Difference between revisions of "Ragnarök" - New World Encyclopedia
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In [[Norse mythology|mythology]], '''Ragnarök''' ("fate of the gods")<ref>Though earlier sources used the term ''Ragnarök'' (as mentioned above), [[Snorri Sturluson]] in the Prose Edda spelled it ''Ragnarøkr'' (sometimes "Ragnarøkkr"), which means "Twilight of the Gods." This mistranslation was perpetuated by [[Richard Wagner]], who used it as the title of the Ring Cycle's final opera, "Götterdämmerung," and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], whose "Twilight of the Idols" was titled in a punning allusion to Wagner's work. See Lindow, 254.</ref> is the eschatological end-point of the current cosmic order. It will be waged between the [[Æsir]], led by [[Odin]], and the forces of chaos ([[Loki]] and his monstrous children, as well as, among others, the [[Jotun|Jötnar]]). Not only will most of the gods, giants, and monsters perish in this apocalyptic conflagration, but almost everything in the universe will be torn asunder. | In [[Norse mythology|mythology]], '''Ragnarök''' ("fate of the gods")<ref>Though earlier sources used the term ''Ragnarök'' (as mentioned above), [[Snorri Sturluson]] in the Prose Edda spelled it ''Ragnarøkr'' (sometimes "Ragnarøkkr"), which means "Twilight of the Gods." This mistranslation was perpetuated by [[Richard Wagner]], who used it as the title of the Ring Cycle's final opera, "Götterdämmerung," and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], whose "Twilight of the Idols" was titled in a punning allusion to Wagner's work. See Lindow, 254.</ref> is the eschatological end-point of the current cosmic order. It will be waged between the [[Æsir]], led by [[Odin]], and the forces of chaos ([[Loki]] and his monstrous children, as well as, among others, the [[Jotun|Jötnar]]). Not only will most of the gods, giants, and monsters perish in this apocalyptic conflagration, but almost everything in the universe will be torn asunder. | ||
| − | + | Exactly what will happen, who will fight whom, and the fates of the participants in this battle are well known to the [[Norsemen|Norse]] peoples from the [[sagas]] and [[skaldic poetry]]. The ''[[Völuspá]]'' — prophecy of the [[völva]] (sybil), the first lay of the [[Poetic Edda]], dating from about the year 1000C.E. — spans the history of the old gods, from the beginning of time to Ragnarök, in 65 [[stanzas]]. The ''[[Prose Edda]]'', put in writing some two centuries later by [[Snorri Sturluson]], describes in detail what takes place before, during, and after the battle. | |
What seems [[eschatology|eschatologically]] unique about Ragnarök is that the gods know through [[prophecy]] what is going to happen: when the event will occur, who will be slain by whom, and so forth. They even realize that they are powerless to prevent Ragnarök. But they still bravely and defiantly face their bleak [[wyrd|destiny]]. This is thought by many scholars to represent the ordered world (the [[Æsir]]) eventually succumbing to the unavoidable forces of chaos and entropy (the giants). This is similar to the representation of the monstrous children of [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]] in Greek mythology and the monstrous creations of [[Tiamat]] in the [[Enuma Elish]] as the primordial forces of chaos. | What seems [[eschatology|eschatologically]] unique about Ragnarök is that the gods know through [[prophecy]] what is going to happen: when the event will occur, who will be slain by whom, and so forth. They even realize that they are powerless to prevent Ragnarök. But they still bravely and defiantly face their bleak [[wyrd|destiny]]. This is thought by many scholars to represent the ordered world (the [[Æsir]]) eventually succumbing to the unavoidable forces of chaos and entropy (the giants). This is similar to the representation of the monstrous children of [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]] in Greek mythology and the monstrous creations of [[Tiamat]] in the [[Enuma Elish]] as the primordial forces of chaos. | ||
| − | [[ | + | ==Ragnarök in a Norse Context== |
| + | The world-sundering battle of Ragnarök belongs to a complex religious, mythological and cosmological belief system shared by the [[Scandinavia|Scandinavian]] and [[Germany|Germanic]] peoples. This mythological tradition, of which the Scandinavian (and particularly Icelandic) sub-groups are best preserved, developed in the period from the first manifestations of religious and material culture in approximately 1000 B.C.E. until the Christianization of the area, a process that occurred primarily from 900-1200 C.E..<ref>Lindow, 6-8. Though some scholars have argued against the homogenizing effect of grouping these various traditions together under the rubric of “Norse Mythology,” the profoundly exploratory/nomadic nature of Viking society tends to overrule such objections. As Thomas DuBois cogently argues, “[w]hatever else we may say about the various peoples of the North during the Viking Age, then, we cannot claim that they were isolated from or ignorant of their neighbors…. As religion expresses the concerns and experiences of its human adherents, so it changes continually in response to cultural, economic, and environmental factors. Ideas and ideals passed between communities with frequency and regularity, leading to and interdependent and intercultural region with broad commonalities of religion and worldview.” (27-28).