Ragnarök was the name of the prophesized event in which Odin and Thor would be killed. Loki's story in Twilight of the Gods hinges on this prophecy and how his daughters react to it, while it also appears in a vision to Odin in "Song of Sigrid" after he sacrifices his memory to see his fate.
History[]
Eager to know the future, Odin consults the prophetess Aile. In exchange for this clairvoyance, he sacrifices his memory, symbolized by one of his ravens, representing the oral tradition of Norse myths.
Odin's vision is marked by prophetic scenes:
- Thor confronting Jörmungandr, the sea serpent, in a fatal battle.
- Fenrir, the giant wolf, breaking his chains and sowing destruction.
- Odin hanging from Yggdrasil, the World Tree, looking at the crucified Jesus,
In the end, all the gods of the pantheon die according to their prophesied end in Ragnarök.
Aftermath[]
The vision shows a future where mortals no longer worship the Norse gods, and the gods eventually fall into complete oblivion, as Odin witnesses the rise of a new religion: Christianity, embodied by the figure of Jesus Christ, thus replacing the old cults.
Deeply disturbed by this revelation, Odin reacts violently. He mortally wounds Aile, the seer who helped him obtain this vision. However, this act only accelerates the inevitable process: Aile is reborn as a divine entity merging the powers of the Aesir and the Vanir, symbolizing the union of the ancient forces.
Interpretation A reflection on memory and forgetting:[]
Odin's vision offers a meditation on the ephemeral nature of divine power and how beliefs evolve over time. By sacrificing his memory to know the future, Odin illustrates the tension between past and future, and the difficulty of preserving one's legacy in the face of inevitable changes in faith and culture.
Norse origins[]
The great battle of Ragnarök in Norse mythology is an event that is said to occur at some point in the future. Fenrir and Odin would battle, resulting in Odin being eaten by the giant wolf just as Fenrir was prophesized to kill Odin in Twilight of the Gods. Similarly, Thor Odinson would face Jörmungandr in battle, slaying the world serpent but inhaling too much of its poisonous breath and quickly succumbing. While the details aren't so specific in Twilight, it was said that Thor and Jörmungandr would kill each other during the battle.
There are other details involving the Norse versions of characters that are not presented in Twilight. For example, Loki and Heimdallr would also fight to the death, killing each other, and after Fenrir swallows Odin, Odin's son Víðarr (not present in Twilight) would kill the great wolf. The Vanir god Freyr, who inspired some elements of Tiwaz, is also killed during Ragnarök while facing Surtr (also not present in Twilight).
In the mythology, Surtr burns the world, which then sinks into the sea. Humanity is wiped out and Fimbulwinter, the "mighty winter," follows. Líf and Lífþrasir are the only humans to survive, which they do by hiding in Hoddmímis holt, which is typically considered by scholars to be Yggdrasil, the World Tree. When the world emerges, the land is fertile, and Líf and Lífþrasir can begin to repopulate.