Ragnarök

"The eagle shrieks, pale-beaked he tears the corpse," and the ship Naglfar breaks free thanks to the waves made by Jormungandr and sets sail from the east.

After this, people flee their homes, and the sun becomes black while the earth sinks into the sea, the stars vanish, steam rises, and flames touch the heavens.

Vafþrúðnismál references Njörðr's status as a hostage during the earlier Æsir–Vanir War, and that he will "come back home among the wise Vanir" at "the doom of men.

Vafþrúðnir responds in stanza 45 that those survivors will be Líf and Lífþrasir and that they will hide in the forest of Hoddmímis holt, that they will consume the morning dew, and will produce generations of offspring.

High responds that "the gods hold their sacred places and sanctuaries in such respect that they chose not to defile them with the wolf's blood, even though the prophecies foretold that he would be the death of Odin.

"[32] As a consequence of his role in the death of the god Baldr, Loki (described as father of Fenrir) is bound on top of three stones with the internal organs of his son Narfi (which are turned into iron) in three places.

[34] High relates that the great serpent Jörmungandr, also described as a child of Loki in the same source, will breach land as the sea violently swells onto it.

The ship Naglfar, described in the Prose Edda as being made from the human nails of the dead, is released from its mooring and sets sail on the surging sea, steered by a jötunn named Hrym.

The sons of Muspell (and their shining battle troop) advance to the field of Vígríðr, described as an expanse that reaches "a hundred leagues in each direction," where Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Loki (followed by "Hel's own"), and Hrym (accompanied by all frost jötnar) join them.

The hound Garmr (described here as the "worst of monsters") breaks free from his bonds in front of Gnipahellir, and fights the god Týr, resulting in both of their deaths.

Now possessing their father's hammer Mjölnir, Thor's sons Móði and Magni will meet them there, and, coming from Hel, Baldr and Höðr also arrive.

Thorwald's Cross, a partially surviving runestone erected at Kirk Andreas on the Isle of Man, depicts a bearded human holding a spear downward at a wolf, his right foot in its mouth, while a large bird sits at his shoulder.

[44] The Younger Futhark inscription on the stone bears a commonly seen memorial dedication, but is followed by an encoded runic sequence that has been described as "mysterious,"[51] and "an interesting magic formula which is known from all over the ancient Norse world.

"[44] On the early 11th-century Skarpåker Stone, from Södermanland, Sweden, a father grieving his dead son used the same verse form, fornyrðislag, as in the Poetic Edda in the following engraving: Iarð skal rifna ok upphiminn Earth shall be riven and the over-heaven.

Jansson (1987) notes that at the time of the inscription, everyone who read the lines would have thought of Ragnarök and the allusion that the father found fitting as an expression of his grief.

[50] The ship on the stone, with its mast shaped like a cross, is believed to represent the trip to the afterlife, fusing Christian imagery with Viking Age culture.

[50] Rudolf Simek theorizes that the survival of Líf and Lífþrasir at the end of Ragnarök is "a case of reduplication of the anthropogeny, understandable from the cyclic nature of the Eddic eschatology."

[54] The Christian thought of the Last Judgment as it is presented in the Book of Revelation is similar to the apocalyptic story of Ragnarök, which features imagery of a final cosmic conflict, devastation, and eventual renewal.

[55] Key elements, such as the role of a savior figure and the contrast between divine forces and evil, may mirror Christian theological concepts brought during the conversion of Scandinavia.

[50] Hilda Ellis Davidson theorizes that the events in Völuspá occurring after the death of the gods (the sun turning black, steam rising, flames touching the heavens, etc.)

[60] This viewpoint is expanded by recent research by Mathias Nordvig and Felix Riede, which connects the apocalyptic themes of Ragnarök to important geological and climatic occurrences in the sixth century AD.

Massive volcanic eruptions created a "dust veil" at this time, which produced broad climatic changes throughout the Northern Hemisphere, including as longer periods of darkness and colder temperatures.

John Lindow says that the poem may describe "a mix of the destruction of the race of giants and of humans, as in Ragnarök" but that "many of the predictions of disruption on earth could also fit the volcanic activity that is so common in Iceland.

"[62] The events of Ragnarok are dramatized, albeit briefly, in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Marsh King's Daughter".

No such calendar is known to have existed, and the source was a "prediction" made to media outlets by the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, England, intended to draw attention to an event that the institution was to hold on that date.

In a 2014 article on the claims, philologist Joseph S. Hopkins perceives the media response as an example of a broad revival of interest in the Viking Age and ancient Germanic topics.

Ragnarök is set up at the end of the 2018 video game God of War, which is rooted in Norse mythology, after the protagonist Kratos kills Baldr.

[66] The town of Edda in Western Norway is plagued by climate change and industrial pollution caused by the factories owned by the Jutul family, a group of jötunn.

In the 2020 video game Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which is partially inspired by Norse mythology, the Æsir are depicted as members of the Isu, who within the series' fictional lore, are an advanced civilization that predate humanity, and Ragnarök refers to a series of events revolving around the Toba Catastrophe, or the "Great Catastrophe", which was a solar flare that hit the Earth, killing most of the Isu.

In one of the game's story arcs, the protagonist Eivor Varinsdottir assumes the role of Odin (later revealed to be her previous life), who searches for a way for himself and the other Æsir to survive beyond Ragnarök, during which they are all foretold to perish.