</ref> The tales recorded within this mythological corpus tend to exemplify a unified cultural focus on physical prowess and military might. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Within this framework, Norse [[cosmology]] postulates three separate "clans" of primary deities: the Aesir, the Vanir, and the Jotun. The distinction between Aesir and Vanir is relative, for the two are said to have made peace, exchanged hostages, intermarried and reigned together after a prolonged war, which the Aesir had finally won. In fact, the most significant divergence between the two groups is in their respective areas of influence, with the Aesir representing war and conquest, and the Vanir representing exploration, fertility and wealth.<ref>More specifically, Georges Dumézil, one of the foremost authorities on the Norse tradition and a noted comparitivist, argues quite persuasively that the Aesir / Vanir distinction is a component of a larger triadic division (between ruler gods, warrior gods, and gods of agriculture and commerce) that is echoed among the Indo-European cosmologies (from Vedic India, through Rome and into the Germanic North). Further, he notes that this distinction conforms to patterns of social organization found in all of these societies. See Georges Dumézil's Gods of the Ancient Northmen (especially pgs. xi-xiii, 3-25) for more details.</ref> The ''Jotun'', on the other hand, are seen as a generally malefic (though wise) race of giants who represented the primary adversaries of the Aesir and Vanir. Over and above these three, there also existed races of secondary supernatural spirits, including the ''alfár'' ([[elf|elves]]) and the dwarves (craftsmen for the Aesir).<ref>Lindow, 99-101; 109-110.</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | Part of the reason that Ragnarök holds such an exalted place in Norse mythology is their cultural focus on warfare and martial valor. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In [[Viking]] warrior societies, dying in battle is the highest honor a man can attain. One earns an afterlife in [[Hel (realm)|Hel]] by dying in bed. One earns a place in [[Valhalla]] by dying, with honor, in battle. This is carried over into the worship of a [[pantheon]] in which the gods themselves will one day die in battle at Ragnarök. | ||
==Prelude== | ==Prelude== | ||
| Line 67: | Line 74: | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
| − | * | + | * Burkert, Walter. ''Greek Religion''. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1985. ISBN 0674362810. |
| + | * Davis, Kenneth C. ''Don't Know Much About Mythology''. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 006019460X. | ||
| + | * DuBois, Thomas A. ''Nordic Religions in the Viking Age''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8122-1714-4. | ||
| + | * Dumézil, Georges. ''Gods of the Ancient Northmen''. Edited by Einar Haugen; Introduction by C. Scott Littleton and Udo Strutynski. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. ISBN 0-520-02044-8. | ||
| + | * Grammaticus, Saxo. ''The Danish History'' (Volumes I-IX). Translated by Oliver Elton (Norroena Society, New York, 1905). Accessed online at [http://omacl.org/DanishHistory/ The Online Medieval & Classical Library]. | ||
| + | * Lindow, John. ''Handbook of Norse mythology''. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001. ISBN 1-57607-217-7. | ||
| + | *Munch, P. A. ''Norse Mythology: Legends of Gods and Heroes''. In the revision of Magnus Olsen; translated from the Norwegian by Sigurd Bernhard Hustvedt. New York: The American-Scandinavian foundation; London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1926. | ||
| + | * Orchard, Andy. ''Cassell's Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend''. London: Cassell; New York: Distributed in the United States by Sterling Pub. Co., 2002. ISBN 0-304-36385-5. | ||
| + | * Sturluson, Snorri. ''The Prose Edda''. Translated from the Icelandic and with an introduction by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur. New York: American-Scandinavian foundation, 1916. ''Available online at http://www.northvegr.org/lore/prose/index.php''. | ||
| + | * Turville-Petre, Gabriel. Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964. ISBN 0837174201. | ||
| + | * "Völuspá" in ''The Poetic Edda''. Translated and with notes by Henry Adams Bellows. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1936. Accessed online at [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe00.htm sacred-texts.com]. | ||
| − | |||
[[Category:Eschatology]] | [[Category:Eschatology]] | ||
Revision as of 18:00, 3 April 2007
In mythology, Ragnarök ("fate of the gods")[1] is the eschatological end-point of the current cosmic order. It will be waged between the Æsir, led by Odin, and the forces of chaos (Loki and his monstrous children, as well as, among others, the Jötnar). Not only will most of the gods, giants, and monsters perish in this apocalyptic conflagration, but almost everything in the universe will be torn asunder.
