Norse Mythology

Loki is unrepentant about Baldur’s death. The Autumnal feast at Aegir’s house arrives and Loki drinks too much; he kills Aegir’s servant, Fimafeng. Loki is driven from the dining hall. He later returns, asserting his right to dine with Odin based on an oath they long ago swore. Loki insults each god and goddess, “making everyone there miserable until Thor arrived at the feast” (253). Thor threatens to kill Loki with Mjolnir, and Loki leaves, promising the destruction of Aegir’s house.

The next morning, sober, Loki feels no shame, but realizes that he went too far. He hides as a salmon in a pool beneath a waterfall, but begins to doubt is safety. He constructs a net—the first net ever—and realizes that he could be caught. He burns it when he sees the gods coming.

The gods surround Loki’s house. Kvasir, alive again, deduces that Loki had been there moments before. Kvasir sees the pattern of ashes that the net made and works out how to create a net. Thor is impatient; Kvasir infers that Loki is hiding in the guise of a fish. The gods weave a giant, heavy net and descend to the pool beneath the waterfall.

Loki, realizing he might be trapped, plans to swim up the waterfall, rather than downstream as the gods might expect. Thor grabs him out of the air. Loki is wrapped in the net and dragged off.

The gods take Loki to a cave, where Loki’s sons and wife are waiting. Vali and Narfi beg the gods not to kill their father. Kvasir tells them that they are bound to oaths not to kill Loki, but there is no such protection for his sons. Kvasi speaks “words of change, words of power” to Vali, who promptly turns into an enraged wolf and attacks Narfi (262). He kills Narfi and flees, and he “would not be seen in Asgard again, not until the end of everything” (262).

The gods bind Loki to stones with Narfi’s entrails and transform the “intestines of Loki’s murdered sons into fetters so tight and so hard that they might have been iron” (263). Loki’s wife, Sigyn, weeps. She was told to bring a bowl but does not know why. Skadi winds a serpent in the stalactites above Loki’s head. Its fangs drip burning venom into Loki’s eyes. Loki screams in agony. The gods leave, except Kvasir. Sigyn asks what will happen to her; Kvasir says she is not being punished and she may do what she wants. He leaves.

Until Ragnarok, Sigyn will collect the snake’s venom in her bow, only leaving Loki’s side to dump it. When she leaves, Loki’s painful thrashing is an earthquake in Midgard.

Ragnarok will begin on a winter night, when all but Heimdall are asleep. Heimdall will see it start but be powerless to stop it. This winter will not end and will be marked by great battles across the world. This will be “the age of people who become as wolves” (270). The sun and moon will vanish, “as if eaten by a wolf” (270). Great earthquakes will break all bonds and shackles, freeing Fenrir, whose “mouth will gape: his upper jaw will reach the heavens, the lower jaw will touch the earth” (271). He will walk the land, destruction following in his wake. Jormungundr will thrash, his body causing the sea to flood the earth, his venom poisoning the oceans.

Muspell’s sons, led by the fire Giant, Surtr, will descend from the heavens, crumbling the rainbow bridge. Loki, now escaped, will steer the ship Nagalfar, the biggest ship ever to exist, “built of the fingernails of the dead” (272). The boat will be captained by the Hyrm, king of the frost giants, and populated by his army. Loki’s army is comprised of “the uneasy dead, the ones who died shameful deaths […] determined to destroy anything that still loves and lives above the earth” (272). Loki, Fenrir, and Jormungundr will converge upon the site of the final battle—the plain called Vigrid.

When Heimdall sees these evil forces assemble, he blows the Gjalerhorn to awaken the sleeping gods. Odin will seek counsel from Mimir’s head. This will give him hope. The Aesir and the Einherjar, “all the warriors who died good deaths in battle” (273), will prepare for war. Odin will head the war party with Thor by his side.

Odin charges Fenrir, clutching Gungnir. Odin, with Mjolnir, head for the Midgard serpent. Frey takes on Surtr; he “fights hard and well, by he will be the first of the Aesir to fall” (274). He will regret giving his magical sword to Skirnir: It would have saved him. Tyr will fight the ferocious hellhound Garm; the two will fall in battle together.

Thor will finally be able to slay Jormungundr. However, in its death throes, the serpent “will empty its venom sacs over the thunder god, in a thick black spray” (274). Thor will succumb to the poison and die.

Odin fights bravely, but Fenrir is “more vast and more dangerous than anything could possibly be” (275). Odin’s spear disappears into Fenrir’s gaping mouth. Fenrir consumes Odin in another bite. Odin’s son, Vidar, will see his father fall. He thrusts his foot, clad in a shoe made from all the scraps of leather thrown out from all of time, into Fenrir’s mouth, jamming his lower jaw to the ground. Vidar reaches up and rips the Fenris wolf’s mouth apart, killing him and avenging Odin.

Of the evil forces, only Loki will remain. Heimdall will face him on the battlefield. Loki will goad Heimdall, who will stay impassive. Thought of his revenge was the only thing sustaining Loki in his years of bondage. They will fight, remembering a time they fought in the distant past, when Loki stole the Brisings necklace from Freya and Heimdall took it back. They will fall together.

Loki will gloat that he has won, but Heimdall will remind him that Vidar, Odin’s children, and many of the lesser Aesir all remain. With his last breath, Heimdall will tell Loki of the mortals who took refuge in Yggdrasil, which cannot be destroyed: It is merely the end of the old era and the beginning of the new. Loki will die before he can respond.

Surtur, the flame giant, will cremate the world and all will be reduced to ash. The oceans will cover everything. This “is how the worlds will end, in ash and flood, in darkness and in ice. That is the final destiny of the gods” (279).

Though this will be the end, existence will be renewed. The sun’s daughter will replace the sun. A man and woman, “Life and Life’s yearning” will come out from Yggdrasil and repopulate the world (280). Idovall will replace Asgard. Odin’s and Thor’s children will come to Idovall. Balder and Hod return from the dead. These gods will hold counsel.

These gods will find golden chess pieces in the grass, each an effigy of one of the Aesir. They find enough to set up a game of chess. Balder will smile and move his piece, “[a]nd the game begins anew” (283).