Ragnarök

“ Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods, comes on; the universe is burnt up in a mighty conflagration, and while there are abodes of bliss and abodes of misery where some survive, the universe as a whole is entirely changed, and a milder race of gods will rule over a better world. ”

“ Kevan asked, bewildered. "Your Uncle Loki seemed happy that it was Ragnarok."
"He would be," the girl said bitterly. "Don't you understand, Kevan, Ragnarok is the end of the world."
"Oh, pshaw," scoffed Kevan. "People are always predicting the end of the world whenever there's a little argument."
"But I'm not people," Thrud said. "I'm the daughter of Thor, the granddaughter of Odin, and I tell you that Ragnarok means the complete destruction of the universe. Only Lif and Lifthrasir will be left to start a new world. ”

“ Vidar alone will survive the general conflagration and reconstruct the universe. The etymology of the word Ragnarok, I conceive to be the two Icelandic words: ragna (to imprecate, implore vengeance) , and rok (violent tempest) . Some derive it from regin (dynasts or gods) , and röckur (twilight) .
RAN or RANA, name of a giantess, wife of Ægir the god of the sea. She is of an extremely malevolent disposition, and takes pleasure in causing shipwrecks and drowning sailors. ”

“ For Ragnarok is past, and the tree of life still reaches into the stars. The twilight is past and new suns and new earths are quickened. And Gunnar still lives.”
“Part of him.” Gunnar blinked his good eye. “What happened down there? Oh,” he gasped in pain, “to have missed the fighting!”
“Maya lives and I live. Ato is wounded. Wolden came at the last to help us, Gunnar. We won. And I have killed Grim Hagen with my bare hands, even as I promised.”
“Good, Nors-King. I knew always that one of us would kill him. Oh, it was a grand fight. But Gunnar will sharpen his sword no more. ”

“ As the shades of night flee before the morning dawn, thus Valhal’s gods had to sink into the earth, when the idea, that an idol is of no consequence in this world, first burst upon the minds of the idol-worshipers. This idea spontaneously created the myth of Ragnarok. All the elements of its mythical form were foreshadowed in the older group of Norse conceptions. The idea of Ragnarok was suggested already in the Creation; for the gods are there represented as proceeding from giants, that is, from an evil, chaotic source, and, moreover, that 61which can be born must die. ”

“ Atlas was the king, or god, of Atlantis. In the old time all kings were gods. They are something more than men, to the multitude, even yet.
And when we reach "Ragnarok" in these Gothic legends, when the jaw of the wolf Fenris reached from the earth to the sun, and he vomits fire and poison, and when Surt, and all the forces of Muspel, "ride over Bifrost, it breaks to pieces." That is to say, in this last great catastrophe of the earth, the ridge of land that led from the British Islands to Atlantis goes down for ever. ”

“ It is the home of the frost-giants, of the subterranean giants, and of the spirits of disease. Here live the offspring of Ymer's feet, the primeval giants strangely born and strangely bearing, who are waiting for the quaking of Ygdrasil and for the liberation of their chained leader, in order that they may take revenge on the gods in Ragnarok, and who in the meantime contrive futile plans of attack on Hvergelmer's fountain or on the north end of the Bifrost bridge. ”

“ The Fimbulwinter has been compared to the long preliminary fight under the walls of Troy, and Ragnarok, the grand closing drama of Northern mythology, to the burning of that famous city. “Thor is Hector; the Fenris wolf, Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, who slew Priam (Odin) ; and Vidar, who survives in Ragnarok, is Æneas.” The destruction of Priam’s palace is the type of the ruin of the gods’ golden halls; and the devouring wolves Hati, Sköll, and Managarm, the fiends of darkness, are prototypes of Paris and all the other demons of darkness, who bear away or devour the sun maiden Helen. ”

