“A sword age, an axe age. A wind age, a wolf age.” Those exact words are taken from an english translation of the Prophecy of the Völva, specifically the part where she describes the state of humanity immediately before Ragnarok. In that poem they refer to the same age. Shatterbird is making a direct reference to the mythology Hookwolf named his group after.

“A sword age, an axe age. A wind age, a wolf age.“ These are in fact describing the same age – the run-up to Ragnarok – in a quote from passage 45 of the Voluspa or Poetic Edda. Wikisource has the Icelandic text, which I have the impression is closest to the original Old Norse: "skeggjöld, skálmöld / skildir ‘ru klofnir / vindöld, vargöld / áðr veröld steypisk”. (Yeah, Shatterbird swapped the positions of the axe and the sword.)

I think Shatterbird is referring the Fimbulwinter, the three years of uninterrupted winter preceding Ragnarok. I even think I saw it once separated in three winters, one of them being of wolves and the last one being of blades. If the other one is associated with wind her comment would make sense. Then again I last saw that years ago, so I might be completely wrong and remembering things incorrectly.

“Sword and axe make sense, but wind? Also, are these in order, or describing the same age? I can’t really tell.” I believe this is a famous quote from the Norse sagas, describing Ragnarok

Oh!

I know a fair bit of Norse mythology, but I haven’t actually read all that much of the source material. That’s not really a good excuse, though, considering I recently tried to fix that and ended up reading specifically Völuspá (which, for the record, is only the first poem in the Poetic Edda, not an equivalent name for it). 

I do suppose it may have been a different translation… Actually, let me look up the passage in the translation I read:

46. Hard is it in the world, great whoredom, an axe age, a sword age, shields shall be cloven, a wind age, a wolf age, ere the world sinks.

Ah, yeah, there it is. Neat!

“You’re out of my league I’m out of my mind Thinking I was born In the wrong time” I was really hoping this was a Mr. Brightside parody.

Hehe, nope, sorry. Wrong song. :p

Pretty sure burnscar outright stated in Elle’s Interlude that Shatterbird recruited her

*checks*

Huh, so she did. I wonder if some part of my brain subconsciously remembered that when I came to that conclusion in Interlude 11e, or if I did genuinely realize that

independently after having forgotten it.

The second time Wildbow took down a chapter, it was an interlude in which we learned more information about Shatterbird. Wildbow has since said that although much of the present-day section is non-canon because it contradicted established characterization and contained poorly foreshadowed elements, the background information about Shatterbird is canon.

Huh, interesting.

Sharks: I can if you want to, but I’m iffy on sharing that.

I’ll trust Sharks’ judgement and leave it be for now, but maybe I should read it sometime in the future, maybe between Worm and Ward? That seems like a good time to read various bonus things in general.

Yeah, just when you start to forget that the POV character is a violent racist murdering Nazi, he casually drips a vile slur and pulling for the mass murderer antagonist looks more appealing.

Yeeah.

Though the reason the slur made me think about the idea that rooting for Shatterbird might be better wasn’t so much Hookwolf using the slur in itself, as what the slur revealed about Shatterbird. Suddenly, she was described as part of one of the demographics Hookwolf perpetrates hate crimes against, and it became possible that she was there not to recruit him, but to stop that. Though it quickly turned out she didn’t seem to care about it.

“dark-skinned woman versus a Nazi racist with a long list of homicides to account for” although she’s probably killed more people than him.

I suppose. Hookwolf has the longest list of homicides or suspected homicides Weld has seen for someone who’s not in the Birdcage, but Shatterbird is capable of killing just about everyone who wears glasses in a city, and then some, at once. At that point, are we even talking about “homicides” anymore, or does it fall under a different description, like “terrorist attacks”? I mean, that’s what they are, attacks that kill lots of civilians to put fear into people and announce the Slaughterhouse Nine’s presence.

Also, it’s possible Weld hadn’t looked at Shatterbird’s files yet in 9.1, though I’m sure he has by now.

Anyway, there was a deliberate bias in each part of that sentence, meant to demonstrate how the situation could be phrased in different ways to justify rooting for either one of them.