The Wreck Of The World

Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

This dialogue between the Wanderer and his great-grandson, who has just become a father, is a perfect blend of science fiction, historical fiction and mythological writing -

Hathawulf: You have worn yourself out for us. If you are of the Anses, then they are not tireless.
Wanderer: No. They too shall perish in the wreck of the world.
Hathawulf: But that is far off in time, surely.
Wanderer: World after world has gone down in ruin ere now, my son, and will in the years and thousands of years to come. I have done for you what I was able. (pp. 442-443)

Carl Farness, called the Wanderer, and believed to be Wodan, is conditioned against revealing the fact of time travel which, in any case, his Gothic descendants would scarcely understand. Readers know that, when Carl speaks of ruined worlds, he means ways of life, civilizations, planets and even possibly universes and that he speaks on the basis not of ancient godly wisdom but of future scientific knowledge. But none of this needs to be made explicit in the dialogue.

A few pages later, Sibicho the Vandal almost quotes the Bible:

"'She calls on her witchy ancestor? Suffer her not to live! Let earth purify itself of that blood she bears!" (p. 445)

And an event occurs that is described in the Elder Edda and the Volsungasaga... Carl cannot prevent it.