The Religion of the Northmen
Chapter XIV
The disappearance of the Golden Age, Baldur's Death, and the confinement of Loki, are represented as events long passed away: the glance toward the Future meets at once with Ragnarökk (1)---the Twilight of the Gods.
The great antagonism which pervades the World-life shall be removed in a final struggle, in which the contending powers mutually destroy each other. This is a fundamental idea of the Asa faith. And that great World-struggle was vividly impressed upon the spirit of the heathen Northmen, is attested by the strong colors in which the Vala, speaking in the Völuspá, paints it; and still more is it attested by the oft-repeated assertion, that every hero who falls on the field of battle is called by Odin to the ranks of the Einherjar, to fight with them in the decisive battle against the Powers of Darkness.
Ragnarökk is an outbreak of all the chaotic powers, a conflict between them and the established order of Creation. Fire, Water, Darkness and Death work together to destroy the World. The Æsir and their enemies mutually slay each other. The flames of Surtur, the supreme Fire-God, complete the overthrow, and the last remnant of the consumed Earth sinks into the ocean.
But as the two primeval Worlds, Muspell and Niflheim, stand unshaken, neither is the terrestrial world eternally destoyed in Ragnarökk. When the great convulsion is finished, the Earth comes forth out of the ocean, regenerated and purified from Evil, as the abode of a new, a vigorous, and a happy race of men. With the renewed Earth appears a renovated race of Æsir. Viðarr and Vali, who survive the universal conflagration, join with their brothers Baldur and Höðurr, now set free from the dominion of Death, and in concord they take possession of the mansions of their common Father Odin. In Thor's stead step forth his sons Móði---the Courage-Giver, and Magni---the Strength-Giver, (2) who have inherited their father's Hammer, his all-subduing power. But a God, higher than all the Æsir, shall then reveal himself to rule over the World through all eternity. According to his judgments shall be the eternal reward and the eternal punishment of the immortal souls of the departed; the Good shall be raised up to the highest realm of light---to Gimli; (3) the Wicked shall follow the Dragon of Darkness, who with Death upon his wings flees away to the abyss, never more to arise from it.
But the doctrine of Regeneration and the Coming of the Supreme God to the great Judgment, was not so vividly present to the minds of the Asa worshipers as was the doctrine of Ragnarökk. What might be beyond the great World-conflagration was to them a dark enigma, which few were bold enough to fathom. Perhaps in that highest God they had a dim conception of that Mighty One from whom the first spark of the World-life proceeded, who dwelt in the Fire-Heaven before the World and the Æsir came into being, and who was to scatter over them the fire of Devastation in Ragnarökk; but this presentiment was joined with a feeling of fear, and hence no man should dare to pronounce the name of the Great Judge of the Universe. (4)
Endnotes
1. Regin, Divine power, the Gods (Chap. 11), and rökkr, darkness, twilight. [Back]
2. Móði, from móðr (Swed. mod; Dan. Mod; Germ. Muth), courage; cogn. with AS. mód; Engl. mood. Magni, from magn, (AS. mægen) strength; magna, to give strength; cognate with M.-Goth. mahts; Germ. Macht; AS. máht; Engl. might; also with Lat. magnus. [Back]
3. Cognate with gimr, gimsteinn, a gem, sparkling stone (Alemannic gimme; AS. gim, gymstán; Lat. gemma; Engl. gem.), and thus denoted "The Shining Abode." When Grimm assumes that Gimli is a dative form of gimill (which he takes to be the same as himill, an older form of himinn, heaven), because Gimli is used only in the dative (Deut. Myth. p. 783), he errs, as Gimli occurs twice in the nominative form (Gylf. 3 and 17). [Back]
4. The author inclines to Finn Magnusen's opinion that the Highest God whose coming the Völuspá and Hyndluljóð announce, is Surtur; although most authorities reject it. (See Grimm.: Deut. Myth. pp. 784-5; Geijer: Svea-Rikes Häfder Vol. I. p. 336. [Back]
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