“ He is more especially agent of the doom through his children: at Ragnarök, Fenri the Wolf, bound long before by Tyr's help, will be freed, and swallow the sun (_Vafthrudnismal_) and Odin (_Vafthrudnismal_ and _Völuspa_) ; and Jörmungandr, the Giant-Snake, will rise from the sea where he lies curled round the world, to slay and be slain by Thor. The dragon's writhing in the waves is one of the tokens to herald Ragnarök, and his battle with Thor is the fiercest combat of that day. ”

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DOOMED
Crushing gravity—thin air—winters of unimaginable cold—searing summers under two suns—a deadly wasteland teeming with monsters and killing fever—
That was Ragnarok, the most dreaded planet yet discovered. And Ragnarok was where a thousand untrained Earthmen—and women and children—were brutally marooned by a sadistic enemy. ”

“ Ragnarok is for the young—and if they have to migrate back and forth like animals just to stay alive they will never have time to accomplish anything or be more than stone age nomads."
"I wish we could know how long the Big Summer will be that we're going into," Craig said. "And how long and cold the Big Winter, when Ragnarok tilts away from the sun. It wouldn't change anything—but I'd like to know."
"We'll start making and recording daily observations," p. 60 Lake said. "Maybe the tilt will start back the other way before it's too late." ”

“ MUSPEL, MUSPELHEIM, name given to the region of fire and heat which lies to the south of Ginnungagap, and from whence at Ragnarok, Surtur will collect flames, and set fire to the universe. Flames are often termed by the Scalds [lv] “the children of Muspel.”
NAGLEFARE (ship of nails) , name of a bark or vessel built by the giants. As its name imports, it was built of men’s nails. On board of this vessel, the giants will embark at Ragnarok, to give battle to the gods. The giants are continually at work to increase its size ”

“ The whole story of the Aesir is overshadowed by knowledge of this coming doom, the time when they shall meet foes more terrible than the giants, and fall before them; their constant effort is to learn what will happen then, and to gather their forces together to meet it. The coming Ragnarök is the reason for the existence of Valhalla with its hosts of slain warriors; and of all the Gods, Odin, Thor, Tyr and Loki are most closely connected with it. ”

“ Further forward I see, much can I say of Ragnarök and the gods' conflict.
45. Brothers shall fight, and slay each other; cousins shall kinship violate. The earth resounds, the giantesses flee; no man will another spare.
46. Hard is it in the world, great whoredom, an axe age, a sword age, shields shall be cloven, a wind age, a wolf age, ere the world sinks.
47. Mim's sons dance, but the central tree takes fire at the resounding Giallar-horn. Loud blows Heimdall, his horn is raised; Odin speaks with Mim's head.
48. Trembles Yggdrasil's ash yet standing ”

“ When Ragnarok is at hand a giant comes to this sword-watcher in the guise of the red cock, the symbol of the destructive fire. This giant is Fjalar (Völuspa, 41) , and that the purpose of his visit is to secure the sword follows from the fact that the best sword of mythology is shortly afterwards in the hands of his father Surt (Völuspa, 50) when the latter comes from the south with his band (the sons of Suttung, not of Muspel) to take part in the last conflict and destroy with fire that part of the world that can be destroyed. Frey is slain by the sword which was once his own. ”

“ Of all the gods only Thor, the god of thunder, never passed over the bridge, for they feared that his heavy tread or the heat of his lightnings would destroy it. The gods’ watchman, Heimdall, kept guard there night and day. He was armed with a very trenchant sword, and carried a trumpet called Giallar-horn, upon which he generally blew a soft note to announce the coming or going of the gods, but upon which he would blow a terrible blast when Ragnarok should come, and the frost giants and Surtr threatened to destroy the world. ”

“ Teach them to fight ... never let them forget.... The men of Ragnarok were only fur-clad hunters who crouched in caves but they would grow in numbers as time went by. Each generation would be stronger than the generation before it and he had set forces in motion that would bring the last generation the trial of combat and the opportunity for freedom. How well they fought on that day would determine their destiny but he was certain, once again, what that destiny would be.
It would be to walk as conquerors before beaten and humbled Gerns. ”

