Ragnarok

from

Gods and Myths of the Viking Age

By: H.R. Ellis Davidson

...Ragnarok, the time of the destruction of the gods. This fearful time will
be ushered in by many portents. First there will be great wars through
the world, and a time of strife and hatred between men.

The bonds of kinship will hold them no longer, and they will commit
appalling deeds of murder and incest. There will also be a period of bitter
cold, when a terrible pursuing wolf catches the sun and devours her; the
moon too is to be swallowed up, and the stars will fall from the sky. The
mountains will crash into fragments as the whole earth shakes and
trembles, and the World Tree quivers in the tumult. Now all fettered
monsters break loose. The wolf Fenrir advances, his great gaping jaws
filling the gap between earth and sky, while the serpent emerges from the
sea, blowing out poison. The sea rises to engulf the land, and on the flood
the ship Naglfar Is launched, a vessel made from the nails of dead men. It
carries a crew of giants, with Loki as their steersman. From the fiery
realm of Muspell, Surt and his following ride out with shining swords,
and the bridge Bifrost is shattered beneath their weight. His forces join
the frost-giants on the plain of Vigrid, and there the last battle will be
fought between this mighty host and the gods. The note of Heimdall's
horn arouses the Aesir to their danger, and Odin rides to the spring
beneath the World Tree, to take counsel of Mimir's head. Then with his
chosen champions from Valhalla he goes out on to the plain, to
encounter at last his ancient enemy, the wolf. Thor meets the World
Serpent, and Freyr fights against Surt; Tyr must encounter the hound
Garm, broken loose from the underworld, while Heimdall does battle with
Loki. All the gods must fall, and the monsters be destroyed with them.
Thor kills the serpent, and then falls dead, overcome by its venom. Odin
is devoured by Fenrir, but his young son Vidar slays the wolf in turn,
setting one foot upon its jaw and tearing it asunder. Tyr and Heimdall
both conquer their opponents, but they do not survive the struggle. Only
Surt remains to the last, to fling fire over the whole world, so that the
race of men perishes with the gods, and all are finally engulfed in the
overwhelming sea:
The sun becomes dark. Earth sinks in the sea.
The shining stars slip out of the sky.Vapour and fire rage fiercely
together, till the leaping flame licks heaven itself. Yet this is not the end.
Earth will arise again from the waves, fertile, green, and fair as never
before, cleansed of all its sufferings and evil. The sons of the great gods
still remain alive, and Balder will return from the dead to reign with
them. They will rule a new universe, cleansed and regenerated, while two
living creatures who have sheltered from destruction in the World Tree
will come out to repeople the world with men and women. A new sun,
outshining her mother in beauty, will journey across the heavens. Such
is the picture of the beginning and end of the world of gods and men,
drawn for Gangleri by the Three Powers.
 The World Tree
By: H.R. Ellis Davidson

This world had for its centre a great tree, a mighty ash called Yggdrasill.
So huge was this tree that its branches stretched out over heaven and
earth alike. Three roots supported the great trunk, and one passed into
the realm of the Aesir, a second into that of the frostgiants, and a third
into the realm of the dead. Beneath the root in giant-land was the spring
of Mimir, whose waters contained wisdom and understanding. Odin had
given one of his eyes for the right to drink a single draught of that
precious water. Below the tree in the kingdom of the Aesir was the sacred
spring of fate, the Well of Urd. Here every day the gods assembled for
their court of law, to settle disputes and discuss common problems. All
came on horseback except Thor, who preferred to wade through the
rivers that lay in his path, and they were led by Odin on the finest of all
steeds, the eight- legged horse Sleipnir. The gods galloped over the bridge
Bifrost, a rainbow bridge that glowed with fire. They alone might cross it,
and the giants, who longed to do so, were held back. Near the spring of
fate dwelt three maidens called the Norns, who ruled the destinies of
men, and were called Fate (Urdr), Being (Verdandi), and Necessity
(Skuld). They watered the tree each day with pure water and whitened it
with clay from the spring, and in this way preserved its life, while the
water fell down to earth as dew. The tree was continually threatened,
even as it grew and flourished, by the living creatures that preyed upon
it. On the topmost bough sat an eagle, with a hawk perched on its
forehead: the same eagle, perhaps, of whom it is said that the flapping of
its wings caused the winds in the world of men. At the root of the tree lay
a great serpent, with many scores of lesser snakes, and these gnawed
continually at Yggdrasill. The serpent was at war with the eagle, and a
nimble squirrel ran up and down the tree, carrying insults from one to
the other. Horned creatures, harts and goats, devoured the branches and
tender shoots of the tree, leaping at it from every side.

Creation - The tree formed a link between the different worlds. We are
never told of its beginning, but of the creation of the worlds of which it
formed a centre there is much to tell. In the beginning there were two
regions: Muspell in the south, full of brightness and fire; and a world of
snow and ice in the north. Between them stretched the great emptiness
of Ginnungagap. As the heat and cold met in the midst of the expanse, a
living creature appeared in the melting ice, called Ymir. He was a great
giant, and from under his left arm grew the first man and woman while
from his two feet the family of frost-giants was begotten. Ymir fed upon
the milk of a cow called Audhumla, who licked the salty ice-blocks and
released another new being, a man called Buri. He had a son called Bor,
and the sons of Bor were the three gods, Odin, Vili, and Ve. These three
slew Ymir the ancient giant, and all the frostgiants save one, Bergelmir,
were drowned in his surging blood. From Ymir's body they then formed
the world of men:

... from his blood the sea and the lakes, from his flesh the earth, and
from his bones the mountains; from his teeth and jaws and such bones
as were broken they formed the rocks and the pebbles. From Ymir's skull
they made the dome of the sky, placing a dwarf to support it at each of
the four corners and to hold it high above the earth. This world of men
was protected from the giants by a wall, made from the eyebrows of Ymir,
and was called Midgard. The gods created inhabitants for it from two
trees on the sea-shore, which became a man and a woman. They gave to
them spirit and understanding, the power of movement, and the use of
the senses. They created also the dwarfs, creatures with strange names,
who bred in the earth like maggots, and dwelt in hills and rocks. These
were skilled craftsmen, and it was they who wrought the great treasures
of the gods. The gods caused time to exist, sending Night and Day to
drive round the heavens in chariots drawn by swift horses. Two fair
children, a girl called Sun and boy called Moon, were also set by them on
paths across the sky. Sun and Moon had to drive fast because they were
pursued by wolves, who meant to devour them. On the day when the
greatest of the wolves succeeded in swallowing the Sun, the end of all
things would be at hand.

Asgard - Once heaven and earth were formed, it was time to set about
the building of Asgard, the realm of the gods. Here there were many
wonderful halls, in which the gods dwelt. Odin himself lived in Valaskjalf,
a hall roofed with silver, where he could sit in his special seat and view
all the worlds at once. He had another hall called Valhalla, the hall of the
slain, where he offered hospitality to all those who fell in battle. Each
night they feasted on pork that never gave out, and on mead which
flowed instead of milk from the udders of the goat Heidrun, one of the
creatures that fed upon Yggdrasill. Odin's guests spent the day in
fighting, and all who fell in the combat were raised again in the evening
to feast with the rest. Horns of mead were carried to them by the
Valkyries, the maids of Odin, who had also to go down to the battlefields
of earth and decide the course of war, summoning fallen warriors to
Valhalla. Somewhere in Asgard there was a building with a roof of gold,
called Gimli, to which it was said that righteous men went after death.
There were other realms beyond Asgard, like Alfheim, where the fair elves
lived, and as many as three heavens, stretching one beyond the other.