The revelation of the earlier Ragnarok by the Eye of Odin
only raises more questions in Thor's mind. The Eye shows him the Celestial
Axis, linking Earth to other planes of being including Thor's Asgard. The Eye
takes him back to the remnant of the earlier Asgard and its small band of
survivors who find small statuettes of their fallen comrades and Thor's sons
Modi and Magni discover their father's hammer which, since there is no need of
weapons in this idyllic place, they hurl down to Midgard. The hammer crashes
into the Rhine River and is transformed into a hoard of gold which will be
mentioned again later. Odin's surviving brothers Vili and Ve and his sons Vidar
and Vali discover their father's spear Gungnir when they all touch it, all of
the surviving Asgardians are transformed into Odin, Thor's father, leaving some
new statuettes on the grass. The All-Father raises up gods and monsters from
the ground and has a tornado whisk the latter away to their own lands. The gods
rebuild Asgard while Odin wipes away the last vestiges of memory of the old
Asgard from their minds and finally Odin creates Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge
connecting Asgard to Midgard. Then Odin decides to take a wife and beget a
natural son so he journeys to Midgard—but the Eye will not let Thor see what
happens next and the God of Thunder, who does not know who his mother was, is
frustrated....
The Eye picks up the story again with the Rhinegold, guarded
by the Rhinemaidens. One day the gnome Alberich comes to them and they tell him
the secret of the Rhinegold: anyone who can forge a ring of the gold will
conquer the world—but he must renounce love in all its forms. Alberich, who has
never known love, finds that an acceptable trade-off and steals the gold....
Meanwhile, back at Asgard, Odin has a pair of Storm Giants,
Fafnir and Fasolt, building him a great hall called Valhalla, promising them
the goddess Idunn as their payment, because Loki promised them that the price
would not be paid since Idunn's golden apples keep the gods young. Loki appears
and hands over Idunn to the giant brothers. Thor and Frey (her brother) hears
her cries for help and they hasten to the scene. (Thor tells the Eye he
remembers nothing of this.) Thor attacks the giants but Odin orders him to put
down his weapons—or die....