Ragnarök: The Twilight of the Gods

The Signs of Doom Ragnarök did not come without warning. It began with Fimbulwinter, three successive winters of bitter cold and darkness, with no summers in between. The world fell into chaos; brothers fought brothers, and the bonds of kinship were broken. The sun and the moon, pursued for eons by the wolves Sköll and Hati, were finally swallowed, plunging the nine realms into total darkness.

The Breaking of Chains The earth trembled so violently that the magical chains of the gods snapped. Fenrir, the giant wolf, was freed from his bonds. Loki, the god of mischief, escaped his imprisonment to lead the giants against the gods. From the deep ocean, the World Serpent Jörmungandr rose, causing the seas to flood the land. The ship of the dead, Naglfar, made from the fingernails of dead men, set sail toward the battlefield of Vigrid.

The Final Battle Heimdall, the guardian of the gods, blew the Great Horn, the Gjallarhorn, to wake the inhabitants of Asgard. Odin led his warriors into the final conflict. The battle was a series of tragic, destined encounters:

• Odin was swallowed by the wolf Fenrir, but was later avenged by his son Vidar.

• Thor killed the World Serpent with his hammer, Mjölnir, but after taking nine steps, he fell dead from the serpent's venom.

• Tyr and the hound Garm killed each other.

• Heimdall and Loki met in a final duel where neither survived.

The giant Surtr then set the entire world on fire with his flaming sword. The earth sank into the boiling sea, and the universe appeared to have returned to the void of Chaos.

The Rebirth But Ragnarök was not the absolute end. From the ruins of the old world, a new, green earth rose from the sea. Two humans, Lif and Lifthrasir, who had hidden in the hollows of the World Tree Yggdrasil, emerged to repopulate the world. A new sun was born, and the surviving sons of the gods returned to build a world based on peace instead of war.