Exactly what will happen, who will fight whom, and the fates of the participants in this battle are well known to the Norse peoples from the sagas and skaldic poetry. The Völuspá — prophecy of the völva (sybil), the first lay of the Poetic Edda, dating from about the year 1000C.E. — spans the history of the old gods, from the beginning of time to Ragnarök, in 65 stanzas. The Prose Edda, put in writing some two centuries later by Snorri Sturluson, describes in detail what takes place before, during, and after the battle.
What seems eschatologically unique about Ragnarök is that the gods know through prophecy what is going to happen: when the event will occur, who will be slain by whom, and so forth. They even realize that they are powerless to prevent Ragnarök. But they still bravely and defiantly face their bleak destiny. This is thought by many scholars to represent the ordered world (the Æsir) eventually succumbing to the unavoidable forces of chaos and entropy (the giants). This is similar to the representation of the monstrous children of Uranus in Greek mythology and the monstrous creations of Tiamat in the Enuma Elish as the primordial forces of chaos.
Ragnarök in a Norse Context
The world-sundering battle of Ragnarök belongs to a complex religious, mythological and cosmological belief system shared by the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples. This mythological tradition, of which the Scandinavian (and particularly Icelandic) sub-groups are best preserved, developed in the period from the first manifestations of religious and material culture in approximately 1000 B.C.E. until the Christianization of the area, a process that occurred primarily from 900-1200 C.E..[2] The tales recorded within this mythological corpus tend to exemplify a unified cultural focus on physical prowess and military might.
Within this framework, Norse cosmology postulates three separate "clans" of primary deities: the Aesir, the Vanir, and the Jotun. The distinction between Aesir and Vanir is relative, for the two are said to have made peace, exchanged hostages, intermarried and reigned together after a prolonged war, which the Aesir had finally won. In fact, the most significant divergence between the two groups is in their respective areas of influence, with the Aesir representing war and conquest, and the Vanir representing exploration, fertility and wealth.[3] The Jotun, on the other hand, are seen as a generally malefic (though wise) race of giants who represented the primary adversaries of the Aesir and Vanir. Over and above these three, there also existed races of secondary supernatural spirits, including the alfár (elves) and the dwarves (craftsmen for the Aesir).[4]
Part of the reason that Ragnarök holds such an exalted place in Norse mythology is their cultural focus on warfare and martial valor.
In Viking warrior societies, dying in battle is the highest honor a man can attain. One earns an afterlife in Hel by dying in bed. One earns a place in Valhalla by dying, with honor, in battle. This is carried over into the worship of a pantheon in which the gods themselves will one day die in battle at Ragnarök.
Prelude
The main events that signify the approach of Ragnarök:
- The birth of three beings — the offspring of Loki and Angerboda, namely Jörmungandr, Fenrir and Hel and the gods' subsequent actions to confine them;
- The death of Baldr and the binding of Loki;
- The arrival of Fimbulwinter.
Portents
Ragnarök will be preceded by the Fimbulwinter, the winter of winters. Three successive winters will follow each other with no summer in between. As a result, conflicts and feuds will break out, and all morality will disappear.
The wolf Skoll and his brother Hati will finally devour Sol (the Sun) and her brother Mani (the Moon) respectively, after a perpetual chase. The stars will vanish from the sky, plunging the earth into darkness.
The earth will shudder, so violently that trees will be uprooted, and mountains will fall, and every bond and fetter will snap and sever, freeing Loki, the God of Mischief, and his ferocious son Fenrir. This terrible wolf's slavering mouth will gape wide open, so wide that his lower jaw scrapes against the ground and his upper jaw presses against the sky. He will gape even more widely if there is room. Flames will dance in his eye and leap from his nostrils.
Eggther, watchman of the Jotuns, will sit on his grave mound and strum his harp, smiling grimly. The red cock Fjalar will crow to the giants and the golden cock Gullinkambi will crow to the Gods. A third cock,[5] rust red, will raise the dead in Hel.
Jörmungandr, the Midgard serpent, and Loki's other monstrous offspring will rise from the deep ocean bed to proceed towards the land, twisting and writhing in fury on their way, causing the seas to rear up and lash against the land. With every breath, the serpent will spew venom, staining the earth and the sky in poison.
From the east, the army of Jotuns, led by Hrym, will leave their home in Jotunheim and sail the grisly ship Naglfar (made from the nails of dead men), which will be set free by the tsunami and flooding caused by Jörmungandr, towards the battlefield of Vigrid (Óskópnir).
