Ragnarok, or more accurately Ragnarök, is the prophecy of the “Twilight of the Gods” from Norse mythology in which most of the Norse gods are destined to die and the world is meant to be destroyed. Where does the prophecy come from, and what exactly does it say will happen to the Norse gods and the Norse cosmos at the end of days?
The Ragnarok Prophecy
The word Ragnarok means “twilight of the gods” in Old Norse. Unlike the other stories from Norse mythology, it does not recount the deeds, or misdeeds, of the gods. Instead, it is a prophecy about how the world will end. It was given to Odin, the leader of the Norse gods, by a Volva, which is a Viking seeress or witch.
While it was Odin who received the Ragnarok prophecy, it seems to have been widely known among the inhabitants of the Norse universe. In one account, Odin questions a giant called Vafthrudnir about what will happen at the doom of men. The giant recounts details of the prophecy. In another story, Odin, disguised as a figure called High, tells a mortal king about the events that will happen at Ragnarok.
While Ragnarok is something that is yet to happen, it seems clear that even Odin himself does not have the power to change the course of destiny.
The Ragnarok prophecy as we know it today is recorded in three poems in the Poetic Edda, a 13th-century compilation of earlier stories, and in the Prose Edda, written by the Icelandic Christian author Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century. While the accounts agree on many particulars, there are also some important differences, especially when it comes to the very end of the myth.
The Cause of Ragnarok
While Ragnarok is inevitable, it is also set in motion by actions and decisions made by the gods as recounted in other stories from Norse mythology.
It all begins with Loki, a giant who is allowed to live in Asgard among the gods due to a blood brotherhood pact that he made with Odin. But while Loki is often an ally of the gods, they still do not trust him. This is exemplified by the fact that when the gods discovered that Loki had three children with the giantess Angrboda, they decided that the offspring of such monstrous parentage could not be allowed to roam freely.
The gods placed each of the children of Loki and Angrboda where they thought they would do the least harm. The first, the great wolf Fenrir, was tricked and chained to a rock for eternity. The second, a serpent called Jormungandr, was thrown into the waters surrounding Midgard, the world of men. There he grew to such an enormous size that he can encircle the entire world. The third child, a half-living and half-dead giantess called Hel, was banished to be the ruler of the underworld in Niflheim, which became known as Helheim in her honor.
This treatment of his children may be why Loki decided to kill Balder, the son of Odin with his wife Frigg, and the most beautiful and beloved of the gods.
Worrying about her son’s safety, Frigg secured promises from everything in existence that they would never hurt her son. This made him invincible, and the gods made a game of this, throwing weapons at him to watch them bounce off harmlessly.
Loki managed to learn that Frigg forgot to get this promise from the humble mistletoe plant. He made a dart from mistletoe and convinced Balder’s blind brother Hodr to throw the dart at him as part of the game. Balder died instantly and his soul went to Helheim. Despite the pleading of the gods, Hel would not release him.
The gods killed Hodr for his role in the death of Balder, and Hodr joined his brother in Helheim. The gods also broke their agreement with Loki and chained him to a rock for eternity. A poisonous snake was hung over his dead to drip painful venom onto his body. His wife Sigyn tries to protect him from the worst of this by catching the poison in a bowl. But every so often she must leave to empty the bowl. The pain that Loki feels causes earthquakes across the cosmos.
These are the preconditions for Ragnarok. The gods have imprisoned Loki and his dangerous offspring but have also made enemies of these powerful beings.
The Omens of Ragnarok
When it is time for Ragnarok to finally happen, several omens will warn the inhabitants of the Norse cosmos that the end is upon them. But some of these omens also seem to allow Ragnarok to happen, and it is unclear exactly what has caused them.
The first creatures within Yggdrasil, the world tree in the Norse cosmos, will be three roosters. A rooster called Fjalar will report to the giants in Jotunheim, their homeland. The rooster Gullinkambi will go to Asgard, the realm of the gods. Another red rooster will inform the dead in Helheim of the portents of Ragnarok.
The portents that will be seen in the world of men start with a terrible winter more bitter than any that has passed before that will last for three winters with no summers in between. The resulting hardship will rob mankind of its laws and morals. Humanity will descend into chaos and war with brother slaying brother, father slaying son, and son slaying father.
Two great wolves, called Skoll and Hati, that have been chasing the sun and the moon for an eternity will finally catch and devour their prey, plunging the world into darkness. The great world tree Yggdrasil will also shudder with earthquakes, strong enough that mountains fall. They are also strong enough to allow Loki and his children to break free of the prisons created for them by the gods.
The Gathering Hoard
The shuddering of the world will allow for a great army of giants and other monsters to assemble against the gods.
