87
See also: Making sense of the world 20–23 ■ The battle between good and evil 60–65 ■ Beliefs that mirror
society 80–81 ■ Entering into the faith 224–27 ■ Awaiting the Day of Judgment 312–13
ANCIENT AND CLASSICAL BELIEFS
free himself, the world will shake;
trees will be uprooted, and
mountains will fall. Loki will begin
to regain his strength, and nature
itself will start to go awry: a series
of terrible winters, with snow, frost,
and biting winds, will soon become
constant, with no summer at all.
There will be battles everywhere,
brother fighting against brother,
father against son, until the whole
world is ruined. When the chained
god finally breaks free, the sky will
split open, Loki’s monstrous wolf-
son Fenrir will swallow the sun,
and Loki will lead an army of giants,
monsters, and the dead from the
underworld, in a ship made from
the uncut fingernails of the dead.Odin’s army retaliates
Odin is the god of poetry and
magic, but he is also the god of war
and battle, and it is from the slain
of the battlefield that he assembles
his army of dead warriors, the
Einherjar, to fight against Loki’s
underworld horde.
Norse mythology is quite clear,
however, that even with this mighty
army, the gods are destined to be
defeated and destroyed in this
conflict. Odin’s son, the mighty
god Thor, will be killed by the huge
serpent Jörmungandr, and Odin
will be devoured by Fenrir. Thor’s
brother Vidar will step forward and
rip Fenrir in two by the jawbones,
but it will not be enough to save
either Odin or creation. The whole
world will be destroyed by fire,
and will subside beneath the sea.The gigantic wolf Fenrir, here
swallowing Odin, was the offspring of
Loki’s liaison with a female jötunn, one
of a race of giants at war with the gods.
The sun turns black,
earth sinks into the sea,
the bright stars vanish
from the sky.
The EddasYet from this destruction a new
world will be born, as a new land
rises from the sea. One man and
one woman, Lifthrasir and Lif, will
survive the destruction. From them
a new race of humans will be born.
As for the gods, Odin’s sons Vidar
and Vali, and Thor’s sons Modi and
Magni, will be the only survivors of
the battle. They will be joined by
the slain Baldr the beautiful and
his blind brother Hoder, who were
tricked by Loki—both freed at
last from the underworld. ■The Viking heaven
Vikings who died of natural
causes faced the dismal prospect
of Hel, the cold, damp realm of
the dead. Only Vikings chosen to
die in battle by Odin’s valkyries
(a race of warlike, supernatural
females), or those selected for
sacrifice, could cross the rainbow
bridge to Asgard, home of the gods.
Half of those who had died in battle
belonged to the goddess Freyja and
went to the meadow, Fólkvangr, to
be seated in her hall. Women who
died heroic deaths may also havebeen eligible. The other half of
slain warriors belonged to Odin,
and they spent the afterlife in
Valhalla, the hall of the slain,
roofed with shields. There they
fought each other all day, but
arose unhurt at night to feast
on the meat of a magical boar
and drink the mead milked
from a magical goat. This was
to prepare them for the day
when they would march from
Valhalla to fight for the gods in
the final battle of Ragnarok.Fallen warriors were burned on
a pyre, as decreed by Odin. Weapons,
food, and tools were burned with
them for use in the afterlife.