The Dragon Slayer Army, though still in existence, was on a path of steady decline. The force, which once boasted hundreds of thousands of dwarven warriors, was now estimated to number a mere ten thousand under its current supreme leader, a woman named Thrudr. Nevertheless, the Dragon Slayer Army was still considered the strongest dwarven military force among their kin at that time.
In a move that defied all dwarven expectations, their female leader unexpectedly bolstered the military despite its smaller size. She achieved this by breeding and training smaller dragons—Drakes and Wyverns—to serve as mounts for a special unit known as the "Dragoons." Once an army that killed every dragon it encountered, the Dragon Slayer Army now counted lesser dragons as part of its own ranks.
Solmarr, who began as a butler, was the one who pioneered the methods for breeding and training these dragons. This feat transformed him into a trusted military advisor and the head of the special unit, holding a position of power in the Dragon Slayer Army second only to Thrudr.
As the seven sons of Kormárr and Thrudr grew, Solmarr's influence and power within the Dragon Slayer Army steadily expanded. This eventually led to a flashpoint conflict between Solmarr and Ketill, Thrudr's eldest son, over a wild stag that both men had simultaneously struck with their arrows.
Initially, both claimed the kill. Solmarr's arrow was lodged in the stag's head, while Ketill's was in its heart. The subsequent arguments among their retainers failed to settle the matter, escalating the dispute to a question of who was more important to the Dragon Slayer Army. The standoff culminated in a direct confrontation between Ketill and Solmarr.
Ketill, young and outmaneuvered, was ultimately persuaded to agree to Solmarr's demand: he would undertake the task of killing a giant dragon in exchange for claiming the large stag. Three days after this whole affair, the news reached Thrudr. The supreme leader recalled both parties to negotiate a settlement. Thrudr proposed that Ketill should surrender the stag's antlers and skeleton to Solmarr, along with twelve chests overflowing with gold and gems.
Solmarr, his ambition now knowing no bounds, countered with a shocking new proposal: instead of the stag's remains and the twelve chests, he requested Thrudr's hand in marriage.
Thrudr flatly refused the marriage proposal and immediately stripped the ambitious dwarf of all his ranks in the army. Solmarr was enraged. That very night, he led his entire Dragoon force in a departure and took on a new name: "Drakavaldr," meaning Dragon Controller. The news of the schism between Thrudr and Solmarr spread rapidly throughout the land of Svartálfaheim.
This latest rupture further dimmed the glory and authority of the Dragon Slayer Army. Resolved to restore their honor, Thrudr declared her grim intent: upon the solemn passing of the thirteenth year since Kormárr, her husband and the army's founder, had fallen, she would seek out and slay Vulkanfang. She called for a united effort, appealing to all five dwarven kingdoms of Svartálfaheim to join her crusade. Yet, the appeal went largely unheeded. In the end, only the distant kingdom of Dvergar's Holdfast answered, dispatching a contingent of but three thousand warriors to her banner.
While Thrudr was preparing her army to march north into the territory controlled by the evil dragon Vulkanfang, the tables were suddenly turned: Vulkanfang launched a surprise invasion against the Dragon Slayer Army itself.
Clad in the armor of a Valkyrie, an angel of death, Thrudr, daughter of Thor, faced the most villainous giant dragon in the cosmos. In her hand, she wielded the sword named "Skýbrjótr" (Sky-breaker), a gift once received from the All-Father, Odin. Thousands of dwarven warriors fought alongside her. The battle was short, but even so, Thrudr managed to destroy Vulkanfang's left eye before she finally fell.
The land of Svartálfaheim belonging to the dwarves was once again cut in two. Previously, the Dragon Slayer Army had successfully defeated the giant dragon Eldhali, reclaiming the eastern lands for the dwarves. Now, however, the realm of the giant dragon Vulkanfang had expanded southward to meet the territory of the giant dragon Harðtennr. This left the dwarven homeland divided into two separate sides: the East and the West.
The Western side held two major kingdoms: Dvergar's Holdfast and the underground kingdom of Gullheimr-Undirdjúpr. The Eastern side, which once contained three key kingdoms, had now been entirely conquered by Solmarr's Drakavaldr forces and unified into a single kingdom named "Ósigrheimr" (The Undefeated Realm).
