A Brief Introduction to Norse Myth

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Foreplay - Ragnarok was the end of the Norse universe
in a final battle between good and evil. The forces of
good, led by Odin, were the Aesir gods. The forces of
evil, led by Loki, were the Giants and monsters. The
Gods actually knew what was going to happen at Ragnarok
- who would die, who would live, who would kill who. The
interesting fact about this is that the gods still rose
to meet their fates. The main enemies of the Aesir were
the Frost Giants from Jotunheim, the world of giants.
However, with the birthof three creatures, it was a sign
that the end of theworlds was coming.

The Aesir gods decided to seal away the most evil and
powerful creatures to delay the coming of Ragnarok.
These three monsters were offspring of the giantess
Angerboa and the god Loki. The three beasts were the
giant wolf, Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent, and Hel.

The Aesir gods sealed Hel into the Norse Underworld of
Niflheim. Hel soon became the Goddess of the Dead. The
Midgard Serpent, sometimes called Jormungand was the
largest serpent in the universe. From its birth, Odin
took it and threw it into the ocean with a mighty heave,
where it grew and grew until it wrapped its body around
the world. Thor himself tried to slay Jorungand, but
would fail ultimately -- especially at Ragnarok where
Jormungand would kill the mighty God. Fenrir on the
other hand was smaller, yet as a pup it grew larger and
larger each day. It grew so quickly that the gods
themselves feared it.

Fenrir was tricked by the Aesir into playing a game, or
so the Aesir would liked to have thought. The Aesir
wanted to play a game with the pup, seeing if it could
break whatever material was used with which to bind it.
Fenrir was clever enough to add a catch to their game.
A God would have to place his/her hand into its maw as
a showing of peace between the pup and the Gods. The
Gods whose purpose was to bind the wolf, knew that when
they had the wolf binded, it would chomp down on their
hand. Only one of the gods stepped forward, Tyr, god
of War. Without fear, he strode up to the pup, placed
his hand in its mouth and waited for the Aesir to
bind it.

After several attempts at binding the pup failed, a
dwarf created a strong material dubbed "Gleipnir." It
was said to be made of "...the sound of a cat's footfall
and the woman's beard and the mountain's roots and the
bear's sinews and the fish's breath and bird's spittle."
Fenrir could not break the fetter, and thus, realizing
it was trapped, it snapped up Tyr's hand. From that
point onward, Tyr would be known as the one-handed God
of War.

Balder's Death - The prophecies stated that Ragnarok
would also occur after Balder's death. Balder was
the handsome son of Odin and Frigg. Balder had two
brothers, Hod and Hermod. Hod also happened to be
blind, and thus was the God of Darkness.

Balder predicted his own death in a dream. His death
would ultimately be a sign of Ragnarok coming. His
mother, Frigg as well as his father, Odin, would try
to stop his death from occuring. Frigg granted Balder
invulnerability to try and save him. Loki, the God of
Fire and trickster of the Gods, was quite interested
in causing Balder's death. Loki disguised himself as
an old hag and set out to Frigg to ask her what Balder's
secrets were. Frigg told the disguised Loki that all
the things in the world were made to swear an oath not
to harm Balder. One item however, the mistletoe, was
considered to be too innocent to do any harm, so Frigg
had dismissed it from making an oath.

Loki visited the Aesir gods, who were playing a game
with Balder. They were pelting him with swords, axes,
stones, arrows, among many other things. The Gods would
laugh as the items bounced off Balder harmlessly. Hod
was the only Aesir god not to play this game. When
asked by Loki why he didn't play, Hod simply replied that
he was blind and could not aim to throw things at Balder.
Loki laughed for a bit, then handed Hod a bit of
mistletoe and said he would guide Hod's arm if Hod agreed
to play. Hod agreed to play and, with Loki's arm guiding
his own, threw the mistletoe at his
brother.

The bit of mistletoe struck Balder, killing him instantly.
Immediatly, Balder's spirit fled to Niflheim whilst the
other Gods stared in horror at the mistletoe. The small,
insignificant plant lay there, harmless to everyone except
the once mighty Balder.

Eve Of Destruction - When Ragnarok would come,
the winter would last for three years and would be
extremely bitter. The two giant wolves, Skoll and Hati,
would devour the Sun and Moon whilst starts would fall
from the heavens. The giant worm Nidhogg, which was
gnawing on the roots of the Yggdrasil for the longest of
times, would finally succeed. The root Nidhogg succeeded
in gnawing through was the root that supported Niflheim.
Loki, who had been confined for causing Balder's death
escaped his imprisonment. Loki would rally with the
frost giants and his offspring and would lead them
against the Sons of Mankind and the Gods. Fenrir would
escape the magical Fetter, the Midgard Serpent,
Jormungand, would slither out of the ocean. The Frost
Giants and Mountain Giants would leave their home in
Jotunheim, sailing on a ship known as Naglfar, whilst
their cousins the fire giants would leave their realm
of Fire, Muspelheim.

Final Battle - Heimdall was to warn the Aesir of the
coming of Ragnarok. Heimdall was to blow his horn,
the great Gjallahorn, said to be the sound of doom.
The Gods armed themselves for war, stepping up to
face their fate along with the Einherjar, the slain
warriors of Valhalla.

The place of battle was to be the plain of Vigrid,
where Freyr would be the first to fall. Unarmed
and totally unprepared, Surt, who led the Fire Giants,
would slay him with his flaming sword. The one
-handed god of War, Tyr, managed to kill the hellhound
Garm, but his wounds were so great that he died
shortly afterwards. In the chaos afterwards, Loki met
his demise at the hands at Heimdall, who died at the
same time as Loki struck him. Both fell to the
ground, lifeless.

Thor, in the meantime, smote the mighty Midgard
Serpent with the powerful warhammer, Mjollnir.
However, the serpent's venom would take its toll on
the thunder-god, and he would shortly die afterwards.
Odin used his spear, Gungnir, against the voracious
wolf, Fenrir. After a good amount of blows were
exchanged, Fenrir eventually devoured Odin. Vidar,
son of Odin, became enraged and pounced upon the wolf,
tearing its jaws apart with his own hands.

Surt then set the worlds to pandamonium with his
blazing sword, nothing could escape his furious fire.
The worlds would try to sink into the ocean to save
themselves, but most of the creatures
would die in fires. Ragnarok had come...

Rebirth - With all said and done, several of
the older, powerful Gods were dead. The Giants were
dead, the Elves and Dwarves were dead. The Earth,
scarred from the battle finally rose from the sea.
It soon became fertile again, becoming green and lush
with vegetation. The new sun would float into the sky.
Most of the younger gods who took part in the battle
lived. These gods were mostly the sons of the older
gods, Odin and Thor. The Goddesses themselves survived,
perhaps not even have taken a roll in the final battle.
Balder and Hod were reborn as well, and two human
mortals, Lifthrasir and Lif hid in the world tree.
These two humans would repopulate midgard together.
The end of war had come, there was no wickedness, there
was also an abundance of food. So the final question
to ask ourselves... if Ragnarok was true... has it
happened already? The answer to that is probably quite
obvious.

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