# Ragnarök
**Ragnarök** ([Old Norse](https://www.edgepedia.org/old-norse), plural, "final destiny of the gods") is the eschatological (relating to the end of the world and final destiny) myth of pre-Christian Scandinavian religion, describing the destruction of the world and the gods in a final battle, followed by the renewal of the earth. The term is one of the central narratives of [Norse mythology](https://www.edgepedia.org/norse-mythology), and the sequence is told most fully in the eddic poem *Völuspá* and in [Snorri Sturluson](https://www.edgepedia.org/snorri-sturluson)'s *Prose Edda*.[1](https://doktori.bibl.u-szeged.hu/id/eprint/90/1/2003_kopar_lilla.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Meaning | In the Poetic Edda, *ragnarök* means "final destiny of the gods" (from *regin*, "gods", and *rǫk*, "fate"); Snorri Sturluson instead uses *ragnarökkr*, "twilight of the gods".[2](https://www.pravenc.ru/text/2661308.html) • [3](https://www.helsinki.fi/assets/drupal/2023-12/RMN17_full_volume.pdf) |
| Main sources | *Völuspá* and *Vafþrúðnismál* in the Poetic Edda (Codex Regius, ca. 1270), and *Gylfaginning* chapters 51–53 of Snorri's Prose Edda.[1](https://doktori.bibl.u-szeged.hu/id/eprint/90/1/2003_kopar_lilla.pdf) • [4](https://northerntales.se/en/stories/ragnarok/) |
| Three textual versions | The early eschatological account survives in *Völuspá* stanzas 44–66 in Codex Regius, in variant stanzas in the Hauksbók, and as the now-lost source behind Snorri's account.[1](https://doktori.bibl.u-szeged.hu/id/eprint/90/1/2003_kopar_lilla.pdf) |
| Main themes | The signs of the end, the final battle, and the destruction and renewal of the world.[5](https://academic.oup.com/book/44543) |
| Renewal | After the destruction a green earth rises from the sea, and Baldr returns among a surviving handful of gods.[6](https://mythospedia.com/compare/ragnarok-vs-apocalypse-traditions/) |
| Standard modern study | Anders Hultgård, *The End of the World in Scandinavian Mythology: A Comparative Perspective on Ragnarök* (Oxford University Press, 2022).[5](https://academic.oup.com/book/44543) |
| Christian-influence question | Hultgård concludes the myth is an independent pre-Christian composition, with its closest analogies in ancient Iranian tradition.[7](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_End_of_the_World_in_Scandinavian_Myt.html?hl=en&id=-hGMEAAAQBAJ&output=html_text) |
## Name and etymology
The compound *ragnarök* parses as *ragna*, the genitive plural of *regin* ("divine rulers, gods"), plus *rǫk*, so that whatever *rǫk* denotes, it belongs to the gods; in the [Poetic Edda](https://www.edgepedia.org/poetic-edda) the word denotes the eschatological story as the "final destiny of the gods".[3](https://www.helsinki.fi/assets/drupal/2023-12/RMN17_full_volume.pdf) • [1](https://doktori.bibl.u-szeged.hu/id/eprint/90/1/2003_kopar_lilla.pdf) Snorri's Prose Edda more commonly uses the form *ragnarökkr*, built on *rökkr*, "twilight", which underlies the familiar English phrase "twilight of the gods".[2](https://www.pravenc.ru/text/2661308.html) • [8](https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A1632104/FULLTEXT01.pdf) The Helsinki volume notes that *ragnarökkr* is not used elsewhere in the poetic sources, and that Snorri's treatment of *ragnarǫkkr* as an equivalent of Doomsday shaped the modern concept of Ragnarök as a final judgment.[3](https://www.helsinki.fi/assets/drupal/2023-12/RMN17_full_volume.pdf)
## Sources
Knowledge of Ragnarök derives chiefly from two eddic poems, *Völuspá* ("The Seeress's Prophecy") and *Vafþrúðnismál*, and from Snorri Sturluson's Edda.[4](https://northerntales.se/en/stories/ragnarok/) • [9](https://samlingar.shm.se/term/ec76127b-6e29-4a30-b939-546f696c270d) The *Völuspá* is preserved in the Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda, dated to about 1270, and is considered the densest and most reliable source for the sequence of events; even so, its sections contain interpretive problems such as text-critical variants, uncertain etymology, and prose expansions in Snorri that cannot always be cross-checked against the poem.[4](https://northerntales.se/en/stories/ragnarok/) The eschatological account itself goes back to an earlier, orally transmitted lay of unknown date and original version, and survives in three versions: stanzas 44–66 of the Codex Regius *Völuspá*, a few other stanzas in the Hauksbók, and as the now-lost source of Snorri's account in *Gylfaginning* 51–53.[1](https://doktori.bibl.u-szeged.hu/id/eprint/90/1/2003_kopar_lilla.pdf) Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241), the Icelandic writer and chieftain, compiled the [Prose Edda](https://www.edgepedia.org/prose-edda), whose first section, *Gylfaginning*, retells the mythological material from creation to Ragnarök.[10](https://hea-www.harvard.edu/ECT/carl_edda.html) • [8](https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A1632104/FULLTEXT01.pdf)