From the north, a second ship will set sail towards Vigrid, with Loki, now unbound, as the helmsman, and Hel, with all those from her realm by the same name, as the deadweight.
The world will be in uproar, the air will quake with booms, blares and echoes. Amid this turmoil, the fire Giants of Muspelheim, led by Surtr, will advance from the south and tear apart the sky itself as they too, close in on Vigrid. Surtr will brandish a fierce fire sword, the Sword of Revenge, that consumes everything in his path with flames. As Surtr and the others ride over Bifröst, the rainbow bridge will crack and break behind them. Garm, the hellhound bound in front of Gnipahellir, will also get free. He will join the fire Giants on their march.
So all the Jotuns and all the inmates of Hel, Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Garm, Surtr and the blazing sons of Muspelheim, will gather on Vigrid. They will all but fill that plain that stretches one hundred leagues in every direction.
Meanwhile, Heimdall, being the first of the Gods to see the enemies approaching, will blow his Giallar horn, sounding such a blast that will be heard throughout the nine worlds. All the Gods will wake and at once meet in council. Odin will then mount Sleipnir and gallop to Mímir's spring and consult Mímir on his own and his people's behalf.
Then, Yggdrasil, the world tree, will shake from root to summit. Everything on the earth, in the heavens, and Hel will quiver. All Æsir and Einherjar will don their battle dresses. This vast host (800 men can stand abreast in each of Valhalla's 540 gates, so they will likely number in the millions) will march towards Vigrid and Odin will ride at their head, wearing a golden helmet and a shining corselet, brandishing Gungnir.
The final battle
Odin will make straight for Fenrir; and Thor, right beside him, will be unable to help because Jörmungandr, his old enemy, will at once attack him. Freyr will fight the fire Giant Surtr, but will become the first of all Gods to lose as he has given his own good sword to his servant Skírnir. It will still be a long struggle though, before Freyr will succumb. Tyr will battle Garm and both will slay the other. Likewise, Heimdall will fight Loki and neither will survive the evenly matched encounter. Thor will kill Jörmungandr with his hammer Mjollnir, but only be able to stagger back nine steps before falling dead himself, poisoned by the venom that Jörmungandr spews over him. Odin will fight with his mighty spear Gungnir against Fenrir but will finally be eaten by the wolf after a long battle. To avenge his father, Vidar will immediately come forward and place one foot on the wolf's lower jaw. On this foot he will be wearing the shoe which he has been making since the beginning of time; it consists of the strips of leather which men pare off at the toes and heels of their shoes. With one hand he will grasp the wolf's upper jaw and tear its throat asunder, killing it at last.
Then, brandishing the Sword of Revenge, Surtr will burn all Nine worlds with fire and he himself will be consumed by his own destruction. Death will come to all manner of things. Fumes will reek and flames will burst, scorching the sky with fire. The earth will sink into the sea.
Aftermath
Barley will ripen in fields that were never sown. The meadow Idavoll, in the now-destroyed Asgard, will have been spared. The sun will reappear as Sol before being swallowed by Skoll, who will give birth to a daughter as fair as she herself. This maiden daughter will pursue her mother's road in the new sky.
A few gods will survive the ordeal: Odin's brother Vili, Odin's sons Vidar and Váli, Thor's sons Móði and Magni, who will inherit their father's magic hammer Mjollnir, and Hœnir, who will hold the staff and foretell what is to come. Baldr and his brother Höðr (who both died prior to Ragnarök) will come up from Hel and dwell in Odin's former hall, Valhalla, in the heavens. Meeting at Idavoll, these gods will sit down together, discuss their hidden lore, and talk over many things that had happened, including the events surrounding the final rise of Jörmungandr and Fenrir. In the waving grass, they will find the golden chessboards that the Æsir used to own, and gaze at them in wonder. (None of the goddesses were mentioned in various accounts of the aftermath of Ragnarök, but there are assumptions that Frigg, Freyja and some of the other goddesses will survive.)
Two humans will also escape the destruction of the world by hiding themselves deep within Yggdrasil (some say Hodmimir's Wood) where Surtr's sword cannot destroy. They will be called Lif and Lifthrasir. Emerging from their shelter, they will live on morning dew and will repopulate the human world. They will worship their new pantheon of gods, led by Baldr.
There will still be many halls to house the souls of the dead. According to the 'Prose Edda', another heaven exists south of and above Asgard, called Andlang, and a third heaven further above that, called Vidblain; and these places will offer protection while Surtr's fire burns the world. According to both 'Eddas', after Ragnarök, the best place of all will be Gimli, a building fairer than the sun, roofed with gold, in the heaven. There, the gods will live at peace with themselves and each other. There will be Brimir, a hall on Okolnir ("never cold"), where plenty of good drinks will be served. And there will be Sindri, an excellent hall made wholly of red gold, on Nidafjoll ("dark mountains"). The souls of the good and virtuous will live in these halls.
