The Hollow

The Hollow is intended to be the first in a series of at least five books. Each book will be written in the first-person, but take the narrative thread from a different character's view. The goal of the series is to present a total picture of the ruined world of the kjolvannet, the aftermath of the last great battle

As the series develops and progresses toward its final confrontations, characters will wander into and out of each other's narratives and events will be re-examined from the different vantage points. The goal of each book is to present a new facet of this world, revealing things hidden from the other narrators. .

the following is an excerpt from The Hollow:
The din of battle drowned Loki’s words, but a venom as virulent as his son’s dripped from his teeth as he scowled and vented his hate to the winds and assembled Jotnar. His speech in their dark and guttural tongue roused his kinsmen as his face began its chaotic contortions. When his passions were raised, Loki could not maintain control over the form he customarily wore. Even some among the massed Jotnar were taken aback by the rapid changes, seductive and horrific by turns. The words reached our ears and for those of us who knew the Jotnar tongue, the message was clear. No quarter would be asked, and none given. We were to be slaughtered, fathers, mothers and children all. The apple tree which fed us our youth was to be set alight and any who allied with us were to be slain or enslaved. A few of the einherjar warhost attempted to flee upon this realization and the knowledge of what it would mean to be a slave to the victorious Jotnar. Those who turned to flee were struck where they stood by the eye of Odin and a quick thrust of Gungnir’s tip. Their deaths were quick, and I would not be surprised if more among the Einherjar, realizing this, thought to bolt. The cruel mercy of Odin’s strike preferable to the machinations and dark envisioning among the massed enemy.

As Loki spoke of blood, honor and the thousand injuries the Aesir visited upon the world, his elder son burst from the sea onto the beach at Thrudheim. Seeking to surprise Thor and take him unawares, the Serpent instead found an armed and willing Thor in full battle fury. The pestilence of the Serpent would prove too much for the Thunderer, but not before Mjollnir claimed another monster’s skull amid its scattered shards flung throughout the aeons.

…As the dead made their ponderous, malicious and tragic ascent of the rainbow bridge, Loki’s shape shifted wildly, shimmering in the light of the battle flames. One moment, he wore the face of Odin, then his accustomed visage, the next he had the aspect of a mountain troll, finally, as he came to blows he became chimeric. He was an indescribable blend of all these things and somehow nothing at all. The blackness of the void outside Yggdrasil’s branches wore the ever-changing Loki as I wear my cloak now. The gaping maw of darkness covered in shimmering madness, each more terrible than the other. His sword arm flashed with the strength of Thor’s powerful bicep before reflecting a phantom limb holding a sword in mockery of Tyr.