I have just glanced through my notes and bookmarks, and started to wonder what the over-arching theme of the book is. What prompted me to think about it is this quote:
"... Shadow put his own coin in the slot. He took his slip of paper. He read it.
EVERY ENDING IS A NEW BEGINNING. "
I wondered whether this was significant to the book as a whole. Shadow dies on the tree as a sacrifice, only to be revived. Hinzelmann takes a yearly sacrifice of youth in exchange for keeping the town young and alive. The battle that Odin and Loke stages are a re-telling of Ragnarok (in
Voluspa it is the end of the old world and the start of a new, with Balder and Hod as its new rulers)
In short, I wonder if not the theme of death and renewal of life is important. And that would support Shadow being Balder (if Gaiman follows that school of interpretation*)
But now I wonder if Gaiman gave the role of
Hod, Balder's brother, to anyone in the novel?
*an interpretation which I don't personally agree with as I find it too simplistic, but that's neither here nor there - I didn't write the book *lol*