ragnarok and world tree by hrd

8/9/2019 Ragnarok and World Tree by HRD

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Ragnarokfrom

Gods and Myths of the Viking AgeBy: H.R. Ellis Davidson

....Ragnarok, the time of the destruction of the gods. This fearfultime willbe ushered in by many portents. First there will be greatwars throughthe world, and a time of strife and hatred between men.The bonds of kinship will hold them no longer, and they will commitappalling deeds of murder and incest. There will also be a period ofbittercold, when a terrible pursuing wolf catches the sun anddevours her; themoon too is to be swallowed up, and the starswill fall from the sky. Themountains will crash into fragments asthe whole earth shakes andtrembles, and the World Tree quivers inthe tumult. Now all fetteredmonsters break loose. The wolf Fenriradvances, his great gaping jawsfilling the gap between earthand sky, while the serpent emerges from thesea, blowing out poison.The sea rises to engulf the land, and on the floodthe ship NaglfarIs launched, a vessel made from the nails of dead men. Itcarries a

crew of giants, with Loki as their steersman. From the fieryrealmof Muspell, Surt and his following ride out with shining swords,

and the bridge Bifrost is shattered beneath their weight. His forcesjointhe frost-giants on the plain of Vigrid, and there the lastbattle will befought between this mighty host and the gods.The note of Heimdall'shorn arouses the Aesir to their danger,and Odin rides to the springbeneath the World Tree, to take counselof Mimir's head. Then with hischosen champions from Valhalla hegoes out on to the plain, toencounter at last his ancient enemy, thewolf. Thor meets the WorldSerpent, and Freyr fights againstSurt; Tyr must encounter the houndGarm, broken loose from theunderworld, while Heimdall does battle withLoki. All the gods mustfall, and the monsters be destroyed with them.Thor kills the serpent,and then falls dead, overcome by its venom. Odinis devoured by Fenrir,but his young son Vidar slays the wolf in turn,setting one footupon its jaw and tearing it asunder. Tyr and Heimdallboth conquertheir opponents, but they do not survive the struggle. OnlySurtremains to the last, to fling fire over the whole world, so thattherace of men perishes with the gods, and all are finally engulfedin theoverwhelming sea:


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The sun becomes dark. Earth sinks in the sea.The shining stars slip out of the sky.Vapour and fire rage fiercelytogether, till the leaping flame licks heaven itself. Yet this is notthe end.Earth will arise again from the waves, fertile, green, andfair as neverbefore, cleansed of all its sufferings and evil. The sonsof the great godsstill remain alive, and Balder will return from thedead to reign withthem. They will rule a new universe, cleansed andregenerated, while twoliving creatures who have sheltered fromdestruction in the World Treewill come out to repeople the world withmen and women. A new sun,outshining her mother in beauty, will journeyacross the heavens. Suchis the picture of the beginning and end of theworld of gods and men,drawn for Gangleri by the Three Powers.


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The World TreeBy: H.R. Ellis Davidson

.This world had for its centre a great tree, a mighty ash calledYggdrasill.So huge was this tree that its branches stretched out overheaven andearth alike. Three roots supported the great trunk, and onepassed intothe realm of the Aesir, a second into that of the frostgiants,and a thirdinto the realm of the dead. Beneath the root ingiant-land was the springof Mimir, whose waters contained wisdom andunderstanding. Odin hadgiven one of his eyes for the right to drink asingle draught of thatprecious water. Below the tree in the kingdom ofthe Aesir was the sacredspring of fate, the Well of Urd. Here everyday the gods assembled fortheir court of law, to settle disputes anddiscuss common problems. Allcame on horseback except Thor, whopreferred to wade through therivers that lay in his path, and theywere led by Odin on the finest of allsteeds, the eight- legged horseSleipnir. The gods galloped over the bridgeBifrost, a rainbow bridgethat glowed with fire. They alone might cross it,and the giants, wholonged to do so, were held back. Near the spring offate dwelt threemaidens called the Norns, who ruled the destinies ofmen, and werecalled Fate (Urdr), Being (Verdandi), and Necessity(Skuld). Theywatered the tree each day with pure water and whitened itwith clay

