Storystorm Days 3 & 4 - Thor and Loki in Jotunheim

Storystorm Days 3 & 4 

I outlined two chapters together for Danger Tastes Dreadful, and I am so excited by them I am going to take a break from outlining and try putting these revisions into place. Instead of writing a new poem, I have posted one I wrote several years ago which triggered my thinking. This poem is posted on Writing.com and some unknown person happened to read it yesterday. When I saw it, it triggered an idea which is very loosely related to the poem, but which made sense to me at the time. In any case, enjoy the poem if you like that sort of thing. The form and all are described at the bottom of the post.

Thor and Loki in Jotunheim

An icy wind blew o’er the land
Its bitter cold killed plant and beast,
The giant’s breath the blizzard fanned,
Each passing day the fear increased.
Until at last, we vengeance swore,
Me, Loki, and the great god Thor,
Until at last
Until at last
We crossed Ifing to distant shore.

Fierce Jotunheim where giants dwelt
In mighty castles tall and grim.
Before the giant lords we knelt,
Beseeched an end to fatal whim.
They challenged us to prove our worth
Then laughed and jeered with cheerless mirth.
They challenged us
They challenged us
But we had faith in speed and girth.

A footrace first was named to test
Our fleetness and our fortitude
But though great heroes may attest
With what great swiftness we’re imbued
Our traveled feet could not keep pace
Could not begin to win this race.
Our traveled feet
Our traveled feet
At last gave up in in sad disgrace.

A feast was next to demonstrate
How little were our appetites
At home our hunger seemed so great
But though we took such mighty bites
We barely seemed to make a dent
Compared to him, not ten percent
We barely seemed
We barely seemed
To start before we were quite spent.

Through wretched feats of strength and skill
We failed to beat a single foe
At last ‘twas clear we’d not fulfill
Our vowed revenge for ice and snow.
We bowed our heads, in sad defeat
Could not their champions defeat
We bowed our heads
We bowed our heads
And shuffled us in sad retreat.

We left in shame with downturned eyes
Until our host explained their ruse
The giants tricked us with disguise
And posed such feats as couldn’t lose.
They cheated us, as we did learn;
In rage, Thor raised his hammer stern.
They cheated us
They cheated us
Left us unable to return.


Extended Trijan Refrain: Multiple 9-line stanzas. The first four syllables of line 5 in each stanza are repeated as the double-refrain for lines 7 and 8. The Trijan Refrain is a rhyming poem with a set meter and rhyme scheme as follows:

Rhyme scheme: a/b/a/b/c/c/d,d/c (d is refrain of first 4 words of line five)

Meter: 8/6/8/6/8/8/4,4/8

Tells part of the story of the Norse gods Loki and Thor traveling to Jotunheim ("gianthome") to lift the curse of endless winter on their lands. For more on this story, see http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/odin/odin-14.htm . Won first place in Nov. 2008 for an epic poetry contest.