Ragnarok the battle at the end of the world
In Norse mythology, Ragnarök ("fate of the gods") is the battle at the end of
the world. It would be waged between the gods (the Ćsir, led by Odin) and their
aggressors (Loki and his monstrous children, as well as, among others, the
Jötnar). Not only will some of the gods, giants, and monsters perish in this
apocalyptic conflagration, but almost everything in the universe will be torn
asunder.
In Viking warrior societies, dying in battle is admirable. This is carried over
into the worship of a pantheon in which the gods themselves will one day be
overthrown at Ragnarök. Exactly what will happen, who will fight whom, and the
fates of the participants in this battle are well known to the Norse peoples
from their own sagas and skaldic poetry. The Völuspá — prophecy of the völva (sybil),
the first lay of the Poetic Edda, dating from about 1000 AD — spans the history
of the gods, from the beginning of time to Ragnarök, in 65 stanzas. The Prose
Edda, written two centuries later by Snorri Sturluson, describes in detail what
would take place before, during, and even after the battle.
What is unique about Ragnarök as an eschatological myth is its emphasis on the
idea that the gods already know through prophecy what is going to happen: when
the event will occur, who will be slain by whom, and so forth. They even realize
that they are powerless to prevent Ragnarök. But they will still bravely and
defiantly face their bleak destiny. This is thought by many scholars to
represent the ordered world (the Ćsir) eventually succumbing to the unavoidable
forces of chaos and entropy (the Giants). This is similar to the representation
of the monstrous children of Uranus in Greek mythology and the monstrous
creations of Tiamat in the Enuma Elish as the primordial forces of chaos.
Old Norse Ragnarök is a compound of ragna, the genitive plural of regin ("gods"
or "ruling powers"), and rök "fate" (etymologically related to English "reach").
Other spellings include Ragnarřkkr, Ragnarřk, Ragnarok (the modern Danish and
Norwegian forms).
Prelude
The main events that signify the approach of Ragnarök:
The birth of three beings — the offspring of Loki and Angerboda, namely
Jörmungandr, Fenrir and Hel and the gods' subsequent actions to confine them;
The death of Baldr and the binding of Loki;
The arrival of Fimbulwinter.
Portents
Ragnarök will be preceded by the Fimbulwinter, the winter of winters. Three
successive winters will follow each other with no summer in between. As a
result, conflicts and feuds will break out, and all morality will disappear.
The wolf Skoll and his brother Hati will finally devour Sol (the Sun) and her
brother Mani (the Moon) respectively, after a perpetual chase. The stars will
vanish from the sky, plunging the earth into darkness.
The earth will shudder, so violently that trees will be uprooted, and mountains
will fall, and every bond and fetter will snap and sever, freeing Loki, the God
of Mischief, and his ferocious son Fenrir. This terrible wolf's slavering mouth
will gape wide open, so wide that his lower jaw scrapes against the ground and
his upper jaw presses against the sky. He will gape even more widely if there is
room. Flames will dance in his eye and leap from his nostrils.
Eggther, watchman of the Jotuns, will sit on his grave mound and strum his harp,
smiling grimly. The red cock Fjalar will crow to the giants and the golden cock
Gullinkambi will crow to the gods. A third cock,[2] rust red, will raise the
dead in Hel.
Jörmungandr, the Midgard serpent, and Loki's other monstrous offspring will rise
from the deep ocean bed to proceed towards the land, twisting and writhing in
fury on their way, causing the seas to rear up and lash against the land. With
every breath, the serpent will spew venom, staining the earth and the sky in
poison.
From the east, the army of Jotuns, led by Hrym, will leave their home in
Jotunheim and sail the grisly ship Naglfar (made from the nails of dead men),
which will be set free by the tsunami and flooding caused by Jörmungandr,
towards the battlefield of Vigrid (Óskópnir).
From the north, a second ship will set sail towards Vigrid, with Loki, now
unbound, as the helmsman, and Hel, with all those from her realm by the same
name, as the deadweight.
The world will be in uproar, the air will quake with booms, blares and echoes.
Amid this turmoil, the fire giants of Muspelheim, led by Surtr, will advance
from the south and tear apart the sky itself as they too, close in on Vigrid.
Surtr will brandish a fierce fire sword, the Sword of Revenge, that consumes
everything in his path with flames. As Surtr and the others ride over Bifröst,
the rainbow bridge will crack and break behind them. Garm, the hellhound bound
in front of Gnipahellir, will also get free. He will join the fire giants on
their march.
So all the Jotuns and all the inmates of Hel, Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Garm, Surtr
and the blazing sons of Muspelheim, will gather on Vigrid. They will all but
fill that plain that stretches one hundred leagues in every direction.
