ran 83
beneath them, but not before they had reached
Vigrid.
Odin, the mighty leader of the gods, attacked
first. He joined battle with the monster-wolf, Fenrir,
whose slavering jaws grew wider and wider, stretch-
ing from heaven to Earth, until they swallowed up
Odin.
Nearby, Thor, the god of thunder, wrestled with
Jormungand. In the deathly struggle, Thor killed the
serpent, but Thor, too, died a gasping death from the
beast’s fatal venom.
Loki and Heimdall, lifelong enemies, killed each
other.
Frey, the god of fertility, grappled with the fire
god, Surt, in a lengthy battle. Frey had given away
his magic sword long ago for love of Gerda, and now,
without it, he was killed by the fire demon.
Tyr, who had only one hand, fought bravely
against Garm, and the two killed each other.
All around the battle raged, and all were doomed
to perish. But Vidar, a son of Odin, avenged his father.
On his foot he wore a boot made from all the strips
of leather snipped off and saved by good cobblers for
just this purpose. Vidar crushed his magic boot onto
the lower jaw of Fenrir, and, using all his strength,
tore the wolf apart.
With Odin and most of the other gods, heroes,
giants, and monsters dead, Surt flung his brands of fire
all over Earth so that there was a great and terrible
conflagration. All Nine Worlds went up in flames,
and at last the Earth sank into the boiling sea.
The idea of Ragnarok is similar to Christian and
Asian conceptions of Judgment Day or doomsday.
However, the dramatic descriptions of darkness,
earthquakes, flood, fire, and ashes undoubtedly came
straight from the Icelandic poets’ own experiences of
volcanic eruptions in their native land.
The Regeneration After the terrible destruction
of Ragnarok, all was not lost, for there was a rebirth:
Two humans emerged, some of the gods survived,
green plants grew, and a new world was born.
Before she was devoured by the wolf, Sol had
given birth to a daughter, as brilliant and burning as
she. As this new sun appeared, darkness vanished, and
a new day dawned in a world that gradually, magi-
cally, became green and pleasant, with fields of corn
growing where no seeds had been planted.
From the remains of the sacred tree, Yggdrasil,
stepped a human man, Lif, and a human woman,
Lifthrasir. They had been nourished by dew and
were unhurt by Surt’s fire. They would repeople the
Earth.
Vidar and Vali survived, as did Modi and Magni,
Thor’s sons, who inherited his hammer, Mjollnir.
Balder came back from the dead, leading his blind
brother, Hodur. Hoenir (Vili) appeared and so
did Lothur (Ve), Odin’s brothers. They went to
Idavoll, which had remained unscorched, and there
they built new mansions, the greatest of which was
gimle, roofed with gold. Another was Brimir, on
the place called Okolnir (Never Cold). Sindri rose
up in the mountains of Nidafjoll. All these places
were good.
But there was also a hall on Nastrond, the shore
of corpses. All its doors faced north to greet the
shrieking winds. The walls were made of writhing
snakes that poured their venom into a river that
flowed through the hall. This was the new under-
world, full of murderers and thieves, and when they
died, Nidhoss, who had survived, was there to feed
upon the corpses.
The Aesir walked on the new green grass of Idavoll
and talked about the past and their dear, perished
friends. They played chess with the golden pieces
that they found on the ground, and they thought with
wonder about the new life of the Earth.
R ainbow B ridge
The common name for
Bilrost, the bridge that stretched between the
human world and the world of the gods, between
Earth and Heaven. This bridge was made by the gods
in three colors—red, blue, and green—giving Bilrost
its common nickname.
Only in the writings of 13th-century Icelandic
historian Snorri Sturluson was the image of the
rainbow associated with Bilrost, according to Old
Norse experts. Earlier forms of this Norse myth
refer to the Milky Way as the bridge that joins
Heaven and Earth.
R an (Robber) The wife of Aegir, Jotun lord of the
sea. She lived with Aegir beneath the island of Hlesey,
in coral caves. She dragged drowning sailors down to
her realm in her fishing net, which either she or Loki
invented. Her halls were lighted only by the gleam of
gold, reminiscent of the phosphorescent glow of the
sea. It is said that Ran felt kindly toward dead sailors
who had some gold in their possession to help her
light her halls. In “Otr’s Ransom” (under Otr), Loki
borrows Ran’s net to catch the dwarf Andvari.