Tag: cosmology

The Norse mythological cycle is brought to a close with the Ragnarök, a cataclysmic and catastrophic narrative where a host of frost giants, fire ogres, troll wives, monsters and legions of the dead invade Asgarð and close battle with the gods and einherjar in what will be the latter’s heroic last stand.

The greatest treatment of these themes is given in the Eddic poem Völuspá. Its treatment is allusive, assuming the knowledge of its audience, kaleidoscoping events, giving greater pace and allowing time to speak of the causes of the gods’ day of reckoning.

The consequences of two events, actions laid down long ago, which cause the disaster, bringing it to pass, the gods have brought upon themselves: Oðinn, Vili and Ve’s slaying of their matrilineal kinsman Ymir, and the breaking of the gods’ vow to the giant builder of Asgarð’s wall; as Völuspá.… Read more

The question of the origin of the Universe can be approached analytically or empirically, but in constructing an Odian cosmogony we need to consider how an individual who works within the Northern Tradition understands the emergence of the manifest Universe.

The process of the Universe coming into being as traditionally understood is described in chapters 4 to 19 of the Eddic text, ‘Gylfaginning’. The latent order suggested by the origin myth of the Universe within the traditional sources is one in which polar extremes determine the limits of being and acts of creation occur when the two extremes encounter each other.… Read more