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North Atlantic

23 September 1938

 

Having changed the course of his ship Poseidon to head to the aid of a radioed call for help in the ice-clogged north Atlantic near the Arctic coastline, on page 8 Captain Morton muses on a vague premonition of danger he gets and wonders if it would have been better for him, his ship, and his crew to have continued on to Boston.

 

Somewhere in Alaska

March 9, 1939

 

The town of Saint Claire, Alaska appears to be fictitious. Page 59 states that it is a tiny town on a branch of the Yukon River and not to be found on any map.

 

The Yukon Gold Rush mentioned on page 45 was an historical event of 1896-1899 involving approximately 100,000 prospectors who migrated to the Yukon's Klondike region of Canada seeking gold.

 

Morton and Browning encounter a Kodiak bear as they near Saint Claire. Kodiak bears are a large species of brown bears found living in the Kodiak Archipelago of Alaska, so it does not make sense for them to meet a Kodiak bear on the mainland of Alaska.

 

In the novel, the term "Eskimo" is used to describe the native inhabitants of the northern-most portions of North America. The generally-preferred term is "Inuit", though other cultural descriptors may sometimes be used. The "Eskimo" term has come to be viewed as a slur, as it is believed to be related to the Cree word askâwa, meaning "raw meat", suggesting an eater of raw meat, or a barbarian.

 

On page 61, Morton and Browning spy a bouncer guarding the door of a saloon with a face that looked as if he had earned his living as King Kong's sparring partner. King Kong is a gigantic ape who appears in the classic 1933 film of the same name.

 

When Dr. Browning tells Indy that an interesting scientific discovery has been made in the arctic, Indy guesses, "Traces of the Yeti at the North Pole? Or has the Loch Ness monster become blurred?" The Yeti is a cryptozoological, ape-like creature said to inhabit the Himalayan Mountains separating India and Tibet. It has often been referred to in the west as the Abominable Snowman. The Yeti is somewhat analogous to the Sasquatch (or Bigfoot) of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The Loch Ness Monster is an aquatic creature of Scottish folklore and alleged cryptid animal similar to a prehistoric plesiosaurus that is said to live in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. Indy's comment of the Loch Ness monster becoming "blurred" is presumably a reference to blurry photographs of the alleged creature which are the only pieces of physical evidence obtained.

 

Indy's Inuit friend and sled guide is called Mighty Quinn. The name is probably borrowed by the author from the Eskimo character in the eponymous 1967 Bob Dylan song "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)".

 

New York 

Hilton Hotel 

26 March 1939

 

This chapter opens at the New York Hilton Hotel. However, their was no Hilton Hotel in New York City until 1943.

 

On page 79, Morton finds himself reminded of the witch of "Hansel and Gretel". "Hansel and Gretel" is the title of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale about a young brother and sister menaced by a child-eating witch in the forests of Germany.

 

On page 84, Indy lounges on a Louis XVI chair. Louis XVI was the last king of France, serving in the role from 1754-1793 until his beheading by guillotine during the French Revolution. A style of furniture popular in France at the time of his rule has taken on his name.

 

The two Dane scientists, Professor Erikson and Dr. Baldurson, were sent to New York for the expedition by the Danish Academy of Sciences in Copenhagen.

 

The two German majors were sent for the expedition by the German Nazi government in Berlin.

 

On page 89, When Browning insists that no one leave the room until they all leave to begin the expedition to Odinsland in half-and-hour, Indy asks bluntly, "What's really on that iceberg? The philosopher's stone?" Of course, Indy has encountered various versions of the so-called Philosopher's Stone previously in The Philosopher's Stone and The Cursed Grimoire. The Philosopher's Stone is a mythical alchemical substance capable of transforming base elements into gold and is also said could be used as an elixir of life (rejuvenation or immortality).

 

On page 91, van Hesling thinks the storm-caused rainbow over New York City is Bifröst. Bifröst is the rainbow bridge that reaches between Midgard* and Asgard, the realm of the gods in Norse mythology.

 

Page 93 mentions that the law of nature called gravity had been discovered three hundred years ago by an Englishman named Newton. Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was a key player in the Scientific Revolution and is best known for his mathematical theorems on the nature of gravity.

 

On page 94, "Walhall" refers to Valhalla, one of several possible destinations in the afterlife for dead warriors in Norse mythology.

 

On page 96, van Hesling seems to think he is going to join Odin (Wotan). Odin is the ruler of Asgard.

 

On page 99, Indy remarks to Dr. Rosenfeld that he'd had no desire to join van Hesling on Bifrost, not liking the idea of it, and adding, "If anything, I prefer Thor's hammer." Mjolnir is the hammer of the Norse god of thunder, Thor. Bifrost is a rainbow bridge that connects Midgard* to Asgard in Norse mythology.

 

Page 105 states that Indiana Jones was a true scientist and archeologist, but even more of an adventurer, perhaps one of the last adventurers left.

 

On page 110, the president of the United States joins Indy and Browning in the saloon of the yacht, walking in and pouring them all glasses of whiskey. But the president at the time (1939) was Franklin D. Roosevelt, confined to a wheelchair due to polio, except for brief periods of standing with the help of leg braces (though knowledge of the extent of his debilitation was strictly controlled at the time). Perhaps it is a body double who appears here!

 

On page 113, Wehrmacht is German for "defense force" and Adolf Hitler was the evil Chancellor of Germany 1933-1945.

 

Page 116 reveals the yacht belongs to the president.

 

The yacht finally docks at a port and the expedition members are transported by a pair of limousines to Lakehurst airport, where they are to board a zeppelin. Indy reflects that this is the same airport where the Hindenburg had exploded a few years before, killing countless people. And the text here makes it clear this is the first time Indy had ever boarded a zeppelin. But Indy has ridden aboard zeppelins before in The Emperor's Tomb, The Great Circle, and most notably The Last Crusade. The airport would be the U.S. Naval Air Station at Lakehurst, New Jersey (now known as Lakehurst Maxfield Field at Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst). Indy previously visited the site in The White Witch and The Philosopher's Stone. The Hindenburg disaster occurred in 1937, in which the German zeppelin by that name, which used hydrogen for its buoyancy, exploded and burned.

 

One of Quinn's huskies, the leader of the sled dog pack, is named Fenris. The name is borrowed from Fenris, a fearsome wolf appearing in the Icelandic Eddas.

 

On page 128, Indiana refers to Dr. Rosenfeld as Valkyrie. "Valkyrie" is Old Norse for "chooser of the slain" and, in Norse mythology, was a female figure sent by the gods to choose who would die in battle.

 

On page 132, Indy presumes in his thoughts that the two German agents on the expedition must be members of the SS or the Gestapo. The S.S. (Schutzstaffel) was the major paramilitary organization of Nazi Germany. The Gestapo was the Nazi secret police.

 

On page 139, Bates reveals that Colonel Lestrade lost an airship previously when one of its engines caught fire over Los Angeles. The man piloted the ship out over the sea to prevent civilian deaths should it crash in the city.

  

Somewhere over Canada 

March 27, 1939

 

On page 150, Browning remarks that they can stop the airship briefly in Anchorage to let Von Ludolf off if he wishes not to continue with the expedition. Anchorage is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. Problem here is Alaska is on the western coast of North America, in the opposite direction of the where the airship is heading, towards Greenland!

 

On page 162, the expedition crewmembers examine the armor and weaponry that had been worn by van Hesling when he was found on the iceberg, including a massive horned helmet weighing almost half a hundredweight. "Hundredweight" is a British and U.S. unit of weight. In the U.S. system, a hundredweight is 100 pounds and in the British system it is 8 stone or 112 pounds.

 

The Dragon uses helium as a lifting agent. Helium completely replaced hydrogen in airships after the Hindenburg disaster of 1937.

 

Somewhere over the Atlantic 

March 29, 1939

 

On page 198, Indy and the others discuss the possibility that the Vikings landed in North America long before Columbus. This theory has become more accepted over time especially after the discovery of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland in 1960.

 

The disappearance or abandonment of the Norse colonies in Greenland discussed by the expedition members is generally true, and the full reasons cannot be known, but are usually associated with climate change, resource depletion, and possibly social and economic shifts.

 

The legend of Odin coming to Greenland in his dragon ship to take the Norse colonists home to the gods appears to be fictitious.

 

A hundred miles off the coast

Greenland

April 1, 1939

 

On page 210, Browning tells of German transports that left Cuxhaven and Hamburg over the course of the past year, to supply the building of a missile base in the Arctic Ocean. Both of these are port cities of northern Germany.

 

Browning goes on to tell the expedition members, "We know from reliable sources that the Germans have been working for some time on the development of remote-controlled rocket projectiles that can destroy cities or port facilities even over long distances. There is a small group of extremely capable scientists around a certain Dr. Wernher von Braun, who are far ahead of us in this field." Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) invented the Saturn V rocket that first sent men to the Moon for the United States. Von Braun was brought over to the U.S. as part of Operation Paperclip, the U.S.'s plan to bring key Nazi scientists to America after WWII.

 

Page 252 states that Indy's whip is 4 meters long. That is a little over 13 feet. The whip props used in the movies ranged from 6 to 16 feet, depending on the usage for the scene, stunt work, etc.

 

    On page 280, Bates hears Messerschmitt ME 109 fighter planes in the sky. This fighter plane model was actually the ME-209, also given the ME-109R assignation by the German government in the hopes of the nation's enemies confusing it with the Messerschmitt BF-209, a very deadly and accomplished earlier aircraft.

    Indy refers to the aircraft as "Stukas". This a German contraction of Sturzkampfflugzeug (dive bomber), usually referring more specifically to the German Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber of World War II.

 

On page 284, "MP" is shorthand for the German word maschinenpistole (submachine gun).

 

Professor Erickson reveals that he is actually Obersturmbannführer Klaus Erich. Obersturmbannführer is German for  "Senior Assault Unit Leader".

 

Somewhere on the Arctic Circle:

Odinsland

April 2, 1939

 

On page 296, Erich admits that the Nazis believe the Viking ship found frozen in the iceberg is Nagelfahr, Odin's ship which brings the souls of fallen warriors to Valhalla. In Germanic mythology, Naglfar is not the ship that brings fallen warriors to Valhalla, but serves Ragnarök (a prophecy of forthcoming events of a great battle entailing the death of the gods and the end and rebirth of the world) as a vehicle for the enemies of the gods.

 

On page 300, Indy realizes that the frozen longship has something to do with turning men into berserkers. A berserker is an Old Norse legend of one who wears a bear-shirt and has the fighting fury of a bear.

 

On page 306, Indy sees that the hull of the longship is made out of millions of finger- and toenails and he points out that is why it is called Naglfar. In Norwegian, naglfar means "nail father". In the Norse myths, the ship called Naglfar is said to be made out of the nails of dead warriors.

 

On page 311, the Äsen (also called Æsir) are the principal group of deities in the Norse pantheon.

 

The team members discover frozen Vikings in the ice around the longship, as if they had been frozen in a second. Indy explains, "That happens. It's rare, but it's happened. If very specific meteorological conditions coincide, then temperatures can drop to fifty or a hundred degrees below zero in a fraction of a second. They have already found mammoths from the Stone Age that were so perfectly frozen that their meat could still be eaten." The idea of a quick freeze to account for frozen mammoths and other animals in Siberia is an hypothesis developed by scientists in the late 19th century. However, this hypothesis is dismissed by most modern researchers.

 

On page 314, the longship is described as waiting to awaken from its icy slumber, "perhaps unleashing forces against which the trumpets of Jericho must have sounded like the shawm sound of an angel of peace." "Trumpets of Jericho" refers to seven ram's horns, blown by priests during the Israelite conquest of Jericho as described in the Bible's Book of Joshua, which resulted in the walls of the city miraculously falling. A "shawm" is a double-reed woodwind instrument popular in Europe during the medieval and Renaissance periods.

 

After Indy and Rosenfeld put on the armor and weapons of the long-dead Vikings in preparation for facing off against the Nazis, Mable refers to him as Thor, and Indy responds, "Unless you decide to write the word without an 'h'." In Norse mythology, Thor is the hammer-wielding god of thunder, storms, strength, and protection. "Tor" is an occasional alternate spelling of "Thor", but I'm unsure what Indy means by his statement of leaving out the "h".

 

Odinsland. 

Ragnarök 

April 3, 1939

 

Kapitänleutnant is a German term for "lieutenant commander".

 

Page 340 implies that Indy knows only a small amount of German language, but past stories have shown him to be quite proficient in it.

 

As the longship is freed from the melting iceberg, an undead Erich is seen at its helm...with the hammer of Thor in his hand! In Norse mythology, the hammer is called Mjolnir and is said to control storms and harness the power of thunder, lightning, wind, and rain.

 

Here, the hammer is said to be made out of gold, but it's makeup is left vague in Norse mythology, saying only that it is made up of a magical metal beyond mortal understanding.

 

At the end of the novel, Indy watches the longship with Rosenfeld on it disappear into the mists of the sea and sees a huge shimmering rainbow rising from the surface of the sea and leading directly up to the sky. This is a reference to the previously-mentioned Bifrost bridge.

 

**Midgard=Earth.

 

 

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