## The myth's content
Scholars distinguish three main themes in the myth: the signs of the end, the final battle, and the destruction and renewal of the world.[5](https://academic.oup.com/book/44543) The *Völuspá* narrates the ending stanza by stanza, and it is followed by renewal: a green earth rises from the sea, and a surviving handful of gods finds the old gaming pieces in the grass, with Baldr among those who return.[6](https://mythospedia.com/compare/ragnarok-vs-apocalypse-traditions/) The myth is a narrative of the gods' death, and only the Norse texts among the traditions compared in one survey narrate the end of the world in this sense, followed by renewal.[11](https://mythosdata.dev/k/end-of-the-world-myths-compared)
What sets Ragnarök apart when measured against other visions of the end of the world is that it involves no judgment: no one is evaluated and no one receives a reward; the gods are defeated simply because defeat was always their destiny, and what redeems them is that they go to meet it regardless.[6](https://mythospedia.com/compare/ragnarok-vs-apocalypse-traditions/) A comparative survey of end-of-world traditions finds that only the Norse texts narrate the end of the world in this sense: Greek texts have no ending of the world (Hesiod's Iron Age ends a race, not the cosmos), and the Egyptian texts read in that survey describe no end at all.[11](https://mythosdata.dev/k/end-of-the-world-myths-compared)
## Christian influence and pre-Christian origins
The myth was handed down in a Christian medieval context, and the question of Christian influence on its preserved form has been thoroughly discussed in scholarship.[5](https://academic.oup.com/book/44543) Certain details make the parallel hard to miss: the world's destruction and rebirth, one human couple left alive to people it anew, and Baldr's homecoming to a purified world.[12](https://codexdivinum.com/contested/ragnarok-christian) Snorri was a Christian writing two centuries after Iceland's conversion, and scholars debate whether some elements, especially the rebirth, were influenced by [Christian eschatology](https://www.edgepedia.org/christian-eschatology).[13](https://backyarddrunkard.com/mythological-horror-urban-legends/ragnarok-norse-mythology-apocalypse-guide/)
The standard modern study takes a comparative approach. Anders Hultgård, emeritus professor of the history of religions at [Uppsala University](https://www.edgepedia.org/uppsala-university), compares Ragnarök with end-of-world traditions in early Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Graeco-Roman world, Celtic Europe, and ancient Iran and India, and concludes that Ragnarök is an independent pre-Christian myth whose closest analogies lie in ancient Iran.[5](https://academic.oup.com/book/44543) • [7](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_End_of_the_World_in_Scandinavian_Myt.html?hl=en&id=-hGMEAAAQBAJ&output=html_text) The Iranian analogies include the idea of the cosmic tree, the role of the number "nine", and the myth of the heavenly warriors; Hultgård also emphasizes an Indo-European background for the Scandinavian myth.[5](https://academic.oup.com/book/44543) Through comparative analysis, it has been demonstrated that the eschatology of Ragnarök shares a more similar structure with Iranian apocalyptic thought, in particular the Zoroastrian Frashkart tradition, than with the Christian Book of Revelation.[14](https://northerntales.se/en/research/kristet-inflytande-pa-voluspa/) A history-of-research survey notes that scholarly approaches to the myth's origins have been grouped in a threefold division: diverse origins, an Indo-European approach, and a myth under Christian influence, the last being the most popular in more recent times.[15](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350250343_The_Ragnarok_Myth_in_Scandinavia_-_Finding_Inheriting_and_Borrowing)
## The AD 536 hypothesis
A separate line of research links the myth to a historical climate event. Bo Gräslund, archaeologist at Uppsala University, and Neil Price, archaeologist at the [University of Aberdeen](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-aberdeen), argued in 2012 that the origin of the Ragnarök stories lies in the "dark summer" of AD 536, when a climatic downturn coincided with widespread disruption of settlement in the northern latitudes; the legends describe specific weather conditions, including their appearance, duration, and precise effects.[16](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/twilight-of-the-gods-the-dust-veil-event-of-ad-536-in-critical-perspective/4FABB859643B4B4213B97D0F98ED8D85) • [17](https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.723) Climatic fluctuations and a "dust veil" during AD 536–550 were recorded across the [Northern Hemisphere](https://www.edgepedia.org/northern-hemisphere), and in [Scandinavia](https://www.edgepedia.org/scandinavia) this seems to coincide with considerable changes in settlement patterns.[18](https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/are-there-echoes-of-the-ad-536-event-in-the-viking-ragnarok-myth-/) Mathias Nordvig and Felix Riede offered a critical appraisal of this hypothesis in 2018, addressing the methodological problem of combining thirteenth-century literary sources with sixth-century archaeological records and calling for a "palaeoenvironmental humanities" perspective that balances material and non-material sources.[18](https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/are-there-echoes-of-the-ad-536-event-in-the-viking-ragnarok-myth-/)
