At the end of the Viking age, Christianity was generally accepted in the Nordic countries.
It replaced a heathen religion, with a pantheon of gods and goddesses who each had power over their own domains.
Odin, old and wise, was the chieftain of them all.
Thor was the god of the warriors, while the goddess Freya was responsible for the fertility of the soil and livestock.
Loki was a trickster and a sorcerer, unreliable and distrusted by the other gods.
The gods had dangerous adversaries, the jotuns representing the darker side of life. The heathen gods are best known from descriptions written down in early Christian times, and perhaps coloured by the new faith.
Farm names such as Torshov, Frøyshov and Onsaker have kept their original heathen god names.
Present day Norwegian place names with
the last syllable "hov" indicate that there
once was a heathen temple at the site.
The gods had human traits,and like their
Greek counterparts on Olympus they lived
a raucous life.
The gods fight,eat and drink.
Mortals who fell in battle, went
straight to the table to feast with the gods,
and burial techniques clearly tell us of a
need for the same paraphernalia in the life
after death as here on earth.
In the Viking age,the dead could be buried
or cremated, but burial gifts were necessary
in either case.
The amount of equipment the dead took with them reflects their status in life as well as different burial traditions. In Norway, the burial traditions were especially rich. As a result, graves are
a prolific source of knowledge about the everyday life of the Vikings.
Everything provided for use in the afterlife provides us with a window into the world of the Vikings - even though time has taken its toll and often only remnants are left of the buried objects.
THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
The end of the world will be preceded by the axe-age and
the sword-age. Weapons will be wielded and destroyed;
following it is a wind-age and a wolf-age before the
inevitable doom of Ragnarok. Winter will take its toll
for three consecutive years without the summer interfering
to bring its people mercy. Three other winters will make
its presence known. Midgard will be at war during this
time. Father and son will engage in battle against one
another. Siblings will partake in incestuous acts.
Mothers will abandon their husbands and seduce their own
sons; while brothers rip at each other's hearts.
The wolves Skoll and Hati Hrodvitnisson will swallow the
sun and the moon, bringing total darkness into the world.
The starry heavens will fall, the earth will tremble;
mountains and trees will crumble to the ground. Monsters
will break free from the fetters that bind them; and
the wild hunt will begin.
The Fenrir wolf will run loose dragging its jaws upon the
earth and the heavens above. The Midgard serpent will
revolt and cause the waters to overflow the shores. It
will spew its deadly venom in the world around him.
In the north the Naglfar ship will be
set free from its chains steered by Hymr.
A crew of giants will accompany him.
Loki will escape his bonds and sail northbound
on a ship bearing the sons of Hel.
In the south, Surt, the keeper of Muspell,
will ride across Bifrost until it crumbles
beneath him.
The horns of Heimdall will ring across the
nine worlds warning the gods of the danger ahead.
The Yggdrasil tree will tremble.
A man and a woman will seek shelter under its
quivering leaves, as the earth beneath them
quakes at the sound of war.
Soon after, Odin will ride away on his horse
Sleipnir to consult the head of Mimir for advice
on the course of action to be taken.
The warriors in Valhalla will be sent to
the plane of Vigrid with Odin as their leader.
Odin will charge against the Fenrir wolf,
but All-father will fall prey to the creature's deadly
jaws and be swallowed.
Odin's son Vidar will courageously avenge his
father's death by stepping on Fenrir's jaw with his foot.
(He wears a special shoe made of pieces of leather that have been offered to the gods).
Vidar will snatch the upper jaw of the wolf and tear it asunder.
Thor will battle against the Midgard serpent and succesfully slay it.
He will take nine steps back and die from the poisonous fumes the serpent spews forth.
The god Frey will fight against the guardian of Muspell.
He will fall victim to the giant Surt since
he has given away his sword to his messenger
Skirnir.
Tyr, the god of war, will attack the hound of Hel, Garm, while Loki and Heimdall
engage in combat and die by each other's hand.
The nine worlds under the Yggdrasil tree will become
a blazing inferno.
All the gods of the Aesir and Vanir will die, as
well as the inhabitants of all the realms that lie beneath the great Ash tree.
The sky will fall into a pit of flame and the earth will sink into the sea.
A new beginning will come after the world's destruction.
The earth will emerge out of the sea and flourish vigorously.
The sons and daughters of the Aesir and Vanir
will survive Ragnarok and meet in council on
the plain of Ida, where Asgard used to be.
Odin's sons, Vidar and Vali will meet there and
the sons of Thor will join them and be heirs of
their fathers hammer, Mjollnir.
The beloved god Baldr and his brother Hod will
return fron Hel and join the rest, while Hoenir
will predict what is to become of the new world.
Bor's sons, Vili and Ve, will be sent to the
heavens to rule with the rest.
The new ruling gods will congregate and recall
past memories of Ragnarok.
Treasures that once belonged to the Aesir will
be found scattered on grassy plains and will be
looked upon with great amazement.
Gimle will once more house the gods in peace
and bounty. Good and evil, however, will not
cease to exist, for there will be a region in
Hel called Nastrond, the shore of the dead.
The dragon Nidhogg will survive the fiery doom
and continue to gnaw on the bodies of the deceased.
The man and woman who sought shelter under
the branches of Yggdrasil will be called Lif
and Lifthrasir.
They will nourish themselves with dewdrops and
give birth to many children to repopulate the earth.
From the great Ash new rays of light will come
from the skies above, for, a daughter was born
by the sun before the wolf swallowed her in
the dawn of Ragnarok.
This is how it all has ended; and this is how the world begins.