from the spring, and in this way preserved its life, while thewaterfell down to earth as dew. The tree was continually threatened,

even asit grew and flourished, by the living creatures that preyed uponit. Onthe topmost bough sat an eagle, with a hawk perched on itsforehead:the same eagle, perhaps, of whom it is said that the flapping ofitswings caused the winds in the world of men. At the root of the tree laya great serpent, with many scores of lesser snakes, and these gnawedcontinually at Yggdrasill. The serpent was at war with the eagle, and animble squirrel ran up and down the tree, carrying insults from one tothe other. Horned creatures, harts and goats, devoured the branches andtender shoots of the tree, leaping at it from every side.Creation - The tree formed a link between the different worlds. We arenever told of its beginning, but of the creation of the worlds of whichitformed a centre there is much to tell. In the beginning there weretworegions: Muspell in the south, full of brightness and fire; and aworld ofsnow and ice in the north. Between them stretched the greatemptinessof Ginnungagap. As the heat and cold met in the midst of theexpanse, aliving creature appeared in the melting ice, called Ymir. Hewas a great


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giant, and from under his left arm grew the first man andwoman whilefrom his two feet the family of frost-giants was begotten.Ymir fed uponthe milk of a cow called Audhumla, who licked the saltyice-blocks andreleased another new being, a man called Buri. He had ason called Bor,and the sons of Bor were the three gods, Odin, Vili,and Ve. These threeslew Ymir the ancient giant, and all the frostgiantssave one, Bergelmir,were drowned in his surging blood. FromYmir's body they then formedthe world of men:... from his blood the sea and the lakes, from his flesh the earth, andfrom his bones the mountains; from his teeth and jaws and such bonesaswere broken they formed the rocks and the pebbles. From Ymir's skullthey made the dome of the sky, placing a dwarf to support it at eachofthe four corners and to hold it high abovethe earth. This world of menwas protected from the giants by a wall,made from the eyebrows of Ymir,and was called Midgard. The godscreated inhabitants for it from twotrees on the sea-shore, whichbecame a man and a woman. They gave tothem spirit and understanding,the power of movement, and the use ofthe senses. They created also thedwarfs, creatures with strange names,who bred in the earth likemaggots, and dwelt in hills and rocks. Thesewere skilled craftsmen,and it was they who wrought the great treasuresof the gods. The godscaused time to exist, sending Night and Day todrive round the heavensin chariots drawn by swift horses. Two fairchildren, a girl called Sunand boy called Moon, were also set by them onpaths across the sky. Sunand Moon had to drive fast because they werepursued by wolves, whomeant to devour them. On the day when thegreatest of the wolvessucceeded in swallowing the Sun, the end of allthings would be athand.Asgard - Once heaven and earth were formed, it was time to set aboutthe building of Asgard, the realm of the gods. Here there were manywonderful halls, in which the gods dwelt. Odin himself lived in Valaskjalf,a hall roofed with silver, where he could sit in his special seat and viewall the worlds at once. He had another hall called Valhalla, the hall of theslain, where he offered hospitality to all those who fell in battle. Eachnight they feasted on pork that never gave out, and on mead whichflowed instead of milk from the udders of the goat Heidrun, one of thecreatures that fed upon Yggdrasill. Odin's guests spent the day in

fighting, and all who fell in the combat were raised again in the eveningto feast with the rest. Horns of mead were carried to them by theValkyries, the maids of Odin, who had also to go down to the battlefieldsof earth and decide the course of war, summoning fallen warriors toValhalla. Somewhere in Asgard there was a building with a roof of gold,called Gimli, to which it was said that righteous men went after death.There were other realms beyond Asgard, like Alfheim, where the fair elveslived, and as many as three heavens, stretching one beyond the other.

ragnarok and world tree by hrd

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