156
across the sea and sky. To add to
the turmoil, the sky would split
apart and the fire giants of
Muspelheim, led by Surt, would
ride out surrounded by burning fire.
Light would blaze more brightly
from Surt’s sword than from the
sun. The giants’ armies wouldcross Bifrost, the rainbow bridge
spanning the gap between Asgard
and Midgard, shattering it in the
process. The troops would then
gather on the field of Vígrid (“Battle
Surge”), which stretched for a
hundred leagues in all directions.
Fenrir, Jörmungand, and Lokiwould be there, together with Hrym
and his frost giants, while the fire
giants of Muspelheim would form
their own battle line.The gods rally
Snorri wrote that Heimdall would
then sound Gjallarhorn to awaken
the gods to their danger, and
Odin would ride to Mímir’s Well
to consult with the wise Mímir’s
head. Meanwhile, the branches of
Yggdrasil would tremble, filling
everything that lived in the nine
worlds with fear. Then the Aesir
and the dead warriors would march
out to do battle on the vast plain of
Vígrid, led by Odin. Carrying his
spear, Gungnir, and wearing a
golden helmet and mail coat, Odin
would take on Fenrir with Thor at
his side.
Jörmungand would attack Thor
before the god of thunder could help
Odin. Freyr would fight Surt, who
would defeat and kill him. The
minor war god Tyr and the evil Hel
hound Garm would fight each other
to the death. Although Thor would
kill Jörmungand, he would only step
nine paces away from his foe before
he, too, would fall down dead from
the venom the serpent had spat at
him. Without Thor’s support, Odin
would be swallowed by Fenrir.
Odin’s son Vídar would
immediately avenge his father’s
death, stepping down on Fenrir’s
lower jaw with one foot, grasping
the wolf’s upper jaw in one hand,
and tearing him apart. Loki and
Heimdall would battle together and
kill one another. After this, mighty
Surt would hurl fire, burning the
whole world, after which it wouldThe sky splits and releases the
fire giants of Muspelheim in an
engraving of Ragnarök (Downfall of the
Aesir), published in an 1882 book
of Norse gods and heroes.THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
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NORTHERN EUROPE 157
the waves, where crops would grow
without having been sown. The
surviving Aesir would begin to
gather on Idavoll, where Asgard used
to stand: the only thing that would
remain would be some golden
gaming pieces lying in the grass.
Odin’s sons Vídar and Váli would
arrive first, followed by Thor’s sons
Modi and Magni, having rescued
Thor’s hammer from the destruction
of the old world. Last, Baldur and Hod
would return from Hel, complete with
the serpent Niddhogg. The heavens,
too, would survive, and virtuous folk
(who had presumably died during
Ragnarök) would feast in the halls of
Gimlé and Brimir.
Two humans, a woman called
Líf (“Life”) and a man called
Leifthrasir (“Thriving Remnant”),
would survive Ragnarök and Surt’s
fire by hiding within the branches
of Yggdrasil. They would sustain
themselves on the morning dew
and they would go on to have so
many descendants that the earth
would be completely repopulated.The Valkyries, Norse maidens who
decided who lived or died in battle,
head to war in Arthur Rackham’s 1910
illustration The Ride of the Valkyries.sink beneath the sea, taking the
gods, the battle dead, and all
humankind with it. The inrushing
waters would put out the flames.
The fate of other beings—the
frost giants, elves, and dwarves—
was not mentioned, but it is
probably safe to assume that they
too would perish.A brighter future
Similar to “Völuspá,” in Snorri’s
account a beautiful new world
would soon shoot up from beneathChrist and Ragnarök
In the early stages of the
conversion of the Norse to
Christianity, monuments
such as preaching crosses
combined Christian symbols
with scenes from old Norse
myths, such as Ragnarök.
The Norse often accepted
Christ as simply one more deity
among many, but Christianity
required a convert to believe
that there was only one god.
The monuments were created to
aid the conversion process. For
example, Denmark’s Jelling runestone, considered the country’s
earliest Christian monument,
depicted Christ on the cross
entwined by foliage. This was
intended to draw a parallel
between Christ and Odin, who
hanged himself from the world
tree Yggdrasil.
Other monuments reminded
converts that the old gods were
mere mortals, doomed to die,
by juxtaposing the cross—the
symbol of Christ’s resurrection—
with scenes of Ragnarök. The
message: Christ alone was
eternal, and only he could offer
his followers eternal life.The Jelling rune stone, c. 965 ce,
sometimes referred to as “Denmark’s
birth certificate,” combined both
Christian and old Norse iconography.The new world would be lit by a
new sun, because the old sun
would have given birth to a fiery
daughter moments before being
swallowed by Sköll the wolf.
This regeneration of the
earth and sky contrasts with the
foreboding at the end of “Völuspá.”
Snorri’s optimistic vision of the
future world, however, may possibly
have been as a result of his
Christian beliefs. The “Völuspá” is
likely a truer vision of the way the
Norse traditionally saw the
future—as an endless cycle of
creation and destruction. ■Then the powerful,
mighty one, he
who rules over
everything, will come
from above.
Poetic EddaUS_150-157_Ragnarok.indd 157 05/12/17 4:15 pm