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Ragnarok
Day 729-Ragnarok: "As I gaze into eternity...I see nothing If only I had a star to guide me Or a bird to show me a sign... For the moment, I will rest I'll lie still and silent Strip my mind of thoughts I shall close my eyes and breathe deep the slumber of gods... For awhile, at least..." ------------------------------------------------------------- Text and image idea from the last page of The Mighty Thor #85 (2004) The writer was Michael Avon Oeming | Citation (abridged) and image originally uploaded by Mikey Da Photographer / Michael Dunn
In Scandinavian myth, Ragnarok is a terrible final battle in which gods, mankind and all creation perish.
According to the story, Ragnarok will be preceded by a period of lawless anarchy and followed by the descendents of Lif and Lifthrasir, the only two survivors of the catastrophic war.
The tale is found in two main sources. The Poetic Edda was written in the 13th century, being a compilation of existing poetry. Also in the 13th century the noted historian, writer and statesman Snorri Sturluson wrote a Prose Edda, which makes frequent reference to the Poetic Edda.
The mythographer and writer Stuart Gordon notes similarities among the idea of Ragnorok, the Book of Revelation by St. John, the Hindu notion of yugas, and Plato‘s account of Atlantis.
The story is by no means a dead one, locked in the past. It’s been influential to contemporary video games, film and Marvel comics has repeatedly adapted the Ragnarok cycle in The Mighty Thor¹ and subsequent Thor comics.
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» Aesir, Bible , Fenris, Loki, Thor, Vanir
Fenris
Fenrir, bound by the gods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In Norse mythology the Fenris is a giant, evil wolf born of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. All the Norse gods fear him, and with good reason.
The Fenris wreaks cosmic ruin, devouring the sun and killing Odin at the great battle at the end of the world, Ragnarok.
The Fenris is finally destroyed by Odin’s giant son Vidar.
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Stuart Gordon
Stuart (Richard) Gordon in 2007 in Shanghai, China holding two of his earliest works, The Bike from Hell and The Devil’s Rider via Wikipedia
Stuart Gordon (Richard Alexander Steuart Gordon 1947-2009) was a Scottish sci-fi writer who later turned to travel guides and reference books about mythology the paranomal.¹ He also taught English as second language in Europe and Asia, this international experience no doubt broadening his horizons.
Gordon’s reference works reveal his knack for communicating mythology and the so-called paranormal in an accessible and yet comprehensive format. In fact, Earthpages.ca – Think Free makes several references to his The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends (London: Headline, 1993) and The Paranormal: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (London: Headline, 1992).
However, Gordon’s well-rounded, intuitive and free-floating style seemed to upset some skeptics.
Gordon’s 1992 publication “The Paranormal: An Illustrated Encyclopedia” elicited the ire of Gordon Stein, the director for the Center for Inquiry, a non-profit educational organization whose primary mission is to dispel paranormal claims. Stein wrote a stinging review in the Spring 1994 issue of the Skeptical Inquirer, critiquing Gordon’s usage of “erroneous ‘information’ about the paranormal” and usage of references that “are never to the skeptical literature.”¹
Gordon died in his early 60s of complications following a collapse and heart attack in China.
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¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gordon_%28Scottish_author%29#Publications
Related Posts » Ragnarok
Loki
Star Trek: The Original Series episode Let That Be Your Last Battlefield © 1969 Paramount Pictures, produced by Gene Roddenberry. Click on photo for fair use rationale via Wikipedia
In Norse myth Loki is the son of two giants and confounded the gods with various tricks until, after bringing about the death of Balder, was fastened to a rock. On the day of Ragnarok Loki will break free and lead the giants into a terrible war against the gods.
The American scholar Bergen Evans sees Loki as an evil god in Norse myth with parallels to the Old Testament Satan as depicted in the Book of Job. Others see Loki more as a trickster and as a reversibly transsexual shapeshifter.
Loki (or Lokai) is also a TV character in the original 1969 Star Trek episode, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” a classic episode dealing with the inanity of racism. Loki is a non-human who’s half white and half black. Meanwhile, another non-human character, Bele, is also half white and half black but in the reverse symmetry to Loki,
Like Lokai, Bele is half black and half white, with the color divided by a line through the exact center of his face. However, the sides of Bele’s black and white skin are reversed from those of Lokai, a difference which seems inconsequential to the Enterprise crew but of great importance to Bele, Lokai, and, apparently, their civilization. The difference is pointed out by Bele to a perplexed Captain Kirk who asks what is the difference between them, to which he replies, “Isn’t it obvious? Lokai is white on the right side. All his people are white on the right side.”¹
As mentioned in other Think Free entires, part of Star Trek’s popularity arguably rests on its liberal use, reinterpretation and reimagining of mythological characters and their names. Possibly this elicits a kind of numinous resonance within viewers, perhaps even if they don’t consciously know about the mythology in question. As C. G. Jung and Joseph Campbell suggest, mythic ideas and sounds may resonate within the viewer’s subconscious or unconscious mind.
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¹ See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield
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Thor
Thor
In Norse mythology, Thor is the son of Odin and Frigga. His famed hammer, the Molinar, contains more mystical power than any other wielded by the Norse gods.
Thor’s destiny is to destroy the world serpent, an evil creature which coils itself around the Earth in the final battle at Ragnarok. At this time, he is destined to die. » Aesir, Fenris
On the Web:
- Excellent entry at Wikipedia » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor
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Vanir
Vanir
At the earlier stages of their mythic development, these Scandinavian gods were constantly at war with the Aesir, who in turn were lead by Odin.
Despite this fact, the Vanir were regarded as the peace-loving branch of the Scandinavian pantheon, just as in contemporary politics many see Canada, America and the United Kingdom as “peace-loving” countries which nonetheless engage in war when deemed necessary for the greater good.
The Vanir originally were fertility gods connected with the earth and waters.
Later they became more specialized gods of the weather, crops and business.
This is similar to the Hindu pantheon, where deities also demonstrate increased specialization over centuries of social, historical and mythic development.
Further to Hindu myth, David L. Miller says that the noted mythographer Georges Dumézil believed that the Vanir corresponded to the Indian “Asvin or Nasatya” (Review: Light from the North, Journal of Bible and Religion, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Jan., 1966: 25-28), p. 26).
The best known Vanir are Frey and his sister Freya, both children of the sea-god Njord and stepchildren of the she-giant Skadi, who prevailed over the mountains and became Njord’s wife.
Ember notes that Skadi’s status us Frey and Freya’s stepmother
is made fairly clear in the Lore by the fact that the three of them, Njordh, Freyr, and Freya come to the Vanir as hostages, such that Njordh was available in Asgard when the time came for Skadhi to choose a husband. » See in context
The Vanir inhabited an underground lair called Vanaheim.
Eventually the Vanir began to intermarry with the Aesir, this culminating in their integration as a unified but not entirely homogenous pantheon.
After merging with the Aesir, the Vanir for the most part dwelled in the sky region of Asgard but, according to David Leeming, still spent time in their former home of Vanaheim.†
» Ragnarok
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† David Leeming, Oxford Companion to World Mythology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 392).
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Yuga
Yuga
In Hindu Vedic and Puranic cosmology, a yuga is an extremely long time period, especially when measured on the human scale.
The Hindu conception of the yuga suggests that time itself differs for gods and humans.
In the Mahabharata an entire human year translates into a single day for the devas.
Each of the four different Yugas represent four general ages of the devas.
As with the ancient Greek and Hebraic sense of time, these ages progress from an initial, ideal Golden Age (Krita yuga) to increasingly corrupted ages.
The four Yugas and their human equivalents
are:
| Yuga | Deva Years | Human Years |
| Krita | 4800 | 1,728,000 |
| Treta | 3600 | 1,296,000 |
| Dvapara | 2400 | 864,000 |
| Kali | 1200 | 432,000 |
| Mahayuga (Great Yuga)* | 12,000 | 4,320,000 |
A single day for the god Brahma is 1,000 Mahayugas (4,320,000,000 human years). One year for Brahma is 1,555,200,000,000 human years. Brahma’s life span is 155,520,000,000,000 human years.
All this indicates that Brahma exists in an entirely different time frame than human beings.
An arguably mythical, quasi-scientific scheme like this may seem irrelevant to contemporary thinkers but it points to the notion, worth considering, that the universe contains different yet interacting regions of space-time, each region containing its own unique properties and beings. » Mahabharata, Puranas, Ragnarok, Veda
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*A Mahayuga (Great Yuga) is one complete cycle of the four Yugas.
Table condensed from Keith R. Crim (ed.) The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions. New York: Harper & Row, 1989, pp. 818-819.
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Aesir
Aesir The earliest race of Teutonic gods, chief of whom was Odin.
The pantheon included Thor, Tiu, Balder, Bragi (inspirer of poetry), Vidar (lord of silence), Hoder (a blind deity who killed Balder), Hermod (sacred messenger), Hoenir, Odnir, Loki (a trickster god) and Vali (Odin’s last son).
The group held daily councils under the world tree, Yggdrassil, and collectively dwelled in Asgard.
Each deity, however, occupied their own particular region, Odin’s being Valhalla.
Another early race of Scandanavian gods, the Vanir, were in perpetual conflict with the Aesir but the two groups eventually merged. Although the Aesir and the Vanir became an extended family, as it were, the latter assumed the appellation of the former. » Ragnarok
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