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The Myths and Legends of the Vikings: The Battle at the End of Time

By Mr Ghaz, December 16, 2010

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The Myths and Legends of the Vikings: The Battle at the End of Time

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The dramatic account given of the end of the world in Norse mythology is unique; no other tradition except perhaps that of the biblical Book of Revelation has such a detailed vision of how the final catastrophe will occur.

The story is hold allusively in two poems, in each case from the perspective of an individual with access to hidden knowledge; in the V?luspá (ca. 1000), the longer of the two, and the speaker is a female seer described as being cunning in magic.

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The story of Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods, had a profound effect on the Norse worldview, contributing greatly to its characteristic mood of fatalism. It told how, ultimately, the worlds of gods and men would be swept away. Even Odin and Thor, the mightiest of Asgard’s defenders, could do no more than delay the onset of the final battle, in which they must inevitably meet their own deaths.

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The prelude to Ragnarok is the death of Baldur, son of Odin and Frigg and the best-loved of al the Aesir. Having heard that her son is destined to be killed unwittingly by another of Odin’s sons, the blind Hod, Frigg asks all things animate and inanimate to swear not to harm him. However, Loki, who has now become a figure of pure evil, discovers that Frigg had forgotten to ask the mistletoe. He hands a branch to Hod and directs the blind god’s aim toward Baldur-the mistletoe pierces Baldur and he dies.

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When Frigg goes to the underworld realm of Hel, Queen of the Dead, to request Baldur’s resuscitation, it is Loki again who thwarts her mission. In retaliation, Loki is bound with the entrails of his own son Narfi and left pinioned on three sharp rocks to wait the day when Ragnarok shall dawn.

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A fragment from northern Iceland, thought once to have formed part of an 11th-century Doomsday from Holar cathedral, shows a beast swallowing the human figure. For the island's surviving pagans, the image would no doubt have recalled the wolf Fenrir swallowing Odin in the shadow at Ragnarok.

As Snorri and the poets tell the story, Ragnarok’s coming will be heralded by a time of savage warfare among men-“an ax age, a sword age, a wind age, a wolf age.” Then there will be a terrible winter lasting for three whole years. The wolves that have long pursued the sun and the moon will finally catch and devour their prey; the earth itself will quake and trees and crags will be uprooted.

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Three cockerels will crow, one on the gallows tree, one in Hel, and one in Valhalla, to signal that the forces of evil have finally been unleashed. The wolf Fenrir will break its fetters, and Jormungand, the World Serpent, will rise up from the sea, scattering venom from its mouth. All the Aesir’s enemies will gather for battle. Surt will lead the fire giants from Muspell; as they approach Asgard, the rainbow bridge Bifrost will buckle under their weight. Stirred up by Jormungand, the ocean will flood into Hel, tearing the ship Naglfar from its moorings; this terrible vessel is made of nail-clippings taken from the dead (humans can delay its completion by sending corpses to the grave with their fingers and toes trimmed). Oki will burst free from his bonds to pilot it toward Asgard, accompanied by Hrimir and the frost giants and all the champions of Hel.

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In a detail from one of the picture stones found on the Swedish island of Gotland, of which a valkyrie with a drinking horn greets Odin as he arrives at Valhalla.

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Meanwhile in Asgard, Heimdall, the divine watch man, will blow his horn to signal the alarm. The World Tree will tremble, and giants and dwarfs alike will quake in fear. Odin will seek counsel at the Well of Knowledge. The gods, in company with the human heroes gathered over the ages in Valhalla, will take up arms and proceed to the battlefield to confront the foe.

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In the battle itself, Freyr will be cut down by Surt’s flaming sword. Thor will kill Jormungand but will then collapse, poisoned by the serpent’s venom. Odin will fall to Fenrir, which will itself be stabbed in the heart by Vidar, the god’s son. Tyr will confront Garm, the Hound of Hel, and the two will destroy each other, as will Heimdall and Loki. Then sparks from Surt’s brand will set fire to the earth. The sun will be darkened, the firmament will split open, and the stars will fall from the sky. The ocean will break its bounds and the earth will sink into the sea.

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Yet life will continue beyond the final cataclysm. A fresh earth will emerge to replace the lost one, and a new and brighter sun will rise in the sky. Two of Odin’s sons will survive, as will two of Thor’s; and they will be joined by Hold and Baldur, released from Hel at last. In Midgard too a couple will live through the holocaust, hidden in Homimir’s Wood-from their children the Earth will be repeopled. And yet, in the Voluspa’s vision, the seeds of evil will be present even in this new age of innocence; the seeress’s last words before she falls silent tell of a winged dragon risen from the depths, bearing on its pinions the corpses of dead men.