Some kind of protective dome that seems to have imprisoned the first giants in Muspelheim, the world of fire, since early in creation will crack. This will allow the great fire giant Surtr, who has been sitting at the entance, watching the world and waiting for this moment, to break free and lead the fire giants into the other worlds. He will set much of the world on fire with his flaming sword.
Loki will break his shackles and will descend to Helheim to meet up with his daughter Hel. There the earthquakes will have shaken free the ship Naglfar, which is made from the fingernails and the toenails of the dead. Loki, Hel, her guard dog Garm, and an army of the dishonorable dead will sail this ship towards Asgard.
Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent, will become chilly in his home in the waters surrounding Midgard. Uncomfortable, he will emerge from the waters, causing tidal waves with the movement of his great body. He will also spew toxic venom onto the earth and into the air. The wolf Fenrir will break his shackles and begin to rampage through the world, devouring everything that lies before him.
These forces will converge on Asgard and meet the gods on a battlefield called Vigridr. Heimdall, the sentinel of Asgard, will signal the coming of the giant forces by blowing his horn. Odin will descend to the Well of Wisdom in Niflheim to consult with his wise friend Mimir. He will then assemble his army of the brave and valiant dead who live in Valhalla. Balder and Hodr will be released from Helheim and join the army of the gods.
The Final Battle
The battle will lead to mutual destruction on both sides. Odin will lead the charge, joined by the Einherjar, the group of brave fallen warriors that Odin has been collecting in Valhalla to join the fight. But Odin will be devoured by Fenrir. The wolf will be killed by one of Odin’s sons, Vidarr. He has magical boots that allow him to stand in the wolf’s mouth without being devoured, so he will stab Fenrir in his brain.
In the final battle, Thor will fight with Jormungandr. While he will kill the serpent with his hammer, Jormungandr will spew so much poison onto Thor that he will also die within a few moments of his victory. The Vanir god Freyr and the fire giant Surtr will battle to their mutual destruction, as will Loki and Heimdall, and Hel’s dog Garm and the god Tyr.
We aren’t told the fates of all the gods, but they probably all engaged in similar battles of mutual destruction. One account says that Njord, one of the Vanir gods that lived among the Aesir, will return to his Vanir homeland at the doom of men. Whether this was to escape or to rally Vanir forces to join the gods in the final battle is unclear. The latter seems possible since his son Freyr fights and dies.
In the end, the battle causes incredible destruction, with the world poisoned and set on fire. It can no longer sustain itself and sinks back into the waters of chaos. The events of Ragnarok are complete.
Who Survives Ragnarok?
The Ragnarok prophecy survives in a number of sources, primarily the Voluspa, which was probably originally written in the 10th century but only survives in later copies, and the Gylfaginning from the Prose Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century.
It is worth noting that the original Ragnarok myth in the Voluspa probably ends with the earth sinking into the sea. Later passages about survivors are probably additions and may draw on Christian ideas of emerging after the flood or the meek inheriting the earth after the second coming of Christ. Nevertheless, Sturluson’s account describes a new dawn after the destruction.
He says that the earth rises from the sea of chaos again and the surviving Aesir gods meet at the field of Idavollr and begin to rebuild the world. The survivors include Magni and Modi, the sons of Thor, who inherit their father’s hammer. They are joined by Vidar, the son of Odin who killed Fenrir. The presence of the sons of the most important gods is probably significant. The Vikings believed that parts of the soul stayed within the family and lived on within descendants, and therefore it would be fitting that it was the sons of Odin and Thor that would pick up their mantle.
Balder and Hodr, probably late to the battle due to being trapped in Helheim, rejoin the living gods in rebuilding the world. The little-known Aesir god Hoenir, described in one account as helping Odin create mankind, also survived. He is described as casting the divination shards in the aftermath of the destruction. Njord, the Vanir god, also survives, as does the daughter of the sun goddess Sol, who takes up her mother’s mantle.
Two human survivors, Lif and Lifthrasir, whose names mean “life” and “striving for life”, made it through the apocalypse by hiding in a wood called Hoddmimis Holt. They are destined to become a new “Adam and Eve” and repopulate the world with Norse people.
The new Norse world will look much like the old one. The surviving Norse gods will live in Idovall, which somehow remained untouched. There they will recreate the splendor of Asgard with the finest house being called Gimli and featuring a gold roof, just like many of the structures in old Asgard. There will also be a new Helheim, called Nastrond, which means “shore of corpses’” All the doors of this place will face north and the screaming cold wind. Its walls will be made of writhing snakes that pour their venom out into a river that runs through Nastrond. The thieves and murderers that find themselves there will be fed on by the dragon Nidhoggr (another survivor).
This final piece is one of the main reasons it seems likely that this renewal is a Christian addition. The Vikings had no concept of a Christian Hell. Helheim was a place for all the dead that did not end up in one of the other afterlives. Therefore, Snorri Sturluson’s new world reflects a Christian cosmology.
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