## Modern reception
Ragnarök has remained a productive frame in modern culture. A.S. Byatt's novel *Ragnarök: The End of the Gods* (2011) retells the myth through the eyes of a child witnessing World War II, relating its eschatological themes to the modern world.[19](https://academic.oup.com/book/41179/chapter-abstract/350558931) • [20](https://doaj.org/article/df0934a4e0d841ddaba4d7dca51340af) In video games, *God of War: Ragnarök* (2022, Sony Santa Monica Studio) depicts [Kratos](https://www.edgepedia.org/kratos-god-of-war) and his son Atreus on a quest to defy the schemes of Odin and perhaps avert Ragnarök; the game is studied as a case of mythographical storytelling that collects and presents myths in the manner of an interactive mythology museum.[21](https://www.axios.com/2022/11/14/god-war-ragnarok-story) • [22](https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-023-00646-w) The Jorvik Viking Centre in York even promoted a "Viking apocalypse" for 22 February 2014, an episode analyzed by medievalists as an example of the myth's media reception.[23](https://www.medievalists.net/2014/07/viking-apocalypse-22nd-february-2014-analysis-jorvik-viking-centres-ragnar%C7%ABk-media-reception/)
## References
1. [Lilla Kopár, dissertation on Old Norse eschatological narratives, University of Szeged](https://doktori.bibl.u-szeged.hu/id/eprint/90/1/2003_kopar_lilla.pdf)
2. [РАГНАРЁК, Православная энциклопедия](https://www.pravenc.ru/text/2661308.html)
3. [RMN Newsletter No. 17 (2022), University of Helsinki](https://www.helsinki.fi/assets/drupal/2023-12/RMN17_full_volume.pdf)
4. [Ragnarok, Northern Tales](https://northerntales.se/en/stories/ragnarok/)
5. [Anders Hultgård, *The End of the World in Scandinavian Mythology: A Comparative Perspective on Ragnarök*, Oxford University Press, 2022](https://academic.oup.com/book/44543)
6. [Ragnarok and the Other Endings, MythosPedia](https://mythospedia.com/compare/ragnarok-vs-apocalypse-traditions/)
7. [Google Books entry for Hultgård, *The End of the World in Scandinavian Mythology*](https://books.google.com/books/about/The_End_of_the_World_in_Scandinavian_Myt.html?hl=en&id=-hGMEAAAQBAJ&output=html_text)
8. [Gylfaginning 1, Uppsala University (DiVA)](https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A1632104/FULLTEXT01.pdf)
9. [Ragnarök, Swedish History Museum collections](https://samlingar.shm.se/term/ec76127b-6e29-4a30-b939-546f696c270d)
10. [Gylfaginning, translated by Carl E. Anderson, ECT](https://hea-www.harvard.edu/ECT/carl_edda.html)
11. [End of the World Myths Compared, MythosData](https://mythosdata.dev/k/end-of-the-world-myths-compared)
12. [Was Ragnarök shaped by Christian apocalypse?, Codex Divinum](https://codexdivinum.com/contested/ragnarok-christian)
13. [Ragnarök Explained: The Full Story of the Norse Apocalypse](https://backyarddrunkard.com/mythological-horror-urban-legends/ragnarok-norse-mythology-apocalypse-guide/)
14. [Christian Influence on Völuspá, Northern Tales](https://northerntales.se/en/research/kristet-inflytande-pa-voluspa/)
15. [The Ragnarǫk Myth in Scandinavia – Finding, Inheriting, and Borrowing, ResearchGate](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350250343_The_Ragnarok_Myth_in_Scandinavia_-_Finding_Inheriting_and_Borrowing)
16. [Bo Gräslund and Neil Price, "Twilight of the gods? The 'dust veil event' of AD 536 in critical perspective", *Antiquity*](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/twilight-of-the-gods-the-dust-veil-event-of-ad-536-in-critical-perspective/4FABB859643B4B4213B97D0F98ED8D85)
17. [Holzhausen, "Historic narratives, myths and human behavior in times of climate change", *WIREs Climate Change*](https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.723)
18. [Mathias Nordvig and Felix Riede, "Are there echoes of the AD 536 event in the Viking Ragnarok myth? A critical appraisal", *Environment and History* 24 (2018)](https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/are-there-echoes-of-the-ad-536-event-in-the-viking-ragnarok-myth-/)
19. [Old Norse Mythology and Ideology (and Entertainment), Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/book/41179/chapter-abstract/350558931)
20. [Revisiting Norse Mythology: The Case of A.S. Byatt's Ragnarök, DOAJ](https://doaj.org/article/df0934a4e0d841ddaba4d7dca51340af)
21. [Programming tricks help God of War Ragnarök tell its story, Axios](https://www.axios.com/2022/11/14/god-war-ragnarok-story)
22. [Video Games as Mythology Museums? Mythographical Story Collections in Games, *International Journal of the Classical Tradition*](https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-023-00646-w)
23. [The 'Viking Apocalypse' of 22nd February 2014: An Analysis of the Jorvik Viking Centre's Ragnarǫk and Its Media Reception, Medievalists.net](https://www.medievalists.net/2014/07/viking-apocalypse-22nd-february-2014-analysis-jorvik-viking-centres-ragnar%C7%ABk-media-reception/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Mythology and folklore › Norse mythology*
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