The 1978 Thor Annual takes place at a crucial point in Asgard's existence, with the Asgardians on the brink of facing their worst nightmare: Ragnarok, the prophesied twilight of the gods which will doom not only the realm but also Earth, as well (or so the Asgardians believe). Yet for all intents and purposes, this story takes its cue from an earlier annual from 1976, where the gods of Asgard faced off against those of Olympus, and each realm believed itself to have triumphed when in reality neither did. Thor, still young (well, for an immortal) and headstrong at the time, was not at all pleased with his father Odin's explanation as to why each side was denied a true victory--but we find that Thor's mood is equally dour in the more current tale, where it seems that the coming crisis, which most have laid at the feet of Loki's machinations, is unavoidable, leaving these warrior gods of Asgard bristling at their collective helplessness.
To learn how one story connects with the other to bring about a third, we must catch up with Thor as he wanders the royal palace aimlessly and finds himself before one who takes delight in mocking Asgard's current state of affairs--Mimir, the fiery guardian of the Well of Wisdom where Odin was recently compelled to cast one of his eyes into in order to learn how he may prevent the coming of Ragnarok. What knowledge Odin gained from that encounter proved to be ultimately fruitless--yet Thor has no intention of paying such a price for the answers he seeks this day.
Mimir leads off by recounting the Asgardian/Olympian conflict, a "war" which left Thor feeling manipulated and sent him stomping out of Asgard earthward. It's something of a stretch on writer Roy Thomas's part, since in the story the rest of us read, Thor's mood was improved considerably by a conversation with the Norn Queen, Karnilla, leaving him in a more upbeat frame of mind:
And yet to accommodate the current tale, off to Earth he goes, now unwilling to accept his limitations and determined to explore expanding Asgard's influence among mortals in anticipation of the throne eventually being seated by himself. But in so doing, he is destined to cross paths for the first time with a highly-advanced race of Earth-born "gods" who have their own plans for the primitive mortals of the world--and who await the return of beings who, unknown to Thor, had long ago begun shaping the evolution of mankind as part of an operation which would take millennia to come to fruition!
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