Following Thrudr's death, her seven sons became commoners in the underground kingdom of Gullheimr-Undirdjúpr. Ketill, the eldest, raised his six younger brothers, earning a living as a craftsman. All seven diligently concealed their true identities. Through their skill and tireless effort, they earned the deep trust of King Þykksýnn. Sirkill, the second son, married King Þykksýnn's daughter, while Furou, the fourth son, later married a princess in the kingdom of Dvergar's Holdfast.
Once the seven brothers had become influential figures in both Western dwarven kingdoms, they reunited to forge a weapon capable of slaying Vulkanfang and avenging their mother and father. Einarr, the fifth son, whose wife was a Forest Elf from the Valhrodr clan, learned of a mysterious mineral treasured by the Forest Elves, almost as valuable as Mithril, called "Málmræll." Furthermore, Eilifr, the youngest of the seven, retrieved their mother's long-lost enchanted sword, "Skýbrjótr," and brought it to be smelted and merged with the Málmræll.
Not only that, but Vatmarr, the third son, stole the perpetually burning green flame of the witches to use as fuel for the forging. Ulfarr, the sixth son and the strongest, undertook the duty of hammering the weapon from sunrise to sunset, while Ketill, the eldest, hammered it without cease from sunset to the next sunrise.
Finally, after seven long years of relentless effort by the seven brothers, the axe named "Snow-White" was born. However, the marvelous axe was one, but the brothers who sought vengeance for their parents were seven.
In a council chamber eleven levels deep beneath Gullheimr-Undirdjúpr, the seven brothers gathered to debate who should undertake the task of slaying the evil dragon Vulkanfang.
"I am the eldest of you all. The duty of avenging our father and mother ought to fall to me," Ketill was the first to speak, offering himself for the crucial mission.
"But the elder brother is too old now. How could you possibly have the strength to fight that wicked dragon?" Eilifr, the youngest, countered.
"Then, if we speak of pure strength, I am the mightiest among the seven. I should be the one," offered Ulfarr, the sixth son, who was the largest of the brothers.
"We are going to slay a dragon, not hammer iron. Raw strength alone is not enough. I, who am the most cunning among us, am the only hope to face that evil beast," Vatmarr, the third son, full of stratagem, believed only he possessed the ability to succeed in this act of vengeance.
"You are always sickly. How could you handle such a vital duty? Let me, the one skilled in combat, go instead," Einarr, the fifth son, who had always fought alongside the Forest Elves and was proficient with nearly all weapons, put himself forward.
"Facing a giant dragon alone is far too dangerous and utterly inadvisable. I am now the son-in-law of King Þykksýnn and can lead a sizable army. Grant the magical axe to me, and our collective vengeance will surely be carried out," said Sirkill, the second son, who was now a noble in Gullheimr-Undirdjúpr.
"If we speak of using an army, Dvergar's Holdfast has far superior warriors. I can call upon as many as three thousand soldiers. I believe that is more than Gullheimr-Undirdjúpr could provide for you," argued Furou, the fourth son, who, having also become a noble in Dvergar's Holdfast, often competed with his second brother.
"Do not speak of merely three thousand warriors! If I were to ask King Þykksýnn, my father-in-law, he would furnish me with twenty thousand soldiers!" Sirkill, unwilling to be outdone, threw out an impossible figure.
"Our mother, before she fell, commanded no less than ten thousand warriors, yet she could not defeat that wicked beast. Perhaps manpower is not the most important thing when facing Vulkanfang," Eilifr, the seventh brother, disagreed with his two older siblings.
"Let it be that I, the eldest, take this magical axe and attempt to kill the evil dragon first. If I fail, then the rest of you may pursue other methods," asserted Ketill, who always liked to claim the authority of the firstborn in every matter.
"Elder brother, you have always sacrificed yourself. For this one task, please, let me carry out the vengeance," pleaded Ulfarr, the giant dwarf who was closest to the eldest, his eyes beseeching his brother.
"No, Ulfarr. If anything happened to you, none of us could forge such a wondrous weapon again. Therefore, among us all, you are the one who absolutely must not come to harm," Ketill quickly decided against Ulfarr's proposal for this critical reason.
"Then let me go. I will bring my Forest Elf comrades. They are skilled in every form of combat. Though our numbers would be few, I believe I have the chance to avenge us all," Einarr, fully confident in his fighting prowess, offered himself again.
"If we must choose who is most suitable among us, I, too, believe it is Einarr," Vatmarr, the third son, despite his self-confidence, admitted that in a direct fight, Einarr was the strongest of the seven.
