The God Thor II

Robert Rodi's Thor: For Asgard presents a moral question rather casually. Frost Giants attacked by the Aesir use women and children as a living shield. Thor, charged by Odin to maintain order, continues to lead the attack. Afterwards, he argues that, if the Aesir had held back, then every other subject nation would have used this tactic, subverting the empire.

Must the Aesir rule an empire? Could arrows, spears and Thor's hammer not have been propelled above the living shield? The Frost Giants are big enough targets. Could Thor's chariot not have flown above the women and children? There are moral issues about how, or whether, to wage war but I do not think that this story addresses them adequately.

Mythologically, Valhalla should be a place not just where the Einheriar, dead warriors, hang out but where they fight, die, rise and feast cyclically until the Ragnarok.