
 * 7) You Look Great Without a Nose, Really
 * 8) Mind the Gap, and Also the Hairy Guy with the Axe.
 * 9) You Totally Want the Minibar Key
 * 10) My Room Does Not Suck
 * 11) Pleased to Meet You. I Will Now Crush Your Windpipe
 * 12) At Least I'm Not on Goat-Chasing Duty
 * 13) Phil the Potato Meets His Doom
 * 14) Four Million Channels and There's Still Nothing On Except Valkyrie Vision
 * 15) My Blooper Video Goes Viral
 * 16) Norns. Why Did It Have to Be Norns?
 * 17) I Did Not Ask for Biceps
 * 18) I Do Mighty Combat with Eggs
 * 19) Do Not Call Me Beantown. Like, Ever.
 * 20) Come to the Dark Side. We Have Pop-Tarts.
 * 21) Gunilla Gets Blowtorched and It's Not Funny. Okay, It's a Little Bit Funny.
 * 22) My Friends Fall Out of a Tree
 * 23) I Recycle Myself
 * 24) You Had One Job
 * 25) My Funeral Director Dresses Me Funny
 * 26) Hey, I Know You're Dead, But Call Me Maybe
 * 27) Let's Play Frisbee with Bladed Weapons!
 * 28) Talk to the Face, 'Cause That's Petty Much All He's Got
 * 29) We Are Falafel-Jacked by an Eagle
 * 30) An Apple a Day Will Get You Killed
 * 31) Go Smelly or Go Home
 * 32) My Years of Playing Bassmasters 2000 Really Pay Off
 * 33) Sam's Brother Wakes Up Kinda Cranky
 * 34) My Sword Almost Ends Up on eBay
 * 35) Thou Shalt Not Poop on the Head of Art
 * 36) Duck!
 * 37) I Am Trash-Talked by a Squirrel
 * 38) I Break Down in a Volksvagen
 * 39) Freya Is Pretty! She Has Cats!
 * 40) My Friend Evolved from a -- Nope. I Can't Say It.
 * 41) Blitz Makes a Bad Deal
 * 42) We Have a Pre-Decapitation Party, with Spring Rolls
 * 43) Let the Crafting of Decorative Metal Waterfowl Begin
 * 44) Junior Wins a Bag of Tears
 * 45) I Get to Know Jack
 * 46) Aboard the Good Ship Toenail
 * 47) I Psychoanalyze a Goat
 * 48) Hearthstone Passes Out Even More than Jason Grace (Though I Have No Idea Who That Is)
 * 49) Well, There's Your Problem. You've Got a Sword Up Your Nose
 * 50) No Spoilers. Thor Is Way Behind on His Shows.
 * 51) We Have the Talk-About-Turning-Into-Horseflies Chat
 * 52) I Got the Horse Right Here. His Name Is Stanley.
 * 53) How to Kill Giants Politely
 * 54) Why You Should Not Use a Steak Knife as a Diving Board
 * 55) I'm Carried into Battle by the First Dwarven Airborne Division
 * 56) Never Ask a Dwarf to "Go Long"
 * 57) Sam Hits the EJECT Button
 * 58) What the Hel?
 * 59) The Terror That Is Middle School
 * 60) A Lovely Homicidal Sunset Cruise
 * 61) Heather Is My New Least Favorite Flower
 * 62) The Small Bad Wolf
 * 63) I Hate Signing My Own Death Warrant
 * 64) Whose Idea Was It to Make This Wolf Unkillable?
 * 65) I Hate This Part
 * 66) Sacrifices
 * 67) One More, for a Friend
 * 68) Don't Be a No-Bro, Bro
 * 69) Oh... So That's Who Fenris Smelled in Chapter Sixty-Three
 * 70) We Are Subjected to the PowerPoint of Doom
 * 71) We Burn a Swan Boat, Which I'm Pretty Sure Is Illegal
 * 72) I Lose a Bet
 * 73) Epilogue

Trivia

 * The "Sword of Summer" refers to Sumarbrander/Jack.
 * Chapter 48 is in reference to Jason Grace, a main character in The Heroes of Olympus series who was constantly knocked out in The Mark of Athena and is a running joke throughout the series.
 * On the UK cover, Magnus is seen holding Sumarbrander in his right hand, despite being left handed.
 * This is the first one of Riordan's mythology books to have an epilogue written in third person.