The Prose Edda also mentions another hall called Náströnd ("corpse strand"). That place in the underworld will be vast: no sunlight will reach it; all its doors will face north; its walls and roof will be made of wattled snakes, with their heads facing inward, spewing so much poison that it runs in rivers in the hall. Here, oath breakers, murderers and philanderers will wade through those rivers forever.
Hvergelmir, and Níðhöggr, also a survivor of Ragnarök, will bedevil the bodies of the dead, sucking blood from them.
In this new world, misery will no longer exist and gods and men will live together in peace and harmony. The descendants of Lif and Lifthrasir will inhabit Midgard.
Common misconceptions
One should recognize that Ragnarök is not simply a moral conflict between dualistic notions of good and evil like the Christian notion of Armageddon, but rather it is the result of extended, intricate conflict between the Æsir and those allied with chaos.
In the pagan world view, Ragnarök is merely the end of one expression of creation, and with the death of the old Gods, the opportunity of the birth of a new world.
Notes
- ↑ Though earlier sources used the term Ragnarök (as mentioned above), Snorri Sturluson in the Prose Edda spelled it Ragnarøkr (sometimes "Ragnarøkkr"), which means "Twilight of the Gods." This mistranslation was perpetuated by Richard Wagner, who used it as the title of the Ring Cycle's final opera, "Götterdämmerung," and Friedrich Nietzsche, whose "Twilight of the Idols" was titled in a punning allusion to Wagner's work. See Lindow, 254.
- ↑ Lindow, 6-8. Though some scholars have argued against the homogenizing effect of grouping these various traditions together under the rubric of “Norse Mythology,” the profoundly exploratory/nomadic nature of Viking society tends to overrule such objections. As Thomas DuBois cogently argues, “[w]hatever else we may say about the various peoples of the North during the Viking Age, then, we cannot claim that they were isolated from or ignorant of their neighbors…. As religion expresses the concerns and experiences of its human adherents, so it changes continually in response to cultural, economic, and environmental factors. Ideas and ideals passed between communities with frequency and regularity, leading to and interdependent and intercultural region with broad commonalities of religion and worldview.” (27-28).
- ↑ More specifically, Georges Dumézil, one of the foremost authorities on the Norse tradition and a noted comparitivist, argues quite persuasively that the Aesir / Vanir distinction is a component of a larger triadic division (between ruler gods, warrior gods, and gods of agriculture and commerce) that is echoed among the Indo-European cosmologies (from Vedic India, through Rome and into the Germanic North). Further, he notes that this distinction conforms to patterns of social organization found in all of these societies. See Georges Dumézil's Gods of the Ancient Northmen (especially pgs. xi-xiii, 3-25) for more details.
- ↑ Lindow, 99-101; 109-110.
- ↑ The name of this cock is nowhere stated. In Völuspá it is only referred to as "the rust-red bird": "And beneath the earth | does another crow, | The rust-red bird | at the bars of Hel ".
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1985. ISBN 0674362810.
- Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much About Mythology. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 006019460X.
- DuBois, Thomas A. Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8122-1714-4.
- Dumézil, Georges. Gods of the Ancient Northmen. Edited by Einar Haugen; Introduction by C. Scott Littleton and Udo Strutynski. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. ISBN 0-520-02044-8.
- Grammaticus, Saxo. The Danish History (Volumes I-IX). Translated by Oliver Elton (Norroena Society, New York, 1905). Accessed online at The Online Medieval & Classical Library.
- Lindow, John. Handbook of Norse mythology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001. ISBN 1-57607-217-7.
- Munch, P. A. Norse Mythology: Legends of Gods and Heroes. In the revision of Magnus Olsen; translated from the Norwegian by Sigurd Bernhard Hustvedt. New York: The American-Scandinavian foundation; London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1926.
- Orchard, Andy. Cassell's Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. London: Cassell; New York: Distributed in the United States by Sterling Pub. Co., 2002. ISBN 0-304-36385-5.
- Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda. Translated from the Icelandic and with an introduction by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur. New York: American-Scandinavian foundation, 1916. Available online at http://www.northvegr.org/lore/prose/index.php.
- Turville-Petre, Gabriel. Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964. ISBN 0837174201.
- "Völuspá" in The Poetic Edda. Translated and with notes by Henry Adams Bellows. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1936. Accessed online at sacred-texts.com.
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