“ The giant maid, deceived and deplored by Odin, is consequently the daughter of Surt's son.
Light is thus shed on the myth concerning the giant who reappears in Ragnarok, and there wields the sword which fells Frey and hurls the flames which consume the world. It is found to be connected with the myth concerning the oldest events of mythology. In time's morning we find the fire-being Surt—the representative of subterranean fire—as a creative force by the side of Mimer, who is a friend of the gods, and whose kinsman he must be as a descendant of Ymer. ”

“ The Asar then cast him down into Niffelheim, and placed him at the gate of Helheim, the residence of Hela. There he is to remain chained until Ragnarok; he will then break his chain, join in the battle of the giants against the gods, and devour Odin; but he will be afterwards himself slain by Vidar. By Fenris wolf is typified the subterranean fire, which it is supposed will one day occasion the conflagration of the universe. ”

“ Of him it is said, that he was born of nine mothers; that he had a tooth of gold; that he could do without sleep; see at a distance of a hundred miles, as well by night as by day; hear wool grow on the backs of sheep, and grasses shoot. By his doing without sleep may be meant the absence of night from the northern polar regions during the summer months. At Ragnarok, he will blow his horn with all his force, to excite the gods to combat. Etym.: Heim (abode) , and dallr (horn) .
[xlviii]
HEIMKRINGLAS, name given to the universe in the Scandinavian mythology. ”

“ Thus Surt has a reason for appearing in Ragnarok as the annihilator of the world of the Asas, when the latter is to make room for a realm of justice. The flames of revenge are hurled upon creation.
I have already above (No. 87) , had occasion to speak of the choicest sword of mythology, the one which Volund smithied and Mimer captured, and which was fetched from the lower world by a hero whose name Saxo Latinised into Hotherus. In my treatise on "the Ivalde race" it shall be demonstrated who this Hotherus was in mythology, and that the sword was delivered by him to Frey. ”

“ Wild Ragnaroke, when Odin's self shall pass:
The moon and sun consumed, the fiery host
From Muspelheim shall flaming split the heavens,
Blot out the stars with lustre of their arms;
And down the squarèd legions led by Surt
Swift whirl in fogs of flame to war with gods;
Nor Thor avail, but suffocated fall
In contest with the Midgard serpent vast.
All men and gods abolished with the world,
Which into an abyss of fume and flame
Sinks like a meteor of the Summer night,
That slides into the gold of burning eve
And with eve's gold is burning, blent and lost. ”

“ In this way a host was collected ready for Ragnarök: for Grimnismal says: “There are five hundred doors and eighty in Valhalla; eight hundred Einherjar will go out from each door, when they go to fight the wolf.” Meanwhile they fight and feast: “All the Einherjar in Odin's courts fight every day: they choose the slain and ride from the battle, and sit then in peace together” (Vafthrudnismal,) and the Valkyries bear ale to them (Grimnismal) . ”

“ A large-hearted people reaching out in the dark towards ideals which were better than they knew. Ragnarok was to undo their gods because they had stumbled from their higher standards.
We have to thank a curious phenomenon for the [xv] preservation of so much of the old lore as we still possess. While foreign influences were corrupting the Norse language, it remained practically unaltered in Iceland, which had been colonised from the mainland by the Norsemen who had fled thither to escape the oppression of Harold Fairhair after his crushing victory of Hafrsfirth. ”

“ That the green realms of the lower world are called realms of the gods is also proper, for they have contained and do contain many beings of a higher or lower divine rank. There dwells the divine mother Nat, worshipped by the Teutons; there Thor's mother and her brother and sister Njord and Fulla are fostered; there Balder, Nanna, and Hödr are to dwell until Ragnarok; there Delling, [Pg 471] Billing, Rind, Dag, Mane, and Sol, and all the clan of artists gathered around Mimer, they who "smithy" living beings, vegetation, and ornaments, have their halls; there was born Odin's son Vale. ”