Ragnarök is the term given to the Vikings' belief about the death of their gods and the end of the era in which they lived. The word Ragnarök comes from Old Norse, and its translation, according to Johnni Langer, is “consummation of the destinies of the supreme powers”|1| . In the Vikings' belief, Ragnarök would consist of a succession of catastrophic events that would lead to the destruction of the Universe and the death of part of the gods.
It is important to note that the term “viking” is used to refer to the Norse peoples who inhabited Scandinavia during the Viking Age, which covers the period from 793 to 1066. This period began with the navigations carried out by the Norse, responsible for taking them to different places, such as Iceland, north of France, North America, etc.
Also read :Viking Religion
What is Ragnarök?
Ragnarök is the term used to refer to the events narrated in some Scandinavian records that show how the Vikings believed the Universe they lived in would end. This kind of speech that portrays the end of man and the world is called eschatology. For the Vikings, Ragnarök would be marked by great battles between gods, giants and other mythical figures.
In Norse narrative, the events of Ragnarök would be preceded by a period called fimbulvetr, in which three consecutive long winters would occur. In that period, the world would be covered with frost, and violence would take over the world. Regarding this event, the Nordic record narrates the following:
Brothers will fight
And they will kill each other;
Sisters' own children
They will sin together
Sick days among men,
In which sex sins will increase.
An age of the axe, an age of the sword,
Shields will be broken.
An age of the wind, an age of the wolf,
Before the world drops dead|2|
After the long winter, the sequence of new events would be the prelude to the beginning of Ragnarok. The Norse believed that two wolves (Skoll and Hati) would eventually reach and devour the sun and moon, after chasing them eternally. It is important to note that for the Norse, the moon was a male character and the sun a female character.
After that, Norse eschatology stated that stars would disappear, earthquakes would occur, trees would be uprooted, and finally all chains would be broken. In this, the sons of Loki (son of Odin) would march to Midgard (world of men) for the final battle. Loki's sons who would have prominent roles in Ragnarök were the wolf Fenrir , the serpent that circled the world called Jörmungandr and the goddess of the underworld called Hel .
Loki, in turn, would sail towards the site of the final battle with the frost giant Hrymir and his army on the ship Naglfar. This ship was produced with the remains of the fingernails of all the soldiers who had died in battle. Finally, Surtur and other fire giants would destroy the Bifrost bridge, which connected Asgard (abode of the gods) to Midgard.
When this turn of events took place, Heimdall, the guardian of the Bifrost, would sound his horn and summon the gods for the final battle to be fought. The armies that would fight Loki's forces would be formed by the gods of Asgard, the einherjar (soldiers who had died in battle) and by the Valkyries (mythical figures servants of Odin).
The fight that would be fought from there would have the following outcome:
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Odin would fight the Fenrir wolf and be devoured.
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Vidar son of Odin would kill the wolf Fenrir.
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Thor son of Odin would fight Jormungandr, kill the serpent, but be killed by its venom.
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Frey (god of fertility, related to agriculture) would fight Surtur and be killed by the fire giant.
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Týr (god of justice) would fight Garmr, the dog that protects the world from the dead, and they would both die.
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Loki would fight Heimdall, and they would both die in the fight.
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Ultimately, Surtur would set the entire Universe on fire.
Ragnarök suggests that the Universe would be destroyed as mentioned, but Norse records also portray the emergence of a new world . This world would emerge from the sea and would be a green and beautiful land, initially inhabited by a couple of humans (Lif and Lifthrasir) who survived Ragnarök. This world that would emerge would be ruled by Vidar and Vali, sons of Odin and survivors of Ragnarök, and would also have the presence of other gods:Modi, Magni, Balder and Hödr.
What sources register Ragnarök?
The events related to Ragnarök were recorded in several documents that portray the cosmology (world view) of the Norse. The main record that mentions Ragnarök is called Prose Edda , in particular an excerpt from the chapter “Gylfaginning ” (“Gylfi's Deception”).
The Poetic Edda is also a document that contains some mentions of Ragnarök, especially the poem “Völuspá ” (“The Seer’s Prophecy”). According to Johnni Langer|3| , other poems in the Poetic Edda mention Ragnarök, such as “Lokasenna ” (“Loki’s sarcasm”) and “Vafþrúðnismál ” (“The Lay of Váfthrudnir”).
The Prose Edda is a document written by the Icelandic historian and poet Snorri Sturluson around the year 1220. This work was divided into several chapters, and one of them, in particular, organized the beliefs and myths of the Norse religion.
The Poetic Edda, in turn, is a collection of Norse poems that tell different stories about the gods in which the Vikings believed. The poems in the Poetic Edda are part of a manuscript called the Codex Regius, found in Iceland in 1643. The author of these poems is unknown to this day.
Regarding Ragnarök, there is some dispute about the veracity of this myth, if in fact it belonged to the religious belief of the Vikings. That's because the evidence regarding Ragnarök is very scarce. There are those who claim that the belief in Ragnarök is an influence of Christianity on the religiosity of the Vikings, but there is no academic consensus on this.
Historian Johnni Langer suggests that Scandinavians' belief in Ragnarök may have been the fruit of astronomical observation, but also suggests that if Ragnarök lacks Christian influences, it may not have had much relevance in the Nordic mentality, as the records, as mentioned, are quite rare|4| .
|1| LANGER, Johnni. Ragnarok. In.:LANGER, Johnni (org.). Dictionary of Norse Mythology:symbols, myths and rites. São Paulo:Hedra, 2015, p. 391.
|2| STURLUSON, Snorri. Prose Edda:Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál. Belo Horizonte:Barbudânia, 2015, p. 118.
|3| Ditto, p. 391.
|4| Ditto, p. 394.