"Einarr, could you not bring the Forest Elves with you on this mission? I would gladly provide you with a thousand dwarven warriors from Dvergar's Holdfast instead," Furou, now a noble of Dvergar's Holdfast, did not want Forest Elves involved in their act of vengeance.
"Why do you scorn the Forest Elves? Did they not fight alongside our father when he first began his resistance against the dragons?" Einarr objected to Furou.
"This land of Svartálfaheim belongs to us, the dwarves. The Forest Elves are merely inhabitants. If you and your comrades succeed this time, the Forest Elves might grow ambitious," Furou, who now held a degree of important governing power in Dvergar's Holdfast, possessed a deeper and more political understanding than the others.
"If Ida does not travel with me, I will lack confidence," Einarr immediately brought up his Forest Elf wife. He had learned all his combat skills from her; she was, for all intents and purposes, his only teacher.
"Ida may go with you, for she is your wife. But absolutely do not bring any other Forest Elves," Sirkill, the second brother and an important figure in his dwarven kingdom, shared the same view as Furou.
"Why do you wish to send Einarr and his family to risk their lives alone? Is the vengeance against Vulkanfang not the duty of all seven brothers?" Ulfarr, the giant dwarf, spoke with rising emotion. He paused briefly, then continued, "Therefore, we must all go together! We must use every bit of our combined strength and ability to finally cleanse this stain of vengeance against that evil dragon!"
"No, I won't go," Eilifr, the seventh brother, disagreed, speaking words that caused disappointment among all the others.
"So, you want Einarr to risk his life alone, is that it?" Ulfarr walked toward his younger brother with a threatening demeanor.
"In my opinion, Brother Einarr should not go either," Eilifr continued, utterly unfazed.
"You won't go, Einarr shouldn't go—then how will we take our vengeance?" Ulfarr grew increasingly frustrated by his youngest brother's attitude.
"You yourself said that we must use every bit of our combined strength to finally cleanse this stain of vengeance. Therefore, none of the seven of us should be the one to take the axe Snow-White to face that giant dragon," Eilifr spoke cryptically.
"You are a coward! If not the seven of us, then who else is there?" Ulfarr suddenly reached out his massive hand and squeezed Eilifr's shoulder.
"There is one! We are the sons of Thrudr the Valkyrie, grandsons of the God Thor, and great-grandsons of the All-Father Odin!" Eilifr declared, suddenly invoking their divine lineage—a heritage that had been all but forgotten in this age.
"What madness is this? Speak plainly, I do not follow your meaning!" Ketill, the eldest, quickly stepped between his two brothers to separate them, yet he was deeply unsettled by Eilifr's cryptic words.
"Beyond the seven of us who are family, we have an elder blood-kin who craves vengeance against Vulkanfang no less fiercely than we do," Eilifr replied with a knowing smile.
(A note on Eilifr's name is then given, which works best as a piece of narration: Eilifr, whose name means "Eternal," was the only brother not named by his father, who had died before his birth; the honor had instead fallen to this very elder relative.)
"If you speak of the God Magni, then you are either rambling or lost in a foolish dream!" Vatmarr instantly guessed his youngest brother's meaning. Among the seven, Vatmarr considered only himself and Eilifr to possess true cunning.
"Neither rambling nor dreaming," Eilifr countered, his voice ringing with absolute certainty. "We poured all our effort and dedication into forging this marvelous axe. If the seven of us appeal to our uncle in blood—asking him to avenge his sister's death with this wondrous weapon—is there any chance he will refuse?"
In all the cosmos, if any being could match a giant dragon like Vulkanfang in strength and might, it was the God Magni. He was the deity renowned as the strongest, whose power surpassed even that of his own father, Thor. And now, Snow-White, the magical axe capable of cleaving through a dragon's scales, was complete. The hour for the seven brothers' vengeance had finally arrived.
Seven days hence, the traveling God Magni stood before the giant dragon Vulkanfang. In his right hand, he held the gleaming axe, silver-white as the deepest snow.
Before that day's sun had fully set, the land of Svartálfaheim was no longer divided into East and West. With the great dragon slain, Snow-White was hailed as the most peerless artifact of the newly dawned Age of Light, under the great god, Baldur. Yet, the peace did not last; Svartálfaheim merely entered a new, darker age, as the seven brothers turned their newfound might against one another in a bitter struggle for the spoils of power.