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In Norse mythology, Ragnarok or Ragnarök ("Fate of the Gods" [2]) is the final battle waged between the Æsir, led by Odin, and the various forces of the giants or Jötnar, including Loki, followed by the destruction of the world and its subsequent rebirth. Not only will most of the gods, giants and monsters involved perish in this apocalyptic conflagration, but almost everything in the universe will be torn asunder and destroyed.



In Viking warrior society, dying honorably in battle could earn a man a place in Valhalla with the gods, on whose side he would fight during Ragnarök as one of the einherjar. Dying of illness or old age was considered ignominious and earned a man an afterlife in Hel. In the Norse pantheon, the gods themselves were doomed to die in battle at Ragnarök. Exactly what will happen, who will fight whom, and the fates of the participants in this battle were well known to the Norse peoples from the Sagas and skaldic poetry. The Völuspá ("Prophecy of the Völva") — the first lay of the Poetic Edda and dating from about A.D. 1000 — spans the history of the old gods, from the beginning of time to Ragnarok, in 65 stanzas.[3] The Prose Edda, put in writing some two centuries later by Snorri Sturluson, describes in detail what takes place before, during, and after the battle.



What seems eschatologically unique about Ragnarök is that the gods already know through prophecy what is going to happen — when the event will occur, who will be slain by whom, and so forth. They even realize that they are powerless to prevent it but nevertheless bravely and defiantly face their bleak destiny. This is thought by some scholars to represent the ordered world (the Æsir) eventually succumbing to the unavoidable forces of chaos and entropy (the giants).[4]



Old Norse Ragnarök is a compound of ragna, the genitive plural of regin ("gods" or "ruling powers"), and rök "fate" (etymologically related to English "reach"). Ragnarök does not mean "Twilight of the Gods"; that phrase is the result of a famous mistranslation. "Ragnarökr" or "Ragnarøkr" means "doom of the powers" or "destruction of the powers" (where "powers" means "gods").



In Danish and Norwegian ragnarok is also used as a synonym for chaos.