Ragnarök— Norse Event"The Final Battle"

The Doom of the Gods

Ragnarök—the "Twilight of the Gods" or "Fate of the Gods"—is the prophesied end of the Norse cosmos. It is not a sudden catastrophe but a culmination: every myth, every binding, every grudge leads inexorably toward this final cataclysm. The gods know it is coming; they have always known. They prepare nonetheless.

The Fimbulwinter

Before Ragnarök comes the Fimbulwinter—three years of endless winter with no summer between. Snow will fall from all directions, wars will ravage the world, and brothers will kill brothers. All morality will collapse. The sun and moon will be devoured by the wolves Skoll and Hati. Only then will the final battle begin.

The Breaking of Bonds

When Ragnarök begins, all restraints will fail. Fenrir will break his unbreakable chains. Loki will escape the poison and bonds that have held him since Baldur's death. Jörmungandr will release his tail and rise from the sea. The dead will sail from Hel on the ship Naglfar, made from the fingernails of corpses.

The Final Battle

The giants of Muspelheim, led by Surtr with his flaming sword, will march across Bifrost, shattering it. On the plain of Vigrid, gods and giants will fight. Odin will face Fenrir and be swallowed. Thor will kill Jörmungandr but die from its venom. Freyr, without his sword, will fall to Surtr. Heimdall and Loki will slay each other. Týr and Garm will kill one another.

The Rebirth

After the battle, Surtr will engulf the world in flames, and the earth will sink into the sea. But this is not the end—a new world will rise from the waters, green and fertile. Baldur and Höðr will return from Hel. The surviving gods—Viðarr, Váli, and Thor's sons—will find the golden gaming pieces of the old gods in the grass. Humanity will begin again from two survivors hidden in Yggdrasil. Ragnarök is both ending and beginning.