Knorda (Mountain Giant; Thor, Avengers, & FF character)

Base of Operations: Currently unrevealed;
    formerly Valhalla;
    formerly Praxis HQ, high atop the Swiss Alps (electronically shielded from the world at large);
    formerly mobile across Europe;
    formerly Jotunheim, Asgard

Powers/Abilities: Though human-sized, Knorda is an Asgardian giantess, and possesses superhuman strength (perhaps Class 25) and durability, as well as being highly resistant to cold, aging, and conventional disease. Given her garment, one would speculate that she is an experienced warrior. She carried a battle axe and rode a horse into battle.

Height: 6'2"
Weight: 467 lbs.
Eyes: Green (see comments)
Hair: Blonde

History:
(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8 (fb) - BTS) - A human-sized giantess, Knorda was ordained at birth by her father to be betrothed to Uthorn, aged king of the Mountain Giants.

(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8 (fb) - BTS) - Widowed before she could bear Uthorn a child, Knorda became queen of the Mountain Giants and vowed to never again suffer indignity at the hands of man.

(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8 (fb) - BTS) - Knorda ruled with an iron fist, leading the Mountain Giants into countless successful battles.

(Journey into Mystery I#109/2 (fb) - BTS) - Knorda was long sought after by Arkin the Weak, cousin of Loki, though she spurned his advances.

(Domination Factor: Fantastic Four#4.7 (fb) - BTS) - Knorda also figuratively captured the heart of the Asgardian trickster god Loki, who hoped that the two of them might rule together.

(Journey into Mystery I#109/2 (fb) - BTS) - The Mountain Giants went to war with the Asgardian gods.

(Journey into Mystery I#109/2) - Centuries ago, Odin banished Thor from the city of Asgard for fighting a duel against his wishes, Arkin treasonously rushed to Knorda and informed her that Thor would be passing on a mountain trail by himself, hoping that she would find him worthy of her love. Knorda acknowledged the information (realizing that eliminating Thor would mark the death knell for Asgard), but told Arkin that they would discuss their plans for each other after Thor had been dealt with.
Soon the Mountain Giants ambushed Thor, who fled into a narrow canyon pass into a walled-off valley then escaped through a a cave too small for the giants to fit. Thor followed the cave up through the top of the canyon and met with Odin and his army, revealing they had planned this to expose a suspected traitor. Arkin was thus exposed, while the Mountains Giants, including Knorda were trapped and forced to surrender. Ignoring Arkin's explanation that he didn't know of the trap, Knorda offered Odin her sword, asking him to be generous in victory.

(Domination Factor: Avengers#2.4) - Odin sent Thor to bring him Knorda (to favor her request) and Arkin (to punish him for his treason).

(Domination Factor: Avengers#3.6 (fb)) - Somehow betraying the Mountain Giants, Knorda earned Odin's mercy. He banished her to Midgard (Earth) as a mortal, but gave her one of Idunn's golden apples, cut into nine sections to represent the nine worlds of Asgard, though Knorda was now an outcast to all save one of these worlds. Knorda ate one of the slices, but kept the other eight to remind her of her folly in making war on Asgard; Odin transformed the other slices into pure gold so they would not be affected by time. Odin instructed her to try to rule on Earth with a velvet glove, rather than an iron gauntlet. Thanking Odin for his mercy, Knorda departed, hoping to one day be deemed worthy of returning to Asgard.

(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8 (fb) - BTS) - Odin had imbued the Golden Apple with the mystical power to establish a new kingdom on Earth.

(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8 (fb) - BTS) - Loki sent a pair of Mountain Giants to ambush Knorda. Loki of Reality-8921's modern era possessed the past Reality-616 version of himself, plotting to slay Thor and further re-write reality.

(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8) - Knorda of Reality-1000 (the reality Loki had created via slaying Thor and using the Golden Apple's power) traveled back to this divergence point. There she merged with her own past self of Reality-616 and told Odin of Loki's plot, after which she joined the Apple's power with Odin's and used it to banish Loki's future self. Odin then transformed Loki into a tree, telling him that he wouldn't be freed until someone shed a tear for him (noting that Loki would escape and be reinterred thusly many times before the lesson would be imparted on him).
As the Golden Apple disintegrated, Odin asked Knorda if she wished to have another. Her duty fulfilled, the future Knorda's astral self returned to its own time/reality, and the younger Knorda, though she couldn't quite recall why, felt that Odin's gift had already served its purpose, so she declined receiving another one.
Thor defeated the two Mountain Giants and brought them before Odin and Knorda, telling them they had intended Knorda harm. Telling Thor that they had been sent by Loki, Knorda departed, telling Thor and Odin she hoped to one day meet them again in the halls of Valhalla.

(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8 (fb) / Domination Factor: Avengers#3.6 (fb) - BTS) - Aging more slowly than humanity, Knorda had to move across the continent to disguise her secret, reappearing later as her own "daughter" to reclaim the wealth and stature she had left behind.

(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8 (fb)) - After several centuries, as Nora Queen, Knorda established Praxis in Switzerland, devoting it to the new field of computing. Though courted by world leaders (such as Adolf Hitler), she refused to allow any man to compromise her goals. Praxis grew to be a dominant company.

(Domination Factor: Fantastic Four#4.7 (fb) - BTS) - Knorda built Praxis into a powerful, multi-billion dollar company.

(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8) - In recent years, despite the best efforts of her doctors, Nora Queen perished. As her spirit was accepted by Hela, she announced that at long last her penance on Earth was done. Hela told her that she was going not to Hel, but to Valhalla, where roam the spirits of noble Asgardians.

(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8 (fb) - BTS) - At an international political conference, a representative from Norway gave a golden statue of Knorda to the President Of The United States (POTUS).

(Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8) - Tony Stark and Reed Richards discussed the statue of Queen Knorda, which seemed eerily familiar to them.

It's hard to sort out altered Realities, but the realities had a common past up to Knorda's defeat by Asgard and Odin sending Knorda to Earth.
In Reality-8921, Knorda obtained the Golden Apples and departed to Earth peacefully before Loki's brigands sacked her and stole the Apple.

On Earth-616 Knorda destroyed the Apple foiling Loki's plot and then traveled to Earth without the Apple.
On close inspection, it would appear that Realities-8921 and -616 are divergent versions, splitting off at the point after Knorda's acceptance of Odin's exile. Reality-1000 would be an altered reality, transformed from -8921 by Loki after he gained the Golden Apple.
Interestingly, though, when Knorda acted to reverse the changes Loki had made, she didn't just revert Reality-1000 back to -8921, but instead diverged -616 from -8921.
Presumably versions of Reality-8921 and -1000 still exist somewhere in the multiverse.

As these were altered and divergent realities, the heroes really shouldn't remember things, but they may hold onto fragments. The realities briefly overlapped.

I'm not sure what the current state of Valhalla is following the most recent Ragnarok. I guess we'll find out in the new Thor series at some point.

Knorda's eyes looked green in Journey into Mystery#109, but blue in the Domination Factor. Alternate dimensional variation? Colorist error? Who knows? I'm partially color blind, so maybe I'm just mistaken.

I realize that the face picture would technically be Knorda-8921, but they should be identical and there wasn't another shot of Nora Queen in Reality-616.

images: (without ads)
Journey into Mystery I#109/2, p2, panel 4 (full body)
        p3, panel 1 (face, in profile)
Domination Factor: Avengers#1.2, p10, panel 2 (aged Nora Queen)
Domination Factor: Fantastic Four#4.7, p2 (full body Knorda)
Domination Factor: Avengers#4.8, p9, panel 3 (various identities)
            panel 4 (with Hitler)
        p22, panel 3 (dying)
        p23, panel 3 (Knorda statue)

Appearances:
Journey into Mystery I#109/2 (October, 1964) - by Stan Lee (writer), Jack Kirby (penciler), and Vince Colletta (inker).
Domination Factor: Fantastic Four#1.1, 2.3, 3.5, 4.7 (November, 1999 - February, 2000) - by Dan Jurgens (script & layouts), Bob McLeod (finished inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Domination Factor: Avengers#1.2, 2.4, 3.6, 4.8 (November, 1999 - February, 2000) - by Jerry Ordway (writer/penciler), Dennis Janke (inker), Tom Brevoort (editor)

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