Meanwhile, Heimdall, being the first of the gods to see the enemies approaching,
will blow his Giallar horn, sounding such a blast that will be heard throughout
the nine worlds. All the Gods will wake and at once meet in council. Odin will
then mount Sleipnir and gallop to Mímir's spring and consult Mímir on his own
and his people's behalf.
Then, Yggdrasil, the world tree, will shake from root to summit. Everything on
the earth, in the heavens, and Hel will quiver. All Ćsir and Einherjar will don
their battle dresses. This vast host (800 men can stand abreast in each of
Valhalla's 540 gates, so they will likely number in the millions) will march
towards Vigrid and Odin will ride at their head, wearing a golden helmet and a
shining corselet, brandishing Gungnir.
The final battle
Tyr chaining Fenrir.Odin will make straight for Fenrir; and Thor, right beside
him, will be unable to help because Jörmungandr, his old enemy, will at once
attack him. Freyr will fight the fire giant Surtr, but will become the first of
all gods to lose as he has given his own good sword to his servant Skírnir. It
will still be a long struggle though, before Freyr will succumb. Tyr will battle
Garm and both will slay the other. Likewise, Heimdall will fight Loki and
neither will survive the evenly matched encounter. Thor will kill Jörmungandr
with his hammer Mjollnir, but only be able to stagger back nine steps before
falling dead himself, poisoned by the venom that Jörmungandr spews over him.
Odin will fight with his mighty spear Gungnir against Fenrir but will finally be
eaten by the wolf after a long battle. To avenge his father, Vidar will
immediately come forward and place one foot on the wolf's lower jaw. On this
foot he will be wearing the shoe which he has been making since the beginning of
time; it consists of the strips of leather which men pare off at the toes and
heels of their shoes. With one hand he will grasp the wolf's upper jaw and tear
its throat asunder, killing it at last.
Then, brandishing the Sword of Revenge, Surtr will burn all Nine worlds with
fire and he himself will be consumed by his own destruction. Death will come to
all manner of things. Fumes will reek and flames will burst, scorching the sky
with fire. The earth will sink into the sea.
Aftermath
Barley will ripen in fields that were never sown. The meadow Idavoll, in the
now-destroyed Asgard, will have been spared. The sun will reappear as Sol before
being swallowed by Skoll, who will give birth to a daughter as fair as she
herself. This maiden daughter will pursue her mother's road in the new sky.
A few gods will survive the ordeal: Odin's brother Vili, Odin's sons Vidar and
Váli, Thor's sons Móđi and Magni, who will inherit their father's magic hammer
Mjollnir, and Hśnir, who will hold the staff and foretell what is to come. Baldr
and his brother Höđr (who both died prior to Ragnarök) will come up from Hel and
dwell in Odin's former hall, Valhalla, in the heavens. Meeting at Idavoll, these
gods will sit down together, discuss their hidden lore, and talk over many
things that had happened, including the events surrounding the final rise of
Jörmungandr and Fenrir. In the waving grass, they will find the golden
chessboards that the Ćsir used to own, and gaze at them in wonder. (None of the
goddesses were mentioned in various accounts of the aftermath of Ragnarök, but
there are assumptions that Frigg, Freyja and some of the other goddesses will
survive.)
Two humans will also escape the destruction of the world by hiding themselves
deep within Yggdrasil (some say Hodmimir's Wood) where Surtr's sword cannot
destroy. They will be called Lif and Lifthrasir. Emerging from their shelter,
they will live on morning dew and will repopulate the human world. They will
worship their new pantheon of gods, led by Baldr.
There will still be many halls to house the souls of the dead. According to the
'Prose Edda', another heaven exists south of and above Asgard, called Andlang,
and a third heaven further above that, called Vidblain; and these places will
offer protection while Surtr's fire burns the world. According to both 'Eddas',
after Ragnarök, the best place of all will be Gimli, a building fairer than the
sun, roofed with gold, in the heaven. There, the gods will live at peace with
themselves and each other. There will be Brimir, a hall on Okolnir ("never
cold"), where plenty of good drinks will be served. And there will be Sindri, an
excellent hall made wholly of red gold, on Nidafjoll ("dark mountains"). The
souls of the good and virtuous will live in these halls.
The Prose Edda also mentions another hall called Náströnd ("corpse strand").
That place in the underworld will be vast: no sunlight will reach it; all its
doors will face north; its walls and roof will be made of wattled snakes, with
their heads facing inward, spewing so much poison that it runs in rivers in the
hall. Here, oath breakers, murderers and philanderers will wade through those
rivers forever.
Hvergelmir, and Níđhöggr, also a survivor of Ragnarök, will bedevil the bodies
of the dead, sucking blood from them.
In this new world, misery will no longer exist and gods and men will live
together in peace and harmony. The descendants of Lif and Lifthrasir will
inhabit Midgard.