Conclusion And An Unwritten Sequel

Was the conclusion of Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword predictable: that the sword, Tryfing, would kill the Elven-Fosterling, then the Changeling? Yes, if we could think in terms of weird instead of in terms of happy endings or of any other kind of story resolution, then this double killing should have been predictable.

In which god should we place our trust? Skafloc tells us!:

"'A true friend is Mananaan. He is the only god I would trust.'" (XXVI, p. 189)

Freda winds up with Mananaan. Asking Christ to forgive her because she loves Skafloc more than Him, she goes to seek Skafloc and Mananaan sees to her welfare after Skafloc's death.

Odin speaks the sequel that Poul Anderson never wrote:

"'Skafloc must fall, and this child whom I wove my web to have begotten and given to me must one day take up the sword and bear it to the end of its weird.'" (XXVI, p. 196)

Such an early work implying such an obvious sequel - that was never written.

It is getting late here.