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Ragnarök, often translated as the “doom” or “fate of the gods”, is the climactic destruction and renewal of the cosmos in Norse mythology. Its best-known continuous account appears in Gylfaginning, part of the Prose Edda composed by the Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) around 1220. The catastrophe unfolds through the collapse of social order, the prolonged Fimbulwinter, and the breaking of the bonds that restrain destructive forces. Gods, giants, monsters, and the dead ultimately converge at Vígríðr for a final confrontation in which Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, Loki, Fenrir, and Jörmungandr meet their appointed fates.
Ragnarök, however, is not simply an ending. After Surtr’s fire and the submergence of the old world, the earth rises again, fertile and renewed; surviving and returning gods gather at Iðavöllr, two human survivors continue humanity, and a new sun follows her mother’s course. The narrative therefore combines catastrophe with regeneration, presenting destruction as the prelude to a restored world. Because Snorri wrote in Christian Iceland several centuries after conversion, his account is best understood as a medieval literary synthesis of older oral, poetic, and mythological traditions rather than an unchanged record of a single pre-Christian belief system.
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Cite This Work
APA Style
Netchev, S. (2026, August 13). Ragnarök: The Complete Timeline: The End and Rebirth of the Norse World. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/22010/ragnarok-the-complete-timeline/
Chicago Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Ragnarök: The Complete Timeline: The End and Rebirth of the Norse World." World History Encyclopedia, August 13, 2026. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/22010/ragnarok-the-complete-timeline/.
MLA Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Ragnarök: The Complete Timeline: The End and Rebirth of the Norse World." World History Encyclopedia, 13 Aug 2026, https://www.worldhistory.org/image/22010/ragnarok-the-complete-timeline/.
