R is for Ragnarök. A-Z Challenge 2015

Ragnarök
the end of the gods.

In Norse mythology, or Ásatrú as we Icelanders like to call it,
there is such creativeness in the making of 'the world'.
They believed, very back when every person was more connected with their surroundings,
that everything could be explained with nature.
And even though it's sort of complicated I'm going to try my best to keep it simple.

You see, in the beginning there was nothing.
Just a giant hole of emptiness,
called Ginnungagap.
The north side of the void filled with ice,
while the south side of the void filled with fire.
And right in the middle of the void
the Frost Giant Ýmir was born.
Out of one of his armpits he grew a woman,
out the other a man.
And his foot begot a son with his other foot.
And that's how the Frost Giants were to be.
There was a magical cow, called Auðhumla.
Who licked the salt stones of the frozen side of the void,
she begot Ýmir and then Búri who begot Bor.
Bor got a wife, Bestla daughter of Bölþorns the Giant
and together they had three sons.
Odin, Vilji, Vé were their names.
Odin and his brothers killed Ýmir and created the world we have come to know.
Out of his blood the oceans came to be.
Out of his skin they made the earth.
Out of his bones they made the mountains.
His teeth and broken bones were the rocks and little hillsides.
And out of the blood still leaking from his wounds the brothers tied the world together.
They raised his head above like the sky and placed four dwarves on each end.
They were called
Austri, Vestri, Norðri, Suðri (East, West, North, South).
Now sadly this world they created was filled with the evils of the Frost Giants.
And this not being the only world, because the void stretches on for much longer than you'd assume.
Odin and his brothers found two trees drifting in the ocean.
The first gave us our breath and life.
Second gave us our sense and our emotions.
Third gave us the way to speak, hear and see.

And that's the story of how men came to be, this is our Adam and Eve story.
The first people in Norse Mythology were named Askur and Embla.
See the resemblance, they got their paradise made for them too.
The Gods, of course, did not live in the world they created out of Ýmir for us,
they lived up...and over a bridge.
Also, I'd like to mention that they explain the shift from day to night with
two wolves that chase the moon and the sun and therefor day is forever fleeting.

Now we fast forward a 'little', to Ragnarök,
or the end of the gods.

Basically the signs that the world is ending:
First there will be 'Fimbulvetur' (extremely cold winter)
there will be no sun and snow will come from all directions.
Wind will be strong and dominantly colder than the air.
And then there will be three winters in a row, without a summer in between.
Then there will be three more winters of cold, that will spread all over the world.
But it will not come out with snow, but blood.
Many battles will be fought and many will fall.
That will be the beginning of the end of the gods.


The wolf that was chasing the sun, catches it and swallows.
The wolf that chased the moon caught it and all the stars disappeared from the sky.
The earth trembles, so much that mountains and trees break down with roots.
All spells and those that had been bound will break free.
The ocean attacks land, a mighty worm that lives in the center of the world,
spews poison over the air and water.
There is a great battle, not only on earth.
One by one all the gods die.
And in the end only a few get a special place.
The sun also begot a daughter, who took up her mothers role of shining bright.

Now I'll never feel like I do this story justice and it should really be a book of 80 something chapters.
(which it is!)
I often wonder if Ragnarök has already happened.
If so, we are living in a godless world. With only a handful to take care of the return of the Frost Giants.
Or did Odin keep his one promise, "I will rid the world of Frost Giants".
Now I'm pretty sure I haven't seen those around so I thank you Odin, for taking care of at least that for us.
Its fun to think about other religions. Also they have so much poetry, Icelandic history is forever.
I hope you enjoyed this history lesson, next posts shall be back to poems.
And excuse my late posts, I seem to have got sick last Monday and turned into a sick Zombie.
More to come!
-Miss Bates.