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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 would

cross 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 Loki

would 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 would

The 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 beneath

Christ 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 rune

stone, 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 Edda

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