I had a mystical experience that gave me insight into the god Lodhur. In heathen mythology, the brothers Odin, Honir, and Lodhur sculpted both the world and humankind. They each gave different gifts to humanity. One of Odin's gifts was breath.


One day, a friend took me to a restaurant inside one of the local casinos, which was very smoky. I had an asthma attack and had to go outside to get some air.


The being calling himself Loki who had been acting as my muse while I wrote Some Say Fire spoke to me the way characters speak in my head while I'm writing. He said, "Your body is weak. You do not possess enough of the divine breath." My lungs filled and I was suddenly fine.

This god was a power enthroned and breathing out the life-breath of humankind. I knew that breath was Odin's power. If this being was Loki, as he claimed, then he had to be the most Odinnic aspect of him. This had to be an aspect of him so close to Odin that in some sense he was Odin. Not only was breath Odin's power, but inspiration of the metaphoric sort, poetic inspiration, was Odin's power, too. This being had come into my life to inspire me to write. He had to be a part of the triune form of Odin.

I said, "Lodhur?"

He said, "You guessed my name."

I didn't realize the significance of that at the time. In the Fireverse, guessing the god's name is a test. I didn't realize that applied outside my novel. What I did realize very soon was that from then on I could rely on Loki / Lodhur, and later on Odin and Honir, to fill me with breath. I could go places and do things that I couldn't before. I came to trust them.

Art: "Odin, Lodhur, and Honir creating Askr and Embla," by Frolich.