Ragnarök (The Fate of the Gods)
At the end of the world, a great winter (the Fimbulwinter) precedes Ragnarök. The bonds break: Fenrir breaks free, Jörmungandr rises from the sea, and the ship Naglfar (built from the nails of the dead) sails with the hosts of the dead. Heimdall sounds the horn Gjallarhorn; the gods ride to the field of Vígríðr. In the great battle, Odin is swallowed by Fenrir (avenged by Víðarr), Thor slays Jörmungandr but dies of his venom, Freyr is slain by Surt (having given away his sword), and Heimdall and Loki kill each other. Surt's fire destroys the world; from the ashes, a new world rises [S1]S1 · Poetic Edda (Codex Regius)c. 1270 (preserves earlier oral poetry)textOpen source ↗[S2]S2 · Snorri Sturluson, Prose Eddac. 1220–1235textOpen source ↗.
The beliefs are pre-Christian (attested archaeologically from the Viking Age); the written sources are Christian-era (1220–1300) and post-hoc. The gap between belief and text is part of what this section presents.
The details of Ragnarök are drawn mainly from the Völuspá (Poetic Edda) and the Gylfaginning (Prose Edda); the two sources agree on the broad outline but differ on some details [S1]S1 · Poetic Edda (Codex Regius)c. 1270 (preserves earlier oral poetry)textOpen source ↗[S2]S2 · Snorri Sturluson, Prose Eddac. 1220–1235textOpen source ↗.