Norse mythology is the only one in which the gods themselves are doomed. Yet after the downfall comes a new, green world.
Ragnarök – the ‘fate of the gods’ – is the climax and the end of the Norse myths. Unlike in many religions, the gods here are not eternal: they too have a predetermined end, and they know it.
The downfall is preceded by the Fimbulwinter: three winters with no summer between them. Moral order collapses, brothers slay one another. Then the bound powers break loose: the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent Jörmungandr and Loki.
On the field of Vígríðr the armies meet. Odin falls in the jaws of Fenrir, but his son Víðarr avenges him. Thor slays the Midgard Serpent and dies of its venom. Freyr falls against the fire giant Surt, who finally sets the world ablaze. It is an end without victors.
“The sun turns black, earth sinks in the sea.”Völuspá, translation after Henry Adams Bellows (public domain)
But the Völuspá does not end in darkness. From the sea a new, green earth rises up. Some gods return, a human couple has survived within the world tree, and a new day begins. Ragnarök is no mere end but a cycle – downfall and rebirth.
This attitude – to face the inevitable with courage – runs through the entire Norse world of thought. For courage. For remembrance. For legends that live on.