Perrin forging Mah'alleinir
- For other uses of the word "hammer," see Hammer.
Mah'alleinir is the war hammer of Perrin Aybara. It is a Power-wrought weapon and its name means "He who soars" in the Old Tongue. It is named after Hopper who died the final death in Tel'aran'rhiod shortly before its creation.
It measures about four feet long, has a large brick shaped head, a long metal handle, and the imprint of a leaping wolf on the side of its head. It is described as resembling an outsized blacksmith's hammer more than it does a "traditional" warhammer, with a wedge-shaped back in place of the typical armor-piercing spike common on typical warhammer designs.
It was the first Power-wrought weapon to be made since the Trolloc Wars, and was made with the help of both saidin (from Asha'man Fager Neald) and saidar (a circle of Wise Ones). When used by Perrin, it feels warm to the touch, but it seems to burn both Shadowspawn and anyone on the receiving end of its blows. It has also proven capable of permanently killing Darkhounds.
Making of Mah'alleinir[]
After Perrin began forging the hammer, Neald offered to help by keeping the metal at the right temperature. But he soon began doing something by instinct because "it [felt] right." Neald abruptly demanded that the Wise Ones form a circle, after which Perrin felt something "leaking" from him "as if each blow infused the metal with his own strength, and also his own feelings. Both worries and hopes. These flowed from him into the three unwrought pieces." By the end, Grady and all six Wise Ones had joined in. When Perrin asked Neald he said: "It felt right. I saw what to do, how to put the weaves into the metal itself. It seemed to draw them in, like an ocean drinking in the water of a stream."[1]
Parallels[]
"Mah'alleinir" bears a striking similarity in name and description to Mjölnir↗ (pronounced Myol-neer), the hammer used by Norse Mythology's Thor↗, god of thunder. In the vein of the story, it could be interpreted that the effects of time can cause the name Mah'alleinir to become Mjölnir over the course of several thousand years. This line of thought leads to the possibility that hammer described in the myths about Thor could be the very same that Perrin Aybara forged so long ago, in an Age